Are Catholic Converts Antisemitic?

[00:00:01] Okay, Is that working? Okay, now we have sound, I think. [00:00:04] Okay, well, thank you. This is why we do it live, people. [00:00:08] Let's go live. [00:00:09] Okay, so I'm going to start over and I'll cut this out in the, in the new. [00:00:15] In the audio version of this for those who are live. You got the excitement. So. Okay, so as I was saying, but nobody could hear me. [00:00:24] It's Holy Week. So I hope everybody's having a blessed and, and full, fruitful Holy Week this week. But it also means Easter is coming, which means two things. [00:00:34] First, it means that we're going to have claims from many Catholics that we have the most converts coming into the church ever or for a very long time. [00:00:42] And second is the time for non Catholics, people who are outside the church, to make accusations against Christianity, against Catholicism, to slam the church, particularly accusations of anti Semitism. [00:00:56] So I want to kind of dive into both those things today. First of all, are we really seeing an uptick in converts? And secondly, are those converts those new converts? [00:01:05] Do many of them hold anti Semitic views? So first, let me just look at the boom in new converts. [00:01:13] There's a number of articles about this. Let me go ahead and pull these up on the screen for you. A couple of them. [00:01:20] Let me find. Here's. Okay, this is a good one. [00:01:22] This is from the National Catholic Register. [00:01:27] And let me pull it up on the screen. Yeah, something is happening. Catholic converts surge in many Catholic US Diocese. [00:01:34] And basically what it says is many US Diocese are expecting heavy increases in people joining the Catholic church at Easter 2026, including some with record highs, a survey by the Register found. [00:01:46] And it says in most places this year's increases aren't a one off, but follow significant increases in recent years. And it has this nice little chart here. [00:01:53] Hopefully you can see it here. Let me get a little bit bigger on the screen for you. [00:01:58] And it shows the various diocese that have huge increases, like Norwich, Connecticut, 112% increase. This is just from last year. [00:02:10] Pueblo, Colorado, 105%. Rapid City, South Dakota, 96%. Venice, Florida, which is my old diocese I used to work in. 94% increase. Good for you. Venice. [00:02:20] And you see lots of other ones that are high increases. And it's talking about that basically, I think, is it this article, it basically reached out to. Oh yeah, here we go. The Register recently contacted all 175 Latin Rite territorial diocese in the United States seeking numbers of people planning to join the Catholic church at Easter. [00:02:42] 71 or 40% of diocese responded. [00:02:45] Just five of the 71 expected a drop in converts, most of them slight. The remaining 66 are expecting increases, in many cases significant ones. [00:02:55] And so this is the National Catholic Register basically saying we're having seen a significant increase in the number of converts coming into the church. And there's some other articles as well about this. Okay, actually, I want to pull up this one. Let me pull up another one. This is from LifeSite News because it has a nice chart on it. [00:03:18] Let me put this up here real quick. [00:03:23] Okay. Yeah, here we go. So LifeSite News says adult conversions, Catholicism US estimated at 20 year high. So Shane Shade, you know, Shane's a good guy. I follow, you know, follow him on X. And he follows me. [00:03:38] I'm sorry, Shane, I mispronounced your last name, I'm sure. Anyway, he has this chart here where he basically said something big is happening among Catholics in the United States. [00:03:48] And what he's doing is. Let me pull it up here. [00:03:51] He's showing that the estimated number of adult conversions to Catholicism in the, in the US and he actually only goes up through last year. But look at the huge increase from 2021 to today. It's back to levels not seen since the early 2000s. And I think he asked me at 160,000, why am I not. [00:04:17] Boy, the lie. Here we go. Okay. Having a little technical difficulties this week. You know, Satan does work overtime during Holy Week, probably because. [00:04:28] Probably because, you know, this is the week that he gets defeated. So anyway, that's probably that's my excuse for technical difficulties today. But. Mo, the point here is though, it does look like it's real. I. I've been around for a very long time. As you can tell from my gray hairs. I have seen, I followed and tracked the increases in, in conversions in the 19 since the 1990s, how many people converted. I've followed it for 30 years now, and I noticed a huge drop in the number of adult converted to Catholicism in the early 2000s. [00:05:03] However, in the past, like about starting about 10 years ago or so, I'd read stories about, hey, there's so many more converts this year. And it just wasn't true. What people were doing is they were taking maybe anecdotal evidence or maybe one diocese, something like that, and tried to make it like it's a huge increase. But the fact is it wasn't a huge increase. In fact, it was usually a decrease. [00:05:24] And in fact, around 2021 or so, we saw the lowest number. I'm sure Covid had something to do with that, but it was going down maybe 60,000 people coming to church, which is a pitiful number if you consider the size of the United States Catholic Church. And remember, in the. In the 1990s, every year it was like 150,000, 