Is Saying "Christ is King" Antisemitic?

[00:00:12] A new report argues that the phrase Christ is king has been co opted by extremists and is used primarily for the cause of anti Semitism. Should Catholics therefore stop using the phrase? That's what I want to talk about today on Crisis Point. Hello, I'm Eric. Sam's your host, editor in chief of Crisis magazine. Before we get started, you know what to do. Please tell me you know what to do. [00:00:36] Smash that like button. Subscribe to the channel. Other people know about what we're doing here. Also you can subscribe to our email newsletter. Just go to crisismagazine.com put an email address. Follow us on social media at Crisis Mag. At all the major social media channels, we're mostly on Facebook and on X, but we are on some of the other ones as well. Also this is an episode of Crisis Point Live. And so we're doing this live on Tuesday afternoon. So if you are able and you're joining us in the live chat, we really appreciate it. Feel free to make your comments, your questions and I will try to get to some of them at the end of the program. We always enjoy our live live chat participants. [00:01:17] Okay, so why don't we get started with the first thing I wanted to talk about. [00:01:21] And this is an online debate. And I know sometimes people are like, I'm not on social media that much. I don't even heard of this. And that's okay. But I do think these things matter. They do creep into the wider world beyond just the online world. [00:01:34] So there's a debate going on, primarily on X about using the phrase Christ is king. Now this has been used by Catholics for a little while on social media, of course, but I think it really blew up. I think it was when Candace Owens used it. I know others use like Nick Fuentes, I think Andrew Tate even used it one time. You know, he's Muslim and some others and Jack Paso not. That's not his full name, I can't pronounce it, so I just give his nickname. [00:02:06] And so they use this Christ the King. And so what happened was we started seeing it happen more and more that people were saying it. I've used it before. Taylor Marshall's used it. People like that as well. Well, there's a report came out from the National Contagion Research Institute which I had never heard of before yesterday and I imagine nobody else had it either. Maybe it literally was created yesterday for all I know. But this report was co authored by Jordan Peterson, which is what made it, I think go more viral and a bigger Deal, because obviously Jordan Peterson's a big deal. [00:02:38] And it said that the phrase Christ is king has been hijacked by extremists. That's the term, the wording it used. And so it was basically saying that primarily to promote what it said was anti Semitism, that people were using Christ the King as a kind of a dog whistle, as they say, for anti Semitism. And also they might include anti Semitic remarks and things of that nature. And so this was, this report came out, it made a big splash. And so what happened then is a lot of Christians, including some Catholics, said we should basically stop using this phrase or at least stop using it as on social media, as kind of a phrase, as a rallying cry because it ends up supporting the anti Semites who use it ends up supporting the extremists who use it. It platforms them, so to speak. And so I saw a lot. I mean, my feed was just filled with people saying, we, we can't, you know, Christ saying Christ the King. And they would say, you know, yes, this is true, he is King, but we can't use this phrase because of the fact that it basically emboldens and empowers bad actors out there who are using it for nefarious purposes. And I also noticed there was a little bit of divide between Catholics and Protestants here because Protestants, this isn't a common phrase that's used in Protestantism. [00:04:08] You know, as Protestants, we would have said back in the day, like, Christ is Lord. And of course we would say he's King of Kings, Lord of Lords. It's not like we would deny him. But the idea of this idea of a phrase of Christ is king really is Catholic. And it obviously dates back to the time of Christ. But in its modern, the modern phenomenon, the modern usage of it, it really dates back exactly 100 years to Pope Pius XI's encyclical, which, the name of which is escaping me all of a sudden. I know it, but I can't remember it, where he instituted the feast of Christ the King, which was to be the Sunday before All Saints Day. It was later moved in the liturgical reforms of the 1970s to the last Sunday of the liturgical season. So usually last Sunday in November or second, last Sunday in November now used to be the last Sunday in October right before All Saints Day and All Souls Day. [00:05:07] And so Catholics have been saying Christ is King. And they mean something by that