Trump, the Church, and Latin Mass： a discussion with LifeSite DC reporter Claire Chretien
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Summary
In this episode of The John Henry Weston Show, Life Site's Washington correspondent and editor Claire Chrétien shares her thoughts on President Trump's historic pro-life speech at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. on March 31, 2019.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.
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I'm very pleased to introduce you to LifeSite's own Washington correspondent and editor.
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Her name is Claire Chrétien. You better stay tuned. It's going to be an awesome show.
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All right, let's begin as we always do at the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Thanks, John Henry. I'm excited I finally get to be on your show.
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It is a joy being with you in this great work of the Lord, LifeSite News.
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We were just at a very historic event with the March for Life going on.
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And happening here in Washington, D.C., you're a Washington correspondent.
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President Trump, for the very first time in history, any U.S. president arrives at the March for Life.
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Tell me, A, your reaction, but B, what you think this means for the United States for the upcoming election.
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Well, first of all, John Henry, this wasn't just the first U.S. president coming to the March for Life.
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This was the first U.S. president ever coming to the March for Life and giving an incredible pro-life speech.
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His speech was one of the best presidential speeches he's ever given.
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He hit every major point, and he really talked about being pro-family.
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And I think everyone who wasn't at the March but who was watching that from home probably had tears in their eyes seeing it.
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So it was extremely incredible that he came, but what he said was just as significant, if not more significant.
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And I think it was just a shot in the arm for all of us.
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We have someone on our side, someone who gets it, and someone who can be our champion.
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It's just, compared to the Obama years, I mean, this is just a totally different world now.
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He was also impressed, enlivened, encouraged with the pro-life people there.
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That was so inspiring to have the president of the most powerful country in the world basically say,
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Yeah, and to talk about, you know, he talked about pro-life students being censored on campus.
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I actually was, I re-watched his speech again later in the day, and I actually was close to tears at some parts of it,
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But really, it was really, I think we're seeing that Trump is actually a pretty humble man deep in his heart.
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What a thing to tell your kids and your grandchildren about.
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So, last night, or the night before the march, there's this humongous mass with all the bishops and cardinals.
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Let me hear about your perspective on the bishops.
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What do you make of what's going on in the United States today with the bishops of the Catholic Church?
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Well, there are some really good trends and some really bad trends.
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Unfortunately, a lot of the bishops who have been appointed or elevated during the Francis pontificate are,
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they do not seem to be very faithful to the church.
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I mean, as a young person, as a woman, I want my bishops to be Catholic.
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And so, when people like Cardinal Tobin try to be hip and young and cool, it's really not appealing to me.
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And so, a lot of these Pope Francis-appointed bishops I've found to be very disappointing.
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But there are some really wonderful bishops, like Bishop Strickland in Texas,
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who, I think two USCCB meetings ago, came outside and joined a rosary rally of people praying about the sex abuse crisis.
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And I'm glad that people are finally seeing that there are some issues with the bishops.
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For example, there's a class-action lawsuit against Peter's Pence, the Pope's own charity.
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It's a class-action lawsuit against the US bishops for, it's accusing them of swindling Catholics out of money
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that they thought they were giving to the poor, and really it was going to fund this Elton John movie that was rather graphic.
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So, good and bad with the bishops, but it's, I wish that the good guys would get promoted more.
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And unfortunately, it just doesn't seem like that's been happening recently.
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And you know this, personally, you're at the bishops' conference meetings, you go there regularly.
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When you're there, you see them first person, you're able to ask them questions.
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I mean, this is an interesting thing always for, you know, those of us watching when you do this.
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When you approach bishops, what's their reaction to you?
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You're a young person, you're someone who they probably don't hear talking to a lot.
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What's the power of young people talking to bishops as well?
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Well, sometimes bishops seem startled when they hear that I like the Latin Mass,
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and that I work for LifeSite News, and that, you know, I really want them to uphold orthodoxy.
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But it's really good for bishops to be exposed to young people like that,
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because young people who are the heart of the church, the heart of the pro-life movement,
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we want orthodoxy, we want truth, we want moral clarity and charity together.
