In this episode, we have Mother Miriam of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) join us to talk about the latest news in the church, the SSPX, Pope Leo, and what's happening in China.
00:03:35.320They are the most faithful to the church, to doctrine, to theology, to practice.
00:03:42.800Then maybe very few, I'll say, associations and apostolates on the face of the earth.
00:03:52.960While the Chinese Communist Party just ordains whatever bishops they want, and the Vatican says absolutely nothing, and the Pope himself ordains bishops who don't believe the Catholic faith.
00:04:12.660And here they want to snuff out, it's the only way to say it, this faithful society.
00:04:24.080And so I think it's absolutely tragic if they go ahead July 1st, which I hope they do,
00:04:33.460not to go against the church, but to be preserved, to do what they must do.
00:04:38.220if Archbishop Lefebvre were, I'm not part of the SSBX, but I'd be on his coattails if he were
00:04:44.580alive today. And I absolutely believe he's a saint. Not he will be. He's not canonized,
00:04:50.200but he's a saint, whether we know it or not. It's very interesting, Mother. I think a lot
00:04:54.360of people have come to that conclusion. Just in retrospect, he was so proved correct. You can
00:05:02.380And only what he saw back then and tried to warn about has been, I mean, it's been fulfilled probably in worse ways than he ever thought possible.
00:05:12.380Because, I mean, it's just, it's absolute devastation right now.
00:05:15.920And it is true because we have to remember that the fraternity of St. Peter also comes from the SSPX.
00:05:26.880When they made the decision in 88 to go ahead and consecrate the new bishops, that's when the split happened. So without Lefebvre, you have no preservation of the Latin Mass, the traditional Latin Mass. So yeah, it is absolutely stunning.
00:05:43.560One thing you mentioned is that they're upholding orthodoxy, the traditional teaching of the church, especially with regard to moral issues.
00:06:11.480they're regular Catholics who know the faith really well, but they just keep going with their
00:06:17.060things. They don't have to say that much because they're doing their own thing. With this announcement,
00:06:21.920they have said more about the state of the church than I've ever heard, and it is such a breath of
00:06:27.600fresh air. I wonder if it's not because the silence from everywhere else is so deafening
00:06:33.460that to hear Bishop Fillet just recently come out. It's just incredible. They're saying it out loud,
00:06:40.980what we all know, but it seems like people are afraid to say. But it's beautiful to hear that
00:06:48.240the church is in a massive crisis that is leading souls to hell.
00:06:52.560That's right. And at least, at the very least, not leading them to heaven, that's for sure.
00:06:58.280And I heard, did hear Bishop Fillet, and what he said, a kindergartner could understand,
00:07:05.940Two and two is simply four, and the mess that the Vatican is in, depending upon who you contact, you're going to hear different answers, different permissions, permissions given, permissions taken.
00:07:21.340It's just, it's truly tragic. And if they're excommunicated, people who don't want good, conservative, respectful Catholics, leaders who do not want to see them consecrate these new bishops, they are afraid of schism.
00:07:45.220in my mind now i'm saying this to you which is saying it publicly
00:07:51.680it's the vatican that's in schism it's the vatican that's causing schism not the sspx
00:07:58.340they are faithful to the church for a pope to say um as pope francis i'm bringing a little
00:08:07.200different subject for pope francis said that all religions lead to god god wills all religions
00:08:39.160I've said this before when I came into the church
00:08:41.100three generations lost to the faith. How do I know that? Because my brother David, who was Catholic
00:08:46.24016 years before me, despite my every effort to save him from being one, gave me good pre-Vatican
00:08:53.440II books to study. And Catholics didn't know their faith, left and right. Purgatory, oh, we don't
00:08:59.500believe in that anymore. I used to. One thing after another was utterly, utterly mind-boggling.
00:09:05.460And again, I came in under the Novus Ordo. I didn't know about the Catholic faith. But blessed be God, I now do. And it's home. And it's so, so beautiful. And I tell you, if the Vatican excommunicates them, whatever that means, they are the truest Catholics ever, excommunicated or not.
00:09:31.600Mother, I just want to underline something you said because it's so important. You referenced what Pope Leo XIV said, I believe it was January 25th. He was at a meeting of various Christian denominations and he highlighted even the presence of the Anglican, one of the Anglican bishops.
