Shownotes Transcript
Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here, live from the Bitcoin.com studio. Hey everybody, there is a new pope, and he is American. What? That's right, shock in the world. From Chicago, Illinois, we pull his voting history. We talk about that in this episode, so listen carefully. We also talk about some of the controversies. He's attacked J.D. Vance, he's attacked President Trump. What does he believe? We walk through all of that here in this episode, so listen to it in its entirety. We have a new American pope from Chicago.
of course i'm from chicago so i'm rather partial but boy i know what they believe in chicago so we got to be careful what does this mean for the country and for the kingdom email us as always freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe to our podcast that is the charlie kirk show podcast page get involved with turning point usa tpusa.com that is tpusa.com do you think the pope is a registered republican or democrat i tell you at the end of this program buckle up everybody here we go charlie what
you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here.
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We here have some amazing breaking news. President Donald Trump was in the Oval Office early this morning, earlier than usual, announcing a historic and record trade deal with the UK. President Donald Trump, as you know, has been embarking on a new path for American trade. And this is where all the experts were wrong about President Trump. And they were all wrong about what he was doing.
You see, he was not only using tariffs to try and raise revenue for the federal government. He was not just only using tariffs as a way to try to encourage American investment in manufacturing, both of which are happening.
But instead, he invented the tariff as a third thing, as a negotiating tool. Now, mind you, what was announced today is something that Joe Biden was never able to do. Barack Obama was never able to do. The United Kingdom, despite being a very close ally of the United States, was a very closed economy.
And listening carefully to what President Trump announced today, and we're going to play a lot of this tape, it was very clear what President Trump's mentality is when it comes to trade. You see, the media, and if you watch CNBC, and if you watch all the talking heads on the economics networks and the financial networks, they're there to make you seem as if President Trump wants to be an isolationist.
that he doesn't want to trade with the rest of the world. No, no, no. What President Trump wants is us to no longer just buy from the rest of the world. That President Trump does not want us to be solely purchasers, but also producers. He wants the purchasing and the producing to be equally yoked. You see, President Trump wants to make America the world's shopping destination.
There's nothing wrong with being a consumer economy. But if you are only a consumer economy, then you're actually not a country. What President Trump announced today, and this is the United Kingdom trade deal, let's put it up on screen, is remarkable. $5 billion in new export access for our goods and services.
Trump's global tariffs on steel and aluminum are removed from the United Kingdom. The 25% foreign car tariff is lowered to 10% for the first 100,000 cars. The United Kingdom exported 101,000 cars to the United States last year. So this almost matches the current volume. Let's get this up on screen. Thank you. Over $6 billion in new tariff revenue. So we're going to be able to get more tariff revenue to hopefully pay down our deficit and fund our government. This
This is my favorite part. And interestingly, you could make an argument. And again, all the libertarians and all these squawkers on TV, they are so dishonest. According to this, you could make the argument that President Trump is far more free trade than Joe Biden. The United Kingdom tariffs were 5.1%. Now they're 1.8%.
Reciprocity. That is what President Trump has always been focused on. I'm going to use the shock and awe liberation tariffs, boom, to bring you to the table. And if you don't do a deal, they will stay. Oh, looks like they have a pope. That's a big deal. So let's keep our eyes on that. We'll be out within minutes. We're going to definitely have to cut to that. Sorry, Andrew, you got to cancel all the guests. We got to go live for whomever the new pope is.
So we're going to do that on real time. So it looks like white smoke has been seen at the conclave. Very quick conclave there. Wow, what a day. So you got new deals with the United Kingdom. We got a whole pipeline of new deals coming and you got a new Pope as well. So we'll keep our eyes on that. Let's do a picture in picture. Thank you guys. That is a live view of the Sistine Chapel of white smoke.
A lot shorter than the three-year conclave before. So we're going to pivot here a little bit by also talking about the trade deals. You see, Trump closes the big, bold, and America-first trade deals. He's not locking the world out. He's locking in record demand for U.S. goods. Tariffs were used to be able to have President Trump cut ribbons on open markets and booming exports.
And now the real question in everyone's mind is, will President Trump seek a new Vatican trade deal with the new pope? They are a sovereign country with, I will be honest, a fair amount of purchasing power. There's a lot of wealth in the Vatican. This is a historic moment that you're watching here right now, an announcement of a new pope, and we're going to be watching that live here. We'll just cut straight to the Sistine Chapel or whomever is covering it, or I'll do my best to try to announce this live.
A lot of celebration happening live on the St. Peter's Basilica Square. A lot happening. Let me close on the trade thing and then we'll talk about the Pope. This is a very breaking news day here. President Trump has turned trade talks into triumphs. He's turned negotiations into wins. And the market is responding favorably.
I told you guys, don't be a panicker. Don't keep your head down. Don't look at your portfolio. Well, the market is up 500 days. And look, markets will go up and markets will go down and markets will spin around. But now we have unprecedented access to ethanol, beef, cereals, fruits, vegetables, animal feed, tobacco, soft drinks, shellfish, textiles, chemicals, machinery, and more will then be able to be sold more easily in the United Kingdom. Huge trade win. We'll talk more about that. But let's get to the even more breaking news.
that there is a new pope. This is a shorter conclave. It'll be very interesting the type of pope that will be selected. I pray that the new pope is going to be more in the image and the mold of John Paul II than of Pope Francis. It's no different than praying that you hope that an election in the United Kingdom goes our way or hoping that Millet becomes the prime minister of Argentina. This is one of the world's most high-profile people representing two billion human beings.
It's good for all of humanity to have a pope that believes in the sanctity of life, that believes in traditional marriage, that believes in hopefully borders and national sovereignty. So we can only hope that this pope is one that shares traditional Catholic values, one that is good for not just Catholics, but good for the world. John Paul II had a geopolitical influence larger and greater than anything that people could have imagined.
in a truly profound and deep and measurable way. So the way this will work is this, is that there will be almost an immediate papal procession. And then next Sunday, because they almost always do it on Sunday, next Sunday will likely be the official coronation of the new pope. And so they'll invite all the heads of state from around the world. And next Sunday,
will likely be the official ceremony. I think of it as kind of like a papal inauguration, if you will. Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com. People are rushing to St. Peter's Square right now. I might actually throw Blake on the show if Lila, he's our resident Catholic and knows everything that you need to know about this stuff. So I might throw him on here. Can we get some open, I know that President Trump is doing a press conference online
Unfortunately, Ed Martin's nomination has been pulled. That's largely thanks to Tom Tillis. That is not actually the most important news today. There is the 267th Pope. And I say this as an evangelical non-Catholic. I think it's pretty awesome that there is this unbroken chain all the way back to one of Jesus' treasured disciples. I think that's pretty awesome. That's one of the reasons why so many young people are becoming Catholic. They're becoming Catholic because in a world where everything is changing—
They don't want to go to church in a Costco, and they don't want to hear some pastor's opinion that might change week to week. They want something ancient, they want something beautiful, and they want tradition. And the Catholic Church has a lot of things I don't agree with, and some things I certainly don't like, but one of the things I do value about the Catholic Church is they haven't changed. They're very honest about who they are and what they believe, and they have uncompromising principles.
