The John-Henry Westen Show - December 31, 2024


Usurper？ Second oldest bishop in the world weighs in on Francis


Episode Stats

Length

39 minutes

Words per Minute

143.5184

Word Count

5,643

Sentence Count

270

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary

Bishop René Henry Grasida is the oldest living bishop in the United States and the second oldest living Bishop in the entire world. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1923, he was first a fighter pilot in the Second World War. Later, joking with Benedict XVI that he may have been dropping bombs on Munich while Benedict was defending it, he became a Benedictine monk in 1951. He angered his father, and in so doing, was ordained a priest in 1959. In 1983, John Paul II appointed him as the Diocesan Bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas. He spent the next 14 years, up until his retirement in 1997, fighting for moral law and against abortion, sexualization of children, and other evils.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, it gives me great pleasure to speak to you about a very important,
00:00:05.300 very special bishop. He is the oldest living bishop in the United States and the second
00:00:10.680 oldest living bishop in the entire world. At the time of this broadcasting, he's just coming up to
00:00:17.200 101 and a half years old. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1923, he was first a fighter pilot
00:00:26.360 in the Second World War. Later, joking with Benedict XVI that he may have been dropping
00:00:33.000 bombs on Munich while Benedict was defending it and shooting at him, he became a Benedictine monk
00:00:40.240 in 1951. He angered his father, and in so doing, he was ordained a priest in 1959. There is so much more
00:00:49.420 about the great Bishop René Grasida in this episode of the John Henry Weston Show. Please stay tuned.
00:00:56.360 We are on the brink of global war, maybe even nuclear war. This could be the beginning of
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00:01:43.880 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
00:01:51.240 and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Now, this is the most pro-life bishop probably ever in America,
00:01:58.400 and no one can equal his time served because there's literally no one who has served this
00:02:05.080 much time. But let's continue from where we left off. He was ordained a priest in 1959.
00:02:09.700 So, finding monastic life was not for him. He left in 1959 and was incarnated in the Archdiocese of
00:02:18.840 Miami. In 1971, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Miami and was given his own diocese in 1975.
00:02:28.020 In 1983, John Paul II appointed him as the Diocesan Bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas. That's right.
00:02:36.580 If you don't know it by now, we're talking about Bishop René Henry Grasida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi.
00:02:46.380 And if you think his pre-Episcopal campaign was busy, well, let me tell you about what happened next.
00:02:53.600 He spent the next 14 years, up until his retirement in 1997, fighting for the moral law and against
00:03:00.280 abortion, the sexualization of children, and other evils. In fact, his record is so incredible,
00:03:05.620 I'm just going to touch on a few things, but you'll see it's more than a few. In 1985, he obtained an
00:03:11.800 indult from John Paul II for his priests to continue offering the traditional Latin Mass. Now, of course,
00:03:17.860 I'm sorry to say that it's since been suppressed in his diocese, but thanks to him, the traditional
00:03:22.900 Latin Mass continued in Corpus Christi for many years longer than anywhere else. Take a listen to
00:03:30.240 Bishop Grasida himself, describing the role that the traditional Latin Mass played in his vocation.
00:03:35.520 The first feeling that I had came when I was about seven or eight years old. We had moved to Texas City,
00:03:47.280 Texas, and our church was a mission church out of Dickinson. We didn't have a resident priest,
00:03:54.260 and the priest came down from Dickinson, and he asked me if I would be a server for his Mass.
00:04:00.900 And then he said, you'd have to learn Latin. And so I said, well, I'll try. And so he gave me a book
00:04:09.000 and coached me in it, and I learned how to pronounce the Latin. I didn't understand what it all meant,
00:04:16.020 but of course, I had the English translation in the booklet. So I gradually learned what it meant,
00:04:22.040 as well as how to pronounce it, and I learned how to celebrate his Mass. And he would come down
00:04:27.580 every weekend from Dickinson, Texas, and I celebrated his Mass. And he learned to love it.
00:04:36.580 It was my first experience of serving Mass, especially the Latin Mass. I'd never experienced
00:04:42.280 the Latin Mass before in my life. So that was the beginning of my connection with the priesthood,
00:04:49.540 with serving his Mass.
00:04:50.940 In 1989, Bishop Gracida called for a boycott of Pepsi-Cola because of commercials using the
00:04:59.060 video of Madonna's Like a Prayer. And indeed, Pepsi-Cola later withdrew the ads and cancelled
00:05:06.260 its contract with Madonna. It's one thing to lament the demoralization of our culture,
00:05:11.360 but if bishops actually use their authority, it's amazing what could be achieved.
00:05:16.480 In 1990, Bishop Gracida excommunicated two members of his diocese who were providing abortions,
00:05:24.600 Rachel Vargas, director of a women's health clinic, and Dr. Edward Aquino, an obstetrician.
00:05:31.440 Can you imagine? If bishops were doing that up and down the country, abortion would be over.
00:05:37.600 Just like that. But even though old-fashioned condemnations played a part of his time as
00:05:42.360 diocesan bishop, measures always aimed at the correction and healing of those he corrected.