00:09:52.680um and uh these are the anglicans uh it's it's the uh the regular anglicans so the ones that
00:10:01.340are headed now by a pope who is a woman and also pro-abortion by the way uh their archbishop of
00:10:07.920canterbury um they are allowing for ordaining of women and then they have uh you know homosexuals
00:10:15.440uh married uh depending on which flavor of anglican you're looking at but then they have
00:10:20.400these ministers that are also in homosexual relationships and everything else and well
00:10:25.020that's right he says and i'll quote it for you he said this is leo to the anglicans we are one
00:10:31.480we already are let's recognize it experience it and make it visible that one killed me because
00:10:37.680of course the the we are one the the let us be one the prayer is christ's you know
00:10:41.880father let them be one even as you and i are one that's not one that's not you can't have a
00:10:49.060oneness that disagrees on the essentials of the faith on on the reality of christ in the eucharist
00:10:53.780or is it symbolic on the all-male priesthood or uh or or are females allowed to be priests
00:11:00.260that's on homosexuality or not it's insanity it's insane and here the pope is and again
00:11:06.380the the chinese bishops and the heretical bishops that he's appointing um and here is one utterly
00:11:16.800faithful apostolate, the Society of St. Pius X, whose excommunications were lifted, as you said,
00:11:26.600by Pope Benedict, and all they have against them now, if they can find something, is that they are
00:11:34.180irregular. Why are they irregular? Because they refuse to sign a statement or two from Vatican II
00:11:41.180that shouldn't be signed. So they're irregular. They're not utterly heretical. They're not
00:11:48.180utterly outside the church like the Chinese bishops. And that won't be allowed. That speaks
00:11:55.620absolute volumes. And it's a trajectory. I don't know how else to say it. I'm not a prophet. I
00:12:03.500don't know these things a deliberate plan to destroy the church I don't there's nothing else
00:12:12.760possible in my heart do you if you were to venture to guess do you think they'll actually go through
00:12:17.400it because there's a lot of controversy right now will the Vatican actually just ignore it let it
00:12:23.460slide um will they recognize them will they actually come out and do another excommunication
00:12:30.060or do some kind of official noise somehow.
00:16:16.240It's something that we're experiencing.
00:16:18.880We've experienced, especially over the last 14 years, like never before.
00:16:24.200In fact, I want to talk to you about that specifically because it is, especially right now, a kind of a contention between those who see the Francis Leo experience as something like totally fallen off a cliff.
00:16:39.500But then basically people who hearken back to, no, it's all the same since Pius XII or even before Pius V, I don't know who they're making up.
00:17:08.000And I told you, I met him. It was a fabulous experience. And I absolutely love that man for what he did. But I grieve for what he did at times as well, such as female altar servers and other things.
00:17:24.100So did he have weaknesses? Yes. Did Pope Benedict have weaknesses? Yes. Do we know them all? Do we know all the motives? Do we know the threats that caused these men to make certain decisions? We do not know this.
00:17:36.920but were they perfect no were they as pious the 10th they were not not even
00:17:42.640pious the 12th with pious the 10th but they didn't they may have how do i say this
00:17:52.560we may have wished they had led the church more strongly more concretely more
00:17:59.200in a limited way according to the faith in every aspect but Francis and Leo you wouldn't even know
00:18:08.060they're Catholic this my take you can say well they're weak Catholics that fall into their
00:18:13.560heritage no if you're a heretic you're not a Catholic now I can't say they're not Pope because
00:18:18.960God wants heretics for popes that's his business but Francis and Leo the other popes
00:18:29.120they led weaknesses in but they didn't teach against the faith yeah but both francis and leo
00:18:39.300are teaching against the faith they've satan must be rejoicing they are destroying the church
00:18:48.260they are i've said before francis was the chaplain for the one world order
00:18:53.380and leo is going further and because of his wonderful personality and smile he's more
00:19:00.620dangerous i think he's not just continuing francis he's going further so the two of them in my mind
00:19:07.840are they're dangerous they are giving the world what is absolutely not catholic
00:19:15.740and our lord is allowing it to happen but they are they are not the faith it's actually a beautiful
00:19:22.920distinction, because while there might have been unacceptable silences from the previous
00:19:28.600popes and misjudgments, and he always thought with John Paul when he did Assisi, and he wasn't
00:19:35.260the first one, by the way, all of that stuff, he was still done with that notion that you
00:19:41.000understood he wanted them all to be Catholic. He wasn't trying to assuage their consciences so
00:19:47.560that they wouldn't have to be Catholic and they could just be whatever they are. Yet that's what's
00:19:51.180happening now. And your distinction between the difference between the silence and the sort of
00:19:58.240missteps that might have been unintentional or whatever, or, you know, pressured to actually
00:20:04.580teaching against the faith. This is the first time we've had this large scale teaching against
00:20:10.380the faith in all sorts of official documents. That's the other thing that's mind blowing.
00:20:15.000You have amor estetitia, you have fiducius supplicans, you have tradiciones custodis,
00:20:19.180You have to change it to the catechism, all official teachings of the Pope so that you can't say that because all Catholics are supposed to give obedience of mind and will to all these things because they're pronouncements of official magisterium, even though not dogma, of course, but it doesn't matter.
00:20:39.820So Francis Leo is a completely different story from Benedict where we all work.
00:20:45.220And people have emailed me, John Henry, and they've said, mother, you're Catholic. If you're Catholic, you're supposed to obey the Pope. If you don't obey the Pope, then how can you be Catholic? This is a difficult question. We are Catholic, but we cannot, like Peter, tell me whether I obey God or men.
