The John-Henry Westen Show - August 12, 2026


Leo XIV Classmate: Had SSPX Ordained 30-50 Bishops Rome Would Dialogue


Episode Stats


Length

25 minutes

Words per minute

137.8

Word count

3,513

Sentence count

197

Harmful content

Toxicity

10

sentences flagged

Hate speech

17

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Most people don't understand what synodality is, and that's because it's deceptive. If it was clear,
00:00:07.980 then we wouldn't have any problem with it, because God doesn't teach in this mode.
00:00:13.120 God teaches with clarity and with fidelity.
00:00:18.640 Hello, my friends. Welcome to the John Henry Weston Show. There's a lot going on in the Church,
00:00:23.160 and I thought I'd bring to you an expert, a Vatican expert, actually, to talk about what's
00:00:29.640 been going on. First of all, about the SSPX ordination or consecration of bishops. And I
00:00:35.780 think on that point, you're going to be stunned. But more than that, Archbishop Vigano has just
00:00:40.780 talked about, he's one of the only prelates in the church ever, to talk about Leo XIV's raising 0.93
00:00:46.780 to venerable a bishop who, in his own words, today reading them, he's a pedophile. In addition to 0.88
00:00:55.220 that, the Vatican has called for representatives of other religions in the next phase of synodal
00:01:02.840 implementation. And there's no one better to talk to about these things than Professor William
00:01:07.600 Thomas. Not only is he a member of a pontifical academy, he is a great theologian, a Marian
00:01:12.740 theologian. He's also an author of 50 books on Catholicity. And he's graciously joined us for
00:01:20.740 this show. Professor Thomas, thank you so much for joining us. You're welcome. Thank you.
00:01:24.540 Let's begin, as you always do, with the sign of the cross.
00:01:26.880 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
00:01:31.520 Let's start with this notion of the SSBX.
00:01:34.880 You saw the bishops' consecrations, the ensuing then excommunications.
00:01:41.160 Your take on that?
00:01:42.520 I saw it. Like everybody else, I wasn't there.
00:01:45.980 But I was very impressed with the liturgy, with the hymns, with everything that was Catholic.
00:01:54.540 I mean, I absorbed every moment of it and loved it.
00:01:59.320 I'm very sorry that the Holy See wouldn't do business with them.
00:02:06.320 And the Holy See saw it as a repetition of what happened in 1988 with Marcel Lefebvre.
00:02:14.760 Therefore, I think what the SSPX should have done was to have issued a manifesto listing point by point what it is, the object, about the Second Vatican Council and offering a suggestion of how it might be remedied.
00:02:33.380 So I would look forward to a document from SSPX on this.
00:02:37.380 Secondly, they only repeated with the four consecrations, which, you know, in the scheme of things, it's pretty insignificant.
00:02:48.500 If I was advising, and this is going to be a controversial statement, if I was advising the SSPX, I would have said, go ahead and consecrate 30 to 50 bishops.
00:03:01.820 Then they would be having lunch with the Holy Father every day,
00:03:06.640 and they would be able to iron out the problems.
00:03:10.220 But if you consecrate just four, it seems like an insignificant number.
00:03:15.840 Therefore, you have to, it's like cracking a rock.
00:03:19.360 You need a good sledgehammer in order to do it.
00:03:22.180 You need the weights and balances here, you know.
00:03:25.380 So if somebody is going to consecrate 30 to 50 bishops, this is a very serious issue, much more so than four.
00:03:36.900 And therefore, the weight of this would force a negotiated facility whereby the Latin would not be suppressed or persecuted as it is.
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00:04:55.660 icatholicmobile.com may god bless you so what can the sspx what can the church do now the doctrinal
00:05:04.140 problems of the second vatican council and there can be doctrinal problems and there are doctrinal
00:05:11.520 problems in sometimes erroneous interpretations, as Pope Benedict XVI said.
00:05:19.240 It was the interpretation of the media that really scuppered, and we have ended up now
