The John-Henry Westen Show - August 09, 2022


Liberal clergy think this 'spiritual army' of young Catholics is too controversial

Topics
March for Catholics movement March for Catholics March for Catholics
Hosted by
John-Henry Westen
Mentioned
Joseph Rigi John Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano Nancy Pelosi Jesus Christ Joe Biden Michael
Pro-LGBT cardinal： Pope Francis agrees with my stance Latin Mass restrictions hurt young Catholics like me the most： college student

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

173.1

Word count

2,684

Sentence count

203

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

22

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In the church today, you hear a lot about the need for a new evangelization toward the young. When there are young people who step up, who try to engage in the faith, and bring many people to them, even if they get a following, oftentimes they are canceled because they don t fit the mold of the church that perhaps your baby boomer clergy agrees with. We re going to meet the founder of a movement called Our Warpath, and yep, that sounds militant. But guess what? They re all young Catholics. This actually was founded out of a high school. And we are going to see what they re doing and why certain liberal clergy are opposed to them.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 In the church today, you hear a lot about the want to bring along young people into the church,
00:00:06.140 the need for a new evangelization toward the young.
00:00:10.480 Hmm. Something strange, though.
00:00:13.280 When there are young people who step up, who try to engage in the faith and bring many people to
00:00:20.320 them, even if they get a following, oftentimes they're canceled because they don't fit the mold
00:00:28.220 of the church that perhaps your baby boomer clergy agrees with.
00:00:35.900 We're going to meet the founder of a movement called Our Warpath.
00:00:40.880 And yep, that sounds militant.
00:00:43.120 But guess what?
00:00:44.320 They're all young Catholics. 0.86
00:00:45.780 This actually was founded out of a high school.
00:00:50.700 And we're going to see what they're doing and why certain liberal clergy are opposed to
00:00:58.200 them.
00:00:59.020 This is the John Henry Weston Show.
00:01:17.420 Joseph Rigi, welcome to the program.
00:01:19.520 Thank you, John, for having me on.
00:01:20.860 It's an honor.
00:01:22.300 Let's begin as well as do at the sign of the cross.
00:01:24.040 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
00:01:29.720 Amen.
00:01:31.580 Joseph, you are the founder and president of Our Warpath.
00:01:35.500 Tell us about it.
00:01:36.300 What is Our Warpath?
00:01:36.960 So, Our Warpath, again, it started with a few of my friends and I graduated from the same
00:01:44.180 high school.
00:01:45.180 We saw the need for Catholics. 0.98
00:01:48.120 You know, we saw many Catholics, especially young Catholics, kind of either fall away from
00:01:51.320 the faith, not practicing their faith, or they don't really know their faith.
00:01:54.580 So, the idea was to push Catholics on every level.
00:01:59.400 Give them the resources they need.
00:02:00.540 But push them on the physical level, spiritual level, and the mental level as well.
00:02:06.360 And so, Our Warpath, on paper, of course, is a non-profit, a Catholic non-profit organization.
00:02:12.200 But we are a lot more than that.
00:02:15.100 Our Warpath is an intense way of life, committed to forging an army of elite and uncompromising
00:02:21.740 Catholics.
00:02:22.300 Now, that language kind of, maybe to some people, will sound extreme or even uninviting.
00:02:29.180 However, if we take a step back, what does it really mean to be an elite Catholic?
00:02:35.160 And for starters, to be Catholic is, in a sense, ordinary. 0.63
00:02:39.140 And in a sense, again, we do have an indelible mark of baptism, which sets us apart.
00:02:44.480 But it's ordinary in the sense that anyone can be Catholic.
00:02:47.580 In fact, there are millions of Catholics around the world who are Catholic, who are part of
00:02:53.380 the Catholic Church.
00:02:54.060 However, they don't practice the faith.
00:02:55.720 They don't live their faith. 0.55
00:02:57.220 Look at our American politicians, like Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden.
00:03:00.840 They don't live the faith. 0.85
00:03:02.960 They promote things like abortion and homosexuality. 0.99
00:03:06.100 So, again, to be Catholic is, in a sense, ordinary. 0.69
00:03:08.940 But to be an elite Catholic is to be a force of nature against the world, a force of nature 1.00
00:03:15.740 against principalities and powers, is to be a Catholic who actively strives towards sainthood.
00:03:22.080 And that's exactly what Warpath is trying to do.
