The John-Henry Westen Show - THIS holy priest was canceled for doing exactly what priests MUST do

00:00:00.000 What is the fullness of the truth or the positive faith that Christ has given us, and

00:00:04.540 it's only found in the Catholic Church.

00:00:13.740 Hello, my friends. We are this week at the conference of the Coalition for Canceled Priests,

00:00:19.860 and I wanted to introduce you to one of those priests, because a lot of people in their minds

00:00:26.680 think of Canceled Priests, they think of Father Altman, and Father Altman is a great priest

00:00:32.120 and a Canceled Priest, but he's also of a very particular, very fiery kind of, wow, people

00:00:40.780 are either scared or totally inerrered by him, but all the priests who are Canceled, what

00:00:49.660 they have in common is Orthodoxy, and I'm talking about the ones taken up by the Coalition 0.92

00:00:55.820 for Canceled Priests, not the ones who are, they are legitimately Canceled Priests because

00:00:59.540 they've done things that are incompatible with the priesthood, etc., etc. That's not what

00:01:03.420 we're talking about. The Coalition for Canceled Priests are priests who are vetted and seen

00:01:08.740 to have been cancelled for all the wrong reasons, because they followed Christ, because they

00:01:13.360 were faithful. Stay tuned to this episode where we're going to speak to Father Jeffrey Fadden.

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00:02:16.960 Father Fadden, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, John Henry. My pleasure. We begin every

00:02:25.600 show at the Son of Cross, if you wouldn't mind leading us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

00:02:30.220 and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Father. So, Father, you, I was at your Mass this morning,

00:02:37.440 and I have to say I loved it. It was very peaceful. I've never actually been at a Mass where you encouraged

00:02:45.260 us all to just be totally silent. It was a traditional Latin Mass. And so rather than even 0.73

00:02:50.260 give responses or even, I didn't look at my missile because it was sort of like, just pray. And it was

00:02:57.520 very peaceful. And we're in like an auditorium, not a proper church, but it still was very recollected.

00:03:04.700 So that was beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So you're like an anomaly. People know

00:03:12.220 Father Altman, whom I know and love, but you're a very different guy. You're very different in your,

00:03:19.340 what would you say, calmness. Thank you. Thank you. So, but yet you're canceled. The Mass was

00:03:31.520 beautiful. It was, you love to adore our Lord. You spend a long time in adoration, very much like

00:03:38.340 Bishop Strickland, but yet you were canceled. That's almost unfathomable, but tell us your story.

00:03:47.320 How did this happen? It happened when the bishop asked me to take care of two small rural parishes

00:03:55.160 in Southeast Kansas and the Diocese of Wichita, where a lot of people there who grew up there

00:04:02.940 were really poorly catechized. I knew a lot of my predecessors who were pastors. And so long story

00:04:12.160 short, I was simply preaching the gospel. You mentioned Bishop Strickland and most of us followed

00:04:17.340 him and God bless him for just preaching the deposit of the faith. That's really all I did,

00:04:24.260 but it rattled some feathers and it was just a few people. So for example, you know, I,

00:04:31.280 I felt it my duty as a priest to preach about how fathers and doctors of the church, for example,

00:04:39.120 have always taught that, you know, the road to heaven is narrow and most people aren't making it.

00:04:45.580 And, and most people are actually choosing damnation. So the majority of humanity we've

00:04:51.820 always been taught, um, aren't saved by their own choice. Not that God does not want to save them,

00:04:57.480 but they choose against him or the reality of hell. And so these are just a couple of examples of

00:05:02.980 things that I believe I, I had to reiterate to people and, and what does the doctrine of there's

00:05:12.260 no salvation outside the Catholic church mean? And, and reiterating that. And many people

00:05:19.100 that maybe have relatives who are not Catholic or Protestant, for example, would hear that,

00:05:27.280 well, so I can't go to heaven because I'm not Catholic or that father said Protestants are going

00:05:31.960 to hell. These kinds of things that people, for whatever reasons, just aren't hearing. And when

00:05:38.260 they hear them, um, it stirs something up in them. And it's basically just really for preaching the

00:05:44.660 gospel, which I'm in love with. It's why I became a priest. And so, um, I've given my whole life to

