The John-Henry Westen Show - Priest calls police on man who wasn't wearing mask at church for medical reasons

00:00:00.560 Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show. You know, all around the

00:00:04.880 world, Catholic churches are oftentimes shut down, but you also have this, you know, participation

00:00:12.840 in the mass with 15%, 30%, whatever it is, often with, you know, masking required and

00:00:19.040 so on. But that's similar to some stores which have a percentage allowed and yes, masking

00:00:24.000 required. But the law always stipulates that there are exemptions. Exemptions when people

00:00:29.980 have real conditions which don't allow them to wear a mask and the stores all accept that

00:00:35.820 because that's what's legal. However, certain churches, which are also the ones actually

00:00:43.800 that want to shut down everything anyway, but certain churches have taken it upon themselves

00:00:48.240 to become uber authorities such that they dictate, no, we're not going for medical exemptions

00:00:54.280 and we're going to deal with one of those churches today. You're going to want to stay tuned.

00:00:59.980 Nick Lazzuto, welcome to the program.

00:01:20.200 Thank you, John. It's a pleasure to be on.

00:01:24.080 Let's begin as we always do at the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father and of

00:01:28.160 the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

00:01:31.640 Amen.

00:01:32.660 All right. So, Nick, you are in the Diocese of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, and you've got a

00:01:40.440 very interesting story of what transpired with you at the Basilica in Ottawa. Why don't

00:01:47.480 you go ahead and tell us your story?

00:01:50.900 Okay. Both my wife and I went to St. Patrick's Basilica. St. Patrick's is not our parish, but

00:01:59.460 we often go there if we miss the nine o'clock mass, and we happened to be there a few weeks

00:02:04.940 ago. We entered the Basilica at around 1130, and we started some prayers prior to mass.

00:02:12.080 Within about 10 minutes that we were kneeling and saying our prayers, one of the employees

00:02:18.160 of the church came up to me and said, you need to leave. And I said, why? Because you're

00:02:22.680 not wearing a mask. And I quickly said to him, well, I have a medical condition, and I'm well

00:02:28.880 within the bylaw. That doesn't matter. You need to leave. And I said, you know what? I'm

00:02:34.840 going to continue my prayers, and we'll just go from there. And he said, well, I will have

00:02:40.880 to call a priest to deal with you. I said, go right ahead. So, Father, one of the priests

00:02:47.400 at the parish came out, I believe it was Father Amas, and he very rudely asked me to leave

00:02:55.620 as well. And I said, with all due respect, Father, I am in the middle of my prayers, and

00:03:00.320 I would like to finish my prayers. And I insisted on saying, of course, I didn't move. He proceeded

00:03:06.280 to call the police. A few minutes later, the police arrives. And of course, we go through

00:03:11.940 the same scene again with the officer. And I said to the officer, officer, you're interrupting

00:03:17.440 my prayers. I wish to complete my prayers, and then we'll talk. Well, he said, you know

00:03:23.280 what? You're making an embarrassment of yourself, and this is going to get worse. You've got all

00:03:27.980 kinds of people looking at you. And I said, officer, these people are also looking at you

00:03:32.560 as well. And so, this went on for a while, and he called for reinforcements. He called another

00:03:38.700 officer in. He was somewhat a little more polite than the first officer, and he said, well, you know

00:03:44.340 what? We really do need to talk about this. And I turned to my wife. By this time, we're getting

00:03:49.020 close to quarter after 12 when Mass was about to begin. So, in order to respect the parishioners

00:03:56.060 that were there so that Mass could actually start taking place and put this comedy to rest,

00:04:01.920 I said to my wife, you know what? Let's go out with this officer, and let's see exactly

00:04:05.860 how we can resolve this. So, all in the meantime, as I'm walking to the back of the church with

00:04:12.740 my wife behind me, of course, I'm praying the divine mercy and felt very much at ease and

00:04:20.600 peace. And at the back of the church, the officer that preceded me said, he put his hand on my

00:04:27.260 shoulders, and he said, how's your mental health? And I was a little bit surprised. I said, my mental

00:04:34.020 health is fine. How's yours? And he said, and he burst out loud and says, mine is fine. Can we go

00:04:39.620 outside and talk about this? As soon as we stepped outside the church, he looks at me and he says,

00:04:45.400 you know what? We don't really have anything to charge you with. We thought that maybe you were some

00:04:50.320 drunk that went off to, came into the church, and you were causing a disturbance. Clearly, you were

00:04:55.120 not. You were praying. We could see that. And you seemed to be of good mental state. I said, yeah,

00:05:01.440 well, thank you for noticing that. And so, we had a brief conversation, and then he said to me,

00:05:06.520 well, look, you know what? I know you're going to go to some kind of a higher authority about this. I

00:05:10.440 said, I certainly will. Would you let us know? Because we want to know how to deal with this kind of

00:05:15.360 complaint, because basically, you weren't doing anything wrong. I said, thank you, officer.

