Why Post-Vatican II Priests Are More Conservative and Orthodox

Hey guys, I’ve been saying this for years and by now most of you have heard it. But I’m going to explore why post-Vatican II priests are more conservative and more orthodox than pre-Vatican II priests.

If you’re not familiar with all the research, I’ll throw out one Catholic University of America. They’ve been around a long time.

They took a poll. These are American priests. They took a poll in 1960 and 68% of American priests identified themselves as progressive liberal politically and theologically.

That same exact poll, same college, same questions in 2023 found only 1% of American Catholic priests identified as politically progressive or liberal and theologically progressive or liberal.

In fact, 85% said they’re very conservative politically and very orthodox, which a lot of people will say conservative, but when it comes to faith, it’s either you’re orthodox or heterodox. And these priests know that.

So they would say they’re very orthodox.

I guess 14% said they were middle of the road when it came to politics, but they were orthodox.

Very interesting.

What American Conservatives Believe

Quickly, if you’re from another country, Robert P. George, Dr. Robert P. George, I had on last week, American conservative scholar, made a good point.

A lot of European conservatism and American conservatism is different.

So, if you want to see the best explanation of American conservative, watch that video with Dr. Robert P. George from last week.

But I’ll just give you a small understanding of what us conservatives believe.

Basically, we believe that America is an exceptional nation, not because we’re perfect, but because of our first principles.

So when America is making mistakes, we don’t try and burn it down and change it into a socialist, communist, dictatorship, or theocracy.

We just try and get back to our first principles, which are taken right out of the Bible, that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights from their creator. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

So out of that, us conservatives are strongly pro-life.

We believe in the First Amendment, the freedom of speech. And freedom of speech, you don’t need a right to freedom of speech for speech that everybody agrees with. That’s to protect speech people disagree with.

And freedom of religion, the government cannot infringe on our faith.

Then we conservatives believe in the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. So you can’t have all these communists and dictators. Iran has the strictest gun rules. China has the strictest gun rules because dictators and communists don’t want us to protect ourselves.

And we believe in the Catholic teaching of subsidiarity, limited government. Do what you can do for yourself and your community at the lowest level.

We don’t want to centralize power because we know that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So that’s what basically conservatism is in politics. And you can see how it goes hand in glove if you’re theologically orthodox.

That’s why I always mix in politics and religion in here.

Some people like it, some people hate it.

Why Today’s Priests Are Relatable

I was reminded of this the other night. I’m going to have Father John Brown, a great priest.

It was funny because I spoke to him on the phone and I was like, “Man, this guy is so cool.”

And I said, “I know you’re from Louisiana, but you sound like you’re from Jersey.”

And he said, “Yeah, that’s because years ago a lot of Italians immigrated here.”

I go, “Ah, that’s interesting.”

Then I texted him the other night and I said, “Father, I just wanted to touch base. I still want to get this interview as soon as possible, but I’m working two jobs. I’m trying to get it together.”

He’s like, “Great.”

And then I told him the topics I want to talk about with him.

He’s like, “Great. Hog hunting tonight.”

And he sent me this pic.

I replied, “Man, you had me fooled with that Jersey accent. You actually are a country boy.”

So, I think this is just a cool picture of Father Brown with his hog hunting weapon.

I thought, yeah, this is today’s priest.

Very conservative, very manly.

I have three priests in my parish. I would say we’re very manly, very conservative. And at one point we had five and I would say the same about the other two.

A priest like that can relate to the people in Louisiana. Down here in Florida he would be welcomed, but in Jersey and Chicago they might look at him a little strange.

So if you’re in Chicago and you’re a priest, you might want to look more like that kind of gangster, in a good way. Blues Brother gangster.

That is Pope Leo. That’s Pope Leo. It actually says he’s in Europe, but that’s Pope Leo when he was a young priest.

Us blue-collar guys, we really fell in love with this guy right here.

