The John-Henry Westen Show - New Knights Of St. John Paul II Seek To Reclaim World For Christ

00:00:00.000 We're calling on St. Michael with all nine choirs of angels. We're calling on all the saints in

00:00:05.500 heaven. We're calling on all the souls in purgatory to join us physically, to go out on the streets

00:00:13.120 and to drive evil and demons from our town. Hey, my friends, do you know, very often we're left

00:00:25.820 wondering what to do? There's so much going on and politics is such a dirty business, but we need

00:00:31.120 to be involved somehow. It's very frustrating sometimes to know when. In towns all across

00:00:37.200 America, we're having, you know, painted sidewalks or the pride flag being flown from your town hall

00:00:45.120 or things like that. Drag queen story hours and even in libraries for children. It seems to be

00:00:52.220 a big mess everywhere. We've got Planned Parenthood clinics opening up in smaller venues as well.

00:00:58.820 What are we to do? Well, believe it or not, I was, you know, facing this issue myself and I got in the

00:01:05.880 mail some pamphlets and things for an idea, an idea of men getting together to pray, to pray for their

00:01:16.100 town, to take their town back for Jesus and Mary. And it was awesomely simple. All they do is they get

00:01:24.180 together. They say some prayers of deliverance and things like that. And then the men walk out in twos and

00:01:30.580 pray the rosary all over town. I called one of my friends up and told him about the idea. And he said,

00:01:35.180 oh, that's awesome. That's open carry. Well, open carry, if you don't know, is when you're talking about

00:01:40.560 weapons and we're talking about, of course, our weapon of choice, the Most Holy Rosary. And

00:01:47.200 fascinating idea. And it's a movement that's just started. We're going to talk to the founders.

00:01:53.860 They call themselves the Knights of John Paul II. This is the John Henry Weston Show. Stay tuned.

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00:02:42.280 May God bless you.

00:02:43.820 Dan Potvin and Deacon Bruce Sider, so good to be with you.

00:02:46.900 Good to be with you, John Henry.

00:02:49.720 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father,

00:02:53.540 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Okay, so first of all, let's get into the

00:03:03.580 specifics a little bit, then we'll go back to its founding. So tell us a little bit about these

00:03:08.880 prayers. What are we praying here? So the men get together, it takes about an hour on Saturday

00:03:13.900 mornings, you suggest, but it could be another day. But what are they praying to start with?

00:03:17.860 Well, the opening prayer we do, and usually when we meet, we're in a church parking lot,

00:03:24.120 and then we go out from there. But this prayer, which took about four or five months to formulate,

00:03:31.220 we're claiming the town by name for our king and our queen. We're entrusting the town to the sacred

00:03:41.240 heart of Jesus and the immaculate heart of Mary. And then the prayer is called the prayer before the

00:03:49.100 rosary to summon the army. And then we're summoning, we're calling on St. Michael with all nine choirs

00:03:55.100 of angels. We're calling on all the saints in heaven. We're calling on all the souls in purgatory

00:04:00.860 to join us physically to go out on the streets and to drive evil and demons from our town. And then we

00:04:14.320 begin the rosary with a lot of prayers for the town, local leaders, local shepherd, intercessory prayers

00:04:25.280 for our nation, police officers, firemen, veterans. And then we split up in pairs of two, like the Lord

00:04:34.820 sends a 72 out. And we pray the rosary through the streets. And that's, that's in a nutshell,

00:04:42.140 what we do every week.

00:04:43.460 Um, we try to walk around, uh, places, um, city hall and we pray, especially for our public officials,

00:04:52.480 the police department, the fire department. And, uh, in our, in our North Adams, we have this modern

00:04:59.340 museum, which quite frankly is evil. And so one of our routes is to walk around that museum and pray

00:05:08.840 the rosary and, and, you know, ask St. Michael to intercede. So our routes are selected for that

00:05:17.100 purpose as well.

