World Over – 2019-01-10 – Full Episode with Raymond Arroyo

[Music] disgraced Archbishop Theodore McCarrick is facing a Vatican trial for sex abuse before the Vatican summit on abuse vegans in February what does the timing me Robert royal from the Catholic thing and the Catholic news agencies IDI Condon will provide analysis and later where does border security and the government shutdown stand after the president's appeal to the nation this week congressman Sean Duffy joins us with analysis and finally what should you know about the financial markets in 2019 to get the most out of your investments financial expert Nabi Maria fund manager George Schwartz weighs in and talks about his new book on morally responsible investing the world over begins right now [Music] now from Washington DC Raymond Arroyo a warm welcome to all of you joining us in the United States and the world over happy new year Robert Royal Eddie Condon congressman Sean Duffy and George Schwartz are all straight ahead send me a tweet I'm at Raymond Arroyo I'll be live tweeting throughout here's some news from the world over recent media reports suggest that a trial of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick is underway and Vatican sources have told the Catholic news agency that his case is not being handled by a full judicial process sources at the Congregation for the doctrine of faith have confirmed that allegations against McCarrick are being considered through an abbreviated approach called an administrative penal process this indicates that the Catholic Church is moving quickly towards sentencing the clarity the former prominent Archbishop of Washington who now stands accused of sexually abusing three minors and harassing adult priests and seminarians already has become the first u.s. cardinal ever removed from office due to sexual misconduct allegations now he faces the prospect of being Leia sized and the Vatican has confirmed that Argentinian Bishop Gustavo sanchita who resigned suddenly in July of 2017 for health reasons and whose resignation was accepted by Pope Francis is now under investigation three priests in his diocese of Iran claim that he sexually abused a dozen seminarians they filed a report with the Apostolic Nuncio Francis elevated as Ancheta to Bishop in 2013 of his own initiative bypassing all canonical procedure after accepting his resignation the Pope created a position for him as Assessor of the Holy See's financial administration according to the Vatican the allegations against San Chetta only emerged in recent months here was their analysis is the editor-in-chief of the Catholic thing org Robert royal and member the papal posse and DC bureau chief of the Catholic News Agency Ed Condon thank you both for joining me gentlemen Bob I'll just give you a salute you're too far away to reach I want to start with the Canon Law story we reported earlier that carick is being subjected to what's being called an administrative penal appeal now ed you've dealt with these cases what does that mean in actuality so an administrative penal process is something that exists in canon law and is used very frequently okay what happens is if there's a if there's a criminal case or what looks to be a criminal case a credible allegation you do a preliminary investigation and it turns up so much evidence that it looks like a full-blown trials unnecessary would just spin the process out then you can move to an administrative penal process now this is a really stripped down version of a trial it's not even a trial properly speaking but there are Assessors involved to help the judge make a determination there's still the right of defence so in this case archbishop McCarrick himself will be able to look at the evidence against him as well as canon lawyer and make arguments but we're looking at something that's going to proceed along a much more accelerated timeline Bob do you think that accelerated timeline may be attributable to that upcoming February summit on sexual abuse the Vatican wants to say well look we we took care of McCarrick and is that the proper way to handle something like this well I don't know I mean we've been all calling for it and our bishops also have been calling for action that they yeah Holy See not only do something but but but be seen to be doing something so insofar as that's the case I think that this is is good but there are of course doubts about whether you you you settle the question by expediting it before a meeting so you can be seen to have done something in my estimation there probably is enough s evidence against mckarrick of all different sorts that he will eventually be found guilty and it's a good thing just in general in general terms that there'll be this markers sort of laid down there but I think there were going to be a lot of ongoing questions and then of course there's still the other big questions of how did he manage to survive for so long with all this material in the file at the Congregation for bishops and who is responsible for the well and that this begs the larger question even if they convict let's say they convict McCarrick next Wednesday of these crimes which she is alleged to have committed both against minors as well as seminarians does this then put to rest the viga no charges of the way that carick proceeded through the hierarchy and will that investigation kind of either be forgotten or shelved I think they're really separate issues and they need to be treated separately the the criminal conduct of sexual abuse that Archbishop McCarrick stands accused of is something that needs its own treatment I think trying to conflate the two with how Archbishop mckarrick rose to become an archbishop and eventually a cardinal is a separate question that needs to be dealt with at a separate time I think when you're dealing with a criminal trial whether it's canonically or civilly it's important that that be given its own process and seen in its own terms if McCarrick is convicted do you believe that this then puts the Pope in a good light that he's moved expeditiously he's demanding justice and he's subjecting this this archbishop to the full penalties of the church' laws well I mean yet see me in the sense that I just mentioned that they at least steps are now B we can see steps being taken and we know that something has got to happen it just can't be played out McCarrick is very old I mean we don't know how much time he has left on this earth but something has got to happen while he's still alive because once he's died is if this is all going to be ancient history and people aren't gonna feel a sense of urgency I think that Ed is exactly right that there are two separate things but we shouldn't let this good move with this good public move and then also the the follow-up of the meeting in February we shouldn't let this deflect us from what needs to be a larger investigation into what's been going on and how does the sentencing work it's my understanding Cardinal Mueller sitting where you are it shocked me when he said only the Pope can allow these penalties to proceed against a bishop the Pope has that purview and power to himself I assume the congregation or the CDF could enact those penalties apparently they can't no absolutely not and this is entirely correct I mean this is a lot of what we've seen with some of the frustrations with how the bishops in the United States have been unable to proceed is bishops aren't accountable to other bishops now the church is a hierarchy it's a living hierarchy and in the end of Bishop answers to the Pope now only the Pope can make a determination about a bishop only the Pope can open an investigation or a penal process into a bishop