The John-Henry Westen Show - Pope Francis is harming same-sex attracted Catholics

00:00:00.060 Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:00:04.000 Today we'll be discussing the confusion around homosexuality coming from Pope Francis.

00:00:09.180 A couple weeks ago, two prominent German bishops wrote the preface for a book calling for blessings of homosexual couples.

00:00:17.860 Meanwhile, Fr. James Martin, called on by Pope Francis to be a Vatican consultant and speak at the Vatican's World Meeting of Families,

00:00:25.380 has celebrated gay pride masses.

00:00:27.140 To discuss this and much more, we have with us a man who lived the homosexual lifestyle himself.

00:00:33.940 LifeSite's own DC correspondent, Doug Mainwaring. Stay tuned.

00:00:41.120 Doug, welcome to the program.

00:00:43.320 Thank you, John Henry. Thanks for having me.

00:00:45.720 Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.

00:00:48.560 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

00:00:53.280 Amen.

00:00:53.580 So, Doug, let me start off with asking you if you can share a little bit of your testimony as it pertains to today's show.

00:01:02.900 Sure. How much time have you got, John Henry? This could be a long story.

00:01:08.360 The, you know, like many people who, you know, come out as gay, say, you know, I feel like I was born that way.

00:01:20.440 I've always been this way.

00:01:22.600 And that was my experience, too.

00:01:25.200 And so, you know, I went all through, you know, my school years and college, sort of, you know, just carrying around this secret with me.

00:01:35.960 I was fortunate during the summer of my freshman year to go to confession and to talk about this for the first time with a priest.

00:01:47.420 And I wasn't expecting it.

00:01:51.040 I didn't ask for it.

00:01:52.520 But I had a conversion experience that night.

00:01:56.000 And my life started turning around from there.

00:02:00.300 Eventually, I joined a Catholic charismatic prayer community.

00:02:06.240 It's called the Mother of God Community, located in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

00:02:13.500 And I was a part of that for about 20 years.

00:02:16.380 And that's where my wife and I met and were married and went through problems with conceiving a child.

00:02:27.040 We eventually adopted twice.

00:02:30.160 And then, sadly, when our community fell apart, as many of the charismatic communities did during the early to mid-90s,

00:02:39.920 the whole sort of foundation of our life disappeared.

00:02:44.240 And we ended up getting a divorce or separating and eventually divorcing.

00:02:49.600 But we separated when our kids were quite young, just barely two and just a few months old.

00:02:55.140 So I went off to live as a gay man then and spent the next dozen or so years that way.

00:03:05.320 And at first, and I've written about this all over the place in many publications, it was very freeing.

00:03:14.460 You know, I thought, this is great.

00:03:16.140 You know, I'm finally comfortable in my own skin and that sort of thing.

00:03:19.760 But you know what?

00:03:21.580 It didn't last very long.

00:03:23.480 And it didn't take me long to start seeing all kinds of problems in the gay community, 1.00

00:03:31.520 especially as men just treated each other not as full-fledged human beings,

00:03:41.580 but mostly just as sexual objects.

00:03:43.780 And second of all, there is just such an overtone of adolescence behavior that was present in so many of the relationships

00:03:54.740 and gatherings and that sort of thing.

00:03:57.320 And then another thing was I found that gay men just really didn't have an interest in anybody who had young children.

00:04:07.320 And I, at that time, had the primary custody of our children.

00:04:14.920 So that was another red flag that went up.

00:04:19.200 So, you know, I started questioning what I was doing, why I was doing it, and so forth.

00:04:25.720 And then when the, I'll fast forward to when the Tea Party movement started,

00:04:32.780 I started writing commentary for the Washington Times about the Tea Party movement

00:04:40.220 and found that to be a good outlet for me.

00:04:46.620 It was my awakening politically where I could express some, my conservative views on fiscal issues and so forth.

00:04:57.380 But something amazing happened.

00:05:00.140 As I went out to support the Tea Party movement and to serve as an apologist for it and to educate the public on it,

00:05:09.920 I realized that the reason that I was using in my mind to arrive at the conclusions I was arriving at about, you know,

00:05:21.300 how, about fiscal responsibility and so forth, all of a sudden I realized it had to, I couldn't stop with my reasoning there.

00:05:30.960 It had to start applying to my own life.

00:05:33.620 And I started seeing that the fiscal issues and size of government and that sort of thing, those are important issues.

00:05:41.360 But the social issues all of a sudden appeared to be much more important to me.

00:05:49.880 And so I started to drift away from the Tea Party movement and started to speak out in defense of human life and so forth.

00:05:58.440 And eventually I, you know, I had promoted same-sex marriage as a member of the Tea Party movement,

00:06:06.260 but I eventually found I could not defend my stance on same-sex marriage.

00:06:13.620 And what's more than that, I had to take a good long look at my own life and make,

00:06:22.540 and I had to make a few judgments about how I was living.

