Bernardo Kuster is a Catholic journalist, YouTuber, and all-around internet sensation in Brazil. In this episode, Bernardo shares his story of how he became a Catholic convert, how he got started with his YouTube channel, and what it means to be a Catholic in the Amazon.
00:01:37.040But for all other situations and reasons, then I became a Baptist, an evangelical.
00:01:42.580And then after that in 2016, so it's not so far, I became a Catholic and, you know, very, I should say, ready for battle.
00:01:57.760You know, San Gregory said that those soldiers that abandoned the battle and then returned, mostly, you know, they went to battle, you know, to like to repent or to show repentance from their, you know, their past.
00:02:42.500It was one of the key moments of my Christian life because I already was, you know, I accepted everything about the Catholicism, the Holy Mary, everything else.
00:02:54.560But I wasn't sure about the reality of the communion of the saints.
00:03:55.340Almost 800,000 followers on YouTube and other social media are as big as this one.
00:04:02.460What brings me, what brought me at this situation is before doing this Catholic journalism, so to speak, and analysis, I was concerned about cultural, political, philosophical issues.
00:04:15.980So because Brazil, we have this big and huge hegemonic movement of the liberals, so leftists.
00:04:24.920And I was battled with them, you know, but in Londrina, where I live in south of Brazil, near Sao Paulo, so to speak, there was this inter-ecclesial event of the base communities of the church.
00:04:41.060And this community, historically founded, were responsible to give the mass of the people to the works party.
00:04:56.700That now they put Lula as president of Brazil, and now he's in jail because of all the crimes he did.
00:05:04.340And the ecclesial-based communities in Brazil were a very important movement to convince the Catholic masses to vote in this communist party.
00:05:16.460And so from the 60s, from the 60s to now, we have this leftist movement influencing the church.
00:05:24.760And so Brazil have this internal movement, but also externally.
00:05:29.060If you see, for example, the history of the Vatican II, the council, we have one of the most important provinces of bishops there is Don Helder Camara, the red archbishop.
00:05:41.660And he was one of the responsibles that orientated the bishops to do the catacumbas pact that launched the liberation theology and everything else.
00:05:56.880But on the other side, we have the other bishops, conservatives and traditional ones like Don Castro Mayer and Don Geraldo de Prensa Cigol and Plinio de Correa Oliveira.
00:11:37.760And now you say, we have to ordain women or married Indigenous people, which, I don't know, it's not going to work, to solve a problem you have created.
00:11:50.420So what do we have to do to change things in the church?
00:11:53.940No, we have to return before the error and do the things how we have done for 2,000 years.
00:12:00.660And so, oh, for example, the Amazon is burning.
00:12:04.100That's a lie, because everybody who lives in Brazil knows that this time in August and September is a time when the weather is very, very dry.
00:12:14.140And so it's very easy for the trees to exponentially starting to burn.
00:12:23.480And we have a lot of winds this time, so it spreads very, very fast.
00:12:28.700And there is a cultural habit between the Indigenous and those people who live near the rivers to burn the field, to open space to new little towns, new little villages, and to plant some, you know, crops and everything else.
00:12:48.420And their habit, and sometimes this fire just, you know, spreads without control.
00:12:53.600And so this is the third line to tell.
00:12:57.800Another one, for example, is that they are just reflecting an Indigenous theology.
00:14:13.460The authors of the working document that is now being used, which was approved by the Pope, by the way, and called apostasy by Cardinals Burke and Kajmina, and is now being used for everybody to work on.
00:14:33.160But I think your point is so perfect, when you said that they say they're concerned about getting the sacraments to these people, so we need more priests now, for we have to ordain women, and married indigenous people, married men, and they're not willing to baptize the same guys?
00:14:52.460How can they be concerned about the sacraments?
00:14:54.260By the way, in Catholic teaching, you can't receive any of the sacraments if you don't receive baptism, and they're unwilling to baptize.
00:15:09.100And unfortunately, we have this situation where it seems the Pope has been not paying attention or doing this somehow, regardless of these facts, and they're out there in the public view.
00:15:21.280That connection that nobody seems to have been putting together, that the same bishop, Kautla, is saying he hasn't baptized, he's not going to baptize, and yet they're concerned by the sacraments.
00:15:43.460But they also say, in the working document, the Instrumentum Laboris, they say, we can start to begin to use other forms of rites and everything else to minister the Holy Eucharist to the people of Amazon.
00:15:59.340So, they want to use, like, maniocca, you say in English.
00:17:05.680They want to use the pretext of the sacraments to change the church and to destroy it.
00:17:10.840So, if they want to change the church completely in terms of government and sacraments and theology, why they do not go to the 9,000 Protestants, I don't know, denominations or abominations, how I call it.
00:18:52.800This is something I discovered just a few weeks ago.
00:18:56.460Because when I started to investigate this thing called RIPAM, it's the Ecclesiological Network in the Pan-Amazonic, RIPAM in Portuguese.
00:19:07.120And this network congregates a lot of other organizations, ONGs and NGOs and other corporation organizations in the Amazon that take care of the indigenous.
