Speaker 1: And we are back with another edition of the Federalist
Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior Elections correspondent at the
Federalist and your experienced Shirpa on today's quest for Knowledge.
As always, you can email the show at radio at
the Federalist dot com, follow us on x at FDR LST,
make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and
of course to the premium version of our website as well.
Our guest today is Sean Karney, founder, president and CEO
of Forty Days for Life, an internationally coordinated campaign that
aims to end abortion locally through prayer and fasting, community
outreach and a peaceful all day mitchell in front of
abortion businesses. Sean joins us to talk about the Catholic
Church's new pope, Leo the fourteenth and what it all
means to the pro life movement and the fight for
the unborn. Sean, thank you so much for joining us
on this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely remarkable times these I wanted to get your first
take on the Conclave, the White Smoke, and then the
first ever United States born pope. This is history in
the making.
Speaker 3: It's awesome. Yeah, the first American pope. Who would have
thought it? You know, he was on my I guess
pope bracket like we do for college basketball. But I
didn't think there was a realistic chance at all that
we would have an American pope. I didn't have him
going out of the first round, if we want to
stick with that.
Speaker 1: I got him at pretty strong five seed. Yeah, it's
just kind of I knew he was going to take
out Pepperdine in the first round, but really to go
on to the national championship, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: It wasn't gonna He definitely was not a dark horse.
He ended up being like Gonzaga of like the mid
nineties where they came out of nowhere. Yeah, so it
is surprising in that sense, but not totally surprising. I mean,
he I like that he's only been a cardinal for
two years. He worked in the Vatican intimately the last
two years, which is not a long time in Catholic world.
That's just like basically a weekend. And so he's not
this insider. He is a missionary. He started the pro
life group at Villanova when he was there. He's got
strong statements on things that we would like him to
have strong statements on, particularly very critical of the Western
media for their sort of onslaught of the homosexual agenda
and forcing it on everybody and promote in gay marriage
and promoting you know, sarrogacy for gay couples, a very
very strong language against that. He prevented the transgender insanity
from getting into Peru. He's had very strong comments on
that he's not going to ordain women priests. We can
be done, you know, with just some of the confusion
that the Francis papacy had frankly, where we were just
sort of like he would toed up to the line
of something crazy and then be like, yeah, we're not
doing that, or he would say things that were a
little crazy. And I think that with Leo the fourteenth
phenomenal name by the way, we're really going to get
He's an intelligent man. He's a clear thinker, he's a
clear communicator. His first sermon as pope was awesome. It's
like eleven minutes long, yest, Yeah, and it was.
Speaker 2: It was very very good and very solid.
Speaker 3: So so yeah, I think he's kind of an unknown
We have no idea what we're going to get. But
you know it, looking now that it's I guess been
twenty four hours, it kind of makes sense that they
chose an American. You know, he was head of his
religious congregation, the Augustinians. He was in charge of them,
So he's a very good organizer. The Vatican desperately needs
a CEO and kind of an adult in the room
because there was a lot of chaos under Francis. They're broke,
they spent money like crazy, they're in debt, and you know,
they Americans make good CEOs and and I think that
they kind of need that, and that's one of the
positive things of being an American, and so I think
that that I think that that's one of the reasons
that they that they picked him.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. He raised a lot of a lot of
interesting points that I think we need to unpack here
as well. If hare has immediately been from the accomplished
media players from the leftist press, corporate media, oh well,
you know, they picked Leo the fourteenth to as the
first American and some of his retweets would suggest that,
you know, he'll take on Donald Trump and the MAGA
movement in this country and all of those sorts of things.
That remains to be seen, but it was interesting to
see the volleying for ownership of this new pope. Not surprising.
But do you have any concerns or misgivings about some
of the retweets that we've heard expressed by some in
the conservative movement in America when it comes to some
of those leftist ideas that Pope Francis had pushed forward
over the term of his papacy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do have those concerns, and I think those
concerns are natural and they're not political. I mean, one
of the reasons Catholics are sort of looking at the
balcony and everything's going to be okay, right, is that
it's it's it's.
