The John-Henry Westen Show - LifeSite's beginnings and fighting the occult： Q&A with John-Henry Westen

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this week's episode of the Sustainer segment. My name is Danielle Zuccaro and I'm the

00:00:09.540 Sustaining Donor Coordinator with LifeSite News. We welcome you to our final episode of 2021. We

00:00:16.880 hope you've enjoyed our Sustainer segments up until this point and we look forward to

00:00:22.040 recommencing our Sustainer segments in the new year. So enjoy this week's episode. I'll remind

00:00:28.840 you before we begin that we are currently in the middle of our Christmas fundraising campaign.

00:00:34.460 So if you feel called to make a donation to LifeSite, please head on over to lifesitenews.com

00:00:40.180 and you'll find our donate button in the top right hand corner of the page. If you'd like to become a

00:00:45.600 monthly donor, one of our sustaining donors, you will get the awesome opportunity of submitting

00:00:52.280 questions each week to John Henry for answering on this show, as well as many other perks, including

00:00:58.760 behind the scenes, info from our journalists on the ground, and exclusive breaking news updates from

00:01:05.860 time to time. So head on over to LifeSite News and become a monthly donor if you feel called to.

00:01:12.620 We'll begin as we always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

00:01:18.980 and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Welcome John Henry. Thank you again for being here on our Sustainer

00:01:24.940 Segment. Thank you, Danielle. Good to be here as always. Well, we have a variety of questions this

00:01:29.980 week ranging from the pro-life issue all the way to the vaccines once again. But first off,

00:01:35.940 this comes through my inbox every week for the Sustainer Segment is, can you give us an update on

00:01:41.380 your daughter, Mary Catherine, and how her prognosis is? I regret to say it's not all positive news

00:01:47.540 where I'd love it to be. So Mary Catherine has been dealing with this issue for quite some time now. 0.79

00:01:57.300 She had a, basically a break from any seizures for a couple weeks there. Then she went back,

00:02:03.180 had some more, then went off again and on again. So that's what we've been dealing with back and

00:02:07.680 forth. She did have a bit of a trial. We, of course, had to pull her out of college, 1.00

00:02:12.580 um, hoped that she could go back in January and we knew that that wasn't to be. So she went to work

00:02:19.040 for a little bit, um, and she took a night shift and, uh, she collapsed a couple of times actually

00:02:24.940 and had to go to hospital. And so I spent the night in the hospital with her. Um, and it was just

00:02:29.340 informed us that it's associated with tiredness somehow too. It doesn't, um, that, that seems to

00:02:35.000 bring on seizures. So, uh, any prayers that you could continue to say for Mary Catherine and for our

00:02:40.520 family are most appreciated. Her spiritual life has stayed strong. Um, you know, with her working

00:02:46.380 now, she's not able to come to daily mass with me all the time, but, uh, she's very committed to that

00:02:50.340 and, uh, it's beautiful to see. And in the end, that's really what it's all about. And so if it had

00:02:56.200 to be, you know, if you had to decide between a physical health for your child and spiritual health

00:03:01.360 for your child, there's, there's no decision to be made. Spiritual health is what it's all about.

00:03:05.500 And, uh, that's what we're alive for anyway. Well, we'll continue to be praying for her. And I know

00:03:09.640 many, many of our donors tell me all the time that they're still praying. So we'll keep up those

00:03:14.580 prayers. Our next question is from Liz in Conway, UK, and she writes, I discovered LifeSite during

00:03:22.960 the lockdown in 2020. I was just blown away by your truthful, passionate reporting. It is so good

00:03:28.580 to see truthful Christian men and women with a passion for the truth. Looking at the starter of

00:03:33.120 the John Henry Weston show, he has been reporting on the church and Christian issues for years.

00:03:37.620 I would like to ask what led him to choose this career and how did it lead to LifeSite news?

