In an eye-opening dialogue, Father Andre and his guest Willie Guardiola delve into the critical realms of pro-life advocacy and religious freedom. Addressing the significant impact of historical and contemporary challenges faced by the church, this episode sheds light on the courageous stands taken by religious leaders against forces that seek to silence their voices. Explore the indomitable spirit of those defending the faith and their tireless efforts to protect the sanctity of life in today’s society.
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 :
Greetings. This message is brought to you by Father Andre Mahana, President of Mission of Hope and Mercy. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, a few days ago, the bombs fell again on South Lebanon. Last Christmas, like this time, under similar circumstances, we took the Christ child’s gifts with us anyway. We loaded the trucks with food, boxes, with mattresses, with bottles of water, and with the Christmas presents wrapped in the joy of the Nativity. And we drove straight into the villages where the missiles were still passing over our heads. We gave everything in the name of Jesus. on your behalf, and I saw the gospel of hope, of peace, of life and salvation come alive. The hungry were fed, the naked were clothed, the homeless were given rest, and children felt happy and rejoiced. In the very places of war and disruption of peace, the light of Bethlehem shone. I know that light from my own childhood, for during the war in Lebanon, my family became refugees in a cave. I was nine years old. Hunger gnawed not only at the body, but at the soul. I remember searching the school trash cans with my friends as the nun told us to pick out half-eaten sandwiches, brushing them off the dirt, and thanking God for every crumb. I remember the day we walked five hours to fill blue gallons of water from a fountain near Byblos. On the way back to the cave, Syrian jets struck. We fell into the creek as the earth shook, and every precious drop was lost, and we got injured. That frightened little boy hiding in the dark is still inside this priest yet with courage and resolve. That is why when I place a box of food into a mother’s trembling hands beneath the sound of bombs, when I give a child a Christmas gift in a village that has nothing left, I am bringing to them on your behalf the same mercy I once begged Jesus and the Virgin Mary to send me and my family. This is a mission of hope and mercy, to be the hands of Christ where the cross is heaviest, to carry the infant Jesus in our trucks right into the places that most resemble the stable of Bethlehem, poor, cold, rejected, and under threat. This Christmas, I beg you in the name of our Lord and our Lady, who once fled into exile with her child, help us return again and again to Lebanon, to the south. Every dollar you give becomes an act of mercy that will be counted on the last day. Remember what Jesus said, I was hungry and you fed me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Your gift today is a Christmas offering laid at the manger for the suffering members of Christ’s body in the fullness of hope. Do not let these families face another night without help. Right now, today, please go to missionofhopeandmercy.org and go to the donation page and make the most generous gift you possibly can. A $35 feeds a family for an entire week. A $75 buys blankets or a mattress so a child does not sleep on a cold ground. A $150 sends a full Christmas box food for the feast and gifts that tell child, Merry Christmas, Jesus sees you and is with you. From the land where I once huddled in a cave, from the very villages that now receive the light of Christmas under fire, I wish you all a blessed and a holy season of Advent and a Merry Christmas. May the infant Jesus who was born in danger and poverty repay you a hundredfold for every gift you give in his name. In the peace of Christ and the protection of Our Lady of Lebanon, On behalf of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, I myself, Father Andre, and all the people that we serve, with you, let us chant and greet each other, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good hope to all. Merry Christmas. Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to wish to all of our people and friends and benefactors and the people of Goodwill and my special guest, the beautiful brother in the Lord, Willie Guardiola, a wonderful and happy and blessed day in this holy and great season of Advent. Today is Thursday, and today is also a particularly special and nice and beautiful day. For today, and according to our liturgical celebrations, is the feast of St. Damasus. St. Damasus or Damasius or Damasus I was the Pope of Rome in the early 4th century, at the most crucial time of the history of the Church. when Damascus was born in Spain in the year 305 all the way until he became a Roman clergy in 366 and all the way until he became a pope and died in 384. This was the most terrible time in the history of the Church, as far as persecution goes. This was the most crucial time. Young kids were being given to beasts. Young children in the history of Europe, like Santa Lucia, like we celebrate her feast day actually very soon now, I believe December 19, and Santa Cristina and many other young saints, most likely Santa Felomina, the wonderful miracle wonder maker, St. Marcus, St. Bacchus, St. Raymond, St. George, St. Nora, many of the Christian martyrs known in our history, young kids and older adults, young generals in the Roman army. They stopped giving their legacy to the Roman army, to the Roman military. They converted to Jesus Christ and they started protecting the church. And this Holy Father spoke against the persecution. This Holy Father was the Pope of Rome, the Bishop of Rome, spoke against the atrocities that are taking