Pope Leo, Fr. James Martin, and Transgenderism

[00:00:14] A few days after a transgender individual opened fire during a Catholic Mass, killing two children and injuring many others, Pope Leo met with one of the most influential and prominent transgender advocates in the Catholic Church today, which is Father James Martin. I want to talk about that today on the podcast along Eric Sims, your host editor chief of Crisis magazine. Before we get started, as always, just want to encourage you to 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 crisismagazine.com put in your email address. [00:00:50] You can also follow us on social media, all the various social media channels. Hi, Crisis Mag. [00:00:56] Okay, so I just want to be blunt and honest and direct here. Right at the beginning, I didn't want to do this podcast. I did not want to do this episode. [00:01:06] I know that the lifeblood of podcast is controversy. The lifeblood blood of getting clicks and getting an audience and building it all that is talking about controversy. I get that. [00:01:21] And I'm not claiming I'm immune from that. I've been doing this now for about four years at Crisis. I had my own personal podcast years ago. I've been doing this for about four years at Crisis. And I try to shy away from just being a controversy only podcast because I think it's unhealthy. I think it's unhealthy to always be thinking about controversy. Also, I think it's unhealthy to be fixated on everything the Pope says and does. I've talked about that a lot on this podcast. I think there are real spiritual dangers to being overly focused on the. The current pontificate, whoever it might be, whether it's Pope Francis, Pope Leo, or somebody else. I just don't think that's healthy for a Catholic, even if. Even if the guy's doing a great job. I don't think it's healthy. I think our main focus should obviously be on our own spiritual life, our own sphere of influence, our families, our communities, our parish people. You know, that should be our main focus. Growing in holiness in where we live. [00:02:18] That being said, this is Crisis magazine. We talk about the crisis in the church. I'm not going to avoid and not talk about controversies. I'm not going to act like they're not happening. I think it's also unhealthy to be Pollyannish and act like everything's okay because souls are being lost. [00:02:36] Millions of souls are being lost. When we see that, I know there are some good numbers showing that people are Becoming Catholic. And I think that's awesome. I'm very excited at our parish. We're starting our conversion, our adult conversion class here soon. I'm very excited to see how many people show up and meet them, things like that. [00:02:54] But at the same time, tons of Credo Catholics are leaving. [00:02:58] And so if we act like nothing's going wrong, if we act like there is no crisis in the Church today, then those souls will continue to be lost. We have to speak out. We have to. As laity, we do have a duty and responsibility at times to speak out. Not every one of us, not every time, but we do have that duty. So that being said, let's get into the topic of today's podcast. So as I think everybody should know by now, last Wednesday, August 27, there was a horrific and tragic shooting, mass shooting at a Catholic school during the school mass in Minneapolis Annunciation Parish. [00:03:37] And a transgendered individual open fire and he killed two children. Their names are Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moisky. [00:03:49] And Fletcher was age 8 and Harper was age 10. [00:03:54] And I. And Fletcher is a young, little. A young boy and Harp was a young girl. [00:04:00] And I think we can know now we have two new martyrs in the Church. I know the theologians will debate whether or not they can be truly classified as martyrs. And I respect the need for theologians to make distinctions and to be precise. At the same time, I'm comfortable calling them martyrs in a very kind of general sense, because that's how saints became saints and martyrs became martyrs, because people declared. In fact, right behind me is an image of Saint Maximilian Kolbe. And there's a lot of debate on him whether or not he was a martyr or not because of the way he died, which is heroic. Nobody disputes that. But was it actual martyrdom? [00:04:36] The point I'm trying to make here is that I believe Sister Wilhelmina is a saint. I'm convinced of it. [00:04:45] I don't think that. I know the Church has not declared her a saint. I'm not claiming it has. And I will always abide by the Church's decision on that. [00:04:53] Likewise, I'm not saying the Church is going to declare these two young people martyrs, but I am saying they're martyrs because they were at Mass and they were killed specifically because they were at Mass. [00:05:03] I mean, it's clear from the writings of the demented individual, probably