00:05:19.640 Great. Okay. So I love how it's so incredibly simple. I'd like to also learn a bit of your

00:05:27.040 experience. How does this go? You guys have done this. Um, tell us about any experiences you may have

00:05:33.140 had, how this has gone, any stories that might've come from it. So, you know, a lot during winter

00:05:40.940 time, it's pretty quiet out on the streets during COVID was very quiet. Um, one of the big things

00:05:47.820 that happened during COVID I found interesting is the local church was a vaccine center. So every

00:05:58.420 Saturday morning, when we were there, there were 10, 15 police officers and security people

00:06:05.820 guarding the building. And we'd show up in the parking lot right next to them, eight, 10,

00:06:12.780 12 guys would show up, no masks, you know, and they saw what we were doing. And, and, you

00:06:19.300 know, the first couple of weeks, you know, they just look at us from their masks out, you know,

00:06:24.940 we're all outside. And then I noticed little by little guys pulling their masks down,

00:06:32.300 smiling at us, saying hi. And over time, you could tell they like to see us out there

00:06:40.180 because that's our, was our starting point. Um, you know, out on the streets,

00:06:45.880 you don't, I mean, once in a while, people will come up and actually ask us what we're

00:06:55.000 doing or talk to us, but you know, you're walking two people. Um, we try to carry rosary

00:07:01.320 beads that, that are long and people know what we're doing. You know, the summer months we have

00:07:06.540 our shirts on, which are our beautiful shirts and that attracts attention. Um, right. It's not

00:07:13.160 like you have shirts off the other time you're talking about this t-shirt that you're wearing.

00:07:17.100 Yes. Yes. This is, this is, and, and, and on the back, you know, with the back of these t-shirts,

00:07:23.960 that's that quote from Luke, um, Luke's gospel where our Lord, when the 72 come back, the Lord tells them

00:07:32.320 they're all bragging and, you know, all excited about the miracles, the demons are driving out this

00:07:38.000 and that. And he's like, I have given you the power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and the full

00:07:46.020 force of the enemy and no harm will befall you. And, and, you know, we don't necessarily, I don't,

00:07:58.280 I don't know any of the guys that see the, the angels and the demons battling and stuff, but,

00:08:03.100 but the fact that we step into that power and I, and I think that's what it is. It's a stepping into

00:08:10.260 that power that God's given us and, and then calling on, right. I mean, we have access to all

00:08:22.540 the angels. We have access to, we just got to ask. And so that's got to be a force to be reckoned with

00:08:31.400 when we're out on the streets, even if just Deacon and I show up on a Saturday morning,

00:08:35.540 because everybody's off doing something else. You've got the, you've got billions of warriors

00:08:41.160 with you. You might just be the two of us. The experience that, um, you know, it's, it's hard,

00:08:49.020 in a sense, because it's eight o'clock on a Saturday morning. So we don't really see a lot of people as

00:08:55.220 we're walking. But for me personally, as Dan said, just carrying that rosary around the streets

00:09:03.180 and praying the rosary, um, gives me a sense of, of, uh, I'm not sure of the word, but I just feel

00:09:13.640 so good about being a public witness to our faith. Because oftentimes when people think of church,

00:09:21.180 it's a building and what happens inside the building, but by us taking that rosary with us

00:09:27.660 and walking around the streets every week, uh, is a good feeling for me, I guess, is what I'm trying

00:09:34.160 to say that we are bringing a public witness of our faith out into the community. So others can see it

00:09:42.300 with the t-shirt and that sort of thing. I personally haven't had anybody stop me

00:09:48.000 in the year or so that two years, right? No, I think three. Wow. Four. Four. May 1st, 2020. Wow.

00:09:56.600 That's three then. But anyway, um, that's my personal experience. Uh, it's, it's empowering, I guess.

00:10:04.560 Um, it's, it's just a beautiful way to witness to our faith in public. Beautiful. Beautiful. So, um,

00:10:13.780 tell us about the founding. Like, how did this idea come up? Where, where did this come from?