place and happening against the Christians. It was because of the many good work of St. Damasius I or Pope Damasius. He summoned the synods actually to work against schismatics, to work against heretics. The church was being attacked from outside and from inside. The church was being attacked by a sponsored campaign by the Roman Empire at the time, to be persecuted. Hundreds of thousands of Christians died and were put in jail. This is the time also for great sainthood. This is a time where the fight against heresy was at its best. This is a time where Pope Damas started putting the very first syllabus for the celebration of the Roman liturgy, for the celebration of the Holy Roman Mass, which my friend and myself, Willie, will be talking about a little bit. And actually, this is a pope who promoted in the world the cult of martyrs. Why? Because the reality did not make sense. This was the 10th wave of officially sponsored persecution by the Roman Empire against the Christianity, against the Holy Church, basically. And in 10 waves of persecution, let’s say, since the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the year 70 until 380, You had 10 different emperors or the Roman Empire, let’s say, ran 10 different state-sponsored campaigns targeting Christians, the followers of Jesus Christ in the East, in the West, in Africa, in Europe, all over the Ecumene or the world that they governed, actually. And hundreds of thousands of Christians were dying and were being killed. As a response, Pope Damasius I promoted the cult of the martyrs. Martyrdom is not the end of the story. Martyrdom is the closest gift God can give to somebody when the Holy Spirit comes and takes over the body of the saint, occupies him with a gift that is a little bit higher than courage. This gift is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit reserved in a very particular way to the holy martyrs. It is the gift of fortitude, which is this extreme courage according to which the Holy Spirit comes over the body of the person who is being laid like a lamb led to the slaughter and do not open their mouth, like Santa Barbara, like Santa Lucia, like Santa Philomena, like Santa Aquilina. Like Santa Presede, Santa Scholastica, Santa Felicita, not Scholastica. Many of the saints in the history of the church have actually received this Holy Spirit. And what does this Holy Spirit allow them to see? For instance, in the first martyr in the Holy Church, St. Stephen, whose feast we celebrate immediately in martyrdom the day after Christmas, I think, as a matter of fact. St. Stephen, for instance, when he was being knelt down and he was being stoned, including when Saul, who became later on St. Paul, was watching and witnessing to his lapidation, to him being… basically stoned all the way to death. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that Saint Stephen, the Archdeacon and the First Deacon was looking up to heaven and saw heaven’s opens. And then from there he said he saw Jesus Christ welcome him in the gate of heaven. And he forgave all the people who were persecuting him on her stoning him to death. That is a gift of fortitude. It is so important for us today to learn about that gift. So happy, beautiful feast day with the holy martyrs, with the feast of St. Damasius I. Today, my friends, it is such a privilege and honor as we begin and embark on this conversation to have a friend who I met in the works of good deeds and public sphere of life, defending the faith, standing up for pro-life, and of course, doing a ministry as a Christian on a mission. I’m happy and it’s an honor to introduce to you Willie Guardiola, president of Christian on a Mission, founder of Pro-Lifers for Trump, president of the PBS Right to Life League. My greatest priority, says Willie, is to wake up the Catholic people and to the Holy Spirit and to become bolder in their walk with Jesus Christ. Willie continues and says, my other great priority is to hold all the Catholic bishops and priests around the country that I know to preach and teach the real Catholic Church’s teachings and not to go astray like many of them have. In a nutshell, the most important thing that I do, Willie says, with my ministry is to protect and fight for the seven C’s that I preach about. Country, church, clergy, the constitution, the communities, and the children, and the most important, Christ. Protecting the unborn from abortion is what I’m mostly known for in the state of Florida. And having closed the three Planned Parenthoods in Palm Beach County in a span of 12 months going back to the year 2020, that has never been done in this country ever. My mantra says really, and the slogan has always been, G-G-T. God’s got this. And with Irrevocable today, with myself, Father Andre Mahana, and the Mission of Hope and Mercy, from Lakewood, Colorado, to Florida, to Palm Beach in Florida, we are happy that you and the thousands are joining us on this vivid and life and beautiful conversation. So Willie, good holy day to you, sir.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, Father. Same to you. I could sit back here and just listen to the whole history of all the saints that you just rattled off. Martyrdom, I mean, that to me, the history of the Catholic Church, and we don’t take the time and read about the martyrs from way back when. Just amazing, and the answer before, doing all the work in Lebanon. I’ve become very close to Lebanon over the past five and a half years. I’ve been going to the Catholic Maronite Church at Mary Mother George, who is Lebanese and, you know, born in South Africa. But that ad was just phenomenal. And just to see our Pope Leo go to Lebanon two weeks and to pray at the burial site and the body of St. Charbel, it was just amazing. So this is what a great connection and what I’ve learned already in the first six minutes here.