This is before Pope Francis became Pope. He was a blue-collar guy. He was a bouncer in this picture. He worked in a bar and beat people up that were out of line.

Before becoming Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio held various jobs including working as a nightclub bouncer, a janitor, and a chemical technician.

This is why us blue-collar guys loved Pope Francis.

A lot of these white-collar guys were so upset the way he talked. He didn’t talk very fine and elegant like they wanted him. And he definitely didn’t dress all fancy schmancy.

He dressed like a blue-collar guy.

He wore just the basic white.

And that offended a lot of these fancy pants too.

St. Paul Knew the Importance of Relatability

Why does it matter how these people present themselves?

Well, St. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 9:19-23:

“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law. Though not myself being under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law. Not being without law toward God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

St. Paul knew the importance of relatability.

Next week I have planned an army chaplain, a young fire-breathing chaplain. I heard him preach a homily.

He breathes fire. He preaches with fire. This young man is on fire.

And he happens to be an active member of the 82nd Airborne, which means he jumps out of airplanes every month.

I think to qualify you have to jump every month. He may jump more than that and live out in the field with the men.

He’s a rough guy. He’s not soft.

He’s not soft at all.

And he’s going to be coming on.

A couple months ago, I talked to one of his superiors, a priest that outranked him who did the same thing when he was younger. But when I interviewed him, he was running the parish.

He literally got these two priests running all of Fort Bragg, one of the biggest bases on the planet.

That priest got transferred to another base, another fort I guess they call it in the army. We call them bases in the Navy.

So the young priest that jumps out of airplanes will be covering the office till they get a replacement and they’ll be back in the field.

Usually I have a queue of people that I told and I try and keep them in order. He’s going to have to jump it because he’s going to have to jump out of a plane soon. I’m not going to be able to get him again.

We’ve been talking about this interview for over a year, I think.

Why Priests Matter for Evangelization

Why does it matter what kind of priest we have?

When I came back to the church, I didn’t care about the priest. I didn’t care about the homily.

I was blessed with a priest that could preach, but I went for the Eucharist.

But for evangelization’s sake, people are looking to the man preaching.

That’s just human nature.

And the fruit of these men have been in 1960 were 650 million Catholics. Today there’s 1.4 billion. Actually over. We surpassed that I think this year.

How did we do this?

Another great priest I had on this channel is working on his second doctorate degree in theology. He’s on sabbatical.

When he gets off, I’m going to bring him on Blue Collar and a Scholar, but I did have him on Blue Collar and a Father.

He was actually trained in our Catholic school in our diocese and he wrote this book, Reclaiming Vatican II: What It Really Said, Not What These YouTubers Tell You It Says, What It Really Said and What It Really Means and How It Calls Us to Renew the Church.

And he got a foreword from Bishop Barron:

“I warmly commend this book to anyone wanting to understand Vatican II, but especially the young Catholics confused about the council and those skeptical about its relevance today.”

That’s a big endorsement from our priest.

And that guy breathes fire too.

The Church Is Not Falling Apart

The skeptical say, well, I always heard this argument when I was bragging about how awesome the church is from people that claim to be Catholic.

“Oh, the church is falling apart. Everything’s wrong with the church. We have way less priests.”

Well, Jesus says he will cut off the branches and throw them in the fire if they don’t bear fruit.

Sometimes you have to trim the branches so you have a more fruitful tree.

And you see, we got rid of a lot of heterodox. They were progressive. They weren’t orthodox in their theology.

It just happens that politics and theology always goes hand in glove, but there was a lot of people before Vatican II that weren’t orthodox.

So, he trimmed it.

But in 1965, we just read about, well, let me back up a second.

We just had a reading this Sunday how the apostles chose seven deacons and then from church tradition it grew.

The deacons became very important, but we needed Vatican II because the church was kind of getting stale.

In 1965, we had zero deacons.

Zero deacons.

Imagine no St. Stephen, no St. Philip, no St. Lawrence, zero deacons.

No St. Francis of Assisi, zero deacons.

