Latest / V / Pope Leo XIV: Based Trad Cath or SJW? (Ep.200)

Transcript

Pope Leo XIV: Based Trad Cath or SJW? (Ep.200) · V

0:10
Speaker 1: You take the man out of the.
0:15
Speaker 3: And when I'm back in Chicago, I feel it.
0:21
Speaker 1: Another version of me, I'm losing it.
0:26
Speaker 3: Yesterday, Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the 267th Pope.
0:34
Speaker 3: He is the first American pontiff in the Catholic Church's
0:39
Speaker 3: over 2,000-year history. And as of yesterday, he became officially
0:44
Speaker 3: known as Pope Leo XIV. If you log on to
0:48
Speaker 3: X right now, you will see people super excited that
0:54
Speaker 3: we have a registered Republican, pro-life, traditional marriage-supporting pope. And
1:00
Speaker 3: you'll also have people deeply distraught claiming that this new
1:05
Speaker 3: pope is and open borders, anti-Trump, SJW, globalist, total shill.
1:13
Speaker 2: The question is.
1:14
Speaker 3: Who is correct and does it even matter? Who is
1:18
Speaker 3: Pope Leo XIV? We're going to answer that question, but
1:22
Speaker 3: also some deeper questions about how to view the papacy
1:27
Speaker 3: in the modern world, especially here in America where things
1:30
Speaker 3: are so politicized. First, I want to give you all
1:34
Speaker 3: some background on who this Pope is. I've done a
1:37
Speaker 3: lot of reading. Frankly, I hadn't heard of him before today.
1:42
Speaker 3: I think a lot of us, unless you're a Catholic
1:43
Speaker 3: church insider, you probably hadn't before.
1:47
Speaker 2: There's a lot to update you all on.
1:49
Speaker 3: So Pope Leo XIV grew up in a devout Catholic
1:53
Speaker 3: family with a father who was a Navy veteran and
1:56
Speaker 3: a school superintendent. And his mother was a librarian and
2:00
Speaker 3: choir singer. He's fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian. And
2:04
Speaker 3: he discovered his calling for the priesthood early on, serving
2:08
Speaker 3: as an altar boy and attending local Catholic schools in Chicago.
2:12
Speaker 3: His brother revealed in an interview yesterday that Pope Leo
2:17
Speaker 3: frequently played priest as a little boy and he would
2:20
Speaker 3: use his mother's ironing board as an altar.
2:24
Speaker 2: Very cute. I love to see that.
2:26
Speaker 3: When I was little, my brother would constantly play priest
2:30
Speaker 3: as well. And my mom made him these little vestments
2:33
Speaker 3: and he had a little tiny pallet for Holy Communion
2:37
Speaker 3: and a chalice for the precious blood. He would pretend
2:40
Speaker 3: to be consecrating the bread and wine. Michael, did you
2:43
Speaker 3: play priest as a little boy too? I think I
2:45
Speaker 3: remember your mom mentioning that.
2:47
Speaker 1: Yes, you did. Yeah.
2:49
Speaker 3: So Michael played priest as a little... Michael did not
2:51
Speaker 3: become a priest. I'm glad that Michael married me. But
2:53
Speaker 3: a lot of little boys that are Catholic grew up
2:56
Speaker 3: doing that. And it's a really beautiful thing. So obviously
2:59
Speaker 3: he grew up in a very Catholic family. The new
3:02
Speaker 3: pope earned a mathematics degree from Villanova University before joining
3:06
Speaker 3: the Order of St. Augustine in 1977, and later he
3:11
Speaker 3: became a missionary in Peru. He spent most of his
3:14
Speaker 3: vocation in Peru. In 2014, he was made bishop in
3:18
Speaker 3: Peru by Pope Francis, then a cardinal, and finally he
3:21
Speaker 3: became head of the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome in 2023.
3:26
Speaker 3: So that means he played a role, thanks to this
3:29
Speaker 3: appointment from Pope Francis, in selecting bishops around the world.
3:33
Speaker 3: It's a very powerful position, and it's really important for
3:36
Speaker 3: you to remember that he had this position for later
3:39
Speaker 3: on in the show.
3:40
Speaker 2: It's going to be relevant.
3:40
Speaker 3: So now that you have a little background on his life,
3:44
Speaker 3: the question that everyone seems to want answered is, who
3:48
Speaker 3: is he really? I want to start with the good.
3:52
Speaker 3: Pope Leo is firm on several Catholic teachings that are
3:57
Speaker 3: under attack in the modern world. Pope Leo is adamantly
4:00
Speaker 3: against female ordination, homosexuality, the issue of abortion. He's very pro-life,
4:07
Speaker 3: from conception till natural death. He's also a registered Republican
4:11
Speaker 3: who voted in Republican primaries and U.S. general elections while
4:16
Speaker 3: he was living abroad in Peru. On the issue of life,
4:19
Speaker 3: Pope Leo previously said, we cannot build a just society
4:23
Speaker 3: if we discard the weakest, whether the child in the
4:27
Speaker 3: womb or the elderly in their frailty, for they are
4:30
Speaker 3: both gifts from God. Beautiful quote, very Catholic. This is
4:34
Speaker 3: what the church believes. It's very bizarre when we see
4:37
Speaker 3: priests and bishops start to become wishy-washy on this issue.
4:42
Speaker 3: So that's good that he is very solid on some
4:45
Speaker 3: of the most basic church teachings that are under attack
4:48
Speaker 3: in the modern world. Leo has explicitly stated that the
4:52
Speaker 3: homosexual lifestyle and the alternative families comprised of same-sex partners
4:57
Speaker 3: and their adopted children are at odds with the gospel.
5:01
Speaker 3: That's a very strong take to have, obviously in line
5:04
Speaker 3: with church teaching, but again, controversial these days. We even
5:07
Speaker 3: have so-called conservatives who are marrying in same-sex relationships. They're
5:14
Speaker 3: adopting children. They're buying children by renting rooms through surrogacy.
5:20
Speaker 3: So this is definitely something that needs to be confronted
5:25
Speaker 3: by traditionalists, and Pope Leo is on on the moral
5:29
Speaker 3: side with this issue. He also opposed government plans to
5:34
Speaker 3: add teachings about gender in school, calling, quote, the promotion
5:38
Speaker 3: of gender ideology confusing since they create genders that don't exist. Again,
5:44
Speaker 3: very positive sign. There is, unfortunately, some wishy-washiness about LGBTQ
5:50
Speaker 3: identity politics and anything under the sun that you can
5:54
Speaker 3: think of. There's going to be priests and bishops who,
5:57
Speaker 3: for some reason, are not in line with church teachings,
6:00
Speaker 3: Pope Leo clearly is on these fundamental issues. My former
6:04
Speaker 3: colleague at The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson, he made a
6:08
Speaker 3: really interesting point that Pope Leo is frankly more conservative
6:12
Speaker 3: on abortion and gay marriage than Trump and MAGA more broadly.
6:17
Speaker 3: You guys can say, well, I'm MAGA and I'm pro-life,
6:20
Speaker 3: and that's probably true for individuals in this chat. But objectively,
6:23
Speaker 3: if you look at the party position, the official position
6:27
Speaker 3: of this administration, of the majority of MAGA Republicans, that's
6:32
Speaker 3: not the case.
6:33
Speaker 2: They are much more pro-choice.
6:35
Speaker 3: They are obviously subsidizing IVF for certain parents who struggle
6:40
Speaker 3: for infertility, brazenly against church teachings. And they are also,
6:44
Speaker 3: of course, very pro-gay marriage. So this is an interesting
6:49
Speaker 3: thing to consider as we say, oh, he's woke, he's
6:51
Speaker 3: an SJW, he's not a traditionalist. On certain issues, Pope
6:56
Speaker 3: Leo is already more conservative than President Trump and a
7:01
Speaker 3: lot of other MAGA Republicans.
7:03
Speaker 2: Something to keep in mind.
7:05
Speaker 3: The official party position, far more liberal on sex and
7:12
Speaker 3: marriage than this new pope. Something else that's observational but
7:15
Speaker 3: still important is Pope Leo XIV appeared before the public
7:19
Speaker 3: yesterday wearing the traditional papal garb on the balcony of
7:25
Speaker 3: unlike Pope Francis. And a lot of people have taken
7:28
Speaker 3: this as a signal that he has an appreciation for tradition.