00:05:49.600 So Bishop Gracida did stunning things in Corpus Christi. Take a listen to what he had to say about
00:05:56.900 the ARC, the program in his diocese that took care of abused children.
00:06:02.560 I'll never forget the day that Sister Milagros and Monsignor Robert Freeman came to see me
00:06:08.180 in my office. And I was totally unfamiliar with what they were going to talk about.
00:06:14.520 But they explained to me that they had been approached by Child Protective Services of the
00:06:19.960 state for help in receiving abused children from families. These are infants primarily.
00:06:29.860 If infants were being abused by drunken fathers or neglected mothers,
00:06:35.460 and the state would have to take the child away from that environment and put it in a shelter
00:06:42.320 for appraisement evaluation to see whether they would return the child to that environment
00:06:48.840 with proper precautions or whether they would put the child up for adoption.
00:06:54.840 You know, so the whole legal process would start with the primary shelter being offered to
00:07:02.120 the child. And then we're talking about infants in the cradle. I can remember Sister Milagros,
00:07:08.980 who was the director of the ARC, telling me of a newborn that was taken from the home because a
00:07:16.640 drunken father had told his wife, stop that child from crying. And of course, how are you going to stop an
00:07:24.840 infant from crying? You know, so the mother tried, she couldn't stop the infant. So he walked over, picked
00:07:31.580 up, and he picked the baby up, and he threw the baby across the room and hit the wall and injured it severely.
00:07:38.360 And so that was the big initiative to create the ARC. It's a shelter where appraisal of a child's welfare is conducted in view of the strange circumstances in the home,
00:07:57.020 whether it's drunkenness or whether it's narcotics or what it is. And so that the state takes the child from the home and puts it at the ARC where it is evaluated by specialists, by doctors, psychologists, by others.
00:08:11.760 And then eventually the decision is made, either to return it to the home with proper safeguards, or if that's too dangerous,
00:08:19.100 they put the child up for adoption and they place it with a safe home.
00:08:25.160 When you consider how bad the government care facilities are, you can see what an important difference Bishop Grasida was making with this project, focused on the good of the child and of the family.
00:08:39.560 Most people slow down after their retirement. Not so with Bishop Grasida.
00:08:45.020 During the 2004 Bush-Carrie election, he spoke out against supporting pro-abortion candidates. But talk, of course, can be cheap.
00:08:52.580 Bishop Grasida decided to get more hands-on, and that's why he submitted a 12-step program for bishops to deal with pro-abortion politicians.
00:09:02.800 He said that penalties and excommunications weren't necessary for such persons because, and this is his quote,
00:09:10.680 the bomb of mercy and discretion of measure have failed to heal the growing infection of error and scandal inside the church
00:09:20.040 and the genocide increasing daily in the world around us, end quote.
00:09:24.920 As a result, he said, and I quote again,
00:09:27.400 the time for half measures and fear of reprisal, loss of position, temporal advantage, or career opportunity is over.
00:09:36.180 The time for action is now, end quote.
00:09:39.200 Oh my gosh, that's such music to the ears of every pro-life activist on the planet, let alone only in the United States.
00:09:47.720 Well, during the 2008 election, Bishop Grasida condemned voting for Obama, saying that, and I quote,
00:09:55.200 the danger of losing the tax-exempt status of the church may perhaps be seen as a justification for caution on the part of ordinaries,
00:10:04.120 that means the bishops, end quote.
00:10:05.540 A similar message from Bishop Grasida was sent to 2.9 million Hispanic voters via email.
00:10:13.700 In 2009, Grasida called out the scandal of Senator Edward Moore Kennedy's funeral,
00:10:20.800 on the grounds that such a grand celebration was inappropriate for one who openly rejected the Catholic teaching
00:10:27.200 and that the liturgy itself was full of liturgical abuses.
00:10:32.700 But wait, there's even more.
00:10:34.480 So much more.
00:10:36.040 In 2010, he called for a canonical reprimand of the then-Vice President Joe Biden,
00:10:43.900 who had traveled to Kenya to lobby for abortion to be legalized.
00:10:48.420 In June of 2011, he endorsed a scathing commentary of a gay pride mass in Boston and reposted it on his website.
00:10:58.380 In August of 2012, Bishop Grasida condemned the appointment of pro-abortion judge Arlen Specter to the Senate Judiciary Committee
00:11:07.060 and called for Americans to write to Senator Frist to appoint another candidate.
00:11:12.320 In 2014, Bishop Grasida prayed outside an abortion facility in Texas when the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa visited his diocese.
00:11:22.880 In August of 2017, Bishop Grasida criticized Pope Francis' English biographer Austin Ivory for accusing converts to Catholicism of mental illness because they questioned Pope Francis.
00:11:37.860 In October of 2017, Bishop Grasida announced that he had canceled his Netflix subscription over shows which sexualize children.
00:11:46.480 In 2018, he spoke out against the U.S. Bishops' conference plans to condemn the immigration policies of the Trump administration
00:11:54.880 and to use canonical penalties against federal officials for endorsing them.