00:06:25.280 And again, to make this long story short, I decided I could no longer live as a gay man.

00:06:32.560 And I, and in divorcing my wife, I had done a tremendous harm to her and my own children.

00:06:41.220 And so I eventually began to search for a way to put my marriage back together again

00:06:47.560 after having lived as a chaste man for a period of time.

00:06:53.940 And it was wonderful.

00:06:56.760 God provided a way.

00:06:58.760 I'd no sooner finally made that resolution that I needed to get back together again with my wife. 0.86

00:07:06.100 Then the phone rang, and it was my wife, Valerie. 0.94

00:07:10.740 And she announced that she needed to have surgery that was going to require a long period of recuperation.

00:07:17.940 So she asked if she could come and live with me and our two sons during the final stages of her healing.

00:07:29.940 And I recognized right away, this is God answering my prayer within, you know, 48 hours.

00:07:36.920 So I took a big gulp, and I said, how about this?

00:07:41.760 Why don't we just pack up your apartment, and how about you just move in with us?

00:07:49.560 And she said, okay.

00:07:51.140 And that was the beginning of the healing of our marriage.

00:07:54.840 And at first, I thought it was just going to be, you know, live and let live.

00:08:01.160 And, you know, we're just getting together for the sake of our kids and peaceful coexistence, all that sort of thing.

00:08:08.600 But miraculous things started happening.

00:08:12.180 I thought, you know, we'd look forward to just maybe peaceful coexistence for a couple of years until our kids both got out of high school.

00:08:21.040 But God started healing our marriage day by day.

00:08:25.200 And we went from sitting on opposite ends of the couch while watching Jeopardy to slowly moving closer together each night and sharing popcorn.

00:08:35.280 And that was almost eight years ago now, and we've been together ever since.

00:08:42.740 And there's just been countless blessings to our family as a result of our marriage getting back together again.

00:08:50.960 You know, and I should add that there's still plenty of wounds and repercussions in the kids' lives as well.

00:08:59.340 But my goodness, God has just been so good to us in allowing that to halt and to begin to turn around.

00:09:10.400 Amazing.

00:09:11.260 Amazing.

00:09:11.740 Truly blessed.

00:09:12.820 Now, the funny thing is the teaching of the church, and you're a very faithful Catholic, and yet so many people call the teaching of the church on homosexuality hateful, harmful, hurtful.

00:09:24.220 You know, they've wanted the church to change the catechism.

00:09:27.340 You know, in the catechism, it says, and I'll read it for you, basing itself on sacred scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity. 0.97

00:09:37.060 Tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.

00:09:41.400 So, the church is very clear on the homosexual orientation or sort of temptation toward sexual activity as not being sinful.

00:10:02.480 Yes, it's disordered, but it's not sinful.

00:10:05.320 The acts themselves, giving in to those temptations, just like giving in to any sinful temptations, are sinful.

00:10:12.560 What's your take on that stance of the church, and how would you explain it to people who are affected with sort of a temptation toward homosexual activity?

00:10:24.640 Well, I found the church's teaching to be exactly right.

00:10:32.020 You know, one of the things I didn't mention a few minutes ago is that when I started feeling drawn back to, you know, into a relationship with God, and I started searching for a church to go to.

00:10:47.560 And I started with this church that was, you know, the Metropolitan Community Church, which is pretty much exclusively for gays and lesbians, and it only took one visit for me to decide, well, this isn't right. 1.00

00:11:03.740 What they're teaching here is not right.

00:11:06.740 And I went through many other denominations and finally came back to the Catholic Church because it's the only game in town.

00:11:19.100 The Catholic Church is the only place where people were willing to speak truthfully to me about my own life.

00:11:28.560 My conscience was already telling me things about the way I was living my life.

00:11:34.180 But I still needed to hear that from other people.

00:11:38.540 And I can't tell you how many ex-gays and lesbians and so forth that I know who say that people who think they're doing, you know, being nice, doing a good thing, being affirmative, and so forth, that they're somehow helping men and women who struggle with same-sex attraction.

00:12:00.440 But the opposite is true.

00:12:02.440 We desperately need to hear the truth, just like any sinner needs to hear the truth about their sin.

00:12:09.420 And, you know, so many people say, well, the Catholic Church's teaching isn't seeker-friendly.

00:12:16.700 You know, it's not going to attract those who have same-sex attraction.

00:12:21.860 And, in fact, it's going to repel them.

00:12:25.180 That is a lie.

00:12:26.500 The truth is that the Church's teaching is a great big beacon of light.

00:12:33.560 It's what drew me back.

00:12:35.180 It's what's drawn so many people with same-sex attraction that I know back.

00:12:40.140 And have drawn us into lives that are so much better, so much more full, so much happier.

00:12:51.200 There's so much joy that comes from not giving in to the weakness of the flesh, but being able to demonstrate to oneself that you have mastery over the weakness of the flesh.

