World Over - 2019-09-12 - Full Episode with Raymond Arroyo

Pope Francis has more to say about his critics in America this week and the upcoming Synod on the Amazon gets more scrutiny from two prominent churchmen the papal posse Robert Royal and father Gerald Murray are here with analysis and the Trump administration wants to severely limit the number of refugees allowed to enter the US this year but how might that affect those trying to escape religious persecution Nadine may Anza from the u.s. Commission on International Religious Freedom will tell us and finally we'll get story nted with Rachel Campo stuffy author of the new picture book Paloma wants to be Lady freedom 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 an important show for you tonight Robert Royal father Gerald Murray Nadine Mae Enza and Rachel Campo stuffy are all straight ahead if you'd like to comment on tonight's show send us a tweet I'm at Raymond Arroyo or you can email us and world over at ewtn.com but I hardly ever read that let's get to the news Pope Francis made news once again on the papal plane returning from Madagascar on September 10th he expounded for nearly 90 minutes on recent comments about his critics in America the role of the UN in a land dispute ecology and the environment as well as the upcoming and already controversial Synod on the Amazon joining me with analysis of this and much more we're gonna get into all aspects of it the papal posse editor in chief at the Catholic thing org Robert royal is here in studio and canon lawyer and priest of the Archdiocese of New York father Gerald Murray joins us from Manhattan gentlemen thank you for being here I want to start with the inflight papal presser Pope Francis was asked by Jason drew Horowitz in the New York Times about comments he made last week about being criticized by American conservative Catholics and media hora which says in Italian you acknowledged being under attack by a segment of the American church obviously there is strong criticism from some bishops and Cardinals there are Catholic television stations and American websites that are very critical and there are even some of your closest allies who've spoken of a plot against you is there something that these critics do not understand about your pontificate than the Pope answers first of all criticism always helps always when someone receives criticism that person needs to do a self critique right away and say is this true or not to what point and I always benefit from criticism sometimes it makes you angry but there are advantages criticisms are not coming only from Americans the Pope continued they are coming a bit from every we're even from the Korea I want to stop there because this is a major admission as I pointed out last week during my little monologue this is not an American phenomena the criticism is coming from everywhere even the Koreas the Holy Father said now father Jerry I want you to first addressed what we talked about last week mainly that a well financed conservative movement exists to undermine the Pope and his agenda does it there's no cabal in the sense of a group of people who meet regularly to formulate plans how to act together but there is a large segment of pop of opinion makers we could say people who are writers commentators who follow very closely what the Pope says the teaching that he's issued and they I think very respectfully but incomplete allegiance of the truth point out inconsistencies between what the Pope has taught and what was taught by the church up to that time this started with amoris Laetitia and the Pope's innovation saying that some people live in adulterous second so-called marriages could be given Holy Communion that is continued when the Pope outlawed capital punishment said that it is no longer admissible this is a complete contradiction of the previous teaching of the church that capital punishment can be used in a moral fashion in some cases and then it's finally gotten to the Amazon synodal document in which we hear that suddenly pagan religions are a source of Revelation for the church to consult there was a stop off in Dubai for the stennes thing that God wills many religions so these are all points that are in fact the doctrinal debates that the folks should engage in if he truly believes he's correct on these things then he owes it to his critics to point out how we're wrong because I've been in in one of those critics show us how it's inconsistent how it's consistent rather what you say Pope Francis with what was taught by the church up to this time yeah and as we mentioned earlier the Pope isn't it is acknowledging that rather that the criticism isn't only coming from American circles three Dubya Cardinals were European former CDF head Cardinal Mueller is Cardinal Sarah is African Robert I want you to comment on this the Pope continued on his plane ride saying the following I do not like it when criticism stays under the table they smile at you letting you see their teeth and then they stab you in the back that is not fair it is not human criticism is a component in construction and if your criticism is unjust be prepared to receive a response and get into dialogue and arrive at the right conclusion this is the dynamic of true criticism the criticism of the arsenic pills it's like throwing the stone and then hiding your hand now Bob how does that square with the Dubya Cardinal does I mean they presented the Pope with what was an invitation to a formal dialogue no okay what we're seeing here again as we often see on these plane press conferences it's not a very clear statement of anything it seems to me you're exactly right that the Dubya Cardinals were not primarily Americans the criticism that kid that appeared after amoris Laetitia was very widespread because it seemed to challenge as a standing doctrine but it wasn't only there as we went on and we had some other events we had the youth Synod as larger the Africans who prevented LGBT material from being introduced there and then we've seen similar things on other issues the the ironic thing about this it seems to me is that the Pope says that he likes criticism because he takes it too hard and you know we all should at least in theory learn something when people tell us that they think we're doing something wrong but there's been no response the response to the Dubya was silence in fact the Pope claimed I don't know how we could claim this but he claimed that he never heard about the do beein until it was announced in the press years later almost a year later because they had submitted it a year before and then getting no response they went public which I think I think that was the trajectory of it yeah it was I mean we've seen this over and over again when the VGO no criticism came out again another non-american making the criticism there's been nothing but silence they've been you know some very weak statements made by some members of the Curia like Cardinal will let but these were in my judgment credible sincere questions put to the Holy Father about very serious issues and instead what we begin to see in in sources like the New York Times is this diversion that somehow this is a political or ass's Matic movement rather than what I think most of us feel it is it's a sincere question about where the Holy Father is leading