That liturgy is very similar, if not, I know of the Vatican one, especially, but to the original way that the early church worship, it ties generations together. There is a movement of Gen Z that is becoming Catholic. In fact, I had a whole pastor summit of evangelical pastors last evening. And they said, why are so many young people becoming Catholic? I said, your inability to answer that question is why they're becoming Catholic. They're becoming Catholic because
Because they don't want the trans nonsense. They don't want to have some sort of social media clout chasing pastor give them a feel-good sermon. They want to look up. They don't want to just look at themselves through a phone all day long. I'm hopeful that there is a spiritual reset, and I'm praying and I'm hopeful that
that this Pope understands the times that we are in and that there is one of the greatest growth opportunities for Christianity that we'll ever find right now. There is a growth opportunity in the West because the West is suffering under its own weight, suffering under suicide and depression and anxiety.
We've been talking about a golden age for America. Perhaps if it is the Lord's will and if we are obedient, maybe it's a golden age for Christianity and for higher purposes. And perhaps the new pope can be a big part of that. Or this pope can proclaim that there are two sexes. That this transgenderism thing is from the pit of hell. That children...
are made in the image of God in the Imago Dei. At its best, the Pope should stand up against the excesses of the Western secular world and something that Pope Francis, I don't think, did very well. And I'm not here to attack him, but also to fight against Islam infiltrating the West. My prayer is that this Pope understands the woke,
Green axis that is trying to envelop and suffocate the Western world. This Pope needs to speak out against the rise of Muhammadism, speaking out against the butchery of our children through gender-affirming care, to stop the cultural suicide. And if he, as this Pope, does this, I will be his biggest supporter. And Catholics will see an even bigger harvest of young people that want to become Christian.
Protestants have very little moral clarity right now. We have a couple pastors there. You've heard me mention them. We have the great Jack Kibbs. We have Dream City. But there is very little moral clarity from most Protestant churches right now. This pope has an opportunity, a once-in-a-1,000-year opportunity. In fact, I would make an argument that this is one of the most, if not the most, prime opportunities for the Catholic Church, and I say this again as a Protestant, since the Reformation. Protestantism is...
basically collapsing under its own weight. It's too bad, but it's true. From woke pastors to gay pride flags outside of many of our churches, to the BLM marches, to the pro-choice stuff, to the pro-trans stuff, to the silence during COVID. And this younger generation says, the Protestant church has lost all of my trust. And it's very hard for me to tell them otherwise, except for the exceptions. The ideology that has ruled the West since the end of World War II is crumbling.
And there is a huge opening for alternatives. But some people will join Islam just for that reason. But a muscular, forceful, firm Catholic church could out-compete them. And I'll be praying for that. And you should too, regardless if you are Catholic. Because it is good for the West and it's good for all of humanity to understand what we are up against.
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Blake is here, a resident Catholic. Look at this live from that St. Peter's Square, right? Yes. So it's the square and the Basilica. Is that right? Outside St. Peter's Basilica. So a lot of people are very interested. We're going to go all live coverage of the Pope.
Okay, John Yep will be coming shortly from Rome. Let's keep that. That's perfect how you guys have that configured. So please, the emphasis should be on the live feed there. And by the way, those of you watching, this is the best coverage that you guys are going to get right here as we cover this here. So the...
So what is the timeline here? Let's keep the procession going, please, guys, on the screen. So momentarily, the pope is going to pick a new name. So what is the process of that? And it has to be a saint, right? No, the pope can pick whatever name he wants. Really? It's just a tradition. He doesn't have to do it. He doesn't have to pick a name. There have been popes who didn't do it.
Okay. And Francis did, obviously. Francis picked a Saint's name and he picked a new name. Usually they often pick someone. They almost always pick a new name, though. No, no. Well, they always pick a new name for themselves. That's what I'm saying. Usually they pick one that's been used a lot. Benedict XVI.
We've had a more recent run of them picking new ones. John Paul II, so John Paul I immediately preceded him and died after only a month. And so John Paul II basically said, in tribute to our pope who was taken too soon, I will take the same name. John Paul, that was a new name, but the previous popes were John and Paul, and so he was combining them. But beyond that, you usually get a lot of repeat ones. We had...
A ton of... It was Pope Pius over and over and over again throughout the 1800s and early 1900s. So I think the most recent was Pius XII. But almost all of those were in the past 200, 300 years.
Yeah, but they don't have to. He could come out and just say like, oh, I'm getting rid of that tradition. But it's, you know, it's a 2000 year tradition at this point. So you're likely to see it again. All right. So we have we have a monster panel of Catholics and I'm the only evangelical here for the record. And I love Catholics. I love them. OK, so here we have we have Lila Rose. We have, I think, John Yep. And then we have Jack Posobiec. Let me first say, Lila, congratulations to you. New Pope. What is your thoughts here?
I'm super excited. This is like a birthday and Disneyland and Christmas all in one day. So we're super pumped. And obviously, we don't know who the Pope is yet. We're going to probably know in maybe half an hour. Usually, you learn within the hour after the white smoke. But I'm just grateful. I'm grateful for God's providence. God is good.
Amen. All the time. Okay, so we have Jack Posobiec from Rome. We're going to bounce around with the whole panel here. I don't know how we're going to do this technically, but Jack, do we have Jack? Oh, we have John Yep. I'm sorry. We have John Yep from Rome. John, congratulations. What's the vibe on the ground right now in Rome? The vibe is insane here. There was a mass just crowd that just ran to the square.
Gently pushing and shoving, I might add, but people were respectful, aware of the moment. Charlie, I heard that you're sponsoring free lunches for all Catholics. That's wonderful. You were so grateful. Just from a spiritual sense, I do think, you know, people in the square, whether you're Catholic, Christian, whatever, there's a certain sense of the return of the Father, right? This representative, right?
Catholics seem that in that way, imperfect though we might be. And we're waiting for that man, that anticipation to come out, to stand on that loja and to give us his paternal fatherly blessing. Insane reality up here, Charlie. I ran across the square and just my hands are shaking with excitement. I got to admit.
Praise the Lord. And so we were talking about the name. So what name is actually going to be selected and what name is going to be chosen, right? And I think Jack Posobiec is also going to join us. I want to cover that, but really quick, about a minute and a half remaining. Lila, what would you like to see this pope do in regards to the fight for life, the sanctity of the unborn? Lila, please comment on that. Let's go full screen with all of the proceedings at the Basilica.
Well, listen, all of the, you know, the last century of popes, because abortion has really been this modern Holocaust. We've lost now 1.5 billion babies to abortion globally in just the last two decades. So this is the modern day Holocaust, the killing of the unborn. And every single pope we've had in this century, in the last century, has been
so outspoken for life because this is a core Christian teaching. This is, I'm getting an announcement here. Oh, sorry. Pope Francis was extremely passionately pro-life. John Paul II, Benedict were all passionately pro-life. So I'm confident the next Pope will of course be passionately pro-life. The gates of hell do not prevail against the church, that they're going to be true blue on the faith and moral teachings of the church.
