Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
#617 Exposing Corruption: The Deep Church and the Deep State With Professor Janet Smith
Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”
"Who's going to save the Church? Not the bishops, not the priests, not the religious. It's up to you, the lay people." These prophetic words from Bishop Fulton Sheen echo throughout my conversation with Professor Janet Smith, whose retirement plans gave way to a renewed mission exposing corruption within the Catholic Church.
Professor Smith shares how the 2018 McCarrick scandal shattered her trust in Church leadership, revealing a darkness far deeper than she had imagined. "I keep thinking I'm not certain I've gotten to the bottom of things yet—and I'm not certain I want to," she confesses. "It is so dark. I have days when I can barely function when I have some sort of epiphany of connection of evil events."
The discussion takes us to Washington D.C., where Professor Smith recently stood beside abuse survivor Rachel Mastrogiacomo, as she confronted Cardinal McElroy about his failure to properly address clergy abuse involving Satanic ritual sexual abuse.
We explore disturbing allegations connecting Church charities with billions in government funding while hundreds of thousands of immigrant children have reportedly "gone missing" after being processed through religious organizations.
Visit Professor Janet Smiths Website!
Please support our sponsored business: Aim Utility Advisors
TJ Lally | 630-990-3400
As a leading company in the energy sourcing and management
industry, we are committed to empowering your business with efficient,
sustainable, and cost-effective energy strategies.
If you’re interested in
being a sponsor of the Become Who You
Are Podcast, please email
us at Info@JP2Renew.org
Contact Jack: info@jp2renew.org
Follow us and watch on X: John Paul II Renewal @JP2Renewal
On Rumble: JohnPaulIIRC
I am so excited and grateful to be with someone that I've known for quite a while now, Professor Janet Smith. She's up in Michigan, so I don't get a chance to really see her that much, so it's wonderful to be on the show with her today. Janet, thank you.
Speaker 2:It's good to be here, Jack.
Speaker 1:Professor Janet Smith tries to retire, and you were just telling me that you're as busy as ever, right, Professor Smith?
Speaker 2:That's correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's battles. Thank you for that. We have so many conversations with young people today and there's a spark there, janet. There's really a spark with them, especially the Gen Z men that we're meeting, that actually started to vote differently this last election, and they're really sensing and not all of them, that's for sure, not all of them, but many more than you'd think are really looking at faith again, looking at something they need something solid, but they don't know quite what it is. Looking at faith again, looking at something they need something solid, but they don't know quite what it is.
Speaker 1:And so, while we unpack the different craziness that's going on in the world and in the church today, I just ask you to think about them a little bit in the back of your mind, that we're really speaking to these young people and saying you know, I wasn't brought into the faith, maybe my family's dysfunctional, I've been addicted to pornography. I saying, you know I wasn't brought into the faith, maybe my family's dysfunctional, I've been addicted to pornography. I mean, you know all this stuff that's going on and you know we're living in a dystopian novel. You know, I don't. I don't think Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's A Brave New World has anything on the world today, janet, so so it's good to be with you. You've always been a clear voice for us, and the things that you say you speak to the heart and you've got a beautiful heart too, but you also have knowledge of the church and this moral, ethical place we need to be, and so thank you again for coming on and give us a little sense of what you're seeing. Out there. We have the deep church, the deep state. We've got a lot of things going on, and I keep getting back in my mind to Bishop Fulton Sheen, who said that who's going to save the church? Not the bishops, not the priests, not the religious. It's up to you, the lay people, and I think that's why you're still working in your retirement, janet, because he said we have to be the eyes, the ears and be able to stand up against, and I always think who am I to try to stand up against this crazy evil that's coming in? But God uses us, doesn't he? We're going to get right back with Janet Smith, but I wanted to take a moment to thank our sponsor for today's show AIM Utility Advisors, owned and operated by the Lally family, who are local Catholic friends of ours and they have been supporters of our work for a long time.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you a question Is your business prepared for the increased energy prices starting in June of 2025? Aim Utility Advisors is a family owned energy brokerage and consultancy company that's been helping small and medium businesses reduce energy costs for over 30 years. Aim will put together a straightforward savings plan tailored to your business needs. I was in business for most of my life and I always used an energy broker. You don't have time to go out, find out where prices are, see if I can find the best prices out there. Maybe I can lock in prices and get back to running my business, and AIM will do that for you. Aim operates without a quota, so you can request a no-pressure cost analysis for free through their website, which is aimenergygroupcom. That's AIM, a-i-m energygroupcom. See the show notes for my friend TJ Lawley's direct number and tell him Jack said hello, we'll get right back to the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for all those opening remarks. I mean I will talk about the corruption in the church, but I love what you said about young men. In the area in which I'm in. I don't know if it's true everywhere, but there are just the most wonderful young men who are getting married, young who are in the trades, very good businessmen, very hard workers, determined to raise their families well, and they're so involved in their church and in their parent fathering. It's just, it's dazzling, honestly, and I think I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't except for grace, except for the movement of the Holy Spirit. I don't know what is the source of this, but I think they were just sick and tired of being worthless, honestly, just being couch potatoes and playing video games and having the whole world look down on them and not knowing, in a sense, what women wanted from them. And I think they just decided to be men and seeing strong, protective, providing men who have clear visions of what they want for their children in the world. It's one of the most exciting things of my old age, honestly, is to see this happen. That's where my hope is.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad you're saying that, because that's exactly what at the John Paul II Renewal Center. That's exactly what we're seeing and again, I don't know exactly how big that is, but we saw them come out in big numbers to vote for. You know, I had a Trump hat hanging up back here and I took it down, you know, and because I just for this, you know, for the interviews I usually take, sometimes I forget, but people will ask me why do you have a Trump hat up there? You know, and I usually take, sometimes I forget, but people will ask me, why do you have a Trump hat up there? And I'll say he's not Jesus Christ and we're not looking to him as God. But I'll tell you what God has used all through history. Hasn't he Janet People from all types, all walks of life, to come and protect his flock or to work with his flock and his people?