and in the structure of the church that's as it should be so also only a Pope can impose penalties on a bishop now in the case of Archbishop McCarrick what's interesting is this how will any resolution come out what charges is he facing we have a rough idea of the accusations against him but how they've been formulated we're not sure if he's convicted on what charges will he be convicted and if he's sentenced and a penalty is imposed who's imposing it so while only the Pope has the authority to lay aside for example a bishop all right he can delegate that power to the CDF now will the CDF be acting on delegated power to impose a penalty or will the penalty be imposed in the name of the Pope himself and that can make a big difference and Bob we've seen in fact Cardinal Mueller alluded to the fact that there were certain friends that the Pope are in his orbit or friends of friends in the Pope's orbit that were spared penalty or their or their investigations were muted or brought to it to a close are we concerned that we might see that again or is this because it's so public now is this forcing almost a reform within the Curia itself well I think we can hope for that I think that this case is just so flagrant explosive and it it's it's clear that this is going on for a number of years this isn't just one one instance where Bishop steps off the curb or he's done a number of things that would cause a pope to remove him from office this this goes so deep and it has such long roots that I think we can't help but want to see this investigation to go further I don't know if this is going to lead to to some questioning of what's going on in Rome but it certainly ought to because if I were the Pope I would like to know around me who might have been involved in what's a very damaging process that allowing a person that was known I mean we we've talked about this before on the show was known for many years to have the beach house and there were these rumors about seminarians to have that for so many years and yet it did not rise to the level of causing any problem of stopping his his advance up the hierarchy I think we've got to get to the bottom of I want to move on to another case beyond Meharry because this is an international crisis we see this story in Argentina I mentioned at a moment ago about this bishops Ancheta who a group of seminary priests have come forward and said there were a dozen seminarians they're charging that were sexually abused by this bishop now curious thing here is he resigned from his post the Pope made him Assessor of the Vatican's finances and now the Vatican has egg on its face and propene self because he basically found safe harbor for this man now he's not executing his duties while he faces trial is this another black mark against the Pope as he tries to face this crisis why don't he's personally involved I his name is personally involved in the sense that it's the Pope who appoints bishops and as the Pope who moves them to the Curia now one thing that we have seen not just under this Pope but under previous Pope's is they're not necessarily given a full understanding of who they're appointing when someone comes up for a for a job by Vatican right we've seen other cases where a sanitized version of somebody's resume is put on the Pope's desk and everything looks well so I think it would be irresponsible to conclude that this is something the Pope is personally responsible for knowingly involving himself as someone who's got outstanding accusations but it does cast a further shadow over the Vatican's handling of senior clergy who seem to have accusations outstanding against them that is something that does need to be interested there's another case in Argentina of to two priests at a monastery also charged the one of them abusing a former student in the community who was a minor at the time the abuse started in 2009 continued to 2015 this is in the Pope's home diocese yeah I would I would disagree slightly with you and in this sense that the Pope knew son chaos unchecked I guess we're calling it because it's a Spanish pronounced vision so unchecked because he was I think a undersecretary for the bishops conference in Argentina and so when shortly after I think it was July he was elected and the Pope was elected in March and it was already in July that he appointed this man it seems that he knew him personally now that said this doesn't mean that he knows he knows everything about a lot of my ships new Archbishop McCarran personally had had no idea what he was up to out yeah but the fact that during a hiring freeze at the Vatican that the Pope made a special position for this man at the the administration of the patrimony of the Holy See this is not the Vatican Bank right this is the the organization that runs the the real estate the the accounts of religious orders etc this is a pretty simple position our full position the fact that he put him in there he must have felt that the man was a good man and that he needed some sort of place to land but we have to say should he be consulting maybe with other people when he makes appointments like I want to move on to the United States bishops ending their retreat this week the Pope asked them to have a retreat before this february summit to pray together to discern together what should be done in the midst of this crisis he sent a letter to them much of it is very pastoral it's really an extended reflection it goes on for eight pages at the top he said I suggested that together you make a retreat a time of seclusion prayer and discernment as a necessary step toward responding in the spirit of the gospel to the crisis of credibility that you are experiencing as a church when I read that the you jumped out at me this is something that we are experiencing as a church and I will say a couple of bishops reached out and thought that was a curious omission considering this is a global crisis as we've been relating it is a global crisis but there is a particular crisis of credibility facing the American hierarchy right now I mean this was palpable during the recent bishops conference meeting in Baltimore and this is the source of a lot of frustration that they were unable to reach any kind of conclusion at the end of it so I don't know I think the Pope was addressing the American church the American bishops particularly and there needs to be a particular address there one thing I really liked about the Pope's letter to the American bishops and I liked about the tone of this retreat was he emphasized personal conversion in avoiding the temptations of compromise I think that's something that needs to be we need see more of a controversial opinion I have that not isn't shared with everyone but I think that the the Pope actually has taken the right steps with regards this pastoral letter and insisting on a week-long retreat for the bishops a lot of people are looking for the u.s. bishops and for the Vatican to come up with some sort of new structure and reinvent the procedural wheel to bring bishops to account right I think a lot of what we've seen in the last year which has seen scandal after scandal in this country and abroad is a result of human error and human failing people not doing what they were supposed to do not following procedures that were already place mm-hm and I think until there's a level of personal accountability for that we're not going to see real change Bob yeah I think that's true with regard to priests I'm not so sure about the bishops I still have questions and of course no one has any simple answer for how we hold Bishops accountable but there seems to be some failure here in the United States there seems to be similar failures