the church as a religious entity yeah father Jerry I want you to pick up on this the Holy Father did talk about sysm as Bob mentioned he said to criticize without wanting to hear a response and without getting into dialogue is not to have a good of the church at heart it is chasing after a fixed idea to change the Pope or to create a sysm in the church there is always the option facism always but it is an option that the Lord leaves to human freedom I'm not afraid of systems the Pope said I pray that there will be none because what is at stake is people's spiritual health let there be dialogue let there be correction if there is an error but this is matic path is not Christian this is Maddox always have one thing in common they separate themselves from the people of God from the faith of the people of God father Jerry we're back to this kind of American cabal narrative that you hear there which is being propagated in progressive circles that conservatives are questioning this radical changes the radical changes underway and are therefore fomenting sysm but aren't they reflecting the faith of the people of God that the Pope references yes Ram you know sysm understood properly is to refuse to recognize the authority in the church so it's asthmatic as someone who operates in opposition to the legitimate commands or directions given by Church Authority the Pope says he's not afraid of us ISM but then he says system has implications for spiritual welfare of people so I'm really stunned that he would say he's not bothered by the idea of ascended because it's happened before it could happen again rather I think you know the Pope is the shepherd of the church the idea that part of the flock would drift away and it doesn't bother him I find that very troubling hmm I know the the point of the matter is the American people that I - who are concerned about the teaching coming from Rome they Harbor no desire to reject the Roman pontiff their desire is that the Roman pontiff ste Qing be reconciled with the constant teaching of the church and that's why all this effort is spent you know how many articles how many petitions the Dubya Cardinals books have been written trying to say Holy Father the things that you say do not sound correct in fact they contradict in certain areas what's always been taught please help us understand what you mean so that we don't mistakenly accuse you of turning away from that Constantine that that's a that is a very good and submissive attitude no I think they're evil I think that's right brother I don't see and nor do I hear from anybody and certainly not in this audience I don't get emails people saying we've got to reject this Pope we're trying to create our new church that's not at all what's under way here I think what happened is they try to conflate and I spoke of this last week the kind of four degrees of separation will you had dinner with that person or you spoke at that or interviewed that person so you must be aligned this is crazy talk and I think they took the vegan or called for resignation and then attach that to anyone questioning the the change is in Rome but that's just not so I expressed my displeasure and disagreement with that from the onset I think we're in agreement no one here is calling for the Pope to resign or to create an alternative Church that again is also crazy talk I want to expand on something the Pope said during his plane ride Bob right after he said that his Mattox of people who separate themselves from the faith of the people of God he went on and said and when there is a discussion in the Council of Ephesus regarding Mary's divine maternity the people this is history or at the entrance of the cathedral while the bishops entered in to take part in the council they were there with clubs they made the bishops see them as they shouted mother of God mother of God as if to say if you do not do this this is what you can expect the club the people of God always correct and helpful a sysm is always an elitist separation stemming from an ideology detached from doctrine to which Raymond Arroyo says amen Holy Father amen your reaction yeah as we know it look there's there is no sysm on the table in the United States and let me explain maybe to some of our viewers tonight one of the things if you're if you are often in in the company of people abroad is that they have this outsized notion of the United States and it's true but we're the biggest dog they could they cannot control the United States it's the most powerful country on earth our media are the most powerful most influential in the world so it looks like the United States is something you know that they have to fear in a variety of ways but to go back to the Pope's initial remark it's remarkable to me it's even shocking to me that he says I don't fear this I think as a human being you would have to fear says I'm precisely for the reasons he says because souls are at stake and it's a turning in into his own sort of psychology to say I don't fear this but this happened in the past and he's sort of reassuring himself that there's nothing horrible it's gonna happen here look we we know that the the criticisms that have been the most cogent by people in the Vatican and in other countries in the world are based on actual facts out there in the world they are not an attempt to split off into some other church they are an attempt to try to preserve this unity that the church has always had internationally it's one of the most remarkable things about this institution that God created which is why I did smile when I read that portion about the people of God are always helpful they're always correct and helpful well this is the people of God responding now they don't have clubs in their hands not yet but no but they're very they're very very very vocal they're very vocal and they're very worried because why because marriage is so much under threat in our society that to kind of give the impression that well if they're divorced and remarried we can we can massage that it upsets very many people well they're they're up they're not outside beating the drums about the Amazon Synod and hoping that we can all go back and talk to shamans so that we can be in harmony with nature and with creation again they're actually very worried that we're going back to a kind of primitivism that's actually a sentimental and first-world version of what actually the indigenous peoples are rather than embracing the fullness of what God has given us and we've been able to develop in civilization and in Christianity itself coming out of his comments on criticism and sysm the Holy Father remarked on one of his favorite subjects rigidity he related it to the Pelagian which we'll explain in a moment he said this immorality based on such a Pelagian ideology leads you to rigidity and today we have many schools of rigidity within the church which are nots isms but su dos isms Christian developments that will end badly when you see rigid Christians bishops priests there are problems behind that not gospel holiness so we need to be gentle with those who are tempted by these attacks they are going through a tough time we must accompany them gently father most Catholics eyes glaze over when when you hear reference to Pelagian and Pelagianism explain what the reference is and your