Speaker 1:To come and protect his flock or to work with his flock and his people? And I just see these young and it relates back to these young men who saw something in him that, with this fight, this manliness, they saw this warfare or lawfare, I should say, against him and they were sensing something's wrong. And I think every show that we try to do now, we try to give them a little sense that they're not crazy to your point, that that to be a man to even to to think about raising families today, you know, in this world you have to have hope and you know we have a faith that that has hope, even in the midst of this crazy corruption that we're going to be even alluding to today because we have to expose it. But yet, in the midst of this crazy corruption that we're going to be even alluding to today because we have to expose it, but yet in the midst of it, they're finding in prayer, they're finding in the sacraments and when we speak to them, even if they haven't been catechized, they know something's wrong, janet, and they're sensing that. And whenever we can bring some clarity to it.
Speaker 1:And I guess the last thing I'll think about God in misbest comes up in my mind right now with I think it's number 36, when God has forgotten, the creature itself grows unintelligible and I think they see this, they see it and they go. You know what? Maybe this God, you know the story of Jesus Christ, maybe it's real. And I'm poking into it because when we took them out. Good things did not happen to the world, did they?
Speaker 2:All right, and that is a huge contrast. Of course, the restoration of masculinity to manhood is, as I said, one of the most glorious things I've seen, but the thing that has rocked my world in the last maybe not quite 10 years, maybe more like seven or eight since 2018 and the scandal of McCarrick, where, in a way, my world fell apart, I had been a devout Catholic my whole life, was prepared to do anything virtually that any bishop wanted me to do, and I certainly had seen signs of corruption and really the lavender mafia presence in the church.
Speaker 2:I did not have any idea how absolutely pervasive and dominant it is. I saw patches of it but I did not know. And the people that, in a certain sense, break my heart the most for them are the faithful priests, are priests who are extremely masculine, love their flock, love their Jesus, love their flock, and have just been persecuted to the nth degree and, in a certain note, don't know whether they should stand up and oppose the nonsense that's coming down the line or whether they should just throw themselves into caring for their flock. My students that's one of the reasons actually that I retired is that students would ask me you know, professor Smith, when we get ordained again, should we stand up and fight the corruption or should we just attend to our flock? I said some of you will be called to do one and some of you will be called to do the other.
Speaker 2:I said you need to just pray and pray and pray. And if God tells you to stand up and get your head chopped off, that's what you do. If God tells you to stand up and get your head chopped off, that's what you do. If God tells you to focus on your flock, that's what you do. But I've been looking into this deeply now since 2018, associating with people who were doing it much, much longer than I have, and they will tell me when I started out.
Speaker 2:You have no idea how bad it is and I would say that was true and I'm not certain I know, yet. I keep thinking, you know, I'm not certain I've gotten to the bottom of things yet and I'm not certain I want to of things yet and I'm not certain I want to. It is so dark. I have days when I can barely function, when I have some sort of epiphany of connection of evil events and why this is happening and how it's connected to that.
Speaker 2:And even high churchmen, bishops I thought I could trust and I thought were good, I find out they're not as bad at all. They're on the dark side. That is what rocks my world and it's just crushing to me that I can't trust them and it's crushing to me that I have trusted them. I mean why, in a certain sense, I'm glad I couldn't see it, because I am not a cynical person, I am not a person that I tell people I've had a kind of Pollyannish upbringing and outlook and I don't look for darkness, but I have to be really just plunge right into it in order to acknowledge that it exists.
Speaker 1:What you're saying is so important and on so many levels, jan, and I'll expand that now because I mean you could stay right there and that would be enough. But I do this presentation called Stolen Innocence and it's for anybody. We do a lot of them in churches but a lot of them just in communities and it talks about what's happening when you rob the innocence of children now in our school systems, when you obliterate their moral imaginations, when you expose them to all the sexuality. So you see it on the secular side, right the worldly side, and unfortunately we see it at the same time in the church and this battle. You only have to scratch the surface of the church or of the secular world and the government and you find all this evil and corruption. And the same thing with me. I'm so glad you said that, because some days you want to bury your head. I want to get up after even presenting this stolen innocence to people and it's going to take us as the laity to really back up those good people. We see it. The reason I bring it up is because, just like you said, with the priests the good priests that are coming into the church and there's a lot of them young ones, not in mass numbers like we need yet, but they're good, they're well-formed in general, the ones that I'm meeting.
Speaker 1:But we also have to stand up for those children, you know, in the same way, that are going through the school systems. And to try to wake up parents, professor Smith, and to wake up enough laity in the church to stand for those good priests, to fortify them with our own prayers and our own voices is very, very important. I never felt like this much before that we're really getting called to stand in the breach, like Bishop Sheen said. He said you're going to have to that scripture. I wish you were hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm I'll spew you out from the book of Revelations. And, of course, what's Jesus saying? Look, if you're lukewarm, you won't stand up.
