The John-Henry Westen Show - Special Edition： Cardinals' new declaration corrects rampant confusion in the Church

00:00:00.000 Hello, this is John Henry Weston from LifeSite News. Welcome to this special edition of the

00:00:04.260 John Henry Weston Show. We're doing a really quick send out of this because there's incredible news

00:00:10.080 that I get to share with you this morning. Today was released an amazing declaration of truths by

00:00:17.340 Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Pujac, as well as Archbishop, excuse me, Bishop Schneider from

00:00:23.240 Kazakhstan, as well also as Archbishop Jan Pavel Lenga, who is the Archbishop Emeritus of Karaganda

00:00:32.500 in Kazakhstan, and Archbishop Tomas Peta, who is the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Mary in

00:00:40.260 Astana, Kazakhstan, where Bishop Schneider is from, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, whom we all know so

00:00:45.260 well and love. They have released an incredible statement, but before we get into that, let's

00:00:50.380 start as we always do with the sign of the cross, and this time make it a great thanksgiving for this

00:00:55.340 declaration. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, Amen. I am so happy to tell

00:01:01.880 you about this. This is, and I'll read you the title, it's The Church of the Living God, The Pillar and

00:01:07.500 Bulwark of the Truth, A Declaration of Truths Relating to Some of the Most Common Errors in the Life of the

00:01:14.060 Church of Our Time. And I'm going to give you a really quick summary. The summary goes like this,

00:01:19.280 and you're going to stick around for the actual wording because that's coming up, but just listen

00:01:23.400 to this summary. This is a declaration declaring the truths on things like evangelization being

00:01:30.140 needed for Jews and Muslims and Protestants. Stuff that's never said anymore, but needs to be said.

00:01:36.340 Stuff that, like, hell is real and souls, by the way, are not annihilated. They go there.

00:01:41.880 Christianity is the only religion willed by God. And you'll notice, of course, these are obvious

00:01:47.160 corrections of what Pope Francis has said and written in various places. Many different, not only

00:01:53.760 Pope Francis, of course, but Father James Martin, all sorts of prelates, bishops, and so on, who have

00:02:00.400 taught things contrary to the faith. And they're being here corrected. Some of the most confusing

00:02:06.040 things of our times. The thing like capital punishment, the so-called change in capital

00:02:10.980 punishments teaching, all in this declaration. The fact that there has to be an all-male priesthood 1.00

00:02:16.860 and diaconate. The defense of priestly celibacy. And then, of course, they tackle all of the current

00:02:24.440 issues of our time. Abortion, IVF, contraception, euthanasia, divorce, even things like masturbation,

00:02:31.640 sex before marriage or outside of marriage, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, even civil unions 0.82

00:02:37.500 for homosexual couples. Things like the transgender phenomenon. So let's get into it. Let's get into

00:02:46.420 the actual wording. So they begin their Declaration of Truths. It's a beautiful document. It's quite

00:02:53.620 lengthy. I'm just going to hit the highlights for you. I encourage you to go to LifeSite,

00:02:57.020 read the full thing, and also make use of it. Because they call on Catholics all over the world

00:03:02.560 to use this Declaration of Truths themselves to not only sign up for it, but they hope it leads to

00:03:09.300 confession of the truth. Confession means proclamation of, or speaking of, or saying of

00:03:15.200 the truths, especially those truths that are most lacking in our world today. The one where there's

00:03:20.660 great confusion on the part of the faithful. And they actually say that not only will they hope,

00:03:26.380 will it lead to this, you know, public confession of the truth, but also that it would be a movement,

00:03:35.060 they say, of confession of the truth and reparation for widespread apostasy and things like that.

00:03:43.440 So let's go to the actual wording. So first of all, or one of the things they say first is whatever

00:03:49.580 new insights that may be expressed regarding the deposit of faith, nevertheless, they cannot be contrary

00:03:55.540 to what the Church has always proposed in the same dogma, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.