Today, we have over 50,000 deacons.

And these guys are so on fire. They are so committed to the gospel that although they’re allowed to be married when they become deacons, if their wife dies, they can’t remarry.

This is a serious vow.

These guys are serious.

So although there’s less priests, they’re stronger priests and they have more help than ever.

God knows what he’s doing.

The Holy Spirit knows what he’s doing.

The gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

Jesus meant what he said and said what he meant.

Young Catholics and Orthodox Priests

Today you see even in America that for the first time, 20-year-olds from like 19 to 30, there’s more Catholic young men and women than Protestants for the first time.

Because you have again solid fathers, conservative orthodox fathers like Father Mike Schmitz. Bible in a Year was the number one podcast.

I know Protestants that were like, “Yeah, that was a good Bible study. I did the year through the Bible with your priest.”

And now he’s got them going through the catechism through a year.

Bishop Barron, this bishop is evangelizing. I have so many Protestant friends that he’s leading.

They’re on the fence. They’re like, “Wow, Bishop Barron’s got some good arguments for Catholicism.”

God is moving in the Catholic Church and he’s using our priests.

I just want to give you some stats. I’m sorry if I’m looking at my notes because I just don’t want to get the statistics wrong.

During Pope Francis’s pontificate, the Catholic Church grew 9.9%.

And the skeptics will say, “That just keeps up with world growth.”

No, world growth was only 9.1%.

It outgrew world growth.

And the world was getting more secular.

The number one Protestant church in America is the Southern Baptist. And they lost 25% of their membership during that time.

The second largest Protestant church in America is the United Methodist Church. They lost 50%.

Pope Francis and Blue-Collar Catholicism

Guys like me, number one, Pope Francis we can relate to because he was like a blue-collar guy and he talked off the cuff and he talked like a real person.

But we seen a man so on fire for the Lord.

We seen a man that spoke with love and compassion, but yet he held to the principles.

As a Protestant, we said he held to the principles of the Bible.

When asked on the news, “Is homosexuality a sin?” He’s like, “Yes.”

But he treated homosexuals so good and he loved them so much with the love of Christ that it confused the Pharisees of the day just like Jesus confused the Pharisees of his day when he didn’t stone the adulterous woman.

He was so Christlike that even Rick Warren, megachurch Baptist preacher, said Pope Francis is the most Christlike guy alive today when he was alive.

Our priests are on fire for the Lord.

Thank your priest today.

Support your priest today.

Pray for your priest.

The Holy Spirit Does Not Fail

How did this happen?

Because the Holy Spirit does not fail.

The Holy Spirit knows what he’s doing.

During the Reformation, Martin Luther thought he was going to first principles. He’s like, “We got to bring the church back to true Catholicism.”

That was Martin Luther’s thing.

The church has gone away.

And he had a 95-point thesis. He hung on the door. Everybody knows the story.

But the church realized that 95% of what he put up there, he was right.

It wasn’t the church was in error. The church wasn’t living up to its first principles. The church wasn’t living up to what the church taught.

And they reformed that.

But there was about 5% that wasn’t church teaching ever that Martin Luther misunderstood.

But he rebelled because he thought he knew better than the church that Jesus Christ said the gates of hell will not prevail against.

So that’s why he became a schismatic.

Not long after that, during Vatican I, a bunch of Catholics said, “No, no, no. Vatican I is schismatic. This is going against church tradition.”

And so they broke away because they thought they knew better.

Then Vatican II, you had some people doing the same thing. And today they’re confusing people on YouTube.

They have a lot of money, a lot of donors paying them to say things that are false, and maybe they believe it.

But I’m telling you, read Reclaiming Vatican II and learn the truth about Vatican II, not what people are saying.

Vatican II Went Back to First Principles

Like I said, the church was kind of getting stale.

We had no deacons. We had liberal priests. And the Holy Spirit came through with a rushing mighty wind and got young people on fire.