demonically possessed individual who did the shooting, that this was done in anti Catholic meaning. I mean, it's done to specifically kill Catholics at Mass. And these were the two who, who killed So I would say, Fletcher and Harper, please pray for us. [00:05:22] And like I said, this was a transgendered individual, a man who, you know, pretended at times to be a woman. [00:05:32] It was clearly he was likely mentally ill. I mean, if you're transgender, you're mentally ill. That's just by definition, likely demon, demonically, at least, at the very least, influenced, if not fully possessed, very anti Catholic. [00:05:49] And the fact is, is this is not the first time that transgendered individual has opened fire, has committed these killings. And it's not that surprising considering the fact, like I said, they're all mentally ill. And so that some of them not saying all of them, but that some of them would lead to violent actions shouldn't actually surprise us in know. And the fact that they seem to focus on Catholics, Christians who obviously oppose the transgender movement, I think that's. That's very telling as well. And obviously, if they're influenced by demons, what's going to be their number one target? The Catholic Church, obviously. [00:06:24] So I, you know, this just happened last week. So we're in the wake of this. I mean, Catholics in this country, I would argue, are reeling on one sense that this has happened again. And there doesn't seem to be any leaders in the church that are really speaking out about, about this. What we really need is Catholic bishops and priests. And I'm very happy a Catholic priest today in Crisis magazine wrote a very good, strong article about transgenderism and the need to confront it. So I'm not saying it's nobody. In fact, there are many priests that are standing up to it, but very few bishops are saying, okay, we need to stand strong. We need to fight against the transgender movement and recognize it for what it is. Don't act like it's just some, oh, these are people with the, you know, claiming who they are, their identity, their true self, all that garbage. But recognize that it's likely always mentally, a mental illness, plus a potential demonic influence. [00:07:19] Okay, so that's setting the table where we are. And then yesterday on September 1st, Father James Martin, who was in Rome, by the way, to lead in a demonic coincidence, I would say he was there to lead a jubilee pilgrimage for his LGBTQ plus whatever ministry outreach. [00:07:41] And he was there to be a pilgrimage as part of the 2025 Catholic holy year. [00:07:46] And so, like, note again, what is his ministry? Lgbt. [00:07:51] Don't forget the T. Q plus. So the T, what does the T stand for? Boys and girls. Transgender. [00:07:58] And so he was there for this, and he ended up having a meeting with the Holy Father with Pope Leo. And let me pull up the tweet. He was very he. [00:08:07] Father Martin, if nothing else, is the master of self promotion. I mean, if you. If you follow him on X, you will see how much he loves to promote himself and how he's approved by the church and all that. So he posted. Dear friends, I was profoundly grateful for my audience at the Apostolic palace with the Holy Father. The. This morning, the message I received was that Pope Leo will be continuing with the same openness that. That Francis showed to LGBTQ Catholics. Of course, that's a misnomer. There's no such thing as that. I found Leo to be joyful, relaxed, and serene. He's a joy to be with. And then there's photos of him with Pope Leo, opposed photo, but also one at the. At the. The Pope's desk speaking. [00:08:51] So this kind of hit like a ton of bricks. I mean, it really was unbelievably scandalous. Now, I want to say a couple things. First, that note that Father Martin presented it as Pope Leo is 100% on board with my outreach. [00:09:10] Call it outreach. He's 100% on board with the way I deal with LGBTQ, whatever Catholics and people. He. He is 100% in line with Francis and all the. He. How he supported it. That's how Pope. Sorry. That's how Father Martin presented it. We do not know actually what happened in the meeting. The fact is, Pope Leo could have scolded him and told him, you need to shape up or ship out, and he was still said the same thing because he knows this is how he gets donations. This is how he keeps support and stuff like that. [00:09:43] That being said, I'm not saying that that's what Pope Leo di. I'm just simply saying we do need to always keep that in mind, that we don't actually know what was said in the meeting. If Pope Leo really was completely in line with Pope Francis or what happened at it. We can't trust Martin. Father Martin, because he's a snake. [00:10:01] So. But that being said, unless we hear something from the Vatican, which we almost definitely won't, we can assume that Father Martin is at least generally