The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 92 - Why The Allegations Against Pope Francis Are Extremely Credible

00:00:00.000 I will never get used to seeing the liberal media defending the Pope. I should be used to it now

00:00:07.400 with Pope Francis, but with Pope Francis, there has been over the years just a drastic change

00:00:14.620 in strategy for the liberal media as it pertains to the Pope. Up until Pope Francis, for as long

00:00:20.440 as the liberal media has existed, their strategy has been to paint the Pope as a slobbering,

00:00:25.480 dangerous bigot who came here in a time machine from the 11th century and is dead set on enslaving

00:00:33.340 mankind. That's basically how the Pope has always been painted. Then Pope Francis comes along and

00:00:38.260 everything changes. So now that Francis has been credibly accused of helping to cover up for a

00:00:46.100 serial sex predator, if this same thing had happened, this exact same story with someone,

00:00:53.280 high-ranking official coming out with this kind of report about, say, Pope Benedict or even JP2

00:00:59.100 before him, if that had happened, the media would be, they'd be having a parade. They'd be throwing a

00:01:05.280 parade through the street. And they would also be, this would be headline news everywhere. They'd be

00:01:10.840 obsessed with it. It'd be the only thing they're talking about. Now, the media has, I'm not saying

00:01:14.960 that they've ignored the story about Francis. Obviously, we've all heard about it. They've been

00:01:18.280 talking about it. And they have made a moderately big deal about it. But they have not made as big

00:01:26.440 a deal out of it as it actually is. Because this is something, in the 2,000 years the church has

00:01:32.380 existed, this, to my knowledge, is unprecedented. Or at least it is extremely, extremely, extremely rare

00:01:41.300 that you would have allegations like this coming from someone as high-ranking as Vigano.

00:01:48.900 And they're not anonymous. He's putting his name to it. And he's accusing the Pope of these

00:01:54.260 dastardly deeds and calling for him to step down. I mean, it just, it never happens.

00:02:00.960 And not only that, but the Catholic church sex scandal has obviously been an ongoing story for

00:02:05.500 years now in the media. And now you have evidence that it goes all the way to the top, to the Pope

00:02:13.420 himself. I'm telling you, if this had happened seven years ago, it would be the only thing the media

00:02:22.340 talked about for weeks. As opposed to them treating it as, you know, an important story, but not necessarily

00:02:30.160 the most important story. But more than that, it's, there has been, in the liberal media, the explicit

00:02:35.180 attempts to defend Francis and circle the wagons around him. I read, for instance, in Slate, okay,

00:02:41.160 that is a rabid left-wing publication. They published an article giving us reasons to doubt

00:02:47.060 the claims against Pope Francis. And then there was, there was a similar thing. I've seen similar

00:02:52.460 things in places like CBS News. And then the New York Times, which has no love for the Catholic

00:02:58.420 church at all, they published an article. The headline of it is, Vatican power struggle bursts

00:03:04.720 into open as conservatives pounce. So, you know, that has been the, the, the meme is that whenever

00:03:13.540 a liberal, which Pope Francis is a liberal, whenever a liberal gets himself into trouble,

00:03:18.080 the story in the media isn't the terrible thing this liberal did or is accused of doing. It's

00:03:23.860 look at those awful opportunistic conservatives pouncing on the news. So Pope Francis credibly

00:03:29.980 accused of covering up for a serial sex predator and the New York Times, their headline is conservatives

00:03:35.820 pounce. Now let's just briefly review in case, I'm sure you've heard the story by now, but, but in

00:03:42.780 case you're not familiar or you haven't been able to make heads or tails of it yet, let's just review

00:03:48.380 this very quickly. So you have a, as I said, a former high ranking official in the Catholic

00:03:54.200 church, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. He was essentially the Vatican's ambassador to the

00:04:02.560 United States. He claims that Pope Francis personally helped cover up abuses of the degenerate predator

00:04:11.440 Cardinal McCarrick. Vigano let all this come out in an 11 page report, which he says he was

00:04:17.360 publishing to discharge his conscience, uh, so that he can present himself to God in order

00:04:23.360 to, to, uh, you know, present himself to God with a clean conscience is the, is the phrase

00:04:28.500 I think he used. 77 years old, he's preparing to die. And so he's letting all this out. And

00:04:36.540 then from there, he proceeds to nuke the whole network of perverts from orbit. Basically, Vigano