Speaker 1:Because they don't know, professor Smith, too many people don't know their faith strong enough. So when they hear all this stuff, they're either getting pushed out of the church right, or become even more apathetic or disgusted. And yet we have these young men standing up. So I think you and I and everybody else, when you stand up you give hope to those young people. Otherwise who's going to give them that hope? We have to, because a lot of times they haven't been brought up in a church, or not on a regular basis. And so we become those voices that say, ah, don't you know? Your heart is right, there's a reason for all of this corruption. Your heart is right, there's a reason for all of this corruption. And so it gets me into. You had this experience in traveling to DC. I watched you on video and in the news there and I said there's Professor Smith, she's not retired, she's standing in DC. Can you tell us how you got there? And was it Rachel Mastro Giacomo, I think her name was.
Speaker 1:I hope I didn't butcher her name too bad. And so what's? A beautiful young lady and the pictures I saw of her. She was actually smiling through all of this and she must have been very grateful to have a voice like yours with her. I just can't imagine the gift that you brought her and to the rest of us that witnessed you stand up. So I'd love you to to to talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was an extraordinary experience. I I've I've never, I'd never met Rachel. Until that time, though, I've worked with her for about five years or so and gotten to know her very well, but I I thought she was this small, petite, fragile little person and she's I don't know how tall she is, but I'm short and she's tall and again, she's gorgeous and she did smile a lot, but she cried a lot too.
Speaker 1:I bet you.
Speaker 2:It was very she was. She smiled a lot because something good was happening and good people were surrounding her and it, you know, she was at a point. I mean she was standing up for herself and even more for all the other women and men who have been victims and trying to give them hope, and confronting Cardinal McElroy and the other bishops and cardinals who have basically covered up for the evil that's in the church Virtually every one of them, that them, no one has spoken out and you know, I couldn't see it. I mean, who wants to be the bishop that wants to say well, there's a lot of Satanism in the church, what happened to that man? What happened to Strickland? And they'll just be dismissed from the church and so they have to weigh all these things.
Speaker 1:So we were there to give witness and what was wonderful is that there and and don't and tell us a little bit about her background quickly too, will you?
Speaker 2:yes, rachel's very pure, beautiful, devout catholic woman who went to rome, she said, either to find her vocation or a husband all right and she was seeking good spiritual direction from young, young priests.
Speaker 2:They had a great, quite a social group of young people that were just on fire with love for the Lord, and one of them, who got ordained in the period of time they knew each other, was a Jacob Bertrand Father Jacob Bertrand at the time. Jacob Bertrand, father Jacob Bertrand at the time. And it turns out that he just did the most manipulative grooming of Rachel that anybody could imagine and it honestly could. As you said, what was your group? You called Loss of Innocence.
Speaker 1:Yes, Stolen Innocence.
Speaker 2:Stolen Innocence, right. I mean, a Satanist wants the most virginal person he can get, because that's what the devil wants, right.
Speaker 1:That's why they pick on children right, the most innocent, pure yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly the same thing Jesus was an innocent lamb. And originally actually means lamb right.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, Was she there for school at that point she was there. So she's from the United States. Went to Rome for To study. Wow, was she there for school at that point? She was there. So she's from the United States. Went to Rome for.
Speaker 2:To study right, educated at Franciscan University. Truly a devout Catholic.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And he managed just to completely get kind of mind control over her and perform some richly satanic acts in the in the context of the mass. Now, rachel, once she got out of his grip she kind of just put it behind her, but it was something happened in her life that brought her all rushing forward and finally she came forward to it to a sex abuse advocate for the diocese of North Carolina and told her story to the advocate there, who believed everything she said and sent it to San Diego where Bertrand was a priest, and I think it was the vicar general of clergy showed this report to Bertrand, father Jacob Bertrand, and he admitted there was truth in it. I'm sure he didn't admit to everything, but he said yes, there's truth in this, and they sent him off for treatment. But then when he came back, and he actually did.
Speaker 1:He sexually abuse her. I mean, is that something we can talk about and hear or no?
Speaker 2:I don't want to get into the details yes, but it's very complicated.
Speaker 2:But yet he was convicted. Wow, I'm sorry I can't get it just right, but it was a third-degree crime of sexual misconduct which was a felony in the state of Minnesota, because that's where it happened. He actually performed these ritual satanic rites in her family home. Wow, and once she again, she reported it to the church. He was sent for treatment, which he falsified to his congregation. He said there had been a fire in the rectory and for some reason he had post-traumatic stress syndrome. So he went off for treatment and when they came back, of all things, they placed him in a new appointment in a new parish.
Speaker 2:When Rachel heard out this, I mean she couldn't believe it. She thought they told her he'd been taken care of and she thought that meant he'd been laicized, naturally for what it was claimed that he did. Well, they didn't. They put him back in and McElroy then was installed and he permitted Bertrand to remain in his new assignment. And when Rachel found that out she decided to file criminal charges against him. Right, and that's when McElroy suspended his faculties and then Bertrand actually confessed. He confessed to the crimes that he was charged with and found guilty by the court, and the judge actually wanted to throw the book at him, which would have been somewhere around 15 years in prison.
Speaker 1:And this is the Minnesota court in Minnesota.
Speaker 2:It was going on in Minnesota and again he. So he, unfortunately, a number of Rachel's friends were very confused about what was going on. I mean, ms Bertram was a master manipulator and she was told that some of her, this Bertrand was a master manipulator and she was told that some of their mutual friends were going to testify against her when his sentencing was being decided and she decided she just couldn't. She regrets this now, but she says at the time she couldn't face facing her friends who believed that she was consensual in her behavior with Bertrand, and so she agreed to a plea agreement where he was given 10 years of probation. The judge was very disappointed at that, because the judge believed he deserved the maximum jail time that could be given. So at any rate, he was defrocked, he was laicized and Rachel has tried to go on with her life, which she has magnificently, magnificently. But McElroy never contacted her, never spoke with her, never acknowledged what went on.