00:11:59.660 In 2019, he signed a letter from the Texas Right to Life about Texas' controversial end-of-life law.
00:12:06.920 In 2021, he was one of 52 initial signatories of Nick Donnelly's Bethlehem Declaration about the COVID-19 vaccination,
00:12:17.040 saying that, and I quote,
00:12:18.340 According to the Church's moral teaching,
00:12:20.520 the conditions for reception of abortion-derived injections under ordinary circumstances have not been met, end quote.
00:12:28.900 And he said that along with the other objections to their use.
00:12:33.460 Wow, isn't it incredible?
00:12:35.040 Well, like I said, Bishop Grasida has been busy.
00:12:38.180 He is the dream of all pro-life, pro-family, pro-Catholic activists the world over.
00:12:43.260 His post-retirement career does raise some difficult questions.
00:12:48.440 In fact, it really puts most of the American bishops to shame.
00:12:51.760 So, why is Bishop Grasida in such a tiny minority with other men like Bishop Strickland?
00:12:59.120 And why is it that his witness seems to be only possible for retired, deposed, or excommunicated bishops?
00:13:08.980 Well, is it because defending the faith and teaching and ruling simply isn't allowed if bishops want to keep their positions under Pope Francis?
00:13:18.800 But let's leave that aside for now, because now we've seen what strong stances Bishop Grasida has taken.
00:13:28.520 The question on many minds will be, what does he think about Francis and the Francis pontificate?
00:13:34.800 Well, before we answer that, let's see what he's been doing with respect to that over the last few years.
00:13:43.540 First of all, he came out strongly against Amoris Laetitia.
00:13:47.260 In 2017, he said, in favor of the dubia of the four cardinals about Amoris Laetitia, he said, and I quote,
00:13:54.940 So later in 2017, Bishop Grasida was the first canonically regular bishop to add his name to the filial correction,
00:14:08.960 congratulating the organizers and encouraging the faithful to sign it.
00:14:13.140 In 2018, he signed the Profession of Immutable Truths about Sacramental Marriage,
00:14:18.940 which was widely understood to be a response to Amoris Laetitia.
00:14:22.600 In 2022, Bishop Grasida signed a statement correcting Pope Francis on his statement about the reception of Holy Communion requiring only faith,
00:14:32.440 rather than faith and charity, as per the Council of Trent.
00:14:36.420 So, as you can see, he's stood strongly against the innovations, errors, and heresies of the last few years.
00:14:44.900 But what's his explanation and his conclusion here?
00:14:48.880 Well, here's a little clip to summarize it before we take a further look.
00:14:54.040 There is some doubt about the validity of his election.
00:14:58.740 There is some doubt.
00:15:00.380 And so, if he is not elected valid, he is a usurper, yes.
00:15:05.980 So I know that many viewers will find that shocking and possibly unacceptable.
00:15:10.660 However, over the last few months, LifeSite News has been giving voice to both sides in the debate over whether, or not, Francis is the Pope.
00:15:20.420 We've had some really outstanding articles published on both sides.
00:15:25.260 The standard of argumentation has been really high, and we're going to let the debate continue.
00:15:31.100 As I said in my talk at Rome Life Forum this year, we're running both sides of the argument on LifeSite News.
00:15:37.780 And because the Church is Christ's, I know that the truth of Christ will come out.
00:15:43.120 And I believe that reasoned, prayerful debate on the matter is an aid to arriving at that truth.
00:15:50.320 However, I must say it's notable that these papers that we've run have largely, not all, been written by laymen.
00:15:57.180 That's non-clerics.
00:15:59.420 And there's a reason for that, which I'll suggest towards the end of this show.
00:16:03.560 So stay tuned for that.
00:16:05.200 But as I said, not all the papers have been written by laymen.
00:16:08.980 Bishop Athanasius Schneider has been involved, and Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, and priests such as Father Giorgio Maria Fari.
00:16:18.260 However, Bishop Grassida is important as a bishop, retired, yes, but in good standing,
00:16:23.820 who has not been afraid to take a public stance against Francis's legitimacy.
00:16:29.560 And I'm going to suggest to you that Grassida's record, amazingly strong on life, on family, on faith, and on culture,
00:16:37.520 it actually demands that we give him a respectful hearing, even if we don't agree with everything he says.
00:16:44.180 Now, Bishop Grassida himself has shared a lot of relevant articles from elsewhere on his website,
00:16:52.080 Abissus Abissum Invokat, which means deep calling to deep, and that's his own website.
00:16:59.320 And you can head over there to see some of what he's shared over the last few years.
00:17:05.200 However, on his website, Bishop Grassida has also published a profession of faith, which deals with the topic.
00:17:12.520 So let's take a look at what Bishop Grassida says in his Credo, and what he actually believes about Pope Francis,
00:17:21.320 Benedict's resignation, and the crisis in the Church, and more.
00:17:24.980 First of all, it starts with a profession of faith, published by the CDF in 1998,
00:17:31.420 which is itself made up of the Nicene Creed, and an expression of faith,
00:17:36.300 assent, and submission to the tradition and teaching of the Church.