00:13:04.640 So, you know, the forces acting within the Church right now that are trying to cast aside 2,000 years of solid teaching, wisdom, spirit-led understanding are doing a tremendous disservice to the very ones that they're hoping to help somehow.

00:13:28.120 And I can't say that strongly enough.

00:13:32.100 We need to protect the teaching of the Church on same-sex attraction.

00:13:38.060 Absolutely.

00:13:39.040 In fact, I did a whole show on the Pope's trip to America where he met with a homosexual man and his partner embracing them with the video camera running.

00:13:48.220 And it's, of course, aired all over the place.

00:13:50.360 I'll let our viewers check out that show in the link below.

00:13:53.260 But there have been many more concerning things from the Pope himself.

00:13:58.920 Let's maybe start with what happened when the Pope spoke with a Chilean sex abuse victim.

00:14:05.100 His name was Juan Carlos Cruz.

00:14:07.000 He identifies as gay.

00:14:09.460 And in comments, the Vatican refused to deny.

00:14:14.120 The Pope allegedly said,

00:14:15.700 Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. 0.98

00:14:18.280 God made you like that and loves you like that.

00:14:21.340 And I do not care.

00:14:22.300 The Pope loves you as you are, and you have to be happy with who you are.

00:14:26.900 Just to show the impact of that statement from the Pope and uncorrected by the Vatican,

00:14:34.340 let's watch this CNN clip where you will see, you know, Chris Cuomo go over this with Juan Carlos Cruz.

00:14:42.240 Let's have a look.

00:14:43.020 Then Pope Francis says something that we have never heard from anyone in any position of authority at the Catholic Church,

00:14:52.280 let alone a pope before.

00:14:54.080 He says,

00:14:55.620 God made you gay and loves you that way.

00:15:02.140 Your sexuality doesn't matter. 1.00

00:15:07.360 If you're a Catholic or not,

00:15:09.200 you would never expect to hear anything like that coming out of the Vatican.

00:15:12.080 Right.

00:15:13.020 When you saw the Pope look you in the eyes,

00:15:15.120 and we know what the position of the church is, right?

00:15:17.420 That being gay is some kind of function of disorder. 1.00

00:15:21.240 We love the sinner, but not the sin.

00:15:25.300 That's what you expected, I'm sure.

00:15:27.240 When he looked you in the eyes...

00:15:28.420 He said,

00:15:29.520 Juan Carlos, God made you like this, God loves you like this, the Pope loves you like this, and you should love yourself.

00:15:36.640 And for me, of course, tears, you know, and it's been incredible the amount of gay people that have written to me and said,

00:15:44.860 I'm crying as I'm crying as I hear this, and it's touching.

00:15:49.860 So I hope that by me doing these things, it helps survivors, it helps gay people, it helps all these people that are disenfranchised and that are suffering in some way,

00:16:01.800 and that I can contribute to bring them through this great man, the Holy Father, to bring them some kind of solace in their lives.

00:16:12.800 There will be people who don't like it, there will be people who will hate on you, there will be people who will explain it away within the church,

00:16:17.360 and none of that matters because the Pope said something that that church and that the world needed to hear.

00:16:23.280 Being gay is not what you do, it's who you are.

00:16:26.920 And he said that for everyone to hear.

00:16:28.920 Juan Carlos, don't thank me.

00:16:31.060 Thank you for telling your story here.

00:16:32.720 I appreciate it.

00:16:33.580 Thank you so much.

00:16:34.760 So, Doug, if I can ask your reaction to what we just saw.

00:16:38.400 Yeah, actually, the whole conversation was premised on lies.

00:16:43.280 I remember that you and I were in Rome at the time that this occurred, when the Holy Father said this to Mr. Cruz.

00:16:53.280 And I was just stunned.

00:16:56.580 I remember I raced to write about it for LifeSite Newsreaders and called it the lie of the century because it struck me as being just so dangerous.

00:17:10.280 It undermined so much good, you know, that's gone on in terms of teaching people who are dealing with same-sex attraction. 0.71

00:17:20.820 And, you know, my head was just reeling after hearing that.

00:17:27.680 But, again, what people with same-sex attraction need is not affirmation.

00:17:35.220 They don't need affirmation of their sexual tendencies.

00:17:39.680 They need affirmation as children of God.

00:17:42.960 But I know I do, and everybody else I know who struggles with same-sex attraction does as well.

00:17:50.800 John Henry, at the time, I solicited comments from a lot of folks I know who now live chaste lives. 0.87

00:18:00.640 I asked them about what they thought about the Pope's words.

00:18:05.420 Would you mind if I read a few of those?

00:18:07.540 No, please do.

00:18:08.140 Please do.

00:18:08.500 That would be great.

00:18:09.560 Because these folks, they all had the same sort of response, the same one that I did.

00:18:17.680 One man wrote to me just how seriously, he wondered just how seriously the Holy Father takes the Church's teachings on this and other issues of sexual morality.