Speaker 2: The way Francis governed.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was an onslaught of you know, him
taking the talking points from the UN or trying to
tell the UN how to operate, and it was constant environment,
it was constant refugees. And you know the issue with
that is not, of course, we all have a heart
for refugees. We don't want anybody out on the street,
but that's just the Catholic Church teaches that states have
a right to govern themselves, and certainly that entails having
a border or having a wall, or not having a
border or not having a wall. They can decide whatever
they want to do. It's the same on the death penalty.
And he would just you know, some overstep, you know,
the teaching, and and you know, it was just this
onslaught that you weren't a Christian unless you let everybody
who wanted to come into your country and your country,
and that this is not what the Church teaches. And
so I think that that sort of fear of is
this going to be a beat down.
Speaker 2: Over the head, because look, the secular.
Speaker 3: World is trying to fix the environment, The secular world
is trying to you know, take in all refugees. Nobody
is going to try on a global scale to proclaim
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the harms of sin, the
joy of forgiveness and resurrection if the Pope's not doing
it above all.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: And so I think that there is a little bit
in the word that I got from inside the Vatican
is they got it, they understood it, they needed to
write the ship, they understood that it was. It was
at times kind of a chaotic papacy with some of
the things Francis would say. And Francis was extremely strong
on abortion. He said, if you know, hiring having an
abortion was like hiring a hitman. He said the doctors
that aborted disabled babies were no different than Nazi doctors.
I mean, he was strong on abortion. It was kind
of like, where'd that come from? And and so it
wasn't that, it was just that there there was a
lot of distractions. And that's probably it's totally unfair to
Leo the fourteenth, right when you follow somebody like that,
and you follow somebody who is is not shy, who's loud,
who's charismatic, and you know Leo the fourteenth is not.
He's very reserved, and he's very calm, and he's very
level headed. And I think that's that's the perfect you know,
following to Pope Francis.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. Whatever you think about Pope Francis and
his clear left bent on so many social issues and
so many other policies around the world. He was very
strong and very committed to pro life and was very
clear in his position on that. What does the record
show us on Cardinal Robert France's prevost? Now, of course,
Leo the fourteenth when it comes to pro life issues,
when it comes to supporting the unborn.
Speaker 2: A very strong, very strong.
Speaker 3: In fact, this morning he quoted Jeremiah twenty nine to
eleven that the Father knew us when he knitted a
senate in our mother's wombs in his first sermon. So
he started the pro life group at Villanova. He has
consistently just talked about abortion and defended the unborn. And
that's just not that's not surprising. It's not like, oh, great,
a pro life pope. I mean, he's pope with the
Catholic Church. He's pro life, and so that's that's not
going to be an issue. It was never an issue.
Speaker 2: By far.
Speaker 3: The most liberal a pope we've had in the last
you know, a couple hundred years was certainly Francis, and
he was extremely strong on abortion. And so that's not
really something for people to be concerned about.
Speaker 2: I hope.
Speaker 3: And I want to go back to something you you
made a great point about. You know, there's a phrase.
There's a phrase whenever there's a funeral, everybody at the
funeral was best friends with the dead guy. And I
think it's it's the same whenever you get a new pope,
everybody's like and he agrees with me on everything, take it,
you know, and and everybody sort of rushes to judgment. Now,
part of that's just just our American nature of like
are you with.
Speaker 2: Us or against us? You know, are you blue or
your red? And it doesn't work like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's responsible for leading one point four billion,
you know, Catholics and also being certainly a strong voice
for the moral good, for natural law, for God in
the world and a very secular continent and a very
secular world. So his voice is political. There's no doubt.
The papacy and John Paul the second was brilliant at that.