00:17:39.580 From there, it goes on to deal with our current situation.
00:17:43.740 But before we get to that, let's fast forward to the final four points,
00:17:48.740 where he says his position in response to some of the chief problems of our day,
00:17:52.980 problems which set the stage for the rest of his profession.
00:17:56.820 First of all, he speaks about contemporary errors.
00:18:01.000 It's in his point 11.
00:18:03.420 He states his views about Francis' document Amoris Laetitia, saying, and I quote,
00:18:08.880 I believe that the pastoral norms issued by some bishops applying the teaching contained in Amoris Laetitia
00:18:17.040 are at least heterodoxical, if not heretical, and are doing much harm to the faithful, end quote.
00:18:23.800 In the twelfth point, he says, and I quote again,
00:18:28.080 I believe that because of its divinely established nature,
00:18:31.160 the discipline of the sacraments must never contradict the revealed Word of God
00:18:35.700 and the consequent faith of the Church in the absolute indissolubility of a ratified and consummated marriage, end quote.
00:18:45.100 In other words, he rejects the idea of administering the sacraments of penance and Holy Communion
00:18:51.180 to those who are living in public sin.
00:18:54.480 In the thirteenth point, he professes his admiration for John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor,
00:19:03.380 and especially its teaching that, and I quote,
00:19:05.940 there exists a category of human acts that are intrinsically evil and therefore absolutely prohibited for man, end quote,
00:19:14.080 for which he says, and I quote again,
00:19:16.220 there are no privileges or exceptions for anyone, end quote.
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00:19:50.500 Thank you for your support, and may God bless you.
00:19:53.900 In other words, he is rejecting the idea that consummated acts of adultery can be justified
00:20:00.420 or even obligatory in certain cases, as is strongly implied by Amoris Laetitia.
00:20:06.440 Finally, he professes a position of compassion towards those with homosexual tendencies
00:20:12.580 while also insisting on the necessity of chastity.
00:20:17.960 And I'll quote it for you.
00:20:18.820 He says,
00:20:19.180 Within this view, we can see the problem and why Bishop Grasida is looking for a solution.
00:20:45.180 The problem is that Francis, the putative Roman pontiff, consistently speaks, teaches,
00:20:53.260 and acts contrary to these immutable moral truths.
00:20:58.320 So let's start by seeing what he believes about Benedict XVI.
00:21:04.060 So, he believes Benedict XVI actually retained the papacy.
00:21:09.360 So, returning to the start of his credo, Bishop Grasida affirms in his second point, and I quote,
00:21:17.000 I believe that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was legitimately elected pope by a conclave of cardinals
00:21:23.020 and has legitimately led the Church under the name of Pope Benedict XVI.
00:21:29.320 Then in his third point, he says that he believes that Benedict's resignation was invalid
00:21:34.000 because he was criminally forced to resign the office of the pope, end quote.
00:21:40.380 And because of these irregularities in how he made his resignation, he states further on,
00:21:46.220 and I quote again,
00:21:46.920 I believe that this act of Pope Benedict, which is a sharing in the papacy,
00:21:52.460 in the words of Archbishop Georg Ganz, his secretary, is an innovation,
00:21:57.140 the legitimacy of which will have to be determined in history, but is a reality with which we must
00:22:04.900 presently live, end quote.
00:22:07.120 In other words, he believes that Benedict XVI remained pope because his resignation was not
00:22:13.120 a free act and should have been made in a different form, and it was incomplete based
00:22:18.760 on the dubious idea of sharing the papacy with his successor.
00:22:21.840 That's why he believes, that's Bishop Grasida thinks, that Benedict was still pope.
00:22:29.740 He also provides a number of separate reasons as to why Pope Francis was and is not the pope,
00:22:38.360 independent of the Holy See already being occupied.
00:22:42.220 So, first of all, why Pope Francis has not attained the papacy?
00:22:48.060 He says in his fifth point, and I quote,
00:22:50.780 I believe that the election of Jorge Maria Cardinal Bergoglio in the conclave of 2013
00:22:57.860 was perhaps either illicit or invalid or both.
00:23:02.200 So, why does he think that?
00:23:04.160 Well, there's a few different reasons, rooted in John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution,
00:23:09.600 Universi Dominici Gregis.
00:23:12.200 That is the Apostolic Constitution that prohibited the kind of conspiracy confessed to by
00:23:20.320 cardinals of the Sun Gallen Mafia.
00:23:23.340 And so, this, you might say, rule book, or constitution, as John Paul calls it, which lays out the rules
00:23:31.500 for the election of a pope, actually says in paragraph 76, go look it up for yourself, paragraph 76 said,
00:23:39.060 should the election, that's the election of the pope, so should the election take place in a way other than that
00:23:46.140 prescribed in the present constitution, or should the conditions laid down here not be observed,
00:23:52.620 the election is for this very reason null and void, without any need for a declaration on the matter,
00:23:59.140 consequently it confers no right on the one elected.