175,000. [00:05:46] But it looks like we are back at the 1990 levels in recent years. Last year, this in paper, potentially this year. [00:05:55] And, you know, everybody's asking, why is that? Why are we seeing an increase? I do think. [00:06:01] I think there's a couple of different reasons. [00:06:03] One is, I do think there is somewhat of a Francis effect. [00:06:08] I'm using that ironically because if you remember, when Francis became Pope in 2013, there was this big accu. There's this big claim that, oh, there's the Francis effect. Everybody's pouring into the Catholic Church because of Saint. Because. Because of. Yeah, they probably called him Saint Francis because of Pope Francis. [00:06:26] And it just wasn't true. It was just something the media made up. People were not flocking into the Catholic Church under Pope Francis. In fact, people were leaving. [00:06:36] And it wasn't just Pope Francis. People were leaving before Pope Francis. But the point is, people were not flocking into the church. People had stopped. The number of conversions, like I said, really decreased a lot after the early 2000s abuse crisis. [00:06:51] Other reasons. I've talked about this on my podcast before, so I won't go into all the details. I do think, though, this year's increase, I suspect Pope Leo has a lot to do with that. Now, for those of you who are not huge fans of Pope Leo, I'm not Pope splaining here. [00:07:09] I'm simply acknowledging the reality of the reasons people convert. [00:07:14] Sometimes what Catholics like to do is they like to make it as if converts simply come into the church. They're all like Scott Hahn's. [00:07:24] They're all people who really wrestled with the faith intellectually and spiritually. They study the way, and then they decide to become Catholic. That's simply not true. Yes, there are a percentage of those. I'm one of those people. [00:07:38] But, like. And there are a number of people like that. [00:07:41] A lot of the more prominent converts are like that. However, the reality is, on the ground, a lot of people come into the church. It's not for some super intellectual reason, not even necessarily super spiritual reason. [00:07:55] It's more a matter of, hey, this seems like a good thing to do. This is something I want to do now. [00:08:02] And sometimes it's because their spouse is Catholic. It's because Catholicism is in the news a lot of. For positive reasons. And I think Having American Pope, two things. First of all, Francis leaving, and I don't think people understand how much Francis, as much as the media tried to prop him up, really did discourage conversions. After all, he literally would say publicly he would attack converts, and he would basically make it clear he didn't want people to convert to Catholicism. If you challenge me on that, fine, go look it up. [00:08:36] Multiple occasions he was introduced to a convert and he would always find an insult for the convert. And he would tell stories about this like we only knew about it because he would then tell the story about meeting some convert and insulting that person. [00:08:50] And so that's obviously going to have a negative impact on number of conversions. But then all of a sudden, and just in general, his negativity, his constant attacks on Catholics, it just made it where people weren't that enthusiastic about being Catholic. Now, yes, we did have a number of converts during that era. It's not like it stopped. The Holy Spirit doesn't stop working because the Pope's not doing a good job, but it does decrease the numbers, I think. [00:09:17] Then you have Pope Leo. He comes in to a lot of fanfare. Anytime a new Pope comes in, there's a lot of fanfare. He's an American. [00:09:24] That's huge. People don't. [00:09:26] I think they underestimate how big a deal that is to an American who's not Catholic, but kind of maybe friendly to the Church, thinking, wow, this is pretty cool, we have an American Pope, Maybe I'll become Catholic. I do think that part of the numbers increases just due to that fact alone. I don't think that's all of it. I don't think this is all a Pope Leo thing. I think that's one impact of it. I also would say that it really is. [00:09:51] Another reason for it is simply because a, a reaction to the wokeness, the, the, the craziness that we went through in America over the past number of years, where we simply have a number of people who are young people in particular, who are fed lies over and over again, consistently fed lies, and they're told, right is wrong, wrong is right, Black is white, white is black, men are women, women are men. [00:10:35] And they're told, you have to believe these lies. During the whole Covid thing, they were given lie after lie after lie. And basically, if you didn't subscribe to the lie, if you didn't publicly give your assent to the lie, you were ostracized, you were attacked, you might lose your job. [00:10:52] And I think that had an impact on particularly young people. A Certain number of them that said, hey, this is not the way it's supposed to be. This is not reality. And so then they start looking out there and say, where can I find reality? Where can I find an institution that proclaims the truth and sticks to it and doesn't buy all the lies? [00:11:17] Where can I find that? [00:11:21] And I think a lot of them, first they went towards Christianity. [00:11:25] And so your evangelical Christians might have probably have gotten some people from there. [00:11:29] Eastern Orthodoxy has definitely seen a rise in converts. I mean, every anecdotal