The John-Henry Westen Show - What the NEW POPE Must Be ｜ Fr. Giordano’s Vision

00:00:00.000 In the end we have to have a man who is wise because the demons have a lot of knowledge

00:00:04.680 but no wisdom. Hello my friends and welcome to this special episode of the John Henry Weston

00:00:11.500 show where I'm so pleased to bring you a good friend a priest here in Rome. He is the head

00:00:18.680 of Rome's Human Life International which you should know is the pro-life group all around

00:00:26.500 the world that does such great work and they especially do amazing conferences but they're

00:00:31.640 so active around the world promoting life and the Human Life International has always

00:00:39.300 had this beautiful office here in Rome. I was really close to Monsignor Barrero who used

00:00:46.220 to run it many years ago and Father Francesco Giordano has taken that place and is a beautiful

00:00:55.480 work of the Lord in Rome. But I wanted to talk to him right now because what's going

00:01:01.540 on of course is the conclave and we're about to elect a new Holy Father and for someone

00:01:07.660 who's around Rome who is really lives here and understand what's happened here and all

00:01:14.040 of what goes on in the church here. I thought bringing Father's perspective on the conclave

00:01:18.900 on what the church needs right now in a Holy Father would be great. Father thank you so much

00:01:24.620 for joining us. Thank you so much Dr. Henry. We always begin with the sign of the cross

00:01:28.080 if you wouldn't mind leading us. Yes of course. Amen. So Father about what the church needs

00:01:36.520 right now in a new Holy Father if you could let us know from your perspective. Well so I

00:01:42.100 was reading this talk the other day that Cardinal Zen read at the congregations and I was really

00:01:49.860 moved by it because I thought this is the portrait of a Pope and he emphasized five points. The Pope

00:01:56.600 needs to have a good reputation. He has to have the freedom to move. He has to have a simple faith.

00:02:04.320 He has to have fatherly cares and he has to have experience, competence and wisdom. And so a good

00:02:12.140 reputation. I mean think about this. The Cardinal emphasized how priests are expected to have a good

00:02:18.360 reputation. When the scandals broke up or broke out in 2001 I remember I was in Chicago and I remember

00:02:24.800 being distressed because I was not even a seminarian and I was thinking about the priesthood and I was

00:02:30.060 very distressed by all of that was going on. But I remember thinking now is a time that we have to

00:02:35.600 prove ourselves. We don't have the culture that we once had where priests you know every word that

00:02:45.340 comes out of our mouth that was like gold or whatever. That's no longer that culture. Far from

00:02:50.340 it. And so I remember thinking very specifically we have to prove ourselves. We have to prove ourselves

00:02:56.940 to you, to the faithful. And I think this obviously goes for the bishops. This goes for the Pope. This

00:03:03.940 goes for everyone. So clearly we have to be, we have to have a good reputation. We have a duty to that,

00:03:13.740 you know. And obviously we're not perfect. Priests, bishops, nobody's perfect. But at least,

00:03:21.140 you know, not some, you know, big scandals like, you know, finance scandals, you know, and

00:03:26.780 I don't know, sexual scandals of all sorts that come up. I mean, you know, maybe people

00:03:34.520 can make mistakes, but you know, there are some scandals and there are some scandals and

00:03:38.200 you know what I mean. And so we don't, that's, we can't have that sort of thing come up in

00:03:45.900 the papacy. That's a very good point the cardinals then made. Or the priesthood or the bishops.

00:03:51.860 We are held high to this. The second point, the freedom to move. Well, you know, the Pope

00:04:02.700 throughout the history has fought for his freedom, his autonomy, because, because he is the vicar

00:04:11.360 of Christ. This is a divinely instituted institution. We cannot be bound to others, to kings, to embers,

00:04:19.480 to anyone. We, we just can't. We are, he is the vicar, the vicario. He is in the place

00:04:25.120 of Christ. He's like the luogo tenente, the lieutenant. He holds a place. He represents

00:04:32.320 that. That's divinely instituted, Matthew 16, the successor of Peter. This is, and he happens

00:04:40.560 to be the bishop of Rome. And this is what the Pope is. And he's a father. That's what

00:04:45.480 Papa means. He's a Papa. That's why you also have like, for instance, in the Chaldeans and

00:04:50.840 the, and the, the Pope of, you know, the, the Pope of that, you know, there are lots of different

00:04:56.940 churches also talking about the Pope, Papa, Papa, the father, the priest, the father.

00:05:01.920 So, and he has to have the freedom to be a father, the freedom to, to, to guide the, the institution.

