In order to be a good Catholic, we have to be like rabbits. Pope Francis once said that Catholics should not have large families because they are "like rabbits." This was said during a Q&A session on the Pope's return from his flight from Rome on January 19th, 2015.
00:06:32.600He had really a mental contortion, suggesting that the Pope was just saying that having a large number of children by c-sections is irresponsible, as he said,
00:06:40.600but somehow wasn't suggesting that having a large number of children itself was irresponsible.
00:06:45.600But as you saw yourself, that explanation does not fit the context nor the content of the Pope's remarks.
00:06:52.600But more than that, it's contradicted by the witness of the new push to have fewer children coming from the Vatican under Pope Francis.
00:07:00.600It was at a 2017 Vatican conference where a Vatican bishop, who's a close advisor to the Pope, called for education for women so they'd have one or two children rather than seven or more.
00:07:15.600It was Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sarondo, who hails from Pope Francis' homeland of Argentina.
00:07:21.600And he's the chancellor, actually, of the two academies, Vatican academies, the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy for Sciences.
00:07:32.600And I know it sounds hard to believe that he said this, but I want you to listen to it yourself because he's speaking at the Vatican in English, albeit broken English.
00:07:42.600The idea of the church that we need education because it's not only the ends of the marriage is not only to have children, but to educate the children and also the person to have children, the woman and the man.
00:08:05.600And many, many priests say to me that the great solution for the question of procreation is the education of the woman.
00:08:18.600Because when we have education, we don't have children. We don't have seven children. Maybe we have one children, two children, no more.
00:08:26.600That's unbelievable coming from a Vatican bishop. And this is the head of two Vatican academies.
00:08:44.600Bishop Sarondo has invited many other speakers to the Vatican who advocate having fewer children.
00:08:50.600Watch Professor Wan Tse-li, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, speaking at the 2017 Vatican Conference, rejoicing over the massive decline in the numbers of elementary school children due to population decline over 20 years.
00:09:05.600You see, if you just follow the religious belief or philosophical thinking, you said the population were to go down. In Taiwan, it's amazing. When I went back in 1994, 400,000 students entered elementary school. This year, it's only 200,000. We're done by a factor, too.
00:09:32.600And if you think that's bad, it just gets worse.
00:09:35.600The Vatican has brought in a laundry list of population control activists, many of whom include abortion as an appropriate means of population control.
00:09:43.600The Vatican has invited population control advocate Jeffrey Sachs to the Vatican to speak on numerous occasions.
00:09:50.600He called legalizing abortion a cost-effective way to eliminate unwanted children when contraception fails.
00:09:57.600That was in his 2008 book Commonwealth Economics for a crowded planet.
00:10:02.600The Vatican invited John Bongartz, the vice president of the pro-abortion population control, pushing Population Council to speak at their biological extinction conference.
00:10:11.600The Vatican even invited the likes of California Governor Jerry Brown, one of the most pro-abortion governors in the United States, to speak.
00:10:19.600Brown, in a 2010 campaign speech, said he'd been, and I quote, an uncompromising champion of a woman's right to choose and would continue to do so if elected governor, end quote.
00:10:33.600I could go on and on with scandalous speakers invited to the Vatican, such as pro-abortion UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Professor Scott Peters, a member of the US House of Representatives, who actually in 2013 co-sponsored one of the most pro-abortion bills in US history, eliminating all limitations on abortion.
00:10:51.600There was also Professor Lise Van Susteren, who in her 2005 run for the US Senate voiced staunch support for abortion and homosexual marriage.
00:11:00.600There was also California State Senator Kevin DeLeon, who revels in his 100% pro-abortion voting record from Planned Parenthood.
00:11:09.600But even more outrageous than all of them was the invite to speak for the so-called Father of the Population Control Movement, Paul Ehrlich, who penned the 1968 scaremongering book, The Population Bomb.
00:11:22.600LifeSite News actually delivered a petition of more than 10,000 signatures asking the Pope to rescind Ehrlich's invitation, but he spoke nevertheless at the Vatican on February 27, 2017.
00:11:36.600The biggest problem we face is continual expansion of the human enterprise.
00:11:42.600You know, I would love to see hundreds of trillions of human beings live over the next few million years, rather than see if we can cram 11 billion in by 2010, 2110, and then let the whole thing go down the drain.
