Blogs
Featured Image

November 28, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Marian Eleganti, the auxiliary bishop of Chur, Switzerland, has not shied away from defending Church teaching the past several years. In this episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, His Excellency continues his outspoken approach and explains why he raises concerns about Pope Francis.

Before the Synod began, Bishop Eleganti expressed strong support for Cardinal Brandmüller’s critique of the synod’s working document. He said many bishops don’t speak up because they are diplomatic and political. 

However, he said he always speaks his conscience even though “it never happens without pain and prayer.” 

“I don’t like to criticize the pope,” he admits. But “I am not at peace in conscience when I don’t pronounce myself…I feel an obligation in my heart.”

Bishop Eleganti expressed worry that the College of Cardinals don’t really know each other very well because they are from such disparate parts of the world. He said it's “not good” that they don’t come together and dialogue with the Pope in order to help him and give their advice.

In today’s episode, His Excellency stated that the Church can’t “abolish such a long tradition as celibacy” because Christ himself lived in a celibate way. Bishop Eleganti said that married clergy will undermine celibacy and that “in the long term we will not gain anything but we will lose a lot.”

Furthermore, Bishop Eleganti told me the Pachamama ceremony was “idolatry” and a “syncretistic veneration.”

“For me, it’s a no-go.” “Pachamama is a deity…it’ not the Holy Spirit…we need Jesus Christ.”

He also said that we already have a Mother, the Blessed Virgin, and that our “common house” is the Catholic Church, not the earth itself.

Synod proposals of having women play more prominent roles are “little steps” aimed at the promotion of women priests, he said. But, the Holy Spirit has already spoken on this topic, and the Church cannot change its teachings.

Bishop Eleganti closed our discussion by saying he is “very trustful” in “the supernatural nature of the Church” because Christ is “always” alive in the Church. He said he is impressed by lay Catholics who can see things and say things that even Bishops and Cardinals don’t. He advised that Catholics always speak their mind with love and charity and not in an angry way with “hard words.”

“The love has to come through,” he said.

The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show’s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog.

It is also available in audio format on platforms such as SpotifySoundcloud, and Pippa. We are awaiting approval for iTunes and Google Play as well. To subscribe to the audio version on various channels, visit the Pippa.io webpage here.

We’ve created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week when we post a new episode. Please sign up now by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel, and you’ll be notified by YouTube when there is new content.

You can send me feedback, or ideas for show topics by emailing [email protected].

Featured Image

John-Henry is the co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com. He and his wife Dianne have eight children and they live in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

He has spoken at conferences and retreats, and appeared on radio and television throughout the world. John-Henry founded the Rome Life Forum, an annual strategy meeting for life, faith and family leaders worldwide. He is a board member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. He is a consultant to Canada’s largest pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and serves on the executive of the Ontario branch of the organization. He has run three times for political office in the province of Ontario representing the Family Coalition Party.

John-Henry earned an MA from the University of Toronto in School and Child Clinical Psychology and an Honours BA from York University in Psychology.