The John-Henry Westen Show - December 28, 2022


Pope Francis EXPOSED - Part 1： Pachamama Scandal Revisited & Pope Francis' Support of Communism


Summary

It s been a few years since the Pachamama idolatry, but do you really remember what happened? It s hard not only to remember the gravity of what happened, but also the details and just how severe it really was.


Transcript

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00:02:00.040 Do you remember the Pachamama idolatry?
00:02:05.180 No, but do you really remember what happened?
00:02:08.160 This is the problem.
00:02:09.000 It's been a few years now since that happened,
00:02:10.880 and many of us have forgotten the details,
00:02:14.040 the horrific details of what happened.
00:02:16.220 We're going to take a look at that today,
00:02:17.440 but also at Pope Francis' promotion of communism.
00:02:21.580 This is the John Hennig-Weston Show.
00:02:23.220 Stay tuned.
00:02:23.680 Let's begin.
00:02:53.540 You know, it is very hard not only to remember the gravity of what happened with the Pachamama idolatry,
00:03:06.540 but also to remember the details and just how severe it really was.
00:03:11.120 At LifeSite, it's our goal to provide you with the facts,
00:03:14.560 what actually happened,
00:03:16.140 and to show them to you as much as possible.
00:03:18.540 When this show started three years ago,
00:03:20.960 it was started specifically to provide the evidence visually so you could see what happened.
00:03:26.260 I wanted you to take a look, first of all,
00:03:28.540 at this show about the Pachamama idolatry,
00:03:31.440 where we go into detail about what happened and show you it as it happened.
00:03:35.220 Take a look.
00:03:35.640 The eve of the Amazon Synod was marked by the round table,
00:03:42.420 which I joined several popular, outspoken defenders of the Catholic faith
00:03:46.560 in calling out Pope Francis for the confusion he's let loose in the Church.
00:03:50.900 While that was happening,
00:03:53.840 inside the Vatican Gardens was this strange and alarming scene
00:03:58.460 with what seemed like a pagan fertility ritual complete with idol worship,
00:04:03.820 all in the presence of Pope Francis.
00:04:05.980 A priestess of some sort was leading the ritual with a dance,
00:04:11.060 and participants, including a Franciscan friar,
00:04:13.900 knelt in a circle around the blanket and sort of prostrated themselves,
00:04:19.080 bowing to the ground with their foreheads before two statues of pregnant naked women.
00:04:25.560 The priestess then shook a maraca in apparent blessing over the whole group,
00:04:31.220 including going up to the Pope,
00:04:33.380 and he was there looking on with a bunch of cardinals
00:04:37.020 as this prostration before the nude women's statues took place.
00:04:43.020 As an aside, here are these left-wing Catholics
00:04:47.340 not only kneeling but prostrating themselves with their foreheads to the ground.
00:04:52.000 I find it so weird that the left-leaning prelates in the Church
00:04:56.140 are the very ones who disdain kneeling for Holy Communion,
00:05:00.120 and sometimes even refusing to administer Holy Communion
00:05:03.660 to those of us who kneel for Holy Communion.
00:05:06.920 That is disgusting.
00:05:08.920 But remember, too, that the account from the Bible in the book of Daniel
00:05:13.760 about King Nebuchadnezzar,
00:05:15.760 who set up a golden idol and commanded all the people
00:05:18.760 to bow down before it or else be thrown into a fiery furnace.
00:05:22.760 The Jewish young people, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
00:05:27.660 refused, even under the pain of such a horrible death.
00:05:31.880 And the outraged king, if you recall,
00:05:34.760 heated the furnace to seven times the normal heat
00:05:37.720 and had them bound and thrown into the furnace.
00:05:41.260 If you recall the story, they were, of course, miraculously rescued.
00:05:44.940 That was thanks, of course, their fidelity to God.
00:05:47.420 And the king even converted.
00:05:48.900 He had actually seen an angel in there with them.
00:05:52.540 And so to see this idol worship happening in the presence of the Pope,
00:05:58.280 in the hallowed ground of the Vatican,
00:06:00.540 where St. Peter himself died and was buried,
00:06:03.260 is a scandal beyond imagining.