00:18:29.380 It is deeply disturbing to believe that leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are more concerned about winning people's affection and approval than the fate of their eternal souls.

00:18:41.200 This certainly makes it a lot harder for those of us who are same-sex attracted and trying to obey the Church's timeless teachings to do so,

00:18:49.340 or even feel like we are welcome in the new paradigm-shifting Church.

00:18:53.740 And then he went on to say, belonging to a Church whose leaders don't even believe in its teachings just seems kind of dumb.

00:19:03.460 And then there was another who said,

00:19:06.760 it was by connecting the crystal-clear dots of Catholic tradition and of Catholic truth

00:19:13.600 that many of us were able to turn to Christ and away from the homosexual lifestyle. 0.91

00:19:18.940 Because of this, we were able to discover real peace and true freedom.

00:19:24.300 We are now praying that the clergy does not confuse our brothers and sisters with fuzzy dots that will lead them onto a bridge to nowhere.

00:19:33.540 And another said,

00:19:34.520 as a young Catholic woman who loves Jesus and daily lives to follow him,

00:19:38.900 it makes my heart very sad to believe that the Pope would say what he allegedly said to this young man with same-sex attraction.

00:19:46.900 And, gosh, I mean, I could go through a lot more,

00:19:52.760 but that gives you the general sense of how so many of us felt when the Pope spoke those words.

00:20:00.860 It was really troubling.

00:20:02.360 Yeah, definitely.

00:20:03.580 I mean, the need for concern for the soul, first and foremost,

00:20:09.720 besides which the Church has never taught that we have to be mean or nasty or anything like that.

00:20:15.200 Our approach that, the approach of the Church and the approach at Lifesight when we write about these things and talk about these things,

00:20:21.540 is caritas in veritate, love in truth.

00:20:24.480 And it goes sort of both ways, that, you know, there has to be love when explaining these things,

00:20:30.220 so you do it in a manner where you actually demonstrate through how you say what you say,

00:20:34.700 that you are concerned for these individuals who are living lives of sin that can lead them to hell.

00:20:40.660 And also that, you know, you have to express the truth itself in order to show that you love,

00:20:47.980 because it's never loving to allow someone, you know,

00:20:52.200 there's no love in a parent allowing their kids to play on the freeway because they think otherwise they'd be mean if they didn't let them do that.

00:20:59.240 That's not love, that's convenience and or trying to hassle avoidance.

00:21:04.160 But you don't do that when you actually love someone.

00:21:06.260 You tell them the truth, even if the truth hurts.

00:21:08.780 You tell them in a way that they can accept it hopefully and hear your love in it

00:21:13.560 and see that you're lovingly telling them this.

00:21:18.200 Yeah, and let me say a couple of other things.

00:21:21.540 One is that I realized a long time ago that when I first went to confession to talk about my same-sex attraction as an 18-year-old,

00:21:34.660 this was back in 1976.

00:21:37.940 And if my pastor had, you know, instead of directing me to the church's teaching,

00:21:46.660 if he had instead said, it's okay, you know, if it feels good, do it, you know, God made you this way, don't worry about it.

00:21:57.920 Well, you know, again, that was 1976.

00:22:00.820 I probably would have been dead of AIDS by 1986.

00:22:05.980 There's no doubt in my mind.

00:22:08.800 My life was saved by God, but also by the faithfulness of my parish priest.

00:22:14.000 But, you know, affirmation is a big problem.

00:22:22.640 I can give you an example of the high school where I went.

00:22:26.140 It's a very upscale community just outside of Washington, D.C., a blue-ribbon school.

00:22:33.940 And not only did I graduate there, but my sons eventually graduated from there.

00:22:39.160 And I think it was about three years ago, there were two suicides within one semester.

00:22:47.240 And these were kids who had everything.

00:22:50.620 And so it caught the attention of the local papers and TV stations who covered the tragic suicides.

00:22:59.300 But one thing never came out.

00:23:01.680 And that was that the two girls who took their own lives were transgender,

00:23:11.540 that they were trying to live as men, as males.

00:23:14.520 And they had nothing but support from their school.

00:23:18.800 You know, everybody used the pronouns that they wanted to use.

00:23:22.280 They weren't bullied.

00:23:24.080 And, in fact, everybody went out of their way to show them respect.

00:23:27.920 And they certainly would have had the best of, you know, medical, psychological care and so forth available to them.

00:23:33.800 But, you know, my view after it happened was they got affirmed to death.

00:23:40.120 And, of course, the mainstream media overlooked that.

00:23:45.260 The records have been, you know, social media and so forth.

00:23:48.920 All of that has been erased.

00:23:51.560 But I feel it's a cautionary tale for others who have children that are dealing with something as like transgenderism, 1.00

00:24:07.320 especially now that it seems to be a contagion that's taking off among young people, especially young girls.

00:24:15.880 Yeah, absolutely.