Speaker 2:And, as most people know who work with victims, it's true that the betrayal of a bishop, the refusal of a bishop to acknowledge what happened, is as violative as the abuse. Most victims have some sympathy for their predators, saying they must have been treated horribly themselves to be able to have come to this point, to be able to do what they did. So there's an odd kind of understanding that this evil person must have had something horrible happen to them to enable them to do what they did to me. But they look at a bishop as a father and, of course, as a representative of the church and a representative of God. And if that person won't say I can't believe what happened to you, we'll do everything we can to work with you and give you whatever solace we can, but ignores you and in fact protects the predator, puts a Satanist back into a parish and doesn't tell the new parish why he went for treatment. It wasn't because of a fire in the rectory, it was because he abused a young woman. It's a complete betrayal of the trust of all those parishioners. Who is this new priest? They have no idea he could do the same thing to their daughters, and so victims generally come forward not on behalf of themselves but on behalf of anybody else who might be violated by this predator. That's what she's been trying to do, and she believes that there may be some other young men that were ordained virtually at the same time that Bertrand was, or still out there who are under his influence, and so she wants a full investigation into this whole thing. And of course she was incredibly disturbed when McElroy was elevated to be a cardinal by Rome and then he's put in Washington DC.
Speaker 2:And then there's all these newspaper articles and media say, oh well, he's someone who has a special heart for victims, oh, he is particularly concerned to clean up the church. And you want to say no, he's one of the primary problems. And it wasn't only Rachel. I mean, a huge other story is that. I mean he's certainly covered up for many, but the huge one was McCarrick. That an unbelievably wonderful man named Richard Seip was at one time a priest, but because his whole order was permeated with homosexuality and he left the priesthood and became a psychologist and worked a great deal both with priests who were predators and with victims and he went to McElroy. Right, he went to McElroy with all this documentation. It wasn't wouldn't handle up in a court necessarily, but it was, you know, in counseling he talked to these men and he can't disclose all the details, but he said he knew 12 priests and seminarians who had been abused by McCarrick.
Speaker 2:Now I hope your audience knows who he is, but he was a cardinal considered to be one of the worst predators in the history of the church would take seminarians to his beach house in New Jersey where there were only four beds for guests and a bed for himself, but he had five seminarians, so one of the seminarians would have to share the bed with McCarrick. He also abused underage minor young men. One was a family friend from the time, james Grine, did it for years, years abused this young man and so Cyprian with all this information to McElroy, and McElroy was completely indifferent to it. He said he wanted. You know, he didn't have all the documentation he needed and what the church understands is that when it's reported, the one to whom it's reported to has to do an investigation. He doesn't put the burden on the reporter. The burden is on himself. He has to protect the church, he has to protect his people.
Speaker 2:This is a serious accusation by a very serious man who knew what he was doing. He's not just some person in the parish that might have a beef against somebody. This was his expertise, was abuse, all right, and McElroy just ignored him. In fact, the National Catholic Reporter a couple weeks ago published an exonerating article from McElroy. Oh well, he didn't really know and he didn't like the way that Sipe delivered the information. And this and I just recently got published in LifeSite News a refutation of that exoneration and saying the facts are quite the contrary Sipe made it perfectly clear what had happened. I suspect that Sipe already knew I mean not Sipe that McElroy already knew. Everybody says everybody knew what McCarrick was doing, and so McElroy has a terrible record for dealing with sex abuse. His record is not one of sympathy to victims, his record is one of love.
Speaker 1:And even more. I think you know, I mean you know he clearly stands for this LBGTQ agenda. He follows you know, almost he follows Pope Francis, I hate to say, on so many of these things where he's unclear, he's not willing to stand up for the truth, we have a lot of confusion, you know. And so the Pope, in spite of all of this and I have a feeling he knew what was going on promotes him, elevates him to Cardinal, and then not only elevates him to Cardinal, then elevates him to Washington DC, which is kind of a figurehead of sorts right in the United States for sure, and so this is even going higher than I think, than McElroy, I'm afraid to say.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean, does this go all the way up to the Vatican, you think?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No, and that's the disheartening thing, unbelievably disheartening. But McElroy was chosen, because of whom he is.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:He is in the bidding of his superiors, right, and if you notice there is absolutely. You know I hate to, I don't want to smear, I don't think that's what I'm doing, but the appointments are not any better than they were. They're just going to get worse and worse. All right, because the problem was we've got some very bad bishops appointed. There's also Masonic influence, all sorts of things in the church back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. In the church back in the 60s, 70s and 80s, those bishops appoint the next round of bishops and the next round of bishops appoint the next round of bishops. So it's not that it gets better and better, it gets worse and worse. People keep telling me well, the church is dealing with it better. I said are you looking at the appointments? Do you see?
Speaker 1:who they appoint.
Speaker 2:I said are you looking at the appointments? Do you see who they appoint? I said, yes, we're getting some good young priests, but I'm sorry to say I'm not convinced. This is in spite of the institutional church. These young men that are coming in that are good, are good because they've been raised well. They've come out from unbelievably wonderful households. They know not to trust the seminary anymore. They know to look out. They're not going to be seduced and they were for many years. They were told that if you wanted to stay in the seminary you had to satisfy this priest or whatever. It was unbelievable. Well, they know now. They go in now and they say no, that's not going to happen.