7:33
Speaker 3: And there are some unconfirmed users on X who are
7:36
Speaker 3: claiming that Pope Leo has said the traditional Latin Mass
7:39
Speaker 3: in the past. Now, you all know if you listen
7:41
Speaker 3: to this show that traditional Latin Mass has been under
7:44
Speaker 3: assault thanks to Pope Francis, who essentially permitted left-wing bishops
7:48
Speaker 3: to outlaw Latin Mass in their diocese. It happened to
7:52
Speaker 3: my old diocese. in Chicago thanks to Cardinal Cupich. So
7:56
Speaker 3: if Pope Francis is open to permitting the traditional Latin Mass,
7:59
Speaker 3: Pope Leo is open to permitting the traditional Latin Mass,
8:02
Speaker 3: this is a major win for traditional Catholics who have
8:06
Speaker 3: been marginalized not only by the FBI in this country,
8:10
Speaker 3: but by the previous pontiff. Now that I told you
8:13
Speaker 3: some of the positives, there are some causes for concerns.
8:17
Speaker 3: And I want to shout out Sean Fleetwood at The
8:19
Speaker 3: Federalist and John Henry Weston at LifeSiteNews.com. They did a
8:22
Speaker 3: lot of digging yesterday, and I'm about to share with
8:24
Speaker 3: you some of what they've come up with that make
8:27
Speaker 3: me take pause. So first thing I gotta mention is
8:30
Speaker 3: Pope Leo persecuted Bishop Strickland, and he also appointed Cardinal McElroy.
8:37
Speaker 2: So who is Bishop Strickland?
8:39
Speaker 3: Bishop Strickland is the former bishop of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas.
8:44
Speaker 3: And in recent years, he accused Pope Francis of making
8:48
Speaker 3: changes or promoting ideas that Strickland believed contradicted core teachings
8:53
Speaker 3: and traditions of the Catholic Church. A lot of Catholics
8:56
Speaker 3: have felt this way. So Pope Francis, in retaliation, removed
9:01
Speaker 3: Bishop Strickland from his position in November 2023 after Strickland
9:05
Speaker 3: refused to resign. Now remember, I said Pope Leo's job,
9:09
Speaker 3: as of very recently, was to help select new bishops.
9:13
Speaker 3: So he actually played a very instrumental role in removing
9:16
Speaker 3: Bishop Strickland from Tyler, Texas. This is viewed as a deep,
9:23
Speaker 3: gross betrayal, unfairly retaliatory by a lot of Catholics who
9:27
Speaker 3: argue that Strickland was simply standing up for what's right
9:30
Speaker 3: and simply a supporter of Latin Mass and traditional church teachings.
9:37
Speaker 3: Then things get really bad as we talk about Pope
9:40
Speaker 3: Leo's position selecting bishops. Pope Leo selected, installed, notorious Cardinal
9:48
Speaker 3: McElroy as Archbishop of Washington. Now, this is despite Cardinal
9:54
Speaker 3: McElroy being implicated in the cover-up of a sexual abuse
9:59
Speaker 3: scandal concerning Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
10:03
Speaker 2: Now, Theodore McCarrick sexually abused.
10:06
Speaker 3: Numerous minors and adult seminarians for decades, and he was
10:11
Speaker 3: later stripped of his priesthood. McElroy was warned in a
10:14
Speaker 3: letter about McCarrick in 2016 and did nothing to beyond
10:19
Speaker 3: bureaucratic paper filing in response. Also, McElroy voted against the U.S.
10:24
Speaker 3: Catholic Conference of Bishops petition pressing the Vatican for more
10:29
Speaker 3: transparency and speed in the McCarrick investigation. Why would McElroy
10:35
Speaker 3: do either of those things? Why would he seemingly protect
10:39
Speaker 3: a child abuser? And then why would Pope Leo promote
10:43
Speaker 3: someone like McElroy?
10:45
Speaker 2: It's a serious question. Very concerning, deeply concerning.
10:51
Speaker 3: Something else that is concerning is Pope Leo forced the
10:54
Speaker 3: faithful to receive Holy.
10:55
Speaker 2: Communion on the hand.
10:56
Speaker 3: He banned you receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, and
10:59
Speaker 3: he only heard confession by telephone during COVID. These are
11:04
Speaker 3: both invalid and arguably sacrilegious, so not okay. And during COVID,
11:10
Speaker 3: if you, this goes for all Christians, anybody of faith,
11:13
Speaker 3: we needed our religious leaders to stand up for the faithful.
11:18
Speaker 3: to not capitulate to the tyranny. What faith leader would
11:22
Speaker 3: inhibit worship and the sacraments, shut down church, all while
11:27
Speaker 3: the government let weed dispensaries and liquor stores, and in
11:30
Speaker 3: some cases, strip clubs, stay open? And I get that
11:33
Speaker 3: Pope Leo was not in the U.S. He was obviously
11:35
Speaker 3: in Peru at this time, but either way, it's not
11:37
Speaker 3: an excuse to capitulate to the COVID tyranny the way
11:42
Speaker 3: that he did. Leo also reposted a call for the
11:45
Speaker 3: COVID-19 to be available for all.
11:48
Speaker 2: And he reposted a U.S.
11:51
Speaker 3: Catholic Conference of Bishops post that called getting vaccinated, quote,
11:55
Speaker 3: an act of love. This is despite the vaccines being
12:00
Speaker 3: derived from aborted fetal cell lines. Now, Pope Leo is
12:04
Speaker 3: also a vocal critic of President Trump and J.D. Vance,
12:07
Speaker 3: particularly on immigration. This February, the new pope reposted an
12:13
Speaker 3: article by NCR Online titled, J.D.
12:16
Speaker 2: Vance is wrong.
12:18
Speaker 3: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our loves for others.
12:21
Speaker 3: And this article criticizes J.D. Vance for correctly arguing that
12:25
Speaker 3: we owe more immediate responsibility to our own family members
12:28
Speaker 3: and country than to things overseas, things that are removed
12:32
Speaker 3: from our lives. This idea is very ancient in Christian theology.
12:36
Speaker 3: And so it's pretty concerning that the new pope seems
12:39
Speaker 3: to be at odds with the Acts of the Apostles, St.
12:42
Speaker 3: Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, ironically. on the issue of subsidiarity.
12:47
Speaker 3: The Pope also retweeted an ex-post accusing Trump of, quote,
12:51
Speaker 3: racism and nativism, and he reposted a message from Cardinal Cupich,
12:56
Speaker 3: I mentioned it before, very bad guy from Chicago, saying, quote,
12:59
Speaker 3: there is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about
13:03
Speaker 3: a policy that takes children away from their parents and
13:06
Speaker 3: warehouses them in cages. That is being carried out in
13:10
Speaker 3: our name, and the shame is on us all. perpetuating
13:14
Speaker 3: this children in cages, Trump is evil narrative.
13:17
Speaker 2: You guys get the point.
13:19
Speaker 3: I do, however, want you to take a listen on
13:21
Speaker 3: the issue of immigration to this clip of Pope Leo
13:25
Speaker 3: addressing this question in a little more of a nuanced
13:29
Speaker 3: way than his retweets would suggest.
13:32
Speaker 2: Take a listen.
13:33
Speaker 1: Both the first.
13:34
Speaker 4: Reading and the gospel make very clear a message which
13:38
Speaker 4: Pope Francis has been hammering home time and again since
13:43
Speaker 4: his very first trip as Pope, when he went to
13:45
Speaker 4: this little community, an island in southern Italy, the town
13:50
Speaker 4: of Lampedusa, where all these immigrants continue to come. It's
13:56
Speaker 4: a huge problem, and it's a problem worldwide, not only
13:59
Speaker 4: in this country. There's got to be a way both
14:03
Speaker 4: to solve the problem, but also to treat people with respect.
14:09
Speaker 4: Every one of us whether we were born in the
14:12
Speaker 4: United States of America or on the North Pole, we
14:16
Speaker 4: all are given that gift of being created, the image
14:21
Speaker 4: and likeness of God. And the day we forget that.
14:24
Speaker 3: So mass immigration is a problem, he says. He says
14:27
Speaker 3: it needs to be addressed, but it needs to be
14:29
Speaker 3: addressed humanely. I can get behind that. I have no
14:34
Speaker 3: problem with what he's saying. So that quote from him
14:41
Speaker 3: is much more nuanced, something that I can get behind,
14:44
Speaker 3: as opposed to some of these retweets, which were much
14:47
Speaker 3: more inflammatory and I think lacked a lot of.