00:05:20.320 So, we chatted briefly, and we went home. And as soon as I got home, I sent an email,

00:05:26.160 an anecdotal email to the bishop to let them know how I felt about this. There were emails that went

00:05:32.000 back and forth through his secretary, but basically, they gave me a polite apology, but were not willing

00:05:38.280 to really question the pastor and the fact that they had really superseded the bylaw. The bylaw is

00:05:45.380 quite clear. I do have a medical condition. Therefore, I cannot wear a mask. And I have not

00:05:50.680 been wearing a mask for well over a year. So, when I saw that this was beginning to be

00:05:56.860 a kind of a series, I stopped the emails and I said, look, you know how I feel, and it doesn't look

00:06:03.540 like you really want to investigate this further. Therefore, I will definitely consider legal action

00:06:09.440 because I'm being discriminated against. And that was the end of that. And that's really where it's,

00:06:13.400 it sits today.

00:06:14.560 Right. Now, what's really fascinating about this, we, we have some footage from you because your,

00:06:19.680 your wife who was there with you was, was actually filming after a bit. So, we're going to play some

00:06:24.120 of that. But one thing to note is your wife was wearing a mask. So,

00:06:28.760 so this is the thing they, they obviously see you with your wife, see her in compliance of their big

00:06:36.080 rules. And yet the law stipulates, there is this exemption for medical conditions. You presented with

00:06:41.640 that and they take no, they actually go over and above the law. And yet, and they're supposed to be

00:06:50.300 a church, not turning people away. And another thing to point out in the church, were you socially

00:06:55.860 distanced from other people? Well, my goodness, uh, 20, 25 feet from the closest pew. Yeah. So,

00:07:04.720 you know, I mean, really? Yeah. I mean, St. Patrick's Basilica is a huge church and, and, uh, on weekday

00:07:11.160 masses, very few people there. So it's an unbelievable. Um, so we're going to play a couple of clips,

00:07:18.720 but before we do, I just want to mention the priest in question is actually the associate rector,

00:07:24.360 Fr. Stephen Amess. And the rector there, uh, is Fr. Kevin Beach and, or Monsignor Kevin Beach. Um,

00:07:32.700 we want to encourage you to, you know, really make your views known about this, uh, in, in a polite

00:07:38.140 way, but they need to respect the rights of Catholics to have the Holy Sacrifice, the mass. And while they

00:07:46.100 are complying with the law to be allowed that, what right, which is only, which is only theirs,

00:07:53.760 the number at the church there at St. Patrick's Basilica, 613-233-1125. We've got to stand up and

00:08:04.480 support Catholics like Nick who are being discriminated against unfairly by certain Catholic

00:08:11.520 pastors in the church. We can't stand for it. The faithful need to stand up. Nick, why don't we

00:08:17.140 go ahead and take a look at some of your video? Let's play a clip of it now.

00:08:23.680 I'm standing up for my rights to, to worship my God. No, we're not. I'm not leaving. Okay.

00:08:30.740 You bring it on. I know my legal rights. I'm, I'm worshiping God and I don't need, I don't

00:08:40.780 need to tell you anymore. I've already given you an answer. It's going to go well. You need

00:08:44.400 to leave. You know what? The priest has asked you to leave. You have to leave. This is his

00:08:48.040 parish. You need to leave. He doesn't own this parish. We are all part of this church.

00:08:52.300 I'm a member of this church. I cannot be sent out. You leave on your own or you're going

00:08:56.160 to leave in handcuffs. It's what you pick your choice. Well, you know what? I'm giving you an

00:08:59.620 option. Let's go. You leave on your own or you leave in handcuffs. You know what? Don't

00:09:05.120 threaten me. He wants you out of the parish. So leave. That's fine. You have your options.

00:09:12.560 We do. So we'll start walking out. We will walk out. Respect everybody else in this church.

00:09:17.080 You're not respecting my rights. Let's go. Have a good day. Let's go.

00:09:20.740 For the safety of your self-compassion.

00:09:29.620 You know, obviously you were calm and you were collected, actually. And as you said,

00:09:37.400 you were said earlier, you had, you know, been praying the divine mercy prayer. So I think that

00:09:42.940 obviously gave you a lot of peace. What is your motivation right now in terms of coming forward

00:09:50.140 with this? What's your message to both the faithful and to the priests?

