The John-Henry Westen Show - October 21, 2022


Why encourage your son to become a priest with unfaithful bishops ruling the Church？

Hosted by
John-Henry Westen
Mentioned
Chris Holdsworth Blessed Mother Jesus Christ John Henry Mary Immaculate Christi Oblates
Protection from evil： Mary's promise in the Brown Scapular Bp. Schneider： Vatican 'will not succeed' in suppressing the Latin Mass

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

139.71

Word count

2,157

Sentence count

127

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of the John Henry Weston Show, we discuss the new documentary, "The Priest's Vocation," directed by Christian Holden, about the role of a priest in the Catholic Church. In this episode, we talk to Christian Holden about his process of making the film, what it means to be a priest, and what we can do to support priests in their vocation.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Another aspect of the film we touch upon is having a deep devotion to our Blessed Mother, which I think is so crucial, pivotal to the life of any priest, in fact, of any Catholic Christian.
00:00:12.380 So, in today's day and age, it is very difficult in the Church.
00:00:19.140 In fact, we have an aging clergy, and then we have a lot of parishes where the priest is already running from one parish to another to another to accommodate Catholics for Mass, but the travel seems to be incredible.
00:00:32.640 And I know perhaps in Europe that that's not such a bad thing where everything's so close, but I kid you not, in America, where distances can be insane, traveling from one church to the next to sort of take care of your parishes is very difficult indeed.
00:00:48.520 We are in a vocations crisis.
00:00:51.160 We are in a massive lack of priests.
00:00:55.640 We have to pray that the Lord send workers into his harvest.
00:00:59.700 And one of the people promoting that is a filmmaker by the name of Christian Holden.
00:01:06.640 Now, Christian's done a documentary on the priesthood that's absolutely beautiful.
00:01:11.400 But, you know, when he presented it to me, I had a question, a really burning question, because with six sons, I would like nothing better to have priests come from our family.
00:01:22.020 But how do you, as a parent or as a young man, send your child into the priesthood at this time with so much consternation in the church right now?
00:01:33.860 Stay tuned for the answer.
00:01:35.680 This is the John Henry Weston Show.
00:01:36.900 Christian Holden, welcome to the program.
00:02:05.540 Thank you very much, John Henry.
00:02:07.180 It's lovely to be with you.
00:02:08.560 Thank you for the invitation and for your kind words about the film we produced on the priesthood.
00:02:13.520 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.
00:02:15.400 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
00:02:20.080 Amen.
00:02:21.000 You know what we should do?
00:02:22.300 We should start with just showing a clip of this beautiful film, because the beauty of it is really, really striking.
00:02:29.440 So let's just start there.
00:02:35.540 The priesthood is a calling.
00:02:37.300 That's what vocation means, a calling.
00:02:39.180 Just as Jesus called his apostles, we believe each of us has been called to the priesthood.
00:02:45.320 This is for the mission.
00:02:47.160 I serve these people so that they can go out on mission.
00:02:53.520 When you stand at the altar as a priest, you know that the veil between heaven and earth is lifted.
00:03:00.980 In persona Christi, a priest is to make visible the purpose of God, make accessible the power of God for the salvation of souls.
00:03:12.760 So, Christian, what led you to create such a beautiful film?
00:03:30.020 It really does strike with the nostalgia of the church that I think a lot of us got to experience.
00:03:37.200 Some didn't yet.
00:03:38.160 Some are looking to, and some have seen it in more traditional forms of the Mass that they got to, but you've really captured that beauty.
00:03:45.700 It's a film that's in my mind and on my heart for a number of years.
00:03:49.440 So, last year to have the opportunity to finally get that underway and bring it into process was a great joy for me.
00:03:59.680 And bringing together a number of priests and a bishop, priests who are young and older, priests who are secular priests and of religious orders too.
00:04:12.820 And to bring that together really with a threefold intention, I suppose the first would be to present that to the laity, to bring laity to, I suppose, a greater appreciation of the priesthood, to increase that appreciation of what we have every time we go to Mass, every time we receive the sacraments from our priests.