in Argentina in in Chile in Ireland in Australia there seems to be a structural problem here and I want to say again I don't have any particular insight into how you solve that structural problem but the mere fact of people being encouraged to be more faithful to their vows to do their their jobs to be responsible for the people that are under them all this is very good but I don't think that it's it's sufficient to dealing with a problem I think we're gonna have to look deeper I don't know I'd take issue with that slightly the National Review Board in this country issued a letter in August you know was sort of in the middle of everything going wrong the Pennsylvania grand jury report the McCarrick scandal everything else and they said that no new processor structure is going to solve what's caused these crises and they said what it is is it's a crisis it's a cultural crisis within the American hierarchy and I think you can apply that slightly more widely this is a crisis of personal responsibility and you cannot legislate or reform away personal failure but you thought it up III want to bring this back in perspective because I think the audience is thoroughly confused by all of they here in canonical reforms and expedited trials it's a blizzard of information to them they can't process but you hit it on the head very early on when you said at the end of the day only the Pope can discipline a bishop only the Pope can allow a penalty to be exact it upon and delivered upon a bishop that said why are we having this summit in February this is a papal this is a papal prerogative the Pope and the Curia have it within the reach and you as a canon lawyer know the canonical process I'm not one but many esteemed ones have told me the canonical process is here in Raymond it's all here yes all it needs it all you've just turn it on and then the Pope does what he needs to do so why are we going through this February summit I think what the we don't know what they're gonna do in the February now we have some indications which we're going some indications but one thing that is clear to me is you're absolutely right and what these are the people have said to you about the canonical process is there I would agree with that and it does need to be turned on one thing that the canonical process currently lacks is there are gaps carved out in the universal law of the church regarding for example clerical discipline ways in which you would articulate more fully sexual misconduct on how to handle it in a diocese now those are deliberately carved out in the code of canon law so to make room for particular law and individual diocese because problems in one place aren't the same as problems at another all right and so this was deliberately done but what we haven't seen a lot of in the last thirty years in the church is bishops taking the initiative and filling in those gaps which the law expressly encourages them to intend allows and so while I'm hoping we'll see come out of the February meeting isn't bishops coming back not with some big fix from Rome but feeling emboldened and saying Rome's on our side if we want to push the envelope here and start taking firm action we can do it Bob during the holidays Cardinal soup which came out who's one of the organizers the Archbishop of Chicago of this summit he says this is expressly to protect minors from sexual abuse is that too narrowly casting the problem and the question well it seems that that's what Rome is regards the February meeting as I think a lot of us in the United States had hoped that there would be some sort of practical outcome of what's going to happen and from everything that I see the people that I trust most who have seemed to have some insight and sources know what they're trying to do is broaden a general awareness of how to protect young people and other vulnerable people which is a good thing to do of course here in the United States I think we can say in spite of all of our problems that we're a little bit further advanced all right that particular problem than many then probably most other parts of the world are we've ever since 2002 with the Dallas Charter we've had a pretty is in some cases I think overly draconian set of rules about priests who have committed crimes of one could sort or another or sins of one sort of another I think that the Vatican is looking at this and Andre attorny le who's now the editorial director of the Vatican new services talked about the universality of the church and how the church needs to respond in a universal way which of course is important well we want to talk about is the spiritual roots that that inspire all the ways that we behave including about the these sorts of problems but I think that there is a little bit of a disconnect for us in America where we feel that the dealing at the level of priests is one thing but we're looking for something else and perhaps that is right that we come out emboldened and maybe our bishops can come back I've been saying this all along I hope that they come back and they feel that now that they can begin to do something that is on a concrete level and we've had proposals even some pictures haven't proposed you just wrote a piece about this in the Washington Post fine piece I want to read what torn ele said and getting get your reaction to this he said in a statement which he article he posted on the Vatican website the purpose of the meeting is very specific to ensure that everyone taking part in it can return to their own country being absolutely clear about what must and must not be done with regard to addressing these cases is it does that put a fine enough point on what this summit is about not not yet now what are these cases one of the things and the McCarrick case highlights this very very clearly is you have two distinct levels of crimes that he's accused of one is the abuse of minors now there's I don't think you can find anyone who's going to say you can act too strongly or too swiftly or too universally against the abuse of minors that's more or less a settled issue alright but what you mentioned vulnerable adults and I think this is going to be an important question whether it's addressed or not in February and how what is a vulnerable adult right now in the church in the churches law a vulnerable adult is someone who habitually lacks the use of reason essentially someone who has developmental disabilities but a lot of people say that and they're right that this wouldn't cover seminarians abused by their bishop or by a priest all right this doesn't cover someone who's subject to coercive use of authority the law doesn't cover them yet now people like Cardinal O'Malley in Boston Marie Collins of an abuse survivor in the ormer member of the Pontifical Commission for the protection of minors has said broaden this definition out make it include these people who have been the victim of abuse of authority as well as sexual abuse so whether or not they're willing to deal with those case I think we'll make a great deal of difference if they don't and this is something I mentioned in my piece now in the Washington Post and also in Catholic news agency is that if they don't address both then they're going to have a problem if McCarrick s-- charges are not answered both then they're going to have a problem you need to put this to rest otherwise we're going to look at the church possibly just storing up a next generation of scandals and this such as on what Cardinal brand Mueller is now speaking about which is the the that the preponderance of these cases of abuse tend to be homosexual in nature now he says that needs analysis and but given the pronouncements coming from the Vatican it