14:50
Speaker 2: The nuance that we saw in that clip.
14:53
Speaker 3: Other things that I should mention, in 2020, Pope Leo
14:56
Speaker 3: shared a message from Bishop Michael Olson saying, I join
15:00
Speaker 3: my voice in prayers to those of my brother bishops
15:04
Speaker 3: that we might work hard to end racism in our
15:06
Speaker 3: hearts and in society. may God give comfort to the
15:09
Speaker 3: family of hashtag George Floyd in this time of anguish.
15:14
Speaker 3: And then he himself posted, quote, we need to hear
15:17
Speaker 3: more from leaders in the church to reject racism and
15:19
Speaker 3: seek justice. So Pope Leo assumed George Floyd, who died
15:24
Speaker 3: with a fatal level of fentanyl in his system, was
15:27
Speaker 3: somehow killed by a racist cop. He perpetuated the smear
15:30
Speaker 3: campaign against Derek Chauvin. And this, of course, resulted in
15:33
Speaker 3: the burning of American cities and actually many American churches,
15:37
Speaker 3: including Catholic churches, in 2020. So concerning that he would
15:41
Speaker 3: perpetuate that narrative seemingly without any evidence otherwise. The Pope
15:45
Speaker 3: also reposted Democrat Senator Chris Murphy's pro-gun control tweet, which stated,
15:51
Speaker 3: to my colleagues, meaning Republicans, you, your cowardice to act
15:54
Speaker 3: cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers. None of this
15:57
Speaker 3: ends unless you do something to stop it. Seems like
16:02
Speaker 3: he's anti-Second Amendment, pro-gun control. And then we have climate change.
16:06
Speaker 3: Pope Leo reposted an article regarding concerns that the U.S.
16:09
Speaker 3: won't meet carbon emission goals thanks to President Trump.
16:13
Speaker 2: That all sounds pretty bad.
16:15
Speaker 3: And a lot of you are probably rightfully concerned, but
16:17
Speaker 3: I want to offer a perspective, especially for some of you.
16:21
Speaker 2: non-Catholics in the chat.
16:23
Speaker 3: It's really important to understand that the Pope is first
16:27
Speaker 3: and foremost a spiritual leader, not a political leader.
16:31
Speaker 2: He occupies the chair of St.
16:33
Speaker 3: Peter, a position that guided by the Holy Spirit, since
16:36
Speaker 3: its establishment by Jesus Christ himself. Catholics understand that the
16:42
Speaker 3: Pope's role is profound and rooted in divine authority. You
16:45
Speaker 3: can't scrutinize in the same way that you would a
16:48
Speaker 3: congressional candidate. Something else I think people are confused on
16:51
Speaker 3: here is this idea that the Pope is infallible, that
16:54
Speaker 3: whatever he says goes, that it's all true.
16:57
Speaker 2: The Pope rarely.
16:59
Speaker 3: Speaks from ex cathedra, meaning an infallible teaching. If Pope
17:04
Speaker 3: Leo just says something, that doesn't mean it is true,
17:08
Speaker 3: that it is church teaching. Ex cathedra has been invoked
17:12
Speaker 3: twice in the last 1,000 years. So most of the
17:17
Speaker 3: Pope's statements moving forward will be pastoral guidance, not biting
17:22
Speaker 3: declarations of faith that we all need to freak out about.
17:25
Speaker 3: The Pope is important, but the church militant and her
17:28
Speaker 3: teachings persist continually. We've had a lot of really bad
17:34
Speaker 3: popes in the past. The pope is not going to
17:37
Speaker 3: take down Christ's church.
17:39
Speaker 2: It won't.
17:40
Speaker 3: This is what I think a lot of people are
17:43
Speaker 3: missing about the new pope. If he says bad things
17:47
Speaker 3: like Pope Francis does, that there's a continuity here, that
17:50
Speaker 3: the church has survived a lot worse. Something else I
17:54
Speaker 3: want to quickly mention is that the previous pope, Leo XIII,
17:58
Speaker 3: actually prophesied the rise of American Catholicism, which is very interesting.
18:05
Speaker 3: In an 1895 encyclical, Pope Leo XIII reflected on the
18:10
Speaker 3: Catholic Church's deep historical connection to America, beginning with Columbus's voyages,
18:16
Speaker 3: which he described as seeking, quote, to open a pathway
18:20
Speaker 3: for the Christian faith into new lands and new seas.
18:23
Speaker 3: And he likened Columbus's ships to Noah's Ark, bringing both
18:27
Speaker 3: the foundations of mighty states and the Catholic faith to
18:31
Speaker 3: the New World. And he highlighted that the American church's
18:34
Speaker 3: hierarchy was established at the same time as the founding
18:37
Speaker 3: of the Republic, suggesting that this timing reflects some design
18:42
Speaker 3: of divine providence. Pope Leo XIII even pointed to the
18:46
Speaker 3: friendship between George Washington and America's first Catholic bishop as
18:51
Speaker 3: a symbol of unity between the United States and the
18:53
Speaker 3: Catholic Church. And now we have, over a century later,
18:57
Speaker 3: a new Pope Leo, who, frankly, in the most epic way,
19:00
Speaker 3: has fulfilled what the previous Pope Leo believed would happen.
19:05
Speaker 3: And today, Catholic conversions are on the rise, especially among
19:08
Speaker 3: traditional Catholic communities.
19:10
Speaker 2: This is very encouraging. And so I.
19:12
Speaker 3: Suppose that all this is to say, God works in
19:15
Speaker 3: mysterious ways. Let's wait and see who this Pope is
19:19
Speaker 3: going to become, what kind of church leader he will be.
19:22
Speaker 3: We don't have clear idea yet there are a lot
19:25
Speaker 3: of nuances there are a lot of contradictions we're going
19:27
Speaker 3: to find out but I think for now praying that
19:31
Speaker 3: he is guided by the Holy Spirit really matters even
19:34
Speaker 3: if you're a non-catholic please send him your prayers so
19:38
Speaker 3: I'm gonna bring in a guest here and just so
19:40
Speaker 3: you guys know who he is this is this is
19:42
Speaker 3: Christopher Bedford he and I worked together at the Federalist
19:46
Speaker 3: when I was just an intern but he is the
19:49
Speaker 3: senior editor for podcast and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media.
19:55
Speaker 3: Chris also currently serves as the vice chairman of the
19:57
Speaker 3: Young Americas for Freedom, and he is on the boards
20:00
Speaker 3: of the Daily Caller Foundation, the National Journalism Center, the
20:03
Speaker 3: American Principles Project, and he is a Claremont Lincoln Fellow
20:07
Speaker 3: and a Madison fellow.
20:08
Speaker 2: Chris, thank you so much for being here.
20:10
Speaker 1: Glad to be here. I'm trying to center my image here.
20:15
Speaker 2: No worries. You look good.
20:16
Speaker 1: It looks like I'm a little bit off.
20:18
Speaker 3: And half of our viewers are on audio anyway, so
20:20
Speaker 3: it's no worries at all. The chat is going to
20:22
Speaker 3: be fine with it. We're just glad to have you here.
20:24
Speaker 1: Lovely.
20:26
Speaker 3: So first I want to give the viewers some context here.
20:29
Speaker 3: Like I said, I was an intern at The Federalist
20:31
Speaker 3: while you were a senior editor. And a fun fact
20:35
Speaker 3: is that when I was being– trying to figure out
20:37
Speaker 3: how do I become a journalist? What is my voice
20:40
Speaker 3: like when I'm writing an op-ed? How do I write
20:42
Speaker 3: a headline? Emily Jasinski, who was in charge of the
20:45
Speaker 3: interns at that time, she was a cultural editor, said
20:49
Speaker 3: you should read lots of different op-eds and figure out
20:53
Speaker 3: whose voice do you want to emulate as you're trying
20:56
Speaker 3: to figure out kind of who you are as a journalist.
20:58
Speaker 3: And the person that I picked was you, Chris, because
21:02
Speaker 3: your writing is so incredible. You truly have a very powerful, matter-of-fact,
21:08
Speaker 3: but still inspiring voice.
21:10
Speaker 2: In your writing.
21:11
Speaker 3: So you are truly an inspiration to me, and I'm
21:14
Speaker 3: really grateful to have you here.
