Young Catholics are asking： Is Pope Francis a bad Pope？
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Summary
In this episode of the John Henry Weston Show, I sit down with the founder of Cream City Catholic, a local Catholic blog, to ask the tough question: Is it right to call Pope Francis a bad pope?
Transcript
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Welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.
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This show actually is a bit of a role reversal.
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You see, I was just in Milwaukee and some great young men who run a local Catholic blog named Cream City Catholic put me on the hot seat.
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Jake and Adam and their co-conspirator James, who I wasn't able to meet,
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are militant Catholic young men running a local Catholic blog which makes great and entertaining video promoting faith and beauty.
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And be sure to check out their blog at CreamCityCatholic.com
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I'm one of the founders of Cream City Catholic and today I'm sitting down with the co-founder of LifeSite News, John Henry Weston.
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I only have four questions for you, so I'll make this brief.
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Well, the thing is, with regard to a pagan idol in the Vatican, no one's answering the question, which is very strange.
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They have this idol. It's a wooden, carved, nude, pregnant image.
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There was two of them, actually, when they were doing the prostration before it in the Vatican Gardens.
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The pope wasn't one of the ones actually kneeling down.
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If you watch the video, they were kneeling down around a circle and then actually went foreheads to the ground.
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So, it was some kind of adoration or worship of whatever they're not saying.
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At first, the bishop on the dais at the first of the press conferences for the synod said,
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Well, it might represent the Virgin Mary or maybe, you know, Mother Earth or something.
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That's very dangerous because Mother Earth is Pakamama, also known as Gaia, a false god.
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To whom, actually, in much earlier times, they used to do human sacrifice, then it became much more friendly.
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I don't think someone lost their contact lenses and they were all looking for it.
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So, they were doing something of a religious nature, whether they want to admit that or not.
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So, the fact that this thing has been trotted into the St. Peter's Basilica, put on the floor,
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the Pope was saying prayers with the cardinals in front of it.
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Whether or not he thinks he's worshiping an idol, I don't know.
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The fact that they're not answering the questions makes it all the more concerning.
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The bishops already, Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Brandtmuller, have already called the instrumentum laboris apostasy.
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The problem with that, of course, is that had to be approved by the Pope before it was released.
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Obviously, you know, the bishop at the synod said, I don't think we need to create any connections with the Virgin Mary.
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That's the next, one of the next press conferences that they talked about it.
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The bishop there says, no, it's not the Virgin Mary.
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And they're trying to dismiss it as just, oh, it's a nothing.
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Don't see evil under rocks when there's nothing there.
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Now, this nuclear destruction of our church was probably not a mistake.
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It was a plot by agents of the devil to destroy the church.
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Well, one of the things that you can tell from the fruits of what was attempted with Vatican II,
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particularly the, there's sort of a difference, I guess you could say,
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between what is actually in the documents and what's happened thereafter and the spirit of Vatican II.
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Although, even the spirit that went into creating the documents was problematic
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because we know now, if you read the history, what was actually going on
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was this huge openness to the world in a way that was extremely detrimental to the church.
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Watching the aftermath has been the most horrifying thing that's ever happened.
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And I'm too young to have watched the early part of it.
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But by the time I came, you know, along in the church, it was pathetic.
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And every time you see a resurgence of the old mass, thanks to Pope Benedict,
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largely in Samorum Pontificum, you've seen a growth, a spark of vitality,
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Somehow, with tradition, there is a knowledge of the faith like you never see.
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I can tell you, one of the first times that I gave a talk at a traditional parish in Toronto,
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I was shocked at the knowledge of the faith of these young people,
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young men and young women who knew their faith.
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Whereas, you know, much of Catholicism, post-Vatican II, had this,
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Yes, I think just speaking based on evidence, absolutely it's a failure.
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Well, I do think that there were some people who plotted to do very nefarious things with it.
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And normally what happens is they work themselves into processes
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and then work within them to create what they create.
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And it turns out, and this one, for the bad guys, this one worked out very well.
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But, you know, you can't say that everyone who did it plotted, obviously.
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So were there good people who tried to work within Vatican II?
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And did they think they were doing good things?
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We don't often see the machinations of the devil and don't recognize them
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and sometimes go along doing things that are actually very bad,
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who tell people not to kneel for Holy Communion, which is horrific.
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Is it okay for Catholics to say plainly and out loud that Pope Francis is a bad pope?
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Well, first of all, the simple answer to that is yes, because ostensibly it's true.
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We've had popes who have had affairs, have done all sorts of things, have stolen money and done even worse than that.
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And I've been told by some people who know much more than I do, it would be much better, for instance,
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if he had some women and children, because at least it would be a moral failing on his part.
