WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:04.200 As soon as the new pope got announced, my phone 2 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:08.320 goes insane. What do you think, Johnny? What do you think? Johnny? 3 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:09.640 What do you think? Johnny? What do you think? Johnny? 4 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:11.400 All Right, I'm going to tell you what I think. 5 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:18.079 I've had a day to digest it. I'm happy, I 6 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:23.120 am pleasantly. I am feeling optimistic. I feel like we 7 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:25.000 are trending in a good direction. And I want to 8 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.640 talk about some of the tensions from the Francis papacy 9 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:35.560 and what Robert Prevost, the new Pope of the Catholic Church, 10 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:41.359 Leo the fourteenth, what he could represent. So first, let's 11 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:46.640 talk a little bit about how Pope Leo was formed, 12 00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:53.840 because I think background is really important for popes. So 13 00:00:55.960 --> 00:01:03.960 the milieu out of which Leo rose, there's several different 14 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:09.239 kind of contexts that we have to look at. He 15 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.799 was born in Chicago, he was born and raised in Chicago. 16 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.799 He went to Villanova University for college. Some people are like, oh, 17 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:18.680 he went to liberal Villanova, and oh he went to 18 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:23.599 this liberal place for seminary. We should note, though, a 19 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:28.000 couple of things. I feel this immediate kind of kinship 20 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:33.640 with Pope Leo in that when he was an undergraduate 21 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:41.319 at Villanova, he founded their student pro life organization and 22 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:45.400 was the president of it. I was the president of 23 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:48.000 Notre Dame Right to Life when I was an undergrad. 24 00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:53.640 And this is one thing that gives me a ton 25 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:59.239 of hope, is because it's something I understand. He clearly 26 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:05.319 has a d deep connection with the American pro life cause. 27 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.319 He's also the first pope to have had a pre 28 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:14.199 existing Twitter account when elected, which has resulted in people 29 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:18.599 just crawling through it and scouring it to find evidence 30 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:20.719 of what he thinks about things. They found one tweet 31 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:22.919 kind of critical of JD. Vance, and everyone blew that 32 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.879 up into saying, oh, he hates JD. Van See, he 33 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:29.639 hates He's a big fat lefty COMI but when you 34 00:02:29.719 --> 00:02:34.360 go through it, look, let me just I'll just cut 35 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:37.080 through this. There's not going to be any pope elected 36 00:02:37.319 --> 00:02:40.759 who is like yeah, kung ho to pour them all like, 37 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.120 that's not going to happen, all right. No pope's gonna 38 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:47.319 get elected who talks or things like that about immigration. Okay, 39 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:53.159 And even if you listen to this show, you'll note 40 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:57.159 that's not necessarily the way I talk. I think that 41 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:01.960 American immigration has its own very specific kinds of problems 42 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:05.199 that if you are commenting on it as the pope 43 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:07.400 or papal advisors, like you know the letter that Pope 44 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:11.719 that was sent that had Pope Francis's name signed at 45 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:18.120 the bottom of it, that was issued in response to 46 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.800 to JD. Vance's comments about the ordering of how much 47 00:03:22.039 --> 00:03:24.280 what are what are the duties of society towards immigrants? 48 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:30.360 Blah blah blah. There's no way that Pope Francis, at 49 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:35.479 age eighty eight or whatever he was, I refuse to 50 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:41.000 have the confidence that Pope Francis A was physically fit 51 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.879 enough to have really thoroughly engaged in the ins and 52 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:46.840 outs of the specifics of the American immigration system, the 53 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:49.719 asylum system, the way in which the asylum system was abused, 54 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:51.840 and bupah bu blah blah blah blah. All right, anyway, 55 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:57.000 point being Catholic politicians look at immigration kind of on 56 00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:00.680 this global perspective and take this global sort of posture, 57 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:03.039 many of them rightly or wrongly, that we should be 58 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:06.800 globally