Join us for a powerful episode on ’33 minutes on the Lord’s Day’ as we delve deep into the nature of faith in a world that often forgets God. We begin with an unsettling incident in South Lebanon, where an Israeli soldier desecrated a statue of Jesus, raising questions about the safety of Christians in volatile regions. Father’s Andre’s narrative shines a light on the struggles faced by Christians around the world, from vandalism in the United States to attacks on the faithful in Nigeria and beyond.
Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Welcome to 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, a sacred time, a set apart moment, a return to what matters most. In a world that moves quickly, that speaks loudly, that often forgets God, this is your invitation to pause, to listen, and to enter into the presence of the Lord. For the next 33 minutes, we will walk together through the Word of God, encounter the reality of our daily lives, and respond to the call of Christ, who speaks not only to the world, but personally to you. This is not just a program. This is a moment of grace, a moment to remember who you are and who you are. So, wherever you are, driving, working, resting, open your heart. The Lord is speaking. Welcome to our show. Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever and ever. Amen. A wonderful day to you, my beloved brothers and sisters in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let God arise. Let his enemies flee before him. Hallelujah. Today on this irrevocable show, we will continue to speak in about render unto Caesar and to God. Church, Christendom, post-Christendom, and Cesar-o-papism in the history of our humanity today comes into play. The case of Pope Leo and President Trump, the case of the abuse against the churches, against the statues of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, against his people, the incidents in the Middle East about religious discrimination, attacks against churches in South Lebanon. And as you can tell, the world is filled with the stories about how many incidents and shapes and forms come to insult our Lord and to hurt his holy people. Therefore, today, it is worth it actually to pray with Psalm 68 as we begin our hour together on this irrevocable podcast and our 33 minutes together on the Lord’s Day with KLZ radio station in Denver, Colorado. But before all of that, remember in the epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 10, St. Paul says, Ascending on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to man. In the beginning of the show, we will play in a unique way this incident that happened in South Lebanon where one of the Israeli soldiers went to Debel, one of our Christian villages in South Lebanon in the High Galilee area, not far from where we, as a Mission of Hope and Mercy, actually this is a town that we supported the people and the parishes, where the late Father Pierre and myself used to go and take food to the parishioners there, from Kolai Ab all the way to Debel to Ain Ebel. And unfortunately, the soldier took the big cross of our Lord, turned it upside down, and with a big axe hammer or something, almost cut off the head, he did most likely cut off the head of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And of course, this incident brings all sorts of proper reactions, reactions of condemnation, reactions of telling the Israeli government and the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, and our United States government to be watchful for those things, not to allow that such incidents actually happen because they show ulterior motives and they take interpretations that actually injure the existential, I would say it injures the community, the Christian community in the Middle East. Christians in the Middle East suffered enough. They continue to suffer. Well, first of all, they suffer from corruption from within the church itself. They suffer from corruption from within the civil authorities, whether in Lebanon, in Iraq, in Syria. in Palestine, in Israel, in Egypt, in Jordan, in Iraq. There is lots of sorts, all sorts of abuses from which the Christian community suffer in the Middle East. An incident such as this, coming in the week of Easter, because the church in the Middle East, the Orthodox community, is celebrating actually the week of Easter. This past Sunday, it was Easter Sunday for the Orthodox community. For such an incident to take place, It hurts, it injures us, but it is symbolic somehow. Well, thankfully to Almighty God, the military of the Israeli government, immediately they ran an investigation. They found out the soldier and the other soldier who filmed the actual incident, and then they put both of them in jail for 30 days, I believe, and then they released them from their military duty. So this reminds me of what St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 10, ascending on high, meaning when the Lord Jesus Christ went up on the cross, he ascended on high. And then the Lord also ascended on high when 40 days after Easter, on Holy Thursday of the Ascension, not Holy Thursday of Holy Week, on Thursday of the Ascension of our Lord, he ascended all the way to the throne of Almighty Father, and there he took his seat at the right hand of God the Father. This is why our Orthodox brothers and sisters, when they make the sign of the cross, you know, you wonder, why do they make the sign of the cross with the three fingers, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And that’s a creed, so it’s a dogmatic symbol for the sign and the symbol of the cross. And two, when they go in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, they go to the right shoulder instead of the left. Like us in the Catholic