2025: The Year Things Began to Turn Around?

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:11] At the end of the year and 2025 has been a year of transitions. [00:00:16] The Catholic Church has a new Pope. [00:00:18] United States has a new president. [00:00:21] And so after a year of deepening years of deepening crises, did the church and the country and the world turn a corner this year? That's what I'm talking about today on Christ Point Hill. I'm Eric Samuels, your host, editor in chief of Crisis magazine. Before we get started, I just want to remind you we are at our end of year fundraising campaign. We only do fundraising twice a year. And this campaign we are trying to raise $100,000. And thanks to many generous donors, we are at night. Last I checked, earlier today it was $92,000. So we just need 8,000 more before tomorrow. Today is December 30th, second last day of the year. We're trying to get 100,000 before the end of tomorrow, the 31st. So please, if you can, consider donating to Crisis magazine all our contents for free. But obviously it's not free to produce. Just go to crisis magazine.com you'll be asked to donate or click on the donate button in the upper right. [00:01:17] Second thing I want to mention before we get going is Merry Christmas. This is our first podcast after Christmas. We're obviously in the Christmas season. We're technically right now in the octave of Christmas. So today is Christmas Day in the eyes of the church. Every day for eight days is Christmas Day in the eyes of the church. So Merry Christmas. I hope you had a blessed Advent, a great Christmas. I had a very. I had a great Advent, a great Christmas. My whole family, all my adult children, my grandson, were in town for the Christmas weekend and everything. So that was great. In fact, I will have a podcast coming out later this week in which I interview my son again. This is now becoming an annual tradition, I think, because last year when he was home for Christmas, I interviewed him. This year I do as well. And so I think that's going to come out on Friday. [00:02:08] Okay. Also for those us joining us, those of you joining us live, please participate in the live chat. Give your thoughts, your opinions. At the end of the program, we will. I'll kind of address some of them and put them up on the screen. So, okay, so the time of this podcast is 2025, the year things began to turn around. Question mark. Like, is it or not? I want to just be clear about what I'm talking about here. When I say, did things turn around, what do I mean by that? [00:02:35] First of all, I'm just Talking about over the last decade or so, and mostly I'm confined to America and the Catholic Church worldwide. [00:02:43] But like, I believe that the church, that the world has been on a decline for hundreds of years now. So I'm not talking about that. We're not, we didn't, like, I'm not saying 2025, we overcame the effects of the French Revolution or the Protestant Reformation or anything like that. [00:03:01] I am saying though, that there has been a marked decline, I believe, in America and in the church over the past decade or so. I mean, you can, you can, you probably could date the, the, obviously the Catholic Church, you could date all the way back to the 1960s and before, but particularly since 2013. We all know what happened that year in America, really since the Great Recession of 2008 and following, especially during the 2010s, like the culture and everything, politics, I just feel like there's been a very marked decline, like in my lifetime, which is over 50 years. [00:03:41] The last decade before this year did seem to be particularly acute in how things were declining. And so I'm just asking in 2025, did we halt that decline, that more immediate last decade or so decline and did we maybe reverse it a little bit? [00:03:59] We might still be way off the reservation. I know we are. I'm not saying America, even if I say things turn around this year, I'm not saying America all of a sudden a revival and we're a Catholic country. I'm not saying the Catholic Church all of a sudden people became what it was in the days of the Middle Ages or even post Council of Trent or anything like that. I'm just simply saying, have we turned into a better direction than we were going before? And so that's what I want to talk about here. And I'm gonna specifically gear like basically three major subjects here is Trump being in office, Pope Leo becoming Pope. And also I wanna talk about, everybody's talking about these young people and how they're affecting both those things. So first of all, obviously the year started off last year with a, with Donald Trump being inaugurated as president. And I've said it, I've had a podcast about this before. I thought he started off guns a blazing. I thought his first few months in the presidency were literally the best few months a president has had in my lifetime and possibly for the, in history of the country. [00:04:59] I mean, maybe excepting George Washington. I mean, it really was, was a great start. I've been disappointed with him more times than not probably since then, since