THIS holy priest was canceled for doing exactly what priests MUST do
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Summary
In this episode, Father Jeffrey Fadden shares his story of how he became a priest in the United States of America. He talks about why he was removed from the priesthood, why it happened, and what it means to be a canceled priest.
Transcript
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What is the fullness of the truth or the positive faith that Christ has given us, and
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Hello, my friends. We are this week at the conference of the Coalition for Canceled Priests,
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and I wanted to introduce you to one of those priests, because a lot of people in their minds
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think of Canceled Priests, they think of Father Altman, and Father Altman is a great priest
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and a Canceled Priest, but he's also of a very particular, very fiery kind of, wow, people
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are either scared or totally inerrered by him, but all the priests who are Canceled, what
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they have in common is Orthodoxy, and I'm talking about the ones taken up by the Coalition
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for Canceled Priests, not the ones who are, they are legitimately Canceled Priests because
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they've done things that are incompatible with the priesthood, etc., etc. That's not what
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we're talking about. The Coalition for Canceled Priests are priests who are vetted and seen
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to have been cancelled for all the wrong reasons, because they followed Christ, because they
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were faithful. Stay tuned to this episode where we're going to speak to Father Jeffrey Fadden.
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Father Fadden, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, John Henry. My pleasure. We begin every
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show at the Son of Cross, if you wouldn't mind leading us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
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and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Father. So, Father, you, I was at your Mass this morning,
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and I have to say I loved it. It was very peaceful. I've never actually been at a Mass where you encouraged
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us all to just be totally silent. It was a traditional Latin Mass. And so rather than even
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give responses or even, I didn't look at my missile because it was sort of like, just pray. And it was
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very peaceful. And we're in like an auditorium, not a proper church, but it still was very recollected.
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So that was beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So you're like an anomaly. People know
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Father Altman, whom I know and love, but you're a very different guy. You're very different in your,
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what would you say, calmness. Thank you. Thank you. So, but yet you're canceled. The Mass was
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beautiful. It was, you love to adore our Lord. You spend a long time in adoration, very much like
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Bishop Strickland, but yet you were canceled. That's almost unfathomable, but tell us your story.
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How did this happen? It happened when the bishop asked me to take care of two small rural parishes
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in Southeast Kansas and the Diocese of Wichita, where a lot of people there who grew up there
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were really poorly catechized. I knew a lot of my predecessors who were pastors. And so long story
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short, I was simply preaching the gospel. You mentioned Bishop Strickland and most of us followed
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him and God bless him for just preaching the deposit of the faith. That's really all I did,
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but it rattled some feathers and it was just a few people. So for example, you know, I,
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I felt it my duty as a priest to preach about how fathers and doctors of the church, for example,
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have always taught that, you know, the road to heaven is narrow and most people aren't making it.
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And, and most people are actually choosing damnation. So the majority of humanity we've
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always been taught, um, aren't saved by their own choice. Not that God does not want to save them,
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but they choose against him or the reality of hell. And so these are just a couple of examples of
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things that I believe I, I had to reiterate to people and, and what does the doctrine of there's
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no salvation outside the Catholic church mean? And, and reiterating that. And many people
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that maybe have relatives who are not Catholic or Protestant, for example, would hear that,
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well, so I can't go to heaven because I'm not Catholic or that father said Protestants are going
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to hell. These kinds of things that people, for whatever reasons, just aren't hearing. And when
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they hear them, um, it stirs something up in them. And it's basically just really for preaching the
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gospel, which I'm in love with. It's why I became a priest. And so, um, I've given my whole life to
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this and it's, I didn't decide to become John Henry, like one particular kind of priest. I was,
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I was a man first before I was ontologically changed. And I'm really the same person. If I take
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off this collar, I don't change. It's just who I am as a man and as a priest. I love the Catholic
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faith. I have ever since I was young and I want others to know it and have the passion that I have
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all just so that we can have the best chance to get to heaven. That's what I'm trying to do. And I
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tried to help my people get to heaven. So, I mean, you can think of it to answer your question as much
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the same as what happened to Bishop Strickland and even Father Altman, because I followed him from
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afar and even you three years ago when the Bishop was asking me to resign because he was getting
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complaints from people. And in fact, it was just a few months after Father Altman when
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it started with me. And so, it was really for being orthodox, for preaching the faith.