00:10:18.840 You know, and, and, uh, why, why did it come? Um, it's been a long time in the works. Uh,

00:10:28.880 you know, I could go back to my childhood watching, uh, Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman. Um,

00:10:36.740 and, and, and always wanting to be a knight, always wanted to be, you know, in, in battle with,

00:10:43.600 with, uh, you know, a bunch of good, holy men. Um, and over the years, I'll be honest. I mean,

00:10:55.480 I, I procrastinated for years. I would write stuff down. I'd get these thoughts. I'd write them down.

00:11:01.000 Um, and I had a whole pile of them. Um, and then Deacon and I, and another group from the parish,

00:11:07.780 we all went to Medjugorje. And, and one of the things I prayed for while I was there

00:11:12.980 is I said, you know, blessed mother, most of my kids are grown up now. And what's my mission going

00:11:23.240 forward? That was one of the things I, and when we got back, uh, Deacon and I were meeting,

00:11:30.980 almost every week, having coffee and this topic would come up and, and Deacon just started like

00:11:38.520 really railing on me. He's, he's like, when are you going to stop talking about this

00:11:44.900 and make it happen? And so it was during that summer, 2019. And I guess we hit August, September

00:11:56.800 when that reading in Luke's gospel came and it just hit me like so hard at mass. I walked

00:12:03.400 out to church and I was like, did you hear that? Did you hear that? Everybody thought I

00:12:07.400 was nuts. I'm like, do you know? And that really kicked it off. And then what was the reading?

00:12:13.000 It was that from Luke's gospel chapter 10, I'd given you the power. Um, and knowing the times

00:12:21.940 were in, um, knowing the times we're in right. John Paul, the second's, uh, great prophecy from

00:12:32.100 Philadelphia. Um, that week at work, you know, and I, a lot of times I'm running excavator when I'm not

00:12:39.680 cutting trees and you can think a lot when you're running an excavator up in the mountains,

00:12:43.760 building roads for the logging jobs. And I pondered all week, what's the full force of the enemy?

00:12:51.460 If you had to look at the entire Bible from Genesis to the end, and you had to pick out what's the full

00:13:00.000 force of the enemy. This is what I came up with. Um, this is lumberjack theology. Bear with me. Um,

00:13:07.380 the full force of the enemy would be the time of the antichrist system. That's what I came up with. 0.66

00:13:17.680 And we have the power to tread on that.

00:13:23.840 So then, you know, us meeting every week, I started getting serious, writing stuff down,

00:13:29.860 finally had everything together to get to the printers, the end of April. And we made it to

00:13:34.600 the divine mercy shrine on May 1st, 2020. Um, and it was all put together. Now this prayer wasn't put

00:13:42.260 together yet. We were out on the streets every week for four months as this took shape. Okay. And

00:13:49.600 we're, we're waiting for an imprimatur on this because guys down at the divine mercy shrine want

00:13:55.440 to be able to give this out, this prayer. Um, but they can't do it the way their congregation is set

00:14:03.580 up, right? They need all, everything's got to be canonical. Um, but I, yeah, I mean, you know,

00:14:12.100 that's a big question, you know, three world use days with JP too. This certainly was an influence. Um,

00:14:20.580 he's my hero. Uh, what can I say? Um,

00:14:28.600 Well, I, I, I've known Dan for 30 years and, uh, it definitely, no doubt in my mind, it's a work of

00:14:35.780 the Holy spirit because Dan is his charism, if you will, is a warrior. He's a fighter. That's what Dan

00:14:44.560 is. And, and this, this John Paul, the second, the Knights of, um, is, is just an extension,

00:14:52.580 I think of his personality, his being. Um, and so maybe if I'm getting ahead of myself, but let me

00:15:02.600 know, but we, we actually have petitioned our Bishop and August of last year, he, uh, has given us

00:15:13.140 permission, if you will. Uh, we, we've, uh, applied to, if you will, or petitioned to become a public

00:15:20.220 association of the faithful where we're now considered a private association. So on August

00:15:27.140 23rd of last year, he sent us a letter, um, giving us permission to go forward. And he's given us three

00:15:35.700 years, uh, to, to continue, and then he'll reassess at three years and, and go from there. But each year

00:15:45.280 we have to, um, meet annually and submit like our, our progress. So, um, that's where we're at with,

00:15:54.380 with regard to our association, if you will. Beautiful. Now, um, the, so you've, you've already

00:16:04.680 given some reports to him or, or when, when is year one for you to give a report to the Bishop?