Paul Benedict was good at that. I think Francis tried
to do it. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was
a complete disaster. But you know, there is a political
element to it because of papal authority and speaking on
behalf of of of the marginalized, whether it be you know,
the unborn, or or the poor or frankly people who
just try to live their Christian faith every day. They're marginalized,
especially you know in the United States. So you know,
I do think that that played a role. I have
concerns about his tweets.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt. I mean, if the media.
Speaker 3: Runs out, and they will, I think we're in like this. Hey,
it's the first American pope. It's really cool phase. But
that'll end. And if they do the thing where they
say we've got an anti immigration American pope versus evil,
you know, build the wall, Donald Trump, I hope and
pray and I'm sure you do too, that Pope Leo
the fourteenth doesn't take the bait and that that's not
a thing that's not healthy for anybody. And and you know,
it's like anything else, the immigration thing has gotten, I believe,
just as a Catholic and an American, out of control
as an issue of just the state has a right
to govern who comes in and leaves. It's just not
I mean, we're not shooting people at the border. We're
not hanging people at the border. It's just some of
this has gotten so out of control, and it has
contributed to some serious crime.
Speaker 2: You know, and and and.
Speaker 3: You know, I know people are tired of hearing Trump
go on and that they're sending.
Speaker 2: Their rape business, ending their murderers.
Speaker 3: There's ending their wordspeople the dam But people, you know,
and everybody kind of rolls their eyes.
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of truth to that. There's a
lot of truth to the fentanyl.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of truth to to to a lot
of different things. And so, you know, I hope that
that doesn't happen. I know the media will try to
do it. But but there is a list of things
that everybody's like, how is Pope Leo the fourteenth going.
Speaker 2: To be We're going to see, we are going to see.
Speaker 3: There's some tangible things and there's not always those when
it's one pope to another. You know, is he going
to allow the Latin Mass? That was a huge source
of division that Francis Man he went after He just
went after the Latin Mass. It was really random, it
was odd, and it caused a lot of division and confusion.
He started blessing same sex couples. We don't do that,
you know. I mean, there's just kind of a litany.
There were some quarrels with bishops and cardinals that was
like he took things personally and if you criticized him,
he brought the hammer down. And you know what happened
to Cardinal Burke, what happened to bishops Strickland, there's just
some odd uncomfortable you know, the parents are fighting moments
for Catholics, and and and that's why I believe that
they went for Leo the fourteenth as a as a
calming presence and as one that's that's not rash and abrasive.
And and I hope and pray that he'll he'll live
up to that.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, Pope Leo, as I understand it, is
a long time Chicago White Sox fan, which means that
he fully understands the holy idea of suffering, long term suffering,
and how that brings one closer to our Lord. And
I was telling someone today that as a White Sox fan,
he must be obviously very clear, very close to the
Lord with the amount.
Speaker 2: Of you know, it's funny.
Speaker 3: This is what's just fun about me in an American
is we could we could politicize like dollar hot dog
night at the stadium. But it's funny because you know,
you everybody hears Chicago and they're like, oh, no, Obama
came from Chicago. This is the end of the world,
you know, right, But uh, Leo the fourteen, it was
very quick to leave Chicago and move to another country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he was. He got out of that leftist enclave.
Speaker 2: He's pretty smart. Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 3: I saw his tweeting about how he voted Republican his
entire life. I don't know how they get all this stuff,
but it is. He voted Republican at every election, including
the last one. So it's just funny to see all
this stuff come out. But what we need is what
he is, which is in what he's called to be
now with this great honor of being the successor of Peter,
and that's a holy father who leads the flock, who
corrects when necessary, and who you know, joyfully and unapologetically
you know, preaches the Gospel. And frankly, there's just nothing
out there that says he's not going to do that.
And you know, we all have great expectations for for
any new new leader, and we don't want to be
you know, let down, but we also you know, and
trust this responsibility to him. Pray for him and watch
what he does and listen to what he says. And
I would say for Catholics who are kind of worried
about Branci's two point zero because they're slapping that on him,
which is totally unfair. He's failing that test because he
came out in the traditional investments. He said, he did
the blessing, the traditional blessing in Latin, he did an indulgence.