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It wasn't for committing any crime. I did nothing wrong, nothing certainly worth warranting removal
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as pastor for my parishes. But you hear those same words, you know, Father was divisive. But
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John Henry, I think people forget sometimes that, and certainly the bishops seem to have forgotten this,
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that the gospel is divisive. Our Lord is divisive. You either hear and accept his truth or you don't.
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And that's division. And I mean, it's very clear in the scripture about, you know, Christ actually came
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to make people choose. And so, these words, you know, I could even show you the letter of removal
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that the Bishop put out. And those were the kinds of words he used. He said, I became at the very least
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ineffective to my parishioners. And so, it certainly wasn't the majority of them. But people know in our
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culture now, even in our church, that they can, if they don't like a priest or he says something they
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don't like, they can just call the Bishop. And the Bishop's way of handling it was really
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not supporting me, as I believe he should have, and all these other priests that this has happened
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to. So, I mean, there's a lot of other details in there, but that's basically, you know, the gist of
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This is one of the principal reasons, is this whole divisiveness. And largely, I think, because
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given what's going on, people are raised in a religion that calls itself Catholic, but doesn't
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teach the Catholic faith. In fact, you get a very distorted picture of what the faith is.
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That's been going on for over a generation now. So, in bringing you to this small community
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where they've had a few iterations of pastors, and they usually stay about six years, you're
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talking like 20 years or so malformation, you'd come in as a normal priest, what should be
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normal, and it sounds like you're teaching another religion, because you're teaching that
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normal Catholicism or the Catholicism of the apostles. Let's get into it a little bit, because
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I think a lot of people might think, oh no, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, and he was teaching
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that all Protestants are going to hell. But that's not what you're taught. No. What is
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it? What is it? In fact, that's actually a really good point, because it's one of those
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parts of teaching which almost never happens. Outside the Catholic Church, there is no salvation,
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but that doesn't mean that all Protestants are going to hell. What does it mean?
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It means that God created every soul to be with him, so he wills that everybody be saved. And he
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did establish one church, one holy Catholic apostolic church. And so God is one, God is
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unity. All this division, these different denominations, the Protestant denominations,
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that's not God's will. That's because of our sinfulness. So he created one church as the sole
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means of salvation. So it doesn't necessarily mean that somebody who's not Catholic can't get to heaven,
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but if they do, it's not because they're Baptist or Lutheran. It's in spite of that. And I've never
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said or believed that a Protestant couldn't get to heaven, but it's by the grace of God. So we have
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this responsibility as Christians, and if we're a believer in God, to seek the truth. And there are
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different ways that we get to that. It might be through another person, through a family member,
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through a priest or a religious or somebody, but our conscience. But most people aren't trying to
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advance and embrace what is the fullness of the truth or the deposit of faith that Christ has given
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us. And it's only found in the Catholic church. So it means that Christ says very clearly as a command
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in John's gospel in chapter six, he says, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,
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you have no life in you. And so he didn't institute a church and the Holy Eucharist in that church
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arbitrarily, but he gave them to us really, without which it's almost impossible to get to heaven. And you
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just don't hear talk like this anymore. But the fact is that this dogma was infallibly defined more
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than once prior to Vatican II. And it means it's something that's always true. You just don't hear it
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taught. And one of the simple ways of explaining it, I always think, is
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is that in heaven, again, God is one. There's unity. There can't be different religions in heaven
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like there are here. Otherwise, heaven would be no different than earth. So in order for you to be with
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God for eternity, to enjoy the beatific vision, one way or another, you will have to be a part of the church
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that Christ established, which is the Catholic church, because it's the only one, you know,
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if you believe in history that can be traced back in unbroken succession to the original apostles,
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the Catholic church, Matthew 18, where Jesus makes Peter the rock. On this rock, I'll build my church.
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And so we've had this succession of popes. So either one is converted John Henry in this life,
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what it means, or maybe on their deathbed, or the moment they die when they're confronted with truth
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himself, Jesus Christ, or in purgatory. But to get to heaven, you will have to be Catholic because
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there's only one religion in heaven. There can't be others. That's kind of a simple way of explaining
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it. But I've never believed that if you're not Catholic, it's impossible to get to heaven. A lot of
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that's up to God. But the point is, we have a responsibility to embrace the entire truth.
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And it does matter what religion we practice. So there's this, among other things, there's this
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poison that's infected the Catholic church, and it's modernism, it's relativism. Even in our leaders,
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our hierarchy won't come out and just be explicit that, you know, you really do have to convert to
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the Catholic faith, especially if you knowingly left it. We all know people, sometimes they're in
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our own families, who are actually apostates, where they willingly left the Catholic faith.