evidence I've seen, I admit I have not seen polls on this or charts on this or anything like that numbers. But I think it's every time I've talked to or heard from an orthodox person, Orthodox priest, they're all talking about how many catac. Humans they have. [00:11:49] And I think that makes sense because obviously they reject the modern culture in so many ways and they stand for truth. But then the Catholic Church above all, in my mind, of course, because it's the one true faith. It has attracted people because even when Francis wasn't doing a great job and maybe Leo's not doing the greatest job or anything like that, we still have an institution that stands for reality. I mean, there's no better way to put it. It just. It stands for reality. This isn't even about like the Trinity or, or some obscure Catholic doctrine. It. It's about just reality. The catacher stands for reality. And for all the attacks that online Catholics get, I think online Catholics deserve a lot of credit for this as well, because they're the ones, and I've said this before, they're the ones unapologetically, boldly proclaiming that reality that is found fully only in the Catholic Church. So I think that's led to an increase in the number of conversions as a reaction to this. Now, I also remember from the 1990s, I want to put a little bit of a slow your roll on us here, maybe calm us down a little bit. I mean, every single person comes to Catholic Church. It's wonderful. [00:13:06] We should pray for them. We should rejoice. We should rejoice. [00:13:11] But I want put two things, words of caution. First is in the 1990s when we had all these, this huge influx of converts coming in, most of them left, eventually left. [00:13:23] It was just surface deep for a lot of people. [00:13:26] Now, I don't think it's bad that they became Catholic because they could receive the graces of the sacraments. Obviously they became Catholic, not accepting, teaching the church or being immortal. Sin and not getting out of it. All those things, not good, but it's good for people become Catholic. The second thing I would say is the. The increase in number of converts does not mean that we stop the flow of people leaving. This is something I think people forget. They get super excited about the converts coming in, and so do I. [00:13:53] I'm a sponsor for a. [00:13:55] A father of 11. His whole family's coming into the church this Easter, and I'm super excited for his family and for all the people coming to church at our parish. [00:14:05] But I also say it doesn't mean people aren't leaving. That's the big reality is for every one person comes in, we have eight people leaving, according to a recent Pew study from last year. And I think that's probably accurate, because people who grow up Catholic are not being taught the truth very well as a cradle Catholic. And it's the people outside the church who are seeing it online, things like that, who are understanding the faith better, and they're coming into the church. [00:14:31] So we still have a lot of work to do to keep Catholics Catholic. I think we're doing a better job, one of the best jobs we've done, I think, in decades, at leading people into the Catholic faith. But we still need to work on keeping people Catholic once they're. Once they're, you know, if they're born in the church or whatever. So those are a couple different caveats I want to put to just keep us praying. Obviously, pray for everybody coming to church this Easter. It's exciting and do that. So. Okay. But now I want to kind of segue to something else I want to bring up. [00:15:03] Oh, geez, this is bad. Look who I have in the. In the live chat at Peter Sammons, my son. You were alive in 1990s. Yes, as you know, I was. [00:15:15] Oh, boy. We have no control over this live chat, obviously, when my son shows up at it. Okay, so what I want to address, though, is an article I recently read. Let me pull it up here. [00:15:25] And it was from Daily Wire. Yes, make all the comments you want about Daily Wire. [00:15:31] And it was basically. It says, the Catholic convert boom is real. But a troubling pattern is emerging now. I've never heard of this guy, Ryan Gardusky. He might be a very popular writer. I apologize, Ryan. I'm not trying to boot on you by saying I've never heard you. That means nothing. It just means I haven't heard of you. [00:15:53] But basically. Let me go down here. He's talking about people coming to church and that's great. But then he says it is true the vast majority of converts join for all the right reasons. [00:16:08] But a small vocal cadre of political influencers are using their Catholicism to build social media platforms feigning purity as an E girl or even worse, promoting antisemitism. [00:16:21] It is people doing the latter who pose the most credible threat to the integrity of all Catholics and create widespread erroneous belief that Catholicism has an issue with Jews. Now first I just want to note something. [00:16:33] I don't know if this, the gentleman who wrote this is Catholic himself, but this comes across as the total hand wringing that I can't stand. Where it's like, okay, let me tell you what the problem is. Yes, you got all these great things, but I really am concerned about you. I don't like it when people do this and I, maybe I do it sometimes too, I admit, but he's saying that like, you know, we don't have this, don't want to spread this, this widespread erroneous belief that Catholicism is an issue with Jews. Okay, let me just be clear about something. [00:17:02] We do have