00:03:43.480 Thank you, Liz, for the question. That's a very strange, uh, little thing. Um, so yes,

00:03:49.060 LifeSite has been going now for nearly 25 years. In fact, uh, next year will be our 25th anniversary

00:03:55.280 year. And, uh, it is, um, it's really a work of the Lord. The way it started was really odd

00:04:01.640 for me. I was in psychology. I had a massive conversion, uh, before that I was really living

00:04:08.140 on the other side of this question, mostly as a hedonist. Um, and, uh, that's for a different

00:04:13.740 story. But in terms of working for LifeSite news, it was very interesting because I was,

00:04:18.260 I had finished an MA in psychology at university of Toronto. And, uh, I had a big fat scholarship for a

00:04:24.020 PhD and, uh, had just gotten married, didn't feel called to go on to the PhD for a very important

00:04:32.480 reason. Psychology, you're able to do a lot for people, but especially in a secular place like

00:04:37.980 Canada, uh, you're unable to attach the profession to really being able to share with people the

00:04:48.020 ultimate healing. Um, I could have, yes, provided advice to people on how to better their lives,

00:04:54.600 get emotions under control, deal with abnormal psychology, especially to children, et cetera,

00:04:59.340 et cetera, and do a really great service that way. However, I knew I wouldn't be able to give them the

00:05:05.360 fullness of the truth. I knew that I could say, here's something you could do. There's something

00:05:10.420 much better you could do, but I can't give that to you. I couldn't do that because I had converted not

00:05:16.740 so long before that to the full life in Christ through, you know, true devotion to Mary. And it

00:05:21.860 was so impactful for my life. And I knew it meant everything in a way. And so I, I couldn't go on

00:05:30.840 with just being able to offer people half measures. And so that was my not wanting to go on with

00:05:38.680 psychology. It was a very big decision, uh, you know, newly married and, and, and with a hugely

00:05:43.140 lucrative career ahead of me and prestigious and whatnot, but to give it up anyway, that was, that

00:05:48.020 was one thing. But then I, uh, was telling my wife at the time, uh, who by the way at the time was,

00:05:54.800 it was evangelical and not a Catholic that St. Joseph would find me a job and, uh, that I probably

00:06:00.140 didn't go down well, but nonetheless, um, I was at a daily mass. Um, and in my pew, there was a lady, 0.69

00:06:07.940 a young lady with a head covering on. And, uh, of course it was well after Holy communion. Cause 0.84

00:06:12.460 at the time without kids, you could say a longer Thanksgiving, but anyway, the priest was going to

00:06:16.260 lock up the church. He is asked if we were together. We said, no. And he sort of said,

00:06:21.100 introduced us and then left. And we were sort of left there. And so I tried to make some small talk.

00:06:26.500 Very first thing she said to me, uh, was, uh, we shouldn't talk here. We're in front of the

00:06:31.740 blessed sacrament. And then she left the church. So I turned around to the blessed sacrament and

00:06:37.060 made my genuflection. And I told her Lord, Oh, she's one of yours. Eh? And, uh, so I walked out

00:06:41.440 of the church and she was waiting for me on the steps of the church. And her very first question,

00:06:45.240 I kid you not was, do you have a job? And I thought that was really odd. And, but I knew somehow

00:06:52.880 that whatever she would tell me is what God wanted for me. So I said, no. And she said, good,

00:06:58.800 I have a job for you. And, uh, she said, the interim newspaper needs people to sell the paper.

00:07:04.000 Now the interim is a, is a pro-life newspaper in Canada and, uh, for people to sell the papers.

