The John-Henry Westen Show - December 07, 2021


Vatican III: Francis' Synod on Synodality is going to be 'a mishmash of confusion and heresy'


Summary

Since the last word we heard from the Vatican, something has been going on in the background. It s the Synod on Synodality, where all the bishops of the world are getting messages from the faithful and forwarding them to Rome. What s this all about? What does it portend for the church? We re going to find out today from Matt Gaspers, who is the managing editor over at Catholic Family News.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Things seem to have been quiet from the Vatican for the past little while.
00:00:03.680 We've been wondering what's going on.
00:00:05.620 And since the last word we heard was the kind of dismantling of the traditional Latin Mass
00:00:11.240 with the implementation of Tradiciones Custodes of Pope Francis,
00:00:17.620 something has been going on in the background.
00:00:20.620 It's the Synod on Synodality.
00:00:22.560 All the bishops of the world are getting messages from the faithful and forwarding them to Rome.
00:00:27.200 What is this?
00:00:28.200 What does it portend for the church?
00:00:30.300 We're going to find out today from Matt Gaspers, who's with us.
00:00:33.220 He is the managing editor over at Catholic Family News, a great publication.
00:00:38.420 Go check it out from the late John Venari, a friend of LifeSite and very holy fellow.
00:00:44.520 But we'll get into that more.
00:00:47.180 You're going to want to stay tuned to find out what's up in Rome.
00:00:58.200 Matt Gaspers, welcome to the program.
00:01:10.960 Thank you so much for inviting me, John Henry.
00:01:12.840 It's a pleasure.
00:01:13.780 Let's begin as we always do at the sign of the cross.
00:01:16.700 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
00:01:21.740 Amen.
00:01:22.100 Amen.
00:01:22.740 Amen.
00:01:23.040 So, Matt, you're one of the very few people who probably have read the whole of the documents
00:01:31.240 that led up to this Synod on Synodality.
00:01:34.300 First of all, can you tell us what this is and what it's all about?
00:01:37.980 Sure.
00:01:38.360 To the best of my ability, because as Cardinal Dolan famously said on the weekend that the
00:01:43.380 Synod opened around the world, October 17th, you know, he asked rhetorically, just what
00:01:49.000 is synodality?
00:01:49.940 I don't really know.
00:01:52.120 Let's play that clip.
00:01:53.680 Just get that.
00:01:56.140 Now, you ask, just what is synodality, of which Pope Francis so often speaks?
00:02:06.100 I don't know if I completely understand it, everybody.
00:02:11.580 Yeah, so, I mean, it's humorous, but it's also really sad and pathetic.
00:02:15.780 I mean, when the Cardinal Archbishop of New York is saying, I don't really know what it
00:02:20.580 is, everybody, and neither does Pope Francis.
00:02:23.580 Okay, so what are we supposed to do with this?
00:02:28.100 But as I understand it, you know, based on the literature that's been published by the
00:02:32.140 Vatican, it's pushing the notion that Pope Francis has repeated on numerous occasions.
00:02:37.960 I think it was from a 2018 speech that he gave, I forget the exact context, but his claim is
00:02:46.100 that God expects the church to be synodal in the third millennium.
00:02:50.520 That's paraphrasing the quote, and it's quoted in the official literature.
00:02:54.940 I don't know how he claims to know that infallibly, if he receives some sort of private revelation
00:03:00.960 that the rest of us are not privy to, but he says that God expects this of the church
00:03:06.580 in the third millennium.
00:03:08.100 So synodality is simply, you know, synodos, or synodos, I'm not a Greek scholar, but I do
00:03:14.480 know that the word means basically walking together, and that's what, hence the logo, the official
00:03:20.860 logo, you've probably seen it.
00:03:22.680 It looks like it's a crayon drawing by an elementary school student, which certainly doesn't lend
00:03:27.880 much dignity or sacredness to this event that they want us to take so seriously.
00:03:37.800 So basically, it's consulting, as I understand it, it's a consultation, a general consultation
00:03:44.200 of the entire people of God, you know, the popular Vatican II phrase, to the end of listening
00:03:51.500 to what the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit has to say.
00:03:54.480 This is a direct quote from the official handbook in Latin.
00:03:59.880 It's called the Vade Mecum, and this is in section 4.1 of that document, which is a summary
00:04:06.780 of what is envisaged in the diocesan phase.