speaking, generally speaking, accommodating to immigrants. And they see 59 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.639 Donald Trump not being accommodating to immigrants, and they think 60 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:12.639 that's bad. Okay, So you're not going to get a 61 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:15.360 cardinal elected who's like, yeah, deport them all like that. 62 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:19.000 That's never going to happen. So they find one thing 63 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:24.399 that Cardinal Prevost retweeted about JD. Vance and all that, 64 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:29.720 But what people also found were a bunch of things 65 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:33.519 that he retweeted, reposted, and has said over the course 66 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:39.920 of time that were phenomenal regarding pro life issues, even 67 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.519 down to the level of criticizing his own state government 68 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:47.519 in Illinois, where he occasionally would vote when he wasn't, 69 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:52.399 you know, out of the country, his own state government 70 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:57.360 in Illinois for doing horrible things for you know, the 71 00:04:57.639 --> 00:05:00.319 Illinois state legislature does all kinds of horrible things, like 72 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:05.720 the California legislature does to further facilitate abortion access, fund abortion, 73 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:10.319 et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm really encouraged 74 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:12.560 by the fact that he is coming from the American 75 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:18.639 pro life world and the kinds of thinkers he is 76 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:22.600 citing and thinkers he is retweeting are people whom I 77 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:30.879 know of and like and care for. That gives me hope. 78 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:32.920 A couple of other things about him that I think 79 00:05:32.920 --> 00:05:37.360 are encouraging. He's a lawyer. He's not a normal lawyer. 80 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:40.680 He's a canon lawyer. Okay, So for those who don't know, 81 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:46.120 canon law is the field of law by which the 82 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:51.000 Catholic Church and other kinds of ecclesial bodies Eastern Catholic 83 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:54.319 churches have their own body of canon law. Canon law 84 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:58.399 was very important, especially historically prior to the Reformation in 85 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:01.120 a lot of places and have to the Reformation, historically 86 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:03.600 Catholic countries where canon law and civil law would intersect 87 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:05.879 in the law and rights of the Church as opposed 88 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:08.800 to the law rights of the state. Anyway, Cardinal Prevost 89 00:06:08.839 --> 00:06:14.319 is a canon lawyer, and as much as a lot 90 00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:18.519 of Boomer priests and Boomer bishops, and he is a 91 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:22.480 Boomer he was born in nineteen fifty five, as much 92 00:06:22.519 --> 00:06:24.360 as a lot of Boomer priests and Boomer bishops were 93 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:28.160 very loosey goosey. The one group of people that at 94 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:31.600 least retain a certain level of non lucy goosiness about 95 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:37.560 the faith, people who actually have a sense of order 96 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:42.519 within the Catholic religion are canon lawyers. I've never met 97 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:44.720 a canon lawyer that I didn't like. I've never met 98 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:48.079 a canon lawyer who didn't have his head screwed on 99 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:58.319 right at least on really fundamental things, and so that 100 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:04.480 actually gives me a ton of hope. He you know, 101 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.319 he has also been able to administer and govern people 102 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:11.759 in a lot of different capacities in different countries. So 103 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:13.720 for those, let me give a sort of sketch out 104 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:20.720 his career. He grows up in America, he studies in Rome, 105 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:24.920 gets his doctor and ken in law, and he is 106 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:30.040 an Augustinian friar. So this is a community of priests 107 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:34.720 who follow the rule of life developed by Saint Augustine, 108 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:39.120 and they live lives of poverty, so they don't own 109 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:44.319 any property in common. Their community owns all their property. 110 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:46.720 They all of their property is owned in common. So 111 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:50.759 within their community, no individual person owns any individual stuff. 