maybe April or May. I think he's not been good on Israel, on some of the foreign policy, on some of the, on Epstein, on some domestic issues, on inflation, things like that. [00:05:23] But I want to give Trump credit where credit is due. And I think his biggest accomplishment that really, I think turned things around this year is something I don't think people talk about enough. [00:05:34] People talk about his work in immigration, and I will be the first to say it has been great in many ways. It's still a ways to go. But, boy, we were so behind the eight ball when it came to immigration reform that what Trump has done has been phenomenal in that regard. You know, expectations have been exceeded at least. I didn't think he'd be able to do as much as he has. So. [00:05:57] But that's not what I'm talking about here. I personally think that his greatest accomplishment so far in office has been the dismantling of wokeness, the dismantling of like, the woke regime. [00:06:11] I don't think we, I think we forget pretty quickly how bad it was starting around the middle of the 2010s, all the way through last year in the things you could and couldn't say publicly that you basically, if you're, you know, as far as like, nobody could say, you know, we couldn't say Merry Christmas. You couldn't say, you couldn't talk about Christmas being a Christian holiday. You couldn't talk about anything explicitly religious in the public sphere. [00:06:44] You know, we had to accept that some dude who said he was a woman was actually a woman. We couldn't say for fear of being fired, ridiculed, whatever kicked off social media, all these things. We couldn't do any of it. [00:06:59] And yet Trump, now, I will say this started obviously with Elon taking over X Twitter and, and also during his campaign. [00:07:07] But I've been very impressed with how the Trump administration does not seem to care one iota about kowtowing to the woke regime. [00:07:19] They will like, they have explicitly Christian messages they give out. I mean, on St. Michael's Feast of St. Michael, Trump posts something, you know, about St. Michael during Christmas season. They are talking in very Christian overtones about, about Christmas. They're not acting like it's just some happy holidays or some generic festival or something like that winter festival. No, they're, they're going into the, the Christian aspects of Christmas. [00:07:46] Likewise. And that's throughout the administration. You see that likewise, for example, they have, they, I saw where a week or two ago, a couple weeks ago, where the former like deputy director of hhs, which was that that dude who said he was a woman, Levine, he went by Rachel Levine. Now I can't remember his name before, like his, his birth name. [00:08:10] Anyway, they changed it, they changed on his phone, they have a photo up in like an HHS or DHS office or something like that. And they changed his name back to his actual, you know, male name instead of the fake female name. Which I think is great. I mean, I think we have to be. I mean, I don't care if somebody change your name legally, I don't have a big problem in using their new name. Unless it goes like if your name is Bob and you hate it and you decide to go by Frank, whatever. But unless it's making you lie about who the person is, Rachel is a woman's name. And there. And he was trying to act like he was a woman. So things like that, I mean it just triggers the liberals so much, which is also great. [00:08:49] But it just, I think that stuff trickles down into the culture so that we can speak more freely, which is obviously a very good thing that we, we don't have to be embarrassed. I think it trickles down to like you know, Thanksgiving gatherings or things like that. Like for another example of this, which isn't exactly wokeness but like what RFK is doing, which I'm going to talk about in a second, like you can tell your pediatrician, no, I don't want that vaccine because the h, you know, the, the health and Human services doesn't recommend it anymore. [00:09:16] You know, things like that. And so I really feel like the end of the, not the end because we still have it, but really the reversal of the trends of the WOKE regime I think is probably Trump's greatest accomplishment so far in office. Like I also said, I think it's been great ways on immigration, still a ways to go, but great on that. And another thing I think has been great that has really turned the corner in a very important part of culture and the country is rfk. [00:09:47] Rfk. [00:09:48] I think he has been phenomenal. He's done great work. [00:09:52] I don't think people realize, I don't think the average American, even the average conservative, Trump supporting conservative, realized before RFK came around how unhealthy we were and how that impacts our entire country. [00:10:05] I mean a totalitarian government wants a people that are sick all the time, they're lethargic, they have brain fog that sit around playing video games and you know, doom scrolling and scrolling on TikTok, things like that's what they want. [00:10:20] And RFK is single handedly doing everything