Pope Francis stands accused of personally covering for a sexual abuser. The allegations are breathtaking and unprecedented, but believable. I will explain why. Also, what can average Catholics do if it turns out that the Pope is guilty of this heinous sin? We'll talk about that as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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| I will never get used to seeing the liberal media defending the Pope. | |
| I should be used to it now with Pope Francis, but there has been a, with Pope Francis, there has been over the years, just a drastic change in strategy for the liberal media as it pertains to the Pope. | |
| Up until Pope Francis, for as long as the liberal media has existed, their strategy has been to paint the Pope as a slobbering, dangerous bigot who came here in a time machine from the 11th century and is dead set on enslaving mankind. | |
| You know, that's basically how the Pope has always been painted. | |
| Then Pope Francis comes along and everything changes. | |
| So now that Francis has been credibly accused of helping to cover up for a serial sex predator, if this same thing had happened, this exact same story with someone, high-ranking official, coming out with this kind of report about, say Pope Benedict or even JP2 before him, if that had happened, the media would be, they'd be having a parade, they'd be throwing a parade through the street. And they would also be, | |
| this would be headline news everywhere, they'd be obsessed with it, it'd be the only thing they're talking about. Now, the media has, I'm not saying that they've ignored the story about Francis, obviously, we've all heard about it, they've been talking about it. And they have made a moderately big deal about it. But they have not made as big a deal out of it as it actually is, because this is something in the 2000 years the church has existed. This, to my knowledge, is | |
| unprecedented, or at least it is extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely extremely rare, that you would have allegations like this coming from someone as high-ranking as Vigano And they're not anonymous. | |
| He's putting his name to it. | |
| And he's accusing the Pope of these dastardly deeds and calling for him to step down. | |
| I mean, it never happens. | |
| And not only that, but the Catholic Church sex scandal has obviously been an ongoing story for years now in the media. | |
| And now you have evidence that it goes all the way to the top, to the Pope himself. | |
| I'm telling you, if this had happened, Seven years ago, it would be the only thing the media talked about for weeks, as opposed to them treating it as, you know, an important story, but Not necessarily the most important story. | |
| But more than that, there has been, in the liberal media, the explicit attempts to defend Francis and circle the wagons. | |
| I read, for instance, in Slate, okay, that is a rabid left-wing publication. | |
| They published an article giving us reasons to doubt the claims against Pope Francis. | |
| And then there was a similar thing. | |
| I've seen similar things in places like CBS News. | |
| And then the New York Times, which has no love for the Catholic Church at all, We're good to go. | |
| The story in the media isn't the terrible thing this liberal did or is accused of doing. | |
| It's, look at those awful opportunistic conservatives pouncing on the news. | |
| So Pope Francis, credibly accused of covering up for a serial sex predator, and the New York Times, their headline is, conservatives pounce. | |
| Now, let's just briefly review in case, I'm sure you've heard the story by now, but in case you're not familiar or you haven't been able to make heads or tails of it yet, let's just review this very quickly. | |
| So you have, as I said, a former high-ranking official in the Catholic Church, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. | |
| He was essentially the Vatican's ambassador to the United States. | |
| He claims that Pope Francis personally helped cover up abuses of the degenerate predator, Cardinal McCarrick. | |
| Vigano let all this come out in an 11-page report, which he says he was publishing to discharge his conscience so that he can present himself to God with a clean conscience, is the phrase I think he used. | |
| 77 years old, he's preparing to die And so he's letting all this out. | |
| And then from there, he proceeds to nuke the whole network of perverts from orbit, basically. | |
| Vagano spends the first half of his report accusing numerous cardinals and bishops by name. | |
| Then he gets to Francis himself. | |
| He claims that Francis knew about Cardinal McCarrick, took no actions against him. | |
| He actually lifted sanctions that Pope Benedict had placed on him. | |
| And since then, there's been a lot of talk now about this facet of the accusation, this idea that Pope Benedict placed sanctions on McCarrick and then Francis lifted the sanctions. | |
| Now, that's something—the fact that there were sanctions on McCarrick is something that Vigano says he got secondhand from someone else. | |
| That person has come forward and said, yes, it's true. | |
| He's corroborated it. | |
| Since then, Pope Benedict's people have reportedly confirmed that there were sanctions, and Church Militant, the website Church Militant, they did a report yesterday where they pointed out They pointed to at least two articles in the news media prior to all this. | |
| There's one from a few weeks ago and then another from four years ago, which makes reference to sanctions or punishments or penalties that were placed on Cardinal McCarrick. | |
| So it seems very much that there were these sanctions on McCarrick, which Francis then lifted. | |