00:06:13.540 LifeSite's Rome correspondent Diane Montagna
00:06:16.080 spoke with an indigenous leader from the Amazon on Saturday,
00:06:20.360 who, after viewing this ceremony on video,
00:06:23.340 called it 100% pagan.
00:06:26.040 However, some suggested that perhaps these wooden statues
00:06:29.980 of naked, seemingly pregnant women
00:06:32.380 were not pagan idols,
00:06:34.140 but rather depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Elizabeth.
00:06:37.620 Well, the official story,
00:06:39.540 at least coming from the bishop the Vatican had,
00:06:42.500 speaking on the synod at the first press conference on the synod,
00:06:46.780 said, well, he didn't know.
00:06:49.640 Let's listen to him now.
00:06:51.180 It's an image that was shown also on other occasions,
00:06:54.200 and I wouldn't know how to interpret it.
00:06:55.460 Well, we all have our own interpretation,
00:06:57.300 the Virgin Mary, the Mother Earth.
00:06:58.820 That's probably those who used this symbol
00:07:04.440 demonstrated wishes to refer to fertility,
00:07:09.140 to women, to life,
00:07:11.760 the life present in this,
00:07:14.120 among these Amazonian people.
00:07:16.200 That was the sentiment of
00:07:17.980 Bishop David Martinez de Guerre Guinea,
00:07:21.460 a Dominican.
00:07:22.800 And when he mentioned Mother Earth,
00:07:24.920 you should know that that's what he was referring to
00:07:28.080 is exactly a pagan goddess.
00:07:30.660 Mother Earth is a translation of the Inca Pacamama,
00:07:34.380 which is, as you can read in Wikipedia,
00:07:37.760 a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes.
00:07:41.340 She's also known as the Earth Mother.
00:07:43.800 And in Inca mythology,
00:07:45.440 Pacamama is a fertility goddess
00:07:47.420 who presides over planting and harvesting,
00:07:51.080 embodies the mountains and causes earthquakes.
00:07:53.300 She's also an ever-present and independent deity
00:07:56.740 who has her own self-sufficient
00:07:58.920 and creative power to sustain life on Earth.
00:08:01.960 That's what we read from Wikipedia.
00:08:04.360 But let me say,
00:08:05.320 even if you don't know exactly,
00:08:08.060 like the bishop said,
00:08:09.280 if you don't know exactly what it is,
00:08:11.240 if it's either supposed to be Mother Earth
00:08:12.900 or the Virgin Mary,
00:08:14.440 and Mother Earth being some kind of pagan idol,
00:08:17.640 a false god,
00:08:19.300 well, maybe you should consider
00:08:21.100 not prostrating yourselves
00:08:22.880 in the Vatican Gardens in front of the Pope?
00:08:26.060 All throughout the Old Testament
00:08:28.100 are warnings against bowing down to false idols.
00:08:32.060 Remember, too,
00:08:32.860 that it was one of the temptations
00:08:34.540 presented to Christ by the devil
00:08:36.460 after his 40-day fast.
00:08:39.840 If this was supposed to be a depiction
00:08:42.260 of the Virgin Mary,
00:08:43.720 did someone not think twice
00:08:45.400 about enraging our Lord
00:08:47.140 by allowing such an unworthy depiction
00:08:49.360 of his Holy Mother in the Vatican?
00:08:52.360 The standards of modesty
00:08:54.200 in the Catholic Church are universal
00:08:56.000 and do not just apply to the West.
00:08:59.880 Public nudity is not a Christian practice,
00:09:02.240 and beyond it being spiritually unhealthy,
00:09:05.100 it leaves people vulnerable
00:09:06.500 and prone to sickness as well.
00:09:09.100 The fact that they want
00:09:10.400 these kinds of things
00:09:11.680 for the indigenous people
00:09:13.140 or suggest them
00:09:14.080 is really a show of non-concern
00:09:18.000 or some kind of politically correct sickness
00:09:21.880 that allows this.
00:09:24.340 It's time to evangelize
00:09:26.340 with the truth of Christ boldly,
00:09:28.420 and if that means sometimes
00:09:29.880 saying that a cultural practice
00:09:31.600 is unhealthy,
00:09:33.180 well then, so be it.