00:05:52.580 this and it's, I didn't decide to become John Henry, like one particular kind of priest. I was,

00:05:59.060 I was a man first before I was ontologically changed. And I'm really the same person. If I take

00:06:06.260 off this collar, I don't change. It's just who I am as a man and as a priest. I love the Catholic

00:06:12.940 faith. I have ever since I was young and I want others to know it and have the passion that I have

00:06:20.900 all just so that we can have the best chance to get to heaven. That's what I'm trying to do. And I

00:06:26.000 tried to help my people get to heaven. So, I mean, you can think of it to answer your question as much

00:06:30.780 the same as what happened to Bishop Strickland and even Father Altman, because I followed him from

00:06:36.940 afar and even you three years ago when the Bishop was asking me to resign because he was getting

00:06:43.760 complaints from people. And in fact, it was just a few months after Father Altman when

00:06:51.280 it started with me. And so, it was really for being orthodox, for preaching the faith.

00:06:59.160 It wasn't for committing any crime. I did nothing wrong, nothing certainly worth warranting removal

00:07:06.240 as pastor for my parishes. But you hear those same words, you know, Father was divisive. But

00:07:14.000 John Henry, I think people forget sometimes that, and certainly the bishops seem to have forgotten this,

00:07:21.080 that the gospel is divisive. Our Lord is divisive. You either hear and accept his truth or you don't.

00:07:29.780 And that's division. And I mean, it's very clear in the scripture about, you know, Christ actually came

00:07:39.480 to make people choose. And so, these words, you know, I could even show you the letter of removal

00:07:47.500 that the Bishop put out. And those were the kinds of words he used. He said, I became at the very least

00:07:53.540 ineffective to my parishioners. And so, it certainly wasn't the majority of them. But people know in our

00:08:00.680 culture now, even in our church, that they can, if they don't like a priest or he says something they

00:08:06.180 don't like, they can just call the Bishop. And the Bishop's way of handling it was really

00:08:13.500 not supporting me, as I believe he should have, and all these other priests that this has happened

00:08:18.620 to. So, I mean, there's a lot of other details in there, but that's basically, you know, the gist of

00:08:25.360 it. And I know you've heard that many times.

00:08:28.520 This is one of the principal reasons, is this whole divisiveness. And largely, I think, because

00:08:34.340 given what's going on, people are raised in a religion that calls itself Catholic, but doesn't

00:08:43.000 teach the Catholic faith. In fact, you get a very distorted picture of what the faith is.

00:08:47.520 That's been going on for over a generation now. So, in bringing you to this small community

00:08:53.920 where they've had a few iterations of pastors, and they usually stay about six years, you're

00:09:00.000 talking like 20 years or so malformation, you'd come in as a normal priest, what should be 1.00

00:09:07.420 normal, and it sounds like you're teaching another religion, because you're teaching that

00:09:14.600 normal Catholicism or the Catholicism of the apostles. Let's get into it a little bit, because

00:09:21.600 I think a lot of people might think, oh no, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, and he was teaching 0.98

00:09:28.120 that all Protestants are going to hell. But that's not what you're taught. No. What is

00:09:31.600 it? What is it? In fact, that's actually a really good point, because it's one of those

00:09:34.640 parts of teaching which almost never happens. Outside the Catholic Church, there is no salvation, 0.54

00:09:42.160 but that doesn't mean that all Protestants are going to hell. What does it mean?

00:09:44.640 It means that God created every soul to be with him, so he wills that everybody be saved. And he

00:09:53.320 did establish one church, one holy Catholic apostolic church. And so God is one, God is

00:10:00.620 unity. All this division, these different denominations, the Protestant denominations,

00:10:07.460 that's not God's will. That's because of our sinfulness. So he created one church as the sole

00:10:13.560 means of salvation. So it doesn't necessarily mean that somebody who's not Catholic can't get to heaven,

00:10:19.580 but if they do, it's not because they're Baptist or Lutheran. It's in spite of that. And I've never

00:10:25.520 said or believed that a Protestant couldn't get to heaven, but it's by the grace of God. So we have

00:10:32.280 this responsibility as Christians, and if we're a believer in God, to seek the truth. And there are

00:10:39.220 different ways that we get to that. It might be through another person, through a family member,

00:10:43.620 through a priest or a religious or somebody, but our conscience. But most people aren't trying to