beyond just like, he's my King, he's my Lord. [00:05:16] What Catholics, what we're saying when we say Christ is king is that we believe Christ should be king of everything on heaven and on earth, and therefore he's also king of our political systems. And so it does tend to say that. It suggests at least that we're saying that our political systems should be subject to Christ and therefore they should favor Catholicism and not favor non Catholic religions, whether it be Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, whatever. And so this is the idea behind Christ the King, the kind of the real attitude towards Christ the King. So obviously as Catholics we have to believe Christ is king. This is not some type of optional belief for Christians, for Catholics, because of the fact that he obviously is the king of kings and lords of lords. His crown is a crown of thorns, his throne is the cross. [00:06:20] And so we follow him as our king. [00:06:24] Now, obviously, another problem with this, the Christ the King, as far as like Protestants and Catholics, is that Protestants have no real love, especially American Protestants, real love of a monarchy. I mean, obviously the Anglicans are a little different, but they're just different in a lot of ways. [00:06:39] But modern Protestants have no affection for monarchy, whereas Catholics still should. And so the idea of a king, that's why Protestants don't really say Christ is king, because kings are something of the past and they have a negative connotation. That's why they'll just say Christ is Lord, whereas for Catholics, kings should have a positive connotation. So saying Christ is king means something more. [00:07:03] So that's kind of a history of Christ is King from a Catholic perspective. [00:07:08] Now there's no question that there are some bad actors who are using the phrase in a way that is not really becoming of the cause of Christ. [00:07:22] And so like somebody like a Nick Fuentes, whom I am on record saying, I think he's just a loser. I mean, there's just no other way to put it. I do think he's anti Semitic, by the way, people sometimes I'll say, I'll mention anti Semitism as a real thing. People say, oh, you have to define it. You never define it. You never define it. Now I've defined it. I wrote an entire article about it. Crisis about how what I believe antisemitism means. Look it up on crisis. Just look up anti Semitism. Salmons. You'll find it. I'm not going to redefine it every single time I talk about it. But there is a real anti Semitism out there that thinks that the Jews are behind everything, that really Jews are the. Are the cause of all problems in the world today, or at least a major cause of most major problems. And that There's a plot or some type of organized effort really among Jews for evil ends. [00:08:15] Now, I also would say anti Semitism. That term, by the way, has been overused and it's thrown at anybody who disagrees with any Jew ever. [00:08:23] It's just like the term racism or misogynist. [00:08:28] You know, it just becomes meaningless because it's overused so much. So, for example, I'm highly critical of the modern state of Israel. I think it's an evil, frankly, government there, and they do very evil things. Does that make me anti Semite? I'm sure a lot of people would say, yes, it does. You dare say anything against Israel, you're an anti Semite. Fine, whatever. But I do think there's a real anti Semitism. And I think somebody like Nick Fuentes is one of the people who isn't a real anti Semite. But it's really what you see is most of the anonymous accounts that are just disgusting in what they say and what they do. I mean, the way they just. I don't even want to describe it to you if you're online enough, you know what I'm talking about. And they will throw out Christ the King and they will often do it in a context like they'll say other things that are just frankly vulgar and frankly anti Catholic because they're not in keeping with the charity that Christ has commanded us to. And so I'm not going to say that there aren't bad elements that use Christ the King. There are, but here's my problem. [00:09:41] It's obviously there is a concerted effort to get everybody to stop saying Christ is King. And whenever somebody tells me you can't say something which I believe and I know is true, I am going to say it more. I don't care if some people might associate it with bad actors, with people who have maybe vile beliefs or whatever, because the fact is Christ is king. And one of the things that really, over the past 60 years in the Catholic Church, we've seen is concessions to the culture over and over again until our witness has become completely neutered. [00:10:28] It's become to the point where you can't say. I mean, you can't really say hardly anything in ecumenical dialogue or any religious dialogue or