correct in his assessment of the meeting. [00:10:13] Because if the Vatican does not say anything to correct him or it does not do anything to correct Father Martin in general and allows his ministry to continue as is, then I think we can assume, okay, what Father Martin is saying, that generally his ministry is accepted at the highest levels of the Vatican, literally the highest level of the Vatican. [00:10:38] If it continues as is, then we have to assume he was correct. [00:10:42] Now, let's remember here. [00:10:45] I know Father Martin is known as the priest of homosexuality in that. That's what he talks about all the time. That's his ministry. He's all homosexuals, but also it is lgbtq. [00:11:00] He also has been very outspoken in basically going along with the dominant narrative about transgenderism. That is something that you don't really choose. You're just born in the wrong body. It's your identity. It's how God made you. We should not do anything to discourage people who are. Who claim to be a gender, a sex that they really aren't. [00:11:25] And so he completely accepts the framing of the transgender community. [00:11:31] And in fact, he has been the number one proponent of transgenderism in the Catholic Church in America at least. I don't know about other countries, but in America, no question he is. I mean, it's not even. There's not even a close second place. [00:11:47] And so I think it's legitimate to ask ourselves, was the family and the killer of the killer and the killer himself, were they influenced by Father Martin? [00:12:00] I mean, I think that's a legitimate question. They were. Obviously, they were a Catholic family. [00:12:03] Now, here's something that just came out this morning. [00:12:06] When, when this first happened, people were noticing that the mother of the killer, who worked at. At the school for a while, that she had signed off on the young man when he. When he changed his identity, when he changed his name legally when he was 17 years old, since he was under 18, by Minnesota law, the parent had to sign off on, and she did. So everybody was quick to condemn her. However, new reporting shows that's likely the father, not the mother, who's the real issue here in that the father was a known liberal, a known. Not really practice. I don't think he's a practicing Catholic. I'm not sure. But, like, the mother was supposedly a more traditional. I'm saying a traditional, like Go tlm, but a more traditional leaning Catholic. And that honestly, she was, and it sounds like she was very much pressured and felt like if she didn't sign this document, her son might kill himself. [00:12:59] I, as a parent, I don't want to be too quick to judge the mom in this situation. If that was the case. I'm not saying I would do that. I'm not saying you should do that. At the same time, parents will do a lot to save their kids. And if she really believed, if she was convinced because of all the experts telling her, and maybe she didn't understand better and she heard people Like Father James Martin, you know, her husband was obviously pushing it and the son and all that. [00:13:25] Maybe she felt like, I just have to sign this. It's not a good. I don't really like this, but I have to sign it just in order to, to make sure my kid doesn't kill himself. [00:13:34] I mean, let's, let's be a little bit compassionate towards her. [00:13:38] But the point is, is that it's possible Father James Martin influenced the family in some way. The father, the mother, the. The son himself or something like that, the killer. [00:13:48] So that this, you know, he, this, the young man embraced his transgender identity or whatever it was. [00:13:55] And so we have to recognize that. And so here we have this horrific tragedy a week ago and within a week, before the kids are even buried, I think. I don't think the funerals happened yet. Pope Leo's meeting with the number one proponent of transgenderism in the Catholic Church in America today. [00:14:15] It does make it seem like nothing else. The meeting is an endorsement of Father Martin's demonic views on this issue. [00:14:26] So what have the reaction been? So I'm getting on the reactions here. I've seen people say, like, oh, are we still supposed to wait and see about Pope Leo? That's no longer in effect, is it? Obviously we know now he's just like Francis. He's a snake, just like Francis is. [00:14:42] Many want the black pill. Now, for my older listeners, black pilling is just a phrase meaning being very negative and thinking that the worst case scenario is white pilling would be more optimistic. Thinking the best case scenario. It's like I've heard people say, I told you Leo was Francis too. I told you he was just gonna be Francis too. And they're ready to write off the pontificate. Like it's proven to them now, okay, this is the nail in the coffin. We now know the Leo pontificate will be a continuation