00:10:50.420 advance and embrace what is the fullness of the truth or the deposit of faith that Christ has given

00:10:55.880 us. And it's only found in the Catholic church. So it means that Christ says very clearly as a command

00:11:05.180 in John's gospel in chapter six, he says, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,

00:11:11.340 you have no life in you. And so he didn't institute a church and the Holy Eucharist in that church

00:11:17.320 arbitrarily, but he gave them to us really, without which it's almost impossible to get to heaven. And you

00:11:25.180 just don't hear talk like this anymore. But the fact is that this dogma was infallibly defined more

00:11:31.300 than once prior to Vatican II. And it means it's something that's always true. You just don't hear it

00:11:37.020 taught. And one of the simple ways of explaining it, I always think, is

00:11:41.980 is that in heaven, again, God is one. There's unity. There can't be different religions in heaven

00:11:50.360 like there are here. Otherwise, heaven would be no different than earth. So in order for you to be with

00:11:56.840 God for eternity, to enjoy the beatific vision, one way or another, you will have to be a part of the church

00:12:02.300 that Christ established, which is the Catholic church, because it's the only one, you know,

00:12:08.120 if you believe in history that can be traced back in unbroken succession to the original apostles,

00:12:13.080 the Catholic church, Matthew 18, where Jesus makes Peter the rock. On this rock, I'll build my church.

00:12:19.080 And so we've had this succession of popes. So either one is converted John Henry in this life,

00:12:27.880 what it means, or maybe on their deathbed, or the moment they die when they're confronted with truth

00:12:35.400 himself, Jesus Christ, or in purgatory. But to get to heaven, you will have to be Catholic because 1.00

00:12:43.100 there's only one religion in heaven. There can't be others. That's kind of a simple way of explaining

00:12:48.980 it. But I've never believed that if you're not Catholic, it's impossible to get to heaven. A lot of

00:12:55.260 that's up to God. But the point is, we have a responsibility to embrace the entire truth.

00:13:01.520 And it does matter what religion we practice. So there's this, among other things, there's this

00:13:07.580 poison that's infected the Catholic church, and it's modernism, it's relativism. Even in our leaders,

00:13:14.080 our hierarchy won't come out and just be explicit that, you know, you really do have to convert to

00:13:20.940 the Catholic faith, especially if you knowingly left it. We all know people, sometimes they're in

00:13:26.060 our own families, who are actually apostates, where they willingly left the Catholic faith.

00:13:32.280 And it's very clear that unless they convert and come back, they really cannot be saved.

00:13:38.780 And so when I preach boldly about these things that not only am I passionate about, but it's

00:13:44.660 it's who I am as a man and a priest, it's my duty and responsibility to do it out of not using scare

00:13:53.320 tactics, but out of love and trying to help people to the truth so, you know, they can ultimately get

00:13:59.800 to heaven. And it's just something that's, you don't hear it talked about hardly at all, if ever,

00:14:07.180 by most priests and certainly the clergy. I mean, we can, I can think about an interview

00:14:11.380 where a bishop was interviewed and asked Point Blake, you know, I'm, I'm not of the faith. I'm

00:14:16.420 Jewish. Uh, can I get to heaven without being Catholic? And he couldn't simply tell him the 0.98

00:14:22.140 truth. Um, and I, you probably know what I'm referring to. Hey, my friends, you've heard about

00:14:30.340 the Eucharistic revival that's going on. The pilgrimage is going to culminate in Indiana at the

00:14:36.380 Eucharistic Congress. Well, we've got amazing news for you. We are holding a traditional Latin 0.97

00:14:41.360 math steps away from the main Congress center, because we learned at first there was no traditional

00:14:47.260 Latin mass, not on the schedule. And, uh, we thought, Oh no, what we do. One of our donors

00:14:51.740 said, can you fix that? We found victory field right across steps away from where the Congress

00:14:56.480 is being held to hold the Latin mass. And guess what? We learned that since then there was some 0.97

00:15:01.260 announcements of other Latin masses that are going to be in the area on different days.

00:15:05.960 And so it's really awesome. So if you are in the traditional Latin mass, you thought, Oh,

00:15:11.240 I can't go to the Congress because they don't have one there. They do have them there now.