00:09:34.980 What kind of punishment from the Lord
00:09:37.480 is the Vatican bringing down upon itself?
00:09:40.460 Well, there's a possible answer
00:09:42.180 and prophecy from the book of Exodus,
00:09:44.900 chapter 20,
00:09:46.320 and I'll quote it for you.
00:09:48.320 I am the Lord your God,
00:09:49.880 who brought you up
00:09:51.040 out of the land of Egypt,
00:09:52.100 out of the house of bondage.
00:09:53.640 You shall have no other gods before me.
00:09:55.880 You shall not make for yourself
00:09:57.280 a graven image
00:09:58.200 or any likeness of anything
00:09:59.820 that's in heaven above
00:10:00.840 or that's in the earth beneath
00:10:02.560 or that's in the water under the earth.
00:10:04.800 You shall not bow down to them
00:10:07.840 or serve them,
00:10:09.240 for I, the Lord your God,
00:10:10.580 am a jealous God
00:10:11.420 visiting iniquity of the fathers
00:10:13.860 upon the children
00:10:15.000 to the third and fourth generation
00:10:17.120 of those who hate me,
00:10:19.720 but showing steadfast love
00:10:21.600 to the thousands of those
00:10:23.740 who love me and keep my commandments.
00:10:26.540 Is this the abomination of desolation
00:10:28.820 set up in the holy place
00:10:30.160 as referred to by Christ
00:10:31.520 in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 24
00:10:33.900 as a sign of the end times?
00:10:36.660 Well, if it was indeed
00:10:39.060 a pagan idol set up for worship
00:10:41.000 in the Vatican,
00:10:42.420 then it sure does seem
00:10:43.740 to be getting close.
00:10:46.400 Just a quick note before we return.
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00:11:08.880 And now, back to the video.
00:11:12.680 I know, when you remember
00:11:15.000 how disturbing it was
00:11:16.200 when you look at all those facts
00:11:18.220 laid out before you,
00:11:19.460 it is quite unbelievable.
00:11:21.820 But also unbelievable
00:11:23.320 have been many other statements
00:11:24.940 Pope Francis has made.
00:11:26.500 Check this out.
00:11:27.260 Up until the 1960s,
00:11:29.820 the Church had a vehement
00:11:31.660 condemnation against communism.
00:11:34.360 We all know,
00:11:35.420 or many of us know,
00:11:36.780 that during the Second Vatican Council,
00:11:39.220 there was also a sound
00:11:41.580 condemnation of communism,
00:11:43.560 but it was actually removed
00:11:45.580 before the Council.
00:11:47.500 And so that's a great, great shame.
00:11:49.880 But this is something different
00:11:52.560 with Pope Francis.
00:11:53.320 It's praise for communism.
00:11:56.880 Have a look.
00:11:59.880 What's up with Pope Francis
00:12:01.400 and communism?
00:12:03.120 Remembering that it's out
00:12:03.960 of a loving concern
00:12:04.820 for Pope Francis
00:12:05.520 that we expose the truth,
00:12:07.100 let's begin with a short prayer.
00:12:08.940 In the name of the Father,
00:12:10.160 and of the Son,
00:12:11.180 and of the Holy Spirit.
00:12:12.720 Amen.
00:12:14.400 Everybody my age and older
00:12:15.800 will remember Pope St. John Paul II's
00:12:18.060 famous visit to Nicaragua
00:12:19.720 in 1983,
00:12:20.960 where he publicly chastised
00:12:23.040 that communist priest,
00:12:24.240 Ernesto Cardinal,
00:12:25.460 who was into liberation theology
00:12:27.080 and involved in
00:12:28.000 the revolutionary Sandinista government,
00:12:30.100 which was restricting the Church.
00:12:32.280 Well, in February this year,
00:12:33.900 without any sign of public repentance
00:12:35.780 on the part of Ernesto Cardinal,
00:12:37.960 Pope Francis lifted
00:12:38.980 a 1984 canonical sanction
00:12:40.840 imposed by Pope St. John Paul.