00:24:16.920 Well, it's very confusing, too, from the standpoint of the Church, because we've had this thing with Pope Francis,

00:24:23.160 where he has, in fact, mentioned at least a handful of times about the problem with the gender ideology.

00:24:30.940 But at the same time, he seems sort of schizophrenic in that he was, in 2015, he invited a transgender couple to the Vatican. 0.52

00:24:42.020 He said they were married and they were happy.

00:24:46.260 Of course, when we first reported that in 2015, people actually didn't believe us, thought we faked things.

00:24:51.140 But he actually mentioned it in 2016.

00:24:54.000 On October 2nd, 2016, Pope Francis referred to this woman who underwent a sex change operation.

00:25:00.660 He referred to her as a man.

00:25:02.540 And having been married to another woman, admitted to inviting them to the Vatican in 2015.

00:25:09.860 And, of course, there's this photo, which we'll take a look at now, of the couple.

00:25:14.940 And you can see the one there on the right is a woman who has mutilated herself to look like a man 0.95

00:25:20.660 and taken hormone treatment so that she's growing facial hair. 0.98

00:25:24.360 But, you know, he even, at the time, he clarified in this interview on the plane, his use of pronouns.

00:25:32.460 He ended the pronoun war, if you will.

00:25:34.880 He said, he that was her, but is she.

00:25:38.820 And this is, you know, impossible for Catholic activists who work in the sphere

00:25:44.340 and people who try to teach the faith on these things to have the Holy Father himself advocating or acting out this confusion.

00:25:52.840 Some of the most concerning things, as I said, at the top of the show, just last or a couple weeks ago,

00:25:59.800 a couple of German bishops have given an endorsement to, even written the preface of a book

00:26:06.760 calling for homosexual blessings of homosexual couples in the church. 0.81

00:26:11.480 We have, one of the things that, you know, a direct approval of Pope Francis of some of this is this.

00:26:18.800 Bishop, then Bishop Cupich or Cardinal Cupich, who was put in charge of Chicago.

00:26:25.660 Well, he's well known to be against church teaching on the subject in this respect.

00:26:32.240 First of all, he was a very controversial character anyway, because of his refusal to allow his priests to take part in 40 Days for Life,

00:26:39.780 the great pro-life work. But also, I remember during the Second Synod on the Family in 2015,

00:26:47.700 Cardinal Cupich was in Rome, and I was there, and at a press scrum, he was talking about Amoris Laetitia

00:26:54.120 that was allowing for communion for divorced and remarried couples.

00:26:57.820 And he was saying how, you know, if the couple feels in conscience that they should be able to receive Holy Communion,

00:27:02.740 then they should be able to come forward, and the Minister of Holy Communion must respect the consciences of the people.

00:27:09.060 So, I said to him,

00:27:10.820 Well, Excellency, if that's the case,

00:27:12.840 what about, let's say, homosexual couples?

00:27:14.940 If they felt in conscience that they should be able to receive communion too,

00:27:18.600 should the Minister of Holy Communion also feel compelled to give them Holy Communion?

00:27:23.460 His response to me was,

00:27:25.380 Gays are people too.

00:27:26.580 Yes, the Minister of Holy Communion must respect the consciences of the people.

00:27:29.320 It was so unbelievable that, you know, people thought, again,

00:27:33.820 LifeSite must be making it up.

00:27:35.140 We then put out the audio of the interview that I did with Cardinal Cupich,

00:27:39.760 and he was, again, he was Archbishop Cupich at the time.

00:27:42.940 And a few weeks later, he said the same thing on television,

00:27:48.320 that, you know, in an interview, that, yes, the, you know,

00:27:51.820 homosexual couples should also be allowed to receive Holy Communion

00:27:54.980 if they feel in conscience that they're fine.

00:27:57.160 Unbelievable stuff.

00:27:57.940 And he was named Cardinal by Pope Francis after that,

00:28:02.040 after it was clear that his stance on these issues

00:28:05.240 was apart from the Church's understanding.

00:28:08.220 So, the situation around Pope Francis and these issues

00:28:13.120 is very concerning and very confusing indeed.

00:28:18.440 Yeah, certainly.

00:28:20.160 And, you know what,

00:28:22.140 and I'm glad to be a part of LifeSite News

00:28:24.520 where I can cover all this stuff

00:28:28.220 and bring it to light

00:28:30.120 because, you know,

00:28:32.300 I see a lot of people's lives being endangered

00:28:35.320 by the trends, you know,

00:28:37.680 that we're noticing in the Church

00:28:39.460 to affirm homosexuality. 0.78

00:28:42.960 And, you know,

00:28:44.640 and again, LifeSite News is one of the few places

00:28:47.640 where folks who experience same-sex attraction

00:28:51.560 can go to, you know,

00:28:55.180 stay on the right path

00:28:56.540 and find their way to a life,

00:29:00.740 you know, a full life in Christ

00:29:02.840 rather than just sort of dissolve

00:29:06.260 into the muck and the mire of the world.