00:04:43.720 spends the first half of his report accusing numerous cardinals and bishops by name. Then

00:04:47.860 he gets to Francis himself. He claims that Francis knew about Cardinal McCarrick, took no actions

00:04:51.960 against him. He actually lifted sanctions that Pope Benedict had placed on him. Um, and since

00:04:57.740 then there's been, there's been a lot of talk now about this, about this, this facet of the

00:05:04.420 accusation. Um, this idea that Pope Benedict placed sanctions on McCarrick and then Francis

00:05:11.420 lifted the sanctions. Now that's something that the fact that there were sanctions on McCarrick

00:05:18.380 is something that Vigano says he got secondhand from someone else. That person has come forward

00:05:23.220 and said, yes, it's true. He's, he's corroborated it. Um, since then Pope Benedict's people have

00:05:32.060 reportedly confirmed that there were sanctions and church militant, the website church militant,

00:05:37.700 uh, they, they did a report yesterday where they pointed out, they pointed to at least two

00:05:44.540 articles in the news media prior to all this. There's one from a few weeks ago and then another

00:05:49.860 from four years ago, which makes reference to sanctions or punishments or penalties that

00:05:55.800 were placed on Cardinal McCarrick. So it seems very much that there were these sanctions

00:05:59.980 on McCarrick, which Francis then lifted, even though Francis knew about Cardinal McCarrick and

00:06:07.600 he knew about Cardinal McCarrick, first of all, because everybody did, but second, because Vigano

00:06:11.740 talked to him personally and told him personally about what, um, McCarrick had been up to yet.

00:06:21.200 Francis kept them in a position, not only kept in a position of, of power and visibility,

00:06:26.160 but also, but, but in fact, reinstated him, reinstalled him into that position so that he

00:06:32.820 could continue in his predation. In the couple of days since these, uh, stunning allegations were made,

00:06:38.960 um, there, as I said, there's been, there's been a corroborating testimony from one of the people

00:06:44.360 that was mentioned in Vigano's letter. He came out and said, it's true. Um, there we have the, we have

00:06:50.380 the, the, uh, reported confirmation from Benedict's people. Then Cardinal Burke, um, and a bishop in

00:06:59.040 Texas have categories, the categorized the allegations as credible and called for a thorough

00:07:04.760 investigation. Then another bishop, Bishop Schneider came out with the strongest reaction yet, I think,

00:07:11.660 saying that there is quote, no reasonable and plausible cause to doubt the truth of the document

00:07:18.880 of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. No reasonable cause to doubt its truth. Now he's not saying

00:07:29.160 that he knows for a fact it's true, but that is a strong, strong statement. In fact, let me read a

00:07:33.600 little bit. He issued a whole, this, um, Arch, this Bishop Schneider issued a whole statement. I won't read

00:07:39.820 the entire thing, but he says, it is a rare and an extremely grave fact in church history that a bishop

00:07:46.460 accuses publicly and specifically a reigning pope. Um, Catholics all over the world, the simple

00:07:54.060 faithful, the little ones are deeply shocked and scandalized about recently disclosed grave cases

00:07:59.420 in which church authorities covered up and protected clerics who committed sexual offenses against

00:08:04.660 minors and against their own subordinates. Such a historical situation, which the church has

00:08:08.640 experienced in our days requires absolute transparency on all levels of the church's hierarchy

00:08:13.140 and in first place, evidently on behalf of the pope. And, um, and then he goes on to say, there's no

00:08:20.300 reason to doubt, to doubt the truth content of the claims. So it's strong stuff. Pope Francis, as we

00:08:26.580 talked about yesterday, chose not to respond to the allegations at all, which is, I mean, it's deranged.

00:08:34.920 He said he's not going to say a word about this. And he actually encouraged the public to draw its own

00:08:41.900 conclusions and said, quote, make your own judgment. Now I cannot conceive of that. It seems

00:08:49.340 inexplicable. Doesn't it? If you were now put yourself in, um, in Pope Francis's shoes for a minute,

00:08:54.220 let's, let's, let's, let's say, sake of argument that Pope Francis is innocent. Let's say that you

00:09:00.160 were Pope Francis and you're innocent and you're accused. Somebody makes up a story about you covering

00:09:06.360 up sexual abuse, makes up this whole detailed, elaborate story. And then you're asked about it

00:09:12.740 by the media. You've got cameras, you've got a microphone and you're saying, someone says,

00:09:17.560 did this happen? Is there any scenario you can imagine where you would decline to at least deny it?