of the Francis pontificate. And things are going to be awful until I don't know when. And yes, I saw some people flirting with SETI vakantinism again. I'd hope we had gotten past that after the, after the Francis pontificate, but obviously we haven't. We have people saying maybe that we don't really have a Pope again. I mean, people who are already sedevacantists, they're still thinking that, I guess. But I'm saying new members of the Sedevacanta sect, I think we might be having some more with, with things like this. So I personally know I've gotten a lot of Personal criticism for not criticizing Leo. [00:15:48] And I've been, you know, a number of places have named me. People like Taylor Marshall, Michael, Matt, others that, oh, these, this Trad Inc. Group. They're not criticizing Leo like they should. They. They bought into it. So the question is, am I going to criticize Pope Leo now? Do I think it's. I need to criticize him at this point? [00:16:08] So let me get my reaction then. Here's my. Finally get to my take. 16 minutes in. I just wanted to set the table a little bit. I told you I didn't really want to do this podcast. I'm delaying it. [00:16:18] I think a couple things. First, is. [00:16:20] Is the era of wait and see over? I saw a number of people saying, oh, yeah, obviously wait and see is dumb and it's over. We know. [00:16:29] I mean, I know we're so bound by instant news, instant social media, everything happening immediately in our culture, but the church is 2,000 years old. Are you really saying four months, is it. What is it? May, June, July, August? Yeah. Not even four months in. We're like, okay, now we know for sure everything we need to know about Leo and his pontificate in four months. Really? You're going to say that. You're going to say you've definitively determined what Leo's pontificate is going to be like because of four. Four months in? [00:17:02] I think that's kind of. That's not very Catholic way of looking at things, considering we think see things and we should see things in centuries, not in months. [00:17:09] So I do think. I also think I've noticed that there have been a number of people who've been basically waiting to pounce on him. They've been waiting. They've been wanting him to do something wrong. They've wanted Leader to do something wrong. So they can say, I told you so, so they can be shown right. So they can put on acts on social media, wherever and say, look, I was right. I told you I was right and you were wrong. [00:17:32] That's a very unhealthy attitude in my mind, to want to be right more than you want the Pope to be right. [00:17:40] You literally want to be right more than you want the Pope to be right. I mean, wouldn't you rather be wrong and the Pope is right? I think that seems to be a better attitude to have. [00:17:51] And so we have to be understanding, first of all, just realistically how these things work in the church. He works slowly. [00:17:58] And I think the idea that we're supposed to write off this pontificate immediately for One or two actions is just. Is just. It's an attitude that was frankly fostered by the Francis pontificate. How much everybody was hurt and abused by the. Spiritually abused by the Francis pontificate. I get that. But we have to man up and just move forward. So, again, though, will I criticize Pope Leo for this? And the answer is, yes, absolutely, I will criticize Leo. I think this was a. A huge mistake, a huge misstep, and something that I, you know, we can't just act like we can't Pope. Splain away. [00:18:34] I don't think we need to criticize every single thing the Pope does if we disagree with it. And I've. Pope Lewis, done a few things already before this that I didn't agree with, but it was like, okay, what? You know, of course he did. I'm not. I'm not infallible. I could be wrong. And they're not major deals. This, I do think was a big deal. [00:18:50] Just to be clear, I understand the Pope meets with lots of people. [00:18:54] I'm not saying he only can meet with, like, traditional Catholics, and he can't meet with people who he disagree. You know, who we disagree with. [00:19:01] The Pope is a head of state. He's going to meet with lots of people. He's the Pope. I'm not that. That's understanding. Also, I am sure that this meeting was planned long before the shooting. [00:19:13] After all this jubilee, you know, pilgrimage that. That Father Martin was leading. You think they planned it in the past couple days? It's been planned for months, maybe over a year. And I'm sure. And you can't set up an audience with the Pope, like, at the last minute, even if you're Father James Martin. [00:19:31] So that's something to remember. It's not like it's like, oh, shoot, we have a transgender shooter. We need to make sure we reach out to transgender community. [00:19:39] Quick, get Father Martin on the phone. Let me have a public meeting with him. That's not