00:11:59.600I mean, the sustainability is talked about a lot, but a lot of people talk about things like sustainable growth.
00:12:06.600Perpetual growth is the creed of the cancer cell.
00:12:11.600And we really have to look at the size of the human enterprise and think about why we're doing these things.
00:12:20.600Ehrlich champions sex-selective abortion as well as mass-forced sterilization as legitimate methods to curb population control.
00:12:29.600He did this in his book, The Population Bomb, Ecoscience, Population Resources, Environment, on page 837.
00:12:39.600nobody in my view has the right to have 12 children or even three unless the second pregnancy is twins, end quote.
00:12:48.600Ehrlich has been inimical to the Catholic Church and her teachings on life, especially under the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
00:12:57.600In 2014, he wrote that the Catholic Church's moral teachings are, quote, just as unethical as a terrorist act.
00:13:06.600Not surprisingly, though, Ehrlich is fond of Pope Francis.
00:13:10.600He actually told Lifesight in an interview, and I quote,
00:13:13.600I'm thrilled with the new Pope moving the Church in the right direction, end quote.
00:13:18.600Cardinal Raymond Burke reacted to Ehrlich speaking at the Vatican, saying it's simply a scandal.
00:13:57.600Already, various nations are reporting an epidemic of loneliness.
00:14:01.600The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that gerontology researchers have linked the epidemic of loneliness among the elderly to a contraceptive mentality.
00:16:16.600It's indeed a command to be fruitful and multiply, but it's also a blessing.
00:16:20.600I'd like to conclude this episode of the John Henry Weston Show with a personal testimony because this issue is so close to home for my wife and I.
00:16:30.600I pray this testimony demonstrates for you, as it does for us, that God opens the womb, that God loves large families, and that he indeed gives children as a blessing to be lovingly received and will give you the needed grace to raise your children as citizens for heaven.
00:16:48.600So, my wife and I are the parents of eight living children, but my wife conceived 11 children and lost three to miscarriage.
00:16:58.600The first child who died, Stefano, was miscarried on my wife's birthday, and she felt God had forgotten about her, especially since she lost a child on her birthday.
00:17:07.600We learned of the death of the second child we lost, Bernadette, on another day when gifts are received, rather than taken away, our 16th wedding anniversary.
00:17:18.600Likewise, we learned of the death of the third child, Jesse Emanuel, on Christmas Eve, when our family normally celebrates Christmas and gift-giving.
00:17:28.600By this point, my wife expressed to God that all these gifts were taken from her on days that she should be receiving gifts.
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00:20:24.600And wouldn't it be really, really weird if that same pope who cut up large families also went against the church's perennial teaching against contraception?
00:20:35.600It's, by John Paul's account, an intrinsic evil.
00:20:39.600That means an evil that can never, ever be done under any circumstances for any excuse whatsoever.
00:20:45.600And yet, here's what Pope Francis had to say on the question.
00:20:48.600In a March 2014 interview with Corriera de la Serra, Francis said that the question of birth control must be answered not by, quote, changing the doctrine, but by, quote, making pastoral ministry take into account the situations which it is possible for people to do.
00:21:08.600Speaking of Paul VI's humani vitae, Pope Francis said, Paul VI himself, at the end, recommended to confessors much mercy and attention to concrete situations, end quote.
00:21:21.600During a November 2015 press conference on his return flight from Africa, Pope Francis was asked, and I quote,
00:21:28.600Is it not time for the church to change its position on the matter, to allow the use of condoms to prevent more infections?
00:21:36.600In his response, Pope Francis stated, and I quote,
00:22:13.600A little bit later he added to this response.
00:22:16.600But malnutrition, development of the person, slave labor, the lack of drinking water, these are the problems.
00:22:23.600Let's not talk about can one use the type of patch or that for a small wound.
00:22:30.600The serious wound is social injustice, environmental injustice.
00:22:34.600A little later he added, I think the trafficking of arms, when these problems are no longer there, I think then we can ask the question, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
00:22:44.600Because if the trafficking of arms continues, wars are the biggest cause of mortality.
00:22:50.600And he said, I would say not to think about whether it's lawful or not to heal on the Sabbath.
00:22:56.600I would say to humanity, make justice.
00:22:59.600And when all are cured, when there's no more injustice, then we can talk about the Sabbath.
00:23:05.600There are more recent examples as well.