So you know, these are things that frances wasn't exactly
running around doing all day. So you know it's it's
very encouraging and we need to pray for him and
allow him to do his job.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and he took the name Leo Leo the fourteenth
I would very much assume referential to Leo the thirteenth.
There's been a lot of talk about Leo the Reformer,
and those again on the left want to want to
claim that Leo as a social justice warrior, but that
Leo was very much a traditionalist. And it seems the
signs that we're seeing again a traditionalist in the Catholic Church,
someone who is very devoted to Canon. And I ask
you all of this, from all that you said, all
the experiences that this man has lived through, and that
is will do you believe he will when it comes
to the pro life movement, be able to do what
I don't think that his predecessor was able to do,
even though he was a strong pro life proponent, and
that is change hearts and minds first and foremost in
his church.
Speaker 2: And around the world on the.
Speaker 1: Holocaust that is going on with the unborn, So the
lives lost every year to this horrifying catastrophe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. And I'll tell you the big difference.
So John Paul the second right, he saw the injustice
of removing the humanity from a human being, first with
the fascists in Poland and then unfortunately they were replaced
by the Communists, and so that was near and dear
to his heart, as.
Speaker 2: Did Pute Benedict.
Speaker 3: On the other end, you know, growing up as a
child in Germany, seeing the Nazis take off and all
of the insane and the hostility towards the Catholic Church
in Germany, that spoke out. I mean, he's from Bavaria,
one of the most Catholic places on earth, and just
seeing that Ope Francis Argentina was abortion free. I mean,
Argentina just legalized abortion a couple of years ago. He
was in pope. He was the Pope in Rome at
the time, and so there was a little bit of
a distant relationship in a healthy way from abortion. That's
not the case with Leo the fourteenth. He was in Peru.
He spent a lot of time throughout Latin America, and
I think, especially as an American, it's one of the
things that when I go down there, you're just kind
of ashamed of. And that is those people have abortion
because of Us and the Brits. That is plain Pearenthood International,
who Praise God. Donald Trump defunded again last January when
he was after the inauguration, but plam parent International goes
down there and says youve got too many kids, you
don't have any money, you don't need to have children
here to get on contraception. And here's abortion, and they
set up abortion facilities. And even in countries where it's illegal,
it's tolerated, and it's forced on the people. It's not cultural,
like half of Americans want abortion, right, it's not like
that in Latin America. And a Leo the fourteenth saw that.
He probably saw it as the healthy disease of the West.
You know, like our iPhones are awesome, our Coca cola
tastes good, our genes fit better than any other country.
Speaker 2: But our culture is sick.
Speaker 3: And we will tell you need abortion via Bill Gates
or via our government or via the Democrats.
Speaker 2: And it's a very shameful thing.
Speaker 3: So he's been on kind of the receiving end of that,
and that's why I think he has a great global perspective.
Being a missionary. In Latin America, you see like plamed
parenthoods setting up shop trying to do abortions on teenage girls,
and it makes you sick. And so that was one
of the first things that crossed my mind, is having
an American who has been a missionary in Latin America
who's already strongly, strongly vocally pro life. So I'm very
optimistic on that end. I think he's going to be great.
Speaker 2: I also, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, we just didn't hear anything from Francis when Ruby
Wade was overturned, which I thought was shameful as an
American Catholic. It's picture, particularly with an overtly Catholic Supreme Court.
So I just think things like that are going to
change for the better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we will see an end time, and the signs
are very encouraging so far. Our guest today is Sean Karney, founder,
president and CEO of forty Days for Life, an internationally
coordinated campaign that aims to end abortion locally through prayer
and fasting community outreach, a peaceful all day vigil in
front of abortion industry businesses. Let's talk about this how
it's all tied in with some of these left leaning
Catholic related groups instantly coming to mind, the groups that
have benefited through the criminally wasteful and corrupt USAID. I
think immediately of Catholic charities. Again, I don't know how
much time the new pope is going to devote to
these sorts of NGOs organizations surrounding the church. But to
a lot of people, this is a messy part of
business within the Catholic Church. And let's face it, as
you mentioned earlier on in our conversation, it's part of
an expensive part of the Catholic Church.