21:15
Speaker 1: No idea. That's extremely kind. It's been wonderful. It was
21:20
Speaker 1: great to work with you those years. It was great
21:22
Speaker 1: to do that retreat, and it's been wonderful to see
21:25
Speaker 1: your incredible success and your growth. in this podcast and
21:28
Speaker 1: in all of your endeavors. So it's fantastic to be here.
21:31
Speaker 1: Thanks for inviting me.
21:32
Speaker 2: Of course.
21:32
Speaker 3: Well, so I want to get into this papal conclave.
21:35
Speaker 3: I gave everybody sort of a rundown, all the facts.
21:38
Speaker 2: Who is this guy? What has Pope Leo said that's
21:41
Speaker 2: really good? What has he said that's kind of concerning?
21:44
Speaker 3: But I want to first, right off the bat, get
21:46
Speaker 3: your reaction to this video of a TikToker suggesting that
21:51
Speaker 3: the conclave selected Pope Leo XIV on purpose to to
21:56
Speaker 3: combat MAGA and President Trump. Let's play that video if you.
22:00
Speaker 2: Would, Michael.
22:00
Speaker 5: Well, the Catholic Church threw a punch with Pope Leo.
22:03
Speaker 1: Let's be clear.
22:04
Speaker 5: Selecting an American cardinal at this unique moment in United
22:08
Speaker 5: States history has to be construed as a direct rebuke
22:11
Speaker 5: of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Because in theory,
22:15
Speaker 5: there's never been a worse time to select an American
22:18
Speaker 5: leader for the Catholic Church, right? The church in America
22:21
Speaker 5: is falling apart. I am a church elder. I can
22:23
Speaker 5: see it myself. People are leaving the faith in droves,
22:26
Speaker 5: deconstructing what they used to believe because the church is unrecognizable.
22:30
Speaker 5: The values it professes and the things it actually does
22:33
Speaker 5: are two very dissonant things. Where's the church on immigration?
22:38
Speaker 5: Where's the church on social justice issues? Where's the church
22:40
Speaker 5: on literally anything, feeding starving children across the world? Church
22:44
Speaker 5: leaders in America have been silent in the age of Trump,
22:48
Speaker 5: but Pope Leo XIV has vocally called out Donald Trump
22:53
Speaker 5: and J.D. Vance for their treatment of immigrants and for
22:56
Speaker 5: other issues. And he ends up ascending to the papacy
23:00
Speaker 5: at a time where the American church is falling apart.
23:03
Speaker 5: I think it's a fascinating move by a church that
23:06
Speaker 5: recognizes that the world needs true biblical values, not empty
23:11
Speaker 5: American nationalism.
23:13
Speaker 2: Chris, your thoughts?
23:15
Speaker 1: That was incredible. I can't believe it's too early for
23:20
Speaker 1: that much stupid. It's shocking. So, I mean... I don't
23:25
Speaker 1: know how old he is and I don't know where
23:28
Speaker 1: he grew up, but I grew up in Massachusetts in
23:31
Speaker 1: the eighties and the nineties in Boston and a place
23:34
Speaker 1: that was once a vibrant Catholic community that was so
23:38
Speaker 1: packed with Catholics that one generation before there was the
23:42
Speaker 1: French Catholic school. There was the Irish Catholic school. There
23:46
Speaker 1: was the Italian Catholic school. That's how many Catholic schools
23:49
Speaker 1: they needed in order to keep what was going on
23:51
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. And I lived through the abuse crisis and
23:57
Speaker 1: friends of our family, a friend of our family who
24:01
Speaker 1: laid down on the train tracks one day and just
24:03
Speaker 1: stopped returning phone calls. And I saw the parish closures
24:07
Speaker 1: and the parish that I grew up in, uh, still exists,
24:11
Speaker 1: but it's been merged for three other parishes because there's
24:13
Speaker 1: not enough money and you have to all ahead in
24:17
Speaker 1: order to schedule concession, which is a sacrament. And, and,
24:22
Speaker 1: When I did that last, I was there for four
24:24
Speaker 1: days and no one ever called me back in order
24:26
Speaker 1: to actually accept a confession. The priests were stretched so thin.
24:31
Speaker 1: So I know what it is like to see a
24:33
Speaker 1: crisis in the church and to see people turn away
24:37
Speaker 1: and fall away. And that is not what's happening right now.
24:40
Speaker 1: It's truly amazing the moment that we are in in
24:45
Speaker 1: the church. You wonder... When I was years ago, I
24:49
Speaker 1: would wonder, are we too far advanced? Have we gotten
24:53
Speaker 1: too obsessed with TikTok videos and Instagram to really be
24:57
Speaker 1: able to experience an awakening in this country? And what
25:01
Speaker 1: would a modern awakening look like now that so much
25:03
Speaker 1: of Protestantism seems to have run its course? Would there
25:08
Speaker 1: be such a thing as a Catholic awakening? I know
25:10
Speaker 1: we've seen them across the world for sure, but never
25:13
Speaker 1: once in the United States. And we're living through it
25:15
Speaker 1: right now. And it's not because of the new pope.
25:18
Speaker 1: It's because of the priests who have come in over
25:21
Speaker 1: the years. When I was a kid, being a Catholic
25:24
Speaker 1: priest was an immediate promotion in society. You were trusted.
25:31
Speaker 1: You could drop your kids off with the priest. It
25:34
Speaker 1: was an elevation in your community to someone of importance
25:37
Speaker 1: and someone of trust. That is no longer true, thanks
25:41
Speaker 1: to Satan and the sins of too many members of
25:44
Speaker 1: the clergy and cardinal law who covered it up. It's
25:46
Speaker 1: no longer true. People Catholic priests, people will pass suspicion
25:51
Speaker 1: on them, and they worry about them. Oh, is he
25:53
Speaker 1: another diddler? Is he someone else like that? Can I
25:56
Speaker 1: trust this person? Why did they become a priest? It
25:59
Speaker 1: seems strange in the secular world. And because of that,
26:02
Speaker 1: because of that evil, the only people who have joined
26:06
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church who are willing to be priests, they're
26:09
Speaker 1: not trying to hide their sins or their degeneracy. They're
26:14
Speaker 1: not looking for a ladder up in society. It's not
26:17
Speaker 1: a position to political power. It's because they want to
26:20
Speaker 1: serve God. They're prepared for war. They're prepared for battle.
26:24
Speaker 1: So when he says that he's losing the church and
26:26
Speaker 1: the church is in crisis, I actually believe it. But
26:28
Speaker 1: that's probably because he– I don't know. And maybe I'm
26:32
Speaker 1: wrong from what I gathered from that TikTok video. but
26:37
Speaker 1: he's probably because the church that he recognizes, the church
26:40
Speaker 1: that finds it significantly easier to explain charity than it
26:43
Speaker 1: does transubstantiation, the church that is very comfortable running soup kitchens,
26:49
Speaker 1: but who's faithful don't even know that they're in the
26:51
Speaker 1: presence of the body of Christ. That's the church he's
26:54
Speaker 1: talking about, the boomer church, the church of the 70s
26:57
Speaker 1: and the 80s that produced this. And he's right. It's
27:00
Speaker 1: going away. It is falling away. And the Catholic churches
27:06
Speaker 1: I go to all throughout Northern Virginia, but also when
27:09
Speaker 1: I'm traveling for work in bad neighborhoods of Detroit, in Manchester,
27:14
Speaker 1: New Hampshire, in the central parts of the United States
27:18
Speaker 1: are packed.
27:20
Speaker 4: Yes.
27:20
Speaker 1: And young people are kneeling and young people are reverent
27:24
Speaker 1: and young people are drawn to it. And I mean,
27:26
Speaker 1: I was getting text messages yesterday from friends who said
27:29
Speaker 1: I might come back. This new pope is drawing me
27:32
Speaker 1: back to church. I think I'll start going on Sundays again. Oh,
27:35
Speaker 1: it's great. I think you should go no matter who
27:37
Speaker 1: the Pope is, but that's wonderful. And the amount, I mean,
27:41
Speaker 1: I was with last night, two people who I was
27:45
Speaker 1: Godfather to who were adults who converted to the faith.
27:48
Speaker 1: It's vibrant. It's growing. And the bishops, I would actually
27:54
Speaker 1: say it's through no fault of the bishops of the
27:57
Speaker 1: church is growing. It's because of the laity and the
27:59
Speaker 1: priests as, as, Despite being the world's last absolute monarchy,
28:04
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church is surprisingly democratic and kind of always
28:06
Speaker 1: has been. And the driving force is of the people.