00:05:27.260 with media dogmas, if you want, not Catholic dogmas, but dogmas of the media in regard
00:05:35.840 to the Second Vatican Council.
00:05:37.340 There is a huge gap between the schemas that were presented by Pope John XXIII, now a saint of God, and the actual realities that came out the other end.
00:05:51.540 They are almost contradictory in terms.
00:05:54.640 And the interim studies are called the relatios.
00:05:58.720 We need to study those in great detail.
00:06:01.540 And I think it's those studies that the SSPX seem to have difficulty with.
00:06:08.600 Why did we not keep to the schedule, the schedule of the schemas, if you want, the outline of the particular documents?
00:06:18.420 I understand also that the main document, De Verbum, was to be the centerpiece and not Sacro Sanctum Liturgicum, which became the centerpiece and the cause of 70 years of liturgical wars.
00:06:34.620 This is the difficulty that we face today.
00:06:37.780 By trying to suppress Latin is not the solution to this.
00:06:42.720 The solution is a comprehensive study on both sides, the manifesto of SSPX and the liturgical experts and theologians coming in to try and resolve those with the SSPX.
00:06:58.440 I think sometimes when, for example, you asked me the question, if the SSPX were to ordain 30 to 50 new bishops, I think that the people in Rome would have had, some of them would certainly have had heart attacks, while the rest of them would have paid more attention to the potential here.
00:07:23.800 And the SSVX can still do that with the onslaught of this nonsense called synodality.
00:07:31.680 This implementation in 2028 is going to throw the church completely off track, completely
00:07:39.420 away from the apostolic and divine mandate to evangelize into something other.
00:07:45.240 I think they could still do it.
00:07:47.380 And they could save the church in many ways.
00:07:51.240 Let's talk about that synodality bit, because the Vatican just called, in one of their newest
00:07:57.440 documents on synodality, they called for representatives of other religions in this
00:08:02.680 next phase of synodal implementation. You're talking about the 2028 phase. What is that all
00:08:09.020 about, and why? Why are we involving other religions in trying to work out Catholicism?
00:08:15.000 This office, this synodal office, is the most heavily funded office.
00:08:20.880 Money is in huge supply to them.
00:08:24.020 There's no problem.
00:08:25.260 There's no shortage.
00:08:26.920 They seem to be able to push this agenda without boundary, without consulting with anybody.
00:08:37.660 They seem to be a complete independent church within the church.
00:08:41.580 And this is gravely dangerous.
00:08:45.000 And I know these people because I have been in there to tell them that synodality will go nowhere.
00:08:51.580 It will be resisted by the sense of the faith of people, the sensus fidelium, because there's something not right with it.
00:09:02.000 But to suggest that Hindus or Buddhists or the Jews or other pagan organizations can somehow contribute to influencing Catholic life in the positive is an absolute, I mean, it's just beggar's belief.
00:09:22.600 It's beyond belief that the synagogue office would ask these people who don't even believe in the triune God, let alone that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that he has called us as theologians, as lay people, to be evangelizers, to go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news, which is what we should be doing, instead of asking the pagans to tell us something about our faith. 0.99
00:09:52.600 I mean, this stuff is stupidity suprema. 1.00
00:09:57.380 You know, this is just complete stupidity. 1.00
00:10:01.220 If I were the Pope, I'd get a hay fork and I'd run those guys out of office tomorrow. 0.99
00:10:07.960 One other major, major item that I wanted to raise with you, and that's a very strange thing.
00:10:13.960 You are a classmate, actually, of Leo XIV.
00:10:17.160 and it's interesting because when he came in he did a few things that were very startling
00:10:24.940 the day one talking about how francis is seeing us from heaven um and we we spoke of that earlier
