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Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison ButkerEWTN/YouTube

(LifeSiteNews) — Father Charles Murr is back for this week’s episode of Faith & Reason with Liz Yore and John-Henry Westen, discussing a Catholic event organized at Mar-a-Lago, Harrison Butker’s remarks on a letter he wrote to Cardinal Timothy Dolan about the transgender funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the suppression of the Mission of Divine Mercy, and more. 

Westen begins the show discussing a Catholic prayer event for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump he attended at Mar-a-Lago, organized by John Yep of Catholics for Catholics. He notes that speakers at the event included Jim Caviezel, Roger Stone, Michael Knowles, as well as non-Catholics such as Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski.

Speaking to Stone’s remarks at the event, Westen recalls that Stone said he stopped practicing his faith for a time, though when he started again, he called out the Floridian hierarchy for not keeping churches open during COVID. His own bishop told him to stop coming to the Catholic Church after that, and now Stone attends Sunday services at a Protestant church. He still prays the daily Rosary.

Yore observes that if Stone is praying the daily Rosary, he will come back to Mass. Fr. Murr, meanwhile, assures Stone that he and many other Catholics were praying Rosaries for him after he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Murr also draws attention to Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, saying that St. Dominic can be seen holding the Rosary out to the poor souls in purgatory and lifting them to paradise with it.

“I sure hope that Roger Stone gets back to his Catholic faith,” says the priest. “I would ask him to forgive that bishop for giving him such an unwelcome welcome.”

Yore compares what happened to Stone to Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck, noting that Houck, now a congressional candidate, recently said that we no longer have freedom if the FBI “bangs on your door and threatens your children in an early morning raid,” according to Yore. To Yore, it is time to “stand up and push back.”

Murr also comments on the FBI raids, saying they were done to frighten us into avoiding any contradictions to the status quo.

Yore further observes that former Trump advisor Peter Navarro went to prison this week for contempt of Congress, a charge he is currently appealing. The arrest, the mainstream media noted, was rare for such a charge. The charges were brought against Navarro after he claimed executive privilege when asked to testify before Congress’ January 6 Committee. Navarro never had a chance to defend himself in a criminal trial, Yore notes, and will be in prison for four months for a misdemeanor charge.

Meanwhile, Harrison Butker, a kicker for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, appeared on an EWTN podcast and spoke about a letter he wrote to Cdl. Dolan about his dismay over the funeral of transgender activist “Cecilia Gentili” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Butker said the funeral needed to be addressed before he returns to the cardinal’s podcast, on which he appeared last year. Butker told the outlet that he asked Dolan to make a “strong statement” about the event, that he was upset Dolan didn’t make such a statement, and that someone needed to be “held accountable” and “potentially fired” for the sacrilege.

Yore and Westen discussed Butker’s remarks about Dolan, both noting that Dolan said he received a “solidarity” letter from Butker explaining that he was upset about the funeral. Westen, however, calls out Dolan for an apparent “lie” regarding the letter’s contents, since his account does not seem to match that of Butker, explaining that Dolan “sets himself up” with his remarks and that Butker called him out.

The trio also speak to Butker’s remarks on abortion made during his appearance. Butker said that abortion is a “great atrocity that’s occurring with the massacring of the unborn.” He further opined that the unborn are the greatest victims in our society, that they do not have a voice, and that they cannot fight for themselves.

Yore draws attention to Butker’s use of his celebrity to promote the culture of life and recalls how Butker wore a tie during a visit to President Joe Biden’s White House with the words Vulnerari praesidio – protect the most vulnerable – written on it, referring to the unborn. He also wore a lapel pin in the shape of a 10-week-old infant in utero.

“These are the kinds of things that Catholics can do to send a message,” Yore says. For her, Catholics should follow in the footsteps of celebrities like Butker and Caviezel and not wait for bishops and clergy, but to do pro-life evangelism themselves, with the celebrities giving courage by their example.

Murr reacts to Butker’s remarks on abortion saying that it is not an “atrocity” but a “massacre.” “It’s not a blemish on our society, it’s an indictment that we can do this and be happy with ourselves,” he opines. He recalls that when once visiting a family, their daughter came in just after having an abortion and proceeded to make a ham sandwich as though nothing had happened.

“I remember watching this, and I’m thinking, ‘You can just sit down after an abortion and after killing your child and having a ham sandwich just like nothing,’” Murr laments. “What has happened to our conscience as a as a people? Our consciences individually?”

He also agrees with Yore’s assessment on the clergy regarding abortion, adding that if the bishops were to approach abortion the way they ought, “we would not be where we are.” He adds that unclear clergy on abortion are a scandal, though says that if abortion is a scandal, the fact of clergy being unclear on it is an outrage.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider recently appeared on a podcast discussing Fiducia Supplicans and the state of the Church.

Speaking about Fiducia Supplicans, Schneider recalls Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” in which a group of con men fool an emperor into thinking that they clothed him in garments invisible to fools, though the emperor himself realizes the con when a child points out the obvious that everyone else was afraid to point out. For Schneider, the faithful must be like the child in the story and respectfully tell Pope Francis that he is putting his own soul in danger and those of others with the December document.

He also refers to the St. Gallen Mafia in the interview, opining that it would be “logical” for them to stage meetings to plan on the 2013 conclave the way they did, as “the enemy is not sleeping.” Schneider calls on people to organize a “holy” mafia that will pray, do penance and reparation, and make sacrifices to “implore divine intervention” for the Church.

Yore reacts to Schneider’s remarks on the St. Gallen Mafia by advising people to stop being “naïve” to a “St. Gallen Mafia II” that is not “already planning the next conclave,” and that they will not relinquish the Petrine See.

“We have to be absolutely vigilant and demanding of our cardinals in the run up to the the conclave to demand all sorts of things,” she states, including the removal of Ted McCarrick’s former roommate Cardinal Kevin Farrell as papal camerlengo, the man in charge of the papal conclave. She also calls for another Gagnon report to see how many Freemasons there are in the College of Cardinals – something she thinks needs to be known before the next conclave.

“This is a clarion call by Schneider to wake up, stop being naïve, don’t presume that things are going to be fixed in the next conclave,” she asserts. “We need to spiritually arm ourselves, but also to be vocal and to make demands to ensure that what comes next is not worse.”

Murr agrees with Yore, adding that priests must stop being afraid to speak the truth. Christ, he says, will take care of them. “We should speak clearly,” he maintains. “Many of us are not speaking clearly. Many of the clergy are afraid that they’re going to lose everything they have by speaking clearly. It’s time to speak clearly.”

Murr also speaks to Fiducia Supplicans, warning that Rome is doing to lady deacons what it did with irregular couples, in his opinion: playing with language – the women will be deacons but not deacons at the same time.

“Stop the game playing!” he exclaims. Looking to Rome’s approach to defending Fiducia Supplicans, Murr calls it “insulting” that “Rome takes us for such pathetic fools, that we’re really buying this. Nobody’s buying it.”

Murr does not doubt that there are Freemasons in the Curia, responding to the potential objection of “conspiracy theory” that the philosophy of Freemasonry and those running the Church is “the same,” but calls on people to remain in the Church. For him, we still have Christ, Scripture, and the teaching authority of the Church. “Follow that and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” the priest advises.

“It’s a good time also to do penance,” he concludes. “We’re going into Holy Week. This is a fine week to do penance, to do fasting, to do praying, and also to do some letter writing to your bishops, to your pastors, to Rome, and to the Pope!”

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