00:04:02.120 In other words, the faith doesn't change. Yes, there might be new insights, but the faith doesn't

00:04:07.400 change. Also, they say, after the institution of the new and everlasting covenant in Jesus Christ,

00:04:14.320 no one may be saved by obedience to the law of Moses alone, without faith in Christ as true God

00:04:21.120 and the only Savior of humankind. And of course, that's incredible because it speaks to the need

00:04:27.440 for the conversion of the Jews, something that hasn't been talked about in the Church for a long,

00:04:31.880 long time. If you recall, in the 60s already, we did away with the traditional prayer for the

00:04:37.040 conversion of the Jews, and these truths need to be brought out. But similar with regard to Muslims,

00:04:43.000 the Declaration of Truth says this, Muslims and others who lack faith in Jesus Christ, 1.00

00:04:48.440 God and man, even monotheists cannot give to God the same adoration as Christians do, 1.00

00:04:54.180 that is to say, supernatural worship in spirit and truth of those who have received the spirit

00:04:59.220 of filial adoption. So just incredible truths. These quotations come directly from the document,

00:05:06.680 by the way, and he goes on. So with regard to, not he, they go on, of course, spiritual realities,

00:05:14.060 again, direct quote, spiritual realities, excuse me, spiritualities and religions that promote

00:05:20.240 any kind of idolatry or pantheism cannot be considered either as seeds or as fruits of the

00:05:26.900 divine word, since they are deceptions that preclude the evangelization and eternal salvation

00:05:32.560 of their adherents. So unbelievable, because so many people, Catholics, prelates even in the Church, 1.00

00:05:40.780 try to say, oh, in all of these other religions that exist, in any kind of native spirituality that

00:05:48.860 seems perhaps in the olden days of the Church, more like some kind of cult worship or some kind

00:05:56.340 of even demonic worship, a lot of people try and say, oh no, there's seeds of the faith and all of

00:06:01.280 that and lights. They're saying, no, they are deceptions that preclude the evangelization and

00:06:06.960 eternal salvation of their adherents. So they talk about a true ecumenism. What is a true ecumenism?

00:06:14.620 They define it in the document this way. True ecumenism intends that non-Catholics should enter, 1.00

00:06:20.300 and what should they enter? The document says the Catholic Church. They also, one of the grave 0.79

00:06:26.840 confusions, probably underpinning so much of the confusion in the Church today, is this false notion

00:06:32.640 that hell either doesn't exist or hell is empty. We addressed that already on one of the episodes

00:06:36.520 of the John Henry Weston show, again, another special episode. But they say, and I quote,

00:06:40.980 hell exists, and those who are condemned to hell for an unrepented mortal sin are eternally punished

00:06:48.280 there by divine justice. They continue, eternally damned human beings will not be annihilated

00:06:55.200 since their souls are immortal according to the infallible teaching of the Church.

00:07:00.920 Just incredible truths of the faith so often not pronounced, so often not heard, that we

00:07:08.540 really need to proclaim. Take on this challenge of confessing these truths, these truths that just

00:07:15.180 aren't spoken anywhere. It's now up to us. Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Pujac, and the bishops of Kazakhstan

00:07:21.500 are calling us to it. And it's my fervent prayer and hope that many more bishops, prelates, will sign

00:07:28.360 on to this declaration, that we'll see a flood of the lay faithful doing that. LifeSite News is

00:07:34.420 actually putting out a petition calling on people to sign up to this. Of course, we're unaffiliated with

00:07:39.400 it in terms of its official proclamation, other than having it and producing it for you to see.

00:07:44.680 But it's so incredible. Let's go on here. They talk about the religion born of faith in Jesus

00:07:51.200 Christ, the incarnate Son of God, and the only saviour of humankind, is the only religion positively

00:07:56.420 willed by God. Now, you'll remember that in the Abu Dhabi statement, Pope Francis stated that

00:08:02.520 talking about other religions being positively willed by God. And the document, this declaration

00:08:10.340 of truth, makes it clear that that is false. But also, they say this, the opinion is therefore wrong

00:08:16.180 that says that just as God positively wills the diversity of the male and female sexes

00:08:21.400 and the diversity of nations, so in the same way, he also wills the diversity of religions.