00:05:08.220 This is also part of the break also with the East, with the, with the Eastern churches is

00:05:11.980 that the, they're autocephalic churches and they're bound to their nations usually, you

00:05:16.940 know, like in Russia or Romania or whatever you, you have these, they're, they're connected

00:05:21.320 to the, the, the Pope is not bound to the nations. Then the Pope is, the Pope is, is above, is

00:05:27.800 a universal entity, the universal figure representing Christ universally. It's a universal faith.

00:05:36.920 Speaking to the third point, faith, he has to have a simple faith. You know, we live in

00:05:40.800 a society right now, as I said from the beginning, where we've lost our reputation. It's not so

00:05:45.980 much a question of reputation, it's so much as a question of authority, really. Authority

00:05:52.540 from the Latin, au geris, autoritas, au geris, to make the other grow. We, we are losing the,

00:05:59.600 the, the weight. We've lost the weight, you know, of the priesthood, of the, the, the bishops

00:06:05.980 and the, the Pope and the cardinals and all, that there used to be, culturally speaking,

00:06:10.600 there was a weight, you know, there's an autoritas behind the words that are said and done, actions

00:06:17.380 that are done. And, and so if we complicate things further, you know, uh, people get confused.

00:06:26.060 We don't have to be getting into public discourses on theological debates. Uh, I think that doesn't

00:06:35.040 need to be, the public doesn't need to be brought into these big debates that we have amongst

00:06:39.740 clergy, among theologians, you know, because there are obviously, uh, valid debates to be

00:06:47.780 had throughout history. That's what theology does. We sit and we debate about issues and

00:06:52.040 things, but that doesn't need to come out in the newspapers or with you or with it doesn't

00:06:56.000 need to get everyone involved. That's why we have catechisms and catechisms and syntheses

00:07:00.940 and compendiums for people, you know, and the catechism of the catechism for the, for

00:07:05.480 the youth, for this, for that group. And because the church has got all these wonderful instruments

00:07:10.640 that we've had, we, you know, think about the America, the Baltimore catechism. I was

00:07:14.880 just saying that the other day, I mean, you know what, it's so clear and concise and perfectly

00:07:19.640 clear for people just to know, you know, what are we made for? For instance, the very number,

00:07:24.100 very first number, we are made to know, to love, to serve God in this life and to enjoy

00:07:29.040 him in the next. But, you know, a statement like that doesn't come out in five minutes.

00:07:34.300 It comes out through many years of reflection and theology and, but that doesn't need to

00:07:39.300 be debated. These are undebated issues. Simple faith. And the Pope needs to be that. The Pope

00:07:45.280 needs to have that sort of simple faith that confirms us in the faiths. And another point

00:07:50.940 to be said in all of this, we have to understand that we're living in the modern world right

00:07:55.840 now, since the 1700s, where, you know, where, where a lot of the, where a lot of the cultural

00:08:04.800 apparatuses are no longer there. We don't have the emperors and the kings and all this anymore.

00:08:10.100 We have these, we have secular states. And so people have focused a lot of their attention

00:08:15.480 on the, on the Pope in these last centuries. And the last century in particular, even with

00:08:20.960 the media, even sitting here talking right now, it's become, he's become a very important

00:08:27.300 figure. But obviously the Pope is not the Catholic faith. It's, the Pope is the, is the custodian

00:08:35.120 of the faith synchronically and diachronically. Because the faith is based on revelation and

00:08:43.620 revelation and tradition. And this is something that in the 19th century, the church tried to

00:08:47.840 emphasize so much that this passing on of the faith and the Pope needs to be a custodian

00:08:53.580 of that. He needs to make sure that, that big errors are not said. And in fact, you know,

00:08:59.000 even when they, the cardinals signed before they get into conclave, they have to sign that

00:09:03.280 they're not heretics. You know, you don't have, you can't have a formal heretic, you know,

00:09:08.080 become a Pope. This is a teach, this goes back centuries, you know, from the beginning of the

00:09:15.440 conclave, some of the beginning of the, of the elections of Popes. The conclaves began

00:09:19.980 in the, in the 1270s, I believe it was. Anyway, uh, the conclave as, as we have as a function

00:09:27.840 today, it used to be that the Pope was elected on acclamation and divine, on Vox Populi, Vox

00:09:34.880 Dei, the voice of the people.