00:04:10.480 That's the other novelty about this particular synod, is that it's divided up into various
00:04:15.460 phases.
00:04:15.860 It's actually a two-year process.
00:04:18.200 So we're going to be covering this for the long haul, unfortunately, but this is the
00:04:22.960 quote from the handbook regarding the purpose of the synod.
00:04:27.220 It says, quote, the heart of the synodal experience is listening to God through listening to one
00:04:35.320 another, inspired by the word of God.
00:04:38.360 We listen to each other in order to better hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in
00:04:45.400 our world today, end quote.
00:04:48.580 So my issue with that is, you know, my understanding is that the Holy Ghost speaks to us through
00:04:55.780 public revelation, through scripture, through tradition, and through the voice of the magisterium,
00:05:02.440 not by listening to my neighbor in the pew, who probably doesn't even know the catechism,
00:05:07.880 if you know what I mean.
00:05:10.780 So I don't understand what they're hoping to get from this consultation synodal process,
00:05:18.500 other than a mishmash of confusion and heresy and lots of other bad fruit, to be frank.
00:05:27.820 Well, there's some really interesting aspects to what's going on.
00:05:30.540 This is coming from Pope Francis, all about listening.
00:05:34.620 The same Pope Francis that refused to listen to the dubia cardinals who begged and begged
00:05:41.680 and waited for years until death to answer simple questions with regard to the clarity
00:05:48.180 of faith, which he is charged as the Pope to answer, to clarify.
00:05:53.420 That's his whole mission.
00:05:55.160 And yet he didn't do that.
00:05:56.180 So something's amiss right from the start about wanting to listen when he didn't want to listen.
00:06:02.600 In fact, he completely rejected it.
00:06:04.320 In fact, the wanting to listen aspect is also funny because there is an almost complete rejection
00:06:11.580 of traditional Catholics when it comes to listening.
00:06:14.680 On the part of all those rah-rah-ing for this synodal approach.
00:06:20.020 In fact, if you look at what's going on in Germany, and I'd like you to speak to this,
00:06:24.080 because Germany has already been going through a synodal process.
00:06:27.820 We know that because we remember, horrifically so, that Cardinal Marx, who is the head of the
00:06:35.020 church in Germany, and a cardinal chosen by Francis to sit on his special council, but talked
00:06:41.860 openly about the synodal process in Germany going forward, even with things like the blessing
00:06:47.760 of homosexual couples, which has no place in the church whatsoever.
00:06:50.780 So address that, if you would.
00:06:54.100 What's going on in Germany, and how does that reflect upon what we are to experience with
00:06:58.260 the synod of synodality?
00:06:59.940 The pretext for the German synodal way, or sometimes it's called the German synodal path,
00:07:05.720 which started in, I believe it was February or March of 2019, immediately following the big
00:07:11.840 summit in Rome regarding the plague of clerical sexual abuse.
00:07:15.980 And that was the pretext for holding this, you know, German synodal path to discuss stuff that
00:07:22.760 has nothing to do with that plague, by the way, but to really open a Pandora's box of all different
00:07:29.140 kinds of things that are, as you mentioned, are not negotiable, not up for discussion.
00:07:33.020 Um, so interestingly, in the handbook, uh, for the, uh, synod on synodality, which the formal
00:07:42.440 title is, I think, um, for a synodal church, uh, communion participation mission, something
00:07:49.760 like that.
00:07:50.240 So in the, in the introductory section, it says, um, many regions, I'm quoting now, many
00:07:58.340 regions already have established processes for engaging with the faithful at the level
00:08:04.280 of their parishes, movements, and dioceses.
00:08:07.480 We are conscious that there are a number of countries where the local church has initiated
00:08:13.180 a synodal conversation of its own, including, and then it lists a few examples, the ecclesial
00:08:19.520 assembly in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it has a link to that, the plenary council
00:08:24.860 in Australia, it has a link to that, and the synodal journeys in, you guessed it, Germany
00:08:31.640 linked to their website and Ireland.
00:08:34.920 So just this very subtle passing reference.
00:08:37.900 Oh, by the way, this is already going on in Germany.
00:08:39.900 Here's a link to it, no warning that this is completely heretical, what's going on in
00:08:45.300 Germany and could very, really cause a schism and create a national German, you know, fake
00:08:51.580 church, basically like the equivalent of the, uh, Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association,
00:08:57.320 more or less in a little different way, but same, same concept.
00:09:02.460 So no warning at all, just, you know, Hey, this is going on in Germany.