00:16:10.840 Um, we just sent in our first. Oh, just send it now. Okay. Yeah. So we're one year into the,

00:16:18.020 into the three-year process. And we just, just recently sent down our, um, our update,

00:16:23.760 you know, what, what progress have we made of the first year ago. Okay. I haven't, we haven't heard

00:16:31.260 back yet. If I could, if I could interject here, John Henry, the, the reason we're going through

00:16:39.180 this process, when we got a meeting with the Bishop, and to be honest, I bumped into Sister

00:16:46.600 Didi at a, uh, conference in the diocese, and I hadn't been able to get a, uh, meeting with the

00:16:53.740 Bishop yet for the Knights to meet with them and introduce ourselves and went to the conference,

00:16:59.740 Providence, Providence, as it worked. She called me over. She noticed the t-shirt. She wanted to

00:17:05.640 know about it. And a week later, two weeks later, we were meeting with the Bishop. All I really wanted

00:17:12.680 at that time, cause I had envisioned, I don't know if you've ever seen the picture, the famous picture,

00:17:18.320 it's called the knighting. I always wanted to be knighted by a queen. It's a beautiful picture.

00:17:24.180 It's on our website. All I wanted to do was ask the Bishop, can the guys come down and

00:17:30.080 our, our cathedral in the diocese is named after St. Michael, the archangel. And I wanted us to go

00:17:36.400 down the aisle two by two, kneel in front of the Bishop and him knight us with the first class relic

00:17:42.040 of JP too. And he's like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I'm telling him this. He's like, you're getting way ahead of

00:17:48.620 yourself. And he said, no, he said, I want you guys to have canonical approval. He said, you know,

00:18:00.800 I had told them, you know, it was six or eight of us there at the meeting. I said, I said, Bishop,

00:18:06.880 I said, you know, the demons have taken over our towns. They've taken over our schools. They've taken

00:18:11.840 over our financial institutions. I said, they've even taken over some of our parishes.

00:18:17.680 He said, I know. He said, I know. And I said, you know, we're going out there pushing back.

00:18:30.980 You know, father Armory mentioned, you know, one of the demons told him every hail Mary is like a

00:18:36.360 sledgehammer on our head. Hmm. Well, let's go out and let's beat on some demons and cause them some 1.00

00:18:42.760 uncomfortable, you know, at least show up, show up to the fight, um, and beat on demons. A lot of

00:18:52.820 times I'll say that to the guys, you know, just when we're getting ready to break up and go out,

00:18:56.580 it's like, all right, let's go beat on some demons. Cause every hail Mary. Right.

00:19:00.680 So really, it was, so really it was the Bishop, Bishop Byrne, um, that pushed us in this direction.

00:19:13.960 I'll be honest. He looked right at us and he said, listen, he said, this is God's work,

00:19:22.100 which he had never met us. I'm sure his sister put in a good word for us, but she hardly knew us.

00:19:29.300 For him to say that I was like blown away. I'm like, I, if I was a Bishop, I was like,

00:19:37.840 all right, I'm going to watch you knuckleheads and see, see where this goes. Yeah.