Speaker 2: No it is in.
Speaker 3: Catholic Charities has done some great work in certain parts
of the world and here at home. But mismanagement is mismanagement.
And if you're dependent upon the federal government, particularly as
a nonprofit, you have to know that you're playing with fire.
They're either going to take it over or they're going
to do a basic audit and say, hey, we think
you're wasting money, we're not going to support you anymore,
or we just don't agree with your mission.
Speaker 2: And we're not going to support you anymore.
Speaker 3: And so you run the risk of being so embedded
with the federal government. So when the government comes along
and says we're not funding Catholic Charities anymore, you know,
as a Catholic, I'm like, I don't really understand the
fit I'm supposed to throw, you know, I mean, this
is I run an international nonprofit forty Days for Life.
We don't get a nickel from the federal government. We
go out and do what most nonprofits do, which is
share our mission.
Speaker 2: People want to.
Speaker 3: Give great, they don't great, and you move on. You
can't be dependent upon the federal government. By the way,
like plain parenthood is another you know million the reason
why they need to be defunded of their seven hundred
million dollars. So you know that that is I think
we we always want to defend sort of the victim,
and so we make a bunch of victims out of
organizations or people. And I just didn't see that in
this case with Catholic charities. They're it's always kind of
been known. There's been a lot of mismanagement. There's been
a lot of reckless spending. They are big and fat
and sort of.
Speaker 2: Ingrained in the government.
Speaker 3: And Trump went in and ran on cutting government, you know,
needless spending and government spending, and you know, to say, well,
now the American government is hurting and to point to
all these people because Catholic charities can't hurt them, just
the American model. That is not the responsibility of the
US government, right, That's not You're not going to find
that in the federalist papers. And if charities you know,
are called, which they are, we all are to serve
the poor, to be missionaries around the world. We need
to do that and we need to pay for it,
and we do more than any other country in the world.
Americans are more generous by far than any other people
in the world. That's what I hate when we get
criticized is like we're so selfish and greedy, Like, no,
we're not. We fund more things overseas personally than any
other organ than any other country by far. And so,
you know, cutting the government spending, cutting Catholic charities, I
understand it, and it's it.
Speaker 2: But I think for non.
Speaker 3: Catholics to say, hey, good, they're all corrupt, that's not true.
Catholic charity has done a lot of good. They have
understand a lot of tremendous good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are two sides to every coin. One of
the areas I think that a lot of Americans have
concerns about is the It looks a lot like that
there are some in Catholic charities aiding and abetting violent
illegal immigrants into this country, and then when they are
called to justice, they're trying to hide them. Those those
are concerns obviously from the border crisis that we've seen.
Speaker 2: Over that to me, that's the worst part.
Speaker 3: I mean, we can get mad about the funding, right,
and I'm glad they got cut, but the the whole notion,
I mean, that's criminal that you're going to, you know,
aid a criminal coming across the border. And by the way,
this is basic example of just misguided mercy and you're
not helping anyone. You may feel good about yourself. You
may feel good because you know, we can kind of
eat whatever we want, we have access to everything, and
this person doesn't. Maybe they had a rough childhood, maybe
they have a rough criminal record, nobody's perfect.
Speaker 2: All of that.
Speaker 3: I'm going to help them, but you are endangering your
own citizens. You're not helping them. They don't need to
be roaming around having access to people. And it's just
it's just a false notion of mercy and of charity.
And so you know, I think that's why a lot
of this stuff was uncovered and it doesn't bode well.
Speaker 1: I think you just summed up Paupe Francis and his papacy.