So I hope that we'll hear from him and I hope people will pay attention. I think that's the key thing. I'm not worried about the Pope not being pro-life. The Pope's going to be pro-life. The question is, will people listen to the prophetic words of the Holy Father? Will people pay attention? And I'm very happy to see the whole world paying attention right now with excitement about who's going to be elected to be this father really for people of faith. I mean, he is a
of course, the Pope for the Catholic Church, but I think Christians of all backgrounds look to the moral clarity of the Holy Father. So no matter who it is, we're going to have a pro-life Pope, and it's just a question of his different personality, his different approach, but either way, God's got it, and it's going to be great. So I love that. Thank you, Lila. And I want to throw back to John for a second here. John, really quick, what is the consensus on the ground? What is the kind of bring us into the environment on the street in Rome here?
In many ways, unexpected. This is a very early decision. I mean, we thought maybe Friday. So the fact that there's a decision this quick...
You know, it can mean that, you know, one of the front runners who we were expecting got the number of votes. So, you know, we're all here in anticipation, waiting. Absolutely packed crowd. People are singing, waving flags. There's bands playing. If you look around just around me, there's little perches everywhere.
of all the different news outlets on rooftops, just covering this, this moment really for the world. So, you know, the blessing that he will give there, you see there, the loja, it's Irby at Orby. That's a Latin for to the city, to the world. He will give that wishing, you know, the spirit of Christ upon all of humanity. So just a powerful moment to be here. And yeah, it's, it's wild, Charlie. I got to admit,
Okay, Blake. So, Blake here, we got all Catholics. What am I looking at with all the high-stepping, kind of medieval-looking outfits? What does that have to do with... They're not medieval-looking. They are literally medieval. I know, but what is that? I'm not being sarcastic. I wonder, what does that have to do with Catholicism? What is the connection? Well, it's, I mean, Catholicism is an old faith. It's very much rooted in tradition. You know, when we've talked about religion, I've told you the big thing with Catholicism that kind of sets it apart from Protestantism. You've heard of sola scriptura.
Yes, I'm very familiar with that.
You know, these outfits that they've been sporting since the Renaissance. One of the funniest ones you can see is you should look up what the Swiss guards wear. The Swiss guard outfits are quite colorful. They were literally I'm not making this up. They were designed by Michelangelo. That one Sistine Chapel ceiling statue of David. He also designed those outfits.
Probably not on par with his other artistic achievements, but they have their place. And so that's what you're seeing. You're seeing the visual element of the Catholic Church as this very old institution. And the way conclaves are done is very much the way conclaves have been done for hundreds of years, except for the smoke thing, actually. The smoke thing is only about 100 years old. Only 100? Is that right? Yeah.
I thought that would be like a 20th century innovation. John, yep, come on in. Like Blake said, Benedict XV in the early 1900s is the first one that used white smoke. However, the tradition of actually using smoke signals, I do believe, Blake, correct me, that does go back to roughly 1325. So that's when the Pope at the time basically wanted to rein in everyone. What was the first place? He was concerned.
of having undue influences from outside, whether it be superpowers or you name it. So he gathered and sequestered the Cardinals for the first time in a key room, a conclave, so that they could carefully make a decision. And that's the birth of the smoke signal. But the white smoke was first used in the early 1900s. 1900s, yeah.
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At the end of the day, the Pope is true blue, a Christian. And so you might look at him through a certain lens of American politics or European politics, but he's going to stand for the moral teachings of the Christian faith. And that's what his job is to stand up for Jesus Christ, even when it's politically popular or not. I'll speak to it if you want. Charlie, should we talk about it? Connect it with what we're talking about here and how the church needs to speak out against it. What you're covering. Sure. So,
Sure. So live action, the pro-life group that I lead just launched a new investigation, investigative report yesterday.
Pro-life is the biggest issue, the biggest cultural issue, I would argue, for any of us to be concerned with as Christians. It's the killing of our unborn brothers and sisters. But the biggest abortion chain is Planned Parenthood. And they are not just killing 1,000 babies a day in the United States. They're also giving cross-sex hormones to 16-year-olds. Our investigation shows that 16-year-olds call it Planned Parenthood, and they just prescribe testosterone to young girls.
progesterone to boys and there's no question about the mental health issues that they might face. There's no actual counseling appointment, none of that. So long story short, Planned Parenthood is receiving $700 million in taxpayer funds. That needs to be cut.
Starley, I know you've outspoken on this, and the Holy Father is very outspoken on abortion. Pope Francis called abortion like it was hiring a hitman. That's how bad abortion was. So I think no matter who the Holy Father is, he's going to be very pro-life. And we have our work to do cut out for us in the United States. We've got to defund Planned Parenthood. We're allowing the funding of this big abortion chain that's also transing the youth, and it's completely atrocious.
So I want to now get John in here. I think we're also going to get Jack Posobiec here. The candidates being selected, what is happening right now at this moment? Are all the Cardinals basically in a moment of celebration? Is that fair to say? What exactly is happening right now? And then what can we expect imminently? Well, you see the Cardinals from the picture. Some of them are already gathered in the square. I also just ran up
ran into one on the way up the elevator, which means they have had some time now to exit the Sistine Chapel, get into position with a crowd, which of course means that the new Holy Father is probably already in the room of tears, so to speak. That's the
the chamber that's adjacent to the Sistine Chapel. It's called the Room of Tears because that's where popes in the past who, once they've been chosen, officially accept. And yes, they do shed some tears. Why? Because they're acutely aware they're basically receiving a cross. Uh,
which, you know, they'll carry pretty much until they die. So this is the new pope is in there. He's changing from the red to the white. He's already selected his name because he had to tell the cardinals. So the cardinals do know who it is, of course, and the name. And he will be coming out on the square. And you're going to have the archdeacon, a cardinal, who will say those famous words. Gaudio Magno, Annunzio Vobis. With great joy, I announce to you,
the name of the new Pope, right? So it's, it's, that's what's happening. So I would expect, honestly, Charlie, you're going to see the, the new Pope maybe within 15 minutes up there in the Loja. Okay. Very good. So Lila, I know you have to dash here in just a second. Please plug again, the great work you're doing and your final sign off here for everyone watching.
Thank you. Super pumped for the Pope. He's going to be pro-life no matter who he is. So I'm not worried about that. And where that's the confidence we have as Catholics is that this Holy Father is going to be true north on moral teachings and the theological foundations of our Christian faith. And that's the gift that we have in a Holy Father who...
by the Holy Spirit's power, not his own power, by the Holy Spirit's power is going to guide the church. And that's why the Catholic Church has never changed its teachings on things like abortion, on marriage, on these core theological doctrines, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ. These are teachings that have lasted 2,000 years
Check out the work of Live Action. We are launching new investigative reports exposing the abortion industry. That's our job as Christians, to stand up and speak out for the most vulnerable. And we urge President Trump, you know, who has been outspoken against the transgender agenda, to defund Planned Parenthood because they're transing young people, are exploiting
investigation exposed that and they're killing babies in the womb over a thousand of them a day. So this is a time for action, both for Christians to pray for our new Holy father. And I believe for people of faith to call for the administration to defund Planned Parenthood. We should absolutely defund Planned Parenthood. I totally agree. Lila. Thank you, John. Stay there. We're going to try to get Jack. He's having wifi connection issues.