00:19:23.240And I started to look at these organizations that helped this organization called RIPAM, collecting the information in Amazon to build the preparatory document that was the basis to write the instrumentum laboris, the working document.
00:19:42.700And so, you know, it's this bad habit, it's a good one, always to check if some organization, NGO, receives money from the main international foundations, progresists and liberal ones like Rockefeller, MacArthur, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations.
00:20:04.960And I just took a look at the Ford Foundation that has a great interest in Brazil, always had.
00:20:15.360And I looked at, for example, we have our Caritas, which is, you know, to take care of the poor, to help the needed.
00:20:24.200And they received, according to Ford's website, they received more than $820,000 in a gap of seven, eight years from Ford Foundation.
00:20:37.680So, we have to remember that Caritas was the responsible for the foundation of RIPAM, which is the responsible for the writing of the working document.
00:20:49.300And who is responsible for RIPAM, the Cardinal Humes, the general reporter.
00:20:54.960And so, we have also the CIMI, which is a Brazilian organization, which is the Indigenous Missionary Council.
00:21:03.720They received from Ford Foundation up to more than $1.4 million, which in our currency, you have to multiply by 4.5.
00:21:13.960So, we have six, seven millions AIs, which are our currency, receiving from Ford Foundation.
00:21:22.260And you have to think that Ford Foundation finances abortion, feminism, gender ideology, and all anti-human, anti-Catholic agendas.
00:21:33.980So, what's the interest of these people trying to influence all these organizations?
00:21:42.500I have just cited for you two or three, but I have a lot of them.
00:31:25.780So, uh, my main goal is to, uh, through the, the, the, the, the presenting through this, this method of presenting truth, uh, truth some way, some ways, sometimes, actually, sometimes in a very fun way, because I do some jokes in my videos.
00:31:43.740But presenting people truth, and truth also, uh, has the great power to take people to God.
00:31:54.580Yeah, yeah, there was a priest in my town that he made this very bizarre message in his church, in his parish, and I made a video that talked about him, and then he stopped that, and I think he's created now.
00:32:13.540And I have, I have daily basis, a lot of 10, 20 males, the people telling me, thank you for putting me again in the, in the way, returning to the Catholic church, or I, I converted myself to Catholic church because of your defending the faith.
00:32:27.640Okay. So, San Vincenzo Palotti, which is the, the patron of the Lacey, the layman, uh, he said that we need to defend it, the, the, the truth, and, uh, renew, uh, the charity, love.
00:32:42.280So, this is how I work. So, I want to despise these people, so, not considering them as, oh my God, and not to respect them too much, they don't need that.
00:32:52.140So, I'm not going to, to curse them, or to beat them, but I'm, I'm not going to lie, and say they are wonderful people.
00:32:59.460Oh, I'm going to say, you are a bad bishop. You are. So, you are a coward. Yes, you are. You do not govern the church, you don't sanctify your people, and you don't teach.
00:33:08.120You do politics, and you are selling the Amazon to foreign countries. So, this is your blame. I respect you because you are a bishop, because if you were, yeah, I wouldn't respect you.
00:33:21.120So, I think this is a sober position. It seems, for some people, like, I hate position, because what should I, what should be a position, if, uh, regarding a person, for example, Johnny, who are in your house with their children, with their children in your life, and a guy is entering your house, telling you that he's going to take care of your children.
00:33:41.840When you go out, you just look at the window outside your house, and you see that they are, you know, pitching their children, he's poking them, he's cursing them.
00:33:51.640What are you going to do? You're going to rent your house, and you're going to tell bad things about that person. You are, are you lying?
00:33:57.780No, we're going to say, oh my God, let's discuss your, your conduct here. No, you are a bad person. You are breaking the rules of my house. Get out.
00:34:06.640Yeah, absolutely. And you know what, we have a saying in America, we call it tough love.
00:34:16.640It's tough love for even bishops, who are supposed to be our fathers in the faith, but when they're fathers that abuse the kids, sometimes brothers got to stand up and go, that's just wrong.
00:34:28.040Yeah, and people need to know, for example, that St. Thomas Aquinas said in his Summa Theologica, he said, if there is a public and great danger to the faith, the faithfuls have the right, sometimes the duty, to question their superiors, even publicly, he says.
00:34:51.380Yeah. So that's our duty. Amazing. What are your thoughts about the Synod's outcome? Where do you think this is going? How far do you think they'll go? It's just in the midst right now.
00:35:04.040Yeah. And what are we going to get out of this?
00:35:06.660I think we have two steps. So we have now all the discussions that are going to happen and we have the second moment, which is most probably Pope is going to, Pope Francis is going to write the Apostolic Encyclica, the Post-Synodal Encyclica.
00:35:24.660The Exhortation. The Exhortation, actually. Sorry. Exhortation. I think the Synod is going to propose not all these absurdities in the instrumental numbers, they're going to pick them, all the not so polemic ones.
00:35:41.140And then the Pope, I think he's going, I think the baddest thing that he could do, and I think maybe he will do because he said that in a plane, he said that he could open a possibility of perversion of married priests in isolated places.