what happened. [00:19:45] However, it is well known that Father Martin has a history of milking these meetings with the Pope in order to show support for his ministry. [00:19:58] This is what he does. He wants to make it very clear that he is a Catholic and a priest in good standing. Not only in good standing, but in favored standing by the Vatican. He could do that for the past 12 years. Before Leo, he knew he could do that, and he took advantage of it every time he could so he could show, Listen, I have the graces of being in the good graces of the Pope. So Therefore, you cannot criticize. No Catholic can criticize my ministry. It's obviously got the imprimatur from the Pope himself. [00:20:27] So I'm sure he was dying to have a meeting with Pope Leo so he could do the exact same thing here, and he did, and he got what he wanted. [00:20:36] And, and it's a, it's a great scandal because I understand Poplio can meet lots of people, but he does not have to have a public, public meeting with literally one of the worst priests in America, who's one of the most influential worst priests in America at the very best. The best interpretation I can give this is that this was just bad optics, that, like, they didn't really think this out, that it was planned ahead of time and they weren't thinking like the whole, the shooting and all that. I mean, shouldn't have had it regardless, anyway, and so it was bad optics. That's my best interpretation. Even this, it's bad. It's not good. At worst, though, it sends a message, it sends an intended message that Father Martin's way of doing things in this area is the way we support. We, meaning the Pope and the Vatican, that we still support it just like Francis did, because it was a public, it was a private meeting, but they made, they had photographs. They show, they published the photographs. They're likely not going to say anything. If they do take that in consideration, if the Vagan comes out after this and says something to kind of shoot it down a little bit, okay, then we can talk about that. [00:21:49] But it's like. And you can't say Pope Leo doesn't know the scene in America. I remember Pope Slaters for a long time would say that, that, oh, Pope Francis doesn't really understand America. That's why he says these things. And he doesn't really know the influence of Father James Martin or he doesn't really know how things work in the church in America, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. [00:22:10] Well, you can't say that about Pope Leo, can you? He's literally an American. [00:22:14] He knows the American church very well. He knows exactly who Father James Martin is. [00:22:19] He knows the influence Father James Martin has. [00:22:22] And he had a, had a, had a meeting with him anyway, in which that was, you know, basically allow Father James Martin to promote his own work. [00:22:31] We're literally in a time where we have, I mean, I don't want to be crass about this. It's a tragedy. And the parents of those children who have died, we should be praying for them. [00:22:43] The other parents of the children who are injured who just had to experience it. We should be praying for all them, praying for the kids who were there, all that. I want to make sure that's clear. [00:22:51] That being said, okay, I'm going to just say it very crassly, and I apologize for that. [00:22:57] This really did represent an opportunity for the Church. What I mean by that is that there was a lot of sympathy that was immediately apparent for Catholics because people knew, even non Catholics knew, oh, why is he targeting Catholics? Oh, because they actually have a teaching against transgenderism. Regardless what their Vatican's doing or some priests are doing, they have a teaching that goes against transgenderism. They stand up to it. And the Catholics seem to be getting targeted more and more. So we had the sympathy. And so it was an opportunity for the Church to proclaim its teaching more clearly about transgenderism, about the truth about the human person, about how God created us male and female. He made us distinct. He made us different. Viva la difference. [00:23:40] And really, this was our. We had the platform. Now we were given the platform through tragedy, because God can work good out of evil, and it was clearly a great evil, but God can even work good out of that. We know that from the crucifixion. [00:23:55] And so we had this opportunity, and we could lionize, canonize, literally, these two young people who were killed and make them representatives of the persecution against the Church on these issues. [00:24:12] But instead, what happens the first. [00:24:15] Within the first week, there's a meeting that basically appears at least, to endorse Father James Martin and his way of doing things. So, yes, I criticize. I'm going to criticize Pope Leo for this. And I think it was. It was. It was a terrible