Speaker 2:And a priest I've known for many years, a man named Father Tim Ferguson. He just posted on my Facebook page a testimony of his road to the priesthood, which was just filled with rejection all the way along because he was too faithful a Catholic and they did not want someone as faithful as he was in the seminary. And I'm sure he'll tell us much more about homosexual predation that he witnessed. So these priests not just the young priests, but some of the older priests we cannot imagine what they had to endure to become ordained and what they endure now I mean for a good priest. There's no such thing as an unattractive assignment. For a good priest, any assignment is a good assignment. They're representing Jesus, but they're being just warned to death. They're given so many jobs that they hope, I think, they fall over from exhaustion.
Speaker 1:No, that's exactly right. The better the priests are, you just see them get worn out. I see friends of mine that are good priests, janet, to your point. You know. I know this personally because I had a brother on the list of five boys, and the fourth one down his name was Danny was sexually abused in the church. We didn't know that from the time. He was about 9 to 11 or 12 years old, but he's this incredible personality, good-looking guy, very smart, and yet he kept getting into drugs and then it came out on his deathbed as he was dying. He got into a homosexual lifestyle later on, and at the age of 24, 25, he contracted AIDS and then, as he was dying, believe it or not, he brought me back into the church. I came back into the church on his deathbed. So this is how God can work and I think it's amazing. So here he's abused in the church. He becomes the only one of the five of us that comes back into the church as he's dying. Right, I mean, there's something about man. This is the end. And he comes back in, receives the sacraments, is going and brings us back into the church. The other thing is I had another brother that was in the seminary and he experienced what you're talking about, so he left.
Speaker 1:You know you can't make this stuff up, and so here's a question I have for you. Is this because I get this feeling from Fulton Sheen, from reading him, from John Paul II, of course, spoke about this a lot that this was in divine providence, that as we get closer we don't predict the end times, right? I mean, catholics are not supposed to do that and we get it. But Fulton Sheen and John Paul II and among many others, had a real inclination that we were nearing something big is coming down right, and John Paul II was very clear about this, and so he said this plan is within divine providence, right To expose all this evil is really coming up. I think what we're talking about and the reason we have hope yet is because it is being exposed and in a way, I like this. I don't like the evil, right, we don't like the evil, I don't like the victims, I don't like the people being hurt. But in a way it says all right, it's out there, Pick a side. You know, that's why I get back to that. You know either be hot or cold, but the lukewarm right, I'm going to spew you out. And you see these really, two sides, right, kind of the wheat and the weeds growing together and something as big as happening, and I just want to get your take on that. I mean, do you sense that that this is look. There's always been sin. We know that. Right, cain killed his brother Abel right away in Genesis. But to your point, I mean, we could never have imagined that the world itself, the world we would call you know, and the church itself could be this corrupt all at once. It's like a stew. And yet, and yet, these young priests that you're talking about, and these young men that you and I are talking about, and women too there are women too in there that are standing up and saying, no, something's wrong, and I'm choosing God.
Speaker 1:I want to take a moment here to thank our sponsor again for bringing you today's show. You know demand for electricity and natural gas is growing tremendously across the nation. Is your business prepared for the resulting cost increase of 15% or more in the coming years? As a local, family-owned energy broker and consultant, aim Utility Advisors has been helping small and medium businesses reduce energy costs for over 30 years. Aim will leverage these decades of experience with leading market analytics to produce a straightforward savings plan tailored to your business's needs. Aim operates without a quota, so you can request a no-pressure cost analysis for free right through their website, which is aimenergygroupcom. That's aimenergygroupcom See the show notes for my friend TJ Lally's direct number and for more information and we'll get right back to the show.
Speaker 1:I mean, can you imagine being a seminarian and seeing all this corruption and still saying, yes, I'm going to be a priest? These are, this is a spirit moving within them. How else would you say, janet, you're going to be going to religious life right now? You can see the church is totally corrupt in the top. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I saw it for myself in the seminary back in 2000. That's right, you were working in this. You were a professor in the seminary back in 2000.
Speaker 1:That's right, you were working in this.
Speaker 2:You were a professor in the seminary I saw the whole pedophilia exposure in the early 2000s, the movie Spotlight, which people should still watch. It's as true as can be. I remember I was sure it was just again a smear of the church and when I watched it and I sort of put things together I said, oh, this is true, it's so true. And of course I just thought I mean I don't want to say just, but I thought it was a relatively small problem with pedophilia. I did not know it was a wholesale problem with homosexuality and of course the bishops exempted themselves from the whole reporting process.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Why I mean again, if you're innocent, you want to say I'm open. In my books you can see everything All right. And so at that time, when the church said we can't ordain homosexuals, and so all of a sudden we had a whole new flock of young men, we had very masculine men who had not been permitted to be accepted before. They were considered to be rigid again yes and and opposed, of course, the lgbtq agenda.
Speaker 2:I mean, men were always telling me they were asked by the psychologists would you accept women priests? And if they said no, this was a big black mark against them. Are you comfortable with homosexuality? Black mark if they said no. So all of a sudden we're getting all these masculine men and it was almost palpable that there was a different atmosphere at the seminary and when I would talk about what was going on at that time, you, just you had a sense. I mean really their masculine chest just puffed up and they would just say not on my watch.
Speaker 1:See that, yeah, not on my watch Now.
Speaker 2:I think there's been a somewhat decline over the years, but again with the Holy Father being so receptive to the homosexual agenda. But I think more and more homosexual men are not going into the priesthood, partly because I think for decades it was because it was a good place to hide. You don't need to hide anymore, unless you have a grandmother who would be completely scandalized by being homosexual. Everybody seems to accept it these days, so there's no way you don't need to go hide, though some still do and some do that. But yeah, I think it's pretty incredible what has gone on. And you say that change is coming.