reaction to that coming yes okay the two terms here are important our rigidity and Pelagianism so rigidity is the imputing a psychological disorder to someone who is tradition bound or fixed upon certain things that they will never give up so a rigid person to someone who has a psychological deficiency in their life and they then according to this analysis hide behind fidelity to Catholic doctrine as a way to give themselves some kind of psychological security this is a calumny that I've been hearing since I was in the seminary you know in the real world people who are steadfast in the faith and go to death what are called martyrs we don't call them rigid personalities whose then shed their blood because they thought this was what they needed to do no these are people who said my Savior went to the cross I would rather die than deny any of his teachings now Pelagianism is a heresy which teaches that grace is not necessary for man to be saved that he can do it on his own but again this can be used in a very wrong way to say fidelity to the teaching of the church which requires a lot of struggle looks like some kind of self salvation this is not the case at all it's very very disturbing that the Pope is imputing to people who were very steadfast in their doctrinal fidelity that they have psychological disorders and therefore needed to be treated gently I mean this is the kind of advice I think that is patronizing and is not really Shepard Lee you know let's be honest here the the Pope was a bishop in Buenos Aires he ran a seminary and did he find all the candidates to a rigid you know that these were people with psychological deficiencies that's not to understand who these people are if after the Second Vatican Council if you didn't believe in the doctrine of the faith why would you want to become a priest hmm for me this I never liked this criticism because I think it really is cruel and I'm sorry that the Pope uses this language he spoke to the bishops of Mozambique in the same sentiment and I'm scratching my head I've dealt with lots of priests from Africa you know just to say that there's a rigidity meaning psychological disorder leading to traditionalism this is not the reality this is an imposition of a fixed idea mmm well you know III don't have it in front of me but Monsignor Charles Pope here in Washington Bob said how personally offended and wounded he was over these comments and and that he he really feels as if he's being beaten up bullied I'm paraphrasing him I know from my email over the last week a lot of priests of feeling that way and they keep saying holy father we love you we want to be your loyal sons we are your loyal sons help us through this period there is a there is a separation and an alienation right now between these comments and the clergy well let's get back up here a little bit we know from the Pope's own admitted autobiography that he himself was he built he believes too rigid when he was younger and that through various things that happen in the course of his life he began to overcome that became more pastoral etc however there's a difference between a person who is doctrinally faithful and is insistent on the faith and as father says his willingly the martyrs did throughout history to die even for the Eucharist further prove that the truths of the faith and a person who acts in relation to other people in a way that's offensive and inappropriate and obviously you know somewhat somewhere off there's there's a distinction between those two things and one can be both extremely Orthodox and extremely pastoral toward other human beings I've known many priests like this I've known many lay people like this and I think we all have so there's like there's a category confusion here that I think is also it's it's not only offensive I find it judgmental it's judging at a distance people that you don't know personally when in fact they're they're very orthodoxy as in the case of Mother Teresa may lead to the most merciful and the most pastoral activities that we know of all right I want to move on to the Synod on the Amazon region coming up in October the working document has been criticized for its focus on a very small Catholic population in one of the most remote parts of the world and its focus on the possibility of married priests to alleviate the priests shortage in recent weeks clergymen and missionaries who have actually served in the Amazon have been critical of the working document and it's misplaced attention to certain aspects of the church in the region the lack of actual Catholics the rise of Pentecostalism child abuse pedophilia are all factors in the Amazon that are never mentioned in the document father why is this Synod focused on married priests and environmental concerns when there doesn't seem to be the Catholic population to support that level of emphasis or global awareness Raymond you make a great point there it's a good question to ask you know the the more hard-headed look is to say the Amazon Senate is ostensibly about serving people in the jungle but it's really about is getting a married clergy into the Catholic priesthood and I think that really is what the story is here the German influence on this Synod and we just learned now the Cardinal Marx will remember the Synod that is a papal decision but why in the world is Germany so involved in a discussion about what's going on in the continent where they don't even speak German no the reality is and I live myself as a seminarian Equador the mission of the church that carry being carried on in South America involves many tribes many defeats but it involves above all a fidelity to Christ and a witness that Christ truth is the only saving truth this document was produced by people or introducing elements of paganism false theology heretical notions you know Cardinal Burke and Archbishop's Knight or a moment okay let you talk about yeah this is look the reality is things are happening here that are unimaginable ten years ago under Pope Benedict and people scratch said why is this happening and the only answer is Pope Francis is letting it happen we're here as loyal to and say Pope Frank don't let this happen this isn't for the good of the church father Jerry before I go to Bob Cardinal Marx who you mentioned a moment ago from Germany he was quoted this week as saying he could well picture that one can come to the conclusion that it is good to admit married priests in certain regions under certain conditions coming out of this Synod your reaction well he's basically saying the truth that he wants a married clergy and certain regions does that include Germany in his mind the same circumstances that are alleged for amazonia that there aren't enough young men who are entering the celibate priest that they apply in Germany Cardinal marks ordained I think one or two people last year and that his dies Archdiocese of Munich the decline in the Catholic Church in Germany is stunning and for him to say he can see a married clergy in certain regions with an S on the end of that word region means they're thinking beyond Amazonia right this is what's going on here this is a subversion in right in the sin the sunshine of a full day and we have to say stop it it would be a total disaster to make celibacy option would abolish celibacy it would cause huge dislocation