00:24:02.860 End quote.
00:24:04.100 That's a mouthful, but you've got to see it for yourself.
00:24:07.460 This, I mean, if you haven't seen this before, go look it up.
00:24:10.460 It is the constitution, or rules for, if you will, the election of a Roman pontiff,
00:24:16.980 written by Pope John Paul II, actually reformed slightly by Pope Benedict,
00:24:21.920 but this paragraph remains, and I'll read it again because it's so important,
00:24:25.640 paragraph 76 of Universi Dominici Gregis, a friend of the Vatican website,
00:24:29.920 you will read, should the election take place in a way other than that prescribed in the present
00:24:35.760 constitution, or should the conditions laid down here not be observed, the election is for this
00:24:40.920 very reason null and void, without any need for a declaration on the matter, and consequently
00:24:45.760 it confers no right on the one elected.
00:24:51.960 So, what does Bishop Grassida mean by this kind of conspiracy?
00:24:56.380 The radically pro-Francis author Austin Ivory wrote the following of a Team Bergoglio,
00:25:04.900 which we commonly know today as the Sangallen Mafia.
00:25:08.440 The initiative was now seized.
00:25:11.140 Now, this is a quote from the book of the, as I said, radically pro-Francis Austin Ivory.
00:25:17.060 The initiative was now seized by the European reformists, who in 2005 had pushed for Bergoglio.
00:25:26.180 Some of them, like Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, were too old to vote in the conclave,
00:25:31.240 others including Walter Casper, who was just under the 80 when the Papal Sea became vacant.
00:25:38.520 Godfrey Daniels and Karl Lehmann were electors.
00:25:42.120 They had learned their lessons from 2005.
00:25:46.240 They first secured Bergoglio's assent, asked if he was willing.
00:25:50.500 He said that he believed that at this time of crisis for the Church, no Cardinal could refuse if asked.
00:25:58.040 The book goes on.
00:25:59.300 These are quotes from Austin Ivory's book.
00:26:01.840 Murphy O'Connor knowingly warned him to be careful that it was his turn now and was told,
00:26:09.380 Then they got to work, touring the Cardinal's dinners to promote their man,
00:26:16.780 arguing that his age, 76, should no longer be considered an obstacle given that Popes could resign.
00:26:24.340 Having understood, from 2005, the dynamics of a conclave,
00:26:28.720 they knew that votes traveled to those who made a strong showing out of the gate.
00:26:33.560 Their objective was to secure at least 25 votes for Bergoglio on the first ballot.
00:26:40.580 An ancient Italian Cardinal kept the tally of how many votes they could rely on before the conclave started.
00:26:48.900 Austin Ivory's book goes on, and I quote again,
00:26:51.260 Because the organizers of his campaign stayed carefully below the radar,
00:26:57.380 the Bergoglio bandwagon that began to roll during the week of the congregations,
00:27:02.740 that means for the election, went undetected by the media.
00:27:06.680 And to this day, most Vaticanisti believe there was no organized pre-conclave effort to get Bergoglio elected.
00:27:15.040 Not for the first time, the Argentine would appear to come out of nowhere.
00:27:22.160 End quote.
00:27:23.080 Now, in a footnote, Austin Ivory actually says, and I quote,
00:27:26.900 In his book, the leading Vatican commentator Andrea Tornielli,
00:27:30.740 says that there were no campaigns organized in advance of the conclave for Bergoglio.
00:27:36.660 Well, we know differently.
00:27:38.780 We know there was one.
00:27:39.680 Thanks to Austin Ivory, thanks to Cardinal Daniels, one of the conspirators himself,
00:27:45.300 who came out with an authorized biography, which admitted the whole thing.
00:27:50.780 Based on material which Bishop Grassida has shared on his website,
00:27:55.080 it appears that he thinks that this is a violation of the following paragraphs of Universi Dominici Gragers.
00:28:03.680 They're a bit long, but we need to hear them in full.
00:28:07.560 So, I'll quote them for you.
00:28:08.920 And you can look this up, as I said, yourself, in Universi Dominici Gragers,
00:28:13.320 the Constitution, the rulebook for election of a pope, put out by John Paul II.
00:28:17.480 Paragraph 79 reads this way.
00:28:19.940 Confirming the prescription of my predecessors, I likewise forbid anyone,
00:28:24.320 even if he is a cardinal, during the pope's lifetime and without having consulted him,
00:28:29.280 to make plans concerning the election of his successor,
00:28:32.340 or to promise votes, or make decisions in this regard in private gatherings.
00:28:36.960 Paragraph 80 says,
00:28:38.100 In the same way, I wish to confirm the provisions made by my predecessors
00:28:42.520 for the purpose of excluding any external interference in the election of the Supreme Pontiff.