Speaker 2:I mean, the Holy Spirit is always going to work, it seems to me, in totally unexpected and weird ways. And most everybody I know we want to say how can we change it? What can we do? How can we bring things about? And I've been saying we can't, we just can't. It's a huge. It's such a huge problem. Really, most of us simply have to attend to our daily duties, all right, and become deeper and deeper in our faith and pray more and more that evil will be beaten down and good will be promoted. I think for myself, I've had to retool my whole outlook on life. I mean, I used to think the devil was just an annoyance. Annoyance, as opposed to the St Michael prayer is so important. He is prowling about the world, seeking the realm of souls, and I think God has taken the veil and let us see that cosmic battle that is happening.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Into the church and it's huge, and any of us who think, oh, the devil is just an annoyance were idiots. I was an idiot yeah so I think and okay, you look at what elon musk is doing you mentioned trump and yes I know too many people who know nothing about what elon musk and trump are really doing. They watch mainstream media and they just think they're horrible men who are greedy and just looking out for themselves and their wealthy buddies.
Speaker 1:Honestly, a danger to democracy right democracy and as this whole, as this whole pyramid scheme is, is coming in from an economic, a finance standpoint standpoint, the corruption that you know. We have the deep church and the deep state, janet right, and this thing is crumbling in and we're going to protest against Doge and against Trump for trying to turn this thing around. Just like you know, cardinal Raymond Burke, bishop Strickland and others were taking out these voices and so you saw them try to take out Trump. That's why I'll put this Trump hat on once in a while and again for people that maybe tuned in for the first time. I don't think Trump is Jesus Christ, but I don't think I know. I know I could say I know that God is using him in some good ways too. Look, this is a mess out there, but he brought good people in, and I think that's where you see this inspiration from young men, and if we have some good leaders in the diocese right, some good shepherds, you'll see it too. I know the FBI numbers have gone up now that we have a new FBI director that young men are starting to look for that. More young men are joining the armed forces today because we're getting some of the leaders in there that were wearing dresses back to get them out and put guys in that wear the uniform as men. And so they're inspired. And so that's what, as we start to wind down on time, janet, speak to those young men a little bit, because you know what's funny?
Speaker 1:You and I did one I don't know if you remember this. We did one a long time ago and we ended up talking about dating. And here you and I are talking about dating for young people. That thing went viral, and you wonder why? Right, because they want to hear the truth, because young people still have their antenna. They haven't been totally corrupted. If they haven't been totally corrupted and this is what stolen innocence is all about they're certainly trying to corrupt them. So these men that we're talking about and these priests that you're talking about that say not on my watch. They live through the most toxic culture possible and yet, boom, they're inspired. This shows that the human heart goes beyond this biological thing. There's something within us that says, no, I want the truth, you know, I want authentic love. So that's why shows like this I get excited about Janet, because you know how to speak to them, because you speak the truth, and you speak what authentic love is, and it's not brain surgery. It's not easy, but it's not brain surgery.
Speaker 2:As I said, I'm very encouraged. I think you mentioned young women. I never want to leave them out. The women I know have just turned themselves into wives and mothers with almost no models. All right, their mothers were feminists. Their mothers are maybe divorced, got lost, had abortions, all sorts of things, and the support that these young women find for each other online is unbelievable. The households that they're building to make a good home for their husband and their children and are living selfish, sacrificial and fulfilling lives. All right, they have discovered that sacrifice and love go together and happiness go together. Those are together. I did want to say one thing, and this is so important that the state is cleaning up the church. All right, this is where I say the Holy Spirit is surprising us in many ways. Elon Musk has found the most incredible corruption in the use of governmental funds by Catholic charities, us aid, etc. Too many people don't know this. All right, the church was getting for its charitable activity something like 85 percent of its funds from the government Billions of dollars All right?
Speaker 1:Which is our money? Which is right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're funding all this stuff funding all this and and they're they're basically saying we believe that this has been used for corrupt purposes. For instance, there's something some people say 350 it seems it's much closer to 500,000 young people have gone missing who were part of immigration and that gone missing? Yeah, maybe some are with family, but how many of them are with predators, are being trafficked, are actually becoming slaves in some industries. The Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church and the Jewish people that are in charities are all complicit in this, are very much complicit. The US government has issued reports and they've said we don't know where they've gone. We've gone to some of the neighborhoods where they're left off. It's at a hotel with no plumbing and there's drugs and crime everywhere.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine when you're describing this? And I think sometimes, if we don't pause to think, these are innocent young children and this is why you know, we have to stand up for them, janet. We have to say no, not on our watch. You know, a lot of this is just going to take prayer or whatever. But then you know, in Romans 10.10, you know, if you believe in Christ and he's resurrected, you're justified in your heart. But then you have to confess with your lips and then you are saved. And so the beauty of you speaking out and traveling with Rachel is that you not only have it in your heart, you're confessing with your lips and you are saved. If you think about it, it's a win-win situation. In the middle of this chaos, you got involved in a win situation. You're there to support the victim and you're there to proclaim the truth, and this is all God can ask of someone right?
Speaker 2:I hope. I mean, I do feel that I'm doing God's will, and it is incredibly enriching, of course. For that reason, Let me just pull this out just a little bit before.