he can to reverse that. [00:10:26] I mean, it just, he, you know, he's, he's, I think we have to be realistic of what he can do. I mean, he's only, he's been less than a year. He can't like change everything overnight. But he's already pushing back hard against the, the standard vaccine schedule for children, which is like 70 something vaccines you receive in the first few years of life, which is just insane. [00:10:47] I mean, just to be clear, I've never been anti vaccine guy, but at the same time, you don't have to be an anti vaccine guy to know that pumping a bunch of chemicals and drugs into infants and 70 something of them just can't be good. [00:11:04] That can't be good. The idea that to live in this world we need to be pumped full of all these artificial crap just to live is crazy. Like, yes, I get that there are certain things that perhaps a vaccine might be useful. I mean, I know some people say none of them are useful and maybe that's true. [00:11:23] But what I like though is the fact that he's pushing on the require, against the mandates, the requirements that you have to have these vaccines to go to schools and things like that. That's the real problem when a parent decides, I don't want my kids to have this vaccine, they should be allowed to decide that. They really should. And so RFK has done great and I hear he's really working to overhaul the entire schedule, the entire vaccine schedule, which would just be great. [00:11:49] Also another way that worked and I think that's a big turnaround for the country. Another way we're turning around is just simply, it's not Biden or Kamala. It's not Biden. Can you imagine a Kamala, what we'd be talking about now if Kamala was president, it would just be a disaster. We all know that. [00:12:04] And so I think we really have. I personally think Trump has helped us turn a corner. [00:12:10] Now the big question, like, I don't think he did that in 2016. [00:12:14] I don't think he was a bad president his first term. I just don't think you. I think he was just a standard kind of generic Republican president, which isn't what we need. We didn't need it then, we don't need it now. Just like your standard fare, you know, Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush type president. I think in general that's what Trump was his first term in office. I think, you know, not exactly. There are some exceptions. [00:12:38] So I don't think he's been like that, especially the early days, but also just some of the things he's done even since then have been good. I have my criticism of him. I'm not going to talk about that today. I've talked about before. [00:12:49] The big question, though, of course, is what happens post Trump, what happens after Trump leaves office in 2028? [00:12:59] Who takes over the standard bearer for the GOP? Because right now, as we all know, there's a civil war going on inside the Republican Party. [00:13:09] And loosely based, you could kind of say it's like the J.D. vance crowd versus the Cruz crowd, but that doesn't really reflect it because a lot of the people that would be more who'd be very anti cruise are not real hap, not real hip on him, JD Vance either. [00:13:27] But as far as talking about electable national politicians, that's probably the best way to do it. You know, the Tucker Carlson's are on one side, you know, Dave Smith's, people like that. And then you have the, you know, Ted Cruz and Mark Levine and other blowhards like that on the other side. You can tell which side I'm on. [00:13:48] So the question is going to be what will happen after Trump, you know, and how much will Trump be involved? I mean, I can't see him going off and you know, presidents typically, Obama hasn't really done this too much. Presidents typically are relatively quiet after they leave office. [00:14:03] I mean, in what world is Donald Trump quiet? I just can't imagine one. [00:14:07] So how much will he impact things until eventually, I mean, eventually he's going to pass away. I mean, the guy is the Constitution stamina of a 30 year old. And I think he's almost 80 or something like that. So what's going to happen? I want to talk about that more in the next section of this podcast. But that's the big question. But in general, I do believe Trump has allowed our country to turn the corner culturally and politically. And like I said, that doesn't mean everything's all fixed. It just simply means we're going in a better direction than we were before. [00:14:41] Okay. Now the other big transition, of course, of 2025 was Pope Leo. That Pope Francis passed away in April and Pope Leo was elected the supreme pont of the Catholic Church in early May. [00:14:54] Now it's hard to, I mean, this kind of seems like a layup, doesn't it? Like, of course we're turned a corner because can you get any worse than Pope Francis? It'd be hard to be worse than Pope Francis. Let's Be honest. So him not being in offices anymore is a good thing for the Catholic Church. [00:15:12] I don't think that's like disrespecting the debt or anything like that to say. It's just simply a fact. [00:15:16] Now, the, the reality is, I was