00:09:06.580 And basically this is what's going to be going on in the universal church for the
00:09:09.820 next two years.
00:09:10.780 So buckle, buckle your seatbelts.
00:09:13.320 Yeah, basically it, it, it makes people, uh, hopefully wake up and be very concerned about
00:09:19.280 what's coming.
00:09:19.840 I know Cardinal Burke, uh, Bishop Schneider, uh, have both spoken about this, uh, and, and
00:09:26.000 even Cardinal Sarah, um, in, in being very concerned about this, most of the, you know,
00:09:32.900 their commentary on it has been about how it is, uh, you know, it's being bandied about
00:09:38.120 as a term to be used to be able to promote heresy within the church, uh, something that
00:09:43.620 can't really happen.
00:09:45.180 If I could also mention something that's unique about this particular synod, and you've, you've
00:09:49.360 been covering this, uh, these synods much longer than I have.
00:09:52.360 And just by the way, I, I greatly appreciate LifeSite News.
00:09:55.420 I think you all do excellent work and we're in your debt, uh, uh, in the Catholic world.
00:10:00.560 So thank you for all that you do.
00:10:02.640 What's unique about this so-called synod on synodality is that in the, unlike previous
00:10:07.640 synods, and I've gone back and, you know, looked at the different topics, each of them
00:10:12.460 were devoted either to a specific doctrinal or pastoral subject.
00:10:16.720 So to give one, a couple examples in 1974, the topic was evangelization in the modern
00:10:22.940 world, 1977 catechesis in our times, 1980, the Christian family.
00:10:28.820 So it had a very, you know, specific focus to it, uh, either a doctrinal or pastoral subject,
00:10:35.340 or it was devoted to a particular region in the world.
00:10:38.460 The focus of this current synod is much broader and it bears upon the very nature of the church
00:10:44.880 herself, which is very concerning.
00:10:46.720 Uh, it's really to the point of seeking to fundamentally and permanently change the church,
00:10:53.220 or at least to change the traditional understanding of her divine constitution.
00:10:58.220 And a perfect example of, of that being one of the goals of this process, um, is none other
00:11:05.420 than, than Pope Francis himself in his opening address.
00:11:08.280 So just to give people a timeline to help them understand how long this has been going on,
00:11:12.600 where we're at in the process.
00:11:13.900 Uh, it was first announced, the synodal process was announced in April, I believe.
00:11:20.400 And then in May it was announced, originally it was supposed to just be a month long, you
00:11:25.940 know, quote unquote, normal month long synod in Rome in October of 2022.
00:11:31.020 And then in late May of this year, Pope Francis announced that it was going to be this longer
00:11:36.620 two-year thing with different phases.
00:11:39.260 We're currently in the diocesan phase right now.
00:11:42.000 So it officially opened in Rome, uh, the weekend of October 9th and 10th, uh, with Pope Francis.
00:11:48.120 And then in dioceses around the world, the following Sunday, October 17th, as we heard from Cardinal
00:11:53.120 Dolan, and this is what Pope Francis said, uh, in his opening speech, he, he went so far
00:12:00.120 as to quote a rather infamous character named Father Eve Congar, who was a, a progressive
00:12:06.600 Dominican, what's known a paratus in, in Latin or a theological expert at Vatican II.
00:12:12.260 He was also the co-founder, uh, one of the co-founders of the heterodox journal Concilium
00:12:19.200 or Concilium, which is different from Communio, which was supposedly the more conservative one.
00:12:25.100 And Pope Francis quoted him as in his opening address saying, quote, there is no need to
00:12:31.100 create another church, but to create a different church.
00:12:36.040 And I so appreciated, uh, your journalist, Michael Haynes wrote an article, you know, after
00:12:41.320 the opening of the synod, quoting that text, a different church, I believe was the headline.
00:12:46.980 And, uh, he asked me for some, some comments and I offered them.
00:12:51.500 So basically that, you know, this was like a month after the preparatory document and the
00:12:55.740 handbook had been released and I'd had a chance to review those documents.
00:12:59.080 So this is what I, I said to Mr. Haynes in, in response to his request for comment, uh, between
00:13:05.540 the Pope's own comments on the subject and the official documents issued by the Vatican, the
00:13:10.880 synod on synodality is clearly intended to be an extension of the second Vatican council.