28:11
Speaker 3: Well, I think you're right that there is a fervor,
28:15
Speaker 3: a spirituality that's much more deeper and real among young Catholics.
28:21
Speaker 2: There is something growing. You're right.
28:23
Speaker 3: The reward system has completely shifted. If you're going to
28:25
Speaker 3: be a priest, people kind of look at you funny
28:27
Speaker 3: instead of it being a a noble calling like it
28:30
Speaker 3: was in the past, you're not really moving up.
28:32
Speaker 2: It's a true sacrifice.
28:33
Speaker 3: That change in the incentives has created a new generation
28:39
Speaker 3: of very devout young priests, but also there's a generation
28:44
Speaker 3: of very young devout lay people who are responding to
28:47
Speaker 3: the despair of modernity, which is so bad that the
28:50
Speaker 3: only place we can go is the complete opposite direction.
28:54
Speaker 3: I want to get your thoughts on this new Pope
28:57
Speaker 3: and how he contrasts with the more traditional elements of
29:02
Speaker 3: the young Catholic Church.
29:04
Speaker 2: Pope Leo has promoted.
29:08
Speaker 3: McElroy in his role of selecting bishops under Pope Francis,
29:13
Speaker 3: and McElroy obviously has connections to the infamous Cardinal McCarrick
29:18
Speaker 3: and the sexual abuse scandal. There was also note that
29:23
Speaker 3: Pope Leo's shut down churches during COVID and he had
29:27
Speaker 3: confession by phone and he banned taking communion on the tongue.
29:33
Speaker 2: He said, you have to do it on the hands.
29:35
Speaker 3: These to me signal, perhaps he is of an older
29:38
Speaker 3: generation that is not, not very traditional. What do you
29:42
Speaker 3: think we can expect from him? Do you think the
29:45
Speaker 3: persecution of traditional Catholics, especially when it comes to the
29:49
Speaker 3: Latin mass, is going to continue with Pope Leo?
29:54
Speaker 1: Probably. It's Watching it yesterday, I would have thought that
29:59
Speaker 1: this would be a great moment of celebration. It's also
30:02
Speaker 1: a moment of quiet prayer. And it's a moment where
30:06
Speaker 1: we have to take a step back and recognize our
30:09
Speaker 1: duty as Catholics, as Christians, to pray for the Pope
30:13
Speaker 1: and pray for the Church and understand that God sends
30:16
Speaker 1: us what we need. And the Holy Spirit operates through
30:21
Speaker 1: the College of Cardinals and through the Catholic Church And
30:24
Speaker 1: that despite thousands of years of our efforts, literally since
30:28
Speaker 1: the gospel, we have not been able to destroy Christ's
30:31
Speaker 1: church on earth. We just can't wreck it. It's not
30:34
Speaker 1: ours to break, and we're not allowed to. There are
30:37
Speaker 1: glimmers of light for adherence to the Latin mass. The
30:43
Speaker 1: new pope came out in traditional clerical vestments, which his
30:49
Speaker 1: predecessor did not for his first homily. And this predecessor,
30:53
Speaker 1: I think, was probably the first in hundreds of years
30:55
Speaker 1: to not do so. The Pope Leo is an actual devotee,
31:02
Speaker 1: I've heard, to the Latin mass, was a lone priest
31:06
Speaker 1: in giving it in his diocese in the 80s and
31:09
Speaker 1: 90s before it was a thing, really, before John Paul
31:13
Speaker 1: II had really invigorated it and bring it back a
31:16
Speaker 1: little bit. Pope Benedict had doubled down on that. He
31:21
Speaker 1: was reportedly seen as recently as three years ago giving
31:24
Speaker 1: a private Catholic mass in a chapel in Rome. Those
31:28
Speaker 1: are all good signs. There are, of course, a lot
31:34
Speaker 1: of worry. There's a lot of worrying signs. It does
31:38
Speaker 1: draw me back to early Pope Francis when we were
31:41
Speaker 1: sitting there and looking and trying to divine and everyone
31:44
Speaker 1: was looking for good signs. They're all good signs. It's fine.
31:48
Speaker 1: God bless them. But Everyone was trying to just say, wow,
31:52
Speaker 1: I hope that this guy is secretly a traditionalist. And,
31:55
Speaker 1: of course, he was not. I'm still hopeful for Pope Leo.
32:02
Speaker 1: I mean, the reality is you don't become a cardinal
32:05
Speaker 1: by blocking the system. I mean, Pope Francis was pope
32:10
Speaker 1: for over a decade. You don't become a cardinal and
32:14
Speaker 1: line for the pope and brought into the curia unless
32:18
Speaker 1: you are a company man. That's what separates cardinals from
32:23
Speaker 1: priests so dramatically. It's why you have to obey. You
32:28
Speaker 1: have to serve the Pope. You have to speak on
32:30
Speaker 1: behalf of the Church in one. So it's sometimes difficult
32:34
Speaker 1: to divine what exactly the private and personal feelings and
32:39
Speaker 1: devotions inside the soul of a pontiff is based on
32:44
Speaker 1: their service as a bishop of the Pope under their authority.
32:50
Speaker 1: those ideas and that thinking. However, the COVID stuff is
32:54
Speaker 1: deeply troubling. I think one of the greatest disappointments of
32:58
Speaker 1: my lifetime, literally including the abuse crisis, was the way
33:03
Speaker 1: that our bishops who are princes of the church, princes
33:07
Speaker 1: on earth, acted subservient to our politicians during COVID and
33:13
Speaker 1: were afraid of crossing our congressmen and our governors They
33:17
Speaker 1: are not subservient. The church is equal to these politicians,
33:22
Speaker 1: and they should have greeted these people as equals and
33:25
Speaker 1: taken a card out of Cardinal Leone's book and openly,
33:31
Speaker 1: publicly flouted these rules and marched in the streets and
33:34
Speaker 1: brought the Eucharist out in the streets and said, we
33:37
Speaker 1: will not stop mass because you might get sick. We
33:40
Speaker 1: will not change our confessions because you might get sick.
33:44
Speaker 1: That's completely insane. And the priests here in Washington on
33:48
Speaker 1: Capitol Hill and nearby, some of them were reported to
33:51
Speaker 1: the police for holding secret masses. The church around the
33:56
Speaker 1: corner for me that I attended at the time before
33:58
Speaker 1: I had to move from D.C. because of the spikes
34:01
Speaker 1: in crime and the dangers here was they just ring
34:04
Speaker 1: the bells at random hours. And if you were lucky
34:07
Speaker 1: enough and close enough to hear the bells, you knew
34:08
Speaker 1: that you could scurry in the back door because according
34:12
Speaker 1: to D.C. fire code, you have to leave a door unlocked.
34:15
Speaker 1: It's only right. And oh my gosh, we have some
34:17
Speaker 1: trespassers and let's hold mass with all the lights off.
34:20
Speaker 1: It was a wild moment, but it also separated those
34:23
Speaker 1: people who were shepherds who were willing to go out
34:26
Speaker 1: and fight the wolves to save the sheep and those
34:29
Speaker 1: who instead were more interested in serving power.
34:32
Speaker 2: Yes.
34:33
Speaker 3: And it is deeply concerning that seemingly he capitulated.
34:37
Speaker 2: I don't know. He was in Peru at the time.
34:39
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if Pope Leo had the exact same restrictions,
34:41
Speaker 3: but I know that he United States I mean, we
34:44
Speaker 3: had churches shuttered, but the weed dispensaries and even in
34:47
Speaker 3: some cases strip clubs open. So when you contrast the
34:51
Speaker 3: church closures with what was deemed essential, suddenly it becomes
34:56
Speaker 3: even more apparent that our leaders really abandoned the faithful
34:59
Speaker 3: during that time. And it's disappointing to see so many
35:03
Speaker 3: of them, including this new pope, seemingly abandoning the faithful
35:06
Speaker 3: when we needed strong leadership the most in the face
35:10
Speaker 3: of what was truly religious persecution. I want to talk
35:13
Speaker 3: to you a little bit, Chris, about the name Pope Leo.
35:16
Speaker 3: People have gathered a lot from it. Some have said, well,
35:21
Speaker 3: this means that he is a full-fledged SJW because of
35:25
Speaker 3: the name Pope Leo.
35:26
Speaker 2: Others have said, no way. He's so based. He's conservative.