world, we go in the name of the Father or the Son, we go then to the heart, meaning to the left side and then to the right. The Orthodox community, when they make the sign of the cross, the doxologia, which is the glorious sign of the cross, which is a dogmatic sign of the cross, they go to the right and they say, and he was seated at the right hand of the Father. So ascending on high, the Lord and Savior, he let captivity captive. So the higher he goes up, the further down captivity went. The higher he went up from the cross all the way to the throne of his God, the Father in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ crushed completely to the depth of the abyss, to the depth of hell, captivity. And the higher he went from the throne of his Father, He gave gifts to man. With this, before we do our opening prayer, of course, I would love to ask our producer to show us a little bit the incident that happened in South Lebanon earlier this week, and then we go back, get ready. We want to pray together with Psalm 68 together. As we pray with Psalm 68, we will say, let God rise, let his foes be scattered. Let us look at this actual post that was given, you know, by Mario Naufal. He says, someone asked a good question. Why did one lead to global outrage while the other barely got talked about? And of course, you see on both ends, you see Christians basically, over 7,000 Christians killed in Nigeria in 2025. Report links violence to extremist militia and government inaction. And nobody ever hardly talked about the Christians in Nigeria that being killed and being massacred. As our producer maintained the image on this post, you see to the left in the village of Debel, you see our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s almost vividly hung again, taken down from the cross with his head upside down, and then he’s being hammered and he’s being cut. by the Israeli soldier. We denounce that, we reject that, we condemn that. We pray for the soul of that soldier. I pray, my prayer today is Father Andre, and with a mission of hope and mercy and with you all, that this soldier and his friend will come to know Jesus Christ. He’s going to be like the thief on the cross that the Lord told him, today you will be with me in my kingdom. So I’m going to offer my Mass, and I’m going to ask you all to offer a prayer for him and for his friend after they’ve done this atrocity, that the Lord Jesus Christ will come to them, will heal them, and then will reveal himself to them, them who are the children of Abraham, and him who is also the king of the Jews, the king of Israel, the son of David, and the heir of the throne of his father David. and of course our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will go into his heart and will heal him from every darkness, from every anger that there could be in him. May he be touched by the redeeming blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who will tell him, I too die for you as well. So as you see in this image and in this post, unfortunately, Mario is asking, you know, one soldier basically making this atrocity, this horrific act against the cross and the crucifix in South Lebanon. And then the news in whole world spoke about it because of course it is in the context, unfortunately, of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. on the territory of Lebanon when Israel confirmed many times that the Christian community actually is not part of this war. And the citizens of Lebanon, whether Muslims or Christians, are not part of this war at all. The events in Lebanon and the Middle East that are happening that we have seen in the last month as President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu announced, that their fight is addressed against terrorism, against corruption, against the dogmatic regime inside Iran, who is slaughtering their own people and not allowing freedom in the Middle East and, of course, surrounding all sorts of terrorism and, of course, its race about the nuclear bomb and the enrichment of the uranium inside Iran, basically, which is the United States do not want Iran with a nuclear power. But in the meanwhile these actions took place and unfortunately it is very sad to see this act taking place because it really diminishes if there is a good cause for Israel from fighting inside Lebanon against terrorism. An incident like this does not help. But the Israeli government acted it seems immediately, apologized and they went with the village and they restored the cross actually, and they put a new cross for the new crucifix. And the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli military apologized to the people. We thank them for doing this. This is very honorable of them. And the two soldiers were put in jail for 30 days and they were fired, released from their military service. But the incident to the right, if we go back to the post with my producer where it says over 7,000 Christians killed in Nigeria in 2025, reports linked violence to extremist militia and government inactions. Nobody spoke about that. Nobody hardly ever in the world said anything. We see another post that went viral. For instance, if we go to the second post where the IDF soldier desecrating a statue of Jesus in Lebanon was not the first instance actually of anti-Christian behavior by the IDF. Unfortunately, there is a bad incident that happened about a year ago, I believe in 2024, where the troops, when they went into the army mass, they filmed mocking the faith inside the church and they performed a fake gay marriage from the translation, unfortunately. you know, looking at these images, they go in and they perform over the clothes of cars with their soldiers outfits inside the church. They perform this play of