00:09:37.180 And that would have been the Roman people. 0.96

00:09:38.660 And that was the Roman people. That's the other thing. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome and

00:09:42.760 the cardinals are the clergy of Rome and the cardinals are the cardinal, you have the cardinal

00:09:48.500 priests, the cardinal deacons, you know, because they're deacons in the diaconia of Rome, you

00:09:53.320 know, and, and that's how it was sort of functioned that way. And, um, and they were red, they were

00:10:00.080 red because the Pope wore red. In fact, that's why you have the mosetta with the red and the

00:10:05.520 shoes that are red because the red refers to the, to the blood that's shed and the martyred and

00:10:10.240 the, the witness that you're supposed to do. And the cardinals wearing red because they're

00:10:14.480 close to the Pope, they're as close advisors, right? And in fact, they were brought in, they

00:10:19.200 were brought in, the cardinals emerged in the 11th century and they were brought in, uh,

00:10:24.000 after the reform of the papacy in the last latter half of the 11th century, you have like

00:10:29.440 Peter Damian and those are among the first cardinals. And they, they gathered together

00:10:34.320 to discuss specific issues. So they would have congregations, they'd come in to gather together

00:10:39.920 the congregations and this issue is an issue, that's an issue, that's an issue. And then they

00:10:44.880 dismantled the congregation. Then with the, with the Protestant Reformation, you have the problem of

00:10:51.360 the Protestant Reformation. So you have the Santo Ficio, the Holy Office that remained a permanent

00:10:56.320 congregation because it was a permanent constant conflict, an issue to try to resolve this,

00:11:01.760 what's going on theologically. But as you see, there are counselors, there are advisors to the

00:11:06.160 Pope, the cardinals to help them exactly in the simplicity of the faith. All the complexity that we

00:11:12.400 have in life, in theology, in everything has to eventually bring to the simplicity because that's

00:11:19.280 how God works. God is simple. There's a simplicity to God. There's a unicity to God. And so your unicity

00:11:25.440 goes also to another point that's really important in this. And that brings me to the fourth point

00:11:29.440 of Cardinal Zen's talk was on the fatherly charism. The Pope has got to be a father,

00:11:34.960 it's got to be the authority. The father is the one who is an authority and he has to have this

00:11:39.520 fatherly charism. What does this mean though? This means that he has to also, that he has to be someone

00:11:44.640 who's not attached to specific movement, a specific movement in the church or even religious order in

00:11:51.600 some ways. Because, I mean, he can be a religious, no problem. And we had a Jesuit just now and

00:11:58.240 we've had Franciscans, we've had Dominicans, St. Pius V changed the color to white, kept the Mosetta. 0.90

00:12:04.160 But the allegiance of the Pope cannot be strictly to his congregation or to a movement or to whatever.

00:12:10.960 He has to be the father of the whole church and all the charisms that are involved in that. And he has

00:12:15.760 to be able to listen to all of them and take into consideration everyone. That has to be the

00:12:21.840 charism of the Pope. Because that's a charism that then brings unity. A father brings unity among

00:12:27.360 factions of brothers and sisters not getting along all the time. He brings peace to them, calms them

00:12:32.800 down if they get excited. And so we need that. We need a father. We really need that. That's very

00:12:38.480 important for a Pope to be a father. And the Pope, and then the fifth point, he needs to have experience,

00:12:43.760 needs to have competence, needs to have wisdom. And this last point about when you think about

00:12:48.880 experience and competence, you think about someone who understands the Curia, who understands how things

00:12:54.800 work in the Curia, how things work in Rome, how things work among the bishops, how things work in

00:12:59.920 the church, how things work, and how to govern also taking always into consideration subsidiarity.

00:13:07.920 The Pope doesn't need to be governing every little piece of the church. He cannot do that.

00:13:13.680 He doesn't have the energy to do that. That's where he has entrusted to him bishops. Bishops

00:13:19.120 are representing him. Priests are representing the bishops. And that's the whole, that's the

00:13:24.080 subsidiarity of the church is wonderful. It works so wonderfully, actually. It really flows that way.

00:13:29.120 It's not a centralized government in the way that we have imagined in the modern sense. It's divinely,

00:13:35.680 and divine, and human, and integrates all of the parts together, just like Jesus does.

00:13:41.120 Jesus, in his own being, in his own person, in his own being, Christ, the second person of the Holy

00:13:51.920 Trinity, who assumes our human nature, Jesus Christ, as perfectly human and perfectly divine. And so all

00:13:59.360 these elements of the human and divine have to come in, because church is, as the Second Vatican

00:14:03.520 Council emphasizes in this order, Roman Gentian says, the church is the body of Christ. The church

00:14:12.560 is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The church is the people of God. In that order. In that order. Because

00:14:19.920 it has to reflect Christ and his humanity. And humanity is what it is in its diversity. But it's

00:14:26.880 a unity in diversity. And the church has to be able to bring that unity in the diversity. In fact,

00:14:33.440 I always say this. I always say that church is able to bring out the best of each individual person,

00:14:43.360 each individual culture. And that's because Christ does that. Christ doesn't create us separate,

00:14:50.800 and doesn't create clones. It creates individuals. Just like you have individual persons in the Trinity,

00:14:57.920 you have individual persons that are angels, you have individual persons that are human beings.