00:09:25.040 Where you would say, well, draw your own conclusions about it. Oh, well, he claims that I was, uh,

00:09:30.520 that I covered up sexual abuse, but you can draw your own conclusion. No, there's, it's just,

00:09:34.340 there's, I cannot see any scenario where an innocent person would decline to issue a denial

00:09:40.720 of a thing that he did not do. Um, so there are a lot of reasons to, to believe that the allegations

00:09:50.940 are true, but are they true? I have, I think in fact, I could point to at least seven reasons

00:09:57.680 why I think the allegations are credible. Seven reasons. Number one, Vigano's report is detailed

00:10:05.640 and well-documented. So it has the marks of something that is true. Two, Vigano is a high

00:10:12.860 ranking official with lots of knowledge of the inner workings of the church. This is,

00:10:16.600 this is not some random person. This is a, this is a high ranking or was a high ranking,

00:10:21.140 important person. He knows what he's talking about. Three, Vigano has everything to lose by lying.

00:10:26.360 Nothing that I can tell to gain. Four, several trustworthy people have vouched for Vigano's

00:10:31.920 credibility. Five, other trustworthy people have vouched for the, um, for the actual, uh, for the,

00:10:39.300 for the truth of the claims themselves. Six, we have the background now, you know, we have certain

00:10:45.340 background knowledge of the players involved. So we know that some of the people that were accused

00:10:50.160 like, uh, McCarrick obviously, and guys like Worrell, we know that they're, they're dishonest and

00:10:55.740 cowards. And, uh, so we know that. And then seven, we have the total lack of a denial from Pope Francis.

00:11:01.980 So I think that those are seven reasonable justifications for believing that these accusations

00:11:10.520 are credible. Now, as I wrote a piece yesterday and I was trying to make the case, well, what,

00:11:20.640 what can be done from this point to actually confirm Vigano's claims or fully refute them?

00:11:27.680 And I think, uh, I think for that, there are four things that need to happen. Number one,

00:11:34.520 all of the documents, letters, memos, et cetera, that Vigano mentions in his report. And he says that

00:11:39.860 there are many out there that will confirm and corroborate what he's saying. All of those have

00:11:44.300 to be released to the public. Number two, every person in the Vatican hierarchy with any knowledge

00:11:49.140 of the situation has to come forward and speak. Number three, a full investigation has to be

00:11:53.380 conducted. And number four, Pope Francis has to answer these charges personally and not through

00:11:58.400 statements issued by Vatican lawyers. Because if you were, if he declines to comment that he goes

00:12:03.580 back to the comforts of the Vatican, few days later, he issues some lawyerly statement that is just

00:12:09.020 going to make people even more suspicious. Now, if none of these measures are taken,

00:12:14.780 then I think that the Catholic faithful and people all across the world will have no choice but to

00:12:19.020 assume that a coverup is ongoing and Francis is involved in it. He will have left them no other

00:12:24.520 option. Pope Francis can no longer be given the benefit of the doubt. He can no longer just let this

00:12:30.200 fester, let the doubt fester. Because if he lets it fester, then, um, then I think the benefit of the

00:12:36.480 doubt has to go to Vigano. It is up to him now to offer some evidence to prove that these claims are

00:12:44.860 untrue. And if he's not going to do that, then we have no choice but to assume that they are true.

00:12:49.880 And if the allegations are true, as I said yesterday, Pope Francis has to resign because he would lack the

00:12:54.500 moral capacity to lead. And if he will not lead, if he will not resign, I should say, then he has to be

00:13:01.120 pushed out. Um, as for pushing the Pope out, after I said that yesterday, a lot of people have, uh,

00:13:10.880 have, you know, this is, I'm not the only one who's been saying this. And there are others who have

00:13:16.560 objected saying, well, there's, there's really no way to push a Pope out. I mean, what are you talking

00:13:20.300 about? So there's no reason to talk about it because it's impossible to do. I don't think that's

00:13:26.020 true. I think there is a way to get rid of a Pope. If you want to put it that way, that's how you want

00:13:32.180 to phrase it. To my knowledge, there isn't any mechanism in place to officially have the Pope

00:13:38.360 removed from office. So in that, in that sense, there is nothing we can do. But in that same sense,

00:13:44.440 we as individuals have little power to have anyone in any context removed from any position.