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What we have with this is an aberration in teaching that we've never had to this extent before.
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In the Arian heresy, you did have the pope sort of go along with it for a long, long time.
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And, you know, it really did feel like the whole world was Arian.
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Now we have multiple heresies going on from the pope himself.
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But it's very plain as just a dad who has kids who are older now and therefore confused in their faith because of what the pope is saying.
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He's distorting the faith on contraception, on cohabitation, on the Eucharist, on homosexuality, on transgenderism.
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And not even so much by his words, which there are words to back all those things, but also by his actions.
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You might try to be prudent in the beginning when things aren't so bad and sort of benefit of doubt.
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We have been hoping and praying for six years now.
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Now, and this is not changing so far, barring a miracle, I don't see it changing.
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We have to pray for the conversion of the pope.
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And the faithful in canon law, I think it's canon 212, but are given the right and even the duty to manifest to their sacred pastors, the pope included,
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their concern about, especially when the faith is in danger, with respect for persons.
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And we are speaking with respect for the pope by calling him a bad pope also, because he's endangering his own soul.
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The pope, while being the victor of Christ, while being a bishop and cardinal and so on, a priest of God,
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he's also a man, and therefore, in that sense, our brother.
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And we're responsible for the souls of our brother, even if he's our spiritual father.
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And so in a normal family, when the father is getting drunk and doing all sorts of things that are unbecoming of a dad,
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if the son, especially an older son or something, is really concerned for the dad, he's going to tell him that.
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And if he doesn't listen, he's going to tell him again, and he's going to tell him stronger and stronger every time,
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so that he will come out of it for his own good.
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It's easy to get discouraged with all of this stuff.
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Given the troubling reports coming out of Rome, have you seen any silver lining in the midst of all the confusion and heterodoxy?
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I think the most amazing part of this whole story is that I have seen a resurgence of faith in this time like never before.
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I think when, you know, when the times get tough, things get tough, the tough get going, that's been proved in spades.
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And I see it in young people with the energy and the fight they have for the faith.
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I'm here with incredible pro-life, pro-family, hardcore Catholics at the Catholics United for the Faith Conference, where I was.
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And I was receiving that award on behalf of Archbishop Vigano.
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It is incredible to see this caliber of Catholic, to be with brothers in arms who are ready to fight for the faith, unstintingly.
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And it's not only here, but I'm so impressed with here, I have to say.
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But in Rome, in all over the world, there are these incredible fighters for the faith who are being brought together like never before.
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There's all sorts of factions, you know, this and that, and you don't like this certain thing.
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So much division is being done away with because we're being so attacked that the only very narrow path of the truth is we're all rubbing shoulders now.
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And so about a week and a half, two weeks ago, we ran what we call a round table in Rome that just was before the launch of the Synod.
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And we brought together Michael Boris, Michael Matt, Taylor Marshall, Marco Cisate, Professor DeMatte, John Smits from France.
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And, you know, there are some difficulties between Boris and Matt and perhaps Taylor.
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And, you know, we thought, oh, boy, they're all huge personalities.
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They're going to hog this, you know, the money.
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It was awesome to watch them dialogue with one another.
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But they disagreed not in the way we see in the sort of political left-wing, right-wing disagreements, which isn't really a dialogue at all.
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I see encouragement like I've never, ever seen before.
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We know in the end the Immaculate Heart and Mary will triumph.
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So, if you know the ending, you can watch all the things that are happening that are bad, going, oh, yeah, that's really bad.
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That makes the victory in the end all the sweeter.
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Because out of the crucifixion, the most horrible thing ever came, the salvation of mankind.
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And so the mystical body of Christ, the church, will suffer.
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It will follow her head into agony and passion.
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And so I think we're suffering some kind of an agony in the church.
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And I want to not finish this interview without the most important thing.
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And the most important thing and the rallying cry, and I think what is uniting us more than anything else, is true devotion to Our Lady.
00:14:00.600
We were told in Fatima about what was coming in 1917.
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In 2017, she warned that in the end, you know, the final battle between Our Lord and the reign of Satan would be over marriage and the family.
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And she said, you know, you're always going to be persecuted for such things.
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And that's why I think the number one thing we can all do is true devotion to Mary.
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St. Louis de Montfort's true devotion is the original and best devotion.
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It will bring you to Christ like no other thing ever can.
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You know, the saints in the old, not in the Old Testament, but in the olden days, de Montfort describes how they molded themselves into Christ.
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It was like hammer and chisel, chiseling away the bad parts.
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And if you do a wrong blow, you get some weird deformity in the artwork.
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You melt yourself or you try and do away with yourself.