All of you watching right now, we're about to witness history together. You only get a new pope every 7 to 15 years on average. It's a big deal. Yeah. We'll only see a few of these in our lifetime. When was Francis elected? 2013. 12 years.
It's amazing. So, Blake, I would venture a guess that a majority of this audience is actually not Catholic. This is of great profundity. This is 264 popes, I think they're saying. And it is kind of a rapid conclusion to the conclave. So this is all speculation. But when we have a shorter conclave, what correlation does that usually give us? Or is there no such correlation? So definitely—
as we like to do now, we check the odds. And of course there was betting, betting odds on the Pope. And, uh, I, what has happened is with the fast conclave, the odds that it was a Cardinal, uh, Parolin Parolin. I don't know how you say these things. Uh,
That went up. As I told you, he's kind of the centric... He's like the boring pick. He would be the sort of let's not shake anything up too much choice. And it's very possible you got that if you got a pick on... This is probably, I think, only the fourth ballot. So you probably didn't have any dramatic swerves to a dark horse candidate out of nowhere if you're only going three or four ballots. It might have been one or two to shake out...
very unlikely contenders and then we have two thirds. There we go. Of course, this could all be proven wrong in a matter of minutes. So but that is if you're getting one out very quickly, it's probably they were able to pretty quickly have the different wings of the church agree on some sort of sometimes they'll say compromise pick or just consensus pick or a choice who's not going to rock the boat too much in one direction or the other.
John, what comment do you have on this? Can you also speak to the international aspect here? I'm seeing flags from all over the planet. Talk about how there are people from all over the world that are gathering at St. Peter's Basilica and Square.
There are, and this kind of builds on Lila's point. I mean, yes, on the fundamental issues of faith and morality, the Pope's not going to err. But the reality is the following. We did have a Pope who caused scandal in his last pontificate, 100%. So why am I saying that now? Because we have a duty like St. Paul in the book of Galatians.
He addressed Peter to his face when Peter on a prudential issue was going against ultimately what the Lord wanted. And Paul stood up to him. And that's the role. So it's not a slam dunk. We're going to get this amazing all-star representative of the Lord Jesus on that loja. It could be quite the opposite. I'm telling you right now.
Because, you know, newsflash, there are serious worldly influences who are trying to make their presence felt in this conclave. You have, first of all, you have President Macron, who was here for the funeral of Pope Francis. He met up with five different French cardinals, and he pretty much got his hand slapped and said, like, back off. Like, stop. Because, you know, he had his pick in mind. Then you have the Chinese Communist Party.
in this party. They have a fantastic deal going on right now with the Vatican where the Vatican gave them, you know, the ability to choose bishops. There was probably some cashflow between the two entities. So you got to believe it that the CCP has their, has their pick. So this is not a slam dunk. And you know, uh, whoever that man is because of the short bandwidth, like you said, I do expect one of the front runners who we expected, uh,
uh, to be elected might be that, uh, might show up there. So it's, it's, it's a very interesting times, which are, we're going to find out the next kind of like, like you just said, seven to 10 years of, of, uh, plan or program for the church of evangelization, uh, through the person that they choose.
Okay, so Blake, what are you seeing? What chatter here? I mean, look, there's exuberation that we have a new pope. My grandmother was a very devout Catholic, and in fact, so much so that I grew up looking at pictures of John Paul II. There'll be new pictures now. Exactly. She would watch EWTN all the time.
And so I have great reverence for Catholics. And so actually, let's play this. Let's play cut 421. This is Jack Posobiec live from St. Peter's Square. Let's play cut 421. All right, folks, we're here. White smoke just went up.
St. Peter's Square, St. Peter's Basilica, the dome designed and built by Michelangelo himself, the head of the Catholic Church, as the faithful await to find the name of the next vicar of Christ, the next descendant, successor of St. Peter, the next pope. Very soon.
So, wow, the crowd is growing dramatically now. It is just really something. John, do you want to chime in there? Charlie, yeah. So, I mean, you're looking, squares completely packed. Now, what you can see on camera is the Via Conciliazione, which is the main street that leads, goes from St. Peter's all the way down to the Tiber River. That street was actually put in there by police.
President Mussolini in 1929 as a gift to the Vatican to kind of create some grandeur and a view and et cetera. Well, that street is completely packed all the way down to the Tiber River. So you're looking at probably nearing 100,000 people and it's just growing. The entire city of Rome just like descended upon this. I was here, Charlie, in 2013. And by the way,
I got my grandma too. May she rest in peace. She was also a, she was also an aficionado of EWTN. So we share that. We share that in common, Charlie. But in 2013, I was here for Pope Francis's election. And well, we remember I was a seminarian back then. So I was wearing black and white. And I ran down to,
two miles hitchhike part of the way from a kind Italian senorita. And she brought me there and, and we were, we were there, you know, and I'll never forget the moment when Pope Francis did come out. And it's probably one of the rare moments in your life where you're going to have the ability, Charlie, you know, crowds, you see crowds all the time. Imagine a Trump rally where you can get every single person in that room to be like dead on quiet. Okay. Well, Pope Francis did that. He,
for what's 90,000 people, please be quiet and join me in prayer. And to be there where two or three are gathered in, in my name, they're my, they're meant. That's what's going to happen to people just in a few minutes. These people are gathered here in the name of Jesus. You know, so, and we're going to have that moment of prayer. And if you're watching online, you're sharing it in it to some degree. So you see the genuine excitement. Okay. There's a, because I do think it's, it's not just,
fanfare and fluff and like you're seeing a rock star. There's truly a spiritual element going on here. Those people are standing precisely where St. Peter himself was martyred in 67 AD. That is the man that Jesus Christ called on the Sea of Galilee. He was martyred in that square and he's buried now underneath the basilica. So people are standing on the holy ground of martyrs as we wait for this person who represents Christ here on earth for us to show up.
Blake, do you want to comment on that? We got Jack looks like. Oh, my goodness. Jack is coming in also from Rome. Who's got better coverage than us?
No one. We're in pretty good shape. Blake, you're going to comment on something? No, no, no. Charlie, I'm not going to tell you what network I stole by sharing this part of the rooftop, so we'll leave that off camera. But let me just tell you, it's probably one of the best spots around. So the best for the Charlie Kirk show. Jack, are you here? Can you hear us? I don't know. Jack. Yeah, Charlie, I can hear you guys fine. And actually, I've just stepped out.
from St. Peter's Square is directly behind me. That's the only place I could find any Wi-Fi connection. But yeah, I'm hearing you fine. I hope you guys can hear me fine. It is absolute pandemonium as Catholics are ecstatic, coming out, waiting. The white smoke went up just about 45 minutes ago, give or take, and the square is flooded.
We're going to see at least 60,000 people here. Barricades have come down, the Carbonari, the Italian police, the Vatican police, they're just letting people in. My brother Kevin is actually, they made a big mistake and they gave him a press pass. So Kevin is actually up on the roof of the Vatican columns right now getting footage. He doesn't have signal, but we're going to have that footage as soon as we have Wi-Fi.
So we're going to have that footage as soon as possible. And we are all waiting for the announcement of the next pope. We'll be walking out of that balcony very, very soon.