an issue with Jews. [00:17:05] They're not Catholic. That's our issue. [00:17:10] We have an issue. However you want to define that. We have an issue with everybody who's not Catholic. We want them to become Catholic. If having an issue with somebody means you have a problem with them, then yes, we have a problem with anybody who's Jewish because we want them to become Catholic. [00:17:26] And so that's the first thing. And also I do think it's a little bit unfair of this guy to basically talk about the idea that, that they're feigning purity as an E girl. Yeah, I have some problems with some of these trad girls who trad wives who show up online and don't seem to be legitimate. But I don't think we should put on them motives that we can't understand. That's basically judging them. But okay, let's go a little bit further here. [00:17:57] Okay, Then he goes on. Unlike many branches of Christianity, the Catholic Church does not demand that the faithfully committed Zionist. I don't think any branch of Christianity really demands that. I mean definitely the dispensationalists promote it, but anyway to receive God's blessing. Many prominent members of the church have spoken out about the play of the civilians in Gaza. It seems recent converses of faith understand those teachings, but somehow forget that the church also rejects any form of anti Semitism, condemns hostility towards Jews and upholding the enduring covenant with the Jewish People as God's chosen people. They've already become cafeteria Catholics, picking and choosing which parts of teachings they prefer. Okay, let me break that down a little bit. [00:18:45] First. He says that they forget these converts are forgetting that the church also rejects any form of anti Semitism. It's true that the church does condemn any form of anti Semitism, but it is important that we define anti Semitism. I know this is like a. Something that sometimes actual anti Semites will do to kind of punt the issue, to act like nobody's. They basically pretend that nobody in the world is anti Semitic. [00:19:11] But I do think that we know. We know for a fact that accusations of anti Semitism have been used over the years to silence any critics of the modern state of Israel or silence any criticism of any Jew alive. [00:19:28] So if I criticize Ben Shapiro, anti Semite, if I criticize Benjamin Netanyahu, anti Semite. [00:19:35] So we can't just simply say the church can rejects any form of anti Semitism. We have to be clear about what we mean. I'm going to in a minute. Actually, I'll say it now. I did a. I wrote an article about two years ago, maybe something like that. Right. I define anti Semitism myself and I'll link to it in the show notes afterwards. But basically it's the idea of identity politics, really. It's projecting onto all Jews or the Jewish people the sins of individual Jews or even the sins of a group of Jews. [00:20:10] Typically, a good way to know if somebody's anti Semitic is if they talk about the Jews in some negative light without any qualifications. [00:20:19] Like I would say the Jews all need to convert to Catholicism. It's not really negative, it's a positive. I want to become Catholic. But if I say the Jews are behind X, whatever, that might be some problem in the world. Yeah. I personally do think that's anti Semitic. To say that, I think that's dangerous. If you want to say a lot of Jewish people are influential in Hollywood and have a negative impact on that, I think that's fine. If you want to say the Jews who are running is the modern day of Israel are making a lot of mistakes and doing terrible, evil things, okay, that's those, those are not anti Semitic statements. But when you start to say the Jews and like generically and like basically all Jews are somehow guilty of it, I do think that's it. So the point here, though is not to define and get into a super debate about what we mean by that, because I think there is some leeway how we define it. But Just to say, like, just throwing that out there doesn't mean anything without a definition of it. And then he also says, condemns hostility towards Jews. Obviously we should not have hostility towards anybody. Now, of course, there's the modern thing of just claiming hate for anybody who criticizes you. You know, stop hating. This person attacked me, hates me. When really it's just a constructive criticism. So that's problematic. But here's the thing, the line I want to emphasize and critique. He says, the church is what this guy claims, upholds the enduring covenant with the Jewish people as God's chosen people. [00:21:48] Okay, this is not church teaching. This is not the way the church has worded things. Upholds the enduring covenant with the Jewish people as God's chosen people. Because worded like that, it basically means. It basically sounds like you mean that the old covenant is still in effect and there's nothing really that Jews have to do, that they're still part of the one true covenant with God. And that's not what the church says. In fact, I want to get out my catechism here and open up the Catechism. [00:22:22] Paragraph 839, 840. [00:22:26] It says, Pull it up here so I can be at the microphone. Those who have not yet received the gospel are related to the people of God in various ways. Okay, that's just a quote from Vatican ii. The relationship of the church with the Jewish people. [00:22:39] When she delves into her own mystery, the church, the people of God in the new covenant discover her link with the Jewish people. [00:22:46] The first to hear the word of God. The Jewish faith, unlike other non Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the old covenant. [00:22:54] To the Jews belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs of their race. According to the flesh is the Christ. That's a quote from Romans. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Also from Romans. [00:23:11] Then it goes on to say, and when one considers the future, God's people of the old covenant and the new people of God tend towards similar goals. Expectation of the coming or the return of the Messiah. [00:23:21] But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God. The other awaits the coming of a Messiah whose features remain hidden until the end of time. And the later waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus. [00:23:38] If you note there, the cat. Yes, I know that the modern catechism has some flowery language. It doesn't tend to say too much controversial. [00:23:46] But the reality is it's not saying the Jews are under. How was it an enduring covenant as God's chosen people. It's explicitly stating that the Jewish people are not part of the New covenant and they have not accepted the true Messiah and that they need to do that. And there's only one Messiah and that is Jesus Christ. So whether maybe at the end of time, they've been waiting on time for the coming of the. The Messiah, they will realize he came in the form of Jesus Christ, the second Person of Blessed Trinity. But again, it's not stating some enduring covenant that, that they have that. That does not. [00:24:30] That does not. Does not fulfilled in Christ. [00:24:33] Another part from the Catechism is paragraph 121, and this is used a lot to, to kind of claim that the Old Testament, like the, The New, the. The Old Covenant is still in effect. It says the Old Testament is a indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value. For the Old Covenant has never been revoked. Now that language makes it sound like, okay, it's talking about an enduring covenant, right? It's never been revoked. But I think we need to understand the context in which that paragraph was written in catechism and what it means in the context of Catholicism. It says it was never revoked, but it does say, but it doesn't mean it wasn't fulfilled. [00:25:17] And so, yes, it's, it's irrevocable in the sense that the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still in effect, but in its fulfillment in Christianity. [00:25:31] Whereas the language used by the Daily wires, it upholds an enduring covenant with the Jewish people as God's chosen people. That makes it sound like the Jewish people are still. [00:25:42] Their covenant is still like in effect as it was before the time of Christ. [00:25:49] This is a topic that's very controversial and there's a lot of debate within Catholicism within it. I realize that, but. So the point though is. [00:26:00] The point though is, is that yes, it's true, the Old Covenant has not been revoked because it's been fulfilled. The Old Covenant is alive in the New Covenant. [00:26:11] That's what I think. People don't really want to want to accept this idea. [00:26:15] And in fact, this is interesting. I found this in. [00:26:19] People probably don't know what the US Catech, Catholic Catechism for adults is. It was a USCCP attempt to create a catechism and it was a disastrous failure. Nobody, nobody Reads it. Nobody has it. But they did this in the early 2000s. But what was interesting is in their original edition of said it said it, the original quote said, thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid to them. For them, it say that, but they had to change said again, the original verse said the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them. That's not true. [00:27:02] And in fact, they realized, you know, they were, they were. Their knuckles were wrapped and they changed it to say to the Jewish people whom God first chose to hear his word belong to sonship, the glory. And it quotes the quote from Romans. Basically it's re quoting the catechism, which is quoting Romans. [00:27:17] So it's staying safe. It's not making that. In fact, they even said USCCB when asked, they said that the clarification reflects the teaching of the Church that all previous covenants that God made with the Jewish people are fulfilled in Jesus Christ through the new covenant established through his sacrificial death on the cross. [00:27:35] They basically realized they made an oopsie. They probably had some ecumenical person write that saying that it's eternally valid for them. [00:27:43] And the Vatican came and said, no, no, no, no, it's not. This is happening in 2009. [00:27:47] No, no, you have to change that. And they did change it. And what they said afterwards, you know, their claim was, reflects the teaching of the Church that all previous covenants that God made with the Jewish people are fulfilled in Jesus Christ through the new covenant established through the sacrificial death on the cross. In other words, when you, when people say it's not revoked, they, they always think that means it's still valid today to just to live under the old covenant. But no, you have to make it valid. You have to live under the new covenant, which is the fulfillment of the old covenant. [00:28:23] Okay, I, I want to. Let me just pull up this one more time and bring up one more thing that was said in here. Let me get here. [00:28:32] Here we go. Yet for some political influences, the Daily Wire article. Yet for some political influencers, they're called