00:07:08.900 I was so convinced that this was from our Lord that nothing occurred to me other than this is

00:07:14.860 what you're supposed to do. So I, uh, we were staying at my in-laws place. And so I sort of ran

00:07:20.320 back to my wife and told her, I told you St. Joseph would get me something. And, um, I told her what it

00:07:25.860 was, uh, she was not enthusiastic at all. In fact, she said something like, so you mean to tell me

00:07:31.820 you're going to give up seven years post-secondary so that you can become a paper boy? Um, and, um,

00:07:38.980 anyway, a couple of weeks later, I drove down to Toronto where, uh, we were, um, to interview,

00:07:45.340 when I was to interview with, uh, with the head of the distribution for the paper,

00:07:48.860 met her and so on. And then I was asked to see if I wanted to meet Jim Hughes. Jim Hughes is the head

00:07:53.500 of Campaign Life Coalition, the biggest pro-life group in Canada, the most famous. And, uh, you

00:07:58.100 know, I'd seen it on TV and so on. So I said, sure, sure. I'll go and meet Jim. And, uh, I walked

00:08:03.600 over to, to where he was. The very first thing he said to me was, uh, not at all polite. Um, he said,

00:08:10.700 um, what the heck is this? He didn't say heck. He said the other word with the two hockey sticks at

00:08:15.240 the end. And he threw on the table in front of him, uh, my resume. And so, uh, I said, oh, it's,

00:08:21.620 it's my CV and you know, it was full of good things. It was, uh, I was a researcher at the

00:08:27.120 university of York university first, then university of Toronto, even a short stint in, um, overseas as

00:08:33.340 well. And, um, he was very, uh, nonplussed. He, uh, in fact was very gruff with me. He said,

00:08:41.140 are you for real? Um, after a little while I learned, uh, this is later on, I learned he thought

00:08:47.700 I was a spy for Planned Parenthood. And, um, with, with some good reason, my whole resume was full

00:08:52.580 of academic pursuits, research, and so on had nothing to do with selling the paper or anything

00:08:58.080 like that was all in psychology. And, uh, so it didn't make any sense. Anyway, I didn't understand

00:09:02.860 at the time, but what I did understand is that he would know my dad. My dad was a supporter of

00:09:07.780 campaign life coalition. He was a very, very faithful Catholic. Um, and so I told him, look,

00:09:13.360 you don't know me, but you know, my dad, his name is Henry Weston. And yes, I know he's a white guy

00:09:19.080 with blue eyes, but that's because I'm mixed. My mom's from India. My dad's from, uh, Dutch German

00:09:24.400 and, uh, his name is Henry Weston. I'm John Henry Weston. And, uh, Jim totally changed at that point

00:09:31.220 from gruff and mean and very, very suspicious to, ah, okay. And he told me basically you can work for us.

00:09:38.640 You cannot sell the paper for us. And, uh, he got me doing research. The research led eventually to

00:09:45.180 daily reports, uh, that Jim as head of campaign life, yes, but also part of international right

00:09:52.420 to life, I guess would send sometimes to, uh, other leaders in the movement. So we had this daily email.

00:09:58.680 Um, it was variously called CLC daily news alerts and whatever else, but it was interesting because

00:10:04.900 I started halfway through that to interviewing people. Cause I said, Hey, look, we're just doing

00:10:09.820 news clips right now, snippets of what's going on in the world. And, uh, I noticed that, uh,

00:10:15.000 another organization that had just started called Catholic world news. Um, and Phil Lawler, I knew

00:10:21.240 him at the time. This is back in 1995, uh, had started and they were doing this same sort of thing

00:10:27.040 for the Catholic world. And they were interviewing people. I said, Hey, I can call the leaders of the

00:10:30.560 pro-life movement and get comment on all this stuff that's going on. So we put out, you know,

00:10:34.720 three to five stories a day, every day, uh, just little clips by email and nothing. Uh, when the

00:10:40.040 computers were so slow, it was impossible. Um, and then in 1997, Jim asked his right-hand man,

00:10:47.360 Steve Jelcevac to, uh, make a website. In fact, he said, you need to make an internet. Um, and, uh,

00:10:55.920 so Steve, uh, hired out, um, someone we still both know, Tony Chasta to build the first site for

00:11:01.700 life site. And, uh, that was built. And then someone made the suggestion to put John Henry's

00:11:07.560 news thing on the website. Uh, that was done. And then what campaign life noticed was that people

00:11:13.780 were coming to the website, mostly only for the news on the front of it. And, uh, that was,

00:11:19.580 Oh, that was kind of frustrating for them because they wanted them to see their content and so on.

