(LifeSiteNews) — Jack Maxey returns with Father Charles Murr, Liz Yore, and John-Henry Westen for this episode of Faith & Reason, in which they discuss the upcoming Synod on Synodality that begins next week, the latest in the McCarrick saga, and more.

Last week, LifeSiteNews published an article detailing the Synod on Synodality’s timeline. While the Synod is set to begin on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Synod is prefaced by a consistory on Saturday in which Pope Francis will name new cardinals, including Archbishop Victor Fernandez, Prefect of the Dicastery (formerly Congregation) for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), with an ecumenical prayer meeting that day. The days after the consistory and ecumenical meeting up to the eve of the Synod will see a retreat for Synod participants led by heretical Dominican priest Timothy Radcliffe.

Speaking about the immanent Synod, Yore commented that the event sounds more like a “U.N. Sustainable Development Goal event… It sounds like the rollout of a new world religion, which will be called the ‘Synodal Church,’ whose moral tenets are going to be climate change and LGBT inclusion.”

She also noted that the Synod is being funded by the SOS Planet Foundation, a globalist organization, and that Cardinal Gerhard Müller, formerly prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was right when he warned that “false prophets will try to use the Synod on Synodality to push the U.N. 2030 agenda.”

Father Murr, however, admitted that he was in part happy about the event, because “everyone is putting his or her cards on the table.” In his opinion, the Synod will allow a future correction of error to be precise. “When all… issues are finally addressed, they will know exactly what to address by theme, and they will know who are responsible for these things,” he said, adding that the Synod could serve as a “final straw” and that Synod participants will “force themselves to be addressed.”

Maxey spoke to the lack of transparency on Francis’ part since the beginning of his pontificate, citing the Vatican’s agreement with Communist China. He also alluded to the Vatican’s funding in the wake of plummeting donations from the American faithful, something he credits to the sex abuse crisis. “I think they’re kind of broke,” opined Maxey. “This is why they’re taking money from climate activists, and I have to imagine that they took billions from the Communist Chinese.”

Yore also agreed with Fr. Murr’s point, saying, “I’m beginning to think this is what a purification looks like… All the rats have come out of hiding. As difficult as the clergy abuse scandal was for all of us, [it is] better to clean house… and I think this is the final step.”

They also addressed Cdl. Müller’s recent letter to Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, advising him not to resign in light of his apostolic visit from the Vatican and the leak alleging that Francis was going to ask him to.

“You’re seeing the coalition of the good bishops and cardinals as one of their own faithful bishop is under attack and being persecuted,” Yore remarked. “As we see the modernists expose themselves… we’re also seeing the good holy priests, bishops and cardinals also surface and speak truth to power.” Yore added that Strickland’s recent string of pastoral letters help to educate people regarding the faith at a time when most in the American Church don’t know what the Church teaches.

Fr. Murr agreed with Yore, comparing Strickland to St. Ignatius of Antioch, a Father of the Church taught by St. John the Evangelist who was thrown to the lions in the Colosseum in about the year A.D. 107. According to Murr, what happened to St. Ignatius is being repeated, though this time the ones persecuting a bishop are inside the Church themselves.

Maxey agreed with Murr’s assessment and said that the saddest part of the problem in his view, as a convert to Catholicism, was Francis’ apparent attempt to take truth “and try turn it into something else,” something he calls “kind of horrifying.”

“It’s not just a betrayal of the faithful,” Maxey said. “It’s a betrayal of every saint in… the history of our faith. And that troubles me very much. It’s something that I have to spend a lot of time in prayer on.”

Meanwhile, a Wisconsin judge ruled last week that disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick must undergo a competency exam to see if he can face trial for allegedly assaulting an 18-year-old in the state in 1977. McCarrick’s lawyers attempted to get the court to apply the ruling of a Massachusetts court which said that McCarrick could not stand trial because of dementia. McCarrick’s abuser in the case alleges that the disgraced former cleric began sexually abusing him while he was 11, and that McCarrick took him to parties whereat other men sexually assaulted him.

According to Yore, the fact that McCarrick must undergo a competency exam is an “important development.” 

“Hopefully these victims of McCarrick, not just the… victim in the case in Wisconsin, but also the many victims who are watching this case very carefully, waiting decades for justice from this powerful, powerful prelate who seemed to be able to call all the shots and skate free time and time again,” Yore said.

Maxey asked listeners to pray for the court system in Wisconsin, that it would render a just verdict in the case and McCarrick would go to prison. He also opined that since homosexuality is celebrated in popular culture, no one would want McCarrick to go to jail for abusing an 18-year-old. “[Homosexuality in the priesthood] is a big problem that nobody wants to face because it offends the larger community outside of the faithful,” Maxey said.

For all this and more, tune in to this week’s episode of Faith & Reason, and have a happy Michaelmas. 

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