just saying, I was on an interview with Father John Lovell yesterday on Pelican Plus. I think it's coming out tomorrow or this week or something like that. And I was telling him that I think Pope Leo is exactly like I thought he would be. I mean, maybe not exactly, but he's very much like when he was elected. And actually, I would even. I'll even go this far to say he's like, I thought the next pope would be after Francis, even before I knew who it was. [00:15:41] And that is a mixed bag. That is somebody who's not as bad as Francis, but. And is generally in the post Vatican II conciliar world. [00:15:52] But he's not, you know, but he's not so bad. Like, he's a mixed bag. And to mix my metaphors, I would say, like, Francis is like a stocking full of coal. I mean, there's really not much in there that you're. You're happy to see on Christmas morning, whereas Leo. Yeah, there's a couple good things in there. Yeah, maybe there's a few lumps of coal, too, but, you know, it's not, it's like I said, a mixed bag or a mixed stocking. [00:16:18] There are, There are many positive signs. Regardless of what you're going to hear from the doom or trads, there are many positive signs from the Leo pontificate already. [00:16:28] Obviously, it's just the little things, like restoring little traditions that were lost and rejected by Pope Francis. [00:16:37] You know, just more Latin, more, you know, how he dresses, little thing, like you know, just, just doing things that they always did before Francis. And Francis felt like in his humbleness, he had to stop them. You know, Leo's restoring many of them. [00:16:50] I also think, like, one of the big differences is I just think Leo is a good guy. [00:16:59] Now, I don't think that makes a great pope or even a good pope necessarily. [00:17:03] But I'll just be blunt. I don't think Francis was a good guy. I mean, his hatred of the faithful and many priests was pretty obvious. I mean, it's not like he was hiding it. [00:17:17] I mean, how about the famous Christmas messages he would always give? [00:17:21] Like, I think it was to the cardinals, where he would just be, like, lambasting, like, church officials and, and priests and everything. It's just like it was just this bizarre thing where it's almost like Christmas made him angry. [00:17:33] Maybe he got coals in his stocking when he was a kid, I don't know. But Leo's not like that. Leo shows no animosity towards faithful Catholicism. He shows no animosity towards priests. He's not like, you know, attacking priests who were Castics or weird things like that. [00:17:51] So I think these are real positive signs that we should look to and realize this is not the same as under Francis. A turning of the corner. [00:18:00] Also, I think he has a real desire to listen to traditional Catholics, which I think was absolutely not true of Francis. We all knew that he wouldn't answer the Dubia. He wouldn't. I mean he basically never. [00:18:12] I don't think he ever had a real serious conversation with a traditional Catholic in his life because all his views of traditional Catholics were always stereotypical nonsense. I mean it's just like he pulled it out of, you know, the Internet, some, you know, some blog by some anti trad or something like that. [00:18:31] Never actually sat down and talked to him. I think Leo does really desire to understand them and of course. [00:18:39] And then like how about the appointment of the new Archbishop of New York? I haven't talked about this since it happened. Happened right before Christmas. [00:18:48] I will say this. I have heard good things about Hicks, the man who was appointed to replace Cardinal Dolan. [00:18:56] And I'm not saying he is going to be like a Lefebvre or Schneider or something like that. I'm just simply saying he's not the Cupich clone that people might think he would be considering he was a Vicar General of under Supich. I will say this. [00:19:15] I don't know if I should say the guy's name or not. I won't because I don't like saying somebody's name on a private conversation. I don't think he mind me talking about what I was talking what I'm going to say. It's not nothing like personal but when we got our new archbishop here in Cincinnati, he was the former. He was the Vicar General under Cupich, a bishop in Chicago. And I asked this friend who's in the Chicago area, like do you know anything about him? He's like, no, I don't really know anything about him. That was Robert Casey, the Bishop of Archer. Insane. Now he said, however, I do know. Don't automatically think that just because he's Vicar General under Cupich, he's a clone. Because the last Vicar General before Cayce was Hicks. Who's now at Juliet. [00:19:57] I was told this months and months ago, before there's any even inkling that he might become archbishop of New York. He said he's actually not like Cupich at all. He likes Eucharistic processions. [00:20:08] He, you know, he's not against the traditional Mass. You know, there's good things about him that make it clear it's not just a Cupich clone. Now he is associated with Supich, which does tell me that Cupich does still have