| Even though Francis knew about Cardinal McCarrick, and he knew about Cardinal McCarrick, first of all, because everybody did, but second, because Vigano talked to him personally and told him personally about what McCarrick had been up to. | |
| Yet, Francis not only kept in a position of power and visibility, but in fact reinstated him, reinstalled him into that position so that he could continue in his predation. | |
| In the couple of days since these stunning allegations were made, As I said, there's been a corroborating testimony from one of the people that was mentioned in Vigano's letter. | |
| He came out and said, it's true. | |
| We have the reported confirmation from Benedict's people. | |
| Then Cardinal Burke... | |
| And a bishop in Texas have categorized the allegations as credible and called for a thorough investigation. | |
| Then another bishop, Bishop Schneider, came out with the strongest reaction yet, I think, saying that there is, quote, no reasonable and plausible cause to doubt the truth of the document of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vegano. | |
| No reasonable cause to doubt its truth. | |
| Now, he's not saying that he knows for a fact it's true, but that is a strong, strong statement. | |
| In fact, let me read a little bit. He issued a whole—this Bishop Schneider issued a whole statement. | |
| I won't read the entire thing, but he says,"...it is a rare and an extremely grave fact in church history that a bishop accuses publicly and specifically a reigning pope." Catholics all over the world, the simple faithful, the little ones, are deeply shocked and scandalized about recently disclosed grave cases in which church authorities covered up and protected clerics who committed sexual offenses against minors and against their own subordinates. | |
| Such a historical situation, which the church has experienced in our days, requires absolute transparency on all levels of the church's hierarchy, and in first place, evidently on behalf of the Pope. | |
| And then he goes on to say there's no reason to doubt the truth content of the claims. | |
| So it's strong stuff. | |
| Pope Francis, as we talked about yesterday, chose not to respond to the allegations at all, which is, I mean, it's deranged. | |
| He said he's not going to say a word about this, and he actually encouraged the public to draw its own conclusions and said, quote, make your own judgment. | |
| Now, I cannot conceive of that. | |
| It seems inexplicable, doesn't it? | |
| If you were... Now, put yourself in Pope Francis' shoes for a minute. | |
| Let's say, take an argument that Pope Francis is innocent. | |
| Let's say that you were Pope Francis and you're innocent. | |
| And you're accused. Somebody makes up a story about you covering up sexual abuse. | |
| Makes up this whole detailed, elaborate story. | |
| And then you're asked about it by the media. | |
| You've got cameras, you've got a microphone, and someone says, did this happen? | |
| Is there any scenario you can imagine where you would decline to at least deny it? | |
| Where you would say, well, draw your own conclusions about it. | |
| Oh, well, he claims that I covered up sexual abuse, but you can draw your own conclusions. | |
| No, I cannot see any scenario where an innocent person would decline to issue a denial of a thing that he did not do. | |
| So there are a lot of reasons to believe that the allegations are true. | |
| But are they true? I think, in fact, I could point to at least seven reasons why I think the allegations are credible. | |
| Seven reasons. Number one, Vigano's report is detailed and well-documented, so it has the marks of something that is true. | |
| Two, Vigano is a high-ranking official with lots of knowledge of the inner workings of the church. | |
| This is not some random person. | |
| This is a high-ranking or was a high-ranking important person. | |
| He knows what he's talking about. | |
| Three, Vigano has everything to lose by lying, nothing that I can tell to gain. | |
| Four, several trustworthy people have vouched for Vigano's credibility. | |
| Five, other trustworthy people have vouched for the actual... | |
| For the truth of the claims themselves. | |
| Six, we have certain background knowledge of the players involved. | |
| So we know that some of the people that were accused, like McCarrick, obviously, and guys like Worrell, we know that they're dishonest and cowards. | |
| So we know that. And then seven, we have the total lack of a denial from Pope Francis. | |
| So I think that those are seven reasonable... | |
| Justifications for believing that these accusations are credible. | |
| Now, as I wrote a piece yesterday, and I was trying to make the case, what can be done from this point to actually confirm Vigano's claims or fully refute them? | |
| And I think for that, there are Four things that need to happen. | |
| Number one, all of the documents, letters, memos, etc. | |
| that Vigano mentions in his report, and he says that there are many out there that will confirm and corroborate what he's saying, all of those have to be released to the public. | |
| Number two, every person in the Vatican hierarchy with any knowledge of the situation has to come forward and speak. | |
| Number three, a full investigation has to be conducted. | |
| And number four, Pope Francis has to answer these charges personally and not through statements issued by Vatican lawyers. | |
| Because if he declines to comment that he goes back to the comforts of the Vatican, a few days later he issues some lawyerly statement, that is just going to make people even more suspicious. | |
| Now, if none of these measures are taken, then I think that the Catholic faithful and people all across the world will have no choice but to assume that a cover-up is ongoing and Francis is involved in it. | |