Speaker 2:I know we're getting close to the time, but if you were accused of misusing billions of dollars and of not taking care of the children that are entrusted to your care, if you were accused of that, what would your response be? In your books, you would say of course I haven't misused these monies. Come and look. I'll show you where every penny has gone. All right, I'll show you. We've done these full interviews with children. We've gotten the medical and psychological care that they needed. We've made certain that they've been placed with trustworthy, good human beings. We would open our books. What has the US Bishops Conference done? What has the US Bishops Conference done? It said first. It said trust us. Then it went to the law, the courts, to say they owe us this money. They have to give it to us Now they said we don't want your money anymore.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm sorry. I don't think there's a better way to flash guilty, guilty, guilty. I mean, if I'm innocent, I open up the books, I show you where the kids are and I say you've enabled us to do so much good. I'm going to do everything I can to show you that I'm trustworthy, so that we can continue to provide this incredibly important service for people who are very desperately needy. You're not hearing that?
Speaker 1:So again, just to break open your point for somebody that's trying to follow here and says well, I never heard that before. Then the bishops, the USCCB, actually went, you know, filed in federal court I think they sued actually the government for that money back. And then when we find out we got we have some new people in the FBI and in the Department of Homeland Security and blah, blah, blah. So you have all these new people who may actually try to investigate you. Like you said, they backed off right and said no, we're good, we're good over here now, right, yeah well, they're turning down all the money.
Speaker 2:They're saying we're not going to ask for any more money. In one sense, I think that's good. I mean, I think the church has to be brought to its knees. I mean, pope Benedict said at some point there's going to be a remnant, and it seems to me we're getting close. That looks like it might be on the horizon, where I think I'm hoping that when they offer another bad man an appointment to be a bishop, they'll say I don't want this, it's too, much trouble, people hate me, etc.
Speaker 2:And I'm hoping the only one who will take that invitation is a good man who says I don't want to be a bishop for anything. This is a mess, people hate me, the church is impoverished, etc. I hope that man says but God wants me to do it, and if God wants me to do it, I'm going to do it. I'm hoping that it'll come to a point where a bad man will not accept the appointment because it's fraught with so many difficulties and a good man says it's because it's fraught with difficulties that I'll take the position and I will do God's will.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, we're seeing that again in the government, and the reason I see this together is I see this as one big battle in a way. I remember when Pope Francis was just pushing these open borders on everybody and we're actually seeing the decline of Europe very quickly. Now In the UK they're arresting people for praying I mean silent prayer. Now In Australia I don't know if you followed this, janet, but in Australia they just put that law in that if you don't affirm your child as trans or their pronouns, you can be arrested up to five years as a parent. You know, in Colorado right now, I have family in Colorado and you know they're pushing through not only the most incredible abortion policies, but the same thing. If you don't affirm your child with their affirming care, using again, pronouns, even to the point of bringing them in for puberty blockers, your child can be taken from you. And you think, no, that's impossible, right? No, it's not impossible.
Speaker 1:And in Illinois we have the same thing. Here in Illinois, we have the same thing. Here in illinois, we have a homeschooling act right now where they just want to get, you know, take them all under your reins because they're they're out of step with us, and so this all gets back to the stolen innocence again. You know they're really. There is a parade that I remember a year or two ago, and the chant was we're here, we're queer, and we're coming for your children.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. And at first I thought, well, that's just a slogan they're saying, but then when you pay attention, you find out that's happening in the church and in the world all over. It's really something. What we're seeing right now and again, these voices, how do we wake people up?
Speaker 1:I think that's the biggest thing, Janet, because I know when I give presentations about this stuff in churches, it's the grandparents, it's some young people, it's some young families, but the majority of parents will not come. They still aren't going to take the time to see what's going on in their own schools with their own kids, to see that they shouldn't be giving those phones to those kids at such an early age. They don't want to hear about it. And so this, I think, is back to your point where we're going to get smaller before we get bigger just because there's too much apathy. You know you have that 20% that are really really evil, percent that are, you know, hot for Jesus Christ, right and trying to push back, but do you have this whole middle section that seems too apathetic, you know? Do you see that?
Speaker 2:Oh no, it's absolutely true and it's crushing because, of course, every parent wants what's best for their children and unfortunately, there are those who let the culture educate them or miseducate them on what's good for their children, as opposed to just really saying, as I think many of these young men and women are doing is saying, ultimately, I'm accountable. I'm accountable for what happens with my children and I cannot be so foolish as to think that what they're. I mean a lot of people learn during COVID what nonsense their kids were getting in school. They would get on the Zoom sessions with the teachers and say what.
Speaker 2:And that homeschooling just skyrocketed at that time because parents said I don't want my kids to be taught this, I'm going to teach them what is right. And it continues to grow. Homeschooling and the you know the Chesterton schools, the classical academies. It doesn't have to be homeschooling, but you have to have a school that is completely committed to, as one of my friends was a superintendent of schools and she would just walk up and down the halls and she'd say to the kids now why is it that you're getting a Catholic education?
Speaker 2:And their response was supposed to be because I want to be a saint, a Catholic education, and their response was supposed to be, because I want to be a saint, and that has to be what every parent wants for their children not to get into Harvard, not to get into Yale, not to get, you know, a top job, but to be a saint. And, of course, you can't meet saints unless you're trying to be a saint, and so that's what we all have to do. Not all of us have to clean up the church or clean up the government, but those who are parents have to have their primary focus on their souls, the souls of their children.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's really true, huh? We have to help one another get to heaven. I remember you telling me just in this last minute here, janet. I remember you telling me this was a couple of years ago at least and saying I've been praying more. I've been praying more, and I took that to heart too and really made a serious effort the last few years to really spend even more and more time in prayer. And sometimes in the beginning it felt a little unproductive, right, for guys like me that run around and just try to do stuff. And now I really balance that. I really balance it and I just say, hey, this is way too big for me and I'm tired of feeling like I'm beat up, so I just boom.