gay marriage inside our church. So, you know, those incidents, of course, hurt and injured the heart of the Christians. We as Christians are weak enough. We lost everything in the world. We lost protection. We lost the protection of our own religious leaders. We were betrayed by our religious leaders. You know, canon law has weaponized And today the call in the church is over openness and peace with other religions. Religions are all in somehow shared ways. Like every religion, as one of our holy fathers had said, you know, every religion basically is a way to God. And in every religion we find abuses. There’s so much heavy cost on the suffering of the Christians, brothers and sisters, and actually it hurts a lot to see those things. But going back to this question of why the Christian persecution is not being spoken about, why it’s not being I want to remind you of certain statistics, at least, you know, in the World Watch list of 2026 serving the persecuted Christians. You know, in the world, according to Open Doors, according to Open Doors, more than 388 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. In Open Doors World Watch list top 50 alone, 315 million, 315 million Christians face very high or extreme persecution. Explore the country profiles to find information, stories and prayers for each of the countries. You know, this is what Open Doors urges people. So one in seven Christians are persecuted worldwide. I do not know if, you know, our producer or my friends in the Mission of Hope and Mercy or you who are watching us, if anybody knows that, this is reality of our life today. One in every seven Christians in the world is being persecuted, severely, extremely persecuted. One in every five Christians in Africa is being persecuted. One in every five Christian in Africa is being persecuted. In Nigeria alone in 2025, 7,000 Christians have been massacred, have been killed. in every five Christians are persecuted in Asia in general, where the Middle East is part of Asia, where China is a part of Asia. So these are horrific information that we see. And of course, based on these reports talking about vandalism against the churches, if we only look based on the reports covering early 2025 and the finalized data from the earlier 2024 attacks, including vandalism, including arson against churches in the U.S. 24 and 25 while attacks of hostility against U.S. churches slightly decreased to 415 churches were vandalized and attacked in 2024. In 2023, that number was 485 churches. In 2025, unfortunately, this campaign of vandalism against the church continued. For instance, if you remember in May 25, vandalism at Liberty Baptist Church in Virginia, there was a graffiti with Hail Satan and an arson attack on the Chapel of Santa Teresa of Calcutta Church in Pennsylvania. Then in July 2025, the vandalism including hateful graffiti on the statue of the Virgin Mary at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Pennsylvania. I do not know what’s in Pennsylvania for these attacks continue to seem to be there. Then in October 2025, similar attack suspect vandalized three churches in Queens in New York with anti-Christian statements, and the list goes on and goes on and goes on. So between 2024, between 2024, October, and September 2025, according to Open Doors, the number of churches targeted, attacked, looted, damaged, burned globally, reached 3,632 churches. 3,632 churches. In Europe alone, 2024, 2025, arson attacks against churches in Europe almost doubled in 2024 compared to 2023. In Germany, in France, you know, you see the burning of the churches. We saw the last burning of the church around Easter, I believe, right? In another world, if I’m not mistaken, when you saw one of the most historical churches in Canada, for instance, we saw the church, one of the oldest churches also being burned and fired and people watch and those churches fall all the way to the ground. So, looking at all of these incidents, it reminds me, there is a post that was done, I will ask our producer, it’s a third post by Elizabeth Yor, and she says this is outrageous, from LifeSite to news. this secret deal between China and the Vatican deal worsening repression of faithful Catholics. And, you know, we spoke about this in our last episode in the context of the relationship between our Holy Father, the Vatican, and the Pope. And if you can click on the LifeSiteNews actual article, the actual link that is provided, you’ll see the China-Vatican deal on bishops is escalating repression of Catholics’ human rights watch. A sweeping new report documents arbitrary detention, surveillance, and intimidation of Catholics alongside demolished churches as President Xi Jinping’s sinicization campaign intensifies against the churches. So the Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on Catholic communities to join the state-controlled church under tighter ideological and administrative restrictions. Again, I want to remind us, as we keep looking at this article, today’s podcast with Irrevocable and 33 Minutes on the Lord’s Day is to speak on render unto Caesar and unto God, church, Christendom, post-Christendom, and the Caesar of Papism in play, the case of Pope Leo and President Trump. original secret deal of which I spoke I believe of the first one who followed you know I want to tell you a secret as you can probably read little bit as we keep talking I was with the ambassador at large for international religious freedom of the United States of America under President Trump first administration and advisor a friend and I went to the State Department many times and and as the Vatican and Cardinal McCarrick and Cardinal Pietro Parolin you know Cardinal McCarrick unfortunately the father of predators if I may call him