00:19:47.580 Yeah. I think the idea is totally striking, especially in its simplicity. Uh, it is,

00:19:53.700 it's the first program that I've ever seen that I was like, yes, that's it. Because it's a,

00:20:00.740 it's a beautiful, uh, it's, I hesitate to say perfect cause nothing's perfect, but you know what

00:20:07.640 I mean? It's, it's actually an action that we can all take that men need to step up and it gives us

00:20:15.220 something to do. Uh, very few are called to, uh, politics and all sorts of things. We're all called

00:20:21.140 to do politics in some way to, to support good candidates and so on. But you know, who's called

00:20:26.700 to run some are called perhaps to do more, you know, lobbying and whatnot, but this, this, I think

00:20:33.600 everyone's called to do those who are able-bodied that is. So, uh, fantastic stuff. Have you noticed,

00:20:40.880 and maybe not yet, but have you noticed you've been doing this now for, for a few years? Have

00:20:45.680 you noticed any effects in your town? Uh, yeah. Um, things are getting worse in our area.

00:20:53.780 No, no, I'm serious. My little town of 800 people, um, the whole transgender thing has moved right into 1.00

00:21:01.360 the school. Um, so no, it's not, it's, it's, uh, uh, it's not like our little towns, the triumph of

00:21:13.160 Mary's Immaculate Heart has happened and we're in a new era. Um, the battle just keeps getting

00:21:19.440 fiercer. Um, but I know it's having effect. Um, I know in my little town, I was on the select board

00:21:30.140 for 10 years up until recently, I lost the seat by three boats. Um, and if there was a big issue

00:21:37.360 going on, like during COVID, cause we, we had a lawsuit against the governor, we were fighting back

00:21:43.500 on every level. And then because of my background in the military, I was making the people aware of

00:21:51.120 the dangers of the shots, mask wearing, all this stuff. And we had huge opposition.

00:22:00.140 Against us. And what I would do before the meeting is I'd get some of the nights out there in the

00:22:07.400 parking lot and we do what we do. Then I go into the meeting. I will say all those meetings.

00:22:16.900 We did just huge victories. We destroyed the opposition and you could feel God's power working.

00:22:24.080 Um, so I would say this can be used on a lot of level. It's like your nights in the town,

00:22:30.260 find out when an important school board meeting or, you know, and show up outside, do this. You're,

00:22:37.280 you're, I like to think of us as the big guns that can affect battles that are going on. Um,

00:22:46.700 it's almost English. You're absolutely right. Anybody can do this. You can be a bishop and do

00:22:52.880 this, get men together with you. Um, a priest be awesome. If the shepherds were going out with a 0.99

00:22:59.200 group of men in their town. Um, but you can be a Knight of Columbus and not, you can just incorporate

00:23:05.200 this. A lot of the, a lot of other groups, you know, the men tell me, they say, we're just not doing

00:23:12.380 anything. You know, and you get bored going to meetings and talking about something you're going

00:23:20.500 to do six months from now, get out there and boots on the ground. And it's great too. Plus,

00:23:26.280 you know, there's so many, you're walking through your town that you don't walk through. Hey,

00:23:32.180 there's an occult shop. What's going on with that? I didn't know that was here. Hey, there's a porn

00:23:36.980 shop and you, you start recognizing your town. And because when you entrust your town, you're naming

00:23:45.740 your town, there's that ownership and people should think this is my town, you know, and there's no room

00:23:55.560 for this stuff here. That's the beginning of a change of thinking. This, this is, this is my town.

00:24:01.260 I still live in the town I grew up in. Okay. And, and, you know, as long as I'm a second air,

00:24:09.280 I'm going to battle against this some way, shape or form. And this is a great way to battle.

00:24:16.600 Yeah. It's similar North Adams where I live. It's, it's, it's down. It's, we, we were a hardworking

00:24:24.680 mill town. Faithful town, five Catholic churches at one point in my lifetime, my adult life. We had

00:24:34.740 five that were full. And when the factory started to close and the mill started to close,

00:24:42.000 even now we're down to one church and it's not full. And as I said earlier, this, this museum that

00:24:53.000 came in, this mass mocha it's called is, it just brought in in all honesty, all kinds of evil. 0.97

00:25:01.280 And so it's not getting any better in North Adams either. I wish I could say it was, but again,

00:25:09.460 for me, it's, it's, it's the personal, uh, that I get out of doing what I do each, each Saturday that