to the faith doesn't seem rooted in deep devotion or hope for eternal salvation. First of all, I mean, I know people overuse the don't judge lest you be judged. But this is judging because he's judging their hearts. He's looking at their public actions and judging their hearts. You can't do that. But the doozy is here. Rather, their main mission seems to be otherizing of Those who don't fall into their particular bubble. Okay, the word otherizing, that is, I mean, the Daily Wire supposed to be conservative. That is such a liberal progressive term. I mean, it just, it's. It's identity, identity politics completely otherizing. [00:29:16] But then it says, it goes on to say the article, perhaps the gravest sin in all of this is using Christ in the church as a political prop, using a phrase like Christ is King. I knew we would get to that. Using a phrase like Christ is king. Not to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the salvation of souls from hell, and his resurrection. [00:29:35] By the way, saying Christ King means actually more than that, but to other eyes, those of different face is no different than taking the Lord's name in vain. Wow. The phrase crisis king should not be followed by Netanyahu should be on trial for war crimes. [00:29:49] You know what I say to that is both are true. So, sure, go ahead and say them both. [00:29:55] Christ is king and Benjamin Netanyahu should be on trial for war crimes. Both those things are true. The point though, here is this is something that people have been trying to do for years, trying to control our use of the term Christ is King. [00:30:11] I'm not saying every time somebody's proclaimed this that they had the purest of motives. The truth is, even when we do the best things, we do things that are good, we often have some bad motives mixed in there. I mean, that's just the way we are as humans. [00:30:31] But the reality is this is just trying to. People get people not to say Christ is King. [00:30:36] And I'm sorry, you cannot tell me not to say that. I will say Christ is king to my dying breath, because Christ is king. [00:30:44] And I don't care if you don't like it. [00:30:47] Christ is king. And Catholics should proclaim that. And it is. It does. And I like also how he tied the limit just to proclaiming what he did in the Passion in the Paschal mystery. [00:31:00] But crisis King means more than that. It means he is king overall, like he rules today. [00:31:05] Yes, it does reflect that. His crown is a crown of thorns, his throne is the cross, that his kingdom is not of this world, like he said. But it doesn't mean he doesn't rule over all today. He rules over heaven and earth today. [00:31:21] And that our duty is to conform ourselves to Christ the King. [00:31:26] And part of that means we try to lead everybody into the Catholic faith, which is why it's awesome we have so many conferences here. [00:31:33] But we need to lead all people, including Jewish people, into the Catholic faith and so let's just real quick. I want to talk about what does the church really teach when it comes to the Jewish people? I've already talked about a little bit, but for centuries it was not debated within the church really. [00:31:54] And it was. The view of the church was always what is now derogatorily called replacement theology, which is supposedly. We don't not supposed to talk about that. Okay, fine, I'll just call it what it is, which is fulfillment theology, because that's what. When people derogatorily call something replacement theology, often what they're doing is they're really attacking fulfillment theology, which is that Catholicism fulfills Judaism. And when something fulfills something else, it necessarily means that the practice of the old is. [00:32:26] Sorry, I'm going to use the word replaced, meaning it's no longer necessary. This is something. This was literally the first debate in the Catholic Church in the first century was what is the role of the Jewish law, of the Jewish religion, of the Jewish practices? What is that role in Catholicism, the practice of Catholicism? This is what we debated in the first century. [00:32:48] And the result was just read Acts, read the letters St. Paul, read the Church Fathers. It was that we no longer have to follow the ceremonial laws or the temple laws of the Old Covenant. We still follow the moral laws. Those are always binding. [00:33:06] But the point is, is we don't follow all, all those practices. Which means, I mean, I know people don't want to use the term, but it means we replace them with something else. [00:33:16] For example, our liturgy, the Mass is based upon. [00:33:22] Much of it is based upon the old synagogue and Temple services of Judaism. [00:33:28] However, it obviously was changed. The eucharistic aspects were added. The. The liturgy of the Eucharist was added, and many other aspects of it were obviously reading from the New Testament books was added to it and lots of other things. Yes, it has its basis in the Jewish synagogue and temple services. Yes, but those services were, I guess I'll have to say it again, replaced. And so the fact is, is that that has always been the teaching of the Church. [00:33:59] And so I want to read something. You know, a great catechism is Credo by Bishop Athanasius Schneider. [00:34:05] I want to see, I want to read what it says. [00:34:07] It's paragraphs 204 through 206. [00:34:13] And he writes, let me take all my glasses to read this. Is Judaism a source of sanctifying grace and salvation for its adherence? [00:34:20] Answer