influence, and that's not good. [00:20:27] Obviously, any influence Cupich has is a bad thing, because he's the worst of the worst. [00:20:32] Hopefully he will be retired soon and out of the limelight, but he seems like the type of person who will be behind the scenes at the very least until he dies. [00:20:42] But I do think we could just state pretty categorically this is clearly a better pick than Francis would have made, even not knowing anything. And he might end up being a terrible archbishop of I. Here's the thing. When Dolan. People might not be old enough to remember this, but when Dolan was picked as the Archbishop of New York, all of us kind of conservative Catholics, maybe not to trash, but I was conservative Catholic at the time. You know, we were cheering like crazy because Dolan was one of ours. He was like a hero. He had been on EWTN and he was like, you know, orthodox and all this great stuff. [00:21:13] And then, let's be honest, he was a disappointment in New York. He was clearly a disappointment. He's a political animal who didn't really make any effect. [00:21:21] Deep changes. But he wasn't terrible either. Let's remember that he is the one who first exposed McCarrick. [00:21:27] He's not like the worst of the worst or anything like that. [00:21:31] So the point is, we don't know how somebody's going to be a bishop afterward, you know, after they're appointed. So we don't know about Hicks. But I will say there's no question that Francis would have picked an ideologue for New York. I mean, I just think that's obvious that he would not have picked a, you know, somebody like Hicks. He would pick somebody who was. He knew for sure was an ideologue, like a progressive ideologue, like he was. So. So I think that's good. Now, like I said, though, Leo is a mixed bag. I mean, they're still persecuting and shutting down traditional Latin masses under his pontificate. Now, I have preached patience from day one and I still will preach patience. [00:22:09] We have a Consistory of Cardinals coming up. I hear that one of the topics is the Sacred Liturgy. We don't know what that means. Is that good? Is that bad? We don't know yet. [00:22:26] I will say though, you know, as much as I preach patience, it is not a mark in his favor that this has happened under his pontificate, obviously, how much he is. By the way, if you hear construction. Yes, construction is still going on at my house. If you're banging in the background, we still have some construction. I think it's going to be here for a couple more weeks, so we'll see. They're progressing nicely. But you might hear some banging upstairs. [00:22:50] But the point is, is that I'm not going to condemn leo as Francis 2.0 because of this going on. I don't think it's a good thing. I think it's awful. [00:23:02] But I'm still in a wait and see patience type of approach with that. [00:23:07] Another thing though, that I would say is kind of a point against him is Leo really does sound like a modern American bishop when he talks. I mean, the lang when you read his statement, they're way better than Francis. Oh my goodness. But they're not on Benedict level or JP2 level. [00:23:23] They just, they sound like what you would expect an average American bishop to sound like. Lots of new church talk, lots of, you know, Vatican II this, Vatican II that. Lots of, you know, references to things like synodality and dialogue and all that type of jargon that really has no connection to the tradition of the Church. [00:23:41] He still uses all that. He still thinks and speaks like a post Vatican II American bishop and which is what he is. [00:23:48] That's how he was formed. That's, that's how he, you know, has practices episcopacy. I know he hasn't been in America for a lot of it, but the point is, is that's who he is. And that should not be surprising anybody, but it is still disappointing because we do need some stronger language. We do need some more traditional sounding language from our, our Supreme Pontiff. So I'm not going to just excuse it like, well, that's just who he is. I mean, he is just who he is. But I, I hope he would be better. I hope he will be better. [00:24:16] Another thing is that this one, I admit my patience is wearing a little thin. [00:24:22] I've been the one to say preaching patience, but I do think it's an abomination. It's a scandal that Cardinal Fernandez is still head of the ddf, that the man who is most in charge of protecting doctrine and faith is clearly a heretic, clearly an immoral heretic. And I think that's awful. I did not think that the first month, couple months, because I'm like, you know, listen, he's got to get settled in. He's not going to just want to change everything, especially one of the biggest of the casteries. But I am getting a little impatient on this one. I do wish that he would remove Fernandez and replace him. [00:25:02] It's a slam dunk to do it. It's not going to be. It wouldn't be super controversial because it's like, it's known that when a new pope comes in, he can replace all these people at his whim, as will. Nobody's going to be like, oh, wow, he had out Fernandez