00:13:15.860 And I said, you could even dub it Vatican three, because that's essentially what, uh,
00:13:21.400 father Congar and his, uh, comrades at Concilium wanted those comrades included men like Hans
00:13:27.580 Kung, um, notorious for heresy and, and other such figures, uh, Edward Schilbeck's, I don't,
00:13:35.120 I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but all very notorious, bad, bad actors.
00:13:40.040 So I went on to, to explain, you know, the preparatory document, for example, directly
00:13:47.020 connects the synodal journey now beginning with the church's renewal proposed by the
00:13:51.880 second Vatican council, um, and further confirmation, I mentioned, uh, the synod's connection to the
00:13:59.480 council was Pope Francis about the whole, you know, we had no need to create, we don't need
00:14:04.840 to create a new church, but a different church.
00:14:07.280 Well, what, what is substantially is the difference?
00:14:09.320 If you're going to create a different church, then you are creating something new.
00:14:14.260 So.
00:14:14.840 One of the commentaries that you get from, uh, Cardinal Tobin, again, one of the, um, you
00:14:21.380 know, people, Pope Francis has moved into great prominence in the church, a very troubling
00:14:25.600 background, of course, but that's for another, another time.
00:14:28.420 He's been very open about what he thinks that the, uh, synod on synodality is about.
00:14:34.920 He, he calls it sort of the Francis's long plan for changing the church.
00:14:39.840 Uh, and it is about changing the church.
00:14:41.760 It is about, um, changing the church and the church being, uh, what it's supposed to
00:14:48.000 be, uh, the bride of Christ.
00:14:49.620 You're talking about trying to change, uh, or make a different bride of Christ.
00:14:55.180 Um, and I think that's extremely troubling, particularly coming from these characters.
00:15:00.620 And, and Tobin was very upfront about it.
00:15:02.880 In fact, he said the, you know, previous synod or synods or councils in the church were
00:15:07.800 about, uh, defining dogma and excluding people.
00:15:11.520 He said, this is about, uh, a much different path of listening and inclusion and so on.
00:15:18.380 This is very, very dangerous because the, the, the synods, yes, the, the councils in the
00:15:24.800 church, they used to all be about clarity.
00:15:27.800 They used to, uh, yes, let's get away from the heresies.
00:15:31.660 Let's define it, make it clear for the people.
00:15:33.860 We had a massive departure from that with the second Vatican council.
00:15:38.560 It was one of the first council actually that kicked out all of the preparatory documents
00:15:43.180 or schema as they used to be called, um, you know, beautiful writing, summing up the teaching
00:15:47.960 of the church on all sorts of varied subjects, all kicked out before the council began.
00:15:53.680 Um, but it really was the first council of ambiguity.
00:15:57.680 And so continuing down this road of ambiguity when we're awash in it right now is very concerning.
00:16:04.280 Indeed, we still have, uh, from John Paul II and Benedict, some attempt to make from the council
00:16:11.040 documents, still some clarity, insist upon at least the moral clarity in the church.
00:16:17.320 Um, and yet that's all now in question.
00:16:19.980 We've seen Pope Francis question the teaching on contraception, on cohabitation, on homosexuality
00:16:25.820 with, with his invite for, uh, even civil recognition of, of civil same-sex unions, believe it or not.
00:16:32.780 Um, we've seen all of these things from the Pope himself.
00:16:37.520 Um, and so the church is already in a, in a state of disarray, not knowing what's what.
00:16:42.500 Many good, faithful Catholics believing erroneously that your church has changed or could possibly
00:16:49.060 change on these questions of morality, which is impossible.
00:16:52.580 What do you see as coming from this synod on synodality, even in the interim, even in this
00:17:00.100 first stage of, of feeding it?
00:17:02.240 The thrust behind this council is supposedly a consultation of the people of God, you know,
00:17:09.040 console and using, it's very, in many ways, it's similar to Vatican II, that it uses legitimate
00:17:15.780 concepts, ideas in some ways, but it kind of twists the meaning.
00:17:20.280 Yeah.
00:17:20.420 I can give a couple of examples here.
00:17:23.240 Uh, one thing I did want to mention before we moved on.
00:17:26.900 So this whole, this whole notion, it's, it's funny kind of that they, they bring up in the,
00:17:32.700 um, paragraph 14 of the, the preparatory document, which is separate from the, the preparatory
00:17:39.120 document is kind of like the, the theory, the theoretical, and then the handbook is more
00:17:44.140 of the practical how to implement this thing.