00:15:15.540 And, uh, it's just wonderful. This is Father Fasching. He's going to be there. And this is

00:15:20.720 Father James Altman, who's going to be there. They're going to be celebrating masses for us.

00:15:24.640 Lifeset's going to be inside the Congress as well. Um, as is Vicki Yamasaki. Vicki, go ahead.

00:15:29.980 Yeah. We're just so excited. We hope you join us and, uh, sign up for this free event,

00:15:38.080 free lunches because of a generous donor. As he said, I'm actually going to be at the Eucharistic

00:15:44.640 Congress and I'm going to walk away from my booth so that I can enjoy this traditional Latin mass 1.00

00:15:51.360 and these three great speakers that will offer insights into why it is that so many Catholics

00:16:02.260 no longer believe in the real presence. As we know, in our Catholic culture, in our Catholic

00:16:09.620 teaching, there's a phrase, Lexa Rondi, Lexa Gudendi, as we pray, so we believe. And through the

00:16:16.080 traditional Latin mass, it inspires such depth of prayer. No funny business going on up there.

00:16:21.860 People believe. And so we're trying to inspire that belief in the real presence because without

00:16:26.540 which we do not have life within us. Thus, what we're doing will actually be throwing fuel on the

00:16:32.900 fire revival, a belief in the real presence of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ,

00:16:38.380 our Lord, in the Holy Eucharist. Amen. Amen. Father, I'm, I'm thrilled for the opportunity to

00:16:44.320 remind you what you can be doing to renew your own personal devotion to the Eucharist and also

00:16:50.360 how to get others to remind them to deepen their faith in worshiping our Lord in the Eucharist. So

00:16:58.060 based on my own experience, it's just going to be a great opportunity to remind people of

00:17:02.940 what the church teaches us that our lives are supposed to revolve around the Holy Eucharist. So

00:17:08.100 I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to walk right across the street to Victory

00:17:14.000 Field and join you for this beautiful traditional Latin Mass on July 19th and hear from these three

00:17:23.900 fantastic speakers. And maybe you can catch the other traditional Latin Mass the day before

00:17:31.320 with, with Archbishop Corderlyon. And now that's a little further away. That's just under two miles

00:17:39.460 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, smaller parish. It can seat about 400. So you better get a seat early

00:17:48.000 there. Victory Field seats about 10,000. So register soon. We can't wait to see you.

00:17:55.320 Join us, our friends, at Victory Field on July 19th, right steps away from the Eucharistic Congress in

00:18:02.820 Indianapolis, Indiana. And God bless you and look forward to seeing you there.

00:18:08.960 Yes. Well, you, you, Mother Miriam, uh, who, as you know, is Jewish background. Yes.

00:18:14.040 In Protestant for a decade and tried to convert Catholics and then, and then became a Catholic,

00:18:17.760 then became a nun. She had an interview with, uh, on, on the show that she does, uh, daily for LifeSite

00:18:25.640 in, in our partnership with, uh, Station of the Cross Radio. Um, she had Bishop Schneider on with her

00:18:31.780 and she said in his company, you know, the greatest form of antisemitism is keeping Jesus from the Jews.

00:18:40.440 Yes. It was stunning. The Bishop, of course, agreed, but that is anathema to all of them, not all, but

00:18:48.640 a great majority of the hierarchy today, because it, the, you know, you can't say that, but it's hard to

00:18:54.520 correct mother when she is a Jew, are, uh, and so, and she calls herself a completed Jew because 0.67

00:18:59.420 he has a Catholic. Yes. So there's a lot of beauty there, but one of the things you said is very

00:19:03.460 interesting because, um, my dad once gave me this comparison. He said, being a Protestant, being a

00:19:09.920 non-Catholic and, and, and, and trying to get to heaven, it's like trying to cross the ocean in a 0.97

00:19:15.320 rowboat rather than in the steamship. Yep. Yep. And, and because it's doable, theoretically possible,

00:19:24.260 okay. But it's not easy and it's, it's, it's unbelievably difficult. And then he also used

00:19:35.100 to say that at the same time, because the one conflict in everyone's mind, when we say that

00:19:40.140 is that while you're all of these Catholics who, who like, and, and typically from my, I was married