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books for your monthly budget. So go to it right now at YRefi.com. That is Y-R-E-F-Y.com. And so, Jack, just as a Catholic, what has this meant? Is this your first conclave, Jack? Or is this, have you been to one prior? My first conclave. Wow. What has this meant for you? This is my very first conclave. Kind of, what has this experience been? I mean...
Here you got to go to an inauguration and a conclave in the same year within a couple months. How has that been for you, Jack? You know, Charlie, one thing I'm definitely guilty of, and I suppose I'll have to bring up my next confession, is that I'm always kind of focused on the next mission. And it's interesting you ask me a question like that because something my wife brings up often, she said, you really need to take time to step back and think about it. And I'll just say as
As a kid to grow up in the Philadelphia archdiocese, John Paul II was the Pope, but you know, the Pope really only comes to America very rarely, a couple of times during a papacy, usually like literally one or two when I say a couple. So the thought that I would actually be in Rome walking the streets of the Holy city, walking through St. Peter's square like this, it's, it's absolutely surreal. It's something that, uh,
You know, I don't know. I think of my mom, I guess, you know, trying to trying to get me out of bed early on a Sunday morning and saying, come on, we've got to get to mass. We've got to get dressed up. We have to be there. Never thought in a million years that I'd be part of something like this, which which is absolute history and is really going to set the stage.
for the trajectory, not just for Catholics, but for Western civilization writ large. Yeah. So Charlie just stepped out for a second here. We could be getting the Pope literally any second at this point. They said about an hour. It has been about an hour now. And so it could be happening at any time. Just for fun, Jack, what name are you hoping that the new Pope will take?
Well, oh, the name he'll take. Oh, gosh. You know, I'd love to see another Pope Pius. John Paul III, you know, that'd be kind of interesting, following in the footsteps of John Paul II. It's been a while since we've had a Linus. You know, I've always actually been a fan of Pope Linus, the second pope. He doesn't usually get as much filling, of course, as some of the others, but I've always been a real student of his.
his papacy. We've even had a Pope Valentine, so we could have a Pope Valentine in a second. But yeah, I think personally, I'd love to see another Pope Pius XIII, I believe, would be the next one. And I think that would be just a way to continue the traditional line with
within the church as opposed to a pope that would be going more in the vein of Francis, the Jesuit modernist line. And a lot of people are saying, Blake, that because the pope was chosen on this fourth ballot very early, so you've had not even, really not even just 24 hours of the conflate from when it began until now, 24 hours.
voting. Bergoglio, when he was Cardinal, was chosen on the fifth ballot, so also on day two, like we're seeing right now. So there's a lot of people saying, you know, is it possible that we did get a progressive continuation of Francis?
Or is it possible that we found someone who was more of a bridge between the two, a bridge between the progressives and the traditionalists, someone who's willing to actually balance out those two? Because while the modernists have made great progress in their eyes, it's really been the traditionalists that have seen a huge surge across Europe and North America with people flooding into the Latin mass. And of course, Pope Francis was not so keen
to some elements of the Latin mass. So this, of course, was in the vein of Pope Benedict, who also really only passed away a couple of years ago. So we've had quite a few popes in just the last five years. So, John, same question to you. What would you say to the question that Blake posed? I got a crazy proposal. You remember the 21 Coptic Christians who had their necks slit and offered their lives for Christ? We just celebrated with 10th year anniversary.
how about the new pope choose one of the names of those martyrs why to bring it home that that office that role of the holy father that is not some political position they are there to witness to christ and if need be shed their blood that needs to be brought back to the church to church leaders across the world of all faiths we've lost that we've gotten way too comfortable across the spectrum
Until you see men who are willing to just do like what Peter did, shed his blood for the Lord, we're not going to see massive conversions. And we need that today in this world.
Can you speak, John, about how the church and the pope needs to not just speak out against the cultural degeneracy and wokeism and all that stuff, but also about Islam? It seems as if there's been a little bit of silence from my liking from the Vatican on the rise of Muhammadism throughout Europe. Your thoughts, John, yep.
Right there with you, Charlie. You had a great segment the other day talking about Islam taking over parts of Texas. That's right. You know, they are a religion. Let's be honest. You got to go by the book. Yes, the principle, not every Muslim is bad. There are some very, quote unquote, virtuous Muslims. We get that 100%. But in terms of its philosophy, go ahead.
The Koran, it is a quasi-religion, if you can call that, of warfare, of conquest. And it does not sync with human nature. That's one of the defining characteristics of what a religion is. It must sync with the natural law. That's why Christianity, Judaism, they fit so well with what America is. So Sharia law, for instance, that...
diminishes human nature and the dignity of man and woman. So it's a serious issue. The longer we try to avoid it,
the longer we are you know we're gonna we're a bigger problem we're gonna have but i mean charlie step back too we're looking at this question of islam in a 25-year little time frame let's go back to the first 1500 years when since islam began look at what christians have done across europe jack's an expert at this 1683 the battle of vienna christians rose i hear applause
What's going on, Charlie? Let's cut live. Let's just cut live to the feed and let it speak for itself, okay? Let's do that, and you're about to see history. Okay, there's movement. Okay. Here we go. The white curtains are behind the grass. They're now open. Let me see first. Here we are, guys.
Annuncio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam eminentissimum, ac reverendissimum Dominum.
So the Pope is Cardinal Robert Francis Prévost, who's taken the name of Leo XIV, Pope Leo XIV.
Cardinal Probos is an American and he spent most of his ministry in Latin America, in Peru and also in Paraguay. He's an Augustinian father. He was the provincial in Latin America and then became the Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru.
And he then is also, he became the Superior General of the Augustinian Fathers as well. He's now the, he's been the... That is the first American Pope, is that right? If we heard that correctly... Robert Francis Provost, Pope Leo XIV. John, that is the first ever American Pope. John, this was not on anyone's...
Card, John, please. Sort of. This guy came in the running the last minute. Now, to be quite frank, roughly three days ago, Charlie, in a span of roughly 36 hours, every single major, what you and I would call liberal-leaning outlet, ran PR,
stories in favor of this guy. That includes the New York times. I think the guardian had an article and this guy, a national Catholic reporter, which is like the anti-Catholic paper. Okay. So all these guys, all these papers, all of a sudden did this huge ground support for Robert Prevost. Okay. So what does that, I mean, where does that tell you about what kind of man this is? I mean, time will tell. I self-immigrated do not know him. Well, um, I,
I have heard concerns about him, that he leans in the direction of Francis. But, you know, let's give this guy, of course, the benefit of the doubt. He hasn't even come out of the loggia yet. Let's just see, you know, who he is and how he will govern the church in this next time ahead. But just that is an interesting biographical fact.
that he shot to the head of everyone's thoughts and minds about three days ago. Okay, well, the first American pope. Keep talking, John. He seems to be, some people say he's a centrist, blending progressivism with traditional doctrine. Born in Chicago, so I have that in common.
So what do we think here, John? Why do you think he was selected? Okay, so there's the U.S. element. That's right. I mean, he's lived all around, born in the best city in the world, Chicago, where I'm also from, Charlie. You know, there's an American element here, too. And let me tell you why that might be. Again, like we've said before, traditionally almost never does a conclave choose a pope from the world's reigning superpower just for prudential reasons.