00:11:23.740 So eventually we split them into two different websites. Uh, and so campaign life coalition had its

00:11:29.520 own website and life site, its own website. We were carried that way for years until we sort of

00:11:35.520 outgrew campaign life. And they very happily, uh, we parted ways, not in any formal way, uh, excuse me,

00:11:41.320 not in any, um, antagonistic way, but, uh, we were sort of birthed out of campaign life. So that's the

00:11:48.000 history there. And thanks for the question, Liz. All right. Our next question comes to us from Tom in

00:11:53.080 Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tom writes, I believe that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, even modified somewhat

00:12:00.520 Planned Parenthood would, will gradually disappear. The story goes that Planned Parenthood was vital,

00:12:06.200 quote unquote vital because there weren't enough pregnant women, pregnant mother care centers 1.00

00:12:11.660 available in the early seventies. How much weight does the existence of alternative care centers for

00:12:17.520 pregnant mothers carry with the court's decision? And what kind of presentation has been made to

00:12:23.060 the courts about this subject? Do you have access to this information about existing alternative

00:12:28.060 care centers for pregnant mothers located in the United States? Planned Parenthood really exists

00:12:33.780 today, uh, as a government entity. It's most of the money comes into Planned Parenthood from the

00:12:38.960 government. Even the abortions that are paid for are often paid through Medicare and so on.

00:12:43.200 So without the grants from government, uh, you know, Planned Parenthood really would cease to exist.

00:12:48.800 They don't have a donor base the way the pro-life movement does, because there's not

00:12:52.820 there's not really the people that are going to be funding it other than those who are into

00:12:56.720 population control like Bill Gates and company. Now, uh, with regard to, uh, the Supreme Court

00:13:03.820 decision, hopefully we'll see that, um, certain States will, I mean, if, if Roe v. Wade got overturned,

00:13:10.820 it would basically turn abortion back to the States for arbitration. And then the States, some of the

00:13:16.740 States have already said, uh, they're going to make it a sanctuary, their States, a sanctuary for life

00:13:21.540 so that abortion will be the killing of unborn children will be forbidden in those States. And

00:13:25.940 that would just be full protection for those children, uh, in, in law, which would be just

00:13:30.780 awesome. And that's what we're all looking for. Um, but certain States, California for one have said

00:13:36.660 that they would, uh, become an abortion sanctuary the other way or a ridiculous term for that. But

00:13:42.000 nonetheless, that's what they've said so that people could come there and still, uh, kill their

00:13:47.120 babies and, and they would invite others to do so. So this would, it would move things to the state

00:13:52.880 level. And with regard to pregnancy resource centers, there are many of those, uh, that are

00:13:58.760 open to people that, that, uh, are trying to help people, especially help people decide for life.

00:14:04.380 And life site has a good resource page, which, um, Daniela will get you to put in the links at the

00:14:11.360 bottom of this video, uh, so that people can find where to go to on our site to get to all the

00:14:16.620 different pregnancy resource centers. Now, our final question is a very good one from

00:14:21.740 Anne in Tennessee. And she says, how do you handle spiritual warfare? I have a family member on my

00:14:28.320 husband's side of the family, his mother and sister who are into the occult. I wanted to know how you deal

00:14:34.300 with it. You all are on the front lines, any advice I will take it. I already use exercised,

00:14:39.580 holy water and salt, the St. Benedict medal, the rosary and frequent confession.