112 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:54.240 So poverty, chastity and obedience. So he served as a 113 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:57.079 superior within his Augustinian community, and most of his life 114 00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:00.759 as a priest was spent in South America in Peru, 115 00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:06.560 and eventually he was named a bishop of a diocese 116 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:10.399 in Peru, which is very odd to have someone from 117 00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:18.120 another country move to a country, work there as a 118 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.360 priest and be named a bishop there. It's kind of 119 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:23.560 an odd thing. I guess the most high profile example 120 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.399 that is Archbishop Gomez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, who 121 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:30.959 I think was born and raised in Mexico, and as 122 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:36.960 a result, Cardinal Privost had joint Peruvian and American citizenship 123 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:38.919 because he'd lived and worked in Peru for so long, 124 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:45.480 so he had worked very often in Peru. Then he 125 00:08:45.559 --> 00:08:48.000 works a lot in Rome. When he's made a cardinal 126 00:08:48.039 --> 00:08:52.080 by Pope Francis, he's prefect of he's head of what's 127 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:54.320 called the Dicastro for bishops, so he was the chief 128 00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:58.720 guy helping advise the Pope about naming new bishops. Now 129 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:00.879 I don't know how empowered he was in that role, 130 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:02.320 so it's a little hard for me to look at 131 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:06.000 individual bishop appointments and say, Aha, yes, that was him. 132 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:08.600 There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen when it 133 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:11.320 comes to picking who a new bishop is going to be. 134 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:19.679 But the thing that I kind of am struck by 135 00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:27.639 is that he seems to be a pretty rooted, humble guy, 136 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:32.200 even down to little things that I don't want to 137 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:35.440 blow them up into big things, but I will say this. 138 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:38.600 I will say this about Pope Francis and you don't 139 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:43.120 want to speak ill of the dead. But people talked 140 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:49.600 a lot about how humble Pope Francis was. Francis, though, 141 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:56.320 didn't really want to kind of conform and kind of 142 00:09:56.440 --> 00:10:00.399 go with the flow with a lot of things. Again, 143 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:04.440 maybe personal humility, I don't know, but he really stuck 144 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:07.759 out like a sore thumb as far as how he 145 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:11.200 conducted himself as pope, and you could see it like 146 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:15.080 even in ways that became actually quite inconvenient for everybody. 147 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:17.600 He was like, I don't want to live in the 148 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:20.480 Vatican apartments and the palace is like a king. I'm 149 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:22.519 just going to live at the Casa Santa Marta, which 150 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:25.480 is like a hotel that cardinals stay at when they 151 00:10:25.559 --> 00:10:28.559 visit Rome. Well, that was actually a really expensive and 152 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:30.399 it was built it's like, oh, look, the pope's a 153 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:32.799 man of the people, he wants to hang out with everybody. Well, 154 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:36.720 that was actually a really expensive and really inconvenient thing 155 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:40.120 for him to have done. It required basically, all right, 156 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:43.679 you're like a world leader. For security purposes, we can't 157 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:46.639 just have have you live in a hotel with guests. Oh, 158 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:48.919 new guests up pop in right next to you. No, 159 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:51.360 so they had to basically take give him a whole floor. 160 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:54.519 They had to do all this security stuff. It was 161 00:10:54.519 --> 00:10:59.480 actually quite expensive and quite difficult and et cetera. H 162 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:04.480 France has sort of refused to wear certain elements of 163 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:08.159 papal clothing, which the Pope Leo woar on day one 164 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:12.200 he refused to and even down to the level of 165 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:21.080 so so basically, here's my point. Francis was temperamentally a 166 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:25.639 prickly kind of person. I think I kind of get 167 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:28.039 the sense of that. I don't want to trash the guy. 168 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:32.080 I think he had a lot of good qualities, but 169 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.360 I can really see. So I'm not trying to do 170 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:39.159 this like massive contrast, but I do see with Leo, 171 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:43.919 I understand him. He's a guy from South Chicago. I 172 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:45.799 got to meet a lot of guys like that when 173 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:48.799 