doesn't seem that's on the radar well it's it will see we've come and comes out of this I mean this is these are sort of general statements that are being made primarily to lower lower expectations and put walls on this yeah it's three or four days it's I think literally hundreds of people many of whom maybe have never even met one another the problem in Africa is different than the problem in Asia than the problem in Latin America or North America so it's starting to feel like a therapeutic session where we are appraised up or the bishops are appraised of the feelings and the wounds delivered upon the victims in this abuse and that is an important important part of this but it makes the other point so what do you do about it what do you do about it but I don't think the bishops need to know you can't touch a child a woman or a man you don't do that sexually you cannot engage with them in those on that level why is that such a why is that such a mind-blowing concept well I don't know that that's what the bishops need to be told in Rome what apparently somebody needs to be told cuz it's happening well I would well but again we're back to this is a crisis of personal accountability right a crisis of structure and I think what is where bishops are concerned though by your own admission well know that again we're not talking about a strident crisis of structure even there because we have instances looking at mckarrick that as we said something was known people knew people complained are years a Triton and somehow this didn't make its way to the point where the Pope in this case even after settlements the man was promoted exactly this is the product to say that the problem there lies with the Pope I think is to miss the point that's again a personal accountability failure below the Pope because right it's in the Curia who is passing these allegations on where are they going we know that for example father Boniface Ramsey received a letter from the Secretary of State saying that his allegations had been received and and they'd had them for years when they were going to acknowledge the 2006 2006 I think they were acknowledged what happened in the interim why didn't they go to the Pope again these aren't structural problems there was a process a letter was sent at the minseo --then & co 4 to the Secretariat of state he went to the Congregation of Bishops what why didn't anything happen there that's a personal problem that's not a structural problem yeah but I also think that they're around the edges people are trying to look at at least adjustments to what the structures are you even Cardinal soup which as I was saying earlier came up with this idea of the Metropolitan sort of overseeing local bishops at the bishops meeting after the Holy Father had requested that our bishops in the United States not vote on the two proposals that they had about personal responsibility and structural reforms so there's there's a sense that yeah if personal responsibility is really the the key problem enough nevertheless there have to be channels maybe not restructuring in canonical terms but there could be channels by which calls for personal responsibility are gonna be available that are effective even for bishops and well in that point Cardinal soup which actually mentioned in Baltimore that he wasn't creating this idea out of thin air in fact this is something the bishops committed themselves to doing already as part of the statement of Episcopal accountability at the signing of the Dallas Charter I'll back that they were already supposed to be referring accusations they received against themselves to another bishop in the metropolitan area this is again something that has already been put in place mechanically yeah but no one's doing one's acting on it yeah it may as well not be there if they're not acting on it so having a new process isn't gonna solve that problem it won't touch the underlying problem which is that people need to take personal responsibility if a letter lands on their desk they need to act on it and I'm afraid that's something that hasn't happened but maybe we will start seeing to happen because we're now seeing bishops coming under heavy fire if it comes out they were told and they didn't act well I think that's one thing that we can hope comes out of Rome in the February meeting if if there really is a sense of urgency this is the way I've constituted a sense of urgency backed by the Holy Father himself that people go out and understand that they've got to make it work then I think the individual national bishops conferences go out and do what needs to be done in their own territories in the right way for the cultures in which they exist but that means that Rome really is gonna have to emboldened them to use that word and bolt on them to go out and do the right thing before I let you all go on January 1st the Pope was at the Angelus and at the end of the Angelus he did something which he has done in the past he did not do the traditional blessing he decided to recite an Old Testament blessing you you would have thought of doing this well Raymond you remember when we covered the Conclave three days later he had a meeting for all the journalists there were six thousand of us sitting in the lipolysis Tony did the exact same thing and it really took us all aback because when your Pope there's always somebody in the room that isn't necessarily believer and even if maybe a roomful of Cardinals you don't necessarily have people who were who are believing so it's an odd thing that he does one understands why he does it he tries to be more unified yeah you know I try to reach out on New Year's Day to the entire world but I think if you're the Pope of Rome you make a a Trinitarian prayer on the Feast of Mary the mother of God okay yeah I don't know I the Pope sometimes makes these I don't know if they're spontaneous gesture but these deviations and the bottom line is the purpose of the Pope issuing a blessing to the city in the world is that the world takes notice we've taken notice mm-hmm we'll leave it there Bob Edie thank you both for your insight you can find Robert royals commentary at the Catholic thing dot org and all of ed Condon's reporting is the Catholic News Agency dot-com congressman Sean Duffy is next but first a little news to share with you Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed the u.s. his commitment to the Middle East and the ongoing battle against Isis during a news conference in Egypt on Thursday Pompeyo is in talks with Egyptian leaders on a nine country Middle East tour that seeks to reassure leaders in the region after the president recently announced the withdrawal of US troops from Syria the president also delivered a primetime address from The Oval Office on Tuesday calling for Congress to dedicate five billion dollars for his border wall Trump called the situation a growing humanitarian and security crisis and I urge Democrats to follow border security and end the partial government shutdown on Wednesday President Trump walked out of a meeting with Democrat leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi after they refused to compromise on border security spending continuing the partial shutdown the president has threatened to declare a national emergency to build the wall if Congress does not act joining us now to talk about all of this and much more I'm joined by the House Financial Services Committee member and US congressman from Wisconsin Sean Duffy the man now refilling Maxine Waters water glass so that Maxine is our new chair of I know the services we're gonna get a lot a lot of work done in that committee okay a lot of investigations maybe in a lot of