35:30
Speaker 2: This is the greatest thing ever.
35:31
Speaker 3: Some background on Pope Leo XIII that I gathered a
35:34
Speaker 3: little bit. He did care a lot about social justice.
35:37
Speaker 3: He was in a very Christian way, though. He condemned Freemasonry.
35:41
Speaker 3: He condemned Americanism and capitalist exploitation of labor. He made
35:46
Speaker 3: Thomism the official philosophy of the Catholic Church. What are
35:49
Speaker 3: your thoughts on the name Pope Leo? What are we
35:51
Speaker 3: supposed to make of it? I think a lot of
35:53
Speaker 3: non-Catholics will look at some of the things that Pope
35:56
Speaker 3: Leo XIII did and say, well, he was clearly a leftist.
36:00
Speaker 2: But I think there's maybe some more nuance there. What
36:02
Speaker 2: do you think, Chris?
36:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, Pope Leo XIII was not a leftist. Actually, let
36:06
Speaker 1: me see if I can move the camera here. I have...
36:09
Speaker 1: a poster of Pope Leo XIII in my office surrounded
36:12
Speaker 1: by his curia. It's authentic. You might be shocked by this,
36:18
Speaker 1: but there's actually not a huge demand for reproductions of
36:21
Speaker 1: these pieces of work. So it's definitely a relic of
36:25
Speaker 1: some sort. But the Pope Leo XIII being understood as
36:31
Speaker 1: a social justice warrior is the kind of thing that
36:34
Speaker 1: would be repeated by CNN reporters who read his Wikipedia page.
36:37
Speaker 3: And it's not.
36:38
Speaker 1: at all in line with what he actually did and
36:41
Speaker 1: you know the reporters do this all the time i
36:43
Speaker 1: mean granted i use wikipedia sometimes you have to check
36:45
Speaker 1: the sources it's just it was amazing in donald trump's
36:49
Speaker 1: first term how many people were talking about the importance
36:52
Speaker 1: of nato for example who i knew for a fact
36:55
Speaker 1: from personal conversations did not know what the acronym stood
36:58
Speaker 1: for a couple months before and we see you see
37:01
Speaker 1: that overdrive was reporting on the catholic church it's um
37:06
Speaker 1: As shameful as the ignorance of the average Catholic is
37:10
Speaker 1: on actual church matters, it is significantly worse in the media.
37:14
Speaker 1: Do you think that many members of CNN or the
37:16
Speaker 1: New York Times go to church on Sunday? Maybe when
37:19
Speaker 1: they're visiting their family at home in New Jersey, but no,
37:21
Speaker 1: they don't. So Pope Leo XIII was a strident anti-communist.
37:28
Speaker 1: He saw communism as a global threat, an atheist expansionist
37:33
Speaker 1: slave state. that would take men's spirits and subvert them,
37:37
Speaker 1: destroy the individual, remove the crosses, dismantle the churches. He actually,
37:43
Speaker 1: you were talking about this a little bit in your opening.
37:46
Speaker 1: He had that terrible vision of St. Michael the Archangel
37:49
Speaker 1: casting demons down into hell. And when he came from
37:53
Speaker 1: that vision, he wrote the St. Michael the Archangel prayer,
37:55
Speaker 1: which is a beautiful prayer and asked it and commanded
37:58
Speaker 1: that it be said after mass in every parish across
38:01
Speaker 1: the planet, which, uh, Not enough do, but I'm very
38:05
Speaker 1: happy to be a member of a parish that does.
38:09
Speaker 1: He thought that the best way, an important way to
38:13
Speaker 1: combat communism in an age of extreme exploitation of labor
38:19
Speaker 1: in Europe and across the world was to stress the
38:24
Speaker 1: inherent dignity of the individual, to stress the inherent dignity
38:29
Speaker 1: of the ensouled person and the worker to draw it back,
38:33
Speaker 1: as Pope Pius later did, to St. Joseph the Worker,
38:36
Speaker 1: to push back against his communism and say, no one
38:40
Speaker 1: cares more about the individual and the person than the
38:42
Speaker 1: Catholic Church, which is stewarded, is charged with stewarding the
38:46
Speaker 1: faithful and protecting them. That is the inventor of hospitals
38:49
Speaker 1: and orphanages and charity in a world that didn't really
38:53
Speaker 1: have that at all, and still largely doesn't outside of
38:56
Speaker 1: the church and its efforts. He was anti-modernist. He was anti-communist,
39:02
Speaker 1: and he's not the originator of Catholic social justice. He's
39:05
Speaker 1: the originator of Catholic social teaching. He is the author
39:09
Speaker 1: of it, and the important ways that our faith interacts
39:12
Speaker 1: with the world in the way that that stands outside
39:14
Speaker 1: of modernity. And also, yesterday was the feast of St.
39:19
Speaker 1: Mark of the Archangels' appearance on top of what is
39:22
Speaker 1: now Emperor Constantine's tomb, was previously a fortress, when he pulled,
39:28
Speaker 1: he took his sword out into was seen by hundreds
39:31
Speaker 1: and hundreds of people, and he wiped blood off of
39:34
Speaker 1: the sword and put it in his scabbard, and it
39:36
Speaker 1: was finished, and it followed the Pope's leading a mob
39:40
Speaker 1: to sack a pagan temple that was at the center
39:43
Speaker 1: of Rome still, and I think it was the last
39:45
Speaker 1: pagan temple in Rome, or one of the last, it
39:47
Speaker 1: was a major one, And when that was done, St.
39:50
Speaker 1: Michael the Archangel appeared as a vision to say, this
39:53
Speaker 1: is satisfied, Rome is cleansed. So that probably also plays
39:58
Speaker 1: into this. I mean, of course, it's silly to read
40:03
Speaker 1: too much into our name, unless it was something like
40:06
Speaker 1: Pius XIII. But that is a very good and hopeful
40:13
Speaker 1: sign to the faithful. And regardless of where this pope
40:17
Speaker 1: goes and what his attitude ends up being towards the
40:20
Speaker 1: Latin Mass. So the St. Michael the Archangel prayer is
40:22
Speaker 1: an important thing to remember. And I'm glad that we're
40:25
Speaker 1: talking about Pope Leo XIII. And I'm glad that you
40:27
Speaker 1: just showed that video for those people who are watching
40:30
Speaker 1: and not listening, because Pope Leo XIII is the first
40:33
Speaker 1: pope ever to be caught on camera. So if you
40:36
Speaker 1: want to see a pope in motion, the oldest one
40:40
Speaker 1: that you can see is Pope Leo XIII.
40:42
Speaker 2: It's so true.
40:44
Speaker 3: And I love the way that you broke that down, Chris,
40:46
Speaker 3: because there's such a misunderstanding of Catholic social teaching. It
40:50
Speaker 3: has truly been twisted and distorted in the modern world.
40:56
Speaker 3: I have so many TikToks that I've been saving of
40:59
Speaker 3: the worst Pope takes ever. And there was an analysis
41:02
Speaker 3: of Pope Leo XIII, and it was so criminally bad. Essentially,
41:07
Speaker 3: Pope Leo XIII was like Obama in the 1800s. It
41:11
Speaker 3: was absolutely ridiculous. And so I'm not fearful of that
41:16
Speaker 3: name at all. In fact, I think it's actually very encouraging.
41:18
Speaker 3: I'm one of those people who sees Pope Leo XIV,
41:21
Speaker 3: and I say, wow, that's actually a very interesting, good name.
41:23
Speaker 2: I think it's a good sign.
41:25
Speaker 3: Not the fear-mongering or even the gleeful, just giddiness from
41:30
Speaker 3: the far left.
41:31
Speaker 2: There is some nuance here.
41:33
Speaker 3: The church teaching is much more deep and more beautiful
41:36
Speaker 3: than modern social justice teachings.
41:40
Speaker 1: So Or republicanism or Democrat Party politics.
41:44
Speaker 2: Exactly.
41:44
Speaker 1: You can't put Catholic social, you can't put American politics
41:49
Speaker 1: onto what the Catholic Church teaches. It might surprise the
41:54
Speaker 1: MAGA critics of this pope that he is far to
41:57
Speaker 1: the right of the president, as was Pope Francis, on abortion,
42:01
Speaker 1: on gay marriage. They're in agreement on transgenderism, which he
42:05
Speaker 1: fought in Peru when they tried to put it into
42:07
Speaker 1: government education, said, no, this is an assault on God.