of life of the church and basically it's an abandonment of the of what Jesus himself lived Jesus was celibate for a reason and his clergy who represent him should follow that example and that's what the Latin Church has said for its existence as father Jerry previewed a moment ago Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have announced a crusade of prayer and fasting to prevent what they're calling quote errors and heresies end quote in the working document from being approved they're asking the faithful to pray a decade of the Rosary and fast at least one day a week from September 17th to October 26th and they've issued an 8 page document with six very specific concerns about the working document principle errors they call them will put them on the screen implicit pantheism pagan superstitions as sources of divine revelation Aboriginal people have been received divine or have already received divine revelation tailoring Catholic ordained ministry to Aboriginal customs they believe it relative eise's Christian anthropology and something called ecological conversion Bob Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider say these are implicit and explicit errors and an alarming manifestation of confusion in the church today your reaction look for me I could put these all six of these together into one principle and it has something something to do with the fact that they're looking for a married priesthood and maybe women also involved in ministerial women day activities of some kind but the problem that this central problem with these six things that the these two figures have we have quite rarely identified is that the activity is not directed towards evangelization of the peoples so to my mind it's partly reforming the church itself along the lines that father was just talking about which are really first world concerns and that the the environmental concerns are there to kind of soften things and make it easier to sell things that are really going on because if you look at the kind of doubts that are raised about proselytizing and meanwhile you know the Protestants are going to gang bust their eating up all of Amazonia Isis you could almost say that if Saint Paul were to show up in the Amazon they would tell him look you know you can't talk you just have to be a witness here and live among us and you don't don't tell but st. Paul did the right thing we know from from our histories of in the Gospels and in in the Acts of the Apostles the Saint Paul goes to Athens he sees the statue of the unknown God they think the Greek said like all peoples every word have some intuitions God doesn't leave all people without intuitions about who he is but st. Paul comes along and says ah I saw in men of Athens I saw that you have this statue to they unknown God I'm going to tell you who that real God is that type of evangelizing focus that in energy of moving into the Amazon I don't see that I see a lot of energy about reforming the priesthood and reforming other things inside the church itself that apply outside and and mostly letting stand these cultures are these ancestral leaders these ancestral ways rather than seeking to imbue them with the gospel and energize them to be fully alive to what God has revealed to a father Jerry I have only a few seconds here and then I've got to get one more topic in will this fill the way of Cardinal Burks Dubya well their concerns really have any impact on this train the church finds itself on well we know from the airplane interviews that the Pope does pay attention to public opinion and he does pay attention to criticism now he tells us he wants good criticism I consider this document by the two by the Cardinal and the bishop to be good criticism our hope is that the Pope's advisors will tell him that it's not enough to simply say I like getting criticism but then I don't really have to answer it that he will have to answer it and let's hope and pray on the Senate floor that there will be some brave voices who get up and say the concerns raised by Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider need to be answered and not simply dismissed as against signs of rigid personalities who have to be treated you know as if they were children needing some guidance no these are serious Catholic Bishops who want the faith to shine forward and not be lost in this my azzam this quicksand of heretical and pagan notions and that's quite frankly what this working document does propose I want to move to one quick topic before we go and it relates to the Amazon Italian journalists and Rome magister posted a story this week about deacons already being allowed to say mass in the amazon region now according to magister who links to a video of a father Giovanni Nicolini of Bologna that incidentally is the same diocese that the newly appointed Cardinal Matteo zu P oversees this priest relates an antidote or an antidote about a deacon being allowed and encouraged to say Mass in the Amazon region with the express approval of the local bishop and the implicit approval of Pope Francis himself father your quick reaction to this and I'm gonna go above if this is true if that priest is accurately reporting something then it is horrendous and it is an ecclesiastical crime to simulate celebrating Mass when you are not a priest is a canonical offence deacons cannot celebrate Mass period they don't have the power to do it to attempt to do it is a canonical crime as a bishop to approve of it this is also a canonical crime because you're fostering an offense against the dignity of the Holy Eucharist so if this is true this must be dealt with and stopped immediately because it undermines Catholic teaching and the hierarchical responsibility to safeguard that teaching Bob is this a preview of what we could see on the other end of the Synod for Amazon yeah for me this is freelance Catholicism we've had other cases women in Argentina saying that the Holy Father says you know you're divorced and remarried but we do all right I'll go and receive Communion and similar things like this what the exact quote is and Magister is careful to say this has not been corroborated by other sources but the exact quote is the Holy Fathers said yes go ahead but nothing can be written for now which the second part of this actually makes me feel that it's more authentic because yes go ahead is just what somebody says but for the this this report to be that he went on to say that we can't actually publicize this in any kind of formal way for the time being that sounds to me like the kind of thing somebody might say in a private conversation and if so I mean we're again in this situation where the Pope is doing some things that are that don't seem to be proper in his role allegedly allegedly at property his proper role as the universal pastor the the person of unity who tries to bring us all together in the faith doing is saying things on his own steam that don't seem to be part of our tradition but I guess we'll find out if those things are true on the other side of this and you'll have a fine album and I will be in Rome for the entirety of the Synod god bless you we're and you'll be checking in with us throughout Robert Royal father Gerald Murray thank you both for being here and you can find commentary from the entire papal Posse at the