00:28:48.820 Therefore, in virtue of holy obedience and under the pain of excommunication,
00:28:54.080 I again forbid each and every cardinal elector present and future,
00:29:00.420 as also the secretary of the College of Cardinals,
00:29:03.080 and all other persons taking part in the preparation and carrying out of everything necessary for the election,
00:29:08.720 to accept under any pretext whatsoever, from any civil authority whatsoever,
00:29:14.400 the task of proposing the veto or the so-called exclusiva,
00:29:19.440 even under the guise of a simple desire,
00:29:22.020 or to reveal such either to the entire electoral body assembled together,
00:29:26.940 or to individual electors in writing or by word of mouth,
00:29:31.460 either directly and personally or indirectly and through others,
00:29:35.060 both before the election begins and for its duration.
00:29:40.240 I intend this prohibition to include all possible forms of interference, opposition, and suggestion,
00:29:46.160 whereby secular authorities of whatever order and degree,
00:29:50.720 or any individual or group,
00:29:52.760 might attempt to exercise influence on the election of the Pope.
00:29:56.860 Then in paragraph 81, it says,
00:30:00.420 The cardinal electors shall further abstain from any form of pact, agreement, promise,
00:30:06.740 or other commitment of any kind,
00:30:08.840 which could oblige them to give or deny their vote to a person or persons.
00:30:13.740 If this were in fact done,
00:30:15.800 even under oath,
00:30:16.880 I decree that such a commitment shall be null and void,
00:30:19.800 and that no one shall be bound to observe it,
00:30:22.200 and I hereby impose the penalty of excommunication,
00:30:25.660 laitie sentiae,
00:30:26.940 upon those who violate this prohibition.
00:30:29.980 It is not my intention, however,
00:30:31.580 to forbid,
00:30:32.580 during the period in which the sea is vacant,
00:30:35.220 the exchange of views concerning the election.
00:30:37.960 End quote.
00:30:39.200 So, while the phrase null and void
00:30:41.960 appears to apply to the commitments made by the cardinals,
00:30:45.840 Grassida concludes from this
00:30:47.460 that the conclave itself is rendered null and void
00:30:50.680 by such maneuvering.
00:30:53.300 Similarly,
00:30:54.480 John Paul II states,
00:30:56.060 in Universi Dominici Gregis,
00:30:57.960 in paragraph 82,
00:30:59.400 I likewise forbid the cardinals before the election
00:31:02.240 to enter into any stipulations
00:31:04.220 committing themselves of common accord
00:31:06.460 to a certain course of action
00:31:07.940 should one of them be elevated to the pontificate.
00:31:11.320 These promises, too,
00:31:13.220 should any in fact be made,
00:31:16.380 even under oath,
00:31:17.460 I also declare null and void.
00:31:20.680 Bishop Grassida points out
00:31:22.080 that an automatic,
00:31:24.280 laitie sentiae excommunication
00:31:26.360 is imposed upon those
00:31:28.280 who violate the prohibitions
00:31:29.640 of Numbers 80 and 81,
00:31:32.100 and then adds,
00:31:32.760 and I quote,
00:31:33.600 it is impossible for an excommunicated cardinal
00:31:35.860 to be elected pope.
00:31:37.840 End quote.
00:31:38.800 So, while the reasoning here seems debatable,
00:31:41.800 especially if we're talking about
00:31:43.520 automatic excommunications,
00:31:45.340 which haven't yet been declared,
00:31:47.880 however,
00:31:48.420 in spite of all of this,
00:31:49.680 Bishop Grassida claims,
00:31:50.720 and I quote,
00:31:51.120 I believe that until the election
00:31:54.040 of Jorge Maria Cardinal Bergoglio
00:31:56.820 to the chair of Peter,
00:31:58.700 no, let me say that again.
00:32:01.580 I'll start from however.
00:32:03.860 However, in spite of all this,
00:32:05.740 Bishop Grassida claims,
00:32:06.740 and I quote,
00:32:07.200 I believe that until the election
00:32:10.300 of Jorge Maria Cardinal Bergoglio
00:32:12.660 to the chair of Peter
00:32:13.760 is declared to be invalid
00:32:15.880 by a conclave of cardinals of the church,
00:32:19.000 he does de facto exercise
00:32:21.440 the power of jurisdiction
00:32:22.780 shared with him by Pope Benedict
00:32:25.300 as long as Pope Benedict is alive.
00:32:29.320 End quote.
00:32:29.800 So, here, Bishop Grassida seems to be saying
00:32:33.080 that while it is uncertain
00:32:34.880 whether or not Benedict
00:32:36.520 could indeed share the papacy
00:32:38.520 with another person,
00:32:39.900 the facts of the situation
00:32:42.040 mean that he was sort of delegating
00:32:45.100 or supplying a certain amount
00:32:46.600 of power of jurisdiction
00:32:48.120 with Francis.
00:32:49.140 The effect of this would be
00:32:51.200 that at least some
00:32:52.600 of Francis' acts of governance,
00:32:54.880 perhaps including the appointment
00:32:56.120 of cardinals
00:32:57.180 and diocesan bishops,
00:32:59.180 would be valid.
00:33:00.620 However, Bishop Grassida makes clear
00:33:02.960 in his seventh point
00:33:04.300 that this possible delegation
00:33:06.440 depends on Pope Benedict
00:33:09.280 and would cease,
00:33:10.940 would stop upon Pope Benedict's death.