00:19:49.440 into a Protestant family. So, uh, you know, my, my father-in-law who is an elder at their church and,

00:19:55.000 and, and a lot of the people I know from my in-laws side of the family, done. The Catholics, 1.00

00:20:01.560 they drank the most, they swore the most, they slept, they did all the bad stuff. How can you,

00:20:06.080 and then you see these Bible believing, Jesus loving Protestants who are, are like, they're out 1.00

00:20:13.280 there doing mission work because out of love, they seem sometimes to have more zeal for soul

00:20:19.140 than Catholics do. And what's that? And my dad, his response to that was, they make more sometimes 1.00

00:20:28.160 when they're, with their nickel than we do with the full dollar. Sure. And so it is, it's a stunning

00:20:34.560 thing. You have both sides of that coin. So you can see that the, the, the remote though it may be,

00:20:40.660 the possibility of getting there through the grace of the Catholic church, but at the same time, the,

00:20:48.180 the poverty of the lack of the sacraments, once you're a Catholic and you know, the value of the

00:20:53.420 Eucharist, which we don't, we'll never fully know. Yes. Yeah. How do you survive? I don't, I don't

00:20:59.160 think I, I'm, for me, it's like, I can't survive a day without the Eucharist, but how people live that 0.51

00:21:04.620 way and still have a love for Christ and don't just fall into just whatever. I, anyway. Right.

00:21:10.660 So, this thing about, um, having parishioners who disagree and complain, it is a thing in marriage.

00:21:25.600 And it's a struggle for a lot of priests, even good priests. They have to play politics or feel

00:21:33.560 they have to play politics, perhaps I should say, because the cancel culture is rife in it there.

00:21:41.240 So what are they to do? Do you have any suggestions? Because it's tough. They know that a lot of these

00:21:50.180 people will go to the Bishop and that's going to create strife. And yet they have some faithful in

00:21:56.280 their parish and it depends sometimes the faithful are in the majority or minority.

00:21:59.560 Yeah. Um, and so how do you navigate these waters and what, what would your step do?

00:22:06.540 Well, you know, you started out and I really appreciate the compliment or the recognition,

00:22:11.120 recognition of my, I guess I, I definitely say a contemplative nature about the importance of

00:22:18.300 prayer and how you enjoyed the mass. And I really appreciate that. And I think to answer your

00:22:22.600 question, I want to go back to that because that, that glory and praise goes to God. It's the way he

00:22:29.780 made me. So it's always really been easy for me since the years in my twenties, when I was discerning

00:22:37.720 a vocation and started praying more and I had access to adoration chapel and it was just a natural

00:22:43.440 thing where I was drawn toward the Eucharistic adoration. And, um, um, it's always been something

00:22:52.180 that's been easy for me to, to sit and pray and contemplate and just still my mind. It's just, uh,

00:23:00.420 um, you know, God makes us certain ways. And so it's all rooted in that John Henry, you know,

00:23:07.560 when you see these people that, and I even gave, for example, sermons and teachings on the doctrine

00:23:15.700 of fraternal correction, like if your brother sins against you, what do you do? Or if you have

00:23:21.540 a grievance, or if you have an issue with somebody, you go face to face to the person first. You don't go

00:23:29.180 around behind him. And in spite of that, for whatever reasons, people didn't want to come to talk to

00:23:35.420 their pastor, but, you know, giving my nature when I was in these parishes and in any other parishes,

00:23:44.780 or when I had a Latin mass community in the Springfield diocese, where my folks retired,

00:23:50.200 where I was on loan for a number of years, it was always about prayer. You know, as a priest,

00:23:55.820 I've always preached that a priest is first and foremost, a man of prayer because he's a mediator

00:24:03.100 between God and the people. And so that is what I gave to these parishioners. I was assigned there

00:24:14.800 every single day without fail. I was there more than anything, John Henry, to give my life for them,

00:24:21.620 to pray for them, to pray for my own soul, but to pray for them and help them experience the

00:24:27.180 sacraments as best they could, especially the Eucharist and penance. And so it is a good 0.99

00:24:34.300 question. How do you handle that when somebody takes an issue with what you say, when you know

00:24:40.520 it's what the church teaches, and instead of talk to you about it, they just don't want to hear it

00:24:48.860 anymore. And so it really says more about the parishioners and where they were at with God or