SPEAKER 01 :
I want to thank you, Willie. What attracts me, actually, we have seen each other in many of the peaceful prayer rallies that we have done. I’ve seen you in Florida. I follow your text messages, actually. How do people follow you? Where can they learn more about your ministry? Let’s give them a little bit practicality about how they can follow your ministry and what can they do.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, basically, a website probably about seven months ago. And I’ll talk to you about that in another time. But basically, Willie Guardiola at Yahoo.com. And everybody knows my number. It’s the original 305. So it’s 305-610-2992. how everybody pretty much gets a hold of me. Spoken from Miami all the way up to Hassee here in the state of Florida, people know that number. So that’s the easiest way to get a hold of me. And of course, you’ve seen the emails that I put out. I put in a lot of time and effort. Sometimes some of these emails take me two or three days Because I take my own photos, I organize these rallies, and then I go and write about them and give the recaps and everything. Just like when Bishop Strickland was here for the March 19th here at Mar-a-Lago, and then on March 20th, we went over to the Planned Parenthood and Presidential Women’s abortion clinic. So I took all the pictures, put all the emails together, sent them out to 3,500 people on my email list. And, you know, like I said, Bishop Strickland has become one of my best friends over the
SPEAKER 01 :
He’s a holy man, he’s a holy shepherd, and many of us count on his protection, actually. We feel protected, we feel somehow definitely connected in a very special way to the powerful shepherdhood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the image of the Good Shepherd. I know you work closely with many clergy and many priests and many bishops, and I have knowledge that these fights inside the church, the weaponization of Qan Allah, silencing the priests, cancelling priests, um putting fires like we feel who are in the communist regime almost where you know the pilots come abusing their offices and we have facts unfortunately on that and many of us know this but that’s not nothing we preach about we don’t talk about those things we just suffer them silently how do you describe the reality of the church today in terms of all these political upheavals and the weaponization of canon law And what is your take on all of this that is happening?
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s known as the time of silenced or defrocked Catholic priests. So, for instance, Father Frank Pabon, who’s been defrocked three years now, he’s always been a friend of mine, but he’s become even closer to me. And then you take Father Solomon, the same thing, and then Bishop Strickland… just spoke about your situation in Colorado, what you told, I mean, just being homeless and everything. We stayed up there one night till midnight talking about it. And that’s what’s happening to the bishops and the priests who have the guts to speak about the real Catholic Church teachings. And they speak the truth. And that’s basically it. And that’s what’s really attracted me to like a Bishop Strickland. And it’s funny, I’m wearing this shirt here, but When we were here in Palm Beach almost a year ago, I gave him these shirts, and he actually wears these shirts underneath his cassock. So whenever he does a Mass, if he ever gets a chance, or he does a Eucharistic procession or adoration, Over his cassock, he’s wearing his shirt. And it’s really funny when he unbuttons and he shows all the other priests. And we call him Super Bishop, you know, just like Superman. But the amazing how many priests, every priest that I’m going to talk about today, everyone has them here. This shirt, and it’s just an amazing thing. Even Father James Altman, who’s another dear friend of mine, when he does Masses at his private chapel, he’s got the shirt up on the altar, and he holds it up to show everybody. And it’s just, it’s amazing how this shirt has gotten around. Bishops and priests, Bishop Paprocki, who was our keynote speaker a couple years ago, so… So many bishops are wearing a shirt, and it’s really caught on. I ordered 500 more, and it’s like a shield of armor, just like Bishop Strickland says when he wears it under his cassock. And I’m always wearing it whenever I go out to the pro-life rallies and abortion clinics when I know that people are going to get in my face and try to tell. This is my shield of armor as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, we have about probably 5,000 people joining us now live, and I’d like for them to enjoy a little bit in depth the topics we will be covering today. And obviously, as I introduced you, you take great honor that you have helped to close in less than 12 months three Planned Parenthoods in your area in Florida. Pro-life is important. And I’m not sure if all the people who will be watching us or listening to us have the same opinion or have the same zeal and the same creed when it comes to the pro-life. Just an elementary way, an elevator speech. What is pro-life and why is it important to protect the children who are being aborted? And how do you do that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Our greatest right is the right to life. And there’s Bishop Strickland there. I wish you would show the one picture that he’s had about his cossack. But the right to life is the most important thing. Forget about pursuit of happiness or anything else. Right to life. It’s a shame that we’re still aborting. There’s a picture right there. It’s one of my favorites. It’s unbelievable. We’re still aborting a million innocent babies in this country. 