00:03:24.380 Warpath is giving Catholics the resources, the foundational principles on which every great
00:03:32.040 saint was made, daily meditation, daily prayer, daily sacrifices.
00:03:35.880 We give people videos to watch, you know, book reviews.
00:03:40.100 We're giving them everything they need to build on that to be a great saint.
00:03:45.340 And our Warpath is about fighting.
00:03:48.260 The most crucial battle is the spiritual battle, because at all times, if we die, we need to
00:03:53.720 be ready to meet our God when judgment comes.
00:03:57.120 So, the most important battle is that spiritual battle, but there are going to be times when
00:04:02.100 God calls upon the church militant to take a stand, to take a stand and defend his Catholic
00:04:07.680 church, what he's taught us to do.
00:04:10.260 And I believe that that time is now when we look around, what are we seeing within our Catholic
00:04:15.360 church right now?
00:04:16.840 In the past few years, we've seen Catholic clergy shut down our churches because mass and
00:04:23.480 sacraments aren't essential, really.
00:04:24.860 Walmart is essential, but the mass and sacraments are essential.
00:04:29.420 Isn't our spiritual nourishment far more important than our physical nourishment?
00:04:34.040 And again, we should always take example from the great saints that have lived before us.
00:04:38.840 What do we see when the church was flourishing in the past?
00:04:41.120 The Black Death came along, and what happened? 0.78
00:04:43.080 Catholic clergy risked their lives to bring Catholics, to bring the dying, the sacraments, 1.00
00:04:49.460 to bring them holy communion in order that their soul was ready in a time of judgment.
00:04:53.360 And so we're seeing these churches being shut down.
00:04:57.480 We're seeing Catholic clergy bring up, you know, just a few weeks ago, a homosexual couple
00:05:01.700 was brought up to give a sermon, to give a homily in the church, which goes against canon
00:05:05.960 law.
00:05:07.220 We see, you know, a few months ago, Catholics, a Catholic priest was dancing within the church
00:05:12.340 during the sacred liturgy to an 80s song.
00:05:14.680 What is going on within our Catholic church?
00:05:16.560 And so I think Catholics, I think so many Catholics are sick of what's going on, and 0.99
00:05:21.780 they want to do something.
00:05:23.700 And so our war path is here.
00:05:24.980 And that's, again, how we move into what the March for Catholics is all about.
00:05:28.000 Our war path is here, ready to fight, ready to hold not only ourselves accountable for
00:05:32.360 our actions, but other Catholics as well, because that's true charity.
00:05:37.200 That's what Jesus Christ asks us to do.
00:05:39.640 And if he asks us to do it, then we need to do it no matter the cost.
00:05:42.820 So you guys are running a march.
00:05:46.560 Where is this march?
00:05:47.720 What's it about?
00:05:48.660 And what do you hope to achieve?
00:05:50.220 The March for Catholics is going to be held on September 29th and 30th, September 29th
00:05:55.980 of the Feast of St. Michael, of course, the warrior angel, which is why we wanted to do
00:05:59.180 it on there.
00:05:59.580 He's our patient saint.
00:06:01.100 But September 29th and 30th in Peoria, Illinois.
00:06:05.640 And the March for Catholics, really, it's a movement.
00:06:09.220 And I like to use the example to people when I'm explaining what is the March for Catholics
00:06:13.000 all about.
00:06:14.120 I compare it to the March for Life, in a sense, or the pro-life movement, in a sense.
00:06:18.400 The pro-life movement started out small, but they were able to build.
00:06:22.080 They were able to gather hundreds, thousands, and then hundreds of thousands, even millions
00:06:26.460 of pro-lifers together to a point where they had so many people.
00:06:31.480 They were able to impact legislature, impact pro-life politicians, and overturn Roe.
00:06:39.440 And so they've made such an incredible impact on the whole pro-life movement.
00:06:44.180 And they've saved millions of unborn children.
00:06:46.900 They've also saved the lives of mothers and of fathers because they've really tried to
00:06:51.720 keep the family together by telling them, you cannot have an abortion.
00:06:56.700 And so they've had this huge impact.
00:06:59.060 And they're not even a Catholic organization.
00:07:01.340 It's a secular organization.
00:07:03.340 And they've been able to do all this good because people are ready to fight.
00:07:06.600 They want abortion abolished.
00:07:08.840 So the idea with the March for Catholics is bring Catholics together.
00:07:12.920 Start a movement.
00:07:13.940 We might start small, but build upon that.
00:07:17.060 You bring in hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions in time to come to the point where
00:07:22.280 you can impact Catholic politicians to do their duty.