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And so I think it's good to encourage them, in a sense,
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but also, you know, show them that your faithful want you to be more faithful and want you to be more orthodox.
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And I hope I can encourage some of them to do the Latin Mass.
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It's just, I try to mention it to bishops when I meet them.
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I mean, here you are a young person, and wanting the Latin Mass thing,
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many people think, oh, it's so ancient and whatnot.
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What do you think, and tell me your experience, too.
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I mean, I've seen, when I've been traveling around the world,
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I see a lot of young people at these Masses sometimes,
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particularly in the United States, but really all over the place.
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If you go, I always joke, if you go to a Latin Mass parish,
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the average, the median parishioner age is about five,
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And it's the most beautiful thing, this side of heaven.
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I like the Latin Mass because it brings me closer to God.
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It's not about being horizontal, and it's not about who you're with
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It's about you praying up to God and the priest helping you pray to God.
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So that's one of the most beautiful things about the Latin Mass.
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You know, when the church tries to be cool and do these rock shows,
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the world is better at rock shows than the Catholic Church.
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The Catholic Church is better at truth, beauty, and goodness than the world.
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If our priests aren't wearing collars and cassocks,
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then how are people even going to know that they're priests?
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You know, someone I met a few years ago was saying,
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if you were going to take a taxi, would you get in the yellow taxi that said taxi,
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or would you get in the scary white van that didn't have anything written on it?
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Similarly, when a priest dresses like a priest,
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And another thing I like about the Latin Mass is the really rich theology of it.
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Every single action that the priest does has a very deep, significant theological meaning.
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As you're going along, you can follow the priest and read about his actions
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and how they're taken from the Old Testament and the New Testament,
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There's a lot of symbolism, and I really like that.
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A lot of the younger priests we see this trend with.
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Their interest in the Latin Mass is kind of a reawakening.
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when it seems like, at least from the official hierarchy of the Church,
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We're wearing cassocks, and they're celebrating the Latin Mass,
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sometimes secretly because they can't, you know, have to get away with it.
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It is encouraging to see, but the deep, deep faith of these young men is really encouraging.
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and they're coming out with such wisdom, such beauty.
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It really is, and I'm always touched by the humility of these priests who offer the Latin Mass.
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I've had just so many good experiences with them,
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oh, the Catholic Church is in, like, the worst shape it ever has been.
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You're a young, growing family in the midst of a world that is seemingly against the faith,
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but you don't look at all that depressed at all.
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When it's really dark, you can see the stars much more clearly,
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and I think that's how we should see the Church.
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Things are really bad, and things in the world are bad.
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We've got transgenderism, abortion on demand,
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all of these terrible parts of the culture of death.
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But because it's so dark, we can now see more clearly than ever
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the beauty and the truth and the light of Jesus in the Catholic Church.
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So as things have gotten more tumultuous in the Church, too,
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I think more people are seeing that beautiful, bright light of the Latin Mass
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and the timeless Catholic tradition, and they're going back to that.
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So in a sense, the darkness is pointing us to the light.
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Now, I'm going to embarrass you and call you out,
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because while we were talking about doing this interview,
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I said, you know, I want you to talk about what your greatest love is in the world.
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And you said, oh, I want to talk about my husband.
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And I think that's actually, I think it's a really beautiful thing.
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Next to God, we have our spouses and family first.
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I know you work hard for the pro-life movement.
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because actually at this very conference about,
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I don't know how many years ago, five or whatever,
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at this conference, before it became the National Pro-Life Summit,
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it was the Students for Life of America Conference.
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So, and now we both work in the pro-life movement.
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So this conference always has a very special place in my heart.
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But, yeah, you know, if you have a good foundation of God and then family,
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but if you want to change the world, go home and love your family.
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We have to have our family life properly ordered and as it should be
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before we go out and try to improve the culture related to family.
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If we don't have strong families that teach self-sacrifice and virtue,
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in the best possible sense of how you could see that.
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And anyone who knows me knows I'm certainly not an oppressed person.
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So I really like what the church teaches about the family
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and the husband being the head of the household.
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You know, the man is the head and the woman is the heart.
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And I'm so grateful to have such an awesome husband
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Thank you, Claire, for being on the John Henry Weston Show.