00:33:14.000 And I'll quote it for you.
00:33:15.800 Bishop Grassida says,
00:33:16.760 I believe that in the event
00:33:19.160 of the death of Pope Benedict XVI,
00:33:21.640 assuming that he predeceases
00:33:23.500 Jorge Maria Bergoglio,
00:33:25.140 a.k.a. Francis,
00:33:26.980 it becomes imperative
00:33:28.480 that the dean of the College of Cardinals
00:33:30.720 summon a conclave
00:33:32.100 of the College of Cardinals
00:33:33.300 to determine whether or not
00:33:35.680 the sharing of the papacy
00:33:37.240 by Pope Benedict was valid.
00:33:40.080 Bishop Grassida adds
00:33:41.200 that the cardinals must also address
00:33:43.700 the validity of the 2013 conclave
00:33:46.420 he says, and I quote,
00:33:48.160 and consequently whether the election
00:33:50.020 of Cardinal Bergoglio was valid
00:33:51.780 and if it is determined
00:33:53.500 that it was not,
00:33:55.080 to then declare the see of Peter vacant
00:33:57.380 and to set the date
00:33:58.620 for a new conclave
00:33:59.660 to elect the next pope.
00:34:01.440 End quote.
00:34:02.300 So, with regard to what Catholics
00:34:04.340 should then do now
00:34:05.500 in the meantime,
00:34:07.000 he tells us what to do
00:34:08.600 in the eighth point.
00:34:10.080 He implies that until the cardinals
00:34:12.420 have determined this
00:34:13.820 and until the next conclave,
00:34:16.500 it is unclear
00:34:17.400 whether Francis was either
00:34:19.280 a.k.a. a true pope
00:34:20.280 who was teaching
00:34:21.180 and governing contrary
00:34:22.180 to divine revelation
00:34:23.220 or b.k.a. a false pope
00:34:25.520 some of whose papal acts
00:34:27.100 were validated
00:34:27.740 by the delegation of jurisdiction
00:34:29.320 from Benedict XVI.
00:34:31.400 And this seems to be why
00:34:32.640 he says that, I quote,
00:34:33.720 all Catholics can legitimately
00:34:35.560 withhold assent to,
00:34:37.660 and I quote again,
00:34:38.560 to all the acts of Francis
00:34:40.220 which either formally
00:34:42.120 or accidentally contradict
00:34:43.640 or oppose divine revelation,
00:34:45.740 end quote,
00:34:46.400 without regard
00:34:47.120 for the true solution.
00:34:49.300 And then in the ninth point,
00:34:51.040 Bishop Grassita says,
00:34:51.960 and I quote,
00:34:52.500 I believe that every Catholic
00:34:54.280 layperson
00:34:55.180 has a moral obligation
00:34:57.040 following the example
00:34:58.800 of the Catholics
00:34:59.900 of the fourth century
00:35:01.140 with regard to the heresy
00:35:02.400 of Arius
00:35:03.040 to give vocal
00:35:05.080 or written expression
00:35:06.640 of opposition
00:35:07.580 to all clergy
00:35:09.580 who teach,
00:35:10.860 preach any doctrine
00:35:12.300 or praxis
00:35:12.920 that contradicts
00:35:13.680 divine revelation.
00:35:15.720 So in his tenth point,
00:35:17.900 Bishop Grassita explains
00:35:19.040 what is necessary
00:35:20.080 to keep the faith
00:35:21.000 in this situation.
00:35:22.300 He says,
00:35:22.680 and I quote,
00:35:23.480 I believe that the only way
00:35:25.920 Catholics can prepare themselves
00:35:27.600 for whatever
00:35:28.760 our Lord Jesus Christ
00:35:30.120 plans as the means
00:35:31.440 of resolving
00:35:32.200 the present crisis
00:35:33.080 in the Church
00:35:33.640 is to strengthen
00:35:35.240 the supernatural virtues
00:35:36.780 of faith,
00:35:37.840 hope,
00:35:38.180 and love
00:35:38.520 within themselves
00:35:39.360 through prayer,
00:35:40.380 especially the liturgical prayer
00:35:42.140 and adoration
00:35:43.280 of our Eucharistic Lord
00:35:44.740 while deepening
00:35:46.100 their understanding
00:35:46.920 of what they believe
00:35:48.540 through the study
00:35:49.720 of the writings
00:35:50.500 of the doctors
00:35:51.280 of the Church.
00:35:52.860 So there we have it.
00:35:54.880 Bishop René Henry Grassita,
00:35:57.300 his views are,
00:35:59.340 sure,
00:35:59.820 they're complex
00:36:00.540 and provocative,
00:36:01.920 but they're an interpretation
00:36:03.680 of this situation
00:36:04.980 based on what he thinks
00:36:06.340 happened with Benedict,
00:36:08.380 with on the confessions
00:36:09.660 of the Sangalan Mafia
00:36:10.960 and his interpretations
00:36:12.380 of Universi Dominici Gregis.