no. [00:34:22] Even in the time before Christ, no one was saved by works of the Old Law, but only by faith in the coming Redeemer. [00:34:29] This law, with its precepts and ceremonies was fulfilled and surpassed by the New covenant in Jesus Christ. Which, that's a great way to put it too, is that even if you followed the Old Covenant faithfully, that didn't save you. [00:34:44] Everybody who was saved under who, who lived under the old Covenant before the time of Christ, they were saved by the redeeming work of Christ, by the fulfillment of the Old Covenants. They weren't saved by, in fact, none of them were in heaven before the time of Christ because they weren't saved by that. [00:34:59] Okay, next question. What of John 4:22, where our Lord says salvation is from the Jews? [00:35:08] Jesus Christ is himself the fulfillment of this prophecy. Whereas contemporary Judaism, also called Talmudic or Rabbinic Judaism, without temple priesthood or sacrifice, is not the same religion that God established in the Old Testament. Rejecting the true Messiah, the Old Law has become thus both dead and deadly. [00:35:27] And then final question. [00:35:29] What of Romans 11:29? The gift and the calling of God are the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. We just talked about a little bit. So I hear what Bishop Snyder says. Answer. St. Paul speaks here of God's abiding love for the Jews, foretelling their conversion to Christ before the end of time. Until then, contemporary Judaism as a whole exists as a rejection of God's calling, since there could be no fidelity to the old covenant where its fulfillment in the new is denied. If you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me, the call of God is to believe in his Son. And those who believe are sons of Abraham, heirs of the promise. See Galatians 3. 29. [00:36:04] So the point is, is that the old covenant has been fulfilled in a new covenant. Everybody was saved under the old covenant before the time of Christ, was saved through the New Covenant. We are now living in a new covenant. And so we do not, we should not want anybody to live under the old covenant anymore because that was always intended to be just simply a preparation for the New Covenant, for the creation coming of Christ. [00:36:28] And so this is the, the, the, the accurate way Catholics should view Judaism. Now. I will say this. [00:36:35] I'm not one who acts like there haven't hasn't been anti Semitism within Catholicism over the centuries. It's definitely true. It has been. And I think the recent emphasis on the fact that how we, we should not have animosity towards the Jews or hatred towards them or anything like that, I do think that is a good thing properly understood and properly balanced. [00:36:59] And yes, I also you know, the Holocaust happened. It was awful. It's one of the great evils of history. [00:37:06] Antisemitism does exist today, including among some Catholics. [00:37:12] But the idea that antisemitism is rampant I just reject wholeheartedly. Because what I found is when you actually talk to somebody who's accused of being anti Semitic, and typically they're not. [00:37:23] They're not anti Semitic. They just have criticisms of Jewish people. I mean, I've been called anti Semitic over and over again, and I just simply reject it. [00:37:32] I just, I know it's not true. And so if it's not true for me, I know it's not true for others as well. [00:37:39] Also, I want to mention, I want to refer people to a podcast I did a couple years ago. I'll link to that in the show notes as well. [00:37:48] And it was about Catholics and Jews. And it was specifically, I talked a lot about the Good Friday prayers. This is a big controversy because in Good Friday, we pray for different groups. And one of the groups we pray for is the Jews. First, I want to note something. [00:38:01] You don't pray for people you hate. [00:38:04] So the idea that the Catholic Church, in the old days, something, hated the Jews is just silly. If we're praying for them, that means we love them because we want them to convert to Catholicism. We can't. You don't pray for people you hate. [00:38:16] But before the revisions, there's a number of revisions. I go over in the podcast, so I won't go over in that past podcast. I won't do it again. [00:38:25] But one of the worst things that happened with those, the changes to those prayers is that the new prayer, the one you hear in the Novus Ordo Good Friday liturgy, doesn't really pray for them. [00:38:36] It simply just states a fact about them and kind of says they're under the Old Covenant and God loves them. [00:38:44] It doesn't call for their conversion. [00:38:46] Now, Pope Benedict did change the pre, you know, 1962, the Prayer for the Jews, to make it a little bit more palatable for modern years. But at least it prays for them, for them to become Catholic. And so I think that's something that we have to do. We need to be praying. So at Good Friday, you know, if you go to tlm, you're going to hear prayers for the Jews. And that's a good thing. Obviously, we pray for Muslims, we pray for Jews, for every, all those who are heretics, schismatics, people outside the church, outside of Catholicism. We should pray for them. And we specifically pray for their conversion. [00:39:22] Not Just not the idea that, like, I don't know, we're not condemning them by praying for them. That makes no sense. And the last thing I want to say is I have a podcast I did with Gideon Lazer about half a year ago where he talks about, I think very, very