00:17:46.520 So in the preparatory document, it says, quote, the consultation of the people of God does
00:17:53.460 not imply the assumption within the church of the dynamics of democracy based on the principle
00:17:59.160 of majority, because there is at the basis of participation in every synodal process,
00:18:05.380 a shared passion for the common mission of evangelization and not the representation of
00:18:12.340 conflicting interests.
00:18:13.760 And when I read that, I immediately thought, you know, this is demonstrably false.
00:18:18.480 If you just look at the, uh, the, all of the internal strife during the 2014, 2015 synods
00:18:25.660 on the family, which I know LifeSite covered very thoroughly, as well as the 2019 Pan Amazon
00:18:32.140 Synod Synod, I mean, those gatherings were defined by strife rooted precisely in what
00:18:38.700 this preparatory document calls the representation of conflicting interests of opposing agendas.
00:18:45.700 And yet at the same time, as I read earlier, the, the handbook for the same Synod on Synodality
00:18:52.440 claims the heart of the synodal experience is listening to God through listening to one another,
00:19:00.180 not through listening to scripture.
00:19:02.320 I mean, it says inspired by the word of God, but it, the emphasis is clearly on listening
00:19:09.020 to the people.
00:19:10.320 It's almost like we, the people of the Catholic church, like, you know, the preamble of the
00:19:15.120 United States constitution.
00:19:16.520 It's a bottom up, uh, very modernist approach because revelation did not well up from below.
00:19:24.720 It was given to us.
00:19:26.120 It was handed down from above.
00:19:27.860 So it's, it's inverting the truth there.
00:19:31.340 Psychologically, it does some grave harm to the faithful because it actually disturbs our
00:19:37.500 whole notion of God in a way.
00:19:41.000 If, if the church is what she is, the bride of Christ, there should be a stability there.
00:19:46.680 The truths of Christ are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
00:19:49.740 And therefore we have that surety.
00:19:52.360 We have that.
00:19:53.100 In fact, you could say we have that relationship with this person of Christ.
00:19:58.500 And so if we can see this person of Christ changing, oh, just becoming a different church,
00:20:05.260 becoming a different bride of Christ.
00:20:06.740 This is incredibly disturbing for people because it shakes their notion of the constancy of their
00:20:15.000 savior, their spouse, their God, their church.
00:20:17.600 It's incredible what, what this does.
00:20:20.140 And I guess, I don't know how much thought they've given to that, but there is that.
00:20:24.760 I wanted to also mention another aspect to this, which is interesting because here we are doing a
00:20:30.200 consultation with the faithful, in some ways, that's a great thing.
00:20:33.760 It's great to be able to express your concerns about what's going on in the church.
00:20:38.520 I'm sure a lot of people, a lot of Catholics, perhaps even young Catholics, want to say certain
00:20:43.380 things about, you know, to the older Catholics, like, hey, we love the Latin Mass.
00:20:48.840 What are you doing with it?
00:20:49.720 Why are you putting it away?
00:20:50.960 Look at all of us and our families going here.
00:20:52.980 Aren't you seeing this?
00:20:54.060 Are we the only ones seeing this?
00:20:55.940 Something happens to be wrong.
00:20:57.640 Um, and maybe getting that message out to the Vatican so that they can pick it up, uh,
00:21:02.780 might be a very good thing indeed, but who are they talking to?
00:21:08.060 And that's a really good question because here we are having a consultation with Catholics
00:21:14.240 supposedly, and yet who are they talking to?
00:21:19.160 So a lot of people know and understand by now that there are a whole bunch of Catholics in
00:21:23.780 the world that aren't really Catholics.
00:21:25.240 They're not living the faith at all.
00:21:26.980 They are on the books as Catholics.
00:21:29.400 They might be registered as Catholics, but very much like, uh, some of the Republicans
00:21:33.380 in the Republican party, they're Republicans in name only.
00:21:35.760 They're Catholics in name only.
00:21:37.260 They're there for maybe the cultural reason or like, and hopefully not many like Nancy Pelosi
00:21:43.800 and Joe Biden who are there for a political expediency or whether they think they are or
00:21:49.380 not.
00:21:49.800 They're not part of Catholic church by any means.
00:21:52.260 They're totally pro-abortion.
00:21:53.540 They're totally pro-homosexual against the teachings of Jesus on these moral issues.
00:21:58.320 So they've put themselves outside the church, period.
00:22:01.440 There's no, there's no way around that.