00:08:26.860 So they say again, this opinion is therefore wrong. Just incredible that this is said so clearly

00:08:35.880 and plainly for the faithful to see. We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this

00:08:40.560 for years, particularly since the election of Pope Francis, when the confusion reached

00:08:46.220 a fever pitch. Let's go on. The gift of free will. Often people say now that free will is

00:08:54.440 to decide whatever you want. No, actually, the Declaration of Truth defines it this way.

00:08:58.340 The gift of free will, with which God the Creator endowed the human person, grants man the natural

00:09:04.100 right to choose only the good and the true. No human person has therefore a natural right

00:09:10.620 to offend God in choosing the moral evil of sin, the religious error of idolatry, blasphemy,

00:09:16.420 or a false religion. End quote. Going on, the document says, the Declaration of Truth says,

00:09:24.220 and I quote, all of the commandments of God are equally just and merciful. The opinion is therefore

00:09:30.520 wrong that says that a person is able, by obeying a divine prohibition, for example, the sixth

00:09:36.780 commandment not to commit adultery, to sin against God by this act of obedience, or to

00:09:42.900 morally harm himself or to sin against another. And of course, that's the answering the confusions

00:09:48.560 that come out of Amoris Laetitia, where it talks about how those who are divorced and in

00:09:54.220 a second so-called marriage are therefore unable to live as brother and sister because it might

00:10:02.920 cause sin and such illicit unions can somehow be willed by God. The Declaration of Truth goes

00:10:12.000 on to say, a woman who has conceived a child within her womb is forbidden by natural and

00:10:17.360 divine law to kill this human life within her, by herself or by others, whether directly or

00:10:22.120 indirectly. And obviously that there is talking about abortion. Goes on, though, to talk about

00:10:27.040 other evils related. They say procedures which cause conception to happen outside the womb

00:10:32.900 are morally unacceptable since they separate procreation from the fully human context of the

00:10:39.160 conjugal act. In other words, IVF, any kind of conception of the child outside of the sexual act

00:10:49.720 inside marriage as God intended it, is prohibited, is not allowed. No human being may ever be morally

00:10:56.800 justified to kill himself or cause himself to be put to death by others, even if the intention

00:11:02.220 is to escape suffering. So in other words, a prohibition on euthanasia. Marriage is by divine

00:11:08.320 ordinance and natural law an indissolvable union of one man and one woman. Therefore, of course, 0.94

00:11:14.020 there's no possibility of divorce. By natural and divine law, no human being may voluntarily

00:11:20.380 and without sin exercise his sexual powers outside of a valid marriage. Of course, that then speaks

00:11:26.060 against the whole gamut of any kind of sex before marriage or use of pornography or masturbation or any

00:11:34.100 kinds of these exercises of the sexual powers outside of marriage. In fact, that section of the

00:11:42.140 declaration adds this in these words, it is therefore contrary to Holy Scripture and tradition

00:11:46.380 to affirm that conscience can truly and rightly judge that sexual acts between persons who have

00:11:52.580 contracted a civil marriage with each other can sometimes be morally right or requested or even

00:11:57.420 commanded by God, although one or both persons is sacramentally married to another person.

00:12:04.480 So very clear teaching on this, again, clarifying that area in Amoris Laetitia was so very confusing.

00:12:14.380 They talk about natural and divine law prohibiting, and I quote,

00:12:18.080 any action which either before, at the moment of, or sexual intercourse is specifically intended to

00:12:23.520 prevent procreation, whether as an end or as a means. So in other words, a total prohibition on

00:12:29.180 contraception. So anyone, and again, I'm quoting, anyone, husband or wife, who has obtained a civil

00:12:36.360 divorce from the spouse to whom he or she is validly married and has contracted a civil marriage

00:12:42.700 with some other person during the lifetime of his legitimate spouse and who lives in a marital way

00:12:49.620 with a civil partner and who chooses to remain in this state, in this state, with full knowledge

00:12:54.860 of the nature of the act and with full consent of the will to that act, is in a state of mortal sin

00:13:00.600 and therefore cannot receive sanctifying grace and grow in charity. Therefore, these Christians, 0.98