thing to do. [00:24:32] Now, why would Leo do this? [00:24:36] I think, honestly, we have to remember that Leo was the unity candidate of. Of the last Conclave. There's a reason he got elected so quickly. Am I surprised? All those, all of us outside the Conclave. But honestly, I don't think it was a surprise to people in the Conclave. He was a unity candidate. What do I mean by that? What I mean is disparate groups in the Conclave, representing disparate groups in the Church, all agreed. Okay, Pope Leo, I can accept him as the Pope. He's going to at least listen to me. [00:25:06] He's not going to attack my beliefs. [00:25:10] He's going to try to bring us together. [00:25:13] And so that's why Pope Leo met last week with Cardinal Burke, this week with Father James Martin, I think, because that's exactly his plan, is he wants to try to bring together these different ideological groups within the church and have it be less infighting, as we had under Francis. [00:25:39] Now, I personally don't think that's going to work. [00:25:42] I didn't think it was going to work when he first got elected. I still don't think it's going to work. I don't think it's going to work long term because here's the reality. I've said it before, I'll say it again, no matter how much people don't like it, there are multiple religions being practiced within the Catholic Church today. [00:25:57] There are multiple religions being practiced within the Catholic Church today. By religion, I mean that generically as a set of practices and beliefs that people follow. [00:26:09] And if you look at, for example, the religion practiced by traditional Catholics versus the religion practiced by somebody like Father James Martin, you cannot say they're the actually the same religion. They're different religions. Yes, I know they're both under the umbrella of the Catholic Church still today, but they're actually in practice, different religions. [00:26:30] I don't think the vast majority of leaders in the Catholic Church, including Pope Leo and including people like Cardinal Dolan or things like, recognize that they think it's like, okay, it's a matter of like, just degrees, not a fundamental difference. [00:26:47] And I think Pope Francis actually did recognize it was a fundamental difference. That's why he tried to shut down and destroy traditional Catholics, because he saw it as a completely different religion. [00:26:56] And he was right in many ways. [00:26:58] And, you know, where do you draw the line of where the one religion starts and no one finishes in the category? I'm not claiming, I know that, like, I, I definitely feel affinity. And to people who tend to know of a sordo, I'm not saying it's, you know, and, but who are basically traditional, a lot of their beliefs and spirituality and all that. So I'm not saying it's a tlm, Novus Ordo thing, but there's no question I do not practice the same religion as Father James Martin, period, end of story. [00:27:24] And so, and I'm not saying he's not a valid priest or anything like that. When I say, again, I'm talking about religion in a very generic sense of the spirituality, the practices, the beliefs of a person. [00:27:36] And so I don't think long term this unity candidate idea will work. Pope Leo is going to have to kind of pick a side, or if he doesn't pick a side, then the divisions will just continue maybe and get greater. [00:27:49] Now, all that being said, talking about, yes, I'm criticizing Pope Leo for this, I'm not going to write them off. Here's the thing that just drives me crazy. And honestly, I think it's a sign of immaturity. I think it's a sign of maybe, again, the abuse we got under Francis. A sign of, like, our culture where it is today. [00:28:06] We want everybody to be in one camp or another. You're either with me or you're against me. There is no middle ground. [00:28:14] I do not think now I'm going to write off Pope Lee and be like, oh, this pontificate's done. It's Francis, too. It's just something we have to just realize, endure, and know how awful it is. It's going to be terrible, blah, blah, blah. [00:28:28] I admit I eventually did write off Pope Francis. I admit that in the sense of, like, I, I still praised him, we did good things, like, I thought he was very good on, like, you know, what's going on in Gaza, things like that. [00:28:39] But I wrote him off in the sense of believing he could really do any serious good in the church. I don't think that's true of Pope Leo. I'm not ready to write him off, and I don't think we should write him off again. It gets back to a podcast I did in the past where I talk about expectations. What do we expect from the Pope? [00:28:57] Do we expect him to be somebody that we look at every single day and say, okay, what are our marching orders today? [00:29:03] What do I need to do today? What did you say today that I need to make sure I tell everybody about? [00:29:09] Or