00:22:04.840 Uh, might be nice that they, they, you know, believe that there is a Jesus, a very different
00:22:09.320 Jesus than the actual Jesus, of course.
00:22:11.000 But it's very, very disturbing.
00:22:14.540 But yet this is the majority of people.
00:22:17.460 I hate to say it, but it is.
00:22:18.760 I mean, I think that's plainly obvious.
00:22:20.520 The majority of people who refer to themselves as Catholics are that they believe something
00:22:24.780 completely different than what the teaching of the church is.
00:22:27.460 But yet, who is this consultation with?
00:22:31.100 I can give some interesting quotes to answer that question from the handbook for the synod.
00:22:37.200 So the section two of the official handbook is called Principles of a Synodal Process and
00:22:43.860 two point, section 2.1, who can participate?
00:22:47.560 This is what the document says, quote,
00:22:49.160 Dioceses are called to keep in mind that the main subjects of this synodal experience are
00:22:55.360 all the baptized.
00:22:57.020 Seems pretty straightforward.
00:22:58.860 Special care should be taken to involve those persons who may risk being excluded.
00:23:03.900 Then it gives a list.
00:23:05.440 Women, the handicapped, refugees, migrants, the elderly, people who live in poverty.
00:23:11.680 And this is the kicker.
00:23:13.220 Catholics who rarely or never practice their faith.
00:23:16.680 How are, I mean, with all due respect, how are those folks going to help the church get
00:23:22.880 to a better place than the human element of the church is in right now?
00:23:27.200 You can't.
00:23:28.100 If you're cut off from the vine, cut off from the life of grace, which is what a person is
00:23:34.920 if they rarely or never practice their faith, they're a dead member on the body of Christ.
00:23:40.500 That's the sad reality, that they are not in a position spiritually to help anything.
00:23:45.880 They need to get their own house in order.
00:23:48.840 You're being the furthest thing from mean and nasty there, but I need you to unpack that
00:23:54.340 a little bit more because many people might think, oh my gosh, you're so exclusionary.
00:23:57.500 Pope Francis was right in the first place.
00:23:58.900 You guys are all about excluding, excluding, excluding.
00:24:02.540 Actually, you're coming from a position of love.
00:24:05.220 Explain that for us.
00:24:06.480 It's not that we're saying, oh, you're such a horrible person, a Catholic who rarely or
00:24:09.920 never practices their faith.
00:24:11.220 Sure, we can consult them and find out why they're not practicing their faith and what
00:24:16.080 the problem is.
00:24:16.920 But ultimately, the charitable and the merciful thing to do, one of the spiritual works of
00:24:23.840 mercy is to instruct the ignorant.
00:24:27.800 It's also to admonish the sinner.
00:24:30.000 That's an act of mercy, to call them back to repentance, call them home to the life of
00:24:35.540 grace, to the life of the sacraments.
00:24:37.860 So we're certainly not about excluding anyone.
00:24:40.080 We don't want anyone to be excluded.
00:24:41.940 God himself does not want anyone to be excluded.
00:24:44.520 He says in 1 Timothy 2 that he wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of
00:24:52.480 the truth.
00:24:53.720 So there's a connection there between being saved and knowing and embracing the truth.
00:24:59.260 Folks cannot be saved.
00:25:01.180 They cannot benefit from the fruits of the redemption without knowing and embracing that
00:25:07.460 revealed truth.
00:25:08.600 So it is very much an act of mercy and inclusion to call people to conversion.
00:25:14.660 And I'd like to, you know, bring this to a close in a few minutes here, but I wanted
00:25:20.240 to ask you one more question specifically.
00:25:22.240 What is, in your mind, something that Catholics who care about the Church, who believe the truths
00:25:28.940 of the Church, need to be doing at this time about Synod?
00:25:32.960 The consultative process is open to literally everyone.
00:25:37.460 I mean, the handbook says two paragraphs down, while all the baptized are specifically called
00:25:43.480 to take part in the Synodal process, no one, no matter their religious affiliation, should
00:25:48.780 be excluded.
00:25:49.520 So literally, this is wide open to everybody.
00:25:51.740 You know, I guess at the, at your local parish level, you can ask your pastor, your parish
00:25:57.320 priest, what's going on?
00:26:00.680 You know, can I, I want to put in my, my two cents worth, so to speak.
00:26:06.480 And every, as I said, every diocese around the world is supposed to be participating in
00:26:13.240 this process.