00:13:06.860 unless they are living as brother and sister, cannot receive Holy Communion. Again, clarifying that

00:13:12.920 very confusing section in Amoris Laetitia backed up in the Malta definition, which was then put into

00:13:20.240 the Acta Apostolicae Seris, and has created mass confusion in the church. That section should be

00:13:27.320 read very carefully and gone over because it's a very well-worded section, too complex here for us

00:13:33.200 to unpack in a quick format. So we'll go on. Human loss is the document, or any human power

00:13:39.500 whatsoever cannot give two persons of the same sex the right to marry one another or declare two such

00:13:45.400 persons to be married, since this is contrary to natural and divine law. Therefore, a complete

00:13:50.580 prohibition on same-sex marriage or anything of the sort. In fact, it's not only same-sex marriage,

00:13:55.080 but they talk about unions as well. And I quote, unions that have the same name of marriage without

00:14:01.060 the reality of it being contrary to natural and divine law are not capable of receiving a blessing

00:14:06.840 or the blessing of the church. So all of these places, you know, there's some diocese in Germany now

00:14:12.300 that will give homosexual couple blessings. That is not Catholic. And I'll continue. 1.00

00:14:18.480 The civil power that's talking to governments may not establish civil or legal unions between two

00:14:25.060 persons of the same sex that plainly imitate the union of marriage, even if such unions do not

00:14:31.000 receive the name of marriage, since such unions would encourage grave sin for the individuals who are 0.99

00:14:36.480 in them and would be a cause of grave scandal for others. And again, this is a charitable

00:14:43.320 definition. These are all words of charity because we know such behaviors are harmful for the human

00:14:49.960 body, harmful for the human psyche, but especially from a Catholic perspective, harmful for the soul. 0.86

00:14:55.900 And we'd never wish that. So the Declaration of Truths goes on. It says,

00:15:00.560 The male and female sexes, man and woman, are biological realities created by the wise will of

00:15:07.440 God. It is therefore a rebellion against the natural and divine law and a grave sin that a man may attempt

00:15:13.680 to become a woman by mutilating himself, or even by simply declaring himself to be such, or that a woman

00:15:20.560 may in like manner attempt to become a man, or to hold that the civil authority has the duty or the right

00:15:25.920 to act as if such things were or may be possible and legitimate." A perfect answer to the whole

00:15:33.600 transgender ideology that we're experiencing right now. Why can't leaders, teachers of the faith,

00:15:41.440 just say it? Well, it's been said now by great leaders of the faith and is here all in a document

00:15:46.880 for us to use, for us to proclaim as the truth, and for us to also recognize as true, teach our children

00:15:55.280 the truths, especially the ones that are most confusing today, which is what this document

00:15:59.200 gives us, the truth in all those areas that are most confusing, and also use this as an act of

00:16:06.720 reparation for all of the sins against the faith, for the apostasy that we're seeing everywhere. 0.90

00:16:11.920 Let's continue with the document. In accordance with Holy Scripture and the constant tradition of

00:16:17.760 the ordinary universal magisterium, the Church did not err in teaching that the civil power may lawfully

00:16:23.760 exercise capital punishment on malefactors, where this is truly necessary to preserve the existence 1.00

00:16:30.000 or just order of societies. In other words, the so-called change in the Catechism, which now says

00:16:36.960 it seems to imply that the Church was wrong before in allowing for capital punishment, is erroneous.

00:16:45.760 So let's go on. All authority on earth, as well as in heaven, belongs to Jesus Christ. Therefore,

00:16:52.080 civil societies and all other associations of men are subject to his kingship, so that the duty of

00:16:58.160 offering God genuine worship concerns men both individually and socially. Therefore, talking about

00:17:04.960 the social kingship of Christ, of which we hear almost nothing today. In the most holy sacrament of

00:17:12.080 the Eucharist, says the Declaration of Truth, a wonderful change takes place, namely the whole substance of

00:17:19.680 bread into the body of Christ, the whole substance of wine into his blood, a change that the Church 0.92

00:17:25.440 the Catholic Church very fittingly calls transubstantiation. Saying it plain out loud, 0.56

00:17:32.640 this is no just meal of symbols nonsense, this is the true body and blood of Christ. That's why we can

00:17:40.160 come and adore him in the Blessed Sacrament. The Sacrament of Penance, says the document,

00:17:45.520 is the only ordinary means by which grave sins committed after baptism may be remitted,

00:17:50.560 or that means forgiven. And by divine law, all such sins must be confessed by number and species.