42:10
Speaker 1: And it's no surprise that the Catholic Church, especially a
42:13
Speaker 1: bishop who served in Peru, is to the left of
42:15
Speaker 1: Donald Trump on immigration. They don't know what they speak
42:22
Speaker 1: of when they criticize for these reasons.
42:24
Speaker 3: We talked about this in the intro to the show,
42:27
Speaker 3: but some of his retweets, Pope Leo's retweets, are a
42:33
Speaker 3: little bit inflammatory when it comes to immigration, kind of
42:36
Speaker 3: accusing Trump of nativism and racism.
42:38
Speaker 2: But if you hear him actually speak about immigration, he.
42:41
Speaker 3: Says mass immigration is a problem that needs to be addressed,
42:45
Speaker 3: but we have to do it in a humane way.
42:47
Speaker 2: Well, that's just church teaching.
42:48
Speaker 3: Like, I'm sorry if you don't like that, then that's
42:49
Speaker 3: just what the church believes in the dignity of all people.
42:52
Speaker 3: So to me, his actual words are much more meaningful
42:57
Speaker 3: than sort of some bad retweets that he's posted. I
43:00
Speaker 3: want to get to your take on the Fatima children, Chris,
43:05
Speaker 3: for the viewers, so you guys understand what I'm talking about.
43:08
Speaker 3: In 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta, Francisco,
43:16
Speaker 3: in Fatima, Portugal. And during these apparitions, Mary revealed three secrets.
43:23
Speaker 3: The first was a vision of hell. The second predicted
43:25
Speaker 3: the end of World War I, the rise of communism,
43:28
Speaker 3: World War II, a call for the consecration of Russia
43:31
Speaker 3: to her Immaculate Heart. And the third secret, kept confidential
43:35
Speaker 3: until 2000, I guess, described a symbolic vision of the
43:40
Speaker 3: persecution of Christians and an attack on a bishop dressed
43:43
Speaker 3: in white, which the church interpreted as relating to the
43:47
Speaker 3: suffering of the church and the assassination attempt on Pope
43:50
Speaker 3: John Paul II. A lot of people think that the
43:53
Speaker 3: church is hiding the final secret. My question to you, Chris,
43:58
Speaker 3: could the final secret finally be revealed? Do you think
44:03
Speaker 3: that they are hiding it from us? And if so,
44:05
Speaker 3: will we ever get the truth?
44:07
Speaker 1: We will get the truth. We'll find it all. All
44:11
Speaker 1: will be revealed. We know the end of the book.
44:14
Speaker 1: There's no institution that can hide what is eventually coming.
44:19
Speaker 1: I find it difficult to, I would never put myself
44:24
Speaker 1: in the seat to be able to interpret prophecy. I
44:28
Speaker 1: think it'd be difficult to have lived through Fatima and
44:31
Speaker 1: heard that prophecy and see the sun dance in the
44:34
Speaker 1: sky and And to see the rise of Adolf Hitler
44:37
Speaker 1: and Christ on the cross replaced with crucifixes in Bavaria,
44:40
Speaker 1: the home of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. And to see the
44:44
Speaker 1: expansion of global communism in that atheist slave state that
44:48
Speaker 1: took over half of Europe and not see prophecies of
44:51
Speaker 1: the end times. This is just as true as it
44:55
Speaker 1: would be nearly impossible to have heard what John preached
44:59
Speaker 1: about And John wrote about the end times and to
45:02
Speaker 1: see the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and not say, well,
45:05
Speaker 1: this is it. The reality is we don't, we just
45:08
Speaker 1: don't know. I assume all, all will be revealed. All
45:14
Speaker 1: will come home and we will, we will figure this
45:17
Speaker 1: out bit by bit. The Christians are not done with persecution.
45:21
Speaker 1: It's honestly, it's kind of a good thing. It's a
45:23
Speaker 1: really good thing. As painful as it is, And in America,
45:27
Speaker 1: I talk about Christian persecution as like, oh, we lost
45:30
Speaker 1: our job. Oh, the company we invented was taken from us.
45:34
Speaker 1: And these are awful things. But there's huge parts of
45:38
Speaker 1: the world where you're slaughtered on Easter Sunday in church. Yes.
45:42
Speaker 1: Where your daughters are taken and sold into sexual slavery
45:45
Speaker 1: by Muslim pirates. Where no one is coming to help
45:50
Speaker 1: you except for God. where priests are regularly assassinated. We
45:56
Speaker 1: are the most persecuted faith in the entire planet, or not,
45:59
Speaker 1: which is completely ignored by American politicians, I think, too.
46:04
Speaker 1: It's a great tragedy that that's the case, and ignored
46:08
Speaker 1: by global politicians in general. We're massively persecuted, and it's
46:12
Speaker 1: in that persecution that we find God, completely. I mean,
46:18
Speaker 1: only a single one of the apostles escaped violent death.
46:22
Speaker 1: for their religion. Obviously, Christ did not escape violent death
46:26
Speaker 1: until he defeated it. That is what sharpens faith. Being
46:31
Speaker 1: a Christian, just like being a priest in America and
46:34
Speaker 1: in the West, is no longer a necessity. It is
46:38
Speaker 1: not a requirement to be involved in political life or
46:41
Speaker 1: a requirement to be involved in business life. The pews
46:46
Speaker 1: may have been stacked in 1950s United States, but the
46:49
Speaker 1: hearts were empty. And That is no longer the case.
46:53
Speaker 1: You see people in mass on a Sunday in ordinary time,
46:58
Speaker 1: and you know that they're there for a reason, that
47:00
Speaker 1: they got up when their friends invited them to brunch
47:03
Speaker 1: or their kids had a poop explosion, as seems to
47:07
Speaker 1: happen to me before mass every single Sunday. Not to me,
47:11
Speaker 1: to my daughter. And when they know that they battled
47:15
Speaker 1: through that, that they maybe had one night off the
47:19
Speaker 1: entire week where they weren't completely slammed. It was Saturday
47:21
Speaker 1: night and they threw back a couple of martinis with
47:23
Speaker 1: their spouse. And so Sunday morning wasn't always the easiest,
47:26
Speaker 1: but they got there and it wasn't because they needed
47:29
Speaker 1: to be seen there. It's because they truly and deeply believe.
47:32
Speaker 1: And that is, that's the way that persecution and the
47:36
Speaker 1: lack of that promotional kind of society reflects on the person.
47:42
Speaker 1: And I pray that, that this continues, that the awakening
47:46
Speaker 1: that we're seeing in Washington and the Northeast and all over,
47:49
Speaker 1: I think all over the country really, is here to
47:52
Speaker 1: last and that these souls who are brought back truly
47:56
Speaker 1: believe and give themselves and devote their life. Because I
48:00
Speaker 1: got news for you. Church is better than therapy. I mean,
48:05
Speaker 1: the average person who goes to church on Sunday with
48:07
Speaker 1: their family and prays every night doesn't, they are so
48:11
Speaker 1: much more mentally sound and so much happier and so
48:14
Speaker 1: much more fulfilled, even in tragedy and even in sadness.
48:18
Speaker 1: I strongly recommend it to my friends who are going
48:21
Speaker 1: through hard times. And I think it truly does work.
48:25
Speaker 2: I think so too.
48:26
Speaker 3: And there's so much to be optimistic about with the church.
48:29
Speaker 3: And there was so much joy yesterday as I was
48:33
Speaker 3: just observing, first of all, what was happening live in
48:36
Speaker 3: Vatican City, but then if you saw all the videos
48:39
Speaker 3: of reactions afterward. And I saw all these negative posts
48:43
Speaker 3: from people who I really love and respect on X,
48:46
Speaker 3: many of them non-Catholic, some of them Catholic, blackpilling on
48:50
Speaker 3: this Pope already.
48:51
Speaker 2: They're sharing his tweets.
48:52
Speaker 3: They're saying, this guy, he sucks. And I covered it.
48:56
Speaker 3: I mean, we talked about it today. We addressed some
48:58
Speaker 3: of the concerns. At the same time, I think, can
49:00
Speaker 3: we just.
49:01
Speaker 2: Enjoy this moment? Can we just enjoy this momentous time
49:05
Speaker 2: in church history. We have a new Pope.
49:08
Speaker 3: This is like thousands, 2000 years of church history continuing today.
49:13
Speaker 2: It's beautiful. It's historic.