00:12:42.620 As recently as 2015,
00:12:45.840 Cardinal praised Pope Francis
00:12:47.340 while condemning
00:12:48.220 both Popes Benedict
00:12:49.140 and John Paul II.
00:12:50.720 In an interview
00:12:51.440 with the newspaper El Pai,
00:12:52.900 he said,
00:12:53.380 and I quote,
00:12:54.280 the two popes prior to Francis
00:12:55.780 were disastrous popes
00:12:57.220 who made the Church
00:12:58.140 retreat by centuries,
00:13:00.140 end quote.
00:13:01.640 Here are photographs
00:13:02.920 of the bishop
00:13:03.600 who visited Cardinal
00:13:04.600 in hospital
00:13:05.280 and the copy
00:13:06.460 of the papal nuncio
00:13:07.680 announcing the lifting
00:13:09.160 of sanctions against Cardinal.
00:13:11.020 It reads in part,
00:13:12.060 and I quote,
00:13:12.920 the Holy Father
00:13:13.620 has benevolently granted
00:13:15.240 absolution of all
00:13:16.500 canonical censures
00:13:17.540 imposed on the Reverend
00:13:18.880 Father Ernesto Cardinal,
00:13:21.460 end quote.
00:13:22.920 It's a dangerous thing
00:13:24.520 for the soul of Cardinal
00:13:25.880 whose health is failing
00:13:27.440 at 94 years of age
00:13:28.920 since he's now receiving
00:13:30.460 a possibly false sense of security
00:13:32.840 about being reconciled
00:13:34.220 with the Church
00:13:34.760 without any sign of repentance.
00:13:37.360 And if, God willing,
00:13:39.180 he's repented privately,
00:13:40.940 it's a danger for the Church,
00:13:42.160 since the pope's actions
00:13:43.860 are causing grave confusion.
00:13:47.220 Pope Francis' record
00:13:48.660 of confusion around communism
00:13:50.140 is much more elaborate
00:13:51.360 than with Cardinal alone.
00:13:54.000 Headlines in newspapers
00:13:55.180 around the world
00:13:56.020 have reported the pope's
00:13:57.120 controversial statements
00:13:58.100 about communism.
00:13:59.580 In July 2014,
00:14:01.040 the pope said,
00:14:01.680 and I quote,
00:14:02.120 communists are closet Christians.
00:14:04.320 In October 2014,
00:14:05.760 he said,
00:14:06.460 quote,
00:14:06.740 there are those who think
00:14:07.820 that the pope
00:14:08.440 is a communist.
00:14:10.160 In a November 2016 interview
00:14:12.260 with La Repubblica,
00:14:13.520 a Marxist-leaning newspaper
00:14:14.820 in Italy,
00:14:15.340 the pope said,
00:14:16.300 communists think like Christians.
00:14:19.480 In a book-length interview
00:14:21.120 called Politics and Society,
00:14:23.340 Pope Francis speaks
00:14:24.180 with Dominique Walton.
00:14:25.680 Pope Francis revealed
00:14:26.680 that a communist woman
00:14:27.820 had a great impact
00:14:29.060 on his political thinking.
00:14:31.040 And I quote,
00:14:31.440 she taught me to think
00:14:33.140 about political reality,
00:14:35.000 said the pope,
00:14:35.580 of Esther Balestrino de Carrega.
00:14:38.160 I owe so much
00:14:39.360 to this woman,
00:14:40.320 end quote.
00:14:41.600 Francis brought up Balestrino
00:14:43.360 when author Dominique Walton
00:14:45.000 asked him about women
00:14:46.340 who were a major influence
00:14:47.900 in his life.
00:14:48.800 She was a communist,
00:14:50.540 the pope said,
00:14:51.360 adding that she gave me books,
00:14:53.200 all communist,
00:14:54.460 end quote.
00:14:55.400 But in what was likely
00:14:56.580 the most visually disturbing element
00:14:58.720 of the pope-created confusion
00:15:00.920 around communism
00:15:01.840 was his acceptance
00:15:03.400 of a hammer-and-sickle crucifix
00:15:05.500 from Bolivian president
00:15:07.180 Evo Morales.