impeachment talk but I don't know how much on actual financial services so we will check in with you throughout the year to see how that relationship is developing the president made the case for border security on Tuesday night from the Oval Office here's what he had to say the only thing that is immoral is the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized how much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job when I took the oath of office I swore to protect our country and that is what I will always do how effective do you think this message was in reaching the American people well it supposed to be clear the the the liberal media and the Democrats are messaging together and they're putting pressure on President Trump to open up the border and you know folks aren't getting paychecks and there's not a crisis at the border it's manufactured and it's important that President Trump is a one-man band in regard to messaging that he'd go out and talk about the importance of border security not just for the American people so we have unis we have drugs meth and heroin 90% of it comes over the southern border ravaging communities like mine and Wausau Hudson Superior but we have ms-13 gang members and other criminals 17 thousand migrants with criminal records were caught at the border last year alone 17 thousand that doesn't count we didn't catch so a huge number of people with criminal convictions are coming in the United States but not only that four hundred people who made that very dangerous journey died last year alone four hundred people and as the president mentioned in the address a third of women are sexually assaulted that's the number that comes from Doctors Without Borders yeah so not only do you have a crisis for the migrants with an open border that incentivizes them to you know because a 2,000 mile journey into our border but also we have the security and safety concerns that we have inside of our country and so I mean the president is right on and innocent I don't know that he's the bestest you know scripted and in it we can't deviate from the teleprompter and he's sitting down so he's better in other formats but you know what you sit in the Oval Office everyone has a Twitter account only one guy has an oval office and that he uses it I thought was important I want to play this for you a Speaker Nancy Pelosi and leader Chuck Schumer responded to the president's address here's some of what they had to say the president is rejecting these bipartisan bills which would reopen government over his obsession with fortune forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall president Trump has appealed to fear not facts division not unity there's an obvious solution separate the shutdown from arguments over border security what's wrong with that argument well first off Democrats spent almost a trillion dollars on an infrastructure bill ten years ago they didn't build any infrastructure this is five billion dollars that will secure our border so they took my money I don't I don't buy that argument number one but number two walls work and that's why Chuck Schumer Nancy Pelosi Barack Obama have all voted for border funding in the past and so when they say listen this is a waste of money well why did Chuck Schumer vote for the secure Fence Act in 2006 and why don't you vote for a plan in 2013 to give us a fencing in border border wall at the southern border if it didn't work the truth Raymond is the fact that Democrats know walls work they want border security the problem is they hate the president in the press ran on border security they don't want to give him a wind they just want to resist him now with that said there was a lot of debate about whether Nancy and Chuck were able to give an address to the nation after President Trump because there was this was somewhat political right I thought it was brilliant I come from Wisconsin relatively 50/50 seat and the more that Chuck and Nancy from San Francisco and New York and talked to my constituents the more America middle America sees that they're out of touch I have to say I thought the real coup here was not that President Trump sat behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office which was fine the real coup was that he drew Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer into that very bizarre long hallway they almost looked like something let they look like there's two little girls in the shining complaint with us can play with us it was it hadn't the staging of it was peculiar and they're sharing the podium we couldn't leave had two podiums we couldn't afford to write um but anyway okay I'm getting into theatrics but the reality here is compromise possible given that the president really believes and I should say I was at this off-the-record luncheon with the president were pretty good these anchors they were like I don't were you the leak I was not the leak or do you I have suspicions of who the leak or what was it you just want somebody at that table is like clue somebody at that table leaked to the New York Times but I can tell you it wasn't Bret Baier or me okay or David Brody I couldn't I can assure you it wasn't those three people um but what I got from that without revealing anything the president is entrenched on this issue he is not going to move because he does believe that this border wall is needed for national security and I do believe talking to friends of mine who work in the Democratic caucus that the the Nancy Pelosi staff believes this would be a political win for the president and they can't give it to him now that's right and she's holding the purse strings so as you know negotiation takes a willingness on both sides you and I are both married if we think that we can get a hundred percent in a negotiation with our wives we're crazy if we get thirty percent I know your wife you need 25 I get ten percent baby so I mean that Nancy Pelosi has come out and said I'm gonna give you not more than one dollar for the wall and President Trump said listen I'm willing negotiate I want a 5.7 billion for border security but let's talk maybe there's a different number that works for you maybe we can bring in some daca but you can't negotiate someone with someone who doesn't want to negotiate with you so yes we can find a compromise but you can't compromise with people who don't want to sit at the table and they want to bludgeon you so Nancy Pelosi says this is an immoral wall the wall is immoral what's out what's immoral is that women are being sexually assaulted on this trip that people are dying that that that officer Singh was killed as an officer in California from an illegal immigrant listen I heard the Democrats talk about you know the migrants are committing non migrants American citizens I don't know about the facts of that but I'll tell you what if you come into our country I want no one to commit a crime and if you have a criminal record you don't belong here and if you have a criminal record and you come in and commit more crimes shame on us for not securing our border officer Singh should still be alive in countless others and to say that it's a manufactured crisis when you have real families who will never see their children again or their father again or their spouse again we have a duty to say hey we're open let people come into our country but good people who want to work they want to live the American dream but we should also have a assessment process so we can keep the bad ones out Raymond okay on Thursday the president went to the border to make his case he was there in McAllen Texas on Wednesday he met with speaker Pelosi and Chuck Schumer after the meeting he tweeted this out