I was at Notre Dame. He is. I got to 174 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:50.679 meet a lot of priests like that when I was 175 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:57.159 at Notre Dame. He's While he's very, very intelligent, I'm 176 00:11:57.159 --> 00:12:00.480 sure he's much more intelligent than me. I mean I 177 00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:03.720 read some stuff he wrote, like some like academic stuff 178 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:05.440 he wrote, and I could barely make head or tails 179 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:08.240 of it. He was a math major at Villanova, and 180 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:10.440 then he goes on to be a canon lawyer. I mean, 181 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:16.759 I wrote read some philosophy stuff he wrote. But I 182 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:22.679 can see this sort of basic bedrock, simple South Chicago 183 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:29.759 Catholic kind of humility. I know that I understand that, 184 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:33.159 whereas Pope Francis was coming out of something totally foreign 185 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:34.879 to me that I had no way of understanding. Even 186 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:36.840 even as far as like politics and stuff like, I 187 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:40.600 mean South American politics and some of the South American 188 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:43.919 political ideas and Argentinean political ideas that Pope France has 189 00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:48.840 brought to his work and viewpoints on the papacy were 190 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:53.200 extremely weird and complex, and they sometimes manifested themselves and 191 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:59.200 these very unpleasant wit Anyway, I understand this guy. I 192 00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:04.440 think he's very down to earth. He seems very simple 193 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:13.039 in good ways. And this is one thing about being 194 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:17.279 the Pope, that there's temperament. Temperament makes a big deal. 195 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:22.720 Pope Francis made two kind of big tidle waves as 196 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:27.799 far as is he diluting Catholic teaching. He issued one 197 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:31.799 document that said that seemed to kind of maybe indicate 198 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:36.240 in some circumstances divorced and remarried Catholics could receive communion, 199 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:40.120 which seemed to have been a break from his predecessor, 200 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:45.120 John Paul the Second. I should say three things he did. 201 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:47.720 That he sort of rewrote what was in the Catechism 202 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:50.279 about the death penalty again in a way that seemed 203 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:52.960 to maybe like it was breaking with John Paul the Second. 204 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:56.600 And he had one of his flunkies issue a document 205 00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:02.960 largely retracted, thank God, that seemed to maybe indicate again 206 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:05.399 breaking with John Paul the Second, breaking with Benedict the sixteenth, 207 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:08.159 breaking with himself from a prior document he had issued 208 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:13.799 to allow gay couples to be blessed, not their union, 209 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:20.799 but just these two people. And this is the thing. 210 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:23.840 You might have a pope who's a little more liberal leaning, 211 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:29.360 but it takes a real kind of temperament to decide 212 00:14:29.480 --> 00:14:32.399 I am going to do this. That is clearly going 213 00:14:32.440 --> 00:14:35.240 to seem at least to be a break. Whether it 214 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:40.879 authentically is I don't think so, but it's going to 215 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:45.159 seem to be a break with the prior tradition. There's 216 00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:48.879 temperament involved there. I think if Pope Francis were a 217 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:51.440 different kind of person, maybe a person who was a 218 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:56.480 little less stubborn, maybe a person who was a little 219 00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:05.600 less kind of insistent, and maybe a bit more deferential 220 00:15:06.519 --> 00:15:12.000 to tradition, deferential to the office that maybe that would 221 00:15:12.039 --> 00:15:19.720 never have happened. I see in Pope Leo a personality 222 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:23.879 that is you know, this is the thing about Americans. 