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And it's very clear that unless they convert and come back, they really cannot be saved.
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And so when I preach boldly about these things that not only am I passionate about, but it's
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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
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tactics, but out of love and trying to help people to the truth so, you know, they can ultimately get
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to heaven. And it's just something that's, you don't hear it talked about hardly at all, if ever,
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by most priests and certainly the clergy. I mean, we can, I can think about an interview
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where a bishop was interviewed and asked Point Blake, you know, I'm, I'm not of the faith. I'm
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Jewish. Uh, can I get to heaven without being Catholic? And he couldn't simply tell him the
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truth. Um, and I, you probably know what I'm referring to. Hey, my friends, you've heard about
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the Eucharistic revival that's going on. The pilgrimage is going to culminate in Indiana at the
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Eucharistic Congress. Well, we've got amazing news for you. We are holding a traditional Latin
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math steps away from the main Congress center, because we learned at first there was no traditional
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Latin mass, not on the schedule. And, uh, we thought, Oh no, what we do. One of our donors
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said, can you fix that? We found victory field right across steps away from where the Congress
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is being held to hold the Latin mass. And guess what? We learned that since then there was some
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announcements of other Latin masses that are going to be in the area on different days.
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And so it's really awesome. So if you are in the traditional Latin mass, you thought, Oh,
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I can't go to the Congress because they don't have one there. They do have them there now.
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And, uh, it's just wonderful. This is Father Fasching. He's going to be there. And this is
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Father James Altman, who's going to be there. They're going to be celebrating masses for us.
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Lifeset's going to be inside the Congress as well. Um, as is Vicki Yamasaki. Vicki, go ahead.
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Yeah. We're just so excited. We hope you join us and, uh, sign up for this free event,
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free lunches because of a generous donor. As he said, I'm actually going to be at the Eucharistic
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Congress and I'm going to walk away from my booth so that I can enjoy this traditional Latin mass
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and these three great speakers that will offer insights into why it is that so many Catholics
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no longer believe in the real presence. As we know, in our Catholic culture, in our Catholic
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teaching, there's a phrase, Lexa Rondi, Lexa Gudendi, as we pray, so we believe. And through the
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traditional Latin mass, it inspires such depth of prayer. No funny business going on up there.
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People believe. And so we're trying to inspire that belief in the real presence because without
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which we do not have life within us. Thus, what we're doing will actually be throwing fuel on the
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fire revival, a belief in the real presence of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ,
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our Lord, in the Holy Eucharist. Amen. Amen. Father, I'm, I'm thrilled for the opportunity to
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remind you what you can be doing to renew your own personal devotion to the Eucharist and also
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how to get others to remind them to deepen their faith in worshiping our Lord in the Eucharist. So
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based on my own experience, it's just going to be a great opportunity to remind people of
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what the church teaches us that our lives are supposed to revolve around the Holy Eucharist. So
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I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to walk right across the street to Victory
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Field and join you for this beautiful traditional Latin Mass on July 19th and hear from these three
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fantastic speakers. And maybe you can catch the other traditional Latin Mass the day before
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with, with Archbishop Corderlyon. And now that's a little further away. That's just under two miles
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at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, smaller parish. It can seat about 400. So you better get a seat early
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there. Victory Field seats about 10,000. So register soon. We can't wait to see you.
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Join us, our friends, at Victory Field on July 19th, right steps away from the Eucharistic Congress in
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Indianapolis, Indiana. And God bless you and look forward to seeing you there.
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Yes. Well, you, you, Mother Miriam, uh, who, as you know, is Jewish background. Yes.
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In Protestant for a decade and tried to convert Catholics and then, and then became a Catholic,
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then became a nun. She had an interview with, uh, on, on the show that she does, uh, daily for LifeSite
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in, in our partnership with, uh, Station of the Cross Radio. Um, she had Bishop Schneider on with her
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and she said in his company, you know, the greatest form of antisemitism is keeping Jesus from the Jews.