00:13:51.540 You couldn't even get the, uh, you couldn't even get rid of the local Domino's assistant manager in

00:13:57.340 your neighborhood. If you wanted to, I mean, you, you, you couldn't do it on your own.

00:14:03.280 You, you personally really cannot remove anyone from anything. If we're being honest, right?

00:14:10.060 You and I are people with basically no power and on our own, we can't remove anyone from anything,

00:14:15.920 but as groups, we have virtually, I think, unlimited power in these kinds of situations,

00:14:23.160 because if the group is large enough and loud enough and consistent enough, it can basically

00:14:30.400 push anyone from any position. If the position is Domino's assistant manager, well, then the group

00:14:37.280 probably doesn't need to be that large. If the position is, uh, is, you know, some political office,

00:14:42.800 then the, the group needs to be much, much larger, but it can happen for the Pope. The group needs to

00:14:50.240 be extremely, extremely, extremely large, but it can happen. And this needs to be a group that is

00:14:58.100 armed with prayer and righteous anger. If it turns out that the Pope is guilty and it's not looking good

00:15:06.840 for him, let's be honest. But, um, if these allegations can be confirmed, or if there is

00:15:14.720 enough corroboration so as to make the fact completely overwhelmingly clear, um, or if the Pope,

00:15:21.700 as I said, tries to ignore this completely and thus proves the existence of a coverup by his lack of

00:15:28.980 denial and his lack of action, well, then I think it'll be time for Catholics to rise up around the globe,

00:15:35.160 to take to the streets, um, organize rallies, put pressure on their bishops to, to put pressure

00:15:43.060 themselves on the Vatican. That's, that's what I mean by pressuring, pushing. It's just a matter if,

00:15:53.240 if we get to this point and I'm not saying we're there yet, but if we get to this point, then it's a

00:15:57.700 matter of rising up, making your anger known and saying, this is unacceptable. This is intolerable.

00:16:04.220 This man does not have the moral capacity to lead. And so he must do the right thing and step aside.

00:16:11.380 Ultimately he has to make that choice on his own. But I think, um, I don't even think the most arrogant

00:16:18.360 Pope in the world, in the history could remain in office in face of a worldwide backlash from his

00:16:24.740 own ranks. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. So if we reach that point, it is not true to say

00:16:30.460 that regular Catholic lay people are powerless. They do have quite a lot of power actually. And

00:16:36.380 even more power than that, when you consider that, uh, the Catholic church largely relies on them for

00:16:42.500 funding. So that's power that we have as well. And I think we can use it now this, there, there are

00:16:49.620 many things about this that are unprecedented and the idea of lay people rising up and demanding

00:16:57.280 this kind of change. That is, I mean, that is certainly unprecedented. That has never happened.

00:17:03.300 Part of the reason why though that's never happened is because just the situation is different in modern

00:17:08.920 times. Back in the old days, if there was controversy in the church, if there was, um, scandal,

00:17:17.440 whatever, the average guy sitting in a pew probably never would have heard of it. The average peasant 0.99

00:17:24.800 farmer in 1735 wouldn't have heard of most of these controversies or scandals, or if he did hear

00:17:32.940 about them, he would have heard about them after the fact, after some proclamation or whatever is

00:17:37.140 issued. And then he would go, Oh, okay, well, I guess that's settled. But now we have with just the

00:17:43.120 nature of the modern world living in the information age that we do. We have insight. We have, we, we

00:17:48.440 have a window into all of these machinations as they're ongoing. So then as regular people, we have

00:17:57.140 a choice to make is do we just sit back and hope that the, um, people in power do the right thing?

00:18:03.900 Well, it's clear we cannot hope for that because that has not been happening. Then the other choice

00:18:11.480 is to stand up and let our voices be heard. And we're calling not in that case, we'd be calling

00:18:18.900 not for vengeance, not for anything like that, but standing for what is true and what is right

00:18:24.140 and demanding that morality and basic order be restored.

00:18:30.260 Right.

00:18:33.900 Which I think is a very good, holy thing. Um, so if we reach that point that I think there

00:18:43.120 are, that is the, uh, that is a tool that we have at our disposal and we should not rule

00:18:51.500 out using that tool if we get there. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening, everybody.

00:18:59.500 Godspeed.

The Matt Walsh Show - August 28, 2018

Ep. 92 - Why The Allegations Against Pope Francis Are Extremely Credible

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