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April 20, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Many people wrote to me aghast at my last video noting the scandal over Pope Francis having a painting placed behind his desk with Christ in the nude ministering to Judas. Many others were also taken aback because the painting was featured on the cover of the Vatican’s own newspaper, which dedicated its first three pages to the possibility of the salvation of Judas, the betrayer of Our Lord.

But that’s not all that has gone on lately. In the last month or so, Pope Francis has called for a “new world order” and more recently “global governance.” We’ve also seen top cardinals and bishops demand that the Church bless homosexual sexual unions, and Pope Francis has refused to correct them. What’s more, we’ve witnessed the Pope reject the title of Our Lady as co-redemptrix, which has been used for centuries and by previous popes. We’ve also seen the Pope appoint an open homosexual to his own commission for the protection of minors. It seems to me that, under the cover of COVID, things have gone completely haywire in the Vatican.

So much insanity has come out of the Vatican lately that I feel the need to give you an update to summarize everything all in one spot so you can see the speed at which things are happening. Philosophers tell us that things speed up near the end. Well, even if the end is still nowhere in sight, the speed and depth of the depravity coming out of Rome is unbelievable. 

We learned last week that the Vatican is hosting a health conference with, get this, Dr. Anthony Fauci, vaccine developers, Mormon elders, pro-abortion Chelsea Clinton, population control advocate Jane Goodall, a New Age activist, a prominent UK Muslim scholar, and pro-abortion American actress Cindy Crawford, among 114 speakers. The conference, entitled “Exploring the Mind, Body & Soul. How Innovation and Novel Delivery Systems Improve Human Health,” is due to take place May 6 through 8.    

In mid-March, we heard the Pope call for a “new world order” and say that “wasting” the COVID crisis would be worse than pandemic. 

Vatican News published an excerpt of the Pope’s book length interview, “God and the World to Come,” which was in bookstores in Italy on March 15. Speaking to the Italian journalist Domenico Agasso, with language eerily similar to globalist Klaus Schwab, the Pope called for “a new world order,” also saying that the COVID crisis should not be wasted. “Let us all keep in mind that there is something worse than this crisis: the drama of wasting it,” Francis said. “We cannot emerge from a crisis the same as before: we either come out better or we come out worse.” 

The Pope even linked the theological aspect of salvation to the promotion of a new world order in line with globalist policies, suggesting that salvation was dependent upon their success. “We can no longer blithely accept inequalities and disruptions to the environment. The path to humanity’s salvation passes through the creation of a new model of development, which unquestionably focuses on coexistence among peoples in harmony with Creation.” 

The Pope continued that theme this month in a letter to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund at their April 5-11 meeting. Pope Francis called for “global governance” in light of COVID-19, strongly advocating for universal vaccines, and bemoaning the “ecological debt” owed to “nature itself.” The letter was delivered via Peter Cardinal Turkson, Prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

On March 12, Pope Francis forbade the celebration of private Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, which has gone on for centuries. Five Cardinals condemned the novel measure, including Cardinals Raymond L. Burke, Gerhard L. Müller, Walter Brandmüller, Robert Sarah, and Joseph Zen

Also, in mid-March Pope Francis ordered a canonical investigation into the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, which is largely seen by Vatican insiders as payback for the orthodoxy of Cardinal Robert Sarah, who was retired by Pope Francis in February

On March 24, Pope Francis rejected the Marian title of Co-Redemptrix, which has been believed and taught in the Church for centuries and used by previous Popes and saints. Nevertheless, Pope Francis denounced the teaching, saying there are no co-redeemers with Christ. “The mother who covers everyone under her mantle as a mother, Jesus entrusted us to her as a mother, not as a goddess, not as a co-redemptrix.” 

Also on March 24, Pope Francis appointed Juan Carlos Cruz, an openly homosexual man, to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cruz is himself a victim of clerical sexual abuse and was the one who Pope Francis called to come to the Vatican in 2018 for a private meeting where, Cruz reported after the meeting, the Pope affirmed him in his homosexuality. After the meeting, Cruz made public that Francis told him “that you are gay does not matter. God made you like that and he loves you like that and I do not care. The Pope loves you as you are, you have to be happy with who you are.”  

Cruz also revealed that Pope Franics told him that Archbishop Viganò, from his post as nuncio to the United States, arranged the Pope’s meeting with Kim Davis, the pro-family hero who as an elected county clerk went to jail rather than having her name go onto marriage certificates for homosexual couples. 

Speaking to the media after his appointment by the Pope to the Vatican commission, Cruz took the opportunity to condemn the new Vatican statement opposing the blessing of homosexual couples. He said the Vatican officials who issued the new statement “are completely in a world of their own, away from people and trying to defend the indefensible.” He called for a change in the leadership of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying it was undermining efforts by Francis to create a more inclusive church.   

Which brings me to the big item I’d like to focus on: the aftermath of the Vatican’s March 15 document forbidding clergy from blessing homosexual unions.  