Catholic thing org Nadine Manza is up next but first some news on Wednesday the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration permission to enforce its toughest restriction yet on asylum seekers at the southern border the government can now refused to consider asylum requests from anyone who failed to apply for it before coming to the United States migrants from Honduras Guatemala and El Salvador now cannot seek asylum in the US if they didn't first ask for it in Mexico most people crossing the southern border are Central Americans the shift reverses decades of US policy the administration says it wants to close the time gap between initial screening and the final decision on asylum justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented saying the court acted too quickly and should allow the case to work its way through the lower courts also this week the Trump administration wants to cut the number of refugees allowed into the United States this year how will these tough restrictions affect refugees who are fleeing real religious persecution and what message does it send to the rest of the world joining me now to discuss is Vice Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Nadine Mae Anza thank you so much for being here now I last year the administration capped the refugee program at 30,000 and that was down from 45,000 in 2018 since 2016 the number of refugees is down 71% Nadine now it seems the administration is looking to take that number from 30,000 to 0 your thoughts on why this happening well we know that the administration is trying to make that decision right now so there are people that have different opinions that are meeting together to discuss that and that's why we at the Commission decided now is the right time for us to weigh in to make our own recommendation we're created as a bipartisan independent government body and our mandate is make recommendations to our own government so we're recommending that they don't zero out the refugee cap why not because we feel for a couple different reasons first of all in terms of our advocacy for religious freedom it will make it very difficult for the State Department or the Commission when we go overseas and we advocate for religious minorities to say to a government to value those minorities value those Christians those the the other minorities in your country they have dignity they deserve to have a role in your government when we won't take any of them mm-hmm now the administration and I've spoken to some officials throughout the government they claim this as a national security concern that they're concerned about that we definitely recommend vetting right now it's a couple years before a refugee can come to the United States and then the United States it goes through a process where they vet them themselves so I think it's easy for us to misunderstand a refugee from someone who's displaced and fleeing war for a violence refugee is somebody that can't go back there's somebody that are fleeing something pretty severe that they've been given that special status I want to give people an insight into the number of refugees seeking asylum due to religious persecution according to World Relief the number of Muslims is down 90 percent in the past three years and there's been a forty seven percent drop in Christian refugees in addition there's 72 percent decrease in Christians from the 50 countries on the world watch list in which Christians face the most persecution now this seems to contradict the administration's goal Nadine of protecting and promoting religious freedom and religious minorities we would really like the administration as they just decide what this number is to just consider that that fact that we've had these two ministerials focusing on religious freedom we are a leader fighting for religious freedom and having a zero refugee cap in particular would be harmful for that work that we do that's so important there has never been an administration better on religious freedom more forceful than this administration so we the commission are so pleased by that and we really don't want us to hurt our own efforts by making such a drastic decision now I've spoken also to some administration officials when I heard you were coming on and they say look we're trying to send the resources to the region where these people are being displaced so that they can stay in that region and hopefully one day go back and they feel that's more cost-effective and frankly safer for the refugee and the people in the United States to keep them in the region your response to them well certainly if people want to stay in the region and can stay in the region they can go back we're not disagreeing that of course we don't want every religious minority to leave the Middle East for instance but I was just in Jordan meeting with I was just any Rock and then in Jordan and I met with some Iraqi Christian refugees and they haven't been able to go back it's not safe even the group specifically identified by the United States Christians and Yazidis in Iraq in Syria during 2016 the u.s. admitted 1,500 Iraqi Christians and 417 Yazidis so far this year they've admitted 41 Christians and nine Yazidis exactly and we did designate that violence as genocide which doesn't right raise it to a level that demands a different action from us so we do feel like these would be contributing citizens but we also think vetting is important and no one is suggesting that them so where is the disconnect because on the one hand you've got Mike Pompeo doing his ministerial zhh we covered that you've got you've got a true renewed attention to religious freedom and persecution but yet there seems to be this blind spot on allowing religious refugees into the country well we're hoping that once they do make their decision it won't be inconsistent and which is why we've decided to weigh in because we do agree that it that it does fit our values to allow people that are fleeing I mean talking about pastors from China from Iran you know North Korea Uighur Muslims that are able to escape a concentration camp in China is there no place in the United States for them and I'll be honest if we when we cut our refugee numbers in the past the United Nations told us everyone cut their numbers so if we think other countries are gonna pick up the slack they're not they're gonna follow our lead which me these people will will have to live their whole lives in refugee camps and their children will and they will they will be the underclass they will never be education do they deserve so the concept was that and of course radicalization and those instances are well so there's all sorts of reasons that that's not a good idea well and this is civil society we have to remember many of these people fleeing religious persecution this is the civilization and the greatest hope in some cases for these regions if you isolate them and put them on refugee camps you're killing the future exactly and and we know that you know if we lead and all the other countries you know also accept some refugees there are places for a lot of these people to start over the ones that can't go back there are reports the administration is saying look we've had to divert our resources where we would normally deal with refugees we've had to focus on asylum seekers