00:04:38.940 Secondly, it would be to encourage vocations, to encourage men who feel that niggling call inside, you know, is Jesus Christ calling me to something else, to something more, to that vocation to serve him as a priest?
00:04:58.520 And if so, that maybe there's something in the films that will inspire them, encourage them to pursue that and discover more.
00:05:08.800 And I think finally, also, as a reminder to priests of that amazing, brilliant vocation that they have been called to be in, to live, to serve Jesus Christ in his church.
00:05:24.560 And, you know, each and every day to bring him present on the altar at that Holy Mass.
00:05:33.060 And that priests would remember that.
00:05:35.720 I think, I think, I know for myself working in Catholic mission, and I know for many priests, they often go to great lengths and great efforts of putting events on and things in their parishes, and can often be, you know, they go to great lengths and find that very few people turn up often.
00:05:55.820 And that can be quite soul-destroying at times, so, you know, working in that mission, hopefully priests will recall that even if one soul comes closer to Christ as a result of their actions, it's worth it.
00:06:11.720 It's worth every little effort, every hardship, and that they can go forward with that in mind.
00:06:20.820 And I think for a lot of time, especially recent times, in the past few decades anyway, a lot of people perhaps took the priesthood for granted.
00:06:31.060 Oh, Father's always going to be there.
00:06:33.420 But, you know, over this time of the lockdown, particularly when they shut the churches, all of a sudden, we got to experience what it would be like without priests.
00:06:46.480 Without the priest, you don't have the Mass.
00:06:49.120 And as Father Pio said, it'd be easier for the world to survive without the sons than without the Mass.
00:06:56.600 The calling is urgent, the calling is needed, but there is this big question.
00:07:01.960 It's a big question on the part of parents who have sons or daughters into religious life.
00:07:09.460 But for those considering, what do we do in the world today?
00:07:13.800 We have a hierarchy in much of the church, particularly the West, that is unfaithful in a lot of ways.
00:07:22.800 You know, a lot of these parents of large families are, for instance, supportive of the pro-life movement.
00:07:26.820 They are pro-life activists.
00:07:28.720 They're out there trying to help women to choose a better option than abortion.
00:07:33.900 They're trying to even adopt children into their families.
00:07:36.900 Maybe they have.
00:07:38.440 And then there are many, many bishops who take great disdain in the pro-life movement.
00:07:44.040 So, in such a world, how can we think about letting our children go into the priesthood, encouraging them to do that? 0.98
00:07:54.280 And same for, you know, a lot of these young men with vocations.
00:07:58.440 A lot of them are in the pro-life movement.
00:08:00.500 A lot of them are, you know, into it because the moral issues that the world is so against right now has captured their heart because it's the truth of Christ.
00:08:10.940 And so, how do these parents, how do these young men consider going into the priesthood now at this time when it seems there's so much combat around it, it seems like perhaps they might be cancelled?
00:08:25.340 Where do we go from there?
00:08:26.940 I mean, first of all, for any young man or older man, any females thinking of a religious life, to first and foremost remember that that calling comes from Christ himself.
00:08:39.700 That is a vocation, that's a calling for you in particular.
00:08:45.380 And today, like never before, do we need men and women of courage and of deep faith who will respond to that call and go forward with that deep faith, that response to Christ.
00:08:58.620 Secondly, I think if there's a particular problem in the local diocese or in the area, that people take the time to discern where best to apply for the priesthood or religious life, to look to a diocese or a religious order where they will get the faith presented and taught as it should be in its fullness, in its completeness.
00:09:23.720 And there, have the confidence to go forward and pursue that, but certainly not to delay.
00:09:31.220 If there's that calling coming from our Lord, then we must respond.
00:09:35.280 Just a quick note before we return, if you would like to stay up to date on LifeSite's coverage of the latest life, family and culture news, subscribe to one of our many newsletters by going to lifesitenews.com slash subscribe.
00:09:49.700 And if you'd like to help us bring our truth-telling coverage to millions around the world, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation at give.lifesitenews.com.