I think that's one of the big questions that we
have the idea of mercy, and it sounds so good,
and at its core it is the Christian faith mercy
for bearns. But there is also the idea of national
sovereignty and the common sense of national sovereignty, the common
sense of having borders. And you know, this is the
problem that we've seen over and over again. You mentioned
something I think that's very interesting. I'd like to expound
upon this because now we have the first American pope.
America has been bludgeoned. It has been just absolutely knocked
around by the UN and the globalist in the international concerns.
It has been knocked around by Pope Francis. You know,
the largest and most powerful, the most wealthy country in
the world, is also the most generous country in the world.
You believe that this pope, with his American origins, his
Chicago origins, will finally will have a pope that stands
up for the United States of America like we have
not seen since Pope John Paul the Second.
Speaker 2: Well, and I would say Pope Benedict, he loved America.
He got along very very well, absolutely George W. Bush.
Speaker 3: And he was also very grateful for America for ending
the war World War two. I don't think that's not
the word I would use. Is he going to stand
up for the US, because that's not the job of
the pope. But I do think that the pope. It's
good for America to have pope's criticize us.
Speaker 2: We need it.
Speaker 3: It was awesome in nineteen ninety four when John Paul
the Second went to the Denver airport and stood six
yards away from Bill and Hillary Clinton and said that
every nation will be judged on how they'd treat their
most vulnerable, particularly the unborn child in the womb. And
everybody's just like, hey, is anybody else uncomfortable? And it
was awesome. And when Mother Teresa called out the Clintons
at the prayer breakfast, saying, you want to kill the child,
bring the child to me.
Speaker 2: I'll raise the child. You know, that's what we need.
Speaker 3: The thing with Francis is it was always just sort
of it was either passive or you know, a lot
of it was immigration, which is fine.
Speaker 2: But my hope for Leo the fourteenth.
Speaker 3: And of course we're not in the business of telling
popes what they should tell us, but we need to
be called out.
Speaker 2: On a lot of things.
Speaker 3: I mean, America invented and then spread gay marriage around
the world. And there has been no institution in the
world that has protected the sanctity of marriage that it
is for life right out of Matthew nineteen than the
Catholic Church. I mean, Christ reinvented marriage and established it.
That yes, Moses allowed you to get divorced because of
your hardness of heart, but in the beginning it was
not so. He made the male and female, and the
Catholic Church has been the strongest defender of marriage, and
we have butchered it as a country in the United States,
we have distrew taken a baseball bat to the family.
Over the last fifty or sixty years since the sexual Revolution,
it's been a complete and utter disaster what has happened.
And of course the culmination of the sexual revolution is
to deny gender itself, that we are all the same,
or we can just be whatever we want to be,
and so our cultural illnesses, or why we need something
like the papacy that's outside of.
Speaker 2: Us and independent of us and can call us out.
Speaker 3: And John Paul did that, everybody knowing he absolutely loved America,
and Ronald Reagan and Pope Benedict did that. I think
the thing with Francis. Honestly as a Catholic, I just
as an American. Guth I was always like, does he
not like us? Does he not like our country? And
that's fine, right, some people just have biases or whatever.
But he did come here, and he did spend a
lot of time here, and he was very gracious to
Congress and all of that.
Speaker 2: So I don't want to beat up on Poe.
Speaker 3: Friends, it's too much, but I think that, you know,
Pope Leo the fourteenth, it's a tremendous opportunity to point
out the good and the gift of America and to
reprimand us.
Speaker 2: For some of the things.
Speaker 3: I mean, half of our politicians think you can leave
a baby girl on the table who survives an abortion
left to tie.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is horrifying. Yes, that's not a healthy culture.
Speaker 3: That's not a culture that necessarily needs to be exported
everywhere around the world.
Speaker 1: Well, that raises a good point then, and we talk
about the communication of this pope. We've already learned through
eleven minutes that this pope is a pretty good communicator.