whatever. You can't really proclaim that, oh, Catholicism is right, Catholicism is true. [00:10:45] Other religions are false. These other gods of like. Of other religions are false gods, maybe even demons in some cases. [00:10:55] And so we're not allowed to say anything. It's because we continue to concede we have A defeatist attitude of, well, if I say that that might offend somebody, and if that offends somebody, then they might not like the Catholic Church and then that would just be awful. [00:11:15] They claim it's like for evangelization because if you say these things are offensive, people will be turned away from the faith. But that's just simply not the way the great evangelists, the St. Paul's the St. Francis Xaviers, our Lord Jesus Christ have ever been. They did not mind offending people if they had to to proclaim the truth. I mean, John 6, we see it very clearly. Jesus offended a lot of people when he said, you must eat my body and drink my blood in order to have life in you. That's very offensive even today to many people. And in fact, a lot of Catholic leaders don't talk about that very strongly because it's offensive to others. We tone these things down. And so this is yet another example of wanting to tone down the gospel message, which that includes that Christ is king in order to pacify a group that will never be pacified. And that is the professionally, perpetually aggrieved class that gets offended by everything. [00:12:16] The people who try to find ways to be offended. And yes, there are many Jews in that category. There are people of every race, nationality, religion, gender, whatever of that. But it does include Jews, I always find. No, just like it's not blacks who are the most offended by racism, but white guilty liberals. It's the same thing here. It's not Jews who are the most offended by criticisms of Judaism or even by actual anti Semitism. It's often non Jews who are, you know, have a guilt complex, progressives. [00:12:56] And so I refuse to give up the phrase Christ is king. I will continue to say it. I will not stop saying it. I don't care who else says it. [00:13:08] If bad actors say it. We can call out bad actors for being bad actors. [00:13:13] But I'm not going to say. We just have to stop saying it because it somehow emboldens them. That's just nonsense. What if they still. I mean, what if these bad actors started saying abortion is murder and that was a catchphrase. Do we stop saying that? Do we say, oh no, we can't say abortion is murder because if we do that, then emboldens these bad actors. [00:13:35] That's ridiculous. We can't do that. As Catholics, we know what we believe, we state what we believe, we proclaim what we believe. [00:13:44] We make sure it's clear what we believe. [00:13:47] And that's it. That's how we proclaim the gospel and people will be attracted to that. People of goodwill, of an open mind. And so if other groups latch on to some of our truths and they use it in some way that we can't control but might be bad, then we simply don't stop. We don't stop simply saying what we believe. We call them out, say, yeah, they're bad actors, they're not really with us. [00:14:20] I mean, Nick Fuentes is not with us. I mean, the report mentioned Andrew Tate, or at least the video had Andrew Tate on it. I looked it up. Andrew Tate, first of all, is Muslim. Second of all, he's a loser. I've already said that before. And third, he literally tweeted one time and just as a. Like, he likes seeing Christians who are being strong in their declaring what they believe or something like that. It's not like he's saying this all over and over. So, I mean, the fact that the report mentioned him was, was interesting. [00:14:49] Now, I've seen some people compare it to Black Lives Matter, that it's the rights equivalent to Black Lives Matter, or at least the anti Semitic right or whatever they want to call it. [00:15:01] And if you remember, Black Lives Matter was used by the left. Like, basically, you had to say it, say the term, say Black Lives Matter, and you couldn't ever disagree with it because you know, who's going to say black lives don't matter? [00:15:15] And they're saying Christ the King is the same thing. Now, first of all, I'm not saying anybody must say it. [00:15:22] I think if you're Catholic, you must believe it. You can never deny it. [00:15:28] You should ask yourself, if you're not willing to say it, why not? Is it because you're afraid of backlash? Because you're afraid what people might think of you? [00:15:37] Our Lord wants us to proclaim the truths of the faith no matter what people think of us. But at the same time, I'm not going to be like, you must say this term. [00:15:45] I mean, this phrase. I think there's a big difference between, though, the Black Lives Matter phrase and the Christ is King phrase. Two big differences. First