at the southern border and that's where we're spending our money our energy our people in our time your response I think we can do both I think we're a really great country you know the refugee of the program the way it's set up now is is they're their costs are covered when they fly over but they have to repay them you know we should be bringing people that can go to work that can join our community and I you know this family I met in Iraq the mother is a hairdresser the father's a teacher you know they would contribute to the society they come here and they would work they pay taxes and and we feel like that you can do both what happened to the administration's priority I distinctly remember President Trump running on a platform and saying we're going to give preference to Christian refugees seeking escape from this Middle East horror and the end the Islamic terror they're facing in those countries what happened to that promise you know I know the courts battered him around a little bit - with with the United Nations the way that it works a lot of times they go through and they make a list of the refugees if they're resettling and they go to the camps and that's where it starts and a lot of the Christians aren't in those settings you don't get included in that so it's definitely the whole process is something we should take a look at now there are two plans that play according to reports one they want a half the number of refugees in this upcoming year the other would end them and bring them to zero giving the president the ability to waive that in certain emergency cases which of those scenarios do you like yeah we would prefer that it not even be cut in half but we think 30 which is where it is right now it's pretty low as it is and in 15,000 you think solo certainly zero is is we're hoping isn't unacceptable that that's just a negotiating a ploy but we're hoping that it will be higher than that but but we we do hope that they will make room for all those fleeing persecution where is the need most urgent I mean you all study this watch it which regions of the world are you seeing the most need well certainly night right now we're seeing a lot coming from Africa I think those have been some of our top numbers but but there's still a need in the Middle East we have Burma has been persecuting the Muslims they're horribly and of course China are those that can get out a lot of them will go to jail or disappear if they if they don't have somebody take them and you know what we're talking about if spending their life as a refugee if they're not able to be resettled means they usually can't work in the country they reside their children often can't go to school like right now the Iraqi family that's in Jordan and their family they can't work or their children can go to school so they're in this limbo where they can't go back because they tried to go back and they were told if you go back more of your family will die so they're they're stuck in this limbo and they're not able to be resettled in another country they're not able to work they're not go to school so what can we offer these families and of course they can become part of our community we do have room yeah so I think that we need to understand that there's you know no one's suggesting we just open our borders and everyone come that wants to come this is very strategic but we do believe there should be a room for for those that are fleeing persecution now a former defense secretary mattis and others have been very supportive of the refugee program and they look at this not through humanitarian lens but through a strategic lens because they say wait a minute these are our allies on the ground this is intelligence coming into our country that we need if we're going to be effective in the field right your thought on that and where is the current Defense Department it's really interesting you say that because it seems they have always been the the most in favor of the refugee program it gives them the ability to reward people that have risk their life to us to assist them and a lot of times it's classified we don't know the whole stories but we do know people like translators and others they go into these countries they assist them they help they're able and they know that their friends the United States they love the United States and they are able to resettle them there I think for them to not have that ability to offer those and to also be seen the same way that we're talking about to be able to go into a country urge the government to treat minorities with respect urge them to treat their people well and then to also be willing to take those that have to flee so I do think that they probably feel like it would hurt their ability to just come in with with with that as well what would you tell the president if you could sit down with them today about these religious yeah do you think they're missing I you know I'm not sure huh I think the president cares deeply about people of faith he's shown that in this country and that there's a way that we can safely have them come here join our community especially people fleeing persecution that can be done safely and this they don't have to be a national security risk where no one's suggesting that we're just suggesting that we have to be a place for where those can come and join us Nadine thank you so much any but and and for your clarity we'll check in with you on this issue thank you so much you can find out more about Nadine Manza and the work of the u.s. Commission on International Religious Freedom at USC IRS gov finally it's time to get story nted she's the mother of eight soon to be nine a Fox News contributor and the wife of a certain US congressman from Wisconsin despite all of that she's found time to write a new picture book for kids called Paloma once to be Lady freedom she's here to tell us about the book and much more please welcome back to the program Rachel campus Duffy Rachel tell me where did this concept originated for this book Paloma wants to be Lady freedom so it started when we came to the Capitol for the first time as a family after my husband was elected Sean had never been to the Capitol before I had never been to the Capitol before and so we brought the kids they had never been and one of my kids was four years old at the time Paloma she fell in love with the building it is magnificent it's gorgeous and she noticed something that I hadn't noticed which was that there's this gorgeous statue at the top of it and she wanted to know all about it and I as her mom tried to figure out what it was and I learned about it and taught her about it and she said she wanted be her and the reason I know she was so serious about it she had all these great questions you want to know if she did it if when she grew up if she became lady freedom could she come down with the sword be too heavy could her siblings come up and visit her so this idea started to you know formulate for me because I thought she wants to be Lady freedom but all of us who are whether we're protecting life or religious liberty or American capitalism those we are all protecting freedom we all want to be Lady freedom and so that's sort of the idea of it I also lost Paloma once in Disney World which was the worst moment of my life and so we you and I actually had a