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October 21, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — This weekend I had the great honor of receiving an award on behalf of Archbishop Carlo Viganò. On Saturday, the St. Gregory VII Chapter of Catholics United for the Faith gave him their “Msgr. Alphonse S. Popek Award” for his defense of the faith by exposing the cover-up of clerical abuse in the highest echelons of the Church. 

I accepted the award on Archbishop Viganò's behalf because he has been in hiding since publishing his testimony last year. Below you will find a transcript of his remarks, which I relayed to the group.

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Full text of Archbishop Viganò’s letter:

Dear Members of St. Gregory VII Chapter of Catholics United for the Faith, 

In the impossibility of being present in person, I consider myself particularly honored and grateful to Mr. John-Henry Westen, co-founder and editor of LifeSiteNews, for having graciously accepted to represent me to receive the Msgr. Alphonse S. Popek Award.

I am deeply grateful to you Catholic United for the Faith for this recognition that you wanted to attribute to me for the testimony to the truth that I considered it my duty to offer out of love for the Church and the Pope. I am very grateful to each one of you especially for having supported me with your prayers in this time of terrible trial which is facing our beloved Church, which is reaching its climax in these days in the Amazon Synod.

You yourselves are well aware of the aberrant and sacrilegious pagan rites that took place not only in the Vatican gardens, but in the Basilica of St. Peter, the center of Christianity, where the tomb of the blessed Apostle Peter is kept. Bishops and cardinals and even the one who more than any other would have had to protect the Bride of Christ from the attacks of the Devil have been responsible for abominable acts of profanation and apostasy.

Our faith in the Risen Christ present in our midst, and the protection of Mary Most Holy, at the forefront as an army deployed in battle, reassure us, console us and ask us for our commitment to persevere firm in the faith and do our part to protect the sound doctrine transmitted to us by the apostles and martyrs.

I invite all of you to intensify your prayers, to perform acts of reparation in adoration to the Most Holy Eucharist, Christ Jesus alive, present in our tabernacles, and with the recitation of the Holy Rosary to the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

My thoughts go in particular to the seminarians in the numerous seminaries in the United States, many of which I was able to visit as an Apostolic Nuncio in your country. There I met generous young people, eager to follow Christ, aware that our Church you are called to serve with all your energy to lead souls to the kingdom of God, must follow no an human ideology but Christ  himself and Christ crucified. He is our only way. Take special care of your spiritual life.

I would like also to ask you lay people to pray in a special way for the priestly and male and female religious vocations that the Lord sends among you. It is also necessary as lay people, to whom the future of the Church is at heart, that you have particular vigilance over doctrine and discipline in your seminary in Milwaukee and in novitiates for formation to the consecrated life. As a people of God, as good Christian fathers and mothers, you have the right to claim from those who are in charge of the formation of your young people to teach them sound doctrine and how to live according to the heart of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

Dear friends, I accompany you with my prayers and I bless you with affection in Christ Jesus, our only Lord.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, Apostolic Nuncio

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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.