00:09:54.260 Well, first of all, I think as Christians, we're living through a very turbulent time. And regardless

00:10:03.020 of where this happens, we have to be cognizant of what the bylaws are and we have to respect the

00:10:09.360 bylaws. And no one is above the law, including our clergy. And especially when the bishop of our

00:10:17.820 diocese sent a very clear letter stating that they need to respect medical conditions. They quoted the

00:10:24.780 bylaw and they talked about the bylaw. But this particular priest went over and above, therefore

00:10:30.380 disobeying his bishop and took matters in his own hands. So when that sort of things happened,

00:10:36.140 when that sort of thing happened, I mean, I'm very adamant about protecting just human rights,

00:10:42.640 never mind the fact that I was deprived of a mass and a Eucharist in the process, because that's the

00:10:48.620 purpose as to why I went to church. So over and above that, I am more than willing to and probably

00:10:57.140 will consider legal action because this particular incident needs to be corrected. And when several

00:11:04.060 attempts were made to get some kind of an explanation as to why, they offered me a polite,

00:11:11.780 a polite apology. But I really don't think that goes far enough. I mean, you know, I respect the

00:11:20.140 clergy. I have all the respect for them. These are not easy times for them as well. But when they

00:11:24.960 themselves contravene a very clear bylaw, then there needs to be some kind of a consequence that

00:11:32.380 has to follow. And that's precisely what I'm going to go after.

00:11:35.420 Yeah. I mean, it is, it is incredible by rights. You know, I've, I've watched several pastors of

00:11:42.680 evangelical churches really go the other way and, and, and say to the authorities, look,

00:11:49.700 we can't shut our churches down. We've got to keep them open for the faithful because Christ would

00:11:54.580 not turn away anyone. Christ had his doors open to all people and invited them to eternal life and

00:12:01.940 to come and worship together. Particular, we are simply saying it's impossible theologically

00:12:08.360 for the Christian church to close its doors to those who have been branded by society in the,

00:12:15.700 in our particular time as being socially undesirable is absolutely anathema to the Christian gospel.

00:12:20.880 A Christian argument could only, could never say that physical health and protection is the

00:12:26.120 paramount and ultimate thing. A Christian argument must say that eternal health is infinitely more

00:12:30.540 important. But if the church itself doesn't recognize that it is even more important than

00:12:35.960 hospitals for the body, then we really do have a problem.

00:12:40.520 And in days of old, when they had plagues and so on, they multiplied the masses. They made more of

00:12:46.380 them because they knew that, you know, these things come through the permissive will of God,

00:12:50.500 because they are for us also a punishment for sin. And yet here we are doing the exact opposite of what

00:12:58.420 we need to be doing. It's absolutely incredible. Nick, I want to thank you for coming forward with

00:13:03.480 this and also encourage you to, you know, continue on, even to go back to that parish, although to that

00:13:11.800 church, although it might be, you know, difficult, but I think really would be good for them to be able

00:13:19.180 to treat you properly and recognize the error of their ways.

00:13:25.560 Well, you know what, again, we're all about forgiveness as well. And I have no issues with

00:13:30.840 that. I will definitely contact the parish and politely ask them to resolve this in some way.

00:13:39.740 And it will not stop them from attending mass there. Now that we're back to 15% as of this,

00:13:46.600 as of this Friday, we don't know what our government is going to do next. But in terms of our freedom to

00:13:53.420 worship our God, freedom of religion, we have to stand up for this. I mean, this is, they are going

00:14:00.100 against our Charter of Rights, and they're going against the Constitution. And no emergency act

00:14:05.300 supersedes our Charter of Rights and Constitution. So I'm well versed in that area. And I'm going to

00:14:11.220 keep pressing the issue until the situation changes. And until we get full attendance in all

00:14:17.180 of our churches, be it Protestant or Catholic, because we need to defend our faith here. And we

00:14:22.400 need to move forward and receive the sacraments. That's the bottom line. Not out of choice, but out of

00:14:28.380 necessity. As of last July, when I found out what was really going on behind, you know, the Great

00:14:35.940 Reset, etc., etc., I became a political activist. And I, to this day, I continue to be a political

00:14:42.620 activist. We have teamed up with three or four other researchers. We've put a presentation together

00:14:49.580 that really exposes the fraud behind COVID, etc. So we've been doing that and going person in person

00:14:57.820 via Zoom live for the last two months and a half. And we'll see where that goes. We're trying to find

00:15:03.860 strategies to push back this great evil. And, you know, that's part of what we need to do as

00:15:11.020 Christians, but not we're not all called to do what we do what we do. Therefore, we encourage others and we

00:15:16.860 inform them. We educate others to really open their eyes as to what's really going on and what's

00:15:22.440 causing this turbulence. And we cannot take this for granted. You know, we go back to the early church,

00:15:28.460 good God, how many martyrs did we have that stood up for the faith? Surely we can stand up to these

00:15:33.640 corrupt governments, this global Great Reset, and replace it with a great Christian reawakening. 1.00

00:15:41.420 And that's really what I'm working on. So that's that.

00:15:45.860 Amen. Thank you so much, Nick, for being with us on this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:15:51.640 And may God bless you.

00:15:52.500 Thank you, John. God bless you too. We'll talk again.

00:15:56.160 Amen. And God bless all of you.

00:15:57.860 Amen. Take care.

00:15:58.460 We'll see you next time.

00:16:00.220 Bye-bye.

00:16:00.900 Bye-bye.

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The John-Henry Westen Show - June 15, 2021

Priest calls police on man who wasn't wearing mask at church for medical reasons

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