00:15:08.800 The sight caused great pain
00:15:10.920 to many Catholics
00:15:11.720 in Latin America
00:15:12.480 who have suffered
00:15:13.240 under communist rule.
00:15:15.220 While some suggested
00:15:16.480 that the pope disdained
00:15:17.620 the communist crucifix,
00:15:19.000 in an interview
00:15:19.680 on their way home,
00:15:21.180 the pope said
00:15:21.660 he was not offended by it.
00:15:23.440 The hammer-and-sickle,
00:15:24.380 of course,
00:15:25.200 emblem was born
00:15:26.340 in the brutal Russian Revolution.
00:15:29.400 To comprehend the gravity
00:15:30.720 of the confusion
00:15:31.760 generated by this flirtation
00:15:33.220 with communism,
00:15:34.320 we must appreciate
00:15:35.240 the Church's teaching
00:15:36.140 against communism.
00:15:38.200 Our Lady of Fatima
00:15:39.160 warned in 1917
00:15:40.240 that Russia would spread
00:15:41.640 its errors
00:15:42.180 throughout the world.
00:15:43.700 The Fatima visionary
00:15:44.720 Sister Lucia herself
00:15:45.920 called communism,
00:15:46.900 and I quote,
00:15:47.680 the greatest heresy
00:15:49.060 to appear
00:15:49.640 at any time
00:15:50.500 in the world,
00:15:51.140 end quote,
00:15:51.800 which was,
00:15:52.360 she said,
00:15:53.000 carrying its errors
00:15:53.940 to the ends
00:15:54.640 of the earth.
00:15:55.960 The 95 million
00:15:57.980 death toll
00:15:58.640 from communist regimes
00:15:59.940 outstrips
00:16:00.640 even the horrific
00:16:01.500 30 million
00:16:02.260 death toll
00:16:02.860 from the Nazis.
00:16:04.620 Pius IX,
00:16:05.520 in 1846,
00:16:06.500 spoke of,
00:16:07.240 quote,
00:16:07.700 that infamous doctrine
00:16:09.040 of so-called communism,
00:16:10.500 which is absolutely
00:16:11.400 contrary
00:16:12.040 to the natural law itself,
00:16:13.460 and if once adopted,
00:16:14.800 would utterly destroy
00:16:15.980 the rights,
00:16:16.860 property,
00:16:17.620 and possessions
00:16:18.080 of all men,
00:16:18.860 and even society itself,
00:16:20.500 end quote.
00:16:21.920 Pope Leo XIII,
00:16:23.100 in his encyclical,
00:16:24.160 quote,
00:16:24.400 Divini Redemptoris,
00:16:26.500 defined communism
00:16:27.420 as,
00:16:27.840 quote,
00:16:28.260 the fatal plague
00:16:29.300 which insinuates itself
00:16:30.620 into the very marrow
00:16:31.780 of human society
00:16:32.840 only to bring about
00:16:33.920 its ruin,
00:16:34.700 end quote.
00:16:36.040 Pope Pius XI,
00:16:37.560 in his encyclical,
00:16:38.740 Divini Redemptoris,
00:16:40.780 on atheistic communism,
00:16:42.720 calls it a satanic scourge,
00:16:44.940 which, quote,
00:16:45.540 conceals in itself
00:16:46.680 a false messianic idea.
00:16:48.720 And Pope Pius'
00:16:49.760 instruction on communism
00:16:51.040 shows how far
00:16:52.200 our own nations
00:16:53.120 have come in adopting
00:16:54.500 communism today
00:16:55.500 without even knowing it.
00:16:57.200 He said these things about it.
00:16:59.180 Communists hold
00:17:00.060 the principle
00:17:00.640 of absolute equality
00:17:01.820 rejecting hierarchy
00:17:02.940 and divinely constituted authority,
00:17:05.200 including the authority
00:17:06.260 of parents.
00:17:07.500 He said such a doctrine
00:17:08.840 logically makes
00:17:09.960 of marriage
00:17:10.700 in the family
00:17:11.320 a purely artificial
00:17:12.440 and civil institution,
00:17:13.940 the notion
00:17:14.440 of indissoluble marriage tie,
00:17:16.800 is scouted.