is it more a matter of. His role is as a figure who makes sure that we don't go astray, the Church. He's supposed to bring us unity. [00:29:18] But, like, it's not something my day to day Catholicism really is related to. [00:29:25] If you are thinking about what the Pope says and does every day, it's unhealthy. It is just unhealthy. [00:29:32] And so you shouldn't be doing this. I know people kind of know that. Like, for a long time, I was a very strong public critic of Pope Francis. But in the last six months of his papacy, I stopped criticizing, criticizing him publicly. It's not that I started agreeing with him. [00:29:43] I just felt like there was a danger to constant criticism. [00:29:47] And honestly, I felt like at that point there was no, no purpose to it because we'd had 12 years, we knew what he was like, what's another criticism really going to do? It's not going to add anything, but it could detract by, by just really undermining the papacy itself. [00:30:02] And so I think though, with, with Leo, we don't write off Popes because they do something we don't like. We don't then say, okay, obviously the Church has failed in the sense that the Pope isn valid or whatever the case like that. That's simply not a good attitude to have. It's not spiritually healthy. I think we simply say, okay, I think what the Pope did here was scandalous. [00:30:22] I think it, it could harm souls. And we need to pray for him and fast for him, and also for Father Martin. And we need to hope for, and work ourselves for the betterment of the Church, for our own souls, for the souls of those around us, but not just be like, okay, I'm done with him. [00:30:41] You know, he's the worst. [00:30:44] I just think that's not the way to go. So am I white pilled or am I black pilled? I'm neither, I'm neither white pilled or black pilled. This is not black pill me. [00:30:56] I said at the beginning when Pope Leo was elected, there will be things he does that I disagree with and even strong things he does I disagree with. This is one of them. At the same time, I think Pope Leo still has an opportunity to do very much good for the Church. I think think he can be a much better Pope than Francis. I still think what I thought at the beginning when he's elected early on, he's not going to, I don't think he's gonna be as bad as Francis. He probably won't be as good as Benedict. But I think in many ways he can do many good things. He's, he. I think he'd be a definite improvement over Francis. I don't buy this. The line I'm hearing though, about like, he's actually worse than Francis in ways because he will make his hair, the heresies of Francis more acceptable because he kind of slips them in. He's not got that, that, that personality, that, that just awful personality of Francis where he attacks anybody who, who he disagrees with and so kind of slips in the, the problems, the heresy. I don't buy that. I think, honestly, I think it's more a case of Leo's just doing the job he thinks is best. And in some ways he agrees with Francis where he shouldn't, otherwise he does not, which is good. [00:31:58] And so I just think that we're going to have good out of Pope Leo in his pontificate and we're going to have bad. [00:32:07] But stop making the Catholic faith all about the Pope. [00:32:10] Yes, the papacy is vitally important. It's essential to the Catholic faith. I'm not claiming it's not, but your daily life, your daily spiritual life should not be, should not circle around what Pope Leo says or does each time, each day. So that's my main point here, is like, I'm not white pilled. I'm not black pilled. I do think what Pop Leo did me with Father James Martin especially, the timing of it was, was not good. But ultimately, I'm still hopeful that we can have many good things coming out of this, this papacy. But more importantly, good things are happening in the church, regardless of who the Pope is. We're seeing more young people become Catholic embrace together. Yes, we have lots of people leaving, but we're seeing an upturn in people who are saying, hey, the Catholic Church is the one true faith. Focus on that. Focus on your own life, your own cat, your own striving for holiness and those around you. [00:33:04] Okay, let me bring up a few parts of a few people from the live chat again, Tuesday afternoon live podcast. I always love people interacting in live chat. We had a lively discussion today, as you can imagine. So, Sean Duffy, who has the same name, I do not think this is the Director of the Department of Transport, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Acting Director of NASA, but welcome, Sean Duffy. Is it possible for a Pope to declare two pope in a row to be anti popes? When does air become president in the magisterium? Yeah, I mean, I think what you're asking then is, okay, if Francis was bad and we might have a pope one day, kind of say, okay, I'm