73 million babies around the world aborted last year. Over the past four years, about an average of 73. And it’s just mind-boggling. So to me, I coach a lot of the priests. And what I’m trying to do, as a matter of fact, is have a meeting here at our seminary, which I believe we have about 80 seminarians. And I want to bring in Kristen Hawkins. who is the student pro-life director, and we met about two months ago. So what I want to do is meet with her, Father Alfredo, and all of the seminarians there, and put on a power presentation, allow me to speak what I do with my pro-life, and allow her to speak, and put this into the young 20s. 225 tenarians to let them know how important pro-life is. So when they do their first sermon, when they do their first homily, they’re not going to be afraid to say the word abortion from the pulpit. And that’s the problem today. Our priests are afraid to say it. about abortion, because every time I meet, it doesn’t matter if I’m in Florida, if I’m in Tallahassee, you know, Florida or anywhere else. Every time we meet, they say, Willie, before we start meeting, remember 50% of Catholics are Democrats, 50% are Republicans. And I said, well, whose fault is that? The bishop should do a better job on this. But Willie, if our priests start talking about abortion, 50% of those parishioners are going to get up and walk out. I said, that’s why we have ushers. Just usher them right out. They don’t need to listen to it. When they are in the seminary, as a young 21, 25-year-old seminarian, and then after his 9 or 10 years, I’m bold to speak about pro-life and about abortion and not be afraid. And that’s our biggest problem because I speak to so many priests about it, and they even speak about confessions. And really, Saturday we’re having confession at 3 o’clock. An 18-year-old girl comes in and says, you know, Father, I have… had an abortion six months ago and looked through the whole, you know, confession and he resolves her sins and everything. And now he’s doing a mass the next morning, Sunday at 930. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden she’s there sitting on the second. If that priest now starts talking about abortion and saying that, you know, the fifth commandment that shall not kill. And he now is talking about how severe abortion is. A young girl may just walk out of the church and say, wow, I just confessed to this priest. Now he’s talking about abortion.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wow. We are looking online now, actually, and you can tell about from the live sighting news, I believe, about the Planned Parenthoods and how many there are in the country, how many have shut down and how many there are still going on. You know, in Denver, Colorado, a new Planned Parenthood opened, unfortunately, and this time they actually do late-term abortion, including, obviously, when the baby comes out of the womb. And, you know, we have supposedly a large archdiocese here, but I think they’re busy sending other types of letters and communications.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. We closed 55 Planned Parenthoods in this year, 2025, throughout the country. 55 in the year of 2025. That’s pretty good. But the problem is that once we close down these abortion clinics, they’re just going to the abortion pill. 65% of abortions in this country today are through the abortion pill. Take two and call me in the morning, and a lot of people are going to keep in track of it.
SPEAKER 01 :
You seem to also have worked for Pro-Life also during the campaign with the president, if I’m not mistaken, with President Trump when he was running. Is it 2020 now, or 2020, or 2024?
SPEAKER 03 :
2016, because I was with Ted Cruz for 10 months. When he dropped out on May 3rd of 2015, I jumped, excuse me, 2016, I jumped on the Trump train, and I haven’t stopped since then. So I put together the Pro-Lifers for Trump t-shirts, and we put a group together, and that’s where we started. People said, Willie, what are you doing here at this Trump meeting? And I said, guys, I’m bringing the Pro-Life movement over to the Trump campaign, and people didn’t understand it. Said, Willie, President Trump is not even pro-life. I said, that’s exactly why I’m bringing this campaign over here. And you know, back in 2015 and 2016, President Trump was pretty much like pro-choice. He wasn’t real pro-abortion, but he was kind of, you know, on the fence. And I truly believe that the evangelical vote and the pro-life vote is what won the election for President Trump in 2016. I truly believe that, especially in the state of Florida.