But there's a pragmatic reality going on here. The Vatican is almost bankrupt, right? People stopped giving to the Vatican the last 12 years. And honestly, it was well-deserved. I mean, for instance, we had money that we had given as Catholics across the world to the Peter's Pence Collection. Pope Francis and his wisdom decided to give half a million to
to the immigrant migration bans that were coming across to our border. So Americans were rightly upset. Now, when you piss off Americans, considering that we fund...
You know, I'm just taking a ballpark guess. At least 50% of the Vatican, okay? Well, that's not a good business model. So this week coincided with what's called America Week when a lot of the bigger-name Catholic American philanthropists gather in Rome once a year and they kind of discuss where they want to get their money, right, which is a great thing. Well, I know that they made their presence felt saying,
you know, we definitely want a Pope is going to bring things back. So who knows? That might be a contributing factor that the conclave knew that it had to, you know, get the good graces of the American lady back there to help with their financial situation. Cause obviously they do some good work. The Vatican does there and that, and that with where the works of charity. So that might be an interesting angle about Huawei. There you go. You got the flag in the square. You got the, the red, white, and blue flying, flying proud there. So,
It's interesting, Charlie. Time will tell about where Pope Prevost or whoever the name is. I missed the name. Or Leo XIV. How Pope Leo XIV will conduct his affairs. Do we still have – so, Blake, this is a shock. First ever American pope. I was – literally yesterday I was telling one of the staffers. I was like, okay, there's various contenders. They'll probably never pick an American as pope.
I just got owned very badly. I did fortunately say all predictions wrong or your money back, and you get total surprise ones. And this is definitely, like he said, there was some coverage of him as a potential pope, but very much second, third tier even of the potential candidates. There will be a lot of efforts to define him. I suspect...
This can go in directions people don't expect very quickly, so I don't want to assume anything. He might be... I'm looking... trying to see here. He might be the first August Order of St. Augustine. You were asking me about orders of priests just the other day. I think he might be the first pope from that order. He was the prior of them, but...
Oh, man, this is big. I had a weird feeling. I was like, what if it's from America? And I was like, nah, no way. Yes, John? There's one thing, too. The reality of the modern language. I mean, we don't speak Latin anymore. And, you know, we need a pope that can handle the English language really well, right? It's the governing language of the world. So we missed that under Francis. And a lot of times there was confusion about what did he really mean? He was speaking in Italian. He was speaking in Spanish. Well...
We now have a pope who can handle himself well because he's going to be dealing with leaders from all over the world. And that is like what we know. It's the language of, you know, it's the language of, it's the new French. It's what politicians speak among themselves. So in that sense, it's a good thing.
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Okay, continue. We have a new pope. I saw this. Wait, Robert Prevost? That's an American. John, please keep going. So that report was essential, okay? You have, because of the number of cardinals who were named, we already know that a lot of them didn't know each other.
It was a lady who basically took it upon themselves, specifically Edward Penton, fantastic reporter in Diamond Mountain, who were actually standing right next to me. I put together that report and they gave that to the Cardinals. They were literally standing outside those preparatory meetings and delivering those books to them. So those Cardinals were reading that. OK, that scorecard, which I briefly went through it. I mean, maybe, Charlie, you kind of mentioned on air what that report grades was.
Robert Prevost on certain issues because that's very telling. Yeah, so he's against female deacons. He is ambiguous on blessing same-sex couples. He is in favor of promoting a
Synodal Church? Do you know what that is? Yeah, like synods. Synodal Church. Look. No, no, no, no. Go. Keep going. Please, John. Please. Here we go. He's coming out. All right. Let's go full screen. Let's watch it. Thank you. John, you've been great. This is terrific. Let's go full screen. Liz Lev was talking about the Pauline Chapel, and that's where the new pope now, Carl.
Pope Leo XIV, when he will walk down this hallway in the chapel, and at the end of the chapel is an image of Peter crucified upside down, but the artist turned his head so that when the new Pope is walking down the hallway, Peter's eyes are following him. Here we are. Pope Leo XIV is now appearing, coming to the central loggia of the Basilica.
Very special moment. Very special moment. There he is. There he is. And the applause going up, the greeting, the waving, the smiles. How amazing. How amazing. And Dr. Elizabeth was also talking about the symbolism of the red that he's wearing. You know, it is a sacrificial role, and that is the symbol of the clock that he's wearing right now.
You can see this beautiful close-up view from the side there at the same level as the Lord Jean of Clieu de Fortin. Amazing. Smiling. And you can see who wouldn't be taken by the moment. I think going through his mind, you know, the weight of this responsibility. You can see it on his face. You can see it on his face. Amazing. After this, you'll never be the same person. No, no.
and we're hearing the bands below in the mutual salute of the anthems, the hymns of the Vatican hymn and the Italian national anthem as we do traditionally through Easter and Christmas this week in our church.
And after this, now, Pope Leo XIV, he will give a greeting and impart his first Apostolic blessing, the Urbi et Urbi, to the city and to the whole world. So that blessing extends to everyone who is watching, everyone who is listening, your family, wherever you are. It's a great moment to prepare ourselves for this first blessing. This most solemn blessing. You can just feel and see the emotion that has forced. Yeah.
And the crowds there gathered in St. Peter's Square, still arriving, we're being told, from the avenues surrounding the Vatican there, the streets. So just getting messages here, congratulations, God bless the Pope, and you can hear the chanting from the square. Long live the Pope. Vive Papa. Vive Papa. And we're all silent now, awaiting his first words. Peace be with all of you.
Brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the Church of God. I too would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families, to all people, wherever they may be.
We're just hearing the first words of Pope Leo XIV. As he continues, we'll provide a summary here in just a moment as we listen to his words.
asked everyone to brothers this is the peace of the risen christ a peace that is disarming and humble and persevering proviene that comes from god god who loves all of us without any limits and conditions
And we still have the sound in our ears of the weak voice of Pope Francis, who is blessing Rome here.
We have that fresh in our minds, in our hearts, in our ears, hearing his voice. The Pope who was blessing Rome and giving his blessing to the world on that morning, on that day of Easter Sunday. Allow me to continue that same blessing. God loves everyone.
Evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. So without fear, united, hand in hand, with God and among ourselves, we go forward.
We are disciples of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs his light. Humanity needs him as the bridge between God and his love.
May we all build bridges with dialogue and encounter so that we can all be one people, all in peace. Thank you, Pope Francis, for all you've done. We're hearing the first words here of Pope Leo XIV, just elected pope.
I'd like to also thank my brother cardinals who chose me to be the successor of Peter and to walk along with you, searching all together for peace and justice and working together men and women faithful to Christ without fear.
proclaim the Gospel, to be missionaries. I am a son of Saint Augustine, I am an Augustinian
We said, with you I am a Christian and for you I am a bishop. So may we all walk together towards that to the place that God has prepared for us. May we walk together, accompany each other to the church of Rome with a special greeting
as Bishop of Rome, of course. A special greeting. We've got to look at how we can together be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, that is always open to receive everyone, just like in this square, to receive everyone, to welcome everyone, our charity, our dialogue and love.