not. We're going to kind of ignore or even maybe condemn Pope Francis as an anti pope. And then. But then the next pope does it, Leo, and then the next pope, the next pope. What's the precedent? I think the thing is we're not going to have that ever happen in the sense that Pope Francis was not an anti pope. He was the legitimate Pope. We didn't have to like him, we didn't, but he, he was the Pope. Pope Leo is the legitimate Pope. The idea that these guys are going to be called anti popes one day is just, it's just a fantasy world trying to make sense of today's confusion. And I get that, but it is fantasy land. It's not reality. [00:34:15] Now a future Pope could say, okay, we're going to basically turn back from a lot of the stuff that happened after Vatican ii. [00:34:24] Vatican II is a valid council. All the popes after are valid, but we're going to turn back. We're going to go in a different direction. And I've talked about that before, but I think that's the more likely scenario. So, okay, T.K. o' Rourke says, I know Pope Leo isn't a big smiler, and maybe I'm just naively. Naively hopeful, but Pope Leo just doesn't look really happy in that picture. [00:34:43] Yeah, I'm not. I can't buy that, T.K. i'm sorry. I mean, he had the same view. I think he was smiling. I think that's just his papal smile. I mean, he doesn't. He's not much of a smiler. [00:34:53] What matters is actions. Will he make a. Will the Vatican release anything? [00:34:59] You know, anything about the meeting? If they don't, we have to assume that, generally speaking, what Pope. What Father Martin said was generally true. We have to assume that. [00:35:11] Okay. Dave Earhart says, what is truly sad, that no prayers for this tragedy was mentioned at Mass at my parish this Sunday. Yeah, it is. I don't know where you live. I mean, obviously, if you're in America, especially if you're in Minnesota, I could see that it'd be nice to pray for that. I mean, obviously, we don't have to wait for them. I mean, we. We should be praying ourselves for the victims of this tragedy. [00:35:32] Okay. Daniel Verney says we need to pray and fast to defeat the scourge of the LGBTQ ideology in the Catholic Church. Absolutely. That is the answer right there. I mean, you gave it right there. Daniel, as we've learned from the whole pray prayer and thoughts and prayers. Doesn't mean we don't act. [00:35:48] But the point is, we act with a foundation of prayer and fasting. As Daniel is saying, Daniel's hit it right on the nose here. We act only on a foundation of prayer and fasting. I. I actually prayed more than I normally pray before this podcast. I didn't want to come across half cock, like, oh, yeah, let's just, you know, be a rage. A rage video against Pope Leo. That is not what I want to do here. I'm criticizing him, but at the same time, he's our Holy Father. I think we need to pray and fast for him. That he would help defeat discourage LGBTQ+ ideology in the Catholic Church. [00:36:21] Okay. Laura says the final battle between Satan and the Kingdom of God is over. Family, marriage. Yes, absolutely. Our Lady Fatima. Correct. [00:36:28] Absolutely. We. We need to remember that. That family and marriage, that's. That's where the devil will hit us. [00:36:34] Cigar mode. Says be Catholic, regardless of the world, including whomever is the Pope. Yeah, I mean, that's right. [00:36:40] You know, first of all, smoke a cigar if you got one. [00:36:43] But also, yes, just be Catholic. And being Catholic is not dependent upon who the Pope is. I'm not saying it's not scandalous when a Pope does something bad. It is. And our Lord spoke very harshly against scandal. At the same time, though, we have a duty just to be Catholic. [00:36:59] James says rumors are Pope Leo will repeal Traditionius Catos in October. We'll see. [00:37:06] I mean, obviously, I would be ecstatic if he repealed Traditionius Custodes. Will he? I actually don't think he will. I mean, personally, I've never thought he would. I think it's more likely it will just kind of die. The implementation of it will die, and eventually you'll be more able to celebrate traditional at Mass without a formal repeal of Traditionius Custodes. You know, and I would love to see an actual repeal saying where he said, this is actually a bad document. That never should have been. That never should have happened. But I don't think that's going to happen. Okay, so everybody out there, keep praying and fasting for the Church against our enemies, which includes the LGBTQ people, whatever, the Alphabet people, their. Their movement. Obviously, it's against Satan, against more than everything else. And pray for our Holy Father, pray for Pope Leo. Continue to pray for him, that he would have wisdom, he'd have prudence, you know, obviously grow in holiness and be a bold and courageous leader of the Catholic Church. Okay, everybody, until next time. God love you, Sam.