00:25:18.180 I can is to just be a, be a public witness for our faith. And, um, you don't know what's going to

00:25:25.720 happen really. Like Dan said, we call upon a lot of spiritual help and, um, have any other men joined

00:25:35.260 you, or is it just you two for now? Um, go ahead. Yeah, no, we, we started out basically, uh, with

00:25:42.240 just Dan and I in a small group, but now we have men in, in neighboring communities, Cheshire, Adams,

00:25:50.700 uh, towns, um, nearby who are, are nights now. And, um, they pray in their respective towns,

00:25:59.360 not big, there's not a lot, but, um, yeah, yeah. Great. I'm finding that this work, this, this

00:26:10.120 association, what we do is not going to attract wishy-washy Catholics. It's just not going to be

00:26:19.680 attractive to them. It, it's attracting solid, devout, faithful Catholics. And another benefit

00:26:27.980 for me is the fellowship that we share, you know, being together with like-minded people

00:26:34.240 that we can speak about our faith, share our faith and get inspired. I mean, I get inspired

00:26:40.120 just listening to Dan talk. He inspires me because of his warrior personality. He does really.

00:26:48.880 I get inspired when vegan Bruce sings.

00:26:51.200 So you've got basically a thing where you, you're one hour every Saturday together in

00:27:02.460 the morning. I like to tell my friends here, you know, we have a mass that's a little bit

00:27:06.340 later on Saturdays. So we'd go like eight to nine or something, then go home and help get

00:27:11.600 the kids to mass because otherwise that's a real chore. But then you guys actually suggest

00:27:17.160 doing something beyond that on the first Saturdays of the month. What's that?

00:27:22.080 Well, that's, uh, to take part in first Saturday devotion. Um, and we did it for a whole summer

00:27:31.720 two years ago at Camp Holy Cross. Um, we had a priest that came with us. We tried to make

00:27:39.040 it an all day event with families and we'd have mass, do the rosary, do the 15 minutes of

00:27:45.920 meditation, confessions. Um, and it was a lake there, you know, right now that got shut down

00:27:55.400 for us. So we're just coming to father Paul's church for Saturday of the month because right.

00:28:02.640 That's, that's again, something to bless the mother assets to do. I mean, you could argue

00:28:09.460 that we're in the trouble we're in because a lot of stuff wasn't done a hundred years ago.

00:28:13.400 Um, and we're the lucky ones that get to fight in the times we're in now because that wasn't

00:28:23.100 done. Um, so yeah, that organizing processions, there's already a huge procession here in Bishop

00:28:33.680 Burns diocese and going on for 20 years and I'll get it some of the nights together and we'll

00:28:41.620 go down and we're kind of like undercover security. So we'll be on either sides. And these are huge.

00:28:48.180 It's a huge procession. And we're just like head on a swivel watching. If there's any trouble,

00:28:54.180 you got to protect the priests and the Eucharist. Um, the Bishop was with us two years ago.

00:28:59.700 Now that's again, it's public and it's on the streets and that's an awesome thing to do. Bruce and

00:29:05.620 I, we organized Eucharistic procession for probably five, six years. Yeah. And, uh, now that he's moved

00:29:13.700 to this new church, we're going to hit the priest up to do one in October. Um, again, we, the minute we

00:29:21.880 give up the public square, which, you know, I was, I was so excited you guys out there in LA and to see

00:29:29.580 John Paul II out in front. I was just like, Oh, it was an amazing thing. It was, uh, it's certainly,

00:29:37.760 uh, it is certainly a sign of something and you're right. It is kind of a sign for you. I could see

00:29:44.080 that, um, being, being assigned to do something in the streets with John Paul II. Um, I remember that

00:29:50.940 on an organizing level, um, John Yep called me up and we were looking for a relic of John Paul II and I

00:29:59.120 tried, then I couldn't find one. He got one finally. And, uh, so that was great. Um, and, uh, it was,

00:30:06.340 um, is an incredible thing, but it is true. The prayers, the deliverance prayers that Bishop Strickland