And allow me also a word, a greeting to all those, and in particular to my dear diocese of Chiclayo in Peru. Where a faithful people has accompanied his bishop, has shared his faith.
where we had such faithful people accompanying the bishop and we had such faithful people helping the bishop.
To all of you, the people of Rome and of Italy, we need to be a synodal church, a church that's a pilgrim, that shows charity always, and especially is charitable to those who are suffering. Today,
Today is the day of praying to the Madonna of Pompeii. Our Blessed Mother Mary always wants to be close to us. She always wants to intercede for us through her love.
So let us pray together for this new mission, for all of the church, for peace in the world.
that she will help us get the, give us a special grace, our mother. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. You are blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the end of our death. Amen.
Coprio the 14th there. Coprio the 14th, very interesting. A few themes coming out already there from his first piece, talking about peace. Indeed, saying a greeting of peace. May my greeting of peace enter into your hearts and reach your families, all people, wherever you are, all peoples of the entire planet. May peace be with you. God's peace be with you, he said. And here we see him in his... After having given that opening and beautiful words...
To all.
and the Holy Father Pope Leo and to all people in the square and all receiving or hearing this through new technology online everywhere, offers us the plenary indulgence in the formula established by the Church. We pray to Almighty God that he may keep the Pope
and guide the church and the entire world. Now he'll give us this most solemn blessing to the entire world, to all of you joining us. So we now prepare ourselves to receive this solemn blessing wherever we are, at home, in your car, at work, wherever you are.
The Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
And we also pray to the Blessed Mary. To the Saint John. Amen.
indulgencia, absolutione et remissione omnium peccatorum vestrorum, spatium vere et fructuose penitentiae, cor semper penitens, et emendatione vitae, gratiam et consolationem sancti spiritus, et finalem perseverantiam in bonis operibus tribuat vobis omnipotens et misericors Dominus.
Amen. And we just heard the blessing there, received the blessing there of Pope Leo XIV to the world, to the city, this most solemn blessing to all of us and all of you listening and watching out there.
What is interesting is that he is smiling and I found very touching the fact that he made reference to his former diocese in Peru and spoke to them in Spanish. A very, very touching moment and now they are thanking them for how they accompanied him. And so from this moment I think we all accompany the new Holy Father with our prayers and support.
And once again, he asked, just like Pope Francis did before, he asked for continued prayers. You know, this is a heavy task, as we all noted before, and he continues to ask all of us for prayers and also for the intercession of Our Lady on this special feast day.
And he asked us especially to be bridge-bounders, as he is, and to be bridge-bounders as well. That we should build that in the diocese, both here in the diocese of Rome, in Italy, and throughout the world. And that we should build that in fraternity and fraternity.
So many times Pope Francis told us the same. There have been false debates, I think, in leading up to this about unity and diversity and things, but he's made it clear that he's looking for us to be united, but also to be the bridge forwarders and to bring about peace in the world that's going through it. We're seeing this stunning footage of this video of Daddy Drone there going close to the balcony and seeing
I think if the first time we've seen images like this, of course, the new pope. There's about 100,000 people we're getting in this square right now who are seeing pope.
Okay, you are watching History here. Again, we're still learning about this new pope. He is officially the pope. Is that right? But there's an official, I think. There's no electoral college on this one. No, but there is an official ceremony next Sunday, I believe, where all the heads of state come in. And look, the pope, we don't know a lot. We do know that he attacked J.D. Vance back in February. I believe this is a legitimate Twitter account. He said, J.D. Vance is wrong. Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.
Boy, that's a misinterpretation of what J.D. was saying. But OK, we'll see. We'll find out more. So now we have Frank Pavone. Frank, great to see you. Thank you for taking the time. What is your reaction to this new announcement? Well, I'm astonished that they chose an American. What a surprise. And I have some connections to this cardinal. Our associate director at Priests for Life is also an Augustinian, Father Dennis Wild. He's been with us since 1998. And he knew...
the new Pope, when he was at Villanova and he started, Prevost started Villanovans for Life. And we know, you know, there's a lot to be unpacked here, but, you know, the name Leo, that's important as well. And I'm sure a lot of comment is going to be about, you know, what is he trying to convey by Leo, Leo XIV. Leo XIII was known, of course, for his emphasis on Catholic social teaching and
and enabling the church to speak to the modern age when it came to the social doctrine of the church. So hopefully there we're going to see a better handling of this than we saw under Francis and a little bit more detailed
doctrine put in along with just the idea of embracing and accompanying people. But that remains to be seen. But I'm confident that we've done now what I thought we were going to do, what I thought the Cardinals were going to do, was to make some kind of a course correction. I don't think this is going to be Francis II, but a lot remains to be seen because, Charlie, the office shapes the man also, you know, and I think we're going to see that happen too.
So what then is the expectation? How does this work? Does a pope give like a couple formal speeches to kind of set the tone of his papacy? How does that work, Frank? We will see a few things start to happen. One of the most important things, just like we see in the civic arena, is what kind of appointments he will start making. Now, it's interesting. They chose a man here who was in charge of the congregation for bishops.
So over recent years, he has been responsible for the selection of bishops, which of course is a primary responsibility of the Pope to assign bishops to dioceses. So we're going to see very soon, not only in terms of whom he appoints as bishops, but whom he appoints in the various offices of the Vatican because he has the prerogative to bring in his own people or to let those who are in place now stay in place.
I would look at that as much as the speeches he will give. He will be giving speeches now regularly. Hopefully he'll be of the style where we hear a lot from him, you know, hopes that, you know, will preach every day and send out lots of messages. I think that's good. I hope he takes the social media right away for the sake of transparency.
But yes, we will see over the next few weeks, we'll be able to assess, I think, pretty quickly the direction in which his thinking is going to go. So Taylor Marshall is saying this is bad. But I mean, I'm not trying I'm not even weighing in on it. This is not my thing. Right. John, what do you think here? I mean, I want we want to keep this uplifting and I'm trying to I'm the Protestant here. I want a good conservative, traditional based pro-life, you know, anti-transport. What did we get here?
I think just, I think honesty is the best recipe for true enthusiasm and hope. And I have to admit, I do have cause for concern, for great concern. Although what Father Frank was just saying, it's also true that, you know, a Pope, someone can change once they've been handed the responsibility of 1.2 billion Catholics, right? But prior to this, I mean, the scorecard speaks for itself.
You know, Poland in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s made Carol Wojtyla John Paul II. In the same way, Prevost Pope Leo XIV carries his background. And you said it yourself. What's the scorecard? He was ambiguous on same-sex blessings. I'm sorry, but the Bible is not ambiguous on that central issue. So he also, during his speech, you know, there was...
you know, good and said a lot of the right things. I mean, but he did use that word dialogue. Dialogue has been hijacked by the left inside our church and outside of our church as it's kind of a false idea that we can, yes, talk with the world, but never call them to repentance. You're going to laugh, but I'm looking behind. There's another rooftop. And on that rooftop right now is a priest by the name of Father James Martin.