00:29:09.980 Absolutely.

00:29:10.420 One of the ways that the Church

00:29:14.300 sort of deals with this issue,

00:29:16.580 as we talked before,

00:29:17.700 it was about caritas veritate,

00:29:19.820 the truth and love,

00:29:20.700 or love and truth.

00:29:21.760 And there's a, you know,

00:29:24.580 people want to perhaps present a friendly face

00:29:28.000 and not offend too much

00:29:30.140 or drive people away.

00:29:31.940 We're not talking about doing that.

00:29:34.080 We're talking about presenting the truth still,

00:29:36.900 but in a way that is loving and caring.

00:29:39.700 One of the things I think a lot of people have,

00:29:44.880 or a lot of people maybe in the Church

00:29:46.340 think about doing is,

00:29:49.380 well, let's kind of be quiet about it.

00:29:52.600 Don't mention the Church's teaching.

00:29:54.300 Just be really welcoming

00:29:55.500 and let people just sort of come in

00:29:58.360 and maybe by osmosis

00:29:59.440 or eventually they'll get there.

00:30:00.900 What would you respond to that kind of an approach?

00:30:04.480 I'd say that's a stupid idea, John Henry.

00:30:07.300 You know what?

00:30:11.420 It's important to take a stand for the truth

00:30:14.800 because so few people are willing to do it nowadays.

00:30:19.140 I think most people do exactly

00:30:21.260 what you were just talking about.

00:30:24.240 And, you know,

00:30:25.160 if it doesn't come from somewhere inside

00:30:28.280 which says, well,

00:30:29.560 I'll just be quiet

00:30:31.780 and not stir up any problems.

00:30:35.460 You know,

00:30:36.040 there's plenty of others

00:30:36.960 that have been bullied into silence.

00:30:40.360 And, you know,

00:30:41.140 we see this everywhere.

00:30:43.160 And I know that

00:30:44.460 when I first started speaking out

00:30:47.340 through opinion pieces

00:30:50.080 and so forth

00:30:50.780 that I wrote at the Washington Post

00:30:52.860 and in Washington Times

00:30:55.840 and other places

00:30:56.540 that, boy,

00:30:59.520 the backlash was swift

00:31:02.300 and it was really strong.

00:31:05.920 And it wasn't just people saying that,

00:31:07.980 you know,

00:31:09.140 dog, I disagree with you.

00:31:11.140 You know,

00:31:11.380 you used to support same-sex marriage

00:31:13.240 and now you don't support that

00:31:16.420 and you don't even affirm homosexuality.

00:31:20.280 A lot of people wanted me dead.

00:31:23.780 You know,

00:31:24.360 they just wished the most vile things

00:31:27.960 upon me,

00:31:29.180 my family,

00:31:30.060 and so forth.

00:31:31.620 And so,

00:31:32.500 and I know I'm not the only one

00:31:34.960 who's experienced that.

00:31:36.360 Every other person I know who,

00:31:39.800 you know,

00:31:40.040 in the lead up to

00:31:41.040 the tragic Obergefell ruling

00:31:44.620 by the Supreme Court,

00:31:45.740 all of us who are speaking out

00:31:47.160 against same-sex marriage

00:31:49.840 experienced the same things.

00:31:52.160 I mean,

00:31:52.560 we were just vilified

00:31:55.420 in order to try to silence our voices.

00:32:01.120 I remember I spoke at a gathering

00:32:04.060 at the Capitol building

00:32:05.900 in Salt Lake City

00:32:07.860 and there's a big gathering

00:32:10.120 of maybe several hundred

00:32:11.520 or a thousand pro-family,

00:32:13.860 pro-marriage folks.

00:32:15.060 And when I finished giving my talk,

00:32:19.380 you know,

00:32:20.640 it's time for me to go back

00:32:22.280 to the airport.

00:32:23.460 Well,

00:32:23.940 four guards

00:32:25.280 had to walk me

00:32:26.780 out of the building,

00:32:28.320 the Capitol building,

00:32:29.600 to my taxi

00:32:31.380 in order to ensure my safety.

00:32:34.720 That's just how crazy

00:32:36.020 things got at the time.

00:32:38.340 Yeah.

00:32:39.340 Yeah.

00:32:39.580 How do you cope

00:32:41.660 with,

00:32:43.000 you know,

00:32:44.060 temptations

00:32:44.940 and things like that?

00:32:47.080 This is one of the questions

00:32:48.080 that,

00:32:48.500 you know,

00:32:48.720 a lot of people have,

00:32:50.460 you know,

00:32:50.700 how do you

00:32:51.880 stay chased?

00:32:53.380 They think,

00:32:54.100 I'm a gay man

00:32:55.460 or whatever

00:32:56.220 and I wouldn't want to be.