00:24:55.220 their spiritual life than it does about any pastor, let alone me in particular. So I personally tried

00:25:02.000 not to take it personal, but tried to look on them as best I could with love because I was there

00:25:08.460 because I loved them in Christ and I wanted to help them see what God had given me. I wasn't just,

00:25:16.020 I've never considered myself a marginal Catholic. I mean, I became a priest

00:25:19.960 because I love the faith, obviously. And, um, you know, I just, I was fortunate to have parents

00:25:29.780 who are Catholic. So a cradle Catholic, and I just want other people to, to know, you know,

00:25:36.540 like a lot of priests do who are leaders of people to have what they have. Like we want the people that

00:25:43.300 aren't Catholic to have what we have. And you mentioned, especially the Eucharist and holy orders. 0.85

00:25:47.880 And when, when we know the value of the Eucharist and we were talking about that at mass today, that

00:25:53.160 the Eucharist is God himself and God, even God can't give us more than himself. He's given us

00:26:00.480 everything. And so it's this zeal and passion to want other people to see and have that.

00:26:07.060 And I firmly believe if the Bishop would have just given me a chance that I would have converted the

00:26:15.060 parishes. I mean, I had certain detractors or people that just didn't like hearing the gospel,

00:26:21.740 but, you know, give me, I, I, I wasn't even given a year or two years or a few years.

00:26:27.380 I guarantee you they would have come around, you know, if they would have, if I could have been

00:26:33.560 there long enough. But as you know, in our culture and in the church, the Bishop solutions now more

00:26:39.580 are to just silence or get rid of the, the, the, the pastor, because that's the way they want to

00:26:45.760 handle the complaints. And so I personally dealt with it just by going to prayer and praying more

00:26:53.380 for the people. But it was a difficult time because it was a, like a year process where the Bishop was

00:27:03.020 asking me to resign and I never had any intentions of resigning. And I didn't even know what that

00:27:08.840 meant the first time he asked me, I've never heard of it. How does a priest resign? But he asked me

00:27:14.300 questions like, do you think you're fit to be a pastor? And where my jaw just dropped that I went

00:27:21.460 through the formation process, like every priest had to, where the church calls you to the priesthood

00:27:28.940 and you spend all those years in discernment and to be asked a question like that, it was

00:27:33.560 both puzzling and a little bit insulting. And you just kind of, you know, sit there and how do I

00:27:41.580 answer that? Well, of course I, I mean, yeah, I'm fit to be, I mean, strictly speaking, none of us are

00:27:49.260 worthy, you know, we're not worthy to be Christians and Catholics or priests, but God calls us to the task.

00:27:55.160 And so I certainly was up for it, but I just tried to impress on people. Look, if you have an issue

00:28:01.000 with me, come to me. And again, I have a sermon on that process and I was always available and only

00:28:08.740 one man ever did. In the short time I was in those two parishes, come in and talk about

00:28:13.440 the issue of girls serving at the altar. Cause I eliminated that in the parishes and I gave all the 1.00

00:28:19.620 theological and pastor reasons why girls shouldn't be serving as altar servers. 1.00

00:28:24.720 Mainly because it's a really a step to the priesthood for young boys. And so he came in and I explained

00:28:31.560 it. Um, but again, it was just a few people. Um, and I, I dealt with it just trying to continue to

00:28:41.300 keep the lines of communication open, encouraging people to come in to talk to me and praying for

00:28:46.540 them. That's why I was there. And, um, um, actually just one, actually, so everything worked out. We

00:28:56.180 actually, of course I had to get a canon lawyer and we actually, um, I don't want to say beat the

00:29:03.880 bishop, but he actually, we invited him for out for a pastoral visit. He listened to me preach. I'll never

00:29:09.680 forget the sermon I gave. It was just like any other sermon I would give. He had to say that it was spot

00:29:14.580 on. It was very good. He said, the servers I had were some of the best that he's seen in the diocese.

00:29:20.540 And, you know, no, no, no. Yeah. Um, and so that was another thing. I mean, my preference was the

00:29:30.480 Latin mass, but I was doing everything I could to meet the people where they were. And I was gradually

00:29:37.840 teaching people about it. I offered it once a month in the other parish for anybody that wanted

00:29:42.900 to come. Um, so it was available to people that wanted to come. Um, and so I tried to handle it

00:29:50.400 with patience, but we actually got the removal taken off the table, but there were still people

00:29:56.800 that just were going to do all they can to not have me there. And in the end, you know, it worked.