SPEAKER 01 :
Are you able to reconcile between, let’s say, you know, President Trump allowed the pro-life to have foundation in the Supreme Court, that the state… does not have the competence to judge over the life of a baby or the right of a woman. He put it back in the hands of the state. We call this, he overturned, roe overs overweight, basically. And it seems like the states, depending on what color they follow, what political moral principle, not political moral principle, what in their politics, what moral principle they follow, if they are pro-life, we see that the states are coming down hard on Planned Parenthood and institutions like that. If the states are Democrats, they’re going even more. They’re getting like more aggressive on killing babies. You know, Felicia just showed us a horrible picture. She said, look, this is what a 23-week-old baby would look like. And those babies actually are being killed, as you said, in the millions, in the millions. Are you still working with the president? Do you think the president will continue to enhance and fix little bit the glitches that are in his pro-life stand for life? What do you think about that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I mean, June 24th, 2022 was a huge day for pro-lifers. After 50 years of Roe v. Wade, we finally reversed it. But the problem is that nobody went out and celebrated it. Everybody was kind of like, okay, what are the Democrats going to do? so as soon as it was reversed at 10 a.m that morning at 1003 1004 1005 every single tv station called me channel 5 12 25 palm beach post new york times washington post they all call me for interviews and i said i am not leaving my house today because i’m going to get shot if you want to do interviews you come to my house and i set them up at 12 1 2 3 4 and then i did two zooms with the washington post and new york times but Nobody wanted to go and celebrate. And the Democrats are looking around saying, well, hold on a second. The Republicans, you know, pro-life people just won this big victory and nobody’s saying a word. And that weekend on Saturday and Sunday, I can count on five fingers, five priests from our diocese only mentioned the reversal of Roe v. Wade. only five priests every single priest in this country should have talked about the reversal of roe v wade thank you for praying in front of the abortion clinics and fighting for this for 50 years they went mum nobody wanted to say a word i can name all five right now but i won’t and that’s really really sad that was a big rally and since the democrats said the republicans aren’t doing anything They turned everything around, and they started saying that we’re way over the top, and look at these crazy lunatics, these right-wing people, and that’s where the 2022 election, we lost the midterms because they came at us with their abortion view, and we didn’t say a word. The bishops there should have stood strong and tall and bold, and I get after every single one of them. We needed more than five in this diocese, Speaker.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I do not want to put you on the spot, my friends. We are talking about pro-life. We are talking about the defense for the innocent lives. We will cover the persecuted Christians also in my conversation with Willie and myself. We will cover a little bit of the issues going on on the southern side of our continent. in the Americas. Willie knows a lot about geopolitics and about the safety of the communities. As you can tell, he is a Christian on a mission, not only a pro-lifer. And as you can tell, he’s solidly honest and he speaks the blatant truth, even if it might cost him. But that’s good, that’s good. We cannot afford, we cannot afford in this time and age to be compromised. to be and somehow playing politics with the truth of protecting life, for instance. You know, the Mission of Hope and Mercy has been running a major campaign and I’m thankful to Felicia who played the video before. You know, a few days ago after the Pope had left and even during the Pope visit that Willie mentioned there was bombing in Lebanon and there is a war between terrorism and Israel. There is a war between U.S. policies of President Trump and what is being done to Lebanon. And it seems that it’s not easy to separate the Lebanese people as far as practicality and outcome of life. Their economic wealth has been jeopardized, has been completely confiscated by the banking collapse system, by the Hezbollah confiscating their funds from the banks. The Beirut explosion in 2020, a site visited by Pope Leo, the first pope in history to go visit that site, and that explosion was really the largest explosion that is a non-atomic bomb, the largest non-atomic bomb explosion in the history of humanity. See, Lebanon suffers a little bit. So the Mission of Hope and Mercy has been running this beautiful campaign for the end of year and for Christmas. And of course, a lot of good people. We are trying to gather $62,000. You saw the video. I really invite you. Visit missionofhopeandmercy.org. Visit missionofhopeandmercy.org. Go to our donated page. See our landing page that we established for the work that we are doing as a Mission of Hope and Mercy. You can also find us on Give Sense Go. You know, Give Sense Go. You can find the page about the Mission of Hope and Mercy as well. You can find the page. under the Colorado Gives Day here in the state of Colorado. The Mission of Hope and Mercy is a four-star, non-for-profit, accredited and good standing, and it does support practically the persecuted Christians. Donating to the Mission of Hope and Mercy fits all the rules and regulations and it’s a good deed to do. So any help you can offer us to continue raising our funds to reach at least $62,000, it will enable us to do a lot of good, especially at the end of this year before we close the year 2025.
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.