00:32:57.760 In reality,

00:32:58.220 there are lots of people

00:32:58.820 who think like that

00:33:00.100 would love to be free

00:33:01.320 of these kinds of things.

00:33:03.580 What do you do

00:33:04.520 to be free of temptation

00:33:06.640 or resist temptation

00:33:09.800 and remain faithful to Christ?

00:33:13.320 Yeah,

00:33:13.700 I,

00:33:13.960 you know,

00:33:14.360 I don't know

00:33:14.700 if I'll ever be totally free.

00:33:17.160 I've gotten in trouble

00:33:18.940 for using this analogy,

00:33:20.660 but I've said many times

00:33:22.660 it's like being an alcoholic

00:33:24.640 where,

00:33:25.880 you know,

00:33:26.500 I don't think I'll ever say

00:33:28.600 I'm totally free of it.

00:33:30.580 I still,

00:33:33.700 you know,

00:33:34.020 like any alcoholic knows,

00:33:35.880 you have to be

00:33:37.140 very well aware

00:33:37.940 that that's still

00:33:39.160 a demon lurking

00:33:39.980 at your door.

00:33:41.260 Excuse me.

00:33:42.280 And,

00:33:42.620 and you can't forget it

00:33:44.660 for even one minute.

00:33:46.040 You have to face that

00:33:46.800 every single day.

00:33:47.720 And so I do that.

00:33:49.840 Prayer has been big.

00:33:51.440 I,

00:33:51.720 boy,

00:33:51.920 I remember

00:33:52.400 when I first started

00:33:54.020 making the move

00:33:55.060 to pull away

00:33:56.900 from that lifestyle.

00:33:58.660 I was no longer

00:34:00.200 a part of the church,

00:34:01.820 but I started dropping

00:34:03.900 into a local church,

00:34:06.640 a Catholic church,

00:34:07.440 and would just kneel

00:34:08.660 in the back

00:34:09.340 for a minute or two.

00:34:11.160 And I pray,

00:34:12.120 God,

00:34:12.520 I don't know

00:34:13.340 what to do

00:34:14.080 or where to go

00:34:14.840 or how to deal with this,

00:34:16.400 but here I am.

00:34:17.980 Please help me.

00:34:19.580 And I did that

00:34:21.320 every day

00:34:22.080 for a couple of years.

00:34:23.880 And interestingly,

00:34:25.060 I,

00:34:25.740 over,

00:34:26.580 over the months,

00:34:27.220 I moved closer

00:34:27.900 and closer

00:34:28.360 to the front,

00:34:29.460 closer and closer

00:34:30.200 to the altar.

00:34:32.200 And,

00:34:32.280 you know,

00:34:33.900 and when

00:34:34.820 the time came,

00:34:36.620 that's when I began

00:34:37.780 to really,

00:34:38.760 after I'd proven

00:34:39.600 that I could be

00:34:40.960 chased

00:34:41.980 and remain so,

00:34:44.780 that's when I began

00:34:45.900 to seek to

00:34:47.280 put my marriage

00:34:49.540 back together again.

00:34:50.700 And I felt God

00:34:51.380 was leading me

00:34:52.080 to do that.

00:34:53.880 And,

00:34:54.220 and then

00:34:56.100 it was another year

00:34:57.920 after our marriage

00:34:59.340 was healed,

00:34:59.960 that I came back

00:35:01.600 into full communion

00:35:02.600 with the Catholic Church.

00:35:04.880 I desperately

00:35:06.620 wanted to do that

00:35:07.760 for quite a while

00:35:09.300 by that stage,

00:35:10.440 but I wanted

00:35:11.920 to prove

00:35:12.500 to myself first

00:35:13.700 that I really

00:35:14.600 meant what I

00:35:15.740 was saying

00:35:17.160 when I told Jesus

00:35:18.860 I wanted Him

00:35:19.720 to sit on the throne

00:35:20.580 of my life.

00:35:21.960 And so,

00:35:23.380 so,

00:35:24.140 yeah,

00:35:24.360 prayer has been

00:35:25.120 very important.

00:35:26.540 We have an adoration

00:35:27.960 chapel at our parish.

00:35:29.220 which is

00:35:29.960 wonderfully just

00:35:31.520 within walking distance

00:35:32.640 of our house here.

00:35:34.560 And I go there

00:35:35.860 frequently.

00:35:36.820 I go to Mass

00:35:37.740 frequently,

00:35:38.580 daily Mass.

00:35:39.760 And also,

00:35:40.920 confession.

00:35:43.720 I try to go

00:35:44.840 every two or three weeks

00:35:46.020 if at all possible.

00:35:48.260 And,

00:35:48.920 and I

00:35:49.480 also am part

00:35:50.940 of a

00:35:51.560 men's group

00:35:53.160 in our parish.

00:35:54.600 It's,

00:35:55.200 again,

00:35:55.760 I'm very blessed

00:35:56.540 that we have

00:35:57.180 about 100 men

00:35:58.120 that get together

00:35:58.900 every Saturday morning

00:36:00.300 at 6.45 a.m.