223 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:28.200 When we go to Rome, we're all overwhelmed. I mean, 224 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:30.919 you walk around in Fresno, there's barely a single building 225 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:36.960 that's more than one hundred years old. When someone from 226 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:40.679 America goes to Rome, they're floored because everything they look 227 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:44.559 at is older than our country. If you're from Presno 228 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:49.840 and you go to Rome, you're you're overwhelmed by the 229 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:51.919 enormity of the history and the tradition, and the beauty 230 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:58.399 and the grandeur of what you're seeing. And I see 231 00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:03.000 in Pope Leo. Again, I'm not like some grand oracle 232 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:05.440 or anything. And by the way, I'm trying to say 233 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:07.600 this out of all deference to Pope Francis, who, again 234 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:10.960 I try to remind people, is more conservative than Donald 235 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:20.080 Trump on abortion, gay marriage, transgenderism. I think the liberalizing 236 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:23.120 case for Pope Francis is overblown, and the most he 237 00:16:23.159 --> 00:16:27.799 did to screw around with Catholic doctrine was stuff that 238 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:33.879 was ambiguous at worst. But for all that chaotic and 239 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:44.200 chaos inducing. But I think, basically, I'll say this, I 240 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.120 feel better under I feel better about the prospects for 241 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.279 the church under Pope Leo. I think he is a 242 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:56.159 better I think he is temperamentally, maybe in some ways 243 00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:00.919 a little better suited to the job. And and I'm 244 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:05.000 very hopeful. And he's someone whose motivations I feel I 245 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:11.000 can understand when we return other catholic y stuff. The 246 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:14.920 scuttle butt is he actually the stealth candidate of the Conservatives. 247 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.319 That's next on the John Girardi Show. Now, one thing 248 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:24.000 that pious Catholic commentators love to do is they love 249 00:17:24.119 --> 00:17:29.680 to say, well, it's too simplistic to chart the cardinals 250 00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:33.960 in the Catholic Church along the spectrum of conservative and liberal. 251 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:39.839 That is a simplistic American political category that has no 252 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.160 place in the church. The focus of the cardinals is 253 00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:47.400 on Jesus Christ and his church, and it is that 254 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:51.480 like you're a bad person, and it doesn't even make sense. 255 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:57.279 Only it kind of does. If you're gonna sit there 256 00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:02.240 and with a straight face, tell me that Cardinal Raymond Burke. 257 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:08.400 Who is this American cardinal who celebrates the traditional Latin 258 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:12.319 Mass I suspect every single day, which is the right 259 00:18:12.359 --> 00:18:14.680 of mass that was in use in the Catholic Church 260 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:18.920 for hundreds of years prior to the nineteen sixties, celebrated 261 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:24.160 entirely in Latin, who wears antique investments from the seventeenth 262 00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:29.680 century on a regular basis. Who is the only it 263 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:33.519 is the most staunchly pro life, anti LGBT outside of 264 00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:36.400 res You're going to tell me that he isn't more 265 00:18:36.519 --> 00:18:41.759 conservative than you know some random than you know Cardinal 266 00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:45.359 McElroy from the United States, for example, who is writing 267 00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:49.440 trying to revivify left wing moral theologians that we thought 268 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:56.279 John Paul the second had absolutely buried. Give me a break. Obviously, 269 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:00.640 there are differences between the cardinals and the human mind 270 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:05.960 likes to categorize things along a spectrum. So sometimes that 271 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:10.119 spectrum we use labels like left and right for it. Yes, 272 00:19:10.279 --> 00:19:13.519 I understand that the labels left and right are used 273 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:17.200 mostly in American political context to mean certain kinds of things, 274 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:21.559 and it's not one hundred percent. Apples to apples makes 275 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:24.519 exactly the same thing. When it comes to applying the 276 00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:27.480 analysis to the Catholic Church. Yes, I realized that the 277 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:30.599 left right distinction originated from the French Revolution and the 278 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:33.200 Estates General and all the people who were the most 279 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.440 radically wanting to get rid of the monarchy sat on 280 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:37.599 the left side, and the people who were more eh, 281 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:39.400 maybe let's slow it down a bit, sat on the 282 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:48.000 right side. Nonetheless, there's some I'm kind of wondering a 283 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:53.599 little bit if Robert Privos, the new Pope Leo, if 284 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:56.960 he was kind of a bit the candidate of the Conservatives, 285 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:58.440 or at the very least if he was open to 286 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:01.079 the