of all, the phrase Black Lives Matter is a more subjective phrase than Christ is King. Because what do you mean by matters? Because that could mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Does it mean they deserve the same basic human rights as everybody else? Okay, yes. [00:16:16] Does it mean they should get special privileges like members of Black Lives Matter? The organization would say, well, then, no, I don't agree with that. Then the word matters is very subjective. And it can mean different things to different people. So I think we can challenge Black Lives Matter and say, no, I don't know, what do you mean by that? [00:16:37] Whereas Christ is King is an objective truth. [00:16:42] It's an objective truth. Christ is King. There is no like leeway there to try to wiggle out of that. So I don't think they're the same. Another way they're not the same is that Black Lives Matter as a phrase was basically begun by the organization Black Lives Matter. I mean, I'm not saying it was never said before that. What I'm saying though is that really is when it came into the public consciousness was with an organization that is a racist organization. [00:17:15] And so there was always a connection from the beginning between the phrase Black Lives Matter and the racist organization Black Lives Matter, on the other hand, Christ is King. Like I said, first of all, Catholics have always believed this for 2000 years, but particularly in the last 100 years, we've been proclaiming explicitly Christ is King. We literally have a feast day called Christ the King. I went to a parish for five years that was named Christ the King. This is not something new. This is not something that is only associated with anti Semitism, for example. Whereas Black Lives Matter is associated with the racist organization that you know, who you that uses the term as as their name. [00:18:03] So that there's a big difference. It's not the same. It's apples and oranges between the less Black Lives Matter and the supposed extremist. Right? However, Christ is King. [00:18:17] So we really do need as Catholics to take a step back in some of these cultural debates and make sure we look at exactly what is true, what we really believe, why we believe it, and why we are hesitant to proclaim certain truths of the faith. We can't let the phrase Christ is King be either co opted by some, maybe anti Semitic groups and people, but we also can't let it be co opted by or taken away from us by the woke right or the woke left or whoever who says you can't say this anymore. That is their goal is to keep us from saying it. [00:19:01] We need to be very sure about the fact that yes, we believe that Christ is King and we will proclaim Christ is King. The way that you defeat maybe a misuse of the term isn't to abandon the use because that gets them to win. Then the only people using it are the losers, the anti Semites or whatever, the actual extremists that are bad. [00:19:24] That's why as Catholics, normie Catholics, trag Catholics Whoever Catholics, we need to continue to say Christ is King. We can't just give that up because you know what will happen next if we just abandon it online, we're going to be asked to abandon it completely. The parish's name, Christ the King, will be asked to change that name. [00:19:43] The feast day, Christ the King, we'll be told that really fosters anti Semitism. Don't tell me this can't happen. Look at what happened to the prayers of Good Friday. [00:19:55] And so what we have to which basically now are meaningless. The prayers for the Jews, for example, doesn't say anything, doesn't really pray for anything. Whereas before they prayed for their conversion, which is what we want to do. Do we really, like give up Christ the King as a title for Christ as something that we talk about? That's where we're going. That's where we will go if we give in now. We must continue to proclaim Christ is King. Can I get an amen from the live chat? Hopefully we'll see a few amens there. [00:20:28] Okay, I want to cover some other topics today. I think I covered that enough. Maybe in the live chat I'll address some questions about that. Another big news story beyond online was the fact that Trump launched missile attacks against Houthis. I think it's pronounced Houthis. [00:20:44] Houthis. Houthis. Houthis. I've heard it both ways, but I think it's Houthis. That's how I'll pronounce it if I'm wrong. Sorry. And it was basically I willing to bet most people didn't know where Yemen was on map, didn't know who the hoodies, Houthis were, anything like that before this happened. Maybe people really into stuff new. But of course everybody has an opinion about it now. I will say I've been following this for a little while. I don't claim to be an expert, but I do know the basics, the basic backstory. And that's the problem with