00:07:27.200 You can impact, most importantly, Catholic bishops and Catholic priests.
00:07:31.360 Do your duty.
00:07:32.460 That's all we want from you.
00:07:33.580 We're not telling you we want this, we want that.
00:07:35.800 All we want you to do is do what Christ has taught, what he has taught us to do.
00:07:41.820 Give the mass, give the sacraments properly.
00:07:44.300 That's all we want from you.
00:07:46.020 And so if we can get to that point where we can hold them accountable by putting a lot of
00:07:50.540 pressure on them just to do the right thing, then we can make an incredible impact upon
00:07:55.320 the Catholic world and most especially society as well.
00:08:00.080 Because as we know, when the Catholic church is flourishing, so is society.
00:08:03.580 As soon as the Catholic church starts to, in a sense, crumble.
00:08:06.740 And again, I mean, the Catholic church, the gates of hell will not prevail. 1.00
00:08:09.360 But when it seems to be crumbling, so society starts to crumble.
00:08:13.220 And that's what we're seeing today.
00:08:14.460 A weak church, weak Catholic leadership have led to a crumbling of our society. 1.00
00:08:18.680 Look where we are today.
00:08:19.420 Where, you know, five-year-olds are transgendering. 0.61
00:08:22.260 I mean, this is absolutely transitioning.
00:08:24.200 It's absolutely crazy what's going on.
00:08:26.300 So the purpose of the March for Catholics, unite Catholics.
00:08:31.900 Let them come together, profess their faith in a public manner, and let's hold our Catholic
00:08:36.460 clergy accountable.
00:08:37.740 Because if we don't step up, if Catholics like us, Catholics like those that are subscribed 0.98
00:08:42.640 to LifeSite News and many more great Catholic organizations, if we don't stand up, then who's
00:08:48.640 going to?
00:08:49.640 Because the ramifications of Catholics being silent, Catholics remaining silent, are absolutely 0.83
00:08:55.880 astronomical. 0.60
00:08:57.200 They're crazy ramifications.
00:08:59.100 We are not only going to lose more Catholic churches, but most unfortunately, we are going 1.00
00:09:05.240 to lose Catholic souls if we don't stand up and defend the faith.
00:09:08.920 Because many Catholics that are adhering to this modern idea, this soft Catholicism, which 0.68
00:09:14.720 is essentially just modernism, a lot of them actually don't even know it's true Catholicism
00:09:19.060 because they've been taught it wrong their whole life.
00:09:21.040 So it's our duty to step up, and that's what we're hoping the March for Catholics does. 0.75
00:09:24.060 Okay, so here you are, a bunch of young people, formed a movement, are having a march, you believe
00:09:33.320 in all the teachings that the church offers, and you're trying to encourage pastors to do
00:09:37.960 the right thing by offering the sacraments, by being there for the faithful, by teaching
00:09:42.400 the faith.
00:09:43.820 So surely, even if the church were just like a corporation, you'd have the corporation head
00:09:50.460 say, wow, we've got a bunch of great customers here encouraging us to do great work.
00:09:55.620 Let's help them out.
00:09:57.220 What was your reception in the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, where you were going to do
00:10:02.940 your march this upcoming September?
00:10:05.280 How were you received by the bishop and the diocese?
00:10:08.880 Yeah, so the diocese, all of a sudden, they got a little afraid.
00:10:13.900 Apparently, we're too Catholic for them, which is unfortunate, I guess.
00:10:18.120 You know, I kind of like to think that we are living in such crazy times where it's
00:10:22.580 controversial to even pray a rosary in public.
00:10:25.100 You know, Catholic clergy get mad at you for this.
00:10:27.260 But the Diocese of Peoria is very unwelcoming now.
00:10:31.620 I mean, so first, like I was telling you, we got a call and saying, well, you know, you
00:10:35.780 can't use a cathedral because we're going to have a problem with volunteers.
00:10:38.960 I said, yeah, it's probably difficult maybe to get a volunteer to.
00:10:41.440 So I said, no problem, easy solution.
00:10:44.520 We are going to pay all your volunteers.
00:10:46.980 Anyone you get, we will pay for them to stand watch at the cathedral, make sure we don't
00:10:51.220 do anything crazy or whatever.
00:10:52.680 I mean, we're just going to pray the rosary, but that's all.
00:10:54.680 So I said, oh, okay, you know, I think that can work.
00:10:56.960 So he said, you know, I'm going to get back to you.
00:10:59.880 So the next call I receive is no longer that same, you know, man who's head of the services
00:11:06.120 there.
00:11:06.400 It's actually the attorney of the diocese of Peoria who works closely with the bishop.
00:11:10.200 She calls me up and says, you know what?
00:11:11.680 And it's actually, the cathedral is actually going to be under construction at that time,
