Donald Trump Posts Video of Contentious 60 Minutes Interview on Facebook

1,217https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDonaldTrump%2Fvideos%2F350524406214941%2F&show_text=0&width=560CHARLIE SPIERING22 Oct 20201,9881:47

President Donald Trump on Thursday posted the full video of an interview with 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl after cutting the contentious exchange short.

Trump posted the video to Facebook and shared it on his Twitter account.

“Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS,” he wrote.

The video shows Stahl at the beginning of the interview asking Trump if he is prepared to answer “tough questions.”

Stahl pressed the president on the coronavirus, spending most of her time asking him on why he did not wear a mask or order his supporters to wear masks at his rallies.

She also repeatedly challenged him on the question of health care, asking him for exact details how he planned to protect pre-existing conditions for health care if Obamacare was overturned.

Stahl also protested when Trump referred to the Hunter Biden scandal and the evidence that former President Barack Obama’s administration spied on his campaign.

“There’s no real evidence of that,” she repeated. “No. … Sir, this is 60 Minutes, we can’t put on things that we can’t verify.”

Stahl added, “All these things have been investigated and discredited.”

“It’s incredible the way you can try and say this and sit there and look me in the eye and say it,” Trump said.

At 36 minutes in, Stahl appeared almost apologetic.

“I did not want to have this kind of interview,” she said.

“Of course you did,” Trump replied.

When a producer interrupted to prepare for a walk and talk camera shot with Vice President Mike Pence, Trump refused.

“I think you’ve had enough,” he said, ending the interview.

Altering Human Genetics Through Vaccination
 by: Jon Rappoport World Mercury ProjectJune 28, 2018
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has launched efforts to create a vaccine that would protect people from most flu strains, all at once, with a single shot.
Over the years, I’ve written many articles refuting claims that vaccines are safe and effective, but we’ll put all that aside for the moment and follow the bouncing ball.
Massachusetts Senator and big spender, Ed Markey, has introduced a bill that would shovel no less than a billion dollars toward the universal flu-vaccine project.
Here is a sentence from an NIAID press release that mentions one of several research approaches:“NIAID Vaccine Research Center scientists have initiated Phase 1/2 studies of a universal flu vaccine strategy that includes an investigational DNA-based vaccine (called a DNA ‘prime’)…”This is quite troubling, if you know what the phrase “DNA vaccine” means. It refers to what the experts are touting as the next generation of immunizations.
Instead of injecting a piece of a virus into a person, in order to stimulate the immune system, synthesized genes would be shot into the body. This isn’t traditional vaccination anymore. It’s gene therapy.
In any such method, where genes are edited, deleted, added, no matter what the pros say, there are always “unintended consequences,” to use their polite phrase. The ripple effects scramble the genetic structure in numerous unknown ways.
Here is the inconvenient truth about DNA vaccines—They will permanently alter your DNA.
The reference is the New York Times, 3/15/15, “Protection Without a Vaccine.” It describes the frontier of research—the use of synthetic genes to “protect against disease,” while changing the genetic makeup of humans. This is not science fiction:“By delivering synthetic genes into the muscles of the [experimental] monkeys, the scientists are essentially re-engineering the animals to resist disease.”
“’The sky’s the limit,” said Michael Farzan, an immunologist at Scripps and lead author of the new study.“The first human trial based on this strategy — called immunoprophylaxis by gene transfer, or I.G.T. — is underway, and several new ones are planned.” [That was three years ago.]
“I.G.T. is altogether different from traditional vaccination. It is instead a form of gene therapy. Scientists isolate the genes that produce powerful antibodies against certain diseases and then synthesize artificial versions. The genes are placed into viruses and injected into human tissue, usually muscle.”
Here is the punchline:“The viruses invade human cells with their DNA payloads, and the synthetic gene is incorporated into the recipient’s own DNA. If all goes well, the new genes instruct the cells to begin manufacturing powerful antibodies.”
Read that again: “the synthetic gene is incorporated into the recipient’s own DNA.”
Alteration of the human genetic makeup.
Not just a “visit.” Permanent residence. And once a person’s DNA is changed, he will live with that change—and all the ripple effects in his genetic makeup—for the rest of his life.
The Times article taps Dr. David Baltimore for an opinion:“Still, Dr. Baltimore says that he envisions that some people might be leery of a vaccination strategy that means altering their own DNA, even if it prevents a potentially fatal disease.”
Yes, some people might be leery. If they have two or three working brain cells.
This is genetic roulette with a loaded gun. Anyone and everyone on Earth injected with a DNA vaccine will undergo permanent and unknown genetic changes…
And the further implications are clear. Vaccines can be used as a cover for the injections of any and all genes, whose actual purpose is re-engineering humans in far-reaching ways.
The emergence of this Frankenstein technology is paralleled by a shrill push to mandate vaccines, across the board, for both children and adults. The pressure and propaganda are planet-wide.
The freedom and the right to refuse vaccines has always been vital. It is more vital than ever now.
It means the right to preserve your inherent DNA.
Email link  https://conta.cc/35nDQ2y

Election Will Decide Trump Recovery or Biden RecessionFor those who care about economic growth, there’s only one choice in November.
BY: LOUIS DEBROUX The Patriot PostOctober 21, 2020

There has arguably never been a starker contrast for visions of America than 2020’s presidential race between Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat former VP Joe Biden. While Biden was given the nomination by Democrat power brokers to avoid having crazy Bernie Sanders as their candidate, Biden’s economic vision is straight out of Sanders’s socialist playbook.
Biden’s is a plan for higher taxes, more burdensome regulations, and more government control of individual lives and private industry. It’s a plan to reverse the Trump policies that put the economy on steroids after eight years of economic stagnation under Obama-Biden, which saw the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression, the lowest workforce participation since the Jimmy Carter years, and an anemic GDP growth Obama told us was “the new normal.”
Under President Trump, we have seen the lowest black and Hispanic unemployment rates in history, a wave of tax cuts and regulation-slashing that unleashed investment and job creation, and a huge jump in personal and family income levels.
The resurgence in American prosperity was dealt a body blow by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, which forced a shutdown of the economy, the loss of 22 million jobs, and the shuttering of countless thousands of small businesses.
Yet under President Trump’s leadership, nearly half of those lost jobs have been recovered in just the last four months, a record-breaking achievement.
As The Wall Street Journal notes, “The housing market is booming, small-business sentiment is bullish, and manufacturing is on the rebound. Once a Covid-19 vaccine is approved, and better therapies become more widely available, the economy should take off as even Democratic governors ease their lockdowns. The service economy will revive as Americans feel safer, and the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low as long as it can get away with it. Mr. Biden could do nothing and inherit a boom in 2021 and 2022.”
But all of this progress is endangered under a Biden-Harris administration.
Biden, driven by his far-Left base, has promised to raise our taxes. He claims he would not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000/year, but that lie is exposed with his promise to repeal the Trump/GOP 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which, contrary to the Democrats’ claims that it only benefited the rich, actually gave the biggest cuts to lower- and middle-class workers.
According to economist Joseph Sullivan of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, “In the exact middle of the household income distribution, over 95 percent of households can expect a tax increase if the Biden-Harris plan becomes law. Overall, 82.6 percent of American households can expect a tax increase.”
The impact of the Biden-Harris tax increases would be devastating to an economy working back up to full strength, just as the Obama-Biden tax policies smothered an economy struggling after the 2009 recession. 
Readers may recall it was the Obama-Biden “stimulus” plan that actually increased unemployment by more than two points, and it was Joe Biden who Obama put in charge of the laughably named “Summer of Recovery,” as well as Recovery Summer 2, Cash for Clunkers, and other gimmicks that never actually stimulated the economy or created jobs.
Biden is also pushing a $15/hour federal minimum wage, more than double the current minimum wage. According to the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), that would eliminate roughly two million jobs over the next six years, with those hardest hit being minorities and women.
EPI managing director Michael Saltsman warns this would cripple small businesses, arguing, “Business owners across the country are already facing a great loss after the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus. Increasing labor costs through a federal $15 minimum wage would only bring businesses — and the people they employ — closer to the point of no return.”
Biden has also proposed a 33% increase in the corporate income-tax rate, from 21% to 28%, which would discourage investment and job creation in the U.S. Keep in mind that it was Apple CEO Tim Cook, no fan of Donald Trump, who proclaimed it was the GOP’s corporate cuts that led to Apple’s decision to repatriate nearly $300 billion in overseas profits, and announce another $350 billion in investments to expand operations in the U.S.
These taxes would also be crushing to tens of thousands of small businesses, which employ more than 40 million Americans, many of which pay business taxes at the individual tax rate.
Also included in Biden’s hellish economic plan is his support for the Green New Deal, at a cost of nearly $100 trillion (though his version is supposedly substantially smaller), the expansion of ObamaCare for those over age 60, and increases in the federal income and payroll taxes.
He has also proposed raising the capital gains tax for high earners from 23.8% to 43.4%, which would wreck investment in the U.S., killing job growth in its wake.
The end result of Biden’s plans would be a return to the economic stagnation that we have escaped under the Trump economy.
Under President Trump, we have weathered a global pandemic and an economic shutdown, and we are well on our way back to the strong economy we enjoyed just eight months ago (yes, unbelievably, it’s only been eight months).
On November 3, Americans will chart their course for the next four years. Will it be a booming economy and job growth, or a plunge into another long recession?
Choose wisely.
Email link https://conta.cc/3mamf4I

Rip McIntosh

The Australian financial intelligence agency has handed information to federal police concerning allegations that international money transfers, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros in Vatican funds, were sent to Australia during the trial of Cardinal George Pell.

During a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, Nicole Rose, the chief executive of AUSTRAC, the Australian government’s financial intelligence service, was asked about allegations, first published in Italian media on Oct. 2, that approximately 700,000 euros in Church funds had been sent to Australia at the behest of Cardinal Angelo Becciu for the purposes of influencing Cardinal Pell’s trial on charges of sexual abuse.

Sen. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells asked Rose about media reports of the transfers “allegedly from Vatican funds to a person or persons in Australia.”

“Yes, I can confirm AUSTRAC has looked into the matter and we’ve provided information to the AFP [Australian Federal Police] and to Victoria Police,” Rose told the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee on Oct. 20.

The exchange during the parliamentary committee session confirmed that AUSTRAC, which is charged with monitoring financial transactions to prevent money laundering, organized crime, tax evasion, fraud and terrorism financing, is aware of the allegations and has apparently identified information meriting police attention or investigation.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera first reported Oct. 2 that the alleged transfer is part of a dossier of evidence being compiled by Vatican investigators and prosecutors against Cardinal Becciu, who was forced to resign by Pope Francis on Sept. 24, in apparent connection to multiple financial scandals dating back to his time as sostituto at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

According to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, the allegations regarding a transfer to Australia were made by Msgr. Albert Perlasca, Becciu’s former chief deputy at the secretariat.

Perlasca and Becciu worked together for several years overseeing aspects of curial governance, including the investment Vatican finances. Perlasca is believed to be cooperating with Vatican prosecutors as part of an ongoing investigation into financial misconduct at the Secretariat of State over a period of years.

CNA has not confirmed the substance of the accusation. Cardinal Becciu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or attempt to influence the trial of Cardinal Pell.

Pell himself has not publicly addressed the allegations, although the former head of his legal defense team in Australia, Robert Richter QC, has called for a public inquiry into the allegations.

After initial reports of the allegations, some media outlets speculated that funds could have been sent from Vatican accounts to or through the Holy See’s nunciature in Australia.

On Oct. 6 in Rome, Pope Francis met with Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, apostolic nuncio to Australia, reportedly to discuss the allegations. However, AUSTRAC’s confirmation that information had been forwarded to both national police and state police in Victoria suggests that any transfer or transfers under investigation could fall outside diplomatic or sovereign channels.

In 2017, Pell took a leave of absence from his role as head of curial finances in the Vatican to return to Australia, where he stood trial on accusations of sexual abuse, attested to at trial by a single alleged victim. After spending more than a year in prison, Pell’s conviction was overturned by the Australian High Court earlier this year.

While AUSTAC has forwarded information to police at both the state and federal level, local police in Victoria have been criticized for their handling of the Pell case.

In 2013, Victoria Police opened Operation Tethering, an open-ended investigation into possible crimes by Cardinal Pell. At the time the operation began, no alleged victims had come forward against the cardinal and there had been no criminal complaints made against him. Although they had found no victims or criminal accusations, in 2015 the program was expanded and put on a more formal footing.

In 2017, Pell was charged with sexually abusing two minors. He was convicted in 2018 on the evidence of a single victim-accuser, the second alleged victim died before the trial. The second alleged victim had denied on several occasions that he had ever been sexually abused.

In December, CNA reported that, as early as 2014, senior police officials in Victoria discussed that the investigation into Cardinal Pell could be used to deflect public scrutiny from a corruption scandal in the force, linked to organized crime, which had become a media firestorm in Victoria.

Cardinal Pell served as the first prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy in the Vatican, a department created by Pope Francis in 2014 to bring coherence and transparency to the administration of curial finances.

From 2011-2018, Cardinal Becciu served as sostituto at the Secretariate of State. While there, he was known to have a strained relationship with Cardinal Pell.

CNA has reported that the two cardinals clashed repeatedly over Pell’s attempts to reform Vatican finances and to institute reforms ordered by Pope Francis.

Following the allegations that Becciu used Vatican funds in an attempt to interfere in Pell’s trial in Australia, on Oct. 17 Becciu’s lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said, “regarding the everlasting attention of some journalists to Cardinal Pell’s trial,” Becciu “is compelled to reiterate vigorously that he has never interfered with it in any way whatsoever.”

The lawyer also said “to protect and defend his honor, so gravely damaged,” Becciu may seek legal recourse against some news organizations for their continued reporting of “an alleged, albeit non-existent activity to taint the evidence of Cardinal Pell’s trial.”

The October Laptop Surprise

By Fredy Lowe

October 21, 2020

Please promise not to even whisper amongst yourselves what you are about to read here. Do not share it, or even comment below about Hunter Biden’s laptop, because social media tells us that you are not qualified to know or discuss this information at the risk of having your account banned, where you will possibly be electronically scorned for life.

And, as if the threat of being banned by FB or Twitter were not bad enough, the ultimate warning was laid down by James Clapper, “Fight if you want, but there’s nothing you can do. ‘The emails are Russian’ is going to be the official dominant narrative in the mainstream political discourse, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it! Resistance is Futile.”

Who amongst us will volunteer to tell former DNI James Clapper that he is—so yesterday—and would he please mind sitting down. And, furthermore, that it has been confirmed by the current DNI John Ratcliffe that, “Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign.”

And, so we begin:Every blockbuster story like the one being told herein, first and foremost, must have a hero, so allow me to introduce to you: John Paul (JP) Mac Issac. And, of course, the dastardly deeds of our villain(s), in the person(s) of the Biden Crime Family: namely, Joe, son Hunter, daughter Sarah, and brother, James.

The truncated version of our ‘unspoken tale’ began after corresponding with Larry Johnson, a veteran CIA agent and working in the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. Joe Biden’s son. Hunter, who resides in California, came to Wilmington, Delaware, on or about April 12, 2019, where his father Joe, aka Big Guy (Democrat candidate for POTUS) lives. As a former investigator myself, we often relied upon, and thanked God for, the basic stupidity of criminals who would give us some of our most informative and creditable leads. And so, having said that, there was more-than-likely a discussion over the three (3) laptops and what to do with them. If Big Guy was a ‘clear-thinking-criminal’ he would have called Hillary for advice, but no, they decided on their own, (now this part is just investigatory speculation) to submerge the laptops in the bath tub. But, now fast-thinking-Hunter needed to confirm that the laptops were water-damaged beyond repair and took them to a local computer repair shop in Wilmington on the aforementioned April 12th date.

Our hero JP, looked them over, saying one was destroyed by ‘some kind of liquid’ (luckily Hunter removed the rubber ducky from the bag…), but one was fine and he could retrieve the data from the hard drive of the third. Hunter, who could have been in a drug induced haze when he signed a service agreement left the shop, thinking they were now gone forever, with no plans to ever return to the shop.

After safely removing all the data from the damaged laptop, our hero John Paul tried multiple times to contact Hunter to pick them up, but to no avail. Months went by (May, June, July and August) and, according to Delaware law, when a product is left for service and not retrieved by the original owner within ninety (90) days, the legal ownership is transferred to the repair shop, which was specified in the agreement that Hunter signed.

Then on September 25, 2019, the White House released a printed version of President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. John Paul was shocked to hear this and realized that he was in possession of potentially ‘radioactive’ material from the laptop’s hard drive, which he still had in his possession. He recalled that the data contained hundreds, if not thousands, of confidential emails to and from unknown people in the Ukraine, China and Russia. JP thinking this enormous amount of vital information may be relevant to a federal investigation, which now might involve the President of the United States, contacted his father Mac, who lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Mac was a well-respected man, known as being a decorated Vietnam Veteran, who flew gunships in Vietnam, and then continued his military service with an impeccable record until he retired as a Colonel in the US Air Force. He agreed with John Paul and offered to make initial contact by taking the data files to the FBI office in Albuquerque.But, after discussing the potential importance of the information, he was blown off by an arrogant agent, who was uninterested, and basically told Mac to leave the office.

Sometime in mid-November 2019, as JP began thinking that the government was uninterested in the data, was surprised by two FBI agents (Joshua Williams and Mike Dzielak) from the local Wilmington office who simply walked into his shop. JP immediately offered to give them the data files from Hunter Biden’s laptop, but after a brief discussion, they again refused and left John Paul’s shop.

About two weeks later (in late November/early December 2019), the FBI finally returned to JP’s shop and took the data from Hunter Biden’s laptop computer. It is worth noting here that our hero John Paul Mac Issac, after realizing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had no initial interest in the data files, never considered taking it to the media or possibly a tabloid which would undoubtedly have paid big bucks for this potentially salacious information, where the source would never have to be revealed. But, John Paul Mac Issac was his father’s son, an honorable man of character and integrity who never even consider the huge payday he might otherwise be ‘entitled to’.

Never shared the incriminating data from the laptop with President Trump’s defense team

And, then on December 18, 2019, President Donald Trump was formally impeached. And, on that day, JP knew for certain that the FBI (Christopher Wray), and by extension, the Department of Justice (William Barr) never shared the incriminating data from the laptop with President Trump’s defense team. And, in the normal course of his business, JP had made a forensic copy, an exact clone of the data from the laptop, contacted President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudi Giuliani, and arranged to give him a copy of the massive amount of data from Hunter Biden’s laptop. And, as you now know, after spending a considerable time of due diligence as an investigative prosecutor, Rudi Giuliani gave the initial story of the contents on Hunter Biden’s laptop to the New York Post. But, know now that there is much more to come—much more.

Thank God that the all-powerful social media giants wanting to crush this amazing story by sending out fools like James Clapper to make ultimatums saying that THE EMAILS ARE RUSSIAN! can no longer un-ring this bell! Every possible version of this blockbuster story is now being told by every alternate media source available, and of course that FoxNews TV host Tucker Carlson, is one of the only trusted sources who has the integrity to report the truth.

Realizing my lead off was tongue-in-cheek, it is now more important than ever to find ways to break away from the mainstream and social media and share this vitally important information with each other, to electronically share and to make sure it cannot be corrupted by powerful interests, such as the ones James Clapper referred to. Please consider this as your civic duty to share this as we know the legacy media will continually attempt to influence the outcome of our upcoming presidential election by withholding and/or corrupting these truths. There are so many moving parts to this salacious storyThere are so many moving parts to this salacious story, but one of the most important for us to analyze is the silence of the FBI Director Christopher Wray and his boss, Attorney General William Barr. In their secretive minds, the data from the Hunter Biden laptop never existed. Thinking they were in possession of the only copy Wray and Barr made a conscious decision to hold back the files for safe-keeping, while seemingly hoping and praying that it would all go away when Joe Biden was elected president.

Thankfully, John Paul was no fool and made additional copies of the data files. President Trump should immediately call Wray and Barr into the Oval Office for a serious discussion of their plans, going forward. Then the question arises of what Nancy Pelosi knew, and when did she know it? Or what and when did Adam Schiff or Chuck Schumer know about the incriminating data found on Hunter Biden’s laptop?
We need to stop and think for a quiet moment and consider how different our world would have been had the FBI in the Albuquerque office, or for that matter possibly the agents in the Wilmington office, had been honest investigators, and as well as them having honest bosses. Firstly, President Donald J. Trump would not have been impeached, and secondly of equal importance, Bernie Sanders would have been the Democratic candidate for President of the United States, certainly not Joe Biden.
Joe Biden has been compromised by the Chinese CCP government. He is a known national security threat.

LOCK HIM UP!

Fredy Lowe served proudly in the United States Marine Corps and the New York City police Department. He has been a citizen journalist for nearly ten years writing for Canada Free Press, Before It’s News, Conservative News & Views, Ammoland, The Post & Mail, and others.

Email link  https://conta.cc/2Hd2KtK

Rip McIntosh

MAIKE HICKSON

BLOGS

New book gives insight into the heart and faith of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, shows us his tears

Dr. Robert Moynihan was able to visit Archbishop Viganò in an undisclosed location for several days. From that visit came this thought-provoking new book.Wed Oct 21, 2020 – 12:19 pm EST

Editor’s note: LifeSite readers can receive 10% off Dr. Robert Moynihan’s new book, Finding Viganò, by clicking this link and using the code LSN10.

October 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Dr. Robert Moynihan is one of the few people who has been able to meet with Archbishop Viganò in person since the archbishop first published his McCarrick testimony in August of 2018 and went into hiding. With the help of his interviews with the prelate over the course of several days, the U.S. journalist, editor of Inside the Vatican, and Vatican expert has been able to give us glimpses into the reasons why Viganò published his McCarrick testimony, his private and hidden life, his suffering, and his faith.

As he describes in his upcoming book, Finding Viganò: In Search of the Man Whose Testimony Shook the Church and the World (TAN Books), Dr. Moynihan was able to visit Viganò in an undisclosed location for several days at the end of July 2019 — that is, nearly one year since the Italian prelate went into hiding. As it turns out, Viganò had then already changed his locations several times. However, the prelate seems calm and supported by his intense life of prayer, which includes daily Mass, praying the full rosary every day, and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. He is also aided by his family members and friends, who stay in close touch with him.https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

As the archbishop told Moynihan, he went into hiding not to avoid being indicted by the Vatican — he said he was willing to be questioned about everything he has written — but, rather, because “some friends” had advised him that it might be “prudent” to do so. Viganò has followed the advice of his friends who might be more concerned about his physical safety, thus effectively living the life of a hermit. Only once, on January 18 of this year, he appeared in public when praying in Munich together with the Acies ordinata group against the German bishops’ synodal path of laxly liberalizing the Church.

As Moynihan writes, Archbishop Viganò “is, arguably, one of the loneliest men in the world.” But, as Viganò told the journalist during their interviews, he does not regret his decision to make public the names of those in the Vatican, to include Pope Francis, who knew of disgraced cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse and did not take the steps necessary to stop him from harming many generations of young men and seminarians. He said he does not regret having asked the Pope to resign. “Having clearly covered for McCarrick,” he told Moynihan, “it was only right that he first did what he asked the Chilean bishops to do.” When then asked whether he regrets having published his report, Viganò answered: “No. It was something I had to do.” He added: “I think that I have been a witness to the truth.” Viganò also explained that “my conscience is telling me to protect the Church. I see that the devil has been entering into the Church, on the top of it, and so that I have to stand up.”

On August 25, 2018, the retired Italian prelate, who had then been relieved for two years from his last post as the papal nuncio to the United States in Washington, D.C., published his now famous report accusing Pope Francis of ignoring Pope Benedict XVI’s earlier restrictions on then-cardinal Theodore McCarrick on account of McCarrick’s preying upon and abuse of seminarians. Viganò revealed that he had informed Pope Francis about the misdeeds of McCarrick and about Benedict’s sanctions against him and said that, since Francis ignored these warnings and even actively sought the official assistance of McCarrick, the Pope should resign. He had then also revealed the many names of prelates — among them Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano — who knew of the accusations but did not work for a just correction and healing of the situation.SUBSCRIBEto LifeSite’s daily headlinesSUBSCRIBEU.S. Canada World Catholic

Ever since that moment, Viganò has gained the trust of many Catholics in the world as one of the few prelates who put truth above any expedient and earthly considerations such as being able to be respected among members of the Vatican. He sacrificed most of his earthly comforts and honors for the defense of the young, who had to face sexual abuse from those who were called to be the representatives of Christ on Earth. Viganò stands for a program of reform of the Church that is not based on empty words, but that aims at removing those aspects from the life of the Church that weaken the Church’s voice and witness. Among these obstacles, he names some erroneous doctrines that crept into the Church at the Second Vatican Council and its aftermath, an attitude of laxity toward sin and moral depravity, and other forms of corruption in fields such as finances.

That is to say: to many, Archbishop Viganò appears to be a prophet of our modern times, in the midst of a grave and manifold Church crisis. It is here that Moynihan’s book will help us appreciate this clergyman even more, since this U.S. journalist has set out to understand the archbishop’s life and work, his motives and his faith, his loves and his resistances.

Moynihan himself appreciates Viganò’s attempt to break up a “culture of cover-up” and a “brotherhood of silence,” as he writes, “that has for decades grown like a clinging vine around the heart of the Church, even in the Vatican, or perhaps better, especially in the Vatican.” This “culture of silence,” he adds, which often is defended with a supposed concern not to scandalize “the faith of the little ones,” “has become so harmful to our once-glorious and holy Church that the healing light of truth … has become hidden.” This healing light of truth pertains to the “truth about the sexual sins of the hierarchy,” as well as the “deviations from the saving doctrines of our faith.”

As Viganò keeps on insisting, the doctrinal and the moral corruption in the Church go hand in hand. For example, the prelate stated in September of this year: “Moral corruption and doctrinal deviation are intrinsically linked and, to effectively heal these wounds in the body of the Church, it is imperative to act on both fronts. If this dutiful intervention does not take place, the Bishops and the leaders of the Church will answer to God for betraying their duty as pastors.”

But how is Viganò to be considered as a man, as a human being? “He was a man of simple tastes,” Moynihan tells us about his visit with him, “hospitable, a man who prayed the daily holy office (the daily prayers prescribes by the Church to be said by the priests) and nourished a profound devotion for the Holy Rosary, of which he prays and celebrates all the Mysteries daily.” He was a man closely following Church news. In some ways he was an “emotional man, a man of profound joys and sorrows, a man who was sometimes nostalgic, sometimes seemingly deeply wounded due to perceived injustices.” The U.S. journalist continues by describing Viganò’s excellent memory; his courageous attitude; his generosity; and most of all, his being a man completely devoted to the Catholic Church.PETITION: Stand with priest who faces Church penalties for saying “You can’t be a Catholic and a Democrat.” 

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As a matter of poignant fact, on a few occasions during these interviews, Archbishop Viganò shed tears of sorrow, for example when describing how he confronted McCarrick with his sins when first meeting him in the nunciature in Washington, D.C.: “I knew about him [and his sins],” Viganò told Moynihan, “but I treated him with charity all the time.” Here adds Moynihan: “Viganò, recalling McCarrick, begins to choke up and break into tears.” The archbishop continued: “I confronted him the first time in the nunciature after I was named to that post. I said: ‘You have done that!’ And he, just speaking with very low voice, said, ‘I may have made a mistake. Sometimes I slept in the same bed as a seminarian, as a priest, etc., etc.’”

When Moynihan asked Viganò about his “love of the Church,” the archbishop once more wept: “Well I mean it was all my life. Well, I mean I was living for that.”

Here we see a prelate who has given his whole life to the Church, and now he must suffer for her, and under her. Love does such things, and love proves itself most ardently by suffering under the beloved, and for the beloved, just as Our Lord did.https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

Viganò makes us also understand where his love for his beloved Church comes from. As Moynihan puts it, “his boyhood was marked by a continuing contact with the Christian tradition of Milan, weaving his daily life into twenty centuries of tradition.” Born in 1941 and being one of nine children, Viganò’s childhood took place in pre-conciliar times. Or, as Viganò himself said: “Our whole life was imbued with the liturgical life of the Church and with the memory of the Church’s history in Milan going back to St. Ambrose.” When he was a youth, he studied with the Jesuits in town. His family practiced many acts of charity by visiting widows who had lost their husbands in World War II, and, as such, to bring them some money and food. By the time of his First Holy Communion, Viganò knew he had a vocation to the priesthood, just as did one of his older brothers. He was greatly inspired by one young priest, Giulio Giacometti, who worked at Viganò’s elementary school, and then also by the Milanese cardinal, Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, who has now been proclaimed blessed. “These two men,” writes Moynihan, “influenced the young Viganò from a very early age to decide that he should become a priest.”

Our Lady was always present in his life, too. One of the archbishop’s first memories was “on the breast of my mother, probably when I was around two years old, bringing me down into refuge during the bombardment [of Milan], and there was a little image of Our Lady with the light.” “And so we were starting to pray the Rosary,” Viganò continued. “I have this deep emotional memory of Mary. This marks a presence in my life all along. I remember that we would pray every evening after dinner, all together.” And he remembered his father keeping the sleepy children awake, “reminding them that it was beautiful to be praying together to Our Lady, to our Mother.”

Of his own father, Viganò said that he was “a very kind father.” It was “terrible for me,” he explained, when he suddenly died at the age of sixty-three, possibly due to medical malpractice. Viganò was twenty years old. As Moynihan writes: “Viganò seemed moved emotionally by the memory of his father’s death. ‘My father, certainly, to say the truth, was central to my life,’ he continued. ‘We were raised to tell everything to our mother and father.’”

From 1973 on, Viganò was called into the diplomatic service of the Vatican, and he was to remain there for the rest of his life, thus giving him nearly fifty years of experience and insight into the life and the workings of the Vatican and of the Church as a whole. He was devoted to the popes and served them each with a full and open heart. It seems that among the popes, the closest bond existed between him and Pope John Paul II, who once, after seeing him in his post in Nigeria, noted: “Monsignor Viganò looks tired. He should go back to Rome with me.” The Pope soon called him back, in 1998, and made him the delegate for pontifical representations, the personnel chief of the pope. John Paul II had also personally consecrated Viganò as a bishop in 1992. For twelve years, Viganò remained in this position of personnel chief for the entire Roman Curia, as well as for all of the Vatican diplomats. Under Pope Benedict XVI, Viganò was first called to run the Vatican City State — and tried to clear out financial corruptions there — and was then sent to Washington, D.C., with a providential mission that seems to continue until today. In surveying the archbishop’s vast experience and varied exposure, Moynihan assesses that what this archbishop has to say “may be as informed as what anyone in the world may have to say on the subject.”

In a sense, Viganò’s role in helping to fight corruption in the Church intensified under the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, and that is also when the rumors and anonymous emails about him started to circulate. Starting in 2010, these initiatives against him later led, in 2012, to Vatileaks. He was accused of creating an atmosphere of “conflict” among the staff and employees, while he himself wrote to Pope Benedict, asking him to protect him so that he could continue his work of cleansing the Vatican finances. “The Vatileaks affair was about me,” he told Moynihan. Unfortunately, as in other cases, Pope Benedict decided to let Viganò go, sending him to Washington, D.C., rather than keeping him in Rome and supporting him there in his work.

As to Pope Francis, Archbishop Viganò told Moynihan that he trusted him completely at the beginning, saying, “I was very confidant and very straightforward. I opened my heart” when speaking with him about McCarrick and the sanctions placed on him by Benedict. He was only later to realize that Pope Francis ignored this information and even denied that Viganò had told of him these grave things. (At least he claimed he did not remember it.) Now the archbishop has no hesitation to say that Francis “is lying” and that Francis “is destroying the Church,” as he told Moynihan.

The archbishop believes that there are parallels between the time of Our Lord and His possibly impending Second Coming. Just as the Sanhedrin were so corrupt that they condemned Jesus Christ, so, too, the Holy See is corrupt today. Viganò approvingly quoted to Moynihan a prominent convert from Judaism who once told him: “Now the corruption of the Holy See is very great, as was the corruption at that time, now as then.” “So this is a sign for me as a former Jew that the time is very near for the second coming of Jesus,” as the convert had concluded.

Let us end this book review with some hopeful words from Archbishop Viganò.

Speaking about his work, he told Moynihan that “we must be clear in our minds, but we cannot continue to hide the facts,” and thus “we must recognize that there is a project of the devil to destroy the Church. The watchwords are a ‘new Church’ for a ‘new humanism.’ No more Jesus Christ, no more cross, no more confession and forgiveness of sins. We must fight against this project. Yes, we must fight for the faith. With God’s help, with confidence, without pride.”

“I am speaking what I see and telling the truth,” he told the U.S. journalist at some point. “I cannot any longer stay silent. I am going too fast, yes, but the situation is moving very fast.” But in the midst of this struggle, Viganò insisted, “Pope Francis should be converted by the Holy Spirit. And then he should turn, as Peter turned, and confirm his brothers, of whom I am only one.”

Finally, Viganò turns his hopeful eyes to Our Lady. He told Moynihan that “I still understand more and more that our time is now the time of the Mother. This is the time of the Mother of the Church.” He added: “My hope is with Our Lady, she will lead the Church in the battle against the devil. A time will come very soon. This is my feeling … Our Lady will crush and defeat the devil.”