accurately, there is a role for the Jewish people in salvation history. Even today. St. Thomas Aquinas talks about this. St. Augustine talks about this simply as if nothing else. [00:39:52] A reminder of the rejection of the Jewish people of Christ at the time of Christ doesn't mean we don't want to pray for the whole scale conversion, but that their, their place is still there, is a place for them even today. [00:40:06] So, okay, I think I'm gonna wrap it up here. I'm just. I had some other notes, but I just want to make it clear. [00:40:16] The reason why the Daily Wire is wringing their hands because of potential anti Semitism among converts is simply because so many people, particularly young people, are finally recognizing the lies that we've been told about the modern state of Israel. [00:40:35] We look at them as the. As the good guys. They're not. They're one of the bad guys. Benjamin Yahoo is a war criminal. I mean, just this week they blocked Cardinal Pizzabala from entering the. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Now I know they backtracked when there was a huge backlash against them. That was a PR move. [00:40:51] They've led us into wars and conflicts. They are not our friends. They're invading Lebanon as we speak. A highly Christian country. I mean, it's not just Christian, but it has, I think it has the highest percentage of Christians of any country in the Middle East. [00:41:04] And people are rightly recognizing that, yes, it does mean certain people like Nick Fuentes, as the world do end up jumping on that, you know, kind of exposing that, exploiting that for some. I don't. People know, I don't like Nick Fuentes. I don't like what he does. [00:41:20] And so he does. He engages in identity politics on the other side and allows him to do that, allows them to become popular. But the fact is, is like, this is the lies we've been told, and people are waking up to it, and they recognize that a evangelical Protestant Zionist view of Israel is not the Christian view. [00:41:39] And I think that's a very good thing. That's not anti Semitic. That's. That's recognizing reality, recognizing the truth. So, okay, let me look at the live chat. Appreciate everybody who joined in the live chat. [00:41:51] Okay, we got the White Sox fan. He's a negative. I Know that Pope Leo. I get it. So, okay, Joanne says she's agreeing that maybe there are some anti Semitic. Given the anti Semitic junk they are getting from Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens claims to be Catholic, it isn't surprising. [00:42:11] Okay, so I'm not a fan of Nick Fuentes. I'm not really a fan of Candace Owens either. [00:42:17] I, I think. But I don't think that means there's this huge rise of anti Semites coming into the church because again, I think it's this idea that, you know, this idea that ain't criticism in Israel is anti Semitic. So. Okay. Oh, yeah, I, I already did. Peter's my sons. You were alive in the eyes. Yes, I was. Thank you for joining, Peter. [00:42:39] Dave Earhart says, I converted 1990s. I'm still Catholic. My faith grows stronger every day. I would never leave the faith. I'm right there with you, Dave. I converted in 1993, still Catholic. Best decision ever made in my life. But the reality is a lot of people in the 90s did, did leave the church who converted. [00:42:55] Hi from Canada. Hello. Gracio Bunny from Canada. I love our, our foreign. Even though you're not America first, that's okay. We love you. [00:43:03] Divine intervention Ontario says in this day and age, they prefer to be called Jews or Israelis. You know, it's funny because I grew up in an era when just the term Jews had a negative connotation. Even to this day when I say that word, I'm like, oh shoot, is that, you know, does that make me look like the Jews are behind everything? But the fact is they use it for themselves. And I think there are some distinctions. Like I said, if you're talking about the Jews as a problem, I do think that now you're crossing anti Semitic territory. But when we're just talking about the Jews in general, I think it's okay to use the term. And of course there is a distinction between Jews, Jewish people today. And is people like supporting Israel or Israelites? Because the modern nation of Israel is not the same thing as all the Jewish people. [00:43:51] Okay, what else we got here? PhoenixXP says when I was really young, an older Jewish woman inspired me to really fall in love with Jesus. This. That's great. I mean, that's awesome. And that's the thing is like just acting like every single person you know who's Jewish is somehow a problem. We want them all to convert. But that's why I don't like this, this identity politic. That's my main problem is the identity politics of just this idea that all Jews are a problem and that. Yeah. Okay, last comment here. Cigar mode says, Canada. Just come on over. Red Rose. Yeah. [00:44:26] I don't want Canada to become part of America. I'm sorry. [00:44:29] They can just deal with their own problems. So. Okay, we're getting off track here. But anyway, happy Holy Week. I hope you have a blessed and fruitful Holy Week. [00:44:38] Pray for all the people coming in the church this year. Pray that next year would even be more people coming to the church, including many Jewish people that they would convert. Find the Messiah, the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, and accept him, except come into his one true faith, which is the Catholic Church. Okay, Till next time, everybody. God love you. And remember, the poor.