00:30:14.180 said are by the way, very similar to the prayers that you have in here as well. Um, but they are one

00:30:20.280 said by a Bishop and it was stunningly powerful. In fact, for me, that was the most powerful thing

00:30:27.200 was actually, I was kneeling down and Bishop Strickland was praying deliverance prayers over

00:30:32.760 all of us, over America, over, over Los Angeles, over all of us there. It was, it was actually

00:30:38.960 just amazing. Just amazing. Um, so yeah, we, you had, um, um, you very much that same spirit of,

00:30:49.960 uh, your Knights of John Paul II. So just, uh, great stuff. Any, any parting thoughts for us? How,

00:30:56.800 how do people, um, get involved, get in trust with you if they want to do this in their town? Where do

00:31:01.920 they get the program from? How can they get involved? Absolutely. Okay. We have a website and it's

00:31:07.880 knightsofstjohnpaul2.org. Um, and it's pretty rough right now, but it gives you a general idea.

00:31:22.880 Um, you can email us there. We can mail you materials. Um, it was specifically designed to

00:31:31.260 be easy to start. And, uh, I understand there's a rumor that there might be a chapter starting up

00:31:37.320 in Canada. There is indeed. I'm starting one locally here. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm away a lot. So

00:31:45.500 a lot of other people who I've approached will, will probably take up the leadership of it, but it's,

00:31:50.180 um, that I, I think we're going to start with a few guys anyway, uh, and see where it goes from

00:31:55.060 there. This, uh, first Saturday, we, we do something at our parish anyway. And there's another,

00:32:00.920 there was another idea that congeals with it. So I think it, I think it'd be really good. Um,

00:32:05.520 it was funny because when I first sent out the email about it to my local friends, uh, one showed

00:32:10.860 up the next Saturday and I was like, Oh wait, um, I was, first of all, I was gone. And so, um,

00:32:16.000 but it's, it's really great. There are, um, a bunch of good guys here who really do see in this

00:32:21.740 just every, not everyone, but a lot of the guys who I approach were like, Oh, that's great. Cause

00:32:26.180 it's brilliantly simple. Um, and I think that's, that's really the key. Our Lord and our lady want

00:32:34.860 us to fight like knights, but unlike the knights of old, our enemies today are so powerful. That's

00:32:42.200 almost, it almost seems omnipotent, all powerful because they have everything. They have all the

00:32:47.420 money. They have all the people, they have all of the, um, uh, Intel, like to think that everything

00:32:55.960 you're doing is being watched, monitored and controlled as we now know, thanks to, uh, what

00:33:02.280 COVID the lockdowns and our phones have showed us. Um, and the ideas that they've come up with

00:33:08.100 of tracking people and stuff, it's like, we're, there's no fighting. Well, there is fighting.

00:33:14.340 There's fighting in the most simple ways. Um, one of my friends here is a famous Canadian author

00:33:21.000 and his name is Michael O'Brien. He was actually the one who showed up at the, uh, at the church

00:33:26.620 parking lot saying, Hey, where are you guys? Um, and, uh, he, he wrote a book called Father Elijah.

00:33:33.020 If you haven't read it yet, you should, it's incredible, but it's an apocalyptic novel. He's

00:33:38.040 Canada's most famous Catholic novelist. He's a, as faithful as you can be. He's a real hero of mine.

00:33:46.000 Anyway, he, uh, in his book, Father Elijah, the most famous book, he's written many, many books,

00:33:51.320 but, um, it's an apocalyptic story about Antichrist and about the time of Antichrist.

00:33:57.300 And you get the feeling that there's no way to fight this. And then he talks about these two,

00:34:05.140 um, people who fight and, um, Father Elijah, a priest, and then, um, a brother who really is not

00:34:15.820 smart or anything, but he goes around and they are led to fight against Antichrist,

00:34:23.100 the most powerful enemy the church will ever have. Um, because it'll be directed solely by,

00:34:28.840 you know, really by Satan. And they do so, so simply. They're asked to do simple things.