He's caused great scandal in the Catholic church. And what does he run with? He was very close to Pope Francis and he ran with dialogue. Let's, let's welcome everyone in the church, but never call them in repentance. I'm sorry, but you can't do that. You must be like Christ and, you know, address their sins. So we'll see, you know, time will tell. Don't forget if the New York times or the liberal newspapers are running positive media about you,
That should make you think twice. And that is what happened last three days with Cardinal Prevost. But, you know, I think, Charlie, it would be good at some point, maybe we just, we offer a prayer in our own way for this man, for the mission that he is about to undertake.
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OK, I mean, look, not everyone was doing it in 2020. Well, not us. But Mr. Prevost, the new pope, was retweeting George Floyd propaganda. But that is what it is, whatever. So, again, I'm not I'm not Catholic. So you guys can sort this out amongst yourselves. Let's talk about the American aspect of this. I'll start with you, Frank. Frank, what do you think this will mean for the country, for our nation that we love to have a pope from America? He's also from he's from America, but he served in Peru. But he will be known as the American pope.
And also just, is there something else going on here? Why they would go out of their way to choose an American Pope, Frank? That's the most surprising element of this to me. And I think that we can first of all say, one of my concerns, our concerns with Pope Francis was they didn't seem to understand or appreciate what was going on here in America, our American politics, certainly. And not to say that this is...
necessarily going to be a pro-Trump pope. But I have the hope that at least coming from more of a familiarity with America, he will be able to work better with the Trump administration than Pope Francis did.
Now, having said that, again, we'll have to just see the specifics as they unfold. The other thought is very interesting, like what you said about John Paul going back to Poland. Certainly he's going to make trips to America. And I think this can really engage the attention of the American public to, you know, what is a pope anyway, you know, and get a renewed interest in what is going on with the Catholic Church.
But I'm even more excited about the other in the opposite direction or how the understanding of America and our constitution and our system of government will affect the way he leads the whole church and the way he works with the current administration. John, what is your thought of an American pope? What will this mean for our homeland?
I mean, on his face, you know, it could be do some a lot of good. Like Father Frank said, he's going to make some trips, probably the United States, which they have large gatherings. But here's another thing to throw at you. We've had arguably one of the most confusing pontificates under Pope Francis. Well, what are the numbers shown? We've had a rise in the number of Catholic conversions across the country. So it's kind of a paradox in some ways that you might have a pope who wasn't whatever, you know, more progressive.
But yet you had all these conversions. So it's not necessarily symmetrical. It can help for sure. But, you know, that remains to be seen. I think at the end of the day, what's going to create conversions, you know, it's kind of like,
how Trump won the White House. It wasn't Trump that won the White House. He did, of course, on his personality, but it was us who saw our task, our own mission. In this case, it's a mission of holiness, of getting to heaven and becoming Christ-like, which is going to create the witness and create more conversion. So Pope or not, American or not, gringo or not, holy Pope or sinner Pope, it's up to us now.
That's how we're going to make the change. I really believe that. Blake, what can we expect out of an American pope? And then you want to go more into the history. Yeah. Well, so an American pope, what we can expect, and this is not even necessarily the fault of the new pope, but 100 percent, you will see obviously a big attempt by media in the U.S., media worldwide to play up any conflict between the American pope and the American president.
even if he doesn't play into that directly they will do it they will hype it up they will try they will try to generate that so we have to be ready for that we have to be ready to not fall into this trap we're like oh this like atheist guy at the new york times is saying the pope said this so i have to agree with what the atheist guy at the new york times says i'm supposed to think about what the pope says about the president you can't fall for this stuff don't don't let it
brainwash you in any way. There will be attempts to do that. I've been spending while we've been talking here, I was looking up
He's Leo XIV. We haven't had a Leo Pope in over 100 years. We don't know for sure who this was inspired by, but a good bet is you look at the last guy to hold that name. Leo XIII was Pope for quite a long time, about 25 years. He's one of the longest reigning Popes ever. He's pretty interesting. He's from a period where they were called the Prisoner of the Vatican. So Italy had conquered the Papal States, which used to be a thing.
And because the Pope did not recognize this, for the 25 years he was Pope, he did not leave Vatican City. So 25 years just in that little St. Peter's Basilica area, could not leave. Refused to leave, I should say. But what Leo XIII was interesting about, he was kind of the first Pope to really engage with what we would call modern day Catholicism.
like economic and social issues. So he wrote encyclicals where he would say, basically, capital has duty to labor. You have to treat workers well. Workers have to have certain rights. And this would cause people to have different takes on him. They would say he was, you know, favorable, that it was like pro-socialist or proto-Marxist. It wasn't really. He was more kind of cutting a middle path between sort of, you know, left-wing economics and like capitalism.
Carving trying to carve out his own sort of Catholic position on it. Another thing he promoted, which I think we would have some sympathy with, is he called it subsidiarity, which is that decisions generally should be made at a local, at a smaller level rather than imposed by very high up authorities as a principle of government. And as American conservatives, we're obviously sympathetic to that in an innate sort of way.
So that's just looking at what he might be drawing inspiration from. I think initially we could look at, well, he picked this guy's name. So I think you'll see a lot of people talking about that in the days to come.
Final thoughts, Frank, and then we'll throw it to John. Frank, final thoughts. You know, one of the keys to the thinking of a bishop or a cardinal is his coat of arms. They have a particular choice of a motto that they put on their coat of arms. And for Cardinal Prevost, it is in the one Christ, we are one.
And I like that very much because obviously, you know, and he started out his remarks today by doing what? By talking about the risen Christ. You know, he didn't start by talking about himself. And this is really what a Pope is supposed to do. And in the one Christ, we are one. Uh,
gives a, we're going to have to unpack that in the coming weeks and months and see how that's a key to his thinking. But it could, it could point to a good effort to heal the divisions that have happened in the church. Certainly the divisions among the wider body of Christ. And of course, what always has to be front and center for pointing to the one Lord and head of the church who is Jesus Christ. Take this for whatever it's worth. He is a registered Republican. Our turning point action team actually pulled this.
No, this is I'm not kidding. This is credit to Tyler and Turning Point Action. And he voted in Republican primaries when he was not living in Peru. Final thoughts, John. Charlie, you OK if I lead you on a prayer? Just for what this means for Christians around the world? Yes. We asked the Heavenly Father right now to bless Christians around this world in this moment for the universal church. We ask Christians.
to renew their love for the Lord and make him bless us right now. Bless Robert Prevost and his role as Pope of Catholics around the world. And we ask that Our Lady be close to him and ultimately keep us centered on what truly matters, reaching heaven and bringing people there with us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord, amen. Amen. Thank you, John. Thank you, Frank. And Blake, we'll wrap this up in about 30 seconds. Thank you, guys. And there is a new pope. It is Leo XIV, right? Leo XIV. Pope Leo XIV from Chicago. I've got to wear my Cubs hat tomorrow.
And he is a registered Republican who votes in Republican primaries. The primary is the key. If he was like faking it, he wouldn't vote in the Republican primaries in Chicago. That's like you would not do that unless you actually believe it. So he might be a single issue pro-life voter, which honestly would be, you know, not the worst thing. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us as always. Freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to Charlie Kirk dot com.