00:17:57.760 And so, just a wonderful truth of the grace of the Sacrament of Confession, which is required to get

00:18:05.040 rid of mortal sin. By divine law, the confessor may not violate the seal of the Sacrament of Penance for

00:18:12.000 any reason whatsoever. No ecclesiastical authority has the power to dispense him from the seal of the

00:18:17.280 Sacrament, and the civil power is wholly incompetent to oblige him to do so. In other words, for the

00:18:24.000 priest, the seal of confession is sacrosanct. No one can touch it. It doesn't matter. The Pope himself

00:18:28.640 can't order a confession to be revealed, nor, of course, can any civil authority. And that's why you

00:18:33.280 have great saints like St. John Nupomesini, who is always pictured in windows like this with his

00:18:40.000 finger over his mouth, because he died for the seal of confession.

00:18:45.840 We're coming now to the end of my little summary of the document. I encourage you, of course, to read

00:18:50.080 the whole thing. I'm going to go through these few more points. And please take the time, go to

00:18:55.040 LifeSite News, pull the whole document, print it out for your family, and read it, profess it, learn it,

00:19:01.120 and love it. This is another quote. According to the constant tradition of the Church, the sacrament

00:19:09.440 of the Holy Eucharist may not be given to those who deny any truth of the Catholic faith by formally

00:19:14.800 professing their adherence to a heretical or to an officially schismatic Christian community.

00:19:20.720 Said plainly, of course, in my own words, the whole idea about communion for Protestants can't be done,

00:19:28.800 even if the Pope seemed to suggest that it was possible. It can't be done. It is a violation of

00:19:34.640 the sacrament itself, and it doesn't do any favors to those for whom we're proposing it. A couple more

00:19:41.520 points before I conclude, and really urge you to go back, get this document printed, and make it part of

00:19:48.000 your life. The law by which priests are bound to observe perfect continence in celibacy stems from

00:19:53.760 the example of Jesus Christ and belongs to immemorial and apostolic tradition according to the constant

00:20:01.920 witness of the Fathers of the Church and the Roman Pontiffs. For this reason, this law should not be

00:20:06.880 abolished in the Roman Church through the innovation of an optional priestly celibacy either at the regional

00:20:12.160 or universal level. In other words, the whole idea to get rid of priestly celibacy and allow for married

00:20:17.040 priests is not the way to go. And another quote, by the will of Christ and the divine constitution of

00:20:24.640 the Church, only baptized men may receive the sacrament of orders, whether in the episcopy,

00:20:30.800 the episcopacy, the priesthood, or the diaconate. Therefore, the whole idea of female deacons is a no-go. 0.95

00:20:38.720 With that, I'm going to conclude our short summary of what is in this Declaration of Truths,

00:20:44.560 once again encouraging you to sign on to the petition to support it, print it out, learn it,

00:20:50.880 love it, teach it to your family, proclaim it to all of your family and friends. And let's give thanks

00:20:57.200 to God for Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Pujac, and Bishop Schneider, and the other Kazakhstan bishops for

00:21:02.320 putting this out there in the first place. On this, the sort of after the Feast of Pentecost,

00:21:09.040 it really seems like the Holy Spirit has come to us, has provided us with the truth. Let's take that

00:21:14.160 courage, that strength, the Holy Spirit, and proclaim this truth that we've been given. Let us

00:21:20.240 not only sign on to it with our little signatures, let's sign on to it with our lives.

00:21:25.040 For LifeSite News, this is John Henry Weston, and may God bless you.

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The John-Henry Westen Show - June 10, 2019

Special Edition： Cardinals' new declaration corrects rampant confusion in the Church

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