00:26:13.880 Every diocese is supposed to have like a, I forget the formal title, but a diocesan point
00:26:18.700 person.
00:26:19.640 Every bishop of every diocese is supposed to be personally involved in listening to the
00:26:24.140 people of God.
00:26:25.560 So I guess the best advice I can give is make your voices heard in favor of, of the faith,
00:26:32.220 the true faith, the true Church, and, and the tradition, you know.
00:26:36.800 Father Mark Goring, who is a neat priest from Companions of the Cross up in Canada, he, he
00:26:43.940 called, he had a very short message for the faithful to take part in the Synodal process
00:26:49.220 type of thing.
00:26:50.040 Let's have a look at that.
00:26:52.740 Let your voice be heard.
00:26:54.600 My point is, no silly stuff.
00:26:57.340 We see silly stuff happening in Germany.
00:27:00.800 And I want you to make your voice heard.
00:27:03.100 I'm going to make my voice heard.
00:27:04.560 No silly stuff.
00:27:05.620 Give me the true, unwatered down gospel.
00:27:10.300 This is what brings salvation, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
00:27:16.080 The Lord Jesus said, if you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciple, and you will
00:27:26.120 know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
00:27:31.140 So that was Father Mark Goring.
00:27:32.980 Let me ask you also, Matt, you've studied this.
00:27:39.420 What are your sort of final thoughts on where we are right now with this process and within
00:27:46.360 the Church generally?
00:27:47.400 Recently, as you know, Catholic Family News and LifeSite News had the privilege of publishing
00:27:52.780 a new Advent meditation from His Excellency Archbishop Vigano, and I think he sums up pretty much where
00:28:00.780 we are pretty well in that meditation.
00:28:03.400 In the dramatic crisis that now for 60 years afflicts the Church of Christ and which today
00:28:09.720 is showing itself in all its gravity, a possilus grex, that is a little flock, asks their Lord
00:28:17.880 to save humanity that has gone astray when corruption and apostasy have penetrated even
00:28:24.180 the sacred enclosure and unto the highest throne.
00:28:27.660 So obviously, he's talking about the Church, what our friend Dr. Taylor Marshall would call
00:28:31.720 the infiltration of the Church, and the highest throne is obviously a reference to the Chair
00:28:36.280 of Peter.
00:28:37.940 He goes on to observe, think of how many believers raised in absolute ignorance of the fundamentals
00:28:44.380 of the faith, despite having attended catechism, are steeped in heretical, philosophical, and
00:28:50.700 theological doctrines, convinced that all religions are equal, ignorant of people who believe that
00:28:57.700 man is not wounded by original sin but naturally good.
00:29:00.960 How many Catholics believe that lie?
00:29:03.680 A lot.
00:29:05.040 That the state must ignore the true religion and tolerate error.
00:29:08.560 He just goes on and on with this litany of terrible errors that many Catholics, sadly today,
00:29:14.320 believe.
00:29:15.960 And it's basically, he ends this paragraph by saying, not even the most delirious ravings
00:29:21.700 of the worst Freemason could have hoped to see the fulfillment of Voltaire's cry, which
00:29:28.000 in the English translation is, crush the loathsome thing, referring to the Church.
00:29:32.460 So basically, it's the dream of Freemasonry that he mentioned in his very first intervention
00:29:39.580 regarding Vatican II, which both of our publications published.
00:29:44.320 Back in June of 2000, he said, quote, that from Vatican II onwards, a parallel church was
00:29:51.000 built, superimposed over and diametrically opposed to the true Church of Christ.
00:29:56.660 This parallel church, he said, progressively obscured the divine institution founded by our
00:30:03.200 Lord in order to replace it with a spurious entity corresponding to the desired universal religion
00:30:09.960 that was first theorized by Masonry, end quote.
00:30:14.540 I think that really summarizes where we're at in the Church today.
00:30:17.760 Well, Matt Gaspers, thank you for being with us on this episode of the John Hunter Weston Show.
00:30:22.660 I would encourage people to go check out Catholic Family News.
00:30:26.700 Matt does a great job there with his team to bring truth, especially to Catholics who are
00:30:33.320 searching for it in this wild west of a time that we're dealing with.
00:30:38.900 God bless you, Matt.
00:30:39.840 Thank you.
00:30:40.300 God bless you.
00:30:41.200 And God bless all of you.
00:30:42.500 We'll see you next time.
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