Meet the Opus Dei priest Pope Francis banned from saying Mass
Summary
In this episode of The John Henry Weston Show, Father Jesus Mary Misigbeto, a priest in the Ivory Coast, joins us to talk about his concerns with Pope Francis, and why he writes to the Pope about them.
Transcript
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LifeSite readers probably have seen the name of Father Jesus Mary Misigbeto.
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He's the priest of Opus Dei who has been heavily sanctioned by the Vatican
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for writing to Pope Francis his concerns about what Pope Francis has been doing
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to the detriment, to the great detriment of the Church.
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It's a very interesting inside look at a priest in West Africa, in the Ivory Coast,
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However, stay tuned for this episode of The John Henry Weston Show.
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Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross. Father, if you could lead us.
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In nomine Patris, the Spirit of the Spirit of the Sancti. Amen.
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You are sort of in the midst of controversy right now because, well, your story is becoming
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very well known in that you've chosen to speak out.
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What were, first of all, your motivations for speaking out?
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First of all, I want to apologize to your followers because my English is not very good, so I will
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I'm a French native speaker, so I will do my best to make me understood.
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I have many people, many friends who are faithful Catholics, and we are surprised with the teaching
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As you know, with John Paul II and Pope Benedict, things are clear.
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So, in the beginning, we don't believe that something wrong was happening since 2013, the
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And when we arrived to 2016, we were deeply surprised with Amoris Laetitia and so on.
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The year after, I think the most high level was in 2020 with the declaration of Pope Francis
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It was incredible, because it's something very dangerous for families, for the church
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itself, for the vocations, vocation for priesthood, vocation for religious life, the education
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Terrorism against Christians, because the Muslims didn't identify the Catholic religion
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So they think that Christianism is equal to Europe.
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So if Pope Francis is permitting or allowing same-sex union laws, they receive the Catholic
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Church in the same group with all the perversion of the European nation.
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That's actually very interesting, because these sort of unforeseen, perhaps, consequences of
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getting together with the worldly ideology, perhaps, you know, is unforeseen.
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So in Africa, a lot of the countries where there is Muslim rule, the Catholic Church might
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have been previously seen as at least supporting the normal family order, and thus the ruling
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powers wouldn't see it as a threat to the family.
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But with Pope Francis going down the road of recognizing same-sex civil unions, in fact,
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almost encouraging them legally, then you get a threat to the state, at least perceived
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And so that would be a threat to the family, thus a threat to society.
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And perhaps then it's the Catholic Church, per se, bringing in sort of these Western ideals
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of, you know, homosexuality, which, of course, is abhorred in much of Africa, especially in
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The Vatican has to speak clearly and follow the traditional path of the Church, not go
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out, because the tradition is the preservation of the truth, and it's the way, the most
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So this is my motivation, to help Pope Francis understand that it's better to follow the path
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of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict, and all the St. Pops we have.
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So Pope Francis has to follow the path of these Holy Pops.
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For doing what you've done, for being willing to speak out, to, in very much love, anyone
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who reads your letters to the Pope recognizes that you love the Pope, and you're doing this
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I love him too much, too much, too much, John Henry.
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It's, I could tell you, if I have the possibility to meet Pope Francis, I will kiss him.
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I will say, please, you have to rectify, you have to rectify, or you must rectify.
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You must rectify, because it's very important to follow the path, the traditional path in
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the Church, because it's the path of the truth.
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In the Church, go out this path, we are in danger.
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My father told me, my mother too, when we come back from the Mass, and I also, I remember,
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When we came back from the Mass, I used to, I used to reproduce what happened in, in the
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Church, at home, with my brothers and my sisters.
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So I think that it comes, it's something which comes naturally, yes, little by little.
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And at my 15th, my father put me in touch with a friend, a friend of our family.
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He's a priest of Benin, West Africa Republic, yes.
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And in this moment, I was thinking more to a work in the world, yes.
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And the vocation, the priestly vocation was not, I would say, it was not high, yes.
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But there was a desire of great sanctity, of holiness, that put in the work.
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It's after my vocation at Opus Dei that the vocation at priesthood, I would say that
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I discovered that in Opus Dei, it was possible to be a priest.
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So I wrote to the prelate and told him that in the future, if it was possible, I would like
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So in 2006, I go to Rome to study theology and later in Spain to make my specialization
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The 5th of May, 2012, I was ordained a priest at Rome.
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You became a priest right before Pope Francis became Pope.
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Very interesting indeed, because you spent all of your formative years under John Paul II
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Now that you've experienced what you have with regard to the sanctions, first of all, explain
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to everybody, if you would, what sanctions are you under currently?
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Okay, the sanctions are, it's impossible for me to receive confessions.
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Another thing, it's impossible for me to celebrate the mass publicly.
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And all this, all this was, come from February, February of this year.
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But now with the validation of Pope Francis, they include the private mass too.
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So now it's impossible for me to celebrate the private mass.
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Even outside of church where the public are masses, no one can even come to you privately
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That's why the name I put to my letter to Pope Francis, the letter I published in Twitter
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and Facebook, the title of the letter was Priestly Death.