Speaker 1:You know what I tell, janet, what I tell young men we have this see the Claymore sword. Behind me there's a Claymore sword. So this is William Wallace sword, this two-fisted sword. So we have an apostolate within our apostolate for young men called Claymore, miletus Christi Soldiers for Christ, and it's in the spiritual formation. So we help them through a number of this. It's a way to disciple young men, you know, and I tell them the first thing in the morning fall to your knees before you look at that phone and then kneel with our blessed mother and just say be it done to me according to your word. Just open your heart, you know, let it be done.
Speaker 1:And I said the second thing to remember is temptation's not a sin.
Speaker 1:You're going to be availed.
Speaker 1:I mean, these temptations are going to be brutal in today's time, but if you use it as an invitation to prayer and always just get rid of it, open those temptations right away, before the devil has a chance to come at you, you'll be praying all day.
Speaker 1:If you use temptation as a prayer in today's pornographic, crazy world, you'll be praying all day and just keep opening that up, right, and then finally get up off your knees and love the next person, you see, whether it's a friend, a spouse or the gas station clerk down the street, become that person of love and in those small things, and of course we go on from there. But that's just a quick thing in the morning, right, boom, boom before you do anything else. And it's powerful, you know, because what it does is I'm opening my temptations up to grace and experiencing the reality. You know, over time, and sometimes it happens fairly quickly, but they feel empowered by that reality of grace, that reality of the power of God on the of Jesus Christ, on that cross right, and you know that's huh, I love what you're saying and it seems to me I mean I do believe it's true that men absolutely love to mentor boys.
Speaker 2:All right, Men love to try to make men out of boys.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Not that hard. Men are boys, are beautifully malleable to the good, but what they need is a very masculine man who helps them find their way. And this idea of the temptations I would look upon temptations again as an enemy soldier who's coming after you. And you shouldn't be ashamed that. An enemy soldier is coming at you. Yes, he's sending his soldiers after you. His soldiers are temptations. And so don't say, oh, I must be a horrible person because I have this temptation. Instead you say, ah, I'm on the right side of things, I have to defeat this enemy, otherwise he'll get me. So I'm going to defeat him, but not to think that I'm fighting against myself. I'm fighting against a whole battalion, that the devil is sending my way. And, as you say, the more you fight it, the stronger you get. And hopefully there will be fewer. The pettier temptations will disappear. Sometimes bigger temptations come. You know they're no longer going to send their little foot soldiers.
Speaker 1:No, they won't. Once you stand, you know, like GK would say, you know, once you stand up against that current, that's when you feel the current right, it's easy to swim downstream, huh, but you're a bad guy and again, you probably will be able to defeat it.
Speaker 2:But it's sneaky things like ego. It's sneaky things like presumption. I can handle this because I don't have to pray today, because I prayed tomorrow. I prayed yesterday and you start getting all this sort of, like you know, feeling big about yourself instead of always feeling small and always fighting a huge battle.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, and it's liberating, you know, because as soon as I started to push those temptations down and pretend I could defeat them by myself, they got really bad. But as soon as I started to open them up to grace, you go oh yeah, there's power from that cross. You know, jesus didn't come for sin management, did he, janet? He came with power, and that's the way you experience it. Well, god bless you. Thank you so much, and you mentioned before we came on air that you were trying to finish a book or two. Just one or two quick words on. Is that coming along? Are you actually getting somewhere or is it just starting, or is it still here yet?
Speaker 2:I might have to. It might if I write an autobiography. It might be, and it will never become complete because the title would be a life of unfinished projects.
Speaker 2:I'm from yes, yes, yes three or four books about 80 done oh 80 80 percent, 20 can really be yes, it can challenge, and so I'm trying to discipline myself that I have to spend at least so many hours a day on that and everything else has to just take a back seat and then I get to it. I don't ignore it, but to say this is the primary thing, at least I think. I mean, I believe that God has shown me that he doesn't expect me to expend all my energies on that. He does want me to do it, but he wants me to do these other things as well, and he wants me to learn somehow how to prioritize things. That's my is get the right.
Speaker 2:I mean, who could say that fighting child, that anything, is more important than fighting child trafficking? And why could I possibly think that getting this one word and concept in Thomas Aquinas is, like, really important compared to that? And I would say I can't prioritize that. God has to do it for me. If you know, we can't all do. The most important thing. The most important thing is what we're supposed to be doing. That's the most important thing for us.
Speaker 2:And sometimes we have to give up things we think are important because God has to convince us that maybe something is the thing we're supposed to be doing. So balancing that is a real challenge for me.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes. Well, where can people? You're still writing and I see your published articles. Where can people go to read those?
Speaker 2:I do have a website, janetsmithorg, and most of my stuff is up there. But my mother used to say if I want to hear from Janet I have to read the letter to the editor section of the paper.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Will you post some of that stuff, too, online when you're there?
Speaker 2:It should all be on my website.
Speaker 1:It's a good place to start. Is your website right?
Speaker 2:Type in my name but type in Janet Smith sex abuse. I hate to put those things together, but yeah, you'll find some stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you will. Hey, god bless you, janet. You're such a gift to all of us and we really appreciate you taking the time to be on the show and keep up the good work. We're going to need all these voices in this smaller church, you know right.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1:God bless you. Hey, thanks everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Talk to you again soon.