00:15:04.480 And so everything Seminole has to reflect the divine plan. Everything has to reflect 0.93

00:15:12.880 that. And we cannot lose track of that. And that's what I also think, you know, we get this

00:15:18.240 impression that politicking going on. Yeah, that's a human dimension, but that's not everything,

00:15:23.360 obviously. This is pointing up to something much greater than that. That's part of it. There's

00:15:27.920 always politicking going on because people politic, people talk together. Aristotle talks about this,

00:15:33.760 you know, that society is about politicking. It's about networking, getting to see each other,

00:15:38.880 negotiating, etc., etc. But that's just an instrument. That's just an instrument. In the end,

00:15:47.600 we have to have the wisdom. We have to have a man who is about that, who is wise. And why wisdom,

00:15:54.240 let us not forget, is imbued with charity, with love. Because the demons have a lot of knowledge,

00:16:03.040 but no wisdom. No wisdom. They have a lot of intellectual knowledge, but they'll use it really

00:16:10.160 badly. So it is a spiritual war we're in. Think about Christ when he gets angry. He gets angry with

00:16:15.440 the demon that says something true about him. You are the Christ. You are whatever he says in that

00:16:22.480 scripture passage. And Jesus says, keep quiet. Why? He's saying something true. But it's not enough to

00:16:29.920 to say something true. Because he says it with a bad intention. And the moral act requires not only

00:16:35.920 the truth, but it requires the intention and the goodness that's there. And so that's why the

00:16:40.160 goodness and the charity is so important in everything that we do. Why do we do what we do?

00:16:46.240 We do it and why do we do it? That's why we have to ask ourselves these questions all the time.

00:16:51.280 And a holy father has to exemplify that. Pope Pius XI said, men must look for the peace of Christ in

00:17:01.120 the kingdom of Christ. And he urged that the faithful give public honor to Christ the King

00:17:06.080 so that individuals and states would submit once more to the rule of their savior. And that is why

00:17:12.000 LifeSite News is raising up the image of Christ the King across the United States. And you can help us

00:17:18.400 reach millions more. Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com

00:17:25.200 slash Christ is King. One of the things you mentioned about before we started was about

00:17:33.280 that this really is a spiritual battle, even in the the selection of the pope. And you mentioned also

00:17:39.600 about the other side of that spiritual battle being also organized in terms of what those who are

00:17:47.040 opposed to Christ and his church in the world and their human instruments in the world actually do

00:17:53.040 sort of take part, if you will, in the conclave in a way, in a sense. How do they do that?

00:17:59.760 How do they do that? I, you know, I, there are a lot of influences, negative influences. I mean,

00:18:06.800 you sense this in Rome and, uh, we've had, we've read articles about this, you know, politicians and

00:18:13.280 such that trying to influence the conclave and all that just recently, we've been reading articles,

00:18:19.360 you know, uh, that have come out even on CNN. Uh, I just read something yesterday about Macron or

00:18:25.840 trying to influence against certain candidates or whatever, and then they'll deny it, whatever.

00:18:30.400 It doesn't, that's not the point. The point is not Macron or any of these things. The point is that

00:18:35.520 where there is goodness, the goodness of Christ, the martyrs, Rome is full of martyrs, by the

00:18:45.280 martyrs, there's going to be, there's going to be the, the, the evil one. It we have, we cannot

00:18:50.560 forget that we are in the middle of a spiritual war. If we don't remember that we're in a spiritual

00:18:55.280 war, we, we were in dire straits. Uh, not to think that there are people out there trying to do

00:19:03.520 bad things, uh, witches or what have people cursing or, uh, not nasty things. I mean,

00:19:10.960 that's happening. We'd be naive not to think that there are people, you know,

00:19:15.600 I mean, we just saw, for instance, the Satanists in, um, Kansas City. You saw that episode, right?

00:19:24.320 And I'm lost. I'll, I'll use that as an example. So you saw the Satanists and Archbishop Nauman.

00:19:31.440 Archbishop Nauman had a mass celebrated in front of the, of the Capitol building and all surrounding

00:19:37.280 it and adoration, not, not just the mass adoration, which is an extension essentially of the mass.

00:19:43.520 Whenever you elevate the host, you think, I think of this, you're extending your adoration of the,

00:19:48.400 the host that you are at mass. So our, so it is a spiritual war and we do have to think like this.