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Yes. It was stunning. The Bishop, of course, agreed, but that is anathema to all of them, not all, but
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a great majority of the hierarchy today, because it, the, you know, you can't say that, but it's hard to
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correct mother when she is a Jew, are, uh, and so, and she calls herself a completed Jew because
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he has a Catholic. Yes. So there's a lot of beauty there, but one of the things you said is very
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interesting because, um, my dad once gave me this comparison. He said, being a Protestant, being a
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non-Catholic and, and, and, and trying to get to heaven, it's like trying to cross the ocean in a
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rowboat rather than in the steamship. Yep. Yep. And, and because it's doable, theoretically possible,
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okay. But it's not easy and it's, it's, it's unbelievably difficult. And then he also used
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to say that at the same time, because the one conflict in everyone's mind, when we say that
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is that while you're all of these Catholics who, who like, and, and typically from my, I was married
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into a Protestant family. So, uh, you know, my, my father-in-law who is an elder at their church and,
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and, and a lot of the people I know from my in-laws side of the family, done. The Catholics,
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they drank the most, they swore the most, they slept, they did all the bad stuff. How can you,
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and then you see these Bible believing, Jesus loving Protestants who are, are like, they're out
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there doing mission work because out of love, they seem sometimes to have more zeal for soul
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than Catholics do. And what's that? And my dad, his response to that was, they make more sometimes
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when they're, with their nickel than we do with the full dollar. Sure. And so it is, it's a stunning
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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,
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the poverty of the lack of the sacraments, once you're a Catholic and you know, the value of the
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Eucharist, which we don't, we'll never fully know. Yes. Yeah. How do you survive? I don't, I don't
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think I, I'm, for me, it's like, I can't survive a day without the Eucharist, but how people live that
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way and still have a love for Christ and don't just fall into just whatever. I, anyway. Right.
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So, this thing about, um, having parishioners who disagree and complain, it is a thing in marriage.
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And it's a struggle for a lot of priests, even good priests. They have to play politics or feel
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they have to play politics, perhaps I should say, because the cancel culture is rife in it there.
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So what are they to do? Do you have any suggestions? Because it's tough. They know that a lot of these
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people will go to the Bishop and that's going to create strife. And yet they have some faithful in
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their parish and it depends sometimes the faithful are in the majority or minority.
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Yeah. Um, and so how do you navigate these waters and what, what would your step do?
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Well, you know, you started out and I really appreciate the compliment or the recognition,
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recognition of my, I guess I, I definitely say a contemplative nature about the importance of
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prayer and how you enjoyed the mass. And I really appreciate that. And I think to answer your
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question, I want to go back to that because that, that glory and praise goes to God. It's the way he
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made me. So it's always really been easy for me since the years in my twenties, when I was discerning
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a vocation and started praying more and I had access to adoration chapel and it was just a natural
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thing where I was drawn toward the Eucharistic adoration. And, um, um, it's always been something
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that's been easy for me to, to sit and pray and contemplate and just still my mind. It's just, uh,
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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
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of fraternal correction, like if your brother sins against you, what do you do? Or if you have
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a grievance, or if you have an issue with somebody, you go face to face to the person first. You don't go
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around behind him. And in spite of that, for whatever reasons, people didn't want to come to talk to
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their pastor, but, you know, giving my nature when I was in these parishes and in any other parishes,
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or when I had a Latin mass community in the Springfield diocese, where my folks retired,
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where I was on loan for a number of years, it was always about prayer. You know, as a priest,
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I've always preached that a priest is first and foremost, a man of prayer because he's a mediator
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between God and the people. And so that is what I gave to these parishioners. I was assigned there
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every single day without fail. I was there more than anything, John Henry, to give my life for them,
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to pray for them, to pray for my own soul, but to pray for them and help them experience the
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sacraments as best they could, especially the Eucharist and penance. And so it is a good
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question. How do you handle that when somebody takes an issue with what you say, when you know
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it's what the church teaches, and instead of talk to you about it, they just don't want to hear it
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anymore. And so it really says more about the parishioners and where they were at with God or
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their spiritual life than it does about any pastor, let alone me in particular. So I personally tried
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not to take it personal, but tried to look on them as best I could with love because I was there
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because I loved them in Christ and I wanted to help them see what God had given me. I wasn't just,
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I've never considered myself a marginal Catholic. I mean, I became a priest
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because I love the faith, obviously. And, um, you know, I just, I was fortunate to have parents
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who are Catholic. So a cradle Catholic, and I just want other people to, to know, you know,
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like a lot of priests do who are leaders of people to have what they have. Like we want the people that
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aren't Catholic to have what we have. And you mentioned, especially the Eucharist and holy orders.
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And when, when we know the value of the Eucharist and we were talking about that at mass today, that
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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.
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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
00:28:19.620
theological and pastor reasons why girls shouldn't be serving as altar servers.
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
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,
00:35:49.340
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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
00:38:33.500
faith is offensive because the world hates it. They're diametrically opposed. And unfortunately,
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
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.