00:17:18.100 He said communism
00:17:19.280 is particularly characterized
00:17:21.140 by the rejection
00:17:22.160 of any link
00:17:22.940 that binds woman
00:17:23.720 to the family
00:17:24.340 and the home,
00:17:25.120 and her emancipation
00:17:26.640 is proclaimed
00:17:27.540 as a basic principle.
00:17:29.280 She is withdrawn
00:17:29.940 from the family
00:17:30.760 and the care
00:17:31.480 of her children
00:17:32.060 to be thrust instead
00:17:33.580 into public life
00:17:34.920 and collective production
00:17:36.040 under the same conditions
00:17:37.260 as man.
00:17:38.220 And he said finally,
00:17:39.840 the right of education
00:17:41.260 is denied to parents
00:17:42.620 for it is conceived
00:17:43.500 as the exclusive prerogative
00:17:44.940 of the community,
00:17:46.320 in whose name
00:17:46.980 and by whose mandate
00:17:48.060 alone parents
00:17:49.120 may exercise this right.
00:17:51.560 He said communism
00:17:52.740 is by its nature
00:17:54.220 anti-religious.
00:17:55.560 It considers religion
00:17:56.500 as the opiate
00:17:57.540 of the people
00:17:58.080 because the principles
00:17:59.160 of religion
00:17:59.780 which speak of life
00:18:00.960 beyond the grave
00:18:01.720 dissuade the proletariat
00:18:03.500 from the dream
00:18:04.960 of a Soviet paradise
00:18:06.320 which is of this world.
00:18:08.560 You see,
00:18:09.240 from the church's own
00:18:10.560 teachings against communism,
00:18:12.180 how far our own societies
00:18:13.760 have gone down
00:18:14.580 the communist path.
00:18:16.000 To close out this video,
00:18:17.540 we'll turn to Cuba.
00:18:19.020 In 2015
00:18:19.660 and again in 2016,
00:18:21.180 Pope Francis visited Cuba,
00:18:23.180 holding in 2015
00:18:24.460 a meeting with Fidel Castro.
00:18:27.680 After a meeting,
00:18:28.840 Pope Francis had privately
00:18:30.040 in the Vatican
00:18:30.540 in July 2015
00:18:31.580 with Fidel Castro's brother,
00:18:33.360 current dictator,
00:18:34.300 Raul Castro.
00:18:36.060 Raul came out of the meeting
00:18:37.460 saying famously,
00:18:38.440 if the Pope continues
00:18:39.320 talking like this,
00:18:40.480 I may return to the church
00:18:41.680 and start praying again.
00:18:43.820 I'm not joking,
00:18:44.780 he added,
00:18:45.120 as reporters laughed.
00:18:46.460 What was Castro thrilled about
00:18:48.340 with what Pope Francis was saying?
00:18:51.020 Well,
00:18:51.620 we might get a hint
00:18:52.420 from another communist atheist
00:18:53.920 who has spent much time
00:18:55.420 with Pope
00:18:55.800 and was very much enamored by him.
00:18:58.360 Eugenio Scalfari,
00:19:00.040 who is the editor
00:19:01.360 or was the editor
00:19:02.300 of La Repubblica
00:19:03.400 in Italy
00:19:04.200 to whom Francis
00:19:04.920 has given
00:19:05.440 many exclusive interviews,
00:19:07.600 relates that he's delighted
00:19:08.820 with Pope Francis
00:19:09.600 since he sees him
00:19:10.560 as a revolutionary.
00:19:12.440 Let's quickly review
00:19:13.520 some of the facts
00:19:14.320 about the communist revolution
00:19:15.780 in Cuba.
00:19:16.960 Dr. Paul Kengor,
00:19:17.980 a professor of political science
00:19:19.300 at Grove City College,
00:19:20.620 wrote in the National Catholic Register
00:19:22.440 these words.
00:19:24.340 Being a devoted communist,
00:19:25.980 Fidel Castro
00:19:26.680 was possessed
00:19:27.440 with a hatred of religion.
00:19:29.360 In Cuba,
00:19:30.020 like everywhere else,
00:19:31.160 communists launched
00:19:32.020 their war on faith.