00:10:31.860 but one of the things that he did was he named as venerable that's one of the stages on the step
00:10:38.000 to sainthood a bishop a bishop labaka who in his own writing which are readily available would be 0.86
00:10:47.120 considered today a pedophile he talked about allowing children to touch his genitals not to 0.64
00:10:54.420 the point of pollution as he said but nonetheless they wanted to see the reactions were the same 0.94
00:10:59.200 and so on and so forth so was an intended allowed for and a known sexual interaction that he actually
00:11:08.560 writes about he further writes that he allowed a homosexual young young man to sleep with him in
00:11:14.480 his bed nude so all of these things would would definitely make one think uh there was something
00:11:20.960 very wrong with the man and definitely not a venerable nonetheless he's that way but that
00:11:27.200 believe it or not it's been so documented it's out there it's it's but what's stunning to me
00:11:34.160 is that no one's mentioned it i know there's at least one or two bishops considering speaking on
00:11:39.680 it. But Archbishop Vigano just recently spoke on it, just calling it out. What's so shocking,
00:11:46.320 so surprising to me is that none of the cardinals, none of the bishops have talked about this.
00:11:54.800 I wonder, is it that they don't believe it because they haven't seen it? Is it that,
00:11:58.400 what, why? I don't even understand why. Pope Francis Bergoglio issued a moto proprio
00:12:07.260 called Mayorum Hat Delictionem
00:12:11.080 and this is the offering of one's life.
00:12:16.820 When one offers one's life
00:12:20.300 and in the pursuit of that life
00:12:22.700 whether they die a natural death
00:12:24.800 or if they were martyred
00:12:28.480 as in this case this Capuchin Bishop
00:12:32.200 Bishop Alejandro
00:12:34.500 he was speared to death 1.00
00:12:39.100 along with a non-sister Inez 0.99
00:12:42.020 by the tribe that he lived with 0.82
00:12:46.520 and they were all naked as he himself was
00:12:50.100 so it's rather bizarre that he didn't show
00:12:53.760 let's say the virtue of modesty
00:12:56.920 at least that
00:12:59.660 and to allow people to sleep with him
00:13:03.700 I mean, it sounds, if all of this is true, there should be no and can be no beatification of this man or of Sister Inez, if she was involved.
00:13:18.800 I don't know the details of that case, even though I do do a lot of study on the saints.
00:13:26.860 In fact, I have several volumes of the Compendium of the Super Saints for Our Time.
00:13:32.780 It's quite a ton of work.
00:13:34.480 I know many of the saints died very holy deaths as martyrs, and everything was above board.
00:13:44.020 The practice of heroic virtue.
00:13:46.420 I wouldn't call going around naked an heroic virtue. 0.99
00:13:50.360 I would call it an immodesty.
00:13:52.700 I mean, if you're going to try and evangelize people, then you have to show them the right way and not reduce down to their way.
00:14:02.600 And this is what's happened oftentimes in the liturgy, and this is what's happening with the suppression of Latin.
00:14:09.620 They want to reduce the level down to an infanticide, a kind of a childish type of thing, rather than elevate people up into a level where they can comprehend.
00:14:26.220 Even if people say, oh, I don't understand Latin.
00:14:29.400 Well, it's not about you, my dear.
00:14:31.400 God understands the Latin, and the liturgy is addressed to him.
00:14:35.060 It's a propitiatory sacrifice where the Son of God is offering himself in this unbloody sacrifice to the Eternal Father in reparation for our sins.
00:14:49.660 And that's done properly ad orientum with that beautiful sacred language of Latin.
00:14:56.500 It's not about whether Mrs. Jones up the road or Mrs. understands Latin or not.
00:15:02.080 I remember as a child we all knew Latin.
00:15:05.060 And I still know that.
00:15:06.480 But I would say this, and it's another little novel thing.
00:15:10.000 As somebody who attends daily Mass, my responses, even in the Novus Ordo, are always in Latin.
00:15:18.100 I respond in Latin.
00:15:19.760 And so when the priest said, Dominus, the Lord be with you, et com spiritu to all.