whatever. [00:25:16] He should have out for Fernandez. But they won't think that. So the point is that I think that's very disappointing. [00:25:23] So I think, though, in general though, again, when we look at. Have we turned a corner? I think, yes, we have. [00:25:30] I think it's a slight turn. [00:25:35] So if we were going like this, you know, one direction under Francis, I think I feel like it's kind of. So we're not heading to destruction as quickly. Maybe that's all it is. [00:25:43] But it is possible. I mean, you think about, you know, a big carrier ship, you know, battleship or something like that. My daughter bought me battleship for Christmas. So I'm thinking in those terms. I think. You think about how hard it is for it to turn. It takes miles and miles and miles for it to make a U turn. [00:25:59] And the Catholic Church, the bark of St. Peter is the same way. [00:26:03] Barring, of course, divine intervention from our Lord Our Lady. That's what's gonna. That. That's a fact. So I'm not. I wasn't expecting it to turn around, you know, Pius the 10th incarnate reincarnated or something coming in. But I do feel like we are at least somewhat turning in a different direction. So I. I'm positive about that, too. Just call me Captain Optimist. [00:26:25] Okay. So the last thing I kind of want to talk about is what everybody's been talking about lately, I feel like, which is young people. [00:26:33] I want to talk about both in the context of politics and in the Church. In politics, like I mentioned, we have the GOP Civil war. A lot of that. A lot of that is generational. [00:26:42] A lot of that is the old guard versus the new guard. The new guard is people under 30, maybe under 40. The old guards, people over 50, 60, obviously. By age, I would be part of the old guard, but by sentiment, I'm definitely more aligned with new guard, the younger generation, when it comes to politics. Now, I've been clear. I'm not a fan of somebody like Nick Fuentes, who is a figurehead on that side. But at the same time, I think there's a lot of good energy to be found in, if not the, I wouldn't necessarily the gripers, but in just the, the, the younger generation that's getting tired of the lies and, and status quo of the, the Republican Party, particularly when it comes to Israel, particularly when it comes to cultural things of appeasing the Democrats and the left and you know, how we deal with the left. I mean, one of the things I thought that Nick Fuentes did say, I think it was with Tucker Carlson, my boom Dave Smith, that I thought was a good point, was like, we have to fight the left. You have to fight them. You can't just, you know, do what the, like I said, the John McCain's, the George W. Bushes, the Mitt Romney's, the Bob doles, the George H.W. bushes did, which was basically just to appease and work with all the time. The left, the left wants our destruction. It wants to destroy the country, remaking its own demonic image. [00:28:07] You don't compromise with those people. [00:28:10] Now, that being said, exactly how you fight the prudence of like, I think in the same context, Fuentes says something about like, that Trump should like remove the governor of Illinois or something like that. And I think that's a dumb idea. Just, it's imprudent. It's a dumb idea. But the, the, the general idea of, yeah, we need to, we need to fight the left and we need to challenge the status quo, particularly when it comes to Israel and America's unwavering devotion to it. And so that's where you see like a Ted Cruz versus and it seems like J.D. vance, J.D. vance might be trying honestly to straddle the two, the new guard and the old guard a little bit. And he, because he kind of, you know, is part of both camps a little bit, he's probably gonna have to decide before the election, before the 2028 election. [00:28:55] And Trump honestly seems to be in both camps. I mean, Trump is totally 100% pro Israel in time, he does fight against the left strongly, is like, you know, he does resonate with young people a lot better than like a Ted Cruz does. And so it's an interesting thing, but I do think that in general, young people, especially young men, are turning the corner as well for the gop. Now, the truth is, I haven't been a Republican over 10 years. I'm not a member of the Republican Party. I often vote for Republicans, but I just got so fed up with that party after years of the people I've already listed, George H.W. bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney. I just got, you know, fed up, and I was just like, I'm out of here. [00:29:43] And so, like, I'm not saying that I'm, like, the best indicator of what the Republican Party should be, but I do think that's been helpful. But also, another area, though, where young people, I think, have had a big influence that we've been talking about a lot is in the Catholic Church. There's no question. There's absolutely. No, it's. It's not a debatable point to say that young people are more traditional than older Catholics. [00:30:05] Now, how that, you know, plays out can be different. Like, some young people are fully traditional at Mass, and