You could see the revivals in Duquesne University that spread through all the colleges amongst young people.

Older people got excited about faith.

People started converting to the faith and we grew and we’re still growing.

How did they do that?

They went back to first principles.

Like I was saying with American conservatives going back to first principles, they went back to tradition, but not tradition of the 15th century or 16th century.

To the first century.

You see, biblical archaeology became a huge thing and we found homilies and we found documents.

Even the new Mass, the Novus Ordo Mass that people like to knock, is almost identical.

This was one of the things that led me into the church when I read the Mass that St. Justin Martyr described to the emperor in 150 AD.

I’m like, this is the same Mass the Catholics do today.

The Novus Ordo Mass and so many other things.

I’m not going to go through everything, but you could reclaim in Vatican II. We went back to the traditions. We never went against it.

We didn’t contradict anything, but we weren’t living out the first principles like the first-century church that won the world.

Everyone says, “Oh, we got less priests.”

Gideon thought he needed 32,000 soldiers to win his battle. And God said, “No, you only need 300.”

It’s not the quantity of priests.

It’s the quality.

And God has trimmed the branches and gave them godly deacons to assist them.

But even more importantly, what they’re preaching from the pulpit is training us sheep to go out and evangelize.

Pope Francis said, “Every baptized Catholic is an evangelist.”

Pope Leo recently said, “Every baptized Catholic is an evangelist.”

So, this is why the church is growing.

The Future Is Bright for the Catholic Church

I’m talking about American priests, but in Africa, they’re just as conservative, just as orthodox, and they’re on fire.

Why?

It blew up after Vatican II because they were able to understand.

They didn’t know Latin. They were able to understand and the emphasis was on evangelization.

Pope St. John Paul II said this is the new evangelization.

We’re going to evangelize baptized Catholics that have walked away that don’t understand the faith. Build them up strong.

And this is what’s happening.

Then Pope Francis put more third world countries like Africa and Asia, where these guys are on fire. He appointed more of them to be cardinals than any pope ever.

So this is the future.

These on-fire cardinals from Africa and Asia.

We’re stacked.

The future is bright for the Catholic Church.

But there will always be persecution.

The radical Muslims are killing Christians by the tens of thousands in Nigeria. They’re literally burning down Christian churches every day, mostly Catholic.

So, in America, we got the life of ease.

We need to pray for African brothers and send them help, whatever we can do.

But they’re growing under the persecution just like the first Christians and the first Catholics in the first 300 years grew under the persecution when it was illegal.

Today’s Priests Are Not Soft

Good things are happening.

Like I said, I got Father John Brown committed to coming on. Father Steven is another on-fire priest that has been arrested.

He’s been thrown in jail and rough-tossed and pushed for standing up for the unborn.

He’s the real deal.

And he doesn’t do it for profit. He makes very little money. I don’t even know how he survived on his budget, but he does it to save the unborn.

Somebody recently said, “You should interview him. You have a lot in common.”

I said, “I am.”

If he wasn’t a father, I’d say he’s a brother from another mother.

We get along so well. I’ve met him on the phone. I’ve talked to him and he’s another today’s priest. Vatican II priest.

He’s rough.

He’s tough.

He’s not soft.

Our priests are not soft.

And this is what’s attracting young men to the church and to the priesthood.

We’re getting solid men.

We’re not getting soft men entering into seminary.

Even Pope Francis told the bishops and he got criticized by secular media. He’s like, if you see a hint of femininity in a man, you can’t let him in the seminary.

He was a bouncer.

He wants tough guys.

Final Word

Anyway, I just wanted to share that.

I got to get ready for work.

Do me a favor. If you’re buying or selling real estate, please go to realestateforlife.org.

The only pro-life real estate company you’re going to find, Christian, Catholic Christian pro-life company.

Why would you do business with any other company when realestateforlife.org is in every state and in many countries?

At least, I mean, come on.

At least Google them and see what they can do for you.

God bless and stay Catholic.