just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy a total waste of time I asked what's going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up are you going to approve border security which includes a wall and steel barrier Nancy said no I said Bob I nothing else works yuria I know what it just goes to show you that Democrats are not being honest players as we negotiate with them they're saying I open up the the government's our president and we'll negotiate but they made it very clear they're not willing to negotiate with the president and so listen it's worse than that Chuck Schumer said this and I want to react to her Chuck Schumer came out of that White House meeting he said this on Wednesday he asked speaker Pelosi will you agree to my wall she said no and he just got up and said then we have nothing to discuss and he just walked out again we saw a temper tantrum because he couldn't get his way and he just walked out of the meeting I asked him to open up the government that tomorrow so many people will have trouble paying their mortgages paying their bills dealing with situations when they don't get paid how long can you keep this government closed with 800 thousand workers federal workers on furlough I gotta say though the traffic in DC is fantastic so listen Raymond you have to it you have to admit that this is real hard for hopeful America these federal workers that it was you know pretty little paycheck to paycheck some of them are not they don't have the means to pay absolutely there's real pressure here human pressure and so it's incumbent upon Nancy Pelosi to sit down and negotiate a deal and I think I've heard some from some from some Democrat senators who say listen this is untenable we can't keep our position at $1 when the president's willing to negotiate and I'd say most Americans might be a tick right-of-center or a tick left-of-center but we all analyze fairness and they want people to be fair in the negotiation and I think Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are losing because there's a perception that they're not being fair they're not being honest brokers in the negotiation and so I think the blame is gonna come to them and in Wisconsin if you call Scott Walker was our governor he went through a recall process Scott Walker got more votes in their recall my parents are Democrats didn't vote for him in any of his elections but they voted for him in the recall because they said what them what Democrats were doing in the recall was unfair I think Americans will say you're not being fair sit down negotiate Nancy and Chuck and open up the government poll show a plurality of Americans want that border that's dealt with they believe there's a there's a border crisis 42 percent for in and that's with all of the media ABC NBC CBS MSNBC New York Times Washington Post all fighting with Democrats to message to the American people that Democrats are right in Trump is wrong and still a plurality agree with the president that's stunning at how right the president is eight Republicans peeled off they had some you all had some procedural votes the other day eight Republicans peeled off but then I think it was eight Democrats who also crossed the aisle and noted is this the beginning of the fracturing of the Republican unity on this president says everybody's unified is that what you're saying so we had a meeting a few nights ago with the vice president Kelly Anne came secretary Neilson came and as we sat in the room and listened to the stats on the border and how important border security is I think that our conference is unified belissa so let's be clear on one thing Raymond Democrats control the house and it's a majority institution so they can pass whatever they want we don't have any control but in the Senate Republicans do control the Senate but they have this 60 vote rule there's 100 senators you have to get 60 votes which means you need 7 Democrats to vote with you so you have to be more bipartisan in the Senate yeah but don't any vote Mitch McConnell can engage the nuclear option which the president is asking for and I've asked him to it should be eight members of the custom is which would just be 50/50 vote 51 votes what and we could have done that before Nancy Pelosi took control of the house now that she's in control it's hard to get a bill that's reasonable over the Senate that he could invoke the knew what's not a failure on the part of a Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell when they had both the reins of government they should they have gotten the funding for the wall then was that a mistake well I always saw the problem that could they pass it in the Senate but you know what to try at the very end seems a little bit cheap we should have been trying for two years to get the money to fund the wall it would have been hard but it wouldn't been any harder than what we're going through right now and you know it's great we've got tax reform done but you know what we should have had a broader infrastructure package the Democrats support and part of that infrastructure you slide in your five billion for the wall every one would have been a winner people are going back to work we have new airports new bridges new roads it would have been great I think we've missed an opportunity let me ask this question the president is asking for five billion for the wall but he's asking for five billion it seems to me over the same appropriation of five billion for four years right he wants 20 billion so right build the wall Risley you wanted 25 billion right so you can't you can't spend all 20 billion in one year so he said okay I can spend five billion 5.7 billion a year over four years to complete this project to secure our border and and and you're right so you're gonna need different appropriations throughout the timeframe but I mean I what I find interesting is people say well walls are uh you know fourth century you know tools seventeenth century solution well we're use in 17th century modes of transportation people are walking like they did hundreds of years ago and and they work and you can help funnel people into different points of entry so you can better assess them is this just layering the the threat is he's gonna declare a national emergency and get the military use military funds and the military to build the wall is that a trap for the president you know I hear some commentators that say he will true have said he'll trip the hill hit the tripwire of exceeding his powers and engage in impeachment process well I don't know that I need an impeachment process what I do is I want to look over the horizon and let's say we have President Elizabeth Warren and she says I we also have a crisis and its global warming and I'm gonna use the same authority if the President did for the wall and guess what we're going to you know we're gonna impose new sanctions new taxes on the American people to protect us from climate change of global warming be careful what you do today because they might use that same authority you know when they have the presidency and so I we got to be cautious on how we navigate this yeah President Obama already exceeded his authority in the in the with the daca kids with some of the other things that he was doing just kind of willy-nilly now the courts have come down on his side however so it's broaden the presidential authority which I agree with you I think that's a bad idea I like I like a Bal a check-and-balance otherwise the people have no voice and we're non-catholics alright as we talked about walls and if you look at the Vatican what is the what is the Vatican have around it well I heard I heard a commentator on CNN the other day