that's. That's all they will go to. Other young people just want a conservative kind of tradition type Novus Ordo parish, and they're fine with that. In fact, they prefer that. [00:30:24] But the point is, is they don't want the progressive boomer parish. They do not want that at all. [00:30:30] And so they reject the Catholicism that was practiced in this country in the 1970s and 80s and maybe even 90s somewhat. So the. [00:30:39] This is a very good thing. This is. I think this is more turning the corner than Pope Leo, for example. Pope Leo from Pope Francis. Pope Leo is kind of a little bit of a turn. But from, like, the boomer generation all the way down to Gen Z, that's been a U turn. [00:30:54] It's really been a U turn. [00:30:56] Each generation's gotten a little progressively less people going to Mass in each generation. So that's not good. But of those who do go to Mass in each generation, it's become progressively more traditional, more conservative. So that's good. And I think this is something, you know, we're talking about. Com. You know, we talk about converts, and people are talking about getting excited, like, oh, there's more converts. Well, I do want to splash a little bit of cold water on that. I mean, a Pew study a couple weeks ago came out that basically said that it's statistically insignificant any changes in religious practice among young people in the past maybe five or ten years. So we need to be careful, slower, roll a little bit, not act like we're having a new pentecost or anything like that. That being said, the anecdotal evidence is just too great in my mind not to say there's something going on here. That there's definitely all the people I know who attend parishes of a more traditional leaning. Again, we'll just define that as either TLMS or conservative Novus Ordo parishes. They all report increases in their adult conversion class and more families showing younger families, more young people, young men in particular, showing up. So I think these are, this is, this, I feel like, is the most encouraging trend. [00:32:10] And I would not have said this one year ago, even in my end of, you know, 2024, I don't think I was not recognizing this yet. I don't think many people were. There might have been some people who were, but I didn't hear it very much. It's really been this year where we're hearing, okay, this is happening, something is happening. And so I think this is very encouraging. So kind of my wrap up of the year is, yes, I do think things in the church, in the culture and politics in America are turning in a better direction. Some more than others, but all in a better direction than they were. And that's a good thing. That's something we should pray about, pray for, pray and fast that will continue. [00:32:51] But I do think we should be encouraged and not, not, not be a doom or trad or whatever you want to call it and really be encouraged that there are good things happening. So. Okay, thank you everybody pursuing live chat. Let's put up some of these comments. Patrick. Pooh Bear, I'm back Like the ghost of Christmas past. Well, welcome back, patriot Patriot. Pooh Bear, we are happy to have you. [00:33:13] Okay, now we have Elizabeth says things will only turn around if Pope Leo announces he will be consecrating in Russia to the Immaculate Heart and Mary on May 1326 with all the world's bishops and make it public and solemn. [00:33:30] Okay, I'm going to play a little bit of a contrarian here. [00:33:35] I've never gotten into the whole Russia has to be consecrated to Mary or has or hasn't, all will be whatever. I was very happy when Pope Francis did what he did a couple years ago. [00:33:47] There's been other kind of attempts and, you know, some people will say aren't legitimate. [00:33:53] I'm not. [00:33:54] I know some people might say I'm being unfaithful or something or being I don't know what. But I've never been one to think that there's a magic bullet that's going that God will give us a magic bullet that will turn everything around. I think if you look at church history, what you see is, you see these slow turns, like we hopefully are starting right now. We can always turn back the bad way, but you see slower turns, even something dramatic like the Council of Trent. That Council of Trent lasted 13, 20 years. Something like, I can't sometime between 13, 20 years like that. And that was only after the decimation of the Protestant Reformation. The Aryan crisis lasted generations before it was overcome. [00:34:35] These things take time. Medieval Christendom was built up over centuries, not overnight even, you know, somebody like a flash in the pan kind of person, like a golden arrow, I should say. Kind of like St. Francis of Assisi. His order grew dramatically, but the effect it had on the church still took time. [00:34:55] I just personally don't believe that if the Pope, and I'm not even willing to say whether or not I think Pope Francis was legitimate or not, honestly, it's just one of these things where I just feel like it's not going to turn things around magically. [00:35:13] That's not the way that God has set things out. He