49:15
Speaker 3: And I want to get your reaction, Chris, to the
49:20
Speaker 3: young Catholic school children learning that the Pope is American
49:25
Speaker 3: on this note of just enjoying this moment of taking
49:29
Speaker 3: it all in despite all of the black pillars.
49:32
Speaker 2: Let's play that video if we could, Michael.
49:34
Speaker 1: Leo the 14th, it's Colonel Priebus, he's American!
50:09
Speaker 2: Chris, your reaction?
50:10
Speaker 1: That's amazing. And, you know, I rarely do this, but
50:15
Speaker 1: I had a work dinner last night and a work
50:17
Speaker 1: event in D.C. So I didn't get home until after
50:20
Speaker 1: my son was asleep. And I just made me and
50:23
Speaker 1: I left before he woke up. This made me realize
50:26
Speaker 1: I can't wait to talk to him. He's a Catholic
50:27
Speaker 1: school kid. To talk to him about this new pope.
50:30
Speaker 1: And all the excitement. I guess I was too self-focused. And,
50:33
Speaker 1: you know, see the black pillars online. It's just, shut up.
50:40
Speaker 1: I mean, the faithful there who were gathered in St.
50:42
Speaker 1: Peter's Square, which must have been amazing to hear every
50:45
Speaker 1: one of them, what was in Vatican City going on,
50:47
Speaker 1: were standing underneath an obelisk that stood on the Sinai Peninsula,
50:51
Speaker 1: an Egyptian obelisk. that Moses passed by when he was
50:55
Speaker 1: leading the Jews with no home on earth through the
51:00
Speaker 1: desert for 40 years to escape Egyptian slavery. That obelisk
51:06
Speaker 1: was on the trail. It would have been seen by St.
51:08
Speaker 1: Joseph and Mary and infant Christ as they fled King Herod.
51:12
Speaker 1: The black pillers don't know anything about black pilling. They
51:15
Speaker 1: don't know anything about suffering. They don't know anything about persecution.
51:18
Speaker 1: They're completely and totally full of it. And the ancientness
51:22
Speaker 1: of the church and just looking at that obelisk at
51:24
Speaker 1: the center of St. Peter's Square is such a great
51:27
Speaker 1: reminder to humble ourselves a little bit and to pull
51:30
Speaker 1: back and say, wow, we actually know nothing. We really
51:34
Speaker 1: know nothing. It's an exciting moment that we have an
51:37
Speaker 1: American pope. I do think that there's probably one truthful
51:42
Speaker 1: aspect of that TikTok you played earlier that we probably
51:46
Speaker 1: would have had to wait a couple decades for an
51:48
Speaker 1: American pontiff to if there wasn't an expectation among some
51:53
Speaker 1: of the church that he was there to rebuke the
51:56
Speaker 1: United States.
51:56
Speaker 2: Okay, all right.
51:59
Speaker 1: But the Holy Spirit moves in mysterious ways. As we
52:03
Speaker 1: discussed today, there's so much that remains to be seen.
52:06
Speaker 1: There's so much mystery. We don't know what kind of reign, hopefully,
52:11
Speaker 1: the 14th is going to have, but we do know
52:13
Speaker 1: that it is Catholic. And if you ever start to despair,
52:17
Speaker 1: And you ever start to worry, as I know that
52:19
Speaker 1: some people did, even people who I regard as generally
52:21
Speaker 1: as faithful Catholics under Pope Francis, it helps to read St.
52:26
Speaker 1: Padre Pio's writings and stories on this. St. Padre Pio
52:31
Speaker 1: was banned from giving public masses by church hierarchy. He
52:35
Speaker 1: was not allowed. He was kept under guard. He was
52:39
Speaker 1: not allowed to leave and to talk to the people anymore.
52:44
Speaker 1: And when a young priest... spoke ill of the Vatican
52:48
Speaker 1: and said, how dare they? He viciously rebuked him and
52:51
Speaker 1: told him that his duty as a Catholic was obedience.
52:54
Speaker 1: And if that is his cross to bear, then it
52:55
Speaker 1: is his cross to bear. And, you know, when you
52:58
Speaker 1: do risk blackpilling or you're sad that your incredible and
53:03
Speaker 1: packed liturgy filled with young families that wants to practice
53:07
Speaker 1: the ancient Latin mass has been shut down. Think of
53:13
Speaker 1: Padre Pio stuck in stuck at home and unable to
53:17
Speaker 1: perform the mass in public and remember his teaching.
53:24
Speaker 3: Yes, the church will certainly survive a bad pope. We've
53:29
Speaker 3: survived many bad popes in the past. I mean, this
53:32
Speaker 3: is the militants.
53:33
Speaker 2: Going to continue.
53:33
Speaker 1: Some mean dudes.
53:34
Speaker 3: Yes, there's some really bad ones. Do your church history research.
53:38
Speaker 3: If you didn't like Pope Francis... It gets a lot worse.
53:43
Speaker 2: You can go back there.
53:44
Speaker 3: I mean, these are men that are supposed to be
53:47
Speaker 3: guided by the Holy Spirit, but they're also men. The
53:49
Speaker 3: Catholic Church doesn't believe that these are mini gods on
53:52
Speaker 3: earth who don't make mistakes. They obviously do. We talked
53:57
Speaker 3: before you came on, Chris, that the church, the Pope,
54:01
Speaker 3: very infrequently speaks with infallibility. It's happened like twice in
54:05
Speaker 3: the last 1,000 years. So Anything that he says doesn't
54:09
Speaker 3: mean it's church teaching or it's set in stone.
54:12
Speaker 2: This is obviously you can make mistakes. Usually it's just guidance.
54:16
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean that it's official church teaching. I think
54:19
Speaker 3: a lot of people have to keep that in mind.
54:20
Speaker 3: And I would like everybody, Catholic, non-Catholic, pray for this
54:25
Speaker 3: Pope and also soak in this moment because it's just
54:27
Speaker 3: so beautiful. And Chris, I really appreciate you joining the show,
54:31
Speaker 3: giving me your insights, especially on Pope Leo XIII. Some
54:34
Speaker 3: of those things you said I didn't even know about.
54:36
Speaker 3: I need to do more research. He sounds like such
54:38
Speaker 3: an amazing former pope. I want to be respectful of
54:41
Speaker 3: your time, Chris. So where can people go to follow you,
54:44
Speaker 3: to keep up to date on everything that you are
54:46
Speaker 3: working on?
54:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And thanks for having me. This has been fantastic.
54:51
Speaker 1: The best way to keep up is to go to theblaze.com
54:54
Speaker 1: slash Bedford. And you can sign up for the Beltway Brief,
54:57
Speaker 1: which is my three times a week newsletter, kind of
54:59
Speaker 1: lining you up everything that's going on in Washington in
55:02
Speaker 1: a way that speaks to people who are not necessarily
55:04
Speaker 1: following everything that goes on in Washington. and around the world.
55:07
Speaker 1: And you can follow me on Twitter at CBedfordDC. Amazing.
55:12
Speaker 3: Well, like I said at the beginning, everybody follow Chris's writing.
55:15
Speaker 3: He is a truly talented writer. He is somebody that
55:18
Speaker 3: I tried to emulate as I was figuring out what
55:20
Speaker 3: is my voice with op-eds. So thank you again, Chris,
55:23
Speaker 3: so much for being here. For all of you listening,
55:26
Speaker 3: make sure to like and follow this podcast. If you
55:29
Speaker 3: want to listen to the show live on Rumble, we're
55:31
Speaker 3: here at 9 a.m. Eastern time, five days a week.
55:34
Speaker 3: You want to follow me, my ex, and Instagram is avitaduffy1.
55:36
Speaker 3: And I'll see you all next week. The U.S.
55:40
Speaker 2: Soccer Podcast.
55:42
Speaker 5: I'm your host, Megan Klingenberg, and I am super stoked
55:45
Speaker 5: to be joined by Daryl Dike. Arguably, your most impressive
55:48
Speaker 5: quality cannot be measured.
55:50
Speaker 2: You're a guy who is the definition of grit.
55:53
Speaker 5: Injuries have ended plenty of careers, but instead you decided
55:56
Speaker 5: yours would only be a chapter instead of the ending.
55:58
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show, Daryl.
55:59
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. That's a good intro right there.
56:02
Speaker 1: That's good.
56:02
Speaker 3: The U.S.
56:03
Speaker 2: Soccer Podcast. Follow and listen on your favorite platforms.