| He will have left them no other option. | |
| Pope Francis can no longer be given the benefit of the doubt. | |
| He can no longer just let this fester, let the doubt fester, because if he lets it fester, then I think the benefit of the doubt has to go to Vigano. | |
| It is up to him now to offer some evidence to prove that these claims are untrue. | |
| And if he's not going to do that, then we have no choice but to assume that they are true. | |
| And if the allegations are true, as I said yesterday, Pope Francis has to resign because he would lack the moral capacity to lead. | |
| And if he will not lead, if he will not resign, I should say, then he has to be pushed out. | |
| As for pushing the Pope out, After I said that yesterday, a lot of people have, you know, I'm not the only one who's been saying this. | |
| And there are others who have objected, saying, well, there's really no way to push a pope out. | |
| I mean, what are you talking about? There's no reason to talk about it because it's impossible to do. | |
| I don't think that's 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 to phrase it. | |
| To my knowledge, There isn't any mechanism in place to officially have the Pope removed from office. | |
| So in that sense, there is nothing we can do. | |
| But in that same sense, we as individuals have little power to have anyone, in any context, removed from any position. | |
| You couldn't even get rid of the local Domino's assistant manager in your neighborhood if you wanted to. | |
| I mean, you couldn't do it on your own. | |
| You personally really cannot remove anyone from anything, if we're being honest, right? | |
| You and I are people with basically no power, and on our own, we can't remove anyone from anything. | |
| But as groups, we have virtually, I think, unlimited power in these kinds of situations. | |
| Because if the group is large enough and loud enough and consistent enough It can basically push anyone from any position. | |
| If the position is Domino's assistant manager, well, then the group probably doesn't need to be that large. | |
| If the position is some political office, then the group needs to be much, much larger, but it can happen. | |
| For the Pope, the group needs to be extremely, extremely, extremely large, but it can happen. | |
| And this needs to be a group that is armed with prayer and righteous anger. | |
| If it turns out that the Pope is guilty and it's not looking good for him, let's be honest. | |
| But if these allegations can be confirmed, or if there is enough corroboration so as to make the fact completely overwhelmingly clear, or if the Pope, as I said, Tries to ignore this completely, and thus proves the existence of a cover-up by his lack of denial and his lack of action. | |
| Well, then I think it'll be time for Catholics to rise up around the globe, to take to the streets, organize rallies, put pressure on their bishops to put pressure themselves on the Vatican. | |
| That's what I mean by pressuring, pushing... | |
| It's just a matter, 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 matter of rising up, making your anger known, and saying, this is unacceptable, this is intolerable, this man does not have the moral capacity to lead. | |
| And so he must do the right thing and step aside. | |
| Ultimately, he has to make that choice on his own. | |
| But I think I don't even think the most arrogant pope in the world, in the history, could remain in office in face of a worldwide backlash from his own ranks. | |
| Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. | |
| So if we reach that point, it is not true to say that regular Catholic laypeople are powerless. | |
| They do have quite a lot of power, actually. | |
| And even more power than that when you consider that the Catholic Church largely relies on them for funding. | |
| So that's power that we have as well. | |
| And I think we can use it. Now, there are many things about this that are unprecedented. | |
| And the idea of laypeople rising up and demanding this kind of change, that is certainly unprecedented. | |
| That has never happened. Part of the reason why, though, that's never happened is because the situation is different in modern times. | |
| Back in the old days, if there was controversy in the church, if there was... | |
| Scandal, whatever. The average guy sitting in a pew probably never would have heard of it. | |
| The average peasant farmer in 1735 wouldn't have heard of most of these controversies or scandals, or if he did hear about them, he would have heard about them after the fact, after some proclamation or whatever is issued, and then he would go, oh, okay, well, I guess that's settled. | |
| But now we have, with just the nature of the modern world, living in the information age that we do, we have insight. | |
| We have a window into all of these machinations as they're ongoing. | |
| So then as regular people, we have a choice to make. | |
| Do we just sit back and hope that the people in power do the right thing? | |
| Well, it's clear we cannot hope for that, because that has not been happening. | |
| Then the other choice is to stand up and let our voices be heard. | |
| And we're calling not, in that case, we'd be calling not for vengeance, not for anything like that, but standing for what is true and what is right. | |
| And demanding that morality and basic order be restored. | |
| Which I think is a very good, holy thing. | |
| So if we reach that point, I think that is a tool that we have at our disposal, and we should not rule out using that tool if we get there. | |
| Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening, everybody. |