00:36:02.640 for a couple of hours

00:36:03.780 to receive a teaching

00:36:04.800 and to go into

00:36:06.580 discussion groups

00:36:07.360 and so forth.

00:36:08.200 And we also have

00:36:09.120 a purity group.

00:36:10.320 It's anonymous,

00:36:11.080 but we meet

00:36:13.280 once or twice

00:36:13.840 a month

00:36:14.340 and

00:36:14.940 we go there

00:36:16.860 and share

00:36:18.160 whatever struggles

00:36:19.100 we may be having.

00:36:20.280 We pray

00:36:21.020 with each other

00:36:21.860 and there's also

00:36:22.820 an opportunity

00:36:23.360 to go to confession

00:36:24.400 there as well.

00:36:25.760 But that

00:36:26.380 has been a source

00:36:27.620 of strength

00:36:28.140 not only for me,

00:36:29.220 I think I'm probably

00:36:30.440 the only guy

00:36:31.260 dealing with

00:36:31.880 same-sex attraction

00:36:33.200 in that group,

00:36:34.420 but for everybody

00:36:35.880 else who deals

00:36:36.680 with chastity

00:36:39.700 within their marriage

00:36:40.960 and being faithful

00:36:43.240 and so forth

00:36:44.260 and resisting

00:36:46.260 the temptation

00:36:47.420 to masturbate 0.84

00:36:48.420 or watch pornography,

00:36:49.900 those kinds of groups

00:36:51.260 can really be helpful.

00:36:53.160 I mean,

00:36:54.560 as men,

00:36:55.800 I'll just speak

00:36:56.640 for myself,

00:36:57.240 as a man,

00:36:57.740 I need brotherhood.

00:36:59.160 I need brothers.

00:37:00.920 And not just

00:37:02.700 other folks

00:37:03.300 who are dealing

00:37:03.800 with same-sex attraction

00:37:05.040 like me,

00:37:06.160 I've found it

00:37:07.460 to be really important

00:37:08.980 for those of us

00:37:10.360 who deal

00:37:11.660 with same-sex attraction

00:37:13.240 to become a part

00:37:15.320 of just a thriving

00:37:17.800 brotherhood

00:37:19.600 where faith

00:37:21.080 is held high

00:37:22.240 and we uphold

00:37:24.200 each other's lives

00:37:26.800 and encourage each other

00:37:28.300 not to sin

00:37:29.160 and if we do sin,

00:37:30.180 we encourage each other

00:37:31.420 to go to confession

00:37:33.180 and to reform

00:37:35.100 our lives.

00:37:37.500 Absolutely beautiful.

00:37:38.620 You know,

00:37:39.200 I think that

00:37:40.320 the struggles

00:37:41.620 that people

00:37:43.100 who are same-sex attracted

00:37:44.120 have with resisting

00:37:45.420 those temptations

00:37:46.180 are an obvious example

00:37:48.280 to all people

00:37:49.400 struggling with

00:37:50.580 sexual temptations

00:37:51.640 and that literally

00:37:52.660 is all of us

00:37:53.320 because all of us,

00:37:54.120 especially today

00:37:54.880 in our culture

00:37:55.880 so soaked

00:37:58.320 in sexual immorality,

00:38:00.100 it is an unbelievable

00:38:02.100 challenge

00:38:02.640 and yet

00:38:03.500 everyone

00:38:04.860 can draw strength

00:38:06.020 from the example

00:38:06.840 that you

00:38:07.820 and folks like you

00:38:09.060 who struggle

00:38:09.540 with these things

00:38:10.260 struggle against

00:38:11.260 these temptations

00:38:12.220 show us

00:38:13.920 in terms of

00:38:14.660 really

00:38:15.160 your heroism

00:38:16.660 and Doug,

00:38:17.920 I want to just

00:38:18.480 thank you

00:38:18.860 for being on this episode

00:38:20.040 of the John Henry Weston Show

00:38:21.020 and for sharing

00:38:21.780 your testimony.

00:38:23.960 Thank you so much,

00:38:24.780 John Henry.

00:38:25.380 God bless you.

00:38:26.340 And God bless to all of you

00:38:27.660 until the next

00:38:28.240 John Henry Weston Show.

00:38:30.100 Hello, this is

00:38:36.840 John Henry Weston.

00:38:37.840 I'd like to invite you

00:38:38.860 to subscribe

00:38:39.460 to the John Henry Weston Show

00:38:41.220 YouTube channel

00:38:42.000 if you haven't already

00:38:43.080 done so.

00:38:44.060 There you will find

00:38:45.040 all the past episodes

00:38:46.220 and much more.

00:38:47.560 Thanks again for watching

00:38:48.740 and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - September 10, 2019

Pope Francis is harming same-sex attracted Catholics

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