whom I won't mention say but the but there's a big door it's totally open there's a and there's guards there is not you can't walk it it's completely leaning well it goes all the way around and there are two entrances one to the papal palace one through the arc of the bells they're guards there and they're gates no you don't get in in fact I often tell cuz they work go walk through those gates and try to sit there with your family or get health care Emile's see what happens bring a tent too and see how it works for you because the the walls work and again I just want to close we're compassionate we want to help people out but wouldn't be better Raymond if we said you know what why don't you apply you know at the American Embassy in your home country if you get access you can fly here not take this long journey you don't get sexually assaulted you might not lose your life it's a way more compassionate policy to secure the border and have a more orderly process where people can come in they can apply and if they get it they get here but what we're doing to Central Americans is I think unfathomable when you talk about morality this is the most immoral immigration platform that we have that incentivizes people to go on this journey with kids and sometimes pregnant women janitor them it really is a sad state of affairs and let's be we're better than what we're doing right now my big concern has always been if you've gone to the border as I have and you've seen and talked to these families what the first thing you realize is they are coming here they want a better life to do but by allowing them to come in this way they're used on this side of the border by business interests or that want to commodify them and they're they're really shunned and connected consigned to a certain class that they can't break out of due to a language barrier education barrier on and on and on we need an orderly process and we and a compassionate one that gives these people their human dignity in the process coming in and once they come into America this is no way to treat this one last point we have full employment right now and we need workers and so Democrats would say bring them in and help you know fill the jobs are available today fair point but this economy will turn at one point and when it does and Americans start to lose their job all of a sudden the low skill lower income Americans are going to be competing like you mentioned to lower paid illegal immigrants and it hurts our families and that's why we have to really think through the long-term consequences of these policies and make it better for our country and make it better for the migrant good conversation being thanks for having we'll stay in touch and see you in the days ahead joining me now is the CEO Schwartz investment council and the portfolio manager for the Ave Maria mutual funds he's also author a brand new book In God We Trust morally responsible investing welcome back to the program Jorge Schwartz Jorge great to see you leave me with you start with some new statistics that were just released I saw CNS news said the Republican Congress has increased the national debt by nearly eight trillion dollars over eight years how is that fiscally responsible well it's not really Raymond and it would be nice if Republican Congress and Democrat Congress could balance the budget but as Richard Nixon said many years ago were all Keynesian now means bigger government bigger government spending more taxation and it's a it's unfortunate but President Trump is turning that around to some degree especially with the tax cuts tax rate cuts and the reduced regulations which were so onerous put in place by the Obama administration of course and my friend Larry Kudlow you know has been the preaching for many years that tax rate cuts on corporations and individuals right stimulates the economy grows the economy and is positive in every respect and that's helped a lot in the last two years and the stock market has reflected that by going up yeah let's talk about the this this question of debt for a second CNBC talked to Millennials 60 percent of them said they doubt if they will ever get to the point when they'll be able to pay off what they owe what do you say to these young people who might be watching it's it's a tough question I don't have an answer I don't have a magic solution I preached for many years the evils of debt personal debt especially and I encouraged my employees to not even have a mortgage on their house pay off debts but these kids that have borrowed some cases hundred thousand dollars to go to college or more or more yeah and it's it's not a good thing and they've got to just do the best they can to pay it down and if they invest wisely if they have some money to invest like in our mutual funds that might help them to well let's talk about that and because I want to get to more tax rates for a minute so many people the the the old wisdom was take your money put it in the bank it's going to grow that penny saved is a penny earned and it's going to continue to block that's not the case now we have these interest rates that are in the toilet two percent on your money what would you recommend a young married couple starting life they don't have a lot and they probably have debts they're paying off what should they do how should they break down their money well Warren Buffett had a cord several years ago which I remember he said the Lord helps those who help themselves but unlike the Lord the market doesn't forgive those who don't who do who know not what they do gotta get that quote right but anyways it's people have to educate themselves they have to learn the merits of capitalism the merits of democracy which is very important within our capitalist society at least in this country and if they if they read my book they'll learn a good way to invest morally responsible investing and we're gonna talk about that in a second I want to get your opinion of congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez waived the possibility this week of a seventy percent tax rate to fund her new green New Deal and where you'd have no carbon emissions at all you'd pay all of that off and the only way to do that is to tax upper income earners at seventy percent what's wrong with that idea oh what a great idea that is just I can't think of anything which would help the economy but you're what you're looking for to empower government it's a good help yeah well I don't know whether he is just naive and too young to have not been able to experience the horrors of socialism or not or maybe she's in the camp with a lot of Democrats they just want to do things to hurt the economy and hurt the stock market with the hopes of stymieing Trump from getting reelected but it's a ridiculous idea you know the top 1% of earners now pay 38% of the income axes all right the top 50% pay virtually all the income taxes 98% right which means the lower 50% pay 2% of the income taxes but trying to undo the good things that President Trump has done is the wrong idea in terms of being pro-growth I read an article The Washington Post this week and it said Ocasio cortezes ideas not so far off the mark in the 50s and 60s we had tax rates that were around 70% and higher mm-hmm so what's wrong with that it's ridiculous it it's time ease economic growth that stymies opportunity it is not a pro-growth approach and president Trump's very sound policy of reduced tax rates for corporations and individuals and importantly reduce regulations helps the economy in so many respects you're talking in your book about the fascination of socialism it really has become chic again to be socialist where do you think this is coming