sets it out by lots of people, many of his people in prayer and fasting and living lives of holiness. That's what turns things around. [00:35:25] Not hoping that one other guy does some special prayer. I'm sorry, but I don't think I love our lay of Fatima. Every day we have our La Fatima statue at our parish. And every time I walk in the church, I always go over to our lady of Fatima statue and I say a prayer to her. I, I totally believe in the message of Fatima. I don't think the message of Fatima is. I mean, I know what the message of Fatima is. It's prayer and fasting. It's repentance. [00:35:50] And it's not just, okay, let's have this one guy do this one thing and then everything will be better. No, it's all of us. You, me, in deep prayer and fasting and repentance. That's what, that's what turns things around. It takes time, so let's stop looking, I think. And Elizabeth, God bless you. You're probably a much earlier Catholic than I am, but I just would say I'm not really talking to you in general, but, but in specifically, but just in general, I think what we have to focus on is our own spiritual well being and helping those around us to grow in holiness, not being concerned about what the Pope might do. [00:36:22] Okay, cigar mode for good. Says all crime rates are down due to illegal immigration. Stoppage by Trump. More people are alive and unharmed quite simply by his efforts to enforce law. Amen. You're absolutely right. Yep. I mean, that's the thing, is even if all Trump did was shut the borders, which is what he did do, even if he did nothing else, that has a dramatic effect on the country because they were. People were just pouring in under Biden and a lot of them are criminals. So we have less crime. We're going to have less crime, we're going to have less, you know, jobs lost to, To. To illegal immigrants, things like that. So it's, It's a very good thing that we have a, you know, that what Trump is on immigration. Amen. [00:37:02] Juan says over or under 50, Trump becomes Catholic. Oh, I know what I want to happen. [00:37:09] I. Okay. I know what my heart says. I wanted to become Catholic, and so I would say over, but I say under. [00:37:16] I just think there's too much pride and ego there. And you have to be humble to become Catholic. You have to have at least a moment of humility. I mean, it just. I remember when I became Catholic, I'm not a humble guy. I don't claim to be, but it was a humbling experience because I knew I was going to have to tell my parents that I was rejecting the religion they had given me. I had to tell my friends that I was wrong. [00:37:38] It's not easy. I. Trump is literally never apologizes for anything. He never says he's wrong about anything. I just. [00:37:45] But God can do anything. I don't want to make it sound like I don't think it's possible God can do anything. St. Michael, pray for. Let's pray St. Michael for Donald Trump's conversion. [00:37:57] Okay, another one. Hi, Eric. From Tom. Hi to you, Tom. [00:38:02] Okay. [00:38:03] Dalek Zach 7 says, Is it possible that Pope Leo could diffuse this by allowing the bishop of a particular diocese to govern presence of TLM and take Rome out of decision making? Yeah, it's possible. I don't like that solution, but it's a. Even though it's better because we'd still have the Cupiches and the Martins of the world shutting it down. I mean, obviously the ideal would be the traditional Latin mass set in every parish in the world. Every Catholic parish in the world. But realistically, I would just like to go back to some more on pontifical where bishops can't shut it down. I don't think it's good. I think that's possible. What Dallic says that that's what Leo could do. Something like that. Just let the bishop decide. [00:38:44] I do think though, in Rome there is this desire for uniformity. They don't like solutions. They're just a little too micromanagers over there. They don't like solutions where bishops have too much authority. As much as they talk about synodality and, you know, congeniality or congeniality, collegiality and things like that. I don't think they really are going to allow do that. But we'll see. Again, I think if we went back to Samuram Pontificum, I think that would be probably the best case scenario of what we can expect. [00:39:20] Okay, everybody, again, Merry Christmas. I hope you're having a beautiful and wonderful octave of Christmas. Please, during this time of year, pray for the poor, consider almsgiving. If you have not yet give something to the poor, your time, your money, something like that, please do that. Also, of course, our fundraising campaign, we're ending it tomorrow. Hope to raise $100,000. Give to the poor first, by the way, before you give to crisis. [00:39:44] Do not give to crisis over the poor. [00:39:47] But if after giving to the poor, you still have something left, please consider crisis. We only have $8,000 to get over the hump in the next day and I think we can do it with your help also. Oh, and, and Happy New Year by my next podcast will be in the New Year. So I hope you have a blessed new Year. Until next time, everybody. God love.