Last week, white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel before Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was announced as Pope Francis’ successor.
Millions around the world are now waiting to see if Pope Leo XIV will continue the legacy of his progressive predecessor or refocus the Catholic Church on tradition and orthodoxy.
LifeSiteNews CEO and co-founder John-Henry Westen tells Glenn Beck that one specific thing will tell us which direction this papacy is going: whether or not Pope Leo XIV reinstates Bishop Joseph Strickland.
“In the Catholic world, Bishop Strickland was the holiest bishop in the whole church in America. Everybody knew it,” says Westen.
“He got removed, though, because he went up against the machine. Francis was going anti-Catholic in his teaching on all sorts of issues, including fooling around with abortion, contraception, homosexuality, divorce … and Strickland was one of the only ones who spoke up,” he explains, adding that his removal was a devastating event, considering “700 families” as well as “all sorts of priests and religious orders” moved to Tyler, Texas, just for him.
Unlike many dioceses, Strickland’s “had the best numbers in terms of per capita seminarians”; its “financial situation was in great shape”; and it “[didn’t’] have any sexual abuse scandal,” says Westen.
He, along with a great many others, suspects that Strickland’s removal, which was supported by then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, was almost certainly political retribution for speaking out against Pope Francis.
The biggest indicator of the direction of Pope Leo XIV’s papacy, therefore, is whether he restores Bishop Strickland to his position in the Diocese of Tyler.
“All America — in fact all the world — should be looking for is the restoration of Bishop Strickland,” says Westen. It’s “the true signal, the one sign that will indicate where Pope Leo XIV is coming from.”
“If that man is not reinstated, there's something really wrong,” he tells Glenn.
“Are there any good signs that maybe he's going to be different?” Glenn asks, noting that Pope Leo XIV “has been railing against Donald Trump.”
“He’s a registered Republican in Chicago … but at the same time, he’s anti-Trump,” says Westen. Similar to Francis, “he's real bad on immigration.”
Further, during the pandemic when Prevost was a bishop in Peru, he allegedly imposed restrictions such as requiring communion to be received in the hand rather than on the tongue and promoted confessions by telephone.
However, “there are some signs of hope,” says Westen.
For example, when Pope Leo XIV first emerged on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, he was wearing “traditional vestments,” unlike Francis, who wore “liturgical underwear.”
He also spoke in Latin — a tradition that has largely given way to the modern practice of speaking in vernacular languages.
Does this signify his intent to return to Catholic tradition?
“We’ll see,” says Westen.
However, there was one thing Pope Leo XIV did that gave him more hope than anything else. To hear it, watch the clip above.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Yesterday, smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel, signaling the election of a new pope. An hour later, the Vatican announced Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, as the next head of the Roman Catholic Church.
At the time these events were unfolding, Glenn Beck was interviewing Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed from office by Pope Francis after he came out publicly against him for diverting from the Catholic faith.
Before the election of Cardinal Prevost, Bishop Strickland had warned that “there are wolves roaming freely in the conclave.”
Is Leo XIV one of them?
In the following interview, Bishop Strickland and Glenn react to the live announcement of Robert Prevost’s election. Bishop Strickland then shares what he knows about him.
“He was head of the congregation for bishops,” says Strickland. “He’s a relatively new cardinal.”
“Two years ago, Pope Francis chose him to replace Marc Ouellet as prefect of the Vatican's bishops, handing him the task of selecting the next generation of bishops,” adds Glenn, reading from Prevost’s biography.
“What do you know — good guy, bad guy? Any clue?” he asks, noting that Prevost’s past is “clouded by allegations of covering up sexual abuse claims,” although these “were denied by his diocese.”
“As head of the congregation for bishops, frankly, in my opinion he made some really bad choices,” says Strickland. “Of course, it was Pope Francis, but [Prevost] was involved in naming bishops that I find very troubling.”
Strickland also notes that Prevost’s chosen name — Leo XIV — is an interesting choice.
“The predecessor, Leo XIII — he had visions of evil taking the church, and the St. Michael prayer, the archangel prayer, came from Leo XIII. ... He was good, and he was strong in a lot of ways,” he says, calling Prevost’s choice of name “significant.”
The best thing we can do, he says, is “keep praying.”
To hear more of his thoughts on Pope Leo XIV, watch the episode above.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
The conclave in the Vatican has elected a new pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, who has taken the name Pope Leo XIV.
And while many are thrilled that the Conclave elected an American pope, others are concerned that his political ideology might lean too far to the left, as Prevost hasn’t been shy about blasting Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric.
He made this clear when he shared an American Magazine article on X titled, “Pope Francis’ letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration.”
The article centers around a letter Pope Francis wrote to the bishops of the United States regarding immigration and mass deportation, which was in response to the Trump administration’s focus on the immigration crisis.
The letter from Pope Francis also criticizes JD Vance’s interpretation of “ordo amoris,” which is a theological concept the vice president used in explaining his view on immigration.
“It seems like they could have picked a super conservative, and they went, ‘We’ll pