In this episode, embark on a spiritual journey exploring the power of faith and advocacy. Father Frank Pavone joins us to lead a thoughtful discussion on the importance of religious freedom, pro-life advancements, and the recent passing of significant legislation. Discover how these pivotal moments are reshaping the conversation around life and faith in the United States and abroad, as we seek to inspire hope and action within our communities.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
At age 10, Father Andre escaped Christian massacres by living in caves in Mount Lebanon with his family. Today, Father Andre works tirelessly to encourage American leaders to keep God in the public square, defending religious freedom at home and abroad, so that all might live in peace for the glory of God. Founder and President of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, Father Andre has learned the secret to safety, joy, and peace. Love God and one another. Now, let us spend 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, retuning ourselves to the truth of love in the hands of God.
SPEAKER 01 :
Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now and forever and ever. Amen. I’m not sure about what I should be more excited about this beautiful day of Sunday after before which we just celebrated our Independence Day in the United States of America. this holy, beautiful day, the day of the resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, who every week on the beginning of the week reminds us that he defeated death, he conquered all evil, and he gives us a new hope for with Christ, everything, everything begins again in you. And we know this for a fact that according to St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17, to be in Christ means being a completely new creature. Everything of the old is gone. Now everything is made anew. can you believe it my brothers and sisters we have such a beautiful opportunity that every time every sunday when the lord we celebrate his resurrection from the death we are starting anew but not from point zero we are heading closer on the way with jesus towards the truth of jesus to have more life in jesus christ and that’s something so beautiful so life is the goal of this beautiful day of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today we also celebrate in the West the feast day of one of the young saints, Santa Maria Goretti, an Italian saint whose tomb I have visited many times. We have a little center for the mission of hope and mercy less than a mile away from her tomb and shrine in Anzio, Netuno, Anzio, near Rome, about 70 kilometers. This is a saint who on the day of her first communion Unfortunately, a terrible accident happened. Her neighbor who lived above them, one floor above them, he was an older gentleman. He was older than her. She was 12 years old. He was about 18 or 19 years old. Unfortunately, he tried to rape her and she wouldn’t let him. She kept saying, Jesus would not like that. Jesus would not like that. And unfortunately, in a time, in a moment of anger, he gripped his knife and he stabbed her over 27 times. And then she spent a big agony for overnight in the hospital of Santa Barbara in Anzio. But she forgave him. And he noticed that she forgave him. He actually is a man whose mother of Santa Maria Goretti forgave. And in 1948, when Pope Pius beatified Santa Maria Goretti, the murderer of Santa Maria was actually present. And he was sitting with the family of Santa Maria Goretti. A lily of Italy, as Pope John Paul II calls her, the lily of purity. This wonderful symbol also reminds us of our duty to protect the life of the innocents. And this brings me actually to the biggest joy of our podcast with Irrevocable Today that we have with us live in our studio from his beautiful center for the pro-life, for the priest, for life, Father Frank Pavone. Today, my friends, I’m not going to take too much force. I’m not going to be the one to pray. I’m going to and have Father Frank pray. I’m gonna remind you that Colorado, we miss Father Frank a lot and we have been accustomed, we have been used for years and years and years to listen to his voice. He is a symbol for us. He’s a symbol for our fight for life. He is a symbol for our fight for the right of the innocence to be alive as well as all of us to be given this opportunity and this chance through which god wants to accomplish beautiful things in this creation father frank is a national director of priests for life and you know he is a chairman and pastoral director of rachel’s vineyard the president of the national and pro-life religious council and a pastoral director of the silent no more campaign he did many advocacies and many outreach he received many awards he was recognized in many places and he himself as well was also put on the cross which is probably the badge of honor for us priests every time when we try to do something for the lord the lord calls us closer to him not through a worldly award or worldly recognition but he recognizes our little pain and he tries to make us faithful and bigger pain when he puts us on the cross for a way and for a reason that is only known to him But the fruits of our work remains as the sign and a symbol of the continuous presence of Christ, the Redeemer, Christ, the forgiver, Christ, the priest. And once a priest, the Lord has sworn and he shall never regret. You are a priest forever, according to the rite of Melchizedek. Father Frank, good Sunday morning to you. Good to be with you, Father Andre. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. You know, as I said, and I promise, I want you to lead us in prayer. And as I said earlier, after the prayer, I’ll ask you a few questions. But today, Colorado wants to listen to you. So would you lead us in prayer?
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Let’s turn to the Lord. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let’s pray Psalm 104. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Lord God, how great you are, clothed in majesty and glory, wrapped in light as in a robe. You stretch out the heavens like a tent. Above the rains you build your dwelling. You make the clouds your chariot and walk on the wings of the wind. You make the winds your messengers and flashing fire your servants. You founded the earth on its base to stand firm from age to age. You wrapped it with the ocean like a cloak. The waters stood higher than the mountains. At your threat they took to flight. At the voice of your thunder they fled. They rose over the mountains and flowed down to the place which you had appointed. You set limits that they might not pass, lest they return to cover the earth. You make springs gush forth in the valleys. They flow in between the hills. They give drink to all the beasts of the field. The wild asses quench their thirst. On their banks dwell the birds of heaven. From the branches they sing their song. From your dwelling you water the hills. Earth drinks its fill of your gift. You make the grass grow for the cattle and the plants to serve man’s needs, that he may bring forth bread from the earth and wine to cheer man’s heart, oil to make him glad, and bread to strengthen man’s heart. Lord, we thank you for the gift of life, life that you have poured out in abundance on the earth, and that you have crowned with your creation of human beings in your own image. We thank you today for the joy that comes not only from receiving life, but the joy that comes from defending it, celebrating it, serving it. We recall today, Lord, that your Spirit, who has been poured out upon us, as this psalm also declares, is the advocate. He advocates for us in the heights of heaven. As we receive that spirit once again, may we become advocates for the least of all our brothers and sisters here on earth, the children yet in the womb. Bless us as we follow you. Bless us as we proclaim your kingdom. Bless us as we advance toward eternal salvation. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. Amen, amen, amen. Father Frank, let’s get to work. I was so happy I saw you meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin. I believe you went to Rome less than a month ago after the election of our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV. How was the meeting, just in general?
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, Cardinal Parolin is great. We’ve been privileged to intersect with him for many years because, as you mentioned at the outset in my work of heading up Peace for Life, which does work internationally as well as domestically, we’ve done a lot of work for the rights of the unborn in the arena of the United Nations. And there is a Holy See mission to the United Nations, and we have collaborated very closely with them. They, in turn, collaborate very closely with the office of the Secretary of State, who is at Cardinal Parolin. So over the years, because of our international pro-life work, we’ve been able to intersect with him. to meet with him, to assist in various ways, because the church, and together with other nations, and when there’s a pro-life administration in the United States, together with the United States as well, are strong voices at the United Nations that say there should not be any, we should never consider abortion part of healthcare. So seeing Cardinal Parolin again was a great joy. And of course, I was there with my director of international activities. And we wanted to talk to him in particular, now that there’s a new pope, of assisting us and assisting me in having all my priestly ministry restored. My pro-life ministry has continued without interruption. But as many of our listeners know, I was told by Pope Francis that I could not function as a Catholic priest. But under Pope Francis, Cardinal Parolin was a friend to us. And we said to him, we need your help again, Your Eminence, now under Pope Leo, so that we can get back to normal in terms of the exercise of my priesthood. So it was a very positive encounter and I’m very grateful to him.
SPEAKER 01 :
It seems, Father Frank, that, you know, because your suffering is symbolic, your suffering is symbolic, but it’s amazing. You are fighting on our behalf for the right of the Genesis, because this is a Bereshit. This is the beginning. The beginning of life at conception is being attacked. You understood this, but did you understand the gravity of the attack you will suffer from?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’ve always told people if you defend the unborn, you will be treated like the unborn. People will pretend you don’t exist, like we pretend the unborn don’t exist. They’ll exclude you from consideration and protection. They’ll say we don’t have time for you, we don’t have room for you. You stand with the unborn, you get treated the same way. And yet you get blessed the same way because the Lord said in the Beatitudes that those that are rejected, hated for his sake are blessed. The poor, those who have no help but God himself are blessed. And so we rejoice in that blessing. jesus said that slave is not greater than his master if they hated me they’ll hate you we take that as part of the promises of christ i think father that in the training that we and and many pro-life groups give to younger activists when someone wants to come into the movement you know there are a lot of training programs and then these are done also in the churches for okay here’s how you do the work of pro-life well there are many valuable lessons that are taught One of the lessons we have to make sure we don’t forget to teach is to prepare people for that kind of rejection and persecution that will come. Some people underestimate the intensity of the hatred that is launched against us. If they underestimate it, if it takes them by surprise and blindsides them, then, you know, that’s going to lead, if someone’s not prepared, that’s going to lead them to think, oh, maybe I made a mistake by getting into this. This is not what I bargained for. And then they leave. And this is why there’s a lot of drop off, you know, from pro-life activism. But the more we can prepare people, have them expect the intensity of the backlash, the more we will persevere.
SPEAKER 01 :
And not every battle is won, obviously, but you have done a lot of beautiful achievements. But it seems that this week and this month, in particular, with the administration of President Trump and with this new bill, the big, beautiful bill, it seems there’s a lot of benefits for pro-life. And it seems that there are more cuts of funding from Planned Parenthood. I have a lot of questions to ask you, but all of them lead in the same way. You know, you help in the fight against Amendment 79, which basically gave constitutional constitutional right to abortion, I believe. Right. Amendment 79 in Colorado. Yes. In Colorado. And then somehow. This fight was lost. Why? And what is Amendment 17? What is the significance? And is there another chance? Is there a second chance to stand against this amendment and to protect the life of the people?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, there’s certainly… To deal with that part of the question first, there certainly is, and there are efforts underway. And then that’s the answer to the first part of the question. Well, why would they need a policy to allow more abortion if all the abortions are already allowed? Because if you put it in the Constitution… You’re not just talking about the policy today. You’re talking about preventing different policies tomorrow. In other words, the pro-abortion side is really rightfully afraid of we the people. We, the people in America, are becoming more pro-life. And now the Supreme Court has said in the Dobbs case from three years ago, if you pass a law protecting the unborn, we’re not going to strike it down. There’s no constitutional reason to get in your way if you want to protect the unborn. So the pro-abortion people are thinking in Colorado, and they did the same thing, by the way, in New York. where already abortion is practically without limits, but they put an amendment in the Constitution to say it should always be allowed. And they had admitted why. They said, hey, the political winds can change. What if Republicans, what if pro-life people get elected? What if we get a different governor, a different legislature? Right now, Colorado is very blue, as we know. But what if it changes? We don’t want them coming in and starting to pass all kinds of pro-life laws. So if you put an amendment in the Constitution that says you can’t limit abortion, well, then the lawmakers can’t. start the process of making a law like that. So now what pro-life people have to do is work on changing this constitutional amendment and put it back again to a more reasonable place. And that has been done in certain other states. In Nebraska, they passed the pro-life amendment to the constitution instead of the pro-abortion amendment that the other side was proposing. So the work continues. We always have to have determination to undo any evil that’s been done.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, as we are talking, as we are recording this radio show, irrevocable for our podcast for the Sunday on July 6th. We want to wish everybody, first of all, happy Independence Day. I want to tell you that the big, beautiful bill has officially passed the House. And now it is being taken to President Trump’s desk. Father Frank, what does this mean for the pro-life? Because I know in the big, beautiful bill, there are certain advantages for the pro-life. It is considered victory. Can you explain a little bit?
SPEAKER 03 :
A very big, very big victory, Father. It’s great to be with you at this moment that this has happened because, as I said today in various commentary, this is the biggest victory, first of all, for America since the November elections. The November elections were a great victory for our country. This is the greatest victory since then, because this actually implements so many of the policies that the voters voted for. We’ll mention, as you just asked me, the pro-life dimensions of this. But taking a big step back and looking at it overall, it’s the biggest tax cuts in American history, the biggest spending cuts in American history. It prevents a $4 trillion tax increase that would have happened if if President Trump’s original tax cuts hadn’t been extended. It secures the border even more. It strengthens the military even more. And it brings about beautiful policies. One of them is the no taxes on tips. So many of our listeners, I’m sure, receive tips for the work that they do. No more taxes on those tips. No more taxes on overtime. No more taxes on Social Security. This is going to be a big win for everybody. When it comes to pro-life, just like the bill itself, with its many, many provisions, is the biggest victory for America since the November elections. In pro-life, this is the greatest victory for us since the Dobbs decision. Why do I say that? Because for decades, the pro-life movement has been trying to stop the federal funding of Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses. Money has been pouring in. half a billion dollars a year and more from our tax money going to these organizations who kill babies. And we’ve been trying to figure out for many, many years, how do we stop that? So many different bills have been introduced in the past, but they’ve never passed the hurdle of the Senate where you need 60 votes. So even if you’re in the majority, it’s still not enough. You got to get 60 votes to break the filibuster. and all kinds of efforts have been made sometimes the congress has passed the legislation and we didn’t have a pro-life president or sometimes there’s been a pro-life president but we didn’t have both houses of congress this year all the planets aligned in the sense that you had a pro-life president a pro-life house a pro-life senate And a reconciliation bill, which means it didn’t need 60 votes. It only needed 51 votes in the Senate. That just happened. That just happened. And so we finally got it done. We came close to getting it done in the past. We finally got it done today. What a tremendous victory. There’s also a provision in this bill for opening up. for every newborn child a private investment account and uh seeding it with a thousand dollars so that if properly used by the family and also um the legislators senator ted cruz was behind this this bill by the way and um uh this part of the bill i should say uh and with the he got even the agreement of many employers that they would pay into this account for the children of their employees. And I think more companies will get on board with that as it becomes more widely known. But what does this do? It is an incentive for parents. It is an encouragement for parents. who want to have children. It’s one of the many things that can push them away from abortion and make them feel like, hey, I have some help here. I have some help even coming from the government. Father, as you may know, Victor Orban, in Hungary, was able to, through public policy over there, bring down the abortion rate tremendously by things just like this. In other words, keeping more and more incentives, financial incentives coming to families that want to have children, that want to do what our faith teaches, to say yes generously to the gift of life. So this is just scratching the surface, but these are some of the pro-life highlights in this big, beautiful bill.
SPEAKER 01 :
I was seeing them, according, while you were talking, if you notice, I was seeing what AI would say, what is considered to be victory due to provisions for pro-life in the one big, beautiful bill. And in fact, as you were saying, the potential pro-life benefits according to AI, one, restrictions on abortion funding, which you spoke about. Yeah. ACA plan restrictions, shifting healthcare landscape. Potential concerns, however, for pro-choice advocates impact on women’s health. And that’s what I wanted to ask you. Does really this rumor about women’s health being the main argument to encourage women to stand against the life of the baby? How much of it is a lie? How much of it is really? Father Frank, comment on this. Is it really practical to say that women’s health goes against the protection of the life of the baby or they go together as a matter of fact?
SPEAKER 03 :
The life and health of the woman and the life and health of the baby go together perfectly, and one of the things the other side does not pay attention to is how much abortion harms women. Now, we say that. It’s not just a slogan. It’s backed up by many studies. I want to give a father a website where people can take all the time they they want to take to actually look at those studies we have a obviously a short time here to discuss it but if people go to the website lifeafterabortion.com that’s one of our websites at priests for life we have many different ones but this one educates people about the harm abortion does now people might say oh yeah but that’s a pro-life website No, no, we have the links to the research. And what I’m asking people to do is take a look at the scientific research, take a look at the research. It’s not just coming out now. It’s been coming out for decades. And what does this show? This shows that abortion actually harms the health of women. By what? Well, first of all, the procedure itself is unnatural. So there can be hemorrhage and infection. There can be infertility and sepsis. There can be uterine perforation and all kinds of problems with subsequent pregnancies. Preterm delivery, for example, is one of the well-documented after effects of abortion. increased risk of breast cancer, et cetera. Many physiological problems, psychological too, and familial. Many studies about the connections between abortion and child abuse or problems in relationships, breakdown of marriages, and on and on it goes. So then when the other side claims to stand for the health of women, I ask them a simple question. Have you looked at the effects abortion has on the health of women? Now, notice how I phrased that question. Have you looked at? Because before we even say I agree or disagree, we have to look at what the research says. And this is something the other side is often guilty of, that they just they’ll just make an assertion. Oh, you’re going to you’re going to ban abortion and it’s going to have a negative impact on women’s health. OK, well, I don’t know why you say that. Show me your show me your studies. But then again, the question back to them, which studies have you read? What have you looked at showing the opposite, that having the abortion actually is a negative effect on women’s health? more closely.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you. Father Frank, I want to continue with you what we started to conclude the podcast to bring it back to our own world as consecrated ministers, as ordained ministers. You know, you heard Felicia was saying that there is a leak from the Vatican that probably what we have thought to be that the bishops endorsed the abolishing of the Old Mass or passing limitations on the Old Mass. We’re talking about the Tridentine Mass versus the Novus Ordo or the Mass that came after Vatican II. And it seems like in these unofficial leaks from the Vatican, It seems that the bishops did not endorse basically abolishing this old mass. And then you said yourself, you went to the Vatican, you met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who I cherish a lot. I met with him many times myself personally. He knows about the mission of hope and mercy. We presented to him. Actually, I think I have a picture behind me somewhere with me and Pope Francis when I met with him and with Cardinal Parolin. And I showed them the work of the mission of hope and mercy. And he blessed us. what do you think the conspiracy in the Vatican is, and why there has been so much internal damages between our unity as a clergy, and why was the canon law used against us? I know it’s a big question, but we have little time.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I worked over there for a while at the Vatican, as you mentioned in my introduction, and It’s a bureaucracy. It’s a lot of people involved. There’s a lot of people who have influence behind the scenes. And Father, I think it just boils down to personnel is policy. What’s true in politics is also true in the church. You get some people in there who, frankly, I think some of them just don’t believe. They don’t believe the gospel. They don’t believe the faith. Their motives are different. We see the same thing in government. You know, you elected an administration. The voters speak. They want certain policies. And you’ve got some bad actors in there that who don’t believe in those policies. And they’re trying to short circuit.
SPEAKER 01 :
And they work in the Vatican.
SPEAKER 03 :
They were in the Vatican. There’s so many. There’s so many people. Nobody knows their names. Nobody knows their faces. And that they’re in there. They’re in the system. You get a bad apple in there, so to speak, and you get bad policies. And there’s whisper campaigns and there’s gossip and there’s people who try to manipulate and others that try to pay people off to do different things. Wherever there’s human nature, there’s going to be these kinds of behaviors, wherever there’s human nature. We just have to continue to keep strong and continue to support the voices of those who are true shepherds and giving us the solid faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
I want us to conclude a little bit with an opening to a new challenge. And I know I spoke about it with Bishop Strickland, who I love to have him on our podcast, to continue commenting on those steps of victory towards pro-life and to ask him more about what does total abolishing of abortion looks like, without exception, without compromise. I would love for you to be with us, if you can, to have like an open dialogue between the three of us. if your time allows it. Absolutely. Let’s do that. Let’s do that. That’s so important. That would be great. But do you think our priests in our parishes are tuning down a little bit the pro-life message in order not to be challenged not to be sacrificed, not to be marginalized, like what happened to you. In my experience, for the defense of the persecuted, I did not know. We say in our mission of hope and mercy, we would like to apply the gospel of Matthew chapter 25. I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me to drink. I was naked, you covered me. I was a stranger, you hosted me. I was in prison, you visited me. I was sick and you visited me. That’s Jesus Christ basically judging the nations of the earth. And then I did not know until the persecution happened to me, I told my mom, was the very first human being I said this to, I said, mom, I did not know that between the bread of the poor, the bread of the poor and the poor, all the gates of hell are standing. I did not know that every time I’m gonna try to bring bread to the poor, it’s the entire hell that’s gonna break loose to try to take away their bread. And what you said in the beginning of our podcast, Irrevocable, that, but you prepared your people. How did you know, and what courage, what gift, how did you know that the level of attack is not gonna take you down, even though it takes you down, you’re gonna rise again? Were you really sure that this was God’s plan for you and for us?
SPEAKER 03 :
yes and i all i can say is that i don’t know if it was just through prayer or through i always feel like an attention an attention to history teaches us these lessons whether it’s the the martyrs or even in civic history you know reformers are always punished reformers are always put down and canceled you know i mean of course the cancel culture is most obvious right there on the cross you know that jesus says the cancel culture was you know shown on display on good friday so but it didn’t work it didn’t work right and i think that’s the ongoing lesson is that you try to silence truth and truth always ends up coming out in the end and that’s what we got to focus on not the effort to silence us right now but the assurance of the of the eventual victory
SPEAKER 01 :
So what’s your message finally to our brothers, the priests, to our fathers, the bishops, who wash their hands or when we walk on the street, they turn their faces away to avoid probably us because we look like if we were stamped and somehow with the shame of the wood of the cross. What is your message on this wonderful Sunday?
SPEAKER 03 :
My message would simply be this, that the biggest temptation for us as priests is to take the sacred for granted. Oh, it’s another homily. Oh, another mass. Okay, I have to do another baptism. And it becomes like, oh, another one. You know, we get used to it. We should never get used to it. And what we should also never get used to and never take advantage of, lose confidence in, is the power of the word that we preach, because it’s not ours. Jesus, I mean, God said to the prophets all the time, I’m going to give you my words in your mouth. He says to Ezekiel, eat the scroll, right? It’s God’s word in our mouth. So the power doesn’t come from us. It comes from him. And I think a lot of our fellow clergy, because they lose confidence in the power of that, They don’t preach it as vigorously as they should, especially on these controversial matters. The power of the word to change people and to win. Remember, God said, I’m not going to send my word. It’s not going to come back to me empty. I’m going to send it and it’s going to accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. Why was it sent? For life. So I urge our fellow clergy, focus on that. You have a word in your heart, in your mind, on your lips that will bring life. It’s nothing to do with you. So stop worrying that the persecution has anything to do with you either. Just preach that word, suffer the consequences, but you’ll also receive the glory.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you, Father Frank. This has been a wonderful message. Father, as you made the springs and valleys to form streams between mountains. so you may live in streams of grace flow from the apostles, that their teaching may bring salvation to all the nations. In this month, we celebrated the feast days of the prince of the apostles and the apostles to the nations and the 12 apostles and the early martyrs of the Roman church. May we have a practical knowledge of their doctrine, be obedient to their commands, obtain remission of our sins through their prayers. And finally, O Divine Father, as Father Frank has spoken to us, may we all recognize not to take the sacred for granted. but to remember that in our words and the ministry to serve you as a sacred amongst us, you have life to share abundantly with the world. And you count on our courage to be able to share it with others, regardless of how much suffering we go through. Give us the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And on this day, we tell you truthfully from all of our hearts, emitte spiritum tuum et crea buntur, et renovabit facem terram. send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen. Thank you, Father Frank. We love you. And we’re going to do this episode with Bishop Strickland and you and have an educational forum for our people in the United States in the post era of Dobbs and after this big victory and one big, beautiful bill as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
I look forward to it, Father. Thanks and God bless you. God bless you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to 33 Minutes on the Lord’s Day. To hear previous programs, visit the show page at missionofhopeandmercy.org. Listen to Father Andre every Sunday morning at 7.30 on KLZ as he speaks on the unity of Christians, religious freedom, and the biblical foundation of Judeo-Christian values and traditions. Join him in bringing hope and freedom to people across the globe while also strengthening your own faith, family, and community right here in Colorado. Reawaken the spiritual strength of America. Go to missionofhopeandmercy.org.
