Pope Francis praises pro-abortion President and backs communion for pro-abort politicians
Summary
It has been quite the week for Catholics again, as Pope Francis has once again shocked the world with the most un-Catholic statements. Like in 2016, when he praised Italy s best-known pro-abortion politician, well, Pope Francis this week praised the radically proabortion Irish President, Michael D. Higgins. And that came just as news broke about his backing communion for Pro-Abortion politicians and also another endorsement for homosexual civil unions. I ll be giving you all the details on this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.
Transcript
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It has been quite the week for Catholics again, as Pope Francis has once again shocked the world
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with the most un-Catholic statements. Like in 2016, when he praised Italy's best-known
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pro-abortion politician, well, Pope Francis this week praised the radically pro-abortion
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Irish president. And that came just as news broke about his backing communion for pro-abortion
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politicians, and also another endorsement for homosexual civil unions. I'll be giving you all
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the details on this episode of the John Henry Weston Show. Please stay tuned.
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Before we begin, I would like to encourage you to support LifeSite since we are in the middle of
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and be as generous as you can. May God reward you for your support. Let's begin as we always do at
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the Son of the Cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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LifeSite Irish correspondent Tim Jackson reports that on Friday, at his meeting with pro-abortion
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Irish president Michael D. Higgins, Pope Francis told those gathered, and these are quotes from the
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Pope, I did not just meet a man, a president. I met a wise man of today. End quote. The Pope also added,
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and I quote again, I thank God that Ireland has such a wise man as its head. End quote.
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President Higgins, for those of you who might not know, is the one who signed the abortion
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bill in 2013 that made the killing of unborn babies legal in Ireland when a woman claimed
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to be suffering from suicidal ideation as a result of her pregnancy. It was the most devastating blow
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to Catholic Ireland in its history. Worse even than the grave persecution the nation has suffered.
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In November 2015, Higgins moved Ireland even further from its constitutional foundation in
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divine and natural law by signing a bill that legalized homosexual marriage. And that was,
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of course, following their referendum. And then following a repeal of the country's constitutional
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protection for the right to life, Higgins, who was just praised by Pope Francis, signed another
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abortion bill in 2018 that legalized abortion on demand up to 12 weeks, with abortion up to birth
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allowed, if the baby's found, to have a life-limiting condition. That, by the way, resulted in 2019 alone
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in 6,666 Irish babies being killed. Higgins has described Ireland's historic ban
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on abortion as having no concern for Irish women who would have to travel for England for their
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abortions. And he claimed that the successful 1983 referendum, which was the campaign to protect
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unborn babies from abortion, had been, and I quote, callous, sinister, and undemocratic. And this,
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you know, is unbelievable. This is the man whom Pope Francis has praised now. You know what? It's
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actually exactly the same as 2016. Do you remember in 2016, Pope Francis praised an Italian politician?
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In fact, it's hard to call her a politician. Her name was Emma Benino. She was Italy's leading
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proponent of abortion for decades. Pope Francis called her one of the nation's greats. And she was
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actually pictured performing illegal abortions back in the day, and then became a politician campaigning
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for abortion herself. I mean, she herself had an abortion at the age of 27 and was the premier
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abortion activist. And yet Pope Francis named her as one of the nation's greats. Anyway, responding to
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Pope Francis's praise for President Higgins, Ireland's Catholic Association chairman Brian Flanagan told
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LifeSite News that the most disappointing aspect of the meeting was the Pope's apparent unwillingness
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to call the Irish leader to repentance. And he said, and I quote,
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our Pope could have attributed wisdom to one of the principal pro-abortion politicians in Irish history.
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Mr. Flanagan continued saying of the Pope that he should have informed and warned President Higgins
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of the eternal consequences for the perpetrators of such a crime against the most defenseless of God's
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beloved creation. And as LifeSite's Michael Haynes reports, on a new airplane interview Wednesday,
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Pope Francis once again expressed his support for same-sex civil unions, calling for laws to promote
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civil unions since we are all equal. Responding to a question from Stefano Maria Paci of SkyTG24
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about the recognition of homosexual marriages, the 84-year-old pontiff first referenced marriage.
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He said, marriage is a sacrament. The church has no power to change the sacraments as the Lord has
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instituted them, end quote. Now, here's an interesting thing. Pope Francis often does this. Often when he
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goes contrary to church teaching, he says something strong seeming to support church teaching. So he said,
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you know, in response to the question, marriage is a sacrament. The church has no power to change
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the sacraments as the Lord has instituted them. But then he adds this, if they want to support a
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homosexual couple in life together, states have the possibility of civilly supporting them, end quote.
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So it's unbelievable what's happening. He said, and I'll quote it for you again,
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there are laws that try to help the situations of many people who have a different sexual orientation,
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he said, end quote. The church, by the way, has taught the opposite of what the Pope is teaching
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and saying. The church, by way of the congregation of the doctrine of faith, addressed the same question
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already in 1986. The document was called on the pastoral care of homosexual persons. It says,
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and I quote, a person engaging in homosexual behavior, therefore acts immorally. And any
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such activity is contrary to the creative wisdom of God. Christians who are homosexual are called as
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all of us are to a chaste life. And while noting that the truly pastoral approach will appreciate the
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need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin. There's another document from the
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congregation for the doctrine of faith, the CDF. And it was in 2003, it was called considerations
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regarding proposals to give legal recognitions to unions between homosexual persons. And it too
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repeated the church's strong condemnation of homosexual activity and homosexual unions, saying that
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homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. And presenting numerous reasons to argue against the
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legal definition of homosexual unions, the CDF characterized any law in favor of same-sex unions
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as contrary to right reason. It said, and I quote, furthermore, all Catholics are obliged to oppose
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the legal recognition of homosexual unions, end quote. So the Catholic Church teaches, moreover,
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that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and that respect for homosexuals cannot lead in any way
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to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.