00:23:08.600In April 2018, an Argentinian religious sister, acclaimed for her work against trafficking and exploitation of children, said publicly that Pope Francis told her that responsible parenthood requires contraception in some cases.
00:23:24.600In an interview with the Argentinian radio program, Cronica Annunciada, Carmelite missionary sister, Martha Poloni, said Pope Francis, quote, told me three words, end quote, about the need for responsible parenthood among the poor rural women, quote, condoms, transitory and reversible.
00:23:45.600Sister Poloni, who is opposed to abortion, said that the Pope told her various forms of contraception could be permissible to prevent poor women from choosing abortion.
00:23:56.600She included condoms, a diaphragm, and as a last resort, which is what we advise for rural women that we serve because I have a foundation for the peasantry, tuba ligation, end quote.
00:24:09.600And she said again, if there is sex education and state responsibility to care for women in poverty, we do not need to decriminalize abortion because it will not be necessary to have an abortion, end quote.
00:24:21.600That was the superior of the Carmelite missionaries.
00:24:24.600The Vatican neither confirmed nor denied the Pope's comments to Sister Poloni.
00:24:30.600In fact, LifeSite News contacted Vatican spokesman Greg Burke for comment, but received no response.
00:24:36.600But the most devastating contradiction of the Church's teaching came in 2016, when on his February return flight from Mexico, the Pope was asked by one reporter whether the Church can, I quote,
00:24:51.600take into consideration the concept of the lesser of two evils, end quote, and he was talking about when it comes to the question of presenting pregnancy or to avoid transmission of the AIDS virus.
00:25:03.600Well, the Pope opened his answer by categorically condemning abortion as a solution to the Zika virus.
00:25:10.600But on the question of avoiding pregnancy, he added, and I quote,
00:25:14.600We are speaking in terms of the conflict between the fifth and the sixth commandment.
00:25:19.600The great Paul VI, in the difficult situation in Africa, permitted sisters to use contraception for cases of rape, end quote.
00:25:27.600He said, and I quote again, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil, end quote.
00:25:33.600And he said again, quote, in certain cases, as in this one, such as the one I mentioned of blessed Paul VI, it was clear.
00:25:42.600Now, the Pope's answer in the apparent parallel he drew between the case of the nun's use of contraception and the case of the use of contraception in cases of Zika virus has widely led to the interpretation that the Pope was approving the use of contraception in some cases.
00:25:59.600In fact, many of the media went to Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi for clarification.
00:26:04.600And on February 19th, he affirmed in fact that the Holy Father was indeed speaking of condoms and contraceptives.
00:26:10.600And he said couples could rightly, and I quote, avoid pregnancy, end quote, in the wake of the Zika virus scare.
00:26:18.600Father Lombardi told Vatican Radio that the contraceptive or condom in particular cases of emergency or gravity could be the object of discernment in serious cases of conscience.
00:26:29.600This is what the Pope said, end quote.
00:26:32.600According to Father Lombardi, the Pope spoke of, quote, the possibility of taking recourse to contraception or condoms in cases of emergency or special situations.
00:26:43.600He is not saying that this is a possibility is accepted without discernment.
00:26:47.600Indeed, he said clearly that it can be considered in cases of special urgency, end quote.
00:26:54.600As LifeSite writer Matthew Hoffman pointed out, this appears to be an almost perfect contradiction to Paul VI.
00:27:01.600In fact, Humanae Vitae seemed to perfectly anticipate the arguments made by Pope Francis.
00:27:07.600Neither is it valid to argue, as a justification for sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive, that a lesser evil is to be preferred to a greater one, end quote.
00:27:18.600A little bit later on in Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI said,
00:27:21.600Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good,
00:27:30.600it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it.
00:27:36.600In other words, to intend directly something which is of its very nature contradicts the moral order,
00:27:43.600and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual or family or society in general.
00:27:53.600Although Paul VI recognized the lesser of evils might be tolerated for the sake of avoiding greater evils,
00:28:02.600he expressly condemned the notion that one could morally defend an act of contraception which he calls intrinsically wrong.
00:28:12.600By claiming that a lesser evil is to be preferred to a greater one, this appears to be the precise reasoning of Pope Francis.
00:28:21.600The Holy Bible itself indicates that God hates contraception.