00:21:03.660if if the men are separated from god we don't leave the bark of peter but we pray for them
00:21:11.880and we do not obey what is false may i read one statement from bishop strickland please do because
00:21:19.880that will give us some clarity this is bishop strickland's take on the whole sspx uh bishop
00:21:25.180consecration question yes and um he says now this i'm just reading the last two paragraphs
00:21:32.660of several. He says the church is hierarchical by divine design and authority exists to safeguard
00:21:40.820what has been entrusted to it. That authority bears a grave responsibility to protect the
00:21:47.780priesthood, to preserve apostolic continuity, and to speak plainly when essential realities
00:21:55.180are at stake. Now listen. Unity in the church is not preserved ambiguity. Fidelity is not a threat.
00:22:05.820Tradition is not an enemy. When those who openly contradict the church's teaching are tolerated,
00:22:14.240while those who seek continuity are treated as suspect, something has been inverted. Last
00:22:20.500sentence. This moment demands prayer, honesty, and courage, especially from those entrusted with
00:22:28.180authority. The salvation of souls must remain the supreme law of the church. Silence cannot be the
00:22:36.020final word. And that's what the SSPX has received for the Vatican, silence. Yep. And as you mentioned,
00:22:43.640utter confusion, that revelation that Bishop Fillet makes of when he went to visit the Vatican
00:23:45.960when I don't like something. It's not from the Pope.
00:23:48.480Would I like something? Oh, my. He goes on to say how that's not allowed because that's, you know, forbidden.
00:23:57.160So, yeah, that brings it a question, of course, because we've already experienced excommunications.
00:24:02.520Most of them are not public. There are priests who have been excommunicated for doubting that Francis is pope, feeling in conscience that it's very difficult for them to mention his name during the mass.
00:24:14.280because they have an honest-to-goodness issue of conscience.
00:24:19.160But the public one is, of course, Archbishop Vigano, publicly excommunicated.
00:24:26.300And that's exactly the kind of thing where it makes you go,
00:24:30.180hmm, you honestly wonder what's real anymore in our church today.
00:24:35.200The confusion is so, so unbelievably rampant.
00:24:39.040But I want to turn back to your first example of China.
00:24:43.280You mentioned how the bishops in China are being named by the Communist Party, by this Catholic Patriotic Association, the Chinese Communist Party.
00:24:55.560And, you know, here's these men, I think, like rumor has it, some of them have wise and children, but who are being made bishops in China, apart from any kind of papal approval.
00:25:07.780One was done during the interregnum between Francis Leo, and yet they're just recognized by Francis first and Leo after him as well.
00:25:19.480So this China-Vatican deal, the Sino-Vatican agreement, is still alive and well, despite massive persecution of the Catholic Church and of Catholics.
00:25:28.460And I want to get into the latest on that score is Jimmy Lai. Jimmy Lai, a Catholic, the huge founder of Apple Daily. So he was doing reporting in Hong Kong, and then he is arrested. And then finally, he's now given 20 years as a sentence.
00:25:51.400Of course, they accuse him of working with foreign powers or whatever else they do.
00:25:56.180But this is the sort of life in China for Catholics, for faithful Catholics.
00:26:02.440And yet nothing, not a word from Pope Leo.
00:31:13.740um and to not and she's been the church fathers uh everyone we could name as a saint has called
00:31:24.240her co-redemptrix and mediatrix of all grace jesus came through his mother and he hasn't
00:31:31.820stopped coming through his mother and he won't stop coming through his mother and if we're ashamed
00:31:36.680to go through his mother to him, shame on us. So no, it's what she is. And you tell me my mother
00:31:44.300is not my mother. The one who gave me the Savior is not the co-redemptrix, the one through whom
00:31:52.080all grace comes through 2,000 years. The saints have written on it. I had a problem with Mary,
00:32:00.860John Henry when I came into the church because 18 years of Protestantism didn't even allow me to
00:32:07.980think straight. But I believed the Catholic faith on Mary because I believed the Catholic faith was
00:32:15.820true, not because I picked what I believed. If the Catholic faith is true, whether I understand
00:32:21.120things or not, it's true. I'm the one who has to come to understand them. But a relationship with
00:32:26.720Mary? Oh, come on. Wouldn't that rob me of a relationship with Jesus? And I read a book that
00:32:32.360solved it. I read lots of books on Mary. I talked to priests on Mary to try to solve. Nothing solved
00:32:37.220it except, finally, Father Reginald Garagu. He wrote a book called The Mother of the Savior.
00:32:44.840It cured me. I read that book. It's not nice, popular, not even told us to us. It's fabulous.
00:32:52.420And I read that book, and I put it down, and I got the sense of what it said, and I said, we'll never have any idea this side of heaven, what God has done within and through Mary.
00:33:12.380So I'm saying this as a religious but lay person, so-called leaders of the church and theologians, to downgrade is not the word, blaspheme.
00:33:27.280The mother of the Savior, the Savior who founded the church, is, we could say it's heresy and get angry, but to true children, it's very hurtful.