00:34:34.300 They carry them out as they're told to by our Lord. And that's it. And that's why I think this

00:34:40.200 is so brilliant. It's a very simple thing we're called to do anyway. And it's doing it in a way

00:34:46.060 like, very much like, as you said, the Christ sent out the apostles two by two. And here are these men

00:34:52.200 going out two by two, praying the most holy rosary around their towns, which, which goes back to the

00:34:57.360 church's teaching on subsidiarity, which is act where you are. It's all about local activism.

00:35:03.300 And it's not activism for activism sake. It's activism for heaven's sake with the real weapon.

00:35:08.780 Um, and as my friend said, open carry, I just love it. Uh, any final thoughts for us,

00:35:14.180 either from you, Deacon or Dan? Um, if you're, if you're going to start a chapter,

00:35:19.840 I thought about this the last week leading up to this, um, of how, cause, cause Bishop Byrne

00:35:26.900 does want us to keep track and this and that. So I don't like numbers. So because you're entrusting

00:35:35.120 your town, claiming your town, how we're going to do this going forward is like my town, Stanford,

00:35:44.720 Vermont chapter, Bruce's town, North Adams, Massachusetts. You're going to name your

00:35:50.900 town. Names are important. Um, and so that, that's how, you know, if, if you're going to

00:36:01.520 start a chapter, I mean, if you're just going to, you're Knights of Columbus and you want,

00:36:06.740 you know, 20 of these cards and we figure out how to have it on the website so you can just

00:36:11.240 print them off. We, we're, we're not that savvy. We, Bruce and I have never even done one of these

00:36:16.520 things. Um, but you can just download these and take them out and go, you know, um, closing thoughts.

00:36:28.780 I do had, I had a few things written down. A lot of the warrior women around here wanted to join us 0.99

00:36:35.480 early on and, you know, I had to dig my heels in. One of them was my sister and she is a Joan of

00:36:43.680 art. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. The men, we need our time. But if you can pray one hail Mary

00:36:51.060 a day for the Knights, you'd be doing us a great service. So to the women out there that happen to 1.00

00:36:57.120 watch this, you know, a hail Mary a day, I'm asking for, for the Knights of JP too. Um, to the priests

00:37:06.340 who see this, get out with your men. You'd be surprised how much us knuckleheads can encourage you

00:37:17.420 and give you support. Um, and, and priests need that men time too. And if you're a bishop out there,

00:37:25.360 my goodness, invite all the men in the diocese once a month to come down the cathedral and walk

00:37:30.720 the streets of your city. Um, I guess that that's it for me. What? Yeah. I just think that, um,

00:37:41.560 we were, Dan and I were talking earlier. This is really the found we're laying a foundation

00:37:45.780 and, um, part of what we have to do to become a public association is to have, uh, a bylaws or a

00:37:55.460 rules kind of thing, a constitution. And so we, we have put that together and again, we've submitted

00:38:01.220 it to the bishop and, um, something like this can only grow. Uh, the foundation is what we do on

00:38:10.820 Saturday morning, but, um, I envision and I hope, and I pray that it can become more, um, something

00:38:19.260 more where we can do more together as Knights, pray more together as Knights, learn more about our faith

00:38:25.940 as Knights, uh, together and grow spiritually for us as well as to, to call upon our spiritual warriors to

00:38:35.660 help us. But I, I, I envision this as a way for us to grow in our faith and our spiritual life as well

00:38:43.540 going forward. Beautiful. Well, Deacon Bruce and Dan, it's so good being with you. Thank you for doing

00:38:52.760 this. Uh, and I'm, I'm happy to be part of a Canadian, your first Canadian chapter, perhaps.

00:38:57.940 God bless you both. Thank you. Thank you so much, John Henry. Thank you. And God bless all of you.

00:39:06.500 And we'll see you next time.

The John-Henry Westen Show - October 26, 2023

New Knights Of St. John Paul II Seek To Reclaim World For Christ

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