00:28:27.600As the encyclical Casti Konubi says, God, and I quote,
00:28:31.600regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime and at times has punished it with death.
00:28:55.600The rejection of God's command to be fruitful and multiply the very first command given in the scriptures to mankind in Genesis 1.28.
00:29:03.600In our current day, this can be seen as the heart of the attack on marriage and the family.
00:29:10.600The late Cardinal Kefara revealed at our Rome Life Forum a couple of years ago now that this attack is actually the fulfillment of the prophecy of Our Lady of Fatima about the, and I quote,
00:29:23.600final battle between our Lord and the reign of Satan.
00:29:26.600Humanae Vitae warned of many of the consequences of the acceptance of contraception in ways which make it look like a prophetic document today.
00:29:35.600The encyclical warned of four resulting trends.
00:29:40.600A general lowering of moral standards throughout society, a rise in infidelity, a lessening of respect for women by men, and the coercive use of reproductive technologies by governments.
00:29:52.600Of course, these things have all happened.
00:29:54.600A general lowering of moral standards is painfully obvious today.
00:29:59.600Paul VI warned, and I quote, another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman,
00:30:11.600and disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, end quote.
00:30:20.600Compare that to when the Anglican Church at the Lambeth Conference in 1930 gave a very tentative, shy kind of approval to contraception.
00:30:32.600When the Anglicans first approved contraception in 1930 at the Lambeth Conference,
00:30:37.600it was done with words and sentiments actually very similar to the justifications for second marriage without annulment provided in Amoris Laetitia.
00:30:46.600At the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican leadership didn't just plainly say contraception is now permitted.
00:30:53.600They actually pointed to hard cases and employed many heart-rending justifications to get what was the first breach against openness to life in the Christian world.
00:31:03.600And I quote from it, where there is clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, the method must be decided on Christian principles, said the Lambeth statement.
00:31:19.600The primary and obvious method is complete abstinence from intercourse as far as may be necessary, in a life of discipline and self-control lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:31:31.600Nevertheless, in those cases where there is such clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, and where there is a morally sound reason for avoiding complete abstinence, the Conference agrees that other methods may be used provided that this is done in the light of the same Christian principles.
00:31:54.600The Conference records its strong condemnation of the use of any methods of conception and control from motives of selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience. End quote.
00:32:07.600Wow, doesn't that sound familiar for all those who have read Amoris Laetitia?
00:32:12.600But nonetheless, despite all of the Christian-sounding justifications presented at the Lambeth Conference, the Catholic Church at the time pronounced its judgment on the Anglican decision in Pope Pius XI's encyclical Casti Canubi.
00:32:29.600Pope Pius XI lambasted the Lambeth Conference approval of contraception. Even though he didn't name the Anglicans, he made it eminently clear to whom he was referring.
00:32:41.600In paragraph 56 of Casti Canubi, the Pope described the Lambeth decision as, and I quote,
00:32:48.600openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition for, and I quote again, another doctrine which constitutes moral ruin.
00:32:59.600Now, the decision, he said, the Pope said, defiled the chastity of marriage with a, quote again, foul stain.
00:33:07.600Pope Pius' conclusion on the point bears repeating for all of us to hear, and even more urgently today than it was necessary in his time.
00:33:18.600He said, and I quote, this is in Casti Canubi again,
00:33:22.600Remember, at LifeSite News, we're about caritas in veritate, the love in truth.
00:33:47.780Do you love Pope Francis enough to pray and fast for him to end the confusion that he has caused?
00:33:53.780Will you write to him and beg him to end this confusion?
00:33:58.780For his sake, for the sake of the Church, for the sake of your children and grandchildren, it's the charitable thing to do.
00:34:08.780This is why at LifeSite News, we have been so concerned about the situation in the Church.
00:34:13.780While we've been begging cardinals and bishops and priests to confront what's going on in the Church today, to take a stand, to resist Pope Francis.
00:34:25.780Just as biblically it was done by St. Paul, he resisted St. Peter to his face.
00:34:32.780We are way beyond the need to resist, so we must do it ourselves, because we don't see many of the cardinals and bishops standing up to defend the faith.
00:34:44.780It's your and my responsibility, dear friends, dear Catholics.
00:34:48.780That's why we pray every day for the conversion of Pope Francis.
00:34:53.780For LifeSite News, I'm John Henry Weston, and may God bless you.
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