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John Horvath, the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and
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Property, commented to LifeSite News about what the Pope said, saying that it is, and I quote,
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apocalyptically scandalous and a great shame that the highest authority on earth, the Vicar of Christ,
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publicly endorses homosexual civil unions. It's indicative, he said, of our
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sinful times and why Our Lady warned us of a great chastisement in Fatima, end quote.
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So following the interview, LGBT activists were very public about their praise for the Pope's
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support of civil unions. Dissident Jesuit pro-LGBT campaigner priest, Father James Martin,
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wrote on Twitter that the Pope was again supporting civil unions. Meanwhile, pro-LGBT Catholic group,
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New Way's ministry, I say Catholic in quotes, by the way, was said, and I quote,
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if there was any debate left over whether pontifex, the Pope, supports same-gender civil unions,
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it is settled. Only last year, Pope Francis had voiced his support for the homosexual civil unions
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in the film Francesco calling for a civil union law. At the time, Bishop Athanasius Schneider
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pointed out that such an approach is no act of kindness towards persons with same-sex attraction.
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Rather, he said, it's an act of cruelty, and I quote, because these persons will be confirmed in mortal
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sin, they will be solidified in their interior psychological dichotomy, since their reason tells
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them that homosexual acts are against reason, and against the explicit will of God, the creator
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and redeemer of men, end quote. But that in-flight interview from last Wednesday was not done yet.
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LifeSite's David McClune reports on another alarming remark by Pope Francis backing the giving of Holy
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Communion to pro-abortion politicians like Joe Biden. And again, just like with his support of
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homosexual civil unions, Francis starts off with a statement that seems to affirm church teaching.
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In fact, this time it was his favorite, abortion is murder, comment. I say it's his favorite only
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because he used it before. In 2016, Pope Francis used the abortion is murder remark when actually
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scandalously suggesting that contraception may be used in grave circumstances. That was the infamous
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Zika virus comments, if you want to look it up. On Wednesday, on that return flight from his visit
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to Eastern Europe, he went to Slovakia and so on. In the midst of the in-flight interview, he was asked
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about Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians. And he said basically that it must be a pastoral
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approach must be used. And that he said that should be without condemning. And he added that
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he himself has actually never denied the Eucharist to anyone. But here's how he started it all off.
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He started it all off with abortion that is telling abortion murder again. I mean, this is really an
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modus operandi. You see this very strong statement, watch out, because then you know something strange
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is coming. He said, that is murder. Whoever has an abortion kills, he said. Those direct quotes from
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Pope Francis on the flight. But then he went on right from there. Remember, the question is about
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giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians. He starts off saying that abortion is murder.
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Whoever has an abortion kills a child. And then he says this. When it comes to denying pro-abortion
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politicians, he said, the problem is not theological. It is pastoral. How we bishops manage this principle
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pastorally, he said. Communion is not a prize for the perfect, he continued. And then he describes
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this hypothesis whereby priests can give the Eucharist by being close and tender and give communion
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to people. He compared it to Amoris Laetitia and how they were to discern communion for divorced
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and remarried Catholics. The Pope actually criticized priests who, what he said, go beyond the pastoral
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dimension and become a politician on the issue of distributing communion to opponents of the faith.
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He said, you know, what must the pastor do? Be a pastor. Don't go condemning. End quote. So as if he
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had ever given the Eucharist to pro-abortion politicians, the Pope actually said he has never denied the Eucharist
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to anyone since becoming a priest. You know, in all of this, we can and must remember that St. Paul said
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of giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians, he said in Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 11 29,
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and speaking exactly about this issue already right from the start of the church,
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he said, and I quote, for he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself,
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not discerning the body of the Lord. And that's why so many bishops have said, as has Cardinal Burke,
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that this is not a matter of hating politicians or of being mean to them or nasty to them or unpastoral.
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In fact, it's a matter of being totally pastoral to warn the Catholic who is wayward, who is
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supporting abortion, supporting what the Pope acknowledges is murder. It's calling them back
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to the fullness of faith, to the truth in regard to their soul, being concerned about their eternal
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salvation. Because these pro-abortion politicians, these politicians who are supporting murder,
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they threaten their own salvation. And if the church doesn't call them back as a loving father
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to right relationship with Christ and his church, that doesn't show a loving attitude.
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When any father allows his child to go off and do something super dangerous without warning him
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strenuously that there's a problem, it doesn't show a good caring father. The good caring father
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does the hard job of disciplining children. And you know, there's another apropos teaching from Saint
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Paul to mention at this time. He said in Galatians 1.8, but though we or an angel from heaven would
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preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. And that,
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my friends, is the situation we face today with teaching that is not at all related to what the
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Catholic Church truly teaches. For LifeSite News, this is John Henry Weston. May God bless you. Remember,
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Hi, this is John Henry Weston, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of LifeSite News. I'm coming to you
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