00:30:03.900 So that's how I tried to deal with it as best I could. And of course I had a couple,

00:30:10.100 I had many supporters. Actually, we had people talking to the Bishop on my behalf, um, saying,

00:30:16.260 no, father didn't, uh, you know, for example, make people kneel and receive communion on a tongue.

00:30:22.480 Although the first thing I, one of the first thing I did the first Sunday, for example, is

00:30:26.700 I explained to people, this is still, and always has been the normal way for receiving Holy

00:30:33.260 Communion. So I want to make that way available for all who want to. And so I put a kneeler in

00:30:39.320 there for the people that came up that wanted to kneel and never, you know, said you absolutely have

00:30:45.140 to, um, especially in the mass that was, you know, the new, the new mass. And that's how I dealt

00:30:52.120 with it. And I, I did have support, you know, I did have plenty of people that supported me. Um,

00:30:58.100 and I, I relied on them too. If you could suggest to people, how do the faithful who want to retain

00:31:07.580 their good and Holy priest, how do they fight for their priest? Because this is impossible to have

00:31:14.100 pressure tactic one way. What can we do to say no? What can we do to, to, to, to, because to be

00:31:22.600 frank, I've found any way, I, much as I hate to say it, political pressure works. So what do we,

00:31:30.660 what do the faithful do when they want to retain their priest? And first of all, they don't usually

00:31:34.980 hear about it until hopefully not before it's too late, but they hear about it at some point,

00:31:39.500 often later into the game, but how do we fight back? Yeah. A lot of them didn't know what was

00:31:46.100 going on. A lot did. Some didn't want to know. And that's a good question. I don't know if I can

00:31:53.180 answer that. I know what happened in my instance, where there were people that literally drove the

00:31:59.380 two hours more than once to Wichita to talk to the Bishop personally, to say how much, um, you know,

00:32:07.480 Father Fashing was appreciated and wasn't doing anything wrong, wasn't forcing it, but was trying

00:32:14.060 to help people. And, uh, people call, they wrote letters on my behalf. And so in the end, it just

00:32:24.680 seems like we've gotten, and this wasn't the beginning of it. This happened with me three years

00:32:29.560 ago. And now we've seen it with Bishop Strickland. We've seen it with numerous priests, um, and even

00:32:34.620 some religious, um, here and there, but, um, ultimately the bishops to a great degree, do

00:32:45.500 whatever they decide to do. Like you said, it's a political thing and it really is. It's, uh, um,

00:32:52.720 you know, whether, I don't know, you can call it weakness, you can call it, uh, you know, on,

00:32:59.080 on the bishops part, um, um, wanting to keep the status quo, but I just sometimes would wonder,

00:33:09.960 are we following and believing in the same gospel? Because our Lord, and I think you mentioned this

00:33:16.100 in your talk earlier, he rattled a lot of feathers. I mean, it's, it's, it's all right there. We know

00:33:23.240 that there were people, he, he wasn't crucified because everybody loved him and for what he didn't

00:33:29.620 said. And I've just, I've never seen it as anything different because I've done nothing. I've never

00:33:35.920 publicly or from the pulpit preached Father Fashing's opinion, but always what the church teaches and

00:33:43.120 what I happen to believe in. And so it's the same thing I believe our Lord taught, the same faith that

00:33:49.040 was handed on to the apostles, you know, to us, the very same one. So I don't see it as anything

00:33:56.960 different. And so it's took me some time, even as a priest to, you know, remind myself,

00:34:04.040 this isn't something we should be surprised because it happened to our Lord and it's happened to countless

00:34:11.720 bishops and priests throughout the centuries, popes, martyrs. And so for me, I, I kind of came to terms

00:34:22.440 with that and what you can do as a pastor. Um, I think ultimately sometimes you can't do anything about

00:34:36.760 other than, you know, other parishioners and it didn't matter that there was a majority that were

00:34:44.460 fine and were happy with what I was teaching. It was just a few again. I think part of the root of