00:36:14.880 The fact that this prelate,
00:36:17.300 this successor
00:36:18.500 of the Apostles,
00:36:19.980 holds such views
00:36:21.220 is really important.
00:36:23.300 It shows that these concerns
00:36:25.120 are not limited
00:36:26.180 just to the laity
00:36:27.380 or people who are freaking out,
00:36:29.360 you know,
00:36:29.600 because they don't understand.
00:36:30.620 And no,
00:36:31.780 it's not limited
00:36:32.540 to just priests
00:36:33.560 or traditionalist groups.
00:36:35.960 The fact that Bishop Grassita
00:36:37.300 is retired
00:36:37.860 is actually not
00:36:38.640 all that important.
00:36:39.660 It's sometimes argued
00:36:40.780 that Francis must be Pope
00:36:42.580 because the current
00:36:43.680 diocesan bishops
00:36:44.640 accept him as such.
00:36:45.800 Well, we know
00:36:46.700 for a fact
00:36:47.720 that any non-retired bishop
00:36:49.680 who made these arguments
00:36:51.160 would be removed
00:36:52.560 from office immediately
00:36:53.820 and would no longer
00:36:55.140 be a current diocesan bishop.
00:36:57.180 But that just puts us
00:36:59.180 in a position
00:36:59.880 where only the men
00:37:02.300 whom Francis accepts
00:37:04.000 can be accepted
00:37:05.360 as the men
00:37:06.060 who tell us
00:37:06.940 that Francis
00:37:08.020 is the Pope.
00:37:10.100 So, under such an understanding,
00:37:12.580 the whole idea
00:37:13.380 of universal
00:37:14.260 and peaceful acceptance
00:37:15.760 falls to pieces
00:37:17.320 because
00:37:17.780 an anti-Pope
00:37:19.540 would always be able
00:37:20.700 to maintain
00:37:21.420 his universal
00:37:22.320 peaceful acceptance
00:37:23.200 by his own action.
00:37:25.400 That's just an
00:37:26.360 abusive system
00:37:27.520 from which
00:37:28.040 no one can escape.
00:37:29.780 Anybody who says
00:37:30.840 he's not Pope,
00:37:31.900 he's no longer a bishop
00:37:32.980 and that's it.
00:37:34.360 So, there's no way
00:37:35.420 of saying
00:37:36.380 there's universal
00:37:37.080 peaceful acceptance
00:37:37.900 of all the bishops
00:37:38.620 of Francis,
00:37:39.600 which is one of the main arguments
00:37:41.300 that he is the Pope,
00:37:42.000 by the way,
00:37:42.860 because
00:37:43.820 if he just gets rid
00:37:45.060 of all those
00:37:45.700 who say he's not,
00:37:47.600 game over.
00:37:50.220 On the contrary,
00:37:51.580 Bishop Grassita's record,
00:37:53.560 it actually demands
00:37:55.440 that we give him
00:37:56.040 a fair and
00:37:57.040 respectful hearing.
00:37:58.740 While some of
00:37:59.660 Bishop Grassita's
00:38:00.460 arguments and conclusions
00:38:01.840 are debatable,
00:38:03.600 they might even cause
00:38:04.380 some people consternation,
00:38:05.920 they might rely on others,
00:38:08.740 and various views
00:38:09.980 might reject it,
00:38:11.300 his ultimate call
00:38:12.420 is clear.
00:38:13.540 His ultimate call
00:38:14.340 is that Catholics
00:38:14.940 need to remain
00:38:15.660 steadfast in the faith,
00:38:17.100 grounded in prayer,
00:38:18.020 as they navigate
00:38:18.980 the difficulties
00:38:19.700 of this massive crisis
00:38:21.660 in the Church.
00:38:22.200 Whether or not
00:38:24.040 one agrees
00:38:24.840 with his positions,
00:38:26.560 Bishop Grassita
00:38:27.160 underscores
00:38:28.080 the enduring importance
00:38:29.660 of faith,
00:38:30.700 hope,
00:38:31.060 and love
00:38:31.420 in confronting
00:38:32.120 the challenges
00:38:32.700 facing the Church today.
00:38:35.120 God bless you,
00:38:35.940 my friends.
00:38:36.320 Thank you for joining us.
00:38:38.200 Say a prayer
00:38:38.700 for Bishop Grassita,
00:38:40.120 Bishop René Henry Grassita,
00:38:42.600 such a hero
00:38:43.480 in the Church,
00:38:45.280 a hero for all those
00:38:46.520 who value life,
00:38:48.260 faith,
00:38:49.040 freedom,
00:38:49.720 and family.
00:38:50.800 May God bless you.
00:38:51.640 And we'll see you next time.
00:38:57.100 Hi everyone,
00:38:58.060 this is Fr. James Altman
00:38:59.080 for LifeSite News.
00:39:01.180 We hope you enjoyed
00:39:02.260 this video.
00:39:03.360 For more content like this,
00:39:05.500 check the links
00:39:06.240 in the description.
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00:39:11.800 on life,
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00:39:16.420 Thank you for watching,
00:39:17.840 and may God bless you all.