00:19:33.840 From country to country,
00:19:35.140 no ideology
00:19:36.000 has so consistently
00:19:37.180 and viciously
00:19:38.140 attacked Christianity
00:19:39.000 like communism.
00:19:39.900 starting with the Bolsheviks
00:19:42.000 in 1917
00:19:42.820 and resounding
00:19:44.180 throughout the century ahead.
00:19:45.840 As Mikhail Gorbachev put it,
00:19:47.640 communists launched
00:19:48.700 a systematic war
00:19:50.220 on religion.
00:19:51.960 Dr. Kengor continued,
00:19:54.160 Cuba was no exception.
00:19:55.960 From the moment
00:19:56.480 that Castro took hold
00:19:57.740 in January 1959,
00:19:59.360 churches were in trouble.
00:20:00.860 The regime
00:20:01.660 quickly launched
00:20:02.960 a campaign
00:20:03.740 against the faithful,
00:20:05.580 describing Catholics
00:20:06.540 as social scum.
00:20:07.740 By the late 1960s,
00:20:10.400 Christmas was banned
00:20:11.460 on the island.
00:20:12.860 Churches were shut down,
00:20:14.040 priests and their
00:20:14.680 parishioners were silenced,
00:20:16.380 arrested or placed
00:20:17.320 under surveillance
00:20:18.240 with every word
00:20:19.680 of their service
00:20:20.640 or homily
00:20:21.240 monitored by government
00:20:22.320 church watchers
00:20:23.160 infiltrating the pews.
00:20:25.260 Any criticism,
00:20:26.600 especially the Marxist regime,
00:20:28.060 was very dangerous.
00:20:29.540 One could not be a member
00:20:30.920 of the Communist Party
00:20:31.900 and Cuba,
00:20:33.220 the only legally permitted,
00:20:35.840 including for any
00:20:36.800 government jobs
00:20:37.620 without professing
00:20:38.880 a belief in atheism.
00:20:40.960 To appreciate the gravity
00:20:42.440 of the assault by Castro,
00:20:44.660 we need to first appreciate
00:20:45.840 the historical roots
00:20:47.040 of the faith
00:20:47.960 in this country
00:20:49.000 that was once
00:20:49.760 more than 90%
00:20:50.820 Roman Catholic.
00:20:51.980 People were proud of it.
00:20:53.600 They practiced the faith
00:20:54.640 naturally and vigorously.
00:20:56.540 In fact,
00:20:57.500 the island was once
00:20:58.480 a pilgrimage center.
00:21:00.560 Those were the words
00:21:01.520 of Dr. Paul Kengor
00:21:02.960 describing Cuba
00:21:04.520 and the assault
00:21:05.660 on faith
00:21:06.160 by the communist
00:21:06.880 government there.
00:21:08.540 And while Popes
00:21:09.280 John Paul II
00:21:09.920 and Benedict
00:21:10.520 also visited Cuba,
00:21:12.180 there was never a hint
00:21:13.340 of praising the revolution.
00:21:15.960 At the Vatican
00:21:16.640 under Pope Francis,
00:21:17.660 however,
00:21:18.380 there was more
00:21:18.940 than just a hint.
00:21:20.200 The official website
00:21:21.320 of Vatican News
00:21:22.080 published on January 1st,
00:21:23.420 2019,
00:21:25.060 an article recognizing
00:21:26.920 the 60th anniversary
00:21:28.240 of the Cuban revolution.
00:21:30.240 The Vatican News article
00:21:32.920 in Spanish
00:21:33.540 was titled
00:21:34.160 Cuba Celebrates
00:21:35.560 60th Year
00:21:36.960 of the Revolution.
00:21:38.160 It read,
00:21:38.600 and I quote,
00:21:39.380 The historic anniversary
00:21:40.740 was celebrated
00:21:41.740 with an official ceremony
00:21:43.540 in which the former
00:21:44.320 chief of state
00:21:45.140 and communist party
00:21:46.040 leader Raul Castro
00:21:47.180 participated
00:21:47.860 in addition to
00:21:49.200 current president
00:21:50.080 Miguel Diaz-Canel.