00:09:59.660 And now, back to the video.
00:10:03.420 Normally, people apply for the priesthood through their diocese.
00:10:06.940 You're saying it's possible to do it outside your diocese?
00:10:09.340 How does that work?
00:10:10.140 It certainly is possible.
00:10:11.460 It depends, of course, on the bishop of that diocese and, you know, of course, the reasons why you may want to move across to a different diocese.
00:10:23.080 But that's a discussion that a candidate would need to have with the diocese and bishop or the superior of a religious order.
00:10:31.920 I guess that's one of the answers, is that religious orders are apart from the diocese in a way, and they have their own priests who serve, like the OMIs, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
00:10:46.560 They are a priestly order.
00:10:49.160 They actually serve a lot of parishes in different dioceses, but they're ordained and they have their own regulation and they get sent out from a central location.
00:10:59.820 The same with the fraternity of St. Peter.
00:11:03.200 Also, it's not under a particular diocese.
00:11:06.380 Tell us more about the film, about your inspiration for doing it, and about what you hope to see happen from it now.
00:11:14.900 So, yes, with the film, as well as it being something that we wanted to be visually powerful and appealing and hopefully moving,
00:11:23.560 what would draw people into a deeper understanding of the priesthood, we also wanted to touch upon some key theological areas, the important areas of the priestly life.
00:11:34.860 First and foremost, about a deep prayer life that each priest would spend that time each and every day with our Lord, deepening, deepening his relationship with him.
00:11:46.480 And from there, he can go out and present that mission, live the sacramental life.
00:11:53.360 Of course, the Holy Mass at the very centre of the priest's life each and every day, wherein he brings our Lord himself to the faithful, feeds the people.
00:12:03.400 Another aspect of the film we touch upon is having a deep devotion to our Blessed Mother, which I think is so crucial, pivotal to the life of any priest, in fact, of any Catholic Christian.
00:12:17.900 I think the film is so beautiful that it might touch some priests.
00:12:23.140 I hope a lot of priests see this who are perhaps struggling in their priesthood, because the beauty of it, I think, would inspire them to go beyond, perhaps, what they got in seminary.
00:12:34.240 I know my priests, older priests, have told me that, you know, they were told in seminary that they shouldn't be praying the rosary.
00:12:40.780 In fact, they had a group that prayed the rosary, and they had to do it outside, because they weren't permitted to.
00:12:47.640 They weren't permitted to wear their cassocks either in seminary.
00:12:51.580 So those times hopefully are over, but I'm hoping some of the priests, perhaps, of those generations will watch this and be inspired to take more.
00:12:59.460 Christian, where are people able to view the film? How can they get it?
00:13:02.280 Yes, the film can be viewed via our website at saintant.com forward slash video.
00:13:09.500 That's S-A-I-N-T-A-N-T forward slash video.
00:13:14.620 And it's there, it's available for streaming or download.
00:13:18.060 It's also available on DVD here in the UK, so that may not be ideal for viewers in North America, USA and Canada.
00:13:27.980 But the streaming is ideal.
00:13:29.680 And how are people able to support your work?
00:13:32.500 Because I'm sure this film probably costs a lot of money to put out.
00:13:35.980 Are we able to support you in any way?
00:13:37.920 Sure. Working in Catholic apostolates at the moment, especially during the COVID lockdowns and since,
00:13:44.260 has been tough for many Catholic apostolates, especially here in the UK.
00:13:50.060 So yeah, grateful for any and all support that we have.
00:13:53.500 Please buy the film.
00:13:54.800 Have a look at the other films that we have available on our website.
00:13:59.680 And of course, we're always looking for other sponsorship, sponsorship of new projects, new video projects.
00:14:07.200 So if anyone has anything, anything that they would like to produce, please give us a call or drop an email.
00:14:13.900 And let's see if we can, we can work together on some future project too.
00:14:18.580 Christian, thank you so much for what you've done, what you've produced.
00:14:20.940 And God bless you.
00:14:22.280 My pleasure.
00:14:22.900 Thank you very much, John Henry.
00:14:24.360 God bless.
00:14:25.300 And God bless all of you.
00:14:26.380 We'll see you next time.
00:14:53.900 God bless you.
00:14:56.380 God bless you.