these military interventions by the United States or military involvement or support for these military conflicts around the world, is that we basically start them day one when we decide it's okay to do this and we just forget the entire history before it. [00:21:31] We did that with Ukraine, we did that with the Israeli Palestine conflict. We do that with everything. We just simply forget or ignore everything that happened before it. The fact is the Houthis, Houthis, gosh, I'm going to mess it up every single time. Have been involved in a civil war in Yemen against the Saudi and therefore American backed forces. [00:21:54] And this has been going on for I think 15 years, something like that. Don't quote me on exact, but Obama administration is when it started. [00:22:03] And America's back the other side, the Saudis, because we backed the Saudis on everything. [00:22:09] And basically. But over the past few years, there's been a relative cessation of the conflict. [00:22:20] However, after October 7 and the Israeli response to October 7, 2023, the Houthis started to get engaged to support the Palestinians. That's where we get to today is the Houthis have been basically attacking certain supply lines, certain ships in, in, in the, in the area in the Middle East. [00:22:43] And so Trump is basically saying, okay, I'm going to attack you for doing this. But more importantly, he's saying this is all Iranian backed, that the Iranians back all of this. [00:22:56] And honestly, this is just awful. Trump is completely wrong on this. Trump is wrong to do this because it's not it. All it does is it just makes things worse. It will not stop. The Houthis and these guys survived like eight years of an awful, awful civil war and they're still around, still in control of certain areas of Yemen. They're not all of a sudden going to go away because we shoot a few tomahawks at them. [00:23:21] And so that's something important to remember. Secondly, we just don't need to be involved over there as much as we are. Again, this comes back to the elephant in the room, which is Israel and our undying and 100% support for Israel, which just simply needs to stop. I'm not even saying we can't be an ally of Israel, but our blank check mentality towards them, it just, it has to stop. Trump ran on a campaign of getting a ceasefire in Gaza that has now been obliterated as of, I think it was yesterday of getting peace in the Middle east, peace in Ukraine. He's working hard on Ukraine and doing a good job of it. But honestly, it just, it's terrible what he's doing in the Middle east. And it's hard not to say, isn't this because of the huge influence of Israel on American policy? I mean, there's no question, this isn't like a debatable controversial point that the nation of Israel has a huge influence on, on American policy. [00:24:26] And so we need to take a step back. Here's the problem. Like I said, whenever this stuff happens, you see all the neocons and unfortunately to me, MAGA people just jump on board and take whatever the talking points are that start today. Like, I saw somebody say, like, oh, we're not supposed to respond when they stop. Our ability to have ships go through these shipping lanes and things like that, we're just supposed to ignore that, as if that started it all, as if there's no other context to this, as if nothing else has happened in the Middle East. It's been a peaceful land for generations. And all of a sudden these terrible Houthis decide to attack our innocent ships. [00:25:06] I mean, it's just ridiculous not knowing the history of all this, how everything is intertwined. And ultimately, this is just such a terrible thing because Pat Buchanan said it well, which is basically our attacks just engender more hatred and provoke more hatred against us and attacks. Some general said the math in the Middle east is 10 minus 2 equals 20. What he meant by that is if you have 10 enemies and you kill two of them, well, usually two innocent people, you get 20 more in response. Because what happens is these bombings, they. They. I mean, one thing, one thing I saw said that, like, over 90% of people killed in these bombings are not on any list of bad guys of terrorists. And the list of terrorists probably is questionable. But even that being said, so when some innocent girl gets killed in this from these bombings, what happens is her brothers, her uncles, her dad, all her brothers said, okay. Now, we're radicalized against the United States of America. That's the reality over there. And that's what we've been doing for generations now, which is why we have unending conflict over there, because we continue to do these, like, hit and run things. Okay, let's just go ahead and bomb them, and that'll make us feel good over here in America. But it will not stop the Houthis over long term. It will not really do