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It's not possible for me now to do what a priest has to do.
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Are you able, Father, to offer a mass all by yourself?
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And there was a condition, there was a condition.
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If I want to keep the private mass, I have to stop criticizing Pope Francis.
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That's why in my letter, I wrote that it's impossible for me to stop because there is
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something, there are many things wrong, but Pope Francis has to correct.
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So if, since 2016, he didn't want to correct them, it's not normal.
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We give him, we give him too much time to make his rectification.
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So if he doesn't want to do his rectification, that means that he's in the wrong path and he
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So if he wants to remain in the wrong path, so I will remain in the good criticism of
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So I'm not against Pope Francis, but I'm against the errors of Pope Francis.
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He have, he must correct them because it's important for the church and for the faithful
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Father, can you tell us with those in South Africa, excuse me, in West Africa, with whom
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you've been in touch, Catholics that you've seen perhaps, have you seen any effect from
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People are aware of what's happening and they are disappointed.
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Some say he's a wrong Pope, he's a false Pope, he's not like Pope John Paul II, he's not like
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We understand now what's happened with Pope Benedict, but his enemies do all to make him
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gone and now they put Pope Francis, who is the best friend, who wants the ideas of the world.
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People know that there is something wrong with Pope Francis.
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So that's why it's important for Pope Francis to clearly show that he wants to make a rectification,
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that he wants to be a good Pope, a true Pope of the Catholic Church.
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Have you seen any reactions from young people that have had their faith distorted?
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For instance, with young people that I know, a lot of them have suggested, hey, there's this
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We are able now to engage in sexual activity that the Church had traditionally called sinful,
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We've had mothers who have always prayed for the conversion of their sons who are in
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homosexual relations, and then saying, oh, we don't have to do that anymore, the Pope is okay
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In Africa, things are different, a little bit different if you compare to Europe or United States.
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I don't know United States, I know more Europe, because I live in Italy for three years and
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My experience is not too long, it's a little experience.
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But here, the traditions concerning some aspects of sexuality, we still have a strong traditional
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So, people see that Pope Francis is going a bad way, he's going, he's taking a bad way,
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And no, in my experience with the young people, the students I used to help, no, on the contrary,
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And they know that they have to fight to leave the doctrine of the Church about sexuality.
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The difficulties are not an excuse to not leave the doctrine of the Church.
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Now, I will give you an example, I think it will help you understand better.
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In the last month or two months ago, two months ago, for the first time, for the first time,
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in Ivory Coast, at least in my, in my, what I know, that I think that I'm not wrong.
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Because people speak about, people spoke about it, for the first time, in a private broadcasting,
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they invite a girl who is a homosexual, I don't know how to say it in English, lesbian,
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For the first time, and people were very disappointed, many people protested about it.
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Yes, it was the first time to see this, this kind of thing in the, in the television
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It's something maybe in the, in the, in the Europe broadcasting, when people see it here,
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So I think we still have a strong, traditional, good, good thought about sexuality.
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As you said in your letter, you, you've experienced in a way a priestly death.
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How are you dealing with that, and what then keeps you going?
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Because you're obviously determined to keep going.
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And how are you dealing with the, the persecution, if, for lack of a better word, that you're suffering
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That means, no, it's not possible for, for Pope Francis or anyone to, to leave the, the
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It's, it's, with the sacrament, it's something which is in me.
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The gift of God and the graces of God are something God, God, God, God, God, God doesn't give
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God, when God gives, he, he, he, he, he gives you for, for forever.
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So, so about priestly, priesthood, my priesthood is in me and nobody can, can take it.
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Uh, I know that I'm, I am a priest and I will be, I will always be a priest.
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Even, even though it's impossible to, to use it now or to, to, to exercise it now that I'm
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a priest and I will all be, I will be always a priest.
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So it's my strong motivation and biggest motivation or no, I won't say the biggest, but the second
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Because the first and biggest motivation is my priesthood is Jesus Christ.
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So our lady is all the priests because she said that she is the mother of all priests.
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So I'm sure that if a priest is in difficulties, Mother Mary, Mother Mary is especially with
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him because the mothers are with the children which are, who are in difficulties because they
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So I'm, I know that Mother Mary is with me because I'm his son, her son, please.
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And now I have difficulty and I believe that my mother is with me.
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So with Jesus and with Mother Mary, it's not possible to be, to be sad.
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Even if, even though there are problems, that I'm happy.
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I can tell you that in addition to our Lord and our Lady, there are many, many Catholics
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all over the world who are with you, who are grateful for your defense of the faith, even
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in the face of all this persecution you're receiving.
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And we know that priests like you are the future of the church.
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Maybe Pope Francis, or I don't know, my, my, my chiefs, who say, maybe they think that
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I could say that it's absurd to think that a priest could be against the church or against
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So it's because there is a problem and serious problem.
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If they solve a problem, we come back to the normal times.
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So the problem is there and they have to solve it.
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If they want peace in the church, it's very simple.
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You can't be quiet because we, we are looking for them.
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And may many, many priests and bishops, religious and laid in the church, follow your example.