little conversation about this need to find something and I said losing her in the capital and you said that's it and so that's where this idea that she gets lost in the capital and while she's lost she discovers why her father who was an immigrant and brought her there to celebrate being an American wants wanted her to come and she discovers why it's so important to be an American why she's so lucky to be an American and also a little bit about American history which kids don't get enough of these days yeah and there's a beautiful tragic moment where she's deported at the end of the we want no I'm kidding no but it is but it is significant that the family is it's an immigrant family that her father's a naturalized citizen who's very proud of being an American yes absolutely tell me what was the idea behind I mean that's intentional this could have been the Duffy family with Paloma right we can't decide right why did you decide to create this fictional family and an immigrant family at that so my mother at around the same age that I was when I was this little girl's age my mother became a US citizen as well and so I you know we hear so much about immigration in the news and even in children's literature if you go there's a lot of stories especially for young readers about you know these sad tragic stories of people being deported I think we're forgetting to tell our kids one the story of legal immigration which is a beautiful story I mean the most patriotic person I know is my mother and I think it's because she went through that process so I wanted to tell the story of a league immigrant going through that process and the kind of pride and love of country that comes through that but also you know there's so much emphasis these days and you know it because you love children's literature as well there's this over emphasis almost obsession with diversity which is of course what makes us different I wanted to talk about what unites us as Americans especially now when everyone's complaining about how polemic and divisive everything is what are the values that unite us love of freedom for the pursuit of the American Dream our American history all of that is in that book and that's what I hope it unleashes everybody's inner patriot especially kids who aren't getting enough of that and where why was the lady freedom theme so important to you I mean it's one thing for your daughter to say oh look who's that what's that statue but why did it take on such significance for you to want to commemorate it in a book yeah I actually thought about I mean this is our founders who you know Abraham Lincoln commissioned this is a gorgeous statue if any but if you haven't seen it you really should google it it is the most gorgeous you can see it up close you can see that the visitors visitors center it's a such a beautiful statue but just think at the highest point in our nation cap nation's capital they put a woman our founders put a woman symbolizing you know this protection of our Liberty she's fighting for it she's defending in fact she faces East um because she is watching England she's so vigilant of our freedom so protective of it and I think in this moment I do think we're in an existential battle politically as well where you know a lot of the things that we we thought our country stood for again religious liberty life you know free enterprise these things are all under attack and I think it's it's a wonderful time for us to talk about values that we've always had that are somehow getting lost yeah what do you want families particularly I imagine young girls to take away from this book love of America I mean honestly just love of America it seems like you know whether it's Colin Kaepernick and so many other things that are happening in our culture where you know presidential candidates who are constantly you know complaining about America America doesn't live up to this America doesn't live up to that they always seem so disappointed in us as Americans and I just for me I'm a military brat I grew up with a different idea about what America is and I wanted to share that and I actually you know I work on the Fox News Network I travel around the country giving speeches and and I believe that most people love this country there's a reason why there aren't you know 800,000 young daca kids in trying to get into Caracas or you know or in intervention you know into Mexico City I mean there's a reason why people risk their lives do all kinds of stuff wait in line for 15 20 years to become Americans there's something about this well we had your husband Sean Duffy congressman Sean Duffy on last week talking about his retirement from Congress do you really want him underfoot every day of the week I'm just I want I want the exclusive on well here's the exclusive I'm about to have a baby in about a month I'm nesting he's going to be home more and he's gonna wish he was back in Congress I have a long list of stuff that I want him to do so yes no we've missed each other people don't get bored it's a hard life there's two full-time schedulers to manage one congressman's you know works life and life and so you know I'm proud of the eight and a half years that he served I you know I think it's the greatest honor that our family ever had you know my little kids when they see the screen the you know the TV screen and see a picture of the Capitol when the news is on they say that's not daddy's office and that's an amazing opportunity and honor that our family has had but I also believe in citizen legislators I think it's time for you know we did our time to say if we did our time like Mary Jo where to jail but we served as a family because there's a lot of sacrifice for everybody involved but we could start to see that there you know there are just too many things that we were missing anyways but whether it's the military whether it's it's serving in the in the Congress I think it's a time of service not a lifetime appointment or tenure this is a good and healthy thing I think that he's no I know it's hard - it is it's hard but do I agree I think it's healthy for our democracy new ideas fresh ideas also blood he could he's young he could go and he could come back you know at some future point if he felt like it but you know he might really like you know being a civilian handyman and plumbing is in his nature if he gets tired of doing chores for me he'll probably run for office okay I have to ask you a question I asked these of every author who comes on the program alright your favorite children's book and why so it's not like super young young but it is young readers children's urge I love Nancy Drew I grew up on you see true I think Nancy Drew for girls in particular was the ultimate role model I wanted to be just like her I loved how brave she was I loved how feminine she remained I loved that she had a convertible my first car was a convertible I absolutely convinced it's because of Nancy Drew is the Hardy Boys encyclopedia brown reader never never see her on the cover girl so there is something about that yes I think Nancy Drew was the ultimate and by the way if you read it to your kids nowadays it's really fun because they'll be like well why can't she call someone from the basement if she's trapped I'm like there were no cell phones they don't understand so you know