anything other than just give us a pat on the back that we did something. And it will also kill people, innocent people. [00:26:35] We have to take a step back and look at this more objectively. From what are our strategic interests in the Middle East? [00:26:43] Is it to support Israel no matter what? If you're an evangelical Christian Zionist, you probably think so, or a Jewish Zionist thinks so. If you're a Catholic Zionist, you're a heretic. So don't be that. But the point is, we need to really take a step back and say, where do we have a strategic interest there? Is it really involved trying to start a war with Iran? Because ultimately, that's what Trump. It sounds like he's trying to do is start a war with Iran. I did not vote for that. President Trump and that's what Israel wants. It wants us in a war with Iran. There is no reason we need to be in a war with Iran. I'm not saying Iran is some perfect utopia and we need support over Israel, but I'm also saying we don't need to be at war with Iran. And the idea that Iran is, like, completely controlling the Houthis is just ridiculous. It's like. It's like if, you know, people who say that also say that we're not in a proxy war with Russia, that we really aren't the ones who are influencing Ukraine. They're fighting a fight on their own, and we might just help them a little bit. But Iran is completely controlling the Houthis. I'd be willing to bet the United States has more control over the Ukrainian fight than Iran has over the Houthis. [00:28:02] So we just need to get out of there. We need to pull out basically of the Middle east completely. We need to stop our undying and unquestioning support for Israel, because this will just continue to happen. We'll continue to create more terrorists, more people who hate America. I mean, if you look at the history of the modern Islamic extremism, not all of Islamic extremism, but modern Islamic extremists, like the last hundred years, I think there's a very good case that could be made that it's basically American originated, meaning our actions have caused it. If we had not done everything we had done over there, there wouldn't be this. This spike in Islamic extremism. [00:28:50] And that's just. I mean, people don't like to hear that. The neocons hate that. But I think that's just the reality. [00:28:56] Okay, another story I wanted to talk about real quick here, and that is the bishops are doing a big push for the rice bowl. The Lenten rice bowl. We all know what that is. That little cardboard thing you put together, you put money in during Lent and you give it to, you know, back to the church at Easter. And it's for Catholic Relief Services. [00:29:15] And the bishops are trying to get supported. Do not support Operation Rice bowl or whatever it's called, because you should not support Catholic Relief Services. The reason the Bush. The bishops are doing a big push is because of the fact that they're getting defunded. They're not getting their government funding. Let me just remind you, I don't know if I said in the podcast, maybe I'm telling you for the first time, the CEO of Catholic Relief Services made over $600,000. And I think it was 2023 the last year we have the numbers for. So that was in salary and benefits over $600,000. [00:29:48] In addition, Catholic Relief Services has six different vice presidents who each make at least $280,000 a year. [00:29:59] So when you give money in that rice bowl and give it to them, remember, you are enriching Catholic Relief Services executives. Now, I want to be clear about something. I do not care if people get paid a lot of money. Like, for example, people who run a business, if they get paid tons of money. I don't care if athletes get paid tons of money because they bring in a lot of money. It's not about that. However, a charity is something different. If you run a charity, you should not be making over $600,000 a year. I'm sorry. I don't care how big the charity is. It just is not. It's unbecoming. I would not give ever to knowingly, at least to a charity that paid its highest ranking person that much. It's just ridiculous. I mean, I don't even mind like, cost of living things. Like if I saw like a organization that was based in New York or D.C. or Boston or LA or something like that, an apostolate, and their top guy made $200,000 a year, that wouldn't bother me because I know how expensive it is to live there. I know it's a lot of work, there's a lot of responsibilities. It helps you get good people to pay some significant money. So I'm not even saying, like you can't pay a decent, pretty high level wage, but there's a huge difference between 200,000 and 600,000. And when you add to the fact that you have six executives beyond the CEO making almost $300,000 a year as well, that's a lot of money for seven people running a supposed charity. So do