(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of Faith & Reason, John Henry-Westen, Father Charles Murr, and Frank Wright discuss Tucker Carlson praising the piety of Catholics and his changing views on “the pill,” Donald Trump’s continued shift on abortion, Bishop Strickland’s letter about apostasy “at the top” of the Church, a statue of a Hindu monkey god in Texas replacing a statue of Our Lady as the third-largest statue in the United States, and more.
The panel looked at a recent interview with Tucker Carlson on the Shawn Ryan Show in which he criticized the Catholic Church’s leadership but praised the Catholic faithful as a whole. “Church leaders, not all, but a lot of them are totally corrupt. I don’t know what’s going on with the Pope; I’m not Catholic, so I’m not going to comment on that, but ‘whoa,’ doesn’t look like Christianity to me,” Carlson told Ryan.
“On the other hand, the number of Catholics, some of my closest friends are Catholics, a lot of my friends are Catholic, they’re the most fervent, sincere, on-target Christians I know,” he continued, adding that it seems that as the Church’s structure collapses, some members of the Church seem even stronger.
Westen highlighted how elsewhere in the interview, Carlson and Shawn Ryan said that Pope Francis supports homosexual “marriage,” which is technically not true. But Westen emphasized that to the mainstream media, it appears that the Pontiff does support it. “Pope Francis supports LGBT; he’s ‘rah, rah,’ with the gay couple blessings; he’s supporting James Martin, who’s all about kissing your partner in church. Sorry, the public’s got the message.”
Fr. Murr stressed that this Pope is very comfortable with ambiguity. “He doesn’t come out and say things clearly, but by not saying things clearly, he clearly says them. And the perception that the media has and that the world has of his stance on a lot of things is rather real, especially when he doesn’t come out and say, ‘No, that’s not it.’ He doesn’t clarify anything at all, so that lack of clarification we take as an admission of guilt.”
The priest added that the silence from the Pontiff is a real problem. Circling back to Tucker, he said he respects his comments because they come from a good place, and he’s certainly getting his information from the Catholic friends he mentioned. Wright echoed Fr. Murr’s sentiments about Tucker’s position, calling it reasonable. “The way to see it is, what the Vatican says is ambiguous, but what the Catholic faith says isn’t, and there’s the problem.”
Later in the episode, the panel discussed former President Donald Trump declaring in a Truth Social post that if elected again, his administration would be great for “reproductive rights.” Westen said while the statement is vague enough that it could be interpreted as not being about abortion, his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, made it clear that he was indeed talking about abortion when he said Trump wouldn’t support a federal abortion ban during an interview last Sunday with Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press.
During that interview, Welker pressed Vance on if Trump would veto a piece of legislation banning abortion. “Well, I think it would be very clear he would not support it. I mean, he’s said that explicitly,” the Ohio senator said. Westen expressed his disappointment. ”This is absolutely terrible; it’s sad as anything.”
The host turned to Fr. Murr and asked him if Catholics should still vote in the upcoming election, given Trump’s stance. The priest compared not voting to leaving the Catholic Church because of all the chaos and scandals. “This is a difficulty the Republicans have had for a long time; it’s just been going on for decades.” Shifting to Vance, Murr said he did not seem to have received proper instruction when he converted to Catholicism and wondered if he missed a few RCIA lessons.
“Every once in a while he says things that are very strange for a new convert because a new convert is full of zeal. … A new convert is almost more Catholic than the Pope, as we used to say. Which doesn’t have the same impact today.” Murr added.
“J.D. Vance is certainly more Catholic than the Pope,” Wright quipped, to which Murr agreed. Speaking again about Vance the priest said, “But usually a new convert is more zealous to defend the faith. From what I’ve heard of Vance, he’s said a few things like this, he doesn’t seem to get it, it’s concerning to me. I would really invite him to find a good priest to sit down with him and discuss moral matters.”
“Catholicism is essentialist, it’s essentialist in the fact that it asserts that the essence of reality and its ultimate source is God,” Wright said. He further noted that there’s an essential value to human life. “And if you violate that, then that’s basically a violation of Catholic doctrine. It’s essentialist. That means you can’t change it; it doesn’t matter what your opinions are.”
In light of Vance’s recent statements, Wright agreed with Fr. Murr that Vance’s Catholic formation is questionable on the abortion issue. “If we don’t speak for life, no one else will. It’s important that these people are held to account and that they are told to remember that life has an essential value and that it doesn’t change according to political expediency.”
For more discussion on Tucker’s praise of Catholics and opposition to the birth control pill, Trump’s continued flip on pro-life issues, and more, tune in to this week’s episode of Faith & Reason.
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