He has a handle on the languages, knows many Is
this the kind of pope who is going to truly
drive home the fact that we need to turn away
as Christians and as people who care about the present
of humanity itself. We need to turn away from a
death culture because that's what we have lived in for
a very long time in this country. And as you noted,
the sexual revolution in this country exploded the death culture
in America, and we have exported that elsewhere.
Speaker 2: I hope so.
Speaker 3: And I think it would continue the line that John
Paul the Second did and that Pope Benedict did, and
it's just speaking, you know, to truth. And Pope Benedict
did in a very calm, easy, systematic way that anybody.
Speaker 2: Can understand because he's German.
Speaker 3: And John Paul did it in a very charismatic, you know,
sort of glorified way. And Mother Teresa did it. I
mean when Mother Teresa said and this, this is what
I hope the angle is because he is an American,
so he's in a unique position. But you know, Pope
Leo the fourteenth kid followed the Mother Teresa line of
when she was at Harvard and she said that that
America needs to repent and get back to her roots.
And when America gets back to her roots, she will
end abortion in the world will follow and sort of
propping America up as this leader and we are and
that's been really really good for a lot of people,
and that's been bad for some people.
Speaker 2: And that, you know, notion that.
Speaker 3: If America does something, we are going to follow. You know,
the Europeans have this, I don't know, that's kind of
a smarter like phrase. When America sneezes, the world gets
the flu. I'm sure you've heard that. It's a global thing,
and yeah, but when you know, when we're healthy, the
world's healthy too. So you know, I think that that
really is a good challenge to us. Look at our country.
We have spread abortion around the world more than any
other country, yet we are on the brink of ending
it more than any other country. We have twenty six
essentially pro life abortion free states, are highly regular abortion states.
We are doing well. No one thought Roe v. Wade
would ever be overturned. So you know, there's a lot
of good to point out that you can be a
superpower in the West and you don't have to be
married to abortion. And America is highlighting that, and I
hope the Pope highlights it, and I hope he continues
to challenge us to uh to, to to be the
leader in fixing our errors in the airs of other countries.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess it was a good first sign that
we saw. We continued to see white smoke and we
didn't see rainbow Pride smoke.
Speaker 2: I thought that.
Speaker 1: One point we were going to see the Pride flag
and the Vatican under the last pope. This so far,
based on my understanding and based what based on what
I'm gathering, this is not a dei pope. Where where
do you think Pope u Leo the fourteenth stands on
the issues of course that Pope Francis took on as
a banner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we already have some evidence of just what
he has said. He has spoken strongly against gay marriage
and you know, the idea that homosexuals want to adopt children.
He has spoken very strongly against the transgender ideology. And
that's good. And the reason that's good is because he's
a reserve, shy guy. So if he's taking on those issues,
we know he has the fortitude and the courage to
do it. You know, I think he's a leader. Look,
the guy turned down Harvard law to go serve in Peru,
and people can say whatever they want about that, but
that's a tremendous sacrifice. He forfeited a lot of comfort.
That's what was beautiful about his sermon today. His sermon
today was not de His sermon was not woke, and
you know, it easily could have been your first one
out of the gate, but it wasn't.
Speaker 2: And it was very true to the gospels.
Speaker 3: So so yeah, I think we definitely give them a chance.
I love being a Catholic. What a beautiful moment for
all Christians in the world. We paused for a moment,
you know, that was just nice yesterday. And and you know,
he is the Holy Father. The Catholic Church is a family,
the family of God, and we have a father and
and just like all families, you love your father no
matter what.
Speaker 2: You don't agree with them all the time, and maybe
you get in an argument, but you know.
Speaker 3: No pope, the worst popes who have been scoundrels have
never changed doctrine. They've had affairs, they've been corrupt, they've
taken bribes, they've killed people, you know, but they've never
changed doctrine. They've just been morally corrupt themselves.
Speaker 2: And so you know that is that's very very important.