not give to the Rice bowl this year. [00:31:33] You know, bishops are pushing it. I will. I do want to give credit to somebody. Bishop Cordleone of San Francisco, he was, he was tweeting out about it and I responded and I said, I can't give to that because of what I've just been talking about. And he wrote back to me and he said, as long as you give to something that you believe in to helps the poor, that's fine and that's the right attitude. Thank you, your excellency. And I would say that we can get upset about the fraud, the waste and everything, the corruption of a place like Catholic Relief Services, but we are obliged to give to the poor during Lent, particularly prayer, fasting, almsgiving, you do have to give to the poor. So find an organization, preferably in your area, that really does help the poor, that does not, you know, spend lots of money on its executives and help them out. [00:32:22] I think that's the way to go. Rather than something like Catholic Relief Services. [00:32:27] Okay, lastly, my white pill of the week. [00:32:30] Today is the anniversary. March 18, 2025 is the five year anniversary of when all the diocese in America shut down public Masses for Covid. [00:32:43] It had started earlier in the week. I kept track of this on X on Twitter back then in a map. But by it was on March 18, the last holdouts, I think, like the Diocese of Covington and Fort Worth, a couple others were, were holding out and those bishops finally gave in and closed and shut down public Masses. Might not sound like a white pill, does it? However, the reason I bring this up is because my white pill of the week is I want us to remember the courageous priest who in spite of intense pressure and potential to get in a lot of trouble, they continued to work outside the system to bring us the sacraments. [00:33:24] I don't think it's safe even now to name them, but I just know I've talked to people from various parts of the country and they all have stories. Not all of them, unfortunately, but a lot of them have stories, you know, Father so and so, or they won't even tell me the name. And I don't blame them. We had a mass. He came to our house, he came to this person's house. We went to the, you know, we were able to receive confession even though we weren't allowed to by the bishop. You know, he was hearing confessions outside of the parish, things like that. There were a number of courageous priests and we should be grateful for them. We should be thankful to them and it should remind us that Christ never leaves the church abandoned. Never. There's no question. March of 2020 was a very dark time for the Catholic Church worldwide, including in America. It did seem like Christ had abandoned us in many ways. I think it's okay to say that. I'm not saying he did, but I can understand people felt like that because all of a sudden now we are not able to receive the sacraments. I honestly think some priests, not the ones I've been talking about, but some priests, they've never really understood how traumatic that was for us because they never stopped receiving the sacraments. They could continue to celebrate Mass privately. They could continue to hear each other's confessions. They never Lost that contact with the sacraments, like we were forced to lose it. And they don't understand how traumatic it was for us to go through that, that all of a sudden the church that we had counted on abandoned us. Our shepherds say, we're going to give you over to the wolves. [00:35:02] But there were exceptions. There weren't any bishop exceptions, but there were priestly exceptions. And we should be very grateful. We should remember them and we should thank them. Maybe not outwardly, you know, if we can't. Don't want to get them in trouble again. I think some might still get in trouble now if you said that they did something. But I've heard enough stories over the years. In fact, I was just talking to somebody not that long ago, and he was telling me about his ability to go to some masses during that time because of priests who. Let's just say they went outside the rules that were given at the time. So thank you, devoted Catholic priests who during that time continued to do your duties. Continue. Continue to be shepherds of souls and to give us the sacraments. I think we. We have to thank. Praise God for them and to thank them for that. Okay, let's do the live chat. Do we have any comments from the live chat? Oh, thank you. Somebody said, mark Scanell says the encyclical was quas primus. Thank you very much. I was blanking on that. I was thinking it was primus something, and then I was like, I know it doesn't sound right, but anyway, quas primus sounds like that's the right answer. We'll take it. So, okay, it's all good. Says we would rather offend God than offend men. Yes, absolutely. Amen. When it comes to saying Christ is king, I mean, there will be people who will be offended. You can't help that. [00:36:21] But we have to be faithful to Christ. We cannot let these terms be taken from us. These phrases, truths of our faith. This isn't like an auxiliary truth either. Christ is king is a very important aspect of the Catholic faith, and we can't give that up. Okay, Sligless Amelia says, protecting shifting lanes. My dude, Houthis have to be stopped. Why? Why do we have to stop the Houthis? I mean, that's a serious question. Why is America responsible for stopping the Houthis? [00:36:56] How is our strategic interest of America that the Houthis be stopped? Will it stop? Will it harm me in any way? Or any other American living in America? Will it harm them in any way if the Houthis keep where they were before. [00:37:11] Why must they be stopped by America? [00:37:15] And not only why must it be stopped by America, but will we acknowledge that trying to stop them can cause even greater problems? Remember, part of catholic just war theory is that you have to have a reasonable chance for success. Yes. First of all, we're not going to stop Houthis by throwing some tomahawks at them. We'd have to do a full scale invasion. And are you really telling me that's what we should do? We should send our boys and unfortunately girls, they shouldn't be going but to Yemen to take over and to get rid of them. You don't think that's going to cause a few extra problems? No, I reject the idea that it's America's responsibility to stop the hooties. I mean, I believe in America first and that's not American first. Okay, James, A private military company was proposed to take out the hoodies, A great idea by Erik Prince. You know, honestly, I don't care that much what other people do outside of America. I care about what the American government does. If some private military company wants to take them out and deal with the consequences. I mean, okay, fine, but not if it's American government funded, which it probably would be, or America government supported in any way. [00:38:28] Okay. Female Casey, royals fan from Nebraska says. I remember we were not allowed to go to mass publicly. I was still going to the new mass at the time and confession was done in sacristy and there could only be 10 people in the church. Yeah, they're just. It. All the, all the stories you hear are just, just unbelievable. [00:38:46] You know, it just, it's not something that we want to ever. The reason we keep hammering it because we don't want to happen again. We have to remember that. Okay. Andromeda says estimated cost of u. S. Taxpayer due to Houthi disruption to piracy is now estimated to be 1.9 trillion and 20 increase in shipping due to security costs. Okay, I'll be blunt. I don't believe that. I just don't think that. I guess the one of those things they just make up. Estimated to be in or it's like a neocon talking point just to make up. Sorry, Andromeda, but I'm just gonna shoot that down. First of all, nobody even cared about houthi privacy three days ago. Now all of a sudden it's a big concern. No, the bigger thing is if we're out of there. Are you really telling me that American interests are. It's so important that we're. That the Houthis have to be stopped. A supposed enemy we didn't even. Nobody even cared about literally three days ago. And more importantly, the Iran connection, if it was just us against this ragtag terrorist group in Yemen, I would still be opposed to it because, again, no strategic national interest. However, the fact that Trump clearly makes it Iran, which means he's trying to pick a fight with Iran, that's my real problem. And I honestly think that is because of the Israeli lobby here in America. They want that war with Iran. They want us to go to war with Iran because Iran is their biggest threat. [00:40:13] But Iran is not our biggest threat. We have to stop being beholden to anything Israel says and any other country, Ukraine, whoever, and really take a step back and say, what are our actual strategic interests here in the Middle east, in Ukraine and other places? [00:40:30] There's no compelling argument in my mind for why we need to be doing this. And I think we also, the fact that we don't even care that innocent people are being killed because Trump decided one day, let's just shoot some missiles at him, I think is just. It says something about our conscience, about our morality, and our. Our misunderstanding of just war theory. So. Okay, that's my soapbox for the day. Thank you for joining. I appreciate that. Again, be thankful for the good, courageous priest during COVID and who are still around today. And whenever you have a good priest, it's something to be thankful for. Pray for our bishops that they recognize the catastrophic mistake they made during COVID And finally, and most importantly, Christ is king.