00:15:25.880 You know, and you lift up your hearts, habemus et dominum.
00:15:30.000 What's wrong with that?
00:15:31.040 There's nothing wrong with it.
00:15:32.260 But if everybody did it, then they would have to change back to the Latin.
00:15:37.200 You've been around the Vatican.
00:15:38.480 You've been there even in the dicastery that deals with the making of saints, if you will.
00:15:44.620 Is it possible that they just didn't know? 0.60
00:15:47.780 Do they just think, oh, well, it just so happens he wrote in his own memoirs this stuff about allowing children to touch his genitals, et cetera, et cetera.
00:15:57.480 But maybe they just didn't read it.
00:15:59.160 Maybe they don't do the research until it gets to the next stage.
00:16:02.260 The first stage is just saying, OK, we'll try.
00:16:05.160 Is that what it is?
00:16:05.900 Or do they already do the research beforehand?
00:16:09.460 Well, it depends on who's promoting the person in question.
00:16:14.240 What they have to do is prepare a position, which is the life story, including all their
00:16:21.620 works and how it is they came to die.
00:16:25.500 And that presentation of the position, generally, that person is called a servant of God.
00:16:32.260 if the Positio on a diocesan level is acceptable.
00:16:37.300 I think it's a very wrong move on behalf of the diocese
00:16:41.480 to present the Positio in this kind of controversial circumstances.
00:16:47.400 They are using the moda proprio Pope Francis
00:16:50.680 to advance because of the offering of his life.
00:16:55.600 He was probably speared to death for nefarious reasons
00:16:59.800 that we don't yet know about.
00:17:01.820 But if he's sleeping with young men and walking around naked, it's got all the hallmarks of some kind of perversion. And I certainly wouldn't promote him.
00:17:13.960 The situation of the church, I guess, is so strange that it makes it difficult. I just watched Bishop Alexander Sample, probably the most conservative, at least one of the most conservative bishops in the United States. He was talking about the SSPX. And it's funny because when pushed, he basically said it all comes down to one thing. Where's the Pope? Where's the Pope? Where's the Pope? Where's the Pope? Where's the Pope?
00:17:40.840 And that's what strikes me as so strange. We're in a situation where where is the pope is a huge question. All I could think of when he was saying where's the pope was the pope appearing with James Martin, the pope talking about how if you are not against the death penalty, you're not pro-life, the pope allowing for the LGBT pilgrimage into the Vatican and so on and so forth down the list.
00:18:07.620 We're in a struggle in the church, and I can't think of anything more severe than the scandal of what's coming from the very top of the church.
00:18:17.460 The Pope is not a theologian. He's actually very weak in theology. He seems to think that sexual morality should be relegated behind climate change and equality.
00:18:32.120 He said so himself. I'm just quoting him, you know. He hasn't surrounded himself with good theologians. In fact, he has pushed them away, the likes of Cardinal Muller, Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Sarab.
00:18:47.340 You know, they're at a distance in one sense, whereas he does consult with the likes of
00:18:54.460 Tucho Fernandez and others similar to him that were appointed by Pope Francis.
00:19:01.080 It seems to me that he may even have a misplaced loyalty to Pope Francis and not to Christ,
00:19:08.640 that he seems to have undertaken some kind of promise to push the Synodal Church, which
00:19:15.820 is a Marxist deception that will deprive people of the very ancient and holy traditions of 0.71
00:19:25.640 the Catholic Church into some kind of new invented religion, what I would call a Bergoglian
00:19:33.540 booby trap, to prevent them from realizing or achieving the heights of holiness, to achieving 0.55
00:19:42.660 prayer of transforming union in Christ, and their whole sense of the sacred is being obliterated
00:19:52.360 day by day by these fellows who have no divine mandate, it seems to me, who are pushing this