Conservatives. So one of the dynamic that exists within 287 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:03.240 the election of a pope is there's one hundred and 288 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:07.160 thirty five cardinals who are electors. Basically, you have to 289 00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:08.559 be a cardinal and you have to be under the 290 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:10.559 age of eighty, So there are one hundred and thirty 291 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:14.359 five guys like that. You need a two thirds majority 292 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:20.880 to win. So I think there are some people who 293 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:25.440 are super kind of very hardcore conservative, some people who 294 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:27.839 were very hardcore liberal, and then a lot of cardinals 295 00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:31.039 who just didn't really know anybody. A lot of cardinals 296 00:20:31.079 --> 00:20:34.559 who got named cardinal who were from far flung corners 297 00:20:34.599 --> 00:20:36.480 of the world and hadn't really come to Rome to 298 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:39.759 meet with all the other cardinals because Francis, as this 299 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.599 was another kind of weird Francis thing. He got upset 300 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.319 because when he had cardinals meeting early on in his pontificate, 301 00:20:46.599 --> 00:20:49.519 some of them like disagreed with him and stuff, and 302 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:52.839 he didn't really convene all the cardinals together very often. 303 00:20:54.200 --> 00:20:56.559 So a lot of the cardinals just didn't really know 304 00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:04.200 each other at all. And so basically, I don't think 305 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:09.200 there was any chance that a super super conservative cardinal 306 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:12.160 was going to get elected or super left wing cardinal 307 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:14.519 was going to get elected. There was going to have 308 00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:17.359 to be some kind of compromise and some kind of 309 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:24.079 coalition building within that body. And it appears that Cardinal 310 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:29.039 Prevost met with Cardinal Burke, who was like the most 311 00:21:29.079 --> 00:21:35.440 conservative cardinal in the whole Catholic Church. And I think 312 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:38.359 there's a lot of and also there was this more 313 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:42.920 so than just meeting at Cardinal Burke's apartment. One of 314 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:46.559 the seismic things that happened a few years ago, not 315 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:49.640 two years ago, was this document got issued under Pope 316 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:53.920 Francis by one of his a newly appointed person of 317 00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:59.680 his to authorize blessing same sex couples, not blessing their union, 318 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:02.359 but just to bless them as persons. And people thought, well, 319 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:04.599 oh gosh, are we opening the door to gay marriage? 320 00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:10.200 And the African Cardinals through a fit. They caused an 321 00:22:10.279 --> 00:22:14.839 uproar and basically forced the Pope to retract it. Now, 322 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:18.359 I think it's ambiguous, as was that actually changing Catholic doctrine. 323 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:20.039 I don't know. I think it was ambiguous, but more 324 00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:23.160 or less, the African Cardinals said absolutely not, We absolutely 325 00:22:23.160 --> 00:22:29.240 are not even going to broach this subject. I think, 326 00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:32.680 you know, Pope Leo, he got two thirds of these 327 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:34.880 guys to vote for him. Presumably a lot of African 328 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:38.119 Cardinals voted for him, So I think he needs to 329 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:43.759 be responsive to conservatives, and this is sort of my hope. 330 00:22:43.880 --> 00:22:47.039 My hope is for a papacy that is boring. My 331 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:53.640 hope is for a papacy that is open and kind 332 00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:56.599 and accepting to conservative groups within the Catholic Church who 333 00:22:56.599 --> 00:23:02.319 faced a lot of frankly just persecution is maybe a 334 00:23:02.359 --> 00:23:07.680 little strong under Pope Francis. I just want peace. I 335 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:12.839 want a boring pope who says boringly Catholic stuff and 336 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:17.759 appoints boringly good, decent, competent bishops worldwide. That's what I want, 337 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:21.480 and that's my hope, and if that is your standard, 338 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:25.799 I have some hope for Pope Leo. I don't know 339 00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:27.880 that he's going to be quite the titan that John 340 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.319 Paul the Second or Benedict the sixteenth the sixteenth were, 341 00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:38.160 but I have hope. I do have hope. I have 342 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:40.920 hope for him. Temperamentally, I have hope for him. As 343 00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:45.759 far as understanding his background, I have hope. So when 344 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:50.000 we return, some live Catholic issues that Pope Leo may 345 00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:54.119 decide over the course of his probably quite long papacy. 