00:11:16.980 those exact two days.
00:11:18.240 And I'm thinking to myself, those exact two days, the cathedral is going to be under construction.
00:11:23.620 Is this a coincidence?
00:11:25.280 And so we kind of ended the call.
00:11:27.780 And then I let her know, you know, after a few days, I said, you know, we need to speak.
00:11:31.580 This is not the real reason.
00:11:33.040 I know this isn't the real reason going on.
00:11:35.140 So she called me up.
00:11:37.980 I mean, note that she was very aggressive. 1.00
00:11:40.420 Apparently they call her the Doberman because she's just goes right at you and attacks. 0.99
00:11:44.760 But so she called me up and she said, you know, our war path, this is verbatim.
00:11:49.500 Our war path is in no way, shape or form affiliated with the Catholic church.
00:11:54.420 And we're not going to host you.
00:11:56.220 You can come here, but you cannot use any Catholic church that is under the jurisdiction 0.59
00:12:02.100 of the Diocese of Peoria.
00:12:03.580 You cannot, under any circumstances, use the cathedral to pray the rosary.
00:12:08.440 You're not allowed to do this because not only do we not agree what you believe in,
00:12:12.640 which again, I believe in everything the Catholic church has always taught.
00:12:15.960 I don't deny any doctrine.
00:12:17.020 I'm baptized.
00:12:17.620 I'm confirmed.
00:12:18.940 But she also let us know that we have an association with devious clergymen,
00:12:24.420 devious clergymen.
00:12:25.440 And she wouldn't let me know who they were.
00:12:28.660 And at the time, we only have two priests on our website that are speaking or one priest
00:12:33.580 and an archbishop.
00:12:34.360 So Archbishop Viganove and Father Altman.
00:12:37.100 So it was pretty brave of her to call out an archbishop for being devious or, I mean,
00:12:41.860 she wouldn't say specifically which clergyman it was.
00:12:44.120 So yeah, the receptance, we haven't really been accepted really in the Diocese of Peoria.
00:12:50.500 However, they've proven our mission statement.
00:12:53.540 This is why we're doing this.
00:12:54.560 This is why Catholics need to stand up because we want to use the cathedral to pray the deck 1.00
00:13:00.240 of the rosary.
00:13:00.900 There shouldn't be anything wrong with that.
00:13:02.160 But apparently, it's extremely controversial and they can't allow it.
00:13:05.200 And so no matter what, like I've been telling people, listen, no matter what happens, no
00:13:09.560 matter how much the attorney tells us we cannot use any of their churches or we can't use
00:13:14.080 the cathedral, we will still continue on.
00:13:17.000 The March for Catholics will be happening September 29th and 30th in Peoria, Illinois,
00:13:21.100 no matter what happens.
00:13:24.600 More power to you, Joseph.
00:13:26.260 It's awesome that you guys are standing for the faith.
00:13:28.900 I hope myself to be there.
00:13:30.780 And I hope many of you can join us at the March for Catholics on September 29th and 30th.
00:13:37.040 Any parting words for our listeners?
00:13:40.520 Yeah, I would encourage people to really get involved with the March for Catholics.
00:13:44.400 Again, it's more than just a local march.
00:13:47.840 We're hoping this to be a movement.
00:13:49.520 And we need every Catholic involved.
00:13:51.600 We don't just need people involved in the sense that they're participating in the march.
00:13:55.260 We want Catholics to volunteer to help.
00:13:57.900 We want Catholics to volunteer on the business side of things that they'd like.
00:14:01.300 If they really want to make this a movement where we can finally be rid of the gross things
00:14:09.180 that are happening within our Catholic church, then it's time for people to get involved.
00:14:13.080 So I encourage everyone to be there if they can.
00:14:16.060 Again, we're going to have Father Altman speaking.
00:14:18.600 We're going to have Archbishop Viganot, who will be doing a video for us as well, live stream for us.
00:14:27.220 And we have a few other speakers as well that haven't been announced yet.
00:14:30.560 But again, we are hoping that John will also be there on Thursday to give a talk.
00:14:34.840 But I encourage everyone to get involved.
00:14:38.060 It's time for Catholics to take a stand, because if we don't take a stand, no one's going to. 0.56
00:14:42.520 And if we don't take a stand now, it's never going to happen.
00:14:44.840 So the time is now.
00:14:45.960 We need to get it done.
00:14:47.200 And we need to fight the good fight.
00:14:50.520 Amen to that.
00:14:52.140 Joseph, thank you so much for what you're doing.
00:14:54.280 And may God bless you.
00:14:55.700 Thank you for having me on, John.
00:14:56.660 And God bless all of you.
00:14:59.560 We'll see you next time.
00:15:00.340 We'll see you next time.