00:20:00.220 agenda for nefarious reasons. Most people don't understand what synodality is, and that's because
00:20:09.280 it's deceptive. If it was clear, then we wouldn't have any problem with it. If it was inspired by
00:20:17.500 the Holy Spirit, there wouldn't be the angst. There wouldn't be the confusion. There wouldn't
00:20:25.060 be the ambiguity. There wouldn't, because God doesn't teach in this mode. God teaches with
00:20:31.240 clarity and with fidelity and with uh with um that sense of belonging to the church the body
00:20:39.960 the mystical uh bride of christ and so uh when we have all this other stuff manifesting itself
00:20:47.220 as it does in germany today with the call to empower women to make women catholic priests
00:20:54.220 which they can't legitimately do, licitly do,
00:20:58.960 to give voice to a participation of LGBTQAI+, 0.96
00:21:06.340 which is also Marxist and demonic. 1.00
00:21:09.720 And the Holy Father himself insisted they be allowed into St. Peter's,
00:21:16.040 into the Holy Door.
00:21:17.420 To the utter amazement, I was there. 0.75
00:21:19.920 I saw them coming in with their LGBT flags and their four-letter words written on their T-shirts, beginning with S.
00:21:29.220 I said to myself, these people are not on a pilgrimage of conversion. 0.67
00:21:34.700 They're here to make a statement that they are tomorrow's people in the church, supported by James Martin and this demonic mob that have somehow infiltrated the courier offices.
00:21:49.160 many of the curial offices
00:21:51.380 and I blame Bergoglio for this
00:21:53.960 because there are so many
00:21:55.700 Bergoglian booby traps
00:21:57.320 all over the Vatican 0.95
00:21:58.880 in all these documents
00:22:00.480 from fiducius supplicants
00:22:02.500 to amoris laetitia
00:22:04.260 to this synodal nonsense 0.99
00:22:06.360 these are booby traps 1.00
00:22:08.800 and if you get caught into them
00:22:10.720 it's very hard to get out of it
00:22:12.800 so you have to be discerning
00:22:16.360 I would say to the bishops
00:22:18.340 if they have any spine at all, reject it, or at least, you know, maybe get yourself a book.
00:22:26.080 This is about $20. It's an explanation of what this synodal process is, what they call a paradigm shift.
00:22:35.380 There is no such thing as a paradigm shift in Catholic theology.
00:22:40.560 Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
00:22:44.480 But on one particular chapter, I showed the difference in black. 0.97
00:22:48.760 This is what the Catholic Church stands for. 0.69
00:22:50.740 And this is the exact opposite of what the Synodal process is about.
00:22:57.180 And it's an open-ended process.
00:22:59.440 It will never change.
00:23:01.020 And as Pope Leo himself says, doctrine will change when attitudes change.
00:23:07.800 Well, that's wrong.
00:23:08.620 It's up to theologians like me to speak out. 0.91
00:23:12.020 We have to go back to the early church.
00:23:14.440 Athanasius spoke in defense of the divinity of Christ.
00:23:18.640 He was the only one.
00:23:20.200 So one man against the whole hierarchy.
00:23:22.880 So we have to stand up.
00:23:25.360 There are many theologians out there.
00:23:27.460 I would say to them, listen, lads, you know, start speaking out.
00:23:31.720 Tell the people that not to allow themselves to be duped.
00:23:37.140 We have the pearl of great price.
00:23:39.340 we have our sacred tradition apostolic tradition we talk about unity yes we're all for unity we're
00:23:47.740 all for um you know uh worshiping god in the proper and right way not about worshiping ourselves
00:23:56.000 so if we take this synodality we go into a subjective ethic it's all about me you know
00:24:05.200 So I want somebody to listen to me.
00:24:07.900 I want dialogue.
00:24:09.260 I want my way, but I don't want God's way.
00:24:12.760 Professor Thomas, I want to thank you for speaking out on behalf of all of us at LifeSite and all of our many fans.
00:24:17.860 We are very grateful that at least someone is speaking out.
00:24:21.440 May God bless you.
00:24:22.380 Thank you.
00:24:23.100 And may God bless all of you.
00:24:25.000 And we'll see you next time.
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