00:36:04.420He said that in a plane. I have the video. And so I think that is a possibility, but ordaining women, I'm not going to, I think they're not going, he's not going to approve that.
00:36:16.960And I think he will some way, consciously, unconsciously, contribute positively to this agenda of internationalizing these indigenous people.
00:36:27.800I think he is going to be one of the outcomes. And why I'm saying that he's not going to permit this, and I'm saying that the Synod is not going to propose all of these heretical positions.
00:36:42.000There is a technique of changing people's behavior that was exposed in a book of Pascal Bernardin called Maquiave au Pedagogue.
00:36:54.080Yeah, it's a very good book. He's a French researcher, and he shows that there is a technique of changing behavior called foot at the door.
00:37:04.260So what do you do? For example, I'm in your house, and I lock your door, and I say, John, I want to, I need to put a very big billboard here in front of your house.
00:37:15.780You know, it's going to block our view, but think of the, I don't know, mayor who wants to do it.
00:37:22.680You say, oh my God, this is absurd, I'm not going to do this. No, no, no, please don't.
00:37:26.040They say, okay, I'm just going to put a, I don't know, a chart here, a tour door. Can I put it here?
00:37:33.680Okay, okay, if it is that size, it's okay. You see, so you make a very strong, sort of a ridiculous proposal.
00:37:46.320A ridiculous proposal, perfect. So you make a ridiculous proposal, the person gets frightened, and you say, okay, so just this.
00:37:53.500I did that when I was a child. Yeah, I was at school, and after the test, my mom said, oh, so how did it go?
00:38:02.860I said, oh, I got an F. Oh my God, I said, it's just F plus. I said, oh, it's not so bad.
00:38:11.020You see, it's just like that. I think it's going to be something like that. We're going to see, oh, okay, it's not doing ordaining women,
00:38:17.860they're not changing the Eucharistic, but okay, they're permitting married priests, you see, but we cannot
00:38:28.660change our conviction that we are not going to fall for this kind of game, in a way.
00:38:37.700Amazing. Yeah, we have to be aware, like a snake. Jesus said that. Yeah.
00:38:43.220Meek as the doves and wisest subjects. Yeah. Very good. Well, let's close off with your advice
00:38:51.860for Catholics, Catholic young people to stick with their faith. What would you say?
00:38:58.020Very simple. Four things. As I say in my conferences, I always say that. Please, have a very serious and daily
00:39:06.900praying life and liturgical, sacramental life. So, pray as the end would and tomorrow.
00:39:15.700And have your sacraments as the first time.
00:39:18.980So, go with that love, having the Eucharistic and the Eucharistic. So, we have to believe each day,
00:39:26.020each time that Jesus is there completely, totally. This is the first step, because if you don't have that,
00:39:32.980if you are in a state of grace, aren't in a state of grace, you have, you do not have the seed of
00:39:37.380the sanctification yourself. So, your Christian life, your Catholic life is nothing, just an emptiness.
00:39:43.140So, if you're not, you have to confess. First step. And then second step, a life, a life of studies.
00:39:51.060But you say, okay, Bernardo, I have 25 kids, I cannot study. I say, close yourself in a bathroom, half an hour
00:39:56.500a day, and study. You can't do that. So, go to a park or stop in your lunchtime, study half an hour a day,
00:40:03.460take the Catechism or a book of St. Thomas Aquinas or something else, study that. It's going to do very
00:40:09.140well for your soul and your sanctification, knowledge. Because Jesus said that we have to
00:40:13.940love God in all our heart, mind. So, we cannot adore and love God with our mind. So, this is important.
00:40:24.100Three, have a life in communion with other people, because they're going to help you with their
00:40:28.580problems. So, for example, I'm here in Rome, and my family is like 10,000 kilometers here. So,
00:40:39.220what do I ask if my sister, for example, has a problem there? I call my friends, because my father
00:40:43.780is in another city. If I have a problem myself there, with someone, somebody is pursuing me,
00:40:49.780want to make me harm, doing some harm to me, I call them. They can help me in prayer. They can help me
00:40:56.820with some intellectual problem. They can be with me in some hard problem. I don't know if I lose my
00:41:03.060mother, for example, they can help me. So, this is important. And four, have an apologetical life.
00:41:10.340This is the last step. So, if you do not accomplish the three, the first three, you cannot do an
00:41:16.100apologetical life. So, defend the truth and announce and try to renew the charity, the true
00:41:22.740Christian charity. This is the most important thing, John.
00:41:28.820Absolutely beautiful. Bernardo, thank you so much for being with us. I thank you for this show.
00:41:33.380Thank you. Thank you very much. May God bless you. That's all. And all of you at home, check out
00:41:37.780Bernardo on YouTube. Yeah. And I think you'll really enjoy it. It is in Portuguese though. Yeah,
00:41:43.940some videos are translated in English. You have to put their subtitle in English. Some videos we have
00:41:50.660there. Yeah. Very good. Okay. Thanks for being with us. Thank you very much. And God bless you all. Till next time.