00:21:52.940 The article was penned
00:21:54.360 by Maria Cecilia Mutual.
00:21:56.600 On January 2nd,
00:21:59.240 the Cuban National Circus
00:22:00.540 was performing
00:22:01.300 for Pope Francis
00:22:02.240 at the Vatican,
00:22:03.380 where jugglers,
00:22:04.480 contortionists,
00:22:05.400 and clowns performed.
00:22:06.920 Speaking in Italian,
00:22:08.020 Pope Francis said
00:22:08.780 on January 2nd,
00:22:10.400 I want to say a hello
00:22:11.540 and thank you
00:22:12.520 to the artists
00:22:13.200 from the Cuban circus.
00:22:14.720 The following day,
00:22:16.080 the Vatican News article
00:22:17.120 disappeared
00:22:17.640 from the Vatican website
00:22:19.200 after Cuban media
00:22:20.920 began to comment
00:22:21.880 on its peculiarity.
00:22:23.880 Pan Am Post,
00:22:24.720 for example,
00:22:25.580 said that
00:22:26.140 the revolution
00:22:26.940 compelled
00:22:27.460 at least one-sixth
00:22:28.600 of Cuba's people
00:22:29.600 to escape the island
00:22:30.780 at the risk
00:22:31.580 of their lives.
00:22:33.060 Cubanet,
00:22:33.920 observed of the Vatican's report,
00:22:36.420 quote,
00:22:36.940 The text does not mention
00:22:38.020 the enrichment
00:22:38.600 of the Castro leadership
00:22:40.080 at the expense
00:22:40.920 of the Cuban people
00:22:41.700 and neglects to mention,
00:22:43.540 curiously,
00:22:44.200 the regime's
00:22:44.780 murderous persecution
00:22:45.960 of Catholics,
00:22:47.220 end quote.
00:22:48.560 Following the revolution
00:22:49.860 in 1959,
00:22:51.140 scores of Catholic activists
00:22:52.660 were tortured
00:22:53.300 and lost their lives
00:22:54.700 in Cuban prisons.
00:22:56.140 Some cried out,
00:22:57.940 as Catholics did
00:22:58.800 in Mexico,
00:22:59.960 Long live Christ the King
00:23:01.280 before firing squads
00:23:03.120 killed them.
00:23:04.540 In addition,
00:23:05.300 Catholic seminaries
00:23:06.100 and other religious institutions
00:23:07.300 were seized
00:23:07.880 by the Marxist government.
00:23:10.220 In all of this show
00:23:11.880 regarding communism,
00:23:13.000 you'll notice
00:23:13.400 I haven't yet mentioned
00:23:14.880 the scandalous Vatican deal
00:23:17.040 with the communist
00:23:17.720 Chinese government.
00:23:19.060 And that's because
00:23:20.180 it's so big,
00:23:21.440 it's another story.
00:23:22.560 Remembering our motto,
00:23:25.420 Caritas in Veritate,
00:23:26.480 the truth in love,
00:23:27.180 let us pray together
00:23:28.240 for Pope Francis
00:23:29.100 to end the confusion
00:23:30.480 he has sown.
00:23:32.140 Let us be confident
00:23:33.280 in Christ
00:23:33.940 and in his control
00:23:35.600 over his Church,
00:23:37.280 recognizing that
00:23:38.180 in allowing us
00:23:39.080 to suffer through
00:23:39.900 this agony of faith,
00:23:41.660 he permits his body,
00:23:42.980 the Church,
00:23:43.340 to suffer with him
00:23:44.220 our head.
00:23:45.840 It's a joy,
00:23:46.880 it's an honor
00:23:47.500 and privilege
00:23:48.240 to be a Catholic,
00:23:49.320 to love this one
00:23:50.880 true faith
00:23:51.600 and to strive
00:23:52.640 to give our lives to it.
00:23:57.120 And that is why
00:23:58.280 at LifeSite News
00:23:59.600 we pray for the conversion
00:24:01.120 of Pope Francis.
00:24:03.420 For LifeSite News,
00:24:04.460 this is John Henry Weston.
00:24:05.900 And may God bless you.
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