Blogs
Featured Image

October 4, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Today I had the high honor of speaking at Voice of the Family’s Amazon Synod roundtable discussion in Rome. Below, you can find a video and transcript of my remarks. God bless.

We have arrived. This week, the Amazonian Synod will be underway. This is expected to be the most severe calamity for the faith the Church has ever known. And let's pray that it won't turn out as dire as it threatens.

A few cardinals have warned of apostasy and heresy in the working document prepared for this synod. But most have remained silent. We in the faithful cannot remain silent because it's the faith of our children that is being threatened.

It's our right as Catholics to have the faith of Jesus Christ handed down faithfully by our priests and bishops, and especially by the Pope. But in this time we have had the opposite, especially from Pope Francis. He has gravely harmed the faith. And it’s time to say it out loud. For the love of Christ, for the love of His Church, for the love of our Blessed Mother in heaven, for the love of our children for whom we live to pass on the one true faith, we must proclaim from the housetops, “enough!”

Let us cry out to God as the Israelites did in the Old Testament. For many ministers in His Church are betraying Him. The faithful clergy who have fought to defend the teachings of Christ are downtrodden by the Pope while those who seek to spread confusion and error are promoted and honored.

The Pope has gained the friendship of the world but at the price of betraying the truth of the Savior — in crushing good cardinals, faithful orders, orthodox institutions and academies. By elevating and promoting heterodox prelates and by giving signs of approval of homosexual acts and abortionists. By proclaiming a false ecumenism. By giving false teaching on contraception, cohabitation, and adultery. The Pope has shown that he allows himself to be led by a spirit contrary to that of the Gospel rather than by the Holy Spirit, who would be available to the Pope as to no one else.

Pope Francis has encouraged pastors to have the smell of the sheep. Also, however, a pastor should have the smell of Christ. The sheep know the smell of a pastor made in the mold of Christ. Faithful Catholics all know when we encounter a faithful son of Our Lady in a pastor. We see it in his devotion at Mass. In his demeanor at prayer. In his homilies and teachings. And in the advice he gives in the confessional. In his admonishing sinners and encouraging the faithful.

The good priests’ friends are the most faithful, while those who seek to destroy the Church by remaking Her in their own images make themselves the good priests’ enemies while that good priest prays for their conversion nonetheless. The faithful know a good priest. We may be fooled for a time but eventually we come to know the truth.

All that is not to say that we don't love Pope Francis. Indeed, it would not be love at all to gloss over these monumental concerns and be silent about them because in them he is harming himself most of all. He will have to answer to Christ at judgment just as we all will. We must continue to pray for the Pope every day. Pray for his conversion.

I'm not judging his motives. In fact, I'm assuming he believes what he is doing is benefiting the Church. But what is plainly obvious is that what is being set up is a false church and a false image of Christ. A “reasonable” Church that contravenes doctrine in hard cases, a Church that suggests that Hell is empty, a Church that sows doubt about the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, a Church that puts out political considerations such as immigration policy and environmentalism above non-negotiable teachings on abortion is a false church. These are serious charges, yes, but it doesn't take a theologian to recognize when the faith is being distorted.

We won't leave the Church. This is the one, true Church and there is no other. We shall fight for Christ’s truth in the Church because we are ready to die for this faith.

We pledge to be truly devoted to Our Lady as we never have been before. For we know that in the end her Immaculate Heart will triumph. She warned us that these times were coming. That the final battle between our Lord and the reign of Satan would be over marriage and the family. And it is here and now.

Standing with Our Lady, we are not fearful. We say with her, “Amen,” so be it, to all that the Father allows in this suffering of the Mystical Body of Christ. We know the resurrection follows and we can rejoice even now in that knowledge since the depths of suffering make the ultimate victory even more miraculous.

For LifeSiteNews, this is John Henry Western. And may God bless you all.

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.