(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of Faith and Reason, John Henry-Westen, Father Charles Murr, and Frank Wright discuss Cardinal Burke’s recent homily suggesting “apostasy” among Church leaders, Madonna’s disturbing AI-generated image of her and Pope Francis, and more.
The panel began the episode by discussing the singer Madonna making headlines this week after posting AI images in sacrilegious poses, including several featuring Pope Francis.
Wright underscored that the reason she posted the provocative pictures is because she’s a “professional controversialist.”
“And what she’s done for at least 30 years is present a kind of hypersexualized, blasphemous image of the Catholic Church in order to get attention. Her repeated reinventions throughout the years mirrored those of David Bowie, another occult-influenced individual who also pretended to be queer in order to be interesting,” Wright said.
“Now Madonna will do practically anything for attention, as we can see. And she’s quite a good illustration of the old adage that fame is a mask that eats into the face,” he added.
Wright further emphasized that these pictures are a desperate marketing ploy by the old, irrelevant Madonna, which even her fans have described as “cringe.”
“It’s just a cynical marketing ploy to brand her own personal promotion as a form of liberation, in fact, liberates you from dignity,” Wright said.
Finally, the journalist reminded the faithful to pray for the conversion of Madonna and other celebrities.
Murr noted these photos are just another gimmick for Madonna, who has spent her entire career mocking the Catholic faith as a gimmick.
“What she did 40 years ago, jumping around with crucifixes and rosaries and the whole nonsense, the gimmick. You got to get a gimmick, right? You have to have a gimmick. Well, she got her gimmick. And that was religion, and it was the Catholic faith. She made a mockery of it, a total mockery of it,” Murr said.
The priest added that Madonna’s problem is that her career is finished.
“I’ve never understood why actors and actresses, and singers, for that matter, and the celebrities don’t understand when it’s time to hang it up. To say goodbye in a nice way, a swan song, and leave,” Murr said.
“This latest attempt, using the Pope with an AI image. It’s not upsetting, it’s pathetic,” he added.
The panel then moved to news from the Catholic Church in the U.S., where Cardinal Raymond Burke, during a homily, urged the faithful to stay in the Church even if the “highest” leaders commit “apostasy.”
“No matter what we are asked to suffer, we must remain with Him. Even if those in the highest positions of authority in the Church should abandon Him, should commit the grievous crime of apostasy from the Catholic faith,” Burke said in his sermon.
Westen noted that Burke sounded like he was strongly hinting that Pope Francis had committed apostasy and stressed that Burke calling out the Pontiff could make the biggest difference for his salvation.
Murr said he was surprised that Burke stopped short of saying the Holy Father had committed apostasy when that seemed to be the direction the homily was going.
“I thought he was going to call him out, but he stopped short. I had to read it a second time because he sounded so firm in that commitment, and that’s what I thought he was writing toward. I thought he would conclude with that. At the same time, he backed off,” the priest said.
Murr added that while it would be out of place for laymen or simple priests like himself to declare that the Pope has committed apostasy, Burke, as a cardinal, could make such a claim.
Westen chimed in to say that Burke is pleading with the faithful not to go into schism but stay in Christ’s Church, stressing that it’s not the traditional Catholics that are going into schism.
“The false church, if you will, or the synodal church or the new way of Fiducia Supplicans, of Fr. James Martin, of ‘Communion is for anybody, including Nancy Pelosi.’ It’s a new religion; it’s not the faith of our fathers. We’re not joining up to that, but that doesn’t mean we’re in schism. We’re trying to just stay Catholic, that’s all,” the host said.
Murr agreed that traditional Catholics are not going into schism.
“Unfortunately, we have to call ourselves traditional Catholics to distinguish [ourselves] from the wackos. And this is just nuts what’s going on … and every other day, there’s something goofier than the day before. To distinguish ourselves, we call ourselves traditionalists or traditional Catholics, but it doesn’t mean that we’re out of sync with reality or time and everything else. It simply means we’re defining ourselves as Catholics. Those who are pulling all of these stunts all over are going to be the fallen-away church. They are going to be the apostasy,” Murr said.
“And what I think Cardinal Burke is saying in his own way: ‘Just stay put, hold on. The cavalry is about to arrive; hang on.’ … I’ve said this a thousand times; I’ll say it a thousand and one. We know who wins in the end, and what I think that Cardinal Burke is saying is because we know that ‘hang tight, just hang tight,’ the rest are falling away, they really are. They can call themselves Catholics; we know that that’s not the case,” the priest added.
For more discussion on Cardinal Burke’s homily, Madonna’s sacrilegious AI images, and much more, tune in to this week’s episode of Faith and Reason.
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