Pope Francis’ closest collaborators let it be known that the Pope was unhappy with the statement, and he seemed to suggest as much in public statements after the documents release. Even Cardinal Burke, asked publicly on EWTN if that could be true that the Pope was distancing himself from the Vatican statement, said it was not unreasonable.

Beyond that, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who Pope Francis has claimed to be one of the greatest theologians in the Church, came out slamming the Vatican document as a “clear communication error,” and said homosexual blessings would not be refused. Schonborn, who is the lead prelate in the Church in Austria, said, “(if) the request for a blessing is sincere,” and desired by a homosexual couple from God to aid “a life path,” homosexual or otherwise, “then such a blessing will not be refused.”

Mayhem erupted all over the Church as a result, especially among liberal clergy. Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane tweeted March 16: “A Church which says we can’t ordain women is equally obliged to ask how we might include women in leadership … a Church which says we can’t bless same-sex unions is equally obliged to ask how we might include same-sex couples.” 

Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, who chairs the German Bishops’ Conference, said he was “not happy” with the statement from the CDF, suggesting that the teaching will not be followed by the Church in Germany. 

“This gives the impression that the theological debate, which is currently being debated in various parts of the universal Church, including here in Germany, is to be ended as quickly as possible,” he said, as reported by Katholisch. Bätzing added that this is not possible at all “because the discussion is intense and with good arguments in many places, and the theological inquiries about pastoral practice today cannot simply be put out of the way with one word of power.” 

Belgian Bishop Johan Bonny said that he felt “shame for my Church.I “want to apologize to all for whom this is painful and incomprehensible,” he wrote.  

The Belgian bishops as a group reacted with a statement that they will continue to follow Pope Francis’ controversial encyclical Amoris Laetitia when it comes to homosexuals in the Catholic Church. 

The youngest Catholic bishop in Ireland, Bishop Paul Dempsey of Achonry, called the ban a “hurtful response from the Church to people with same-sex orientation,” in a March 26 reflection that appeared on the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference website. 

Dempsey, who was appointed Bishop of Achonry in January 2020 by Pope Francis, called the language used in the document a “problem.” “The deeper problem arises in the sphere of language, at best it is experienced as cold and distant, at worst hurtful and offensive,” he said. 

Priests too have exposed themselves as opposed to the Church’s constant teaching on homosexuality. 

The German newspaper Deutsche Welle reported that about 60 German priests signed a letter stating that they will defy the CDF’s teaching and bless homosexual couples. “In view of the refusal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to bless homosexual partnerships, we raise our voices and say: We will continue to accompany people who enter into a binding partnership and bless their relationship in the future. We do not refuse a blessing ceremony.” 

In a similar initiative in Austria, a group of about 350 priests organized by Pastor Helmut Schüller stated in a “Call to Disobedience 2.0” that they will “continue to bless same-sex couples.” 

Not to be outdone, some priests in America took to their pulpits to denounce the Vatican document, outing themselves as heretics in the process. Clergy from America’s first order of Catholic priests, the Paulists, openly criticized in homilies the Vatican’s decree that the Church cannot bless homosexual couples. The news actually came to LifeSite from a great convert from homosexuality, Joseph Sciambra, who compiled videos of priests from the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in parishes in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles openly lambasting the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

And if you’re hoping or thinking that Pope Francis will have to deal with it or bring clarity, we already know the Pope’s response. Two high-ranking Cardinals approached the Pope to correct the head of the German bishops conference on this same question. Edward Pentin, one of the best Vatican reporters in the world, reported that Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Swiss president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, requested that Bishop Bätzing, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, come to Rome to be corrected. Remember, Bätzing “directly challenged” several core Church teachings “regarding women’s ordination to the priesthood, the blessing of same-sex unions, priestly celibacy and Holy Communion for Protestants.” 

A source told the National Catholic Register that “Santa Marta said ‘No’” to the request from the Cardinals asking for Bätzing’s correction. Santa Marta being of course the Pope’s residence. Thus Pope Francis said NO. 

At least Cardinal Burke was ready to speak out against one of the Bishops spouting heresy. Speaking with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN, Cardinal Burke called out Bishop Bonny for his rejection of the Vatican refusal to allow for blessings for homosexual couples.

Thank God someone is standing up for the truth of Christ’s Church. And let me close with this. In our time, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify true Catholics, the true faithful. Well, I came across a most beautiful quote that was taken from Robert Mader’s book Cross and Crown. Here is what it means to be a real Catholic to him:

“Christianity should not be for us anything else than it was for the Apostles: a living relationship to Jesus . . . Neither work nor politics, neither the press nor science nor sports ought to occupy us in the least in comparison to the occupation of our memory and our understanding by Jesus. That’s Christianity! . . . The church, the house where Jesus lives, ought to be a stronger attraction for every genuine Christian than any other house in town, even during the week . . . Not to want to love Christ, Who is Love, is the sin of sins! Whoever does not love will be damned. We want to become Christians again. We want to love again, love and die for Christ the King.” 

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

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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.