against the innocent children with all the abuse scandals, yet he enjoyed a tremendous amount of power and authority, and he’s the one who orchestrated secretly and went to China, actually, before President Trump’s first administration, and he orchestrated the secret deal between China and United States. I want to reveal a scoop here. In 2017, until 2019, the ambassador at large for international religious freedom and our secretary of state at the time, directed directly by President Trump, went to Pope Francis many times. You know, this month we celebrate Pope Francis’ anniversary, may God rest his soul, and we congratulate again our Pope Leo on him being our Holy Father. You know, the president, President Trump, asked many times and informed the Vatican through the proper diplomatic channels. I was there. I know this for a fact. And he told Pope Francis, we need to know the content of the secret deal between the Chinese Communist government and the Vatican state. Because as you can read, Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on Catholic communities. What Catholic communities are we talking about here? We’re talking about the Catholic communities that have been living underground since 450 years ago. Yeah, the West has always to do deep down with the persecution against Christians. You all remember Queen Elizabeth I, not Queen Elizabeth II. It’s an incident between 1562 almost to about 1602 or 1604 in her big, long time reign. There was a big war between Catholics and Protestants, as you know. Up until that time, the Christians, the Catholic missionaries, were still living in the two empires of Japan and of the Chinese Empire. And then there are actually secret letters sent by the British royal government of the Queen, Queen Elizabeth, as a part of causing pressure and to kill and to harm the Catholic papacy and the Catholic, basically, a church that is spread widely up until that time in both these empires, the Chinese Empire and the Japanese Empire. It seems that the Queen Elizabeth I exchanged secret letters with the Emperor of China. And in one of these letters, craftily so, she tells him, you know, this Catholic religion is a foreign religion. Now, telling the Chinese empire that the Catholic religion is a foreign religion and it does not suit the ancestors, the blessing of the ancestors of the Chinese land, This is a national security issue for the Chinese empire. It goes against them completely. And I think there was a natural disaster at that time in China and similar in Japan. And the empires attributed these natural disasters disasters and these incidents that they are actually due to the curse of the ancestors who are upset that the government and the empire hosted this foreign religion. And the emperor was convinced to eradicate and to kill all Catholics in Japan and in China. And ever since that time, in the early 1600 the church went underground probably the last account we would probably have heard from most likely paul catko and his friends in 1640s or 1642 who were all killed they would wrap him in a bamboo stick and they would keep their heads out and then they would drown them inside the water. They would crucify them and they would cut them in pieces. They would leave them in cold weather and in cold water and then their blood, they freeze. The Christians, the Catholics suffered a lot. I do not wanna cry on a show, but my brothers and sisters, my friends in America, This is Father Andre. This is irrevocable. This is mission of hope and mercy that save, aid, and educate about the plight of the persecuted Christians. We come today not to challenge the public officials, not to challenge the religious leaders, not to broadcast gossip. But to educate us, to tell us we have enough is enough. I want to stand in unity with Golda Meir, the grandmother of the newly founded Israel, the new state of Israel, when she went out from meeting with the U.S. president in 1930s, late 1930s, I believe, or early 1940s, and she would tell the president in the United States when she saw how her people are being killed, led to the slaughter, and led to the Holocaust, when she stands out and she says, enough is enough. I humbly want to tell President Trump. I humbly want to tell every president in Europe. I want to tell the Holy Father. I want to tell the Muslim leaders. Enough is enough. The Christians are organically good for the world. The Christians are wonderful asset for the world. They are the salt of the earth. They are the light of the world. At least the Christians, they don’t exchange tooth by tooth and eye to eye. At least in our law, There is an option for pardon and there is an option for forgiveness. Our peace is founded on the passion, the crucifixion, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So please, enough is enough. I plead with you, President Trump, continue with your plan to defend the persecuted Christians in the world, but do not use them. Do not use their stories and not deliver, because that would be sad. In China, for instance, I was telling you, referring to this article, and this is my personal experience that I knew myself and I followed up officially and technically as a president of the Mission of Hope and Mercy and as I advised the ambassador at large. the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom. I was telling you that in 2017 all the way to 2019, President Trump directed personally the Secretary of State of the United States basically at the time, Mike Pompeo, and the ambassador at large for international religious freedom, Sam Brownback, And he told them, go find out what is this deal? What is the secret deal that is between the Vatican and the Chinese government? And how is this not a hazard and threat to our national