it's a fun thing to read and they get an idea of what life was like in courtship remember the cruise ship between Rome and lots of fun stuff Wow least favorite children's book okay why I hate any of those like Barbie books and my kids love them but they always seem to have no storylines they're just kind of dumb and so yeah I hate those kind of books the story that helped you find your path and what was it what was the lesson you gleaned from it a children's book well it can be an adult one um you know I read The Alchemist a long time ago and it was sort of like this this story of finding out your what your passion is and pull I really I really enjoyed that book and I felt like at that time in my life I needed that kind of direction by the way the other favorite book meet was not mine but all my kids little red barn a little red ball we probably probably buy two little red barn books a year because they get so used up in our house and touched and broken and Wow maybe it's a Wisconsin thing you know this all right Treasure Island Huck Finn I love Treasure Island I just read that this is such a great yeah where do you write and why at night when no one's around usually but I would say this book was a little different I worked with my daughter Lucia and that's what was such a great experience for me she is 15 years old she was 14 when we wrote it she is sort of really between being a teenager but still she I catch her you know she still plays with her sisters and so she understood a lot of kid things that and caught things that I wouldn't have caught so it was a really great experience she's she should be a marketer I learned a lot about her doing this I love it okay where do your best ideas come from [Laughter] when I'm walking down airport terminals I think that when you're moving yeah good thing a an author once told me when you when you're moving the souls the other one works that's right it's true you're moving you're moving if you could pick a writing mentor alive or dead whom would it be I think Raymond Arroyo Oh I mean you've been very good to me I mean I found a lot of ideas off of you I think you're very you're brutally honest which is good some people like honesty I hope all my critics are watching but yeah you know I've I've bounced a lot of stuff off of you and I think I think my book is better for having done that yeah well sometimes I think it's easy it's always easier to see problems in someone else's story you cannot see them in your own no and I keep after I write I leave a lot of distance I'll do I put it into the drawer for three weeks and I look at it because that you're too close and you know the blood that went into every sentence so when you have the distance it gives you a different perspective but it's hard yeah that's very nice advice to parents to get your children to read they should see you reading and and it's interesting I do a lot of reading on my phone I literally read like for work like articles and stuff and it's just not the same I mean they need to see you sitting down actually reading a book which by the way is hard these days it's we're also distracted there's so much going on but but that's a good thing critical it's time spent there bonding with you in a way that you'll never replicate because as you said about Nancy Drew you can share your history your values your perspective on life they're absorbing that without knowing it because they're lost in the story that's a great gift I once interviewed Megan Cox verdun about her book the enchanted hour great and it's a great book and it reminded me of why I actually started reading more after reading reading through the kids more after reading that because it's all intuitive what she's telling you is happening but you almost have to see the scientific data be how important it is to do that and yeah you know in different phases like even with my daughter I'm not a Harry Potter person but my oldest daughter loves Harry Potter and now reads to her siblings Harry Park so there's a lot of interesting things that happen yeah in a family you know introducing what you value your life dislikes and I read something great this week from an educator who said give your child the freedom to dislike books certain books to say why well so that now they're in the active participation of deciding I like this I don't like trucks I don't want to read about fire engines I want to read about oceans and mammals at the young face I'm guilty of like when they closing yeah cuz I'm like why don't you pick up Treasure Island you know why don't you read Pollyanna you know and there's so many other things coming out in the media jojo's literature is actually very vibrant right now there's a lot of stuff out there it's it's a bat it's a bad idea I always tell parents is look no one loves the classics Shakespeare Moliere more than me however I think there's a real problem we have in our educational system of imposing that on kids before they're ready for it that's I think you should take them to the theater to watch it rather than making the Morita that's what I did with my kids they got Shakespeare we went to see it or we pulled up the BBC versions we watch together and worked our way through the language it's the only way to feel it because the language is it's all too far and there's so many foreign concepts when when the parent is the actor as well every day that's actually very that's very good advice it's good well it was meant to be it was meant to be read and so when you can read it later you'll get it and all the pictures come back if you could write anything else what would it be and you've written parenting books you've written yeah now children's books do you want to do another one I do I really love the process do you know why I like picture books no I love the creative process I actually do I love I love I love working with you know the the artists and I like the idea of having an input on that and I did have a visual of what I wanted and and I was really lucky to find Richard Johnson who I think really captured what I wanted so I do I love the creative process that collaborative process yeah also it's not as long as the process you put yourself through 330 pages is a lot a lot of work but it's but you know what that collaborative process is there as well with apps and illustrations and the covers all the covers ever and like you I've been blessed with great illustrators um thank you for this Thank You Raymond it's always fun to come on your show it's great thank you you soon all right Paloma wants to be Lady freedom by Rachel Campo stuffy is available at bookstores everywhere and online that's all the time we have for now until next week the show continues on Facebook and Twitter you can like me on Facebook follow me on Twitter the links are at Raymond Arroyo dot-com be sure to join us next week Mary Anne Glendon the chair of the new u.s. Commission on unalienable rights we'll be here until then we'll be scouting the world over for all that is seen and unseen on behalf of the staff and crew of EWTN news thank you for watching I'm Raymond Arroyo for Washington DC I know you [Music]

Channel: EWTN

Views: 97,344

Rating: 4.7286868 out of 5

Keywords: wot06075, ytsync-en, wot

Id: nutfrQ4DC30

Length: 58min 46sec (3526 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019