00:34:53.800 the problem is, you know, I was talking about that, that poison of relativism. I think there's also one

00:34:59.500 of this cancel culture, cancel culture that's infected so many aspects of our lives and even 0.92

00:35:06.980 the Catholic church is that, um, if there's a problem, if there's a complaint or somehow we cannot

00:35:14.500 handle complaints, um, you know, the way is to just silence it. You know, if, if, if a priest is

00:35:22.000 orthodox, if a priest is, uh, uh, uh, you know, wanting to teach the hard truths that, that oftentimes

00:35:30.940 offend people. And for whatever reasons, the bishops, they don't, that doesn't sit well with

00:35:40.640 them, especially today, you know, and that's changed over, you know, that's changed over,

00:35:46.480 over years. It hasn't always been like that.

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00:36:31.780 Indeed, Father, you, you exemplify the instruction given by St. Paul to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 4,

00:36:45.720 you know, and, and the charge is so, I, I, I read it during my talk because it's so stark. I charge

00:36:53.300 thee before God and Jesus Christ and his coming. Preach the truth in season and out of season.

00:37:01.920 Rebuke and treat in all patience and doctrine. Rebuke in all patience and doctrine. Not easy words.

00:37:09.540 And in direct contradiction to what the bishops would have you to do, not preach the truth

00:37:18.240 in all doctrine. Not rebuke, definitely. Not reprove. But it does say that there will come a time when

00:37:29.380 people, people will have itching ears and take to themselves false passages. So you're charged

00:37:37.100 nonetheless to do it. I was. And, and honestly, I would never think of doing anything else. And

00:37:43.540 I would never, I, I'm being completely honest. We've talked a lot about, it seems like this word

00:37:50.400 fear has come up a lot in our conference. And, and I've said this time and again, and I'm being

00:37:55.140 honest. I don't understand that word fear. Like it, I just know my own personal experience of why I

00:38:02.980 became a priest. I did it for all the right reasons. I had a genuine calling. I've given everything to

00:38:07.640 this. I wouldn't even live with myself one day if I didn't just preach the gospel, which

00:38:14.720 John Henry, it's not that difficult. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's not, it's, but in a sense it is

00:38:22.560 because again, in today's culture, and these bishops have bought into this, that it offends

00:38:28.000 people. Well, Christ offended people. Many saints offended people because of who they are. The Catholic 0.79

00:38:33.500 faith is offensive because the world hates it. They're diametrically opposed. And unfortunately, 0.94

00:38:38.520 even in the pews, there's people that are Catholics, but they're really not, you know,

00:38:45.040 they want to be Catholics on their own terms. And so it, again, it speaks more to them. And I'm say

00:38:51.200 this in a loving manner. I tried not to take things personally, you know, um, you know, I've, I've,

00:38:58.360 I've had people, you know, one person hear the exact same thing and another person hear the exact

00:39:04.840 same thing and see me exact the same way. And one person said, father, you know, I've never seen

00:39:09.720 such a humble priest. And the other one say, I've never seen somebody so arrogant. So you explain 0.51

00:39:14.440 that. I mean, so sometimes people hear what they want to hear. I mean, so, um, but as far as preaching

00:39:23.980 the gospel, I would never think of holding back because of like what the bishop might think or

00:39:33.060 what might happen to me. I didn't become a priest to be that kind of man or a priest.

00:39:38.500 And, and it really wasn't like I was, you know, saving the world. I was in these small parishes,

00:39:44.120 simply trying to teach people the truth of what the Catholic church teaches. And I was never given

00:39:49.800 that chance. Dan. Dan. Well, father, I'd like to, on behalf of the many, many Catholics out there,

00:39:57.300 thank you for your holy priesthood. Absolutely. Thank you so much for serving Christ, being willing

00:40:02.700 to speak the truth, despite whatever might happen to you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you, John

00:40:07.300 Henry. God bless you. Thank you. And God bless all of you. In fact, I'm going to get father to do that.

00:40:11.920 Would you mind giving it a... Absolutely. Dominus Vobiscum et benedictio Dei Omnipotentes Patris

00:40:20.020 et Filii et Spiritus Sancti descendat suvavus et mani et semper. Amen.

00:40:24.240 Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - July 02, 2024

THIS holy priest was canceled for doing exactly what priests MUST do

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