346 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:58.279 Next on the John Jrardy Show, there's a bunch of 347 00:23:58.359 --> 00:24:03.359 live Catholic controversy that now that we have a healthy 348 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:08.519 pope re installed within the Catholic Church, there's a lot 349 00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:09.880 of issues that he's going to have to deal with. 350 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:13.200 So a couple of big hot button topics that I 351 00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:15.319 think at some point he is going to rule on. 352 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:19.559 And let's remember this, he's a relatively young pope. Pope 353 00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:24.839 Leo is sixty nine years old. Let's remember that Pope 354 00:24:24.839 --> 00:24:27.200 Francis was seventy seven when he was elected, and Pope 355 00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:30.759 Benedict was seventy eight when he was elected. Benedict only 356 00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:35.680 served for eight years. Francis served for twelve years. So 357 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:40.359 you know, this guy's sixty nine years old. Popes have 358 00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:44.160 good health care. This guy looks relatively healthy, So I 359 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:49.079 mean not inconceivable this guy could be pope for you know, 360 00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:54.160 twenty years. So what are some of the live controversies 361 00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:57.359 that are existing right now within the Catholic Church. Certain 362 00:24:57.400 --> 00:25:00.480 surely new things will have developed and the landscape will 363 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:02.200 look much different ten years from now. What are the 364 00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:06.680 live controversies to deal with right now? Okay, so one 365 00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:09.720 of the big things is honestly competent administration of the 366 00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:13.640 Vatican and money, Like it's boring to think about, but 367 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:15.519 the Vatican has been running a deficit year every year. 368 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:21.519 They have a massive pension liability that they're facing, and 369 00:25:21.559 --> 00:25:24.559 they got to figure out how to get the money 370 00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:28.400 situation right. Stuff got worse and worse and worse under 371 00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:31.759 Pope Francis. Pope Francis got elected on the idea that 372 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:34.720 he was an administrator. He had very specific ideas for 373 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:37.960 how he wanted to do things, not very clear how 374 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:43.759 successful they were. So that's a big deal, and it's 375 00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:47.839 probably a non zero reason why Prevost got picked. He 376 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:51.920 seems to not engage in factionalism, and seems to work 377 00:25:51.960 --> 00:25:54.279 well with lots of people in a lot of contexts, 378 00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:57.319 and is a good administrator. So that's a non zero 379 00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:02.279 reason to pick somebody to be pope. So that's the 380 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:06.359 boring stuff. Let's talk about some doctrinal stuff though. So 381 00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:09.759 one of the questions to deal with is this thing 382 00:26:09.839 --> 00:26:13.559 called sinnodality s Y n O D A l I 383 00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:19.079 T Y. Now, synods were a part of the life 384 00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:24.559 of the church going back all the way to the 385 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:27.960 beginning and in the early Roman you know, after the 386 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:31.240 legalization of Christianity under Constantine, synods were a thing that 387 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:34.880 would happen. Sentods were usually kind of localized gatherings of 388 00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:38.559 bishops to discuss x, Y or Z. I wouldn't say 389 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:41.160 that they are a constitutive element of the church. It's 390 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:44.000 a little different from say, what we would call an 391 00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:47.960 ecumenical council where you get all the bishops together to 392 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:52.000 talk about stuff. From the Council of Jerusalem, the gathering 393 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:54.960 of all the apostles together in Jerusalem, that's described in 394 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:57.599 the Acts of the Apostles, in which they ultimately decided, yes, 395 00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:01.759 the Gospel is open to non Jews. To the Second 396 00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:04.160 Vatican Council, which happened in nineteen sixty two, which was 397 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:08.240 again a gathering of all the world's bishops. Sinnidality is 398 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:12.759 sort of in the middle, and obviously it's not necessarily 399 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:15.039 attested to in the New Testament. It's just a thing 400 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:17.799 that would happen that bishops would gather to discuss stuff. 401 00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:20.720