00:19:53.600 And Archbishop Nauman did a wonderful job. And so what happened, they were impeded from having

00:19:58.400 their ceremony, their ritual ceremony in, in the building itself, but then they had it outside.

00:20:04.640 And then there was that fight that took place, right? Because they were going to,

00:20:08.560 part of their ritual ceremony was to desecrate the host. The Satanists believe this more than we do.

00:20:14.400 That's unbelievable. They, they, so they were there, they had the, they had the host,

00:20:19.920 they were going to throw it down and stamp, step on it. And somebody came up, this gentleman,

00:20:25.360 I don't remember, came up and grabbed him. And the other one, the Satanists was beating him up too.

00:20:30.480 It was really bad. And then he was, oh, it's freedom of religion, freedom of religion.

00:20:35.040 Freedom of religion. But you're, you're, you're stomping on Christ and the Eucharist. 0.91

00:20:40.400 So talking about the Eucharist, the mass, the mass is really where everything takes place.

00:20:45.520 The source and summit of our faith, as the council says. And so when I celebrate mass,

00:20:49.680 especially these days, when I'm celebrating mass, especially at the elevation of the most

00:20:53.840 precious blood, I pray that by the power of this most precious blood, that these demons that are

00:21:00.240 surrounding Rome, demons that are surrounding us in the church, demons that are surrounding and trying

00:21:09.840 to influence negatively in the thoughts, even the cardinals, that they be bound by his most precious

00:21:18.400 blood. I, I've been praying that actually at the elevation. And I've been asking other free,

00:21:23.760 press freest friends of mine to do the same. And we have been doing that. These are prayers that

00:21:28.320 we can do. They're, they're, they're, they're, they're core ad core loquitur. It's, it's from the

00:21:32.240 depths of my heart. I mean, and I, as a priest, have that power with, with Christ. I, I have the power

00:21:38.160 to bring Christ. It's the greatest power a man can have, actually. That's the reason why bishops,

00:21:43.040 when you celebrate the mass, you don't put the cross and the, you know, you put it under the, the

00:21:48.960 chasuble because the bishop and you took off the zucchetto during the consecration, because in that 0.89

00:21:54.880 moment, the priest and the, and the bishop, you have the same, the same dignity because you consecrate

00:22:02.240 Christ. You bring Christ onto the altar. You consecrate his blood. And by the power of that, of that

00:22:10.000 blood, you can free a lot of souls. You can really do a lot. And Christ wants us, this is a very,

00:22:17.760 very important point, that Christ wants our participation. In order to earn merits, we have

00:22:23.680 to participate. You know, St. Augustine said that Christ, if God created you without your consent,

00:22:30.240 will not save you without your consent. This is very important. So with our free will, we can do so

00:22:36.240 much. What do we choose to do with our free will? What do we choose to follow? Who do we choose to, to

00:22:42.240 follow? And as a priest, with my free will, I wouldn't, obviously I want to do the good. I

00:22:47.680 don't always know what the good is. And that's why I pray and I do that. And all of us have a duty,

00:22:53.440 I think, to when, in whatever position we're in, to do the best that we can, to do the best,

00:22:59.760 the good that we can for the church. And because it's our mother church, we have to love our church.

00:23:06.000 And that just requires these many acts of prayer and offering.

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00:23:44.720 We have the Auxilium Christianorum prayers for laity that Father Chad Ripperger put out.

00:23:49.440 Yes.

00:23:49.920 I think are a great, a great boon for the faithful to be able to participate with you,

00:23:54.080 the clergy, in that powerful offering. Father Giordano, I want to thank you for joining us

00:23:59.520 and know that we are praying for you, for all of our priests, our bishops,

00:24:04.160 but especially right now, our Cardinals, as we await the selection of the new Holy Father.

00:24:09.840 God bless you.

00:24:10.480 Thank you.

00:24:10.960 Thank you, Jesse.

00:24:11.680 If you could give everyone your blessing in closing that.

00:24:13.680 Yes, yes.

00:24:14.400 Thank you, Father, and God bless all of you, and we'll see you next time.

00:24:26.240 The Lord be with you.

00:24:31.920 I'm Deacon Keith Fournier, and I hope you enjoyed this video from LifeSite News.

00:24:37.680 Check the links in the description for more content like this.

00:24:40.880 You can also connect with LifeSite News on social media and stay up to date with the latest news on

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00:24:52.240 Thanks for watching, and may the Lord bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - May 16, 2025

What the NEW POPE Must Be ｜ Fr. Giordano’s Vision

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