(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of Faith and Reason, John-Henry Westen, Father Charles Murr, and Frank Wright discuss Pope Leo’s recent interview in which he implied Catholic doctrine can change, Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to award a pro-abortion Democrat, Erika Kirk’s powerful speech forgiving her husband’s killer, and more.
The panel opened the episode by discussing Pope Leo XIV’s first extended interview with Crux Now. The Holy Father implied that he could “change the Church’s teaching” on same-sex “marriage” and women’s ordination, saying that “we have to change attitudes before we ever change doctrine.”
READ: Pope Leo on LGBTQ: ‘We have to change attitudes before we ever change doctrine’
Westen noted that while many Catholics tried to say that’s not what Leo meant, dissident pro-LGBT priest Father James Martin, who applauded the statement, certainly took it to mean that the faithful’s attitude towards those who identify as LGBT needs to change before doctrine can be changed.
Murr emphasized that the Church’s doctrine can never change, and Pope Leo likely avoided saying this to try to please all sides of the Church.
“The teachings of the Church, doctrine and dogma, and morals, they don’t change. It’s very simple,” the priest said. “Maybe (Pope Leo) could have inserted the word ‘impossible.’ (And said doctrine is) ‘Impossible to change. Change your attitude to receive something that is never going to change…’ that would’ve been better.”
“I think he’s trying to placate every side, not just both sides, any side that he can see. And this is what’s going to eventually get him in a lot of trouble because no side is going to accept that.”
Wright stressed that “change” is not a Catholic doctrine, but rather a doctrine of the social revolution that has sought to replace the Church and Christian civilization entirely.
“The fundamental question is, ‘Why are we being asked to consider changing our social norms and indeed what you might call the norms of the Catholic Church, i.e., the teachings of Christ?” he pondered. “That’s because social progressives demand that all our norms and institutional beliefs change in alignment with social revolution.”
“This hasn’t happened organically; it has been stimulated by policy. The widespread advertisement of the lifestyles of homosexuality and transgenderism (is) a part and parcel of a political project to denormalize our entire civilization,” he added. “If you are a progressive, things must inevitably progress. … The slippery slope began with the normalization of so-called gay marriage, and now we have homosexualists and transgender single men even buying babies on the open market.”
The journalist continued: “Sexual denormalization and the promotion of a hyper-eroticized lifestyle can be understood as a form of vengeance on the norms of Christianity and a form of vengeance against the Christian civilization that we inherited and that liberalism’s ambition is to destroy and replace completely.”
The panel then turned to news from the United States, where Cardinal Blase Cupich plans to honor Sen. Dick Durbin, a radically pro-abortion Democrat, with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the archdiocese’s upcoming “Keep Hope Alive” Benefit on November 3. Several prominent bishops, including Bishop Thomas Paprocki and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, have denounced Cupich’s decision.
READ: Cardinal Cupich to honor pro-abortion Sen. Durbin with lifetime achievement award
Westen called the cardinal’s decision “insane.”
“You cannot honor those who are totally in bed with abortion and LGBT and everything else against the Church,” the host said.
Murr called the move “heinous” and underscored that it is ultimately the result of our society losing its moral compass.
“It’s so heinous. … It’s the worst that we can do. We’re killing ourselves, we’re killing holy innocence … we’ve lost our moral compass, and we’re losing our conscience. This is the consequence of all of it,” he said.
Wright highlighted that the modern Church is partnering with the agendas of the United Nations and other globalist entities, thereby undermining its own teachings.
“It’s important to state that the Church is effectively partnering itself with this agenda when it platforms these people, when it platforms abortion, when it promotes homosexuality,” he said. “And it does so in the cause of civil rights and acceptance and welcoming.”
“Why is the modern Church welcoming what is effectively a death cult? It’s not just the death of morality, it’s not just the death of the doctrine and teaching of the Church,” he added. “It doesn’t just undermine the truth of the apostolic succession from Christ, which it does. It also promotes the extinction of people from the face of the earth as a moral good.”
For more discussion on Cardinal Cupich honoring a pro-abortion senator, Pope Leo apparently suggesting that Church doctrine can be changed, and much more, tune in to this week’s episode of Faith and Reason.
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Pope Leo on LGBTQ: ‘We have to change attitudes before we ever change doctrine’
Fr. James Martin applauds Pope Leo’s remark that ‘attitudes’ must change before doctrine
Leo XIV publicly doubts Catholic teaching on sexual morality and the immutability of dogma
Cardinal Cupich to honor pro-abortion Sen. Durbin with lifetime achievement award
Archbishop Cordileone, Bishop Paprocki oppose Cupich’s plan to honor radical pro-abortion Democrat
Cardinal Cupich deserves to be rebuked for honoring pro-abortion Sen. Durbin
Erika Kirk forgives her husband’s killer at memorial service in front of 70,000 people
FBI says ‘a lot more’ than 20 people ‘may have known’ Charlie Kirk was going to be shot
Man who lied about shooting Charlie Kirk to help assassin escape charged with child pornography