00:14:44.200 That's an awesome start to unpack that. The, the St. Benedict medal, very, very powerful in terms of

00:14:51.260 protection, uh, holy water. And, and I would, I would suggest instead of just normal blessed water,

00:14:56.560 which is what you'll find in most of the churches right now, you find a priest who will do exorcism

00:15:01.340 water, which is basically holy water in the old style before the, uh, 1960s, uh, in church,

00:15:07.940 they, they changed the right of, of making of holy water, if you will. Uh, one of the comments at the

00:15:14.820 time from Gabriel Amorth, who was the head, um, exorcist in Rome, he said, are you trying to kill

00:15:21.320 us? Uh, because the sort of blessed water compared to the holy water, uh, does little in terms of

00:15:27.560 fighting the demons and they kind of laugh at it. So it's an important thing, important distinction to

00:15:31.840 make, uh, definitely frequent confession because that gives the, the demons, the, uh, the repels

00:15:37.580 them from the normal foothold that they might have. Um, but we do something, uh, and you're right,

00:15:43.180 being on the front lines of the, of the pro-life movement and, and what we're doing specifically at

00:15:47.900 LifeSite does make us prone targets, if you will, uh, for spiritual attack. And we've had that. We've had

00:15:54.720 crazy stuff going on over the years at LifeSite, uh, where we've had, uh, you know, things,

00:16:01.480 computers in disparate places all go down at the same time. Uh, just totally unexplainable, um,

00:16:09.320 spiritual attack. And, uh, we've actually encouraged staff to bless their computers with,

00:16:13.660 with the holy water should things go wrong. And sometimes that in fact does the trick. So,

00:16:18.020 um, one of the things that was recommended to us and, and I do at home very regularly, in fact,

00:16:24.660 every night, um, is the Auxilium Christianorum prayers. Um, they are put out for laity and, um,

00:16:34.580 Auxilium Christianorum is a Latin name, but they're beautiful prayers, uh, that involve exorcism. They,

00:16:41.080 they are layman's version of exorcism prayers and they pray through the intercession or help of,

00:16:47.700 a bunch of priests that are part of this society, which include, by the way, Bishop Athanasius

00:16:52.460 Schneider. Um, and it's really put out by the famous U.S. exorcist, Chad Ripperger. And, uh,

00:17:00.380 these prayers are suggested. There's even an app for it. Um, and you have a regular set of prayers,

00:17:06.240 which mostly set around the, the litany of the precious blood of Jesus and also involve a daily

00:17:13.180 prayer. And, uh, it's, uh, it's very Marian focused as well. So I recommend that for you.

00:17:18.900 And, uh, thank you so much for the question. Thank you so much, John Henry. That brings us to

00:17:23.120 the end of this week's questions, but we will be sure to recommence in 2022. And again, to our

00:17:30.360 audience, you can head over to LifeSite News. We are in the middle of our Christmas fundraising

00:17:34.500 campaign, which ends on Christmas Eve. So be sure to make a donation. If you feel called to

00:17:40.600 in the top right-hand corner of LifeSiteNews.com. And if you'd like to become a sustaining donor,

00:17:46.740 you can be privy to our Sustained Life monthly giving program, which includes various perks,

00:17:51.880 including the ability to submit questions for this sustainer segment.

00:17:56.300 And just before we leave, um, I just wanted to say thank you, uh, especially at this time of year,

00:18:02.000 as we finish the rest of Advent, as we enter the holy season of Christmas, thank you from the bottom

00:18:08.940 of our hearts for enabling us to do what we do to serve you with the truth on life, faith, family,

00:18:14.560 and freedom. It means so much to us, to our families. Um, and also I wanted to wish you

00:18:20.300 a happy and holy Christmas. Um, really we are all a family at LifeSite and, uh, you can tell that

00:18:28.400 in our staff meetings big time and, uh, you're really part of what we do. You give us what we need

00:18:36.200 to do what we do. And, uh, I know you spread that truth to others and I pray it's of great benefit

00:18:42.260 to you, your spiritual lives, and, uh, in all those you interact with. May God bless you and a happy and

00:18:47.940 holy Christmas to you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - December 17, 2021

LifeSite's beginnings and fighting the occult： Q&A with John-Henry Westen

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