security as the United States government who represent the free world and who have interest to save and to basically protect the persecuted Christians in the world? And the first two lines that I’m explaining from the article on, you know, the LifeSite News, saying that the Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on Catholic communities to join the state-controlled church. So we’re talking about Christian communities and state-controlled church. And I was trying to tell you the historical context about 400 some years ago. that this contest is due that the last Christians were ever in existence on the ground in China and in Japan were in the 1600s. And ever since due to the severe persecution and unfortunately the horrendous role of the British royal government at that time with the Chinese empire and the Japanese empire who basically facilitated and then somehow spread rumors about the Catholics in those territories, causing them total eradication. The Christians at that time went underground. And being underground, they stayed underground in major cities in Japan, such in Nakazaki and in Hiroshima. So up to 1943 to 1945, I believe in 1943, we had about 10% of Catholics remaining living underground in Nakazaki and Hiroshima. Do those two names, I wonder if the producer think, what does he think about me now? Do those two cities, do they ring a bell in your head? when under, you know, the end of World War II, we dropped the nuclear bomb on Nakazaki and Hiroshima in Japan on August 4th and on August 8th, I believe 1945, if I’m not mistaken, or 1943, which you can check it out. And the last of the Christian community who survived underground since the 1600s was eradicated almost by those two nuclear bombs, which were dropped by the United States of America. Were those incidents a matter of chance, circumstances? Did the military strategy think about it before they did it? Did they know that the Christians had survived? Same in China, up till 2017, about 300, 300 million, we are told, Christians, Catholics predominantly, live underground. Of course, they say that the official number could be about 30 million Catholics living in China. But in 2017, there was the secret deal, a treaty done between the Chinese Communist government, President Xi, and the Vatican. I was called to Washington, D.C., and I met at the Catholic University and in the State Department with the lawyer of presidency, myself, Father Andre, of course. That’s why, you know, I got persecuted and I’m in a lot of trouble. And I pray, I pray for my prosecutors. I forgive you. I forgive you. But look the number of victims you caused. The blood of my brothers and sisters, the incident in South Lebanon, the vandalism against the churches, and the hate and the death of the Christian brothers and sisters is on your hands before that it is on the hands of the enemy. Whether you’re a bishop and you knew what I was doing, but you decided to hate me and to hurt me. We were doing what is right in the mission of hope and mercy. We were really doing what is right. But I pray for you. that God will have mercy on your soul because you will be judged for the atrocities that are happening today. You will be judged for the threats that Iran is causing to the world, to the free world today, to the terrorism that was produced by the Iranian proxies today. And for these acts of atrocities that we see, you will be judged before any other enemy. So in Washington, D.C., when I was there, my friends, I met with the lawyer of President Xi, the Chinese president, and she told me about the basically secret communities that live underground. And she said, Father, there is a joke in China, there is a joke in China, that your God, pointing to me, as our Catholic God, basically, she says, your God jokes with our Chinese Communist Party. Because the rumor is this, as many as we have an official membership in our Communist Party in China, there are Christians underground. And she goes like, so I go like, so how many members do you have in your communist party? She said about 300,000, 300 million are officially basically in that party. And I said, does that mean that there are like 300 million Christians underground? She laughed and she said, probably, because that is the joke in China. The more we have communist official members in our Chinese government, the more your God brings the Christians into the fold inside China. So God is at work. I want to thank my brothers and sisters from KLZ Radio, who now will leave us on 33 minutes on a lost day. And I please ask you and I urge you to support the work of the Mission of Hope and Mercy. Visit our website, missionofhopeandmercy.org. You just listened to 33 minutes on the Lord’s day. Do not let this be the end of the encounter. Carry the word you have received into your life. Let it shape your thoughts, your decisions, your relationships, and above all, let it draw you closer to Christ. But today, we also invite you into something more. If this time has blessed you, if the Word of God has spoken to your heart, consider becoming part of the mission that makes this possible. Through the mission of Hope and Mercy, we are reaching souls, supporting the suffering, and standing with persecuted Christians around the world, bringing light to where there is darkness and hope where it is needed most. You can be part of this mission through your prayer, through your sharing of this program, and if you are able, through your financial support, To join us, visit missionofhopeandmercy.org, missionofhopeandmercy.org. There you can learn more, stay connected, and make a direct impact in the lives of those in need. Your generosity, no matter how small, becomes a channel of God’s mercy in the world. God bless you. Father Andre.