from is it just ignorance well certainly ignorance and lack of education among young people you know the the colleges and universities as you well know Raymond our thoughts have professors who were the flower children of the 60s you know the drugs smoking hippies and there they dominate the universities the public universities anyways and they have never grown to appreciate the merits of capitalism and how capitalism has lifted so many hundreds of people maybe billions of people out of poverty created jobs created opportunities created wealth created the opportunity for foundations and endowments which do an awful lot of social good and socialism has never worked in the history of the world no matter any place has been tried in this new book George in god we trust' you say this is an updated version or you started it as an update of your previous book good returns what changed in your approach and from the previous work to this yeah well this was going to be an update of the very successful Ave Maria mutual funds in the morally responsible investing approach we used to produce those good results but thanks to the advice and counsel of my colleague and son Bob Schwartz he said why don't you expand the focus in the clued sections about capitalism versus socialism because there's so many young people and so many liberals that as you pointed out are being attracted to it and it's it's ridiculous it's it's never worked it can't work the great Ronald Reagan you know once said that socialism can only work in two places heaven where they don't need it and in Hell where they already have it well I mean or Venezuela or Cuba I mean it's not like we don't have contemporary examples of how this plays out exactly and it's very bad for the people that's why they're all streaming trying to get somewhere else so your heart breaks watching these people make this long dangerous trick to America yeah but this is the fruit of this this system it doesn't work tell me about when you talk about morally responsible investing how do you weigh these companies how do you say this company is one will invest in and that is off limits what's the criteria well we're very blessed as portfolio managers my company has a Catholic advisory board to advise us on what not to invest in that Catholic advisory board is made up of prominent lay Catholics many of you know many of your friends like Tom Monaghan of Domino's Pizza Fame Robby George professor Robert George from Princeton and coach Lou Holtz Lou Holtz a great man such a great man wonderful individual yeah a very compassionate man a very bright man very patriotic man so that category board is also advised by two distinguished members of the clergy the retired Archbishop of Detroit Cardinal NIDA and the current Archbishop of Detroit occupation of ignorance so they set the standard for what we should not invest in I can tell you yeah quick yeah give me the quick thumbnail what what don't you invest in I mean let me give you a for instance tobacco companies that's not prohibited not prohibited oil I assume would be permitted but companies that traffic in porn I imagine or learner's out abortion Orson versus the big one our hundred thousand shareholders are unanimous that they don't want any of their money invested in the company that supports abortion what about cannabis cannabis is a big booming industry you see them legalizing it all over the country and people are throwing billions of dollars at it yeah we're not gonna invest in cannabis companies gateway drug nothing good is gonna come from the legalization of recreational products No so our shareholders don't want that we're not gonna go on how do your returns compared to an average mutual fund all five of our of Ameria mutual funds beat the catagory average for each fund last year in fact one of our funds the Ave Maria bond fund was the number one fund in the country in its category so we're very proud of that Wow give me a sense and you've got a lot of people watching they're wondering I don't know where to start what are your advice bullet points to the the first-time investor who's thinking this vault the volatility this market is scary mm-hmm I and and it's gone up up up up up and you know it goes up there's only one way it's gonna go so they're sitting it out what would you say to a lot of people are sitting it out and if there are serious long-term investors they ought to invest now there's nothing wrong with it the great John Templeton Sir John Templeton used to say any day is a good enough data buy a good enough stack or a good enough mutual fund and I think the Ave Maria mutual funds are great mutual funds and they performed well I think we can continue to perform well and I'm optimistic about the economy in general the stock market in general and even if all the trade battles even with the the the divided Congress you're bullish on this market yes those those things will will pass these things too will pass and trades a important thing to get straight and you get the Chinese to stop stealing our intellectual property very very important but those things will pass those will be resolved and in the meantime corporate profits continue to go up quite sharply as past year they're up 24% except for Apple but even in this current year earnings are going to be up again probably in the neighborhood of eight or ten percent not 24 percent but after 24 percent eight percent or ten percent on top of that is significant in the stock market and corporate earnings generally track pretty close not exactly not step by step but it's a strong economy and the policies of President Donald Trump are helping the economy grow and will continue to help the stock market I believe George Schwartz before I let you go the biggest mistake investors make is what trying to outguess the near-term swings in the stock market trying to say well see there's all these clouds on horizon I better take my money out of the stock market and wait till things become a little more clear well when things are clear the stock prices are already a lot higher so don't try to time the market don't try to outguess the near-term swings in the market and invest for the long run and invest in get good advice investment professionals like the people who work in my firm yeah and if you invest in a morally responsible way and I think you'll do very well please for getting into a mutual fund like yours many mutual funds have fees front-end loads mm-hmm back in back in lotia ours don't have that they have a normal management fee which comes out of the fund itself but no when someone puts a thousand dollars into one of our funds all $1,000 goes into it there's no commissions or no front-end load mm-hmm very good George Schwartz thank you so much the book is in god we trust' morally responsible investing by George Schwartz it's available at bookstores everywhere and online and you can find out about Ave Maria mutual funds at Ave Maria funds com that is all the time we have for now until next week the show continues on Facebook and Twitter you can like me on Facebook you can follow me on Twitter the links are at Raymond Arroyo calm and remember book three of The Adventures of will Wilder is out next month well Wilder the amulet of power hits bookstores on February 19th you can pre-order your copy right now at the usual outlets be sure to join us next week until then we'll be scouting the world over for all that is seen and unseen I'm back for the staff and crew of EWTN news thank you for watching and Raymond Arroyo from Washington DC I know you [Music]

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 58min 46sec (3526 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 10 2019