Speaker 3: And you know, the first three hundred years of popes
were all murdered for the faith, which which is you
know something that I guess is the most countercultural thing
thing you can do is give your life for Christ
and it's not conformed to the world. So we need
to pray for Leo the fourteenth and also as an American.
Come on, now, it's just a little cool that we
have an American pope. This is a very anti Catholic
country for a long time early on, and you know,
everybody celebrated when Kennedy, who in my opinion, was not
a good president.
Speaker 2: You know, he was the first Catholic president.
Speaker 3: Now we we have an American who's a pope. I
love seeing the memes of like Costco going up in
Saint Peter's Square.
Speaker 2: I thought that was hysterical.
Speaker 1: Well, let's make Vatican City great again with that. Absolutely, yeah, exactly. Okay,
So the final question for you as we look out.
You know, everybody of late has been talking about the
first one hundred days of Donald Trump's second administration one
hundred days from now, and obviously this is the long
game for the Catholic Church. Every time there's a new pope.
That's what the concent iteration ultimately is, where do you
see this Catholic Church ultimately going years from now, decades
from now under the leadership of Pope Leo the fourteenth.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a good question.
Speaker 3: One of the reasons I think they also chose them
as an American is the Catholic Church in America is booming,
particularly in the South. We just had you know, diocees
report thirty to seventy five percent increase and people becoming Catholic.
The church is getting younger and more conservative here. It's
one of the reasons you saw Trump gain the Catholic vote.
A lot of that was was younger people eighteen to
twenty four and the reason that, you know, I think
he went up from one percent lead in twenty twenty
to a nine percent of lead to the Catholic vote.
Speaker 2: And they cited abortion.
Speaker 3: They cited the church's teaching on abortion and how nuts
you know, the left has gotten with all that. And
so those are good signs. The seminarians are younger, they're
more conservative, they love you know, tradition, and I think
that you are going to see, you know, this pope
support that and not make you feel like you're on
the periphery because you know, you love the richness and
the beauty and the traditions of the church. He clearly
does from what we saw yesterday, and so it's really
really something beautiful. It's an Apostolic church and it should
be preserved and celebrated. And I think in the first
hundred days his tone, which he's already done, maybe we'll
get a comment or something about the Latin Mass, you know,
being allowed again, and we'll just see where it goes.
But I'm very optimistic. I think you're going to see
the Catholic Church in America continue to boom. And it
really really is in parts that were not traditionally very Catholic,
you know, in the South and the Southwest.
Speaker 2: So it's very exciting.
Speaker 1: Finally, ultimately, finally tell us about forty days for Life,
the mission and where where you stand right now and
where you are heading.
Speaker 2: Well, our demand is at a record high.
Speaker 3: We hold peaceful vigils outside of abortion facilities.
Speaker 2: Across the country and around the world.
Speaker 3: We're in eighteen hundred cities in sixty four countries, and
so you know, we've helped saved twenty six thousand babies
we've helped two hundred and seventy eight abortion facility workers
have a change of heart and leave their jobs. We
go out law abiding, we're peaceful. It's helped close one
hundred and sixty one abortion facilities because it kills the
bottom line of an abortion facility when we're out there peacefully,
praying and offering alternatives. So it's been a wonderful thing.
And I'm very proud of our team and our legal
arm which has really helped preserve free speech for everybody
in America because they're constantly coming after us on free
speech issues to try to get rid of us, but
we're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you are at the forefront of the battle over
the previous four years of an absolute targeting campaign and
against Christians in this country. And I'm very happy to
see the executive order from President Trump going after the
attack on Christians in so many different areas, particularly on
the pro life side. We could spend a long time
talking about those experiences, perhaps another time, but I want
to thank you for joining us on this edition to
the Federalist Radio Hour.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much, you bet.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guest today, Sean Carney, Founder President CEO
of Forty Days for Life. You've been listening to another
edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior
Elections correspondent at the Federalist. We'll be back soon with more.
Until then, stay lovers of freedom and anxious for the
fray