The John-Henry Westen Show - December 28, 2022


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


Episode Stats


Length

25 minutes

Words per minute

149.10033

Word count

3,762

Sentence count

228

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

11

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

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

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, I have a time-sensitive announcement to share with you.
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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. 0.98
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. 1.00
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. 0.89
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 0.99
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. 1.00
00:07:43.800 And in Inca mythology,
00:07:45.440 Pacamama is a fertility goddess 0.73
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 0.52
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.
00:10:48.520 If you would like to stay up to date
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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. 0.76
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. 0.90
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 0.95
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 0.99
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 0.99
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 0.77
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 0.99
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 0.98
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 0.99
00:19:39.000 like communism.
00:19:39.900 starting with the Bolsheviks 0.91
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 1.00
00:20:06.540 as social scum. 1.00
00:20:07.740 By the late 1960s, 0.99
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. 0.66
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 1.00
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. 0.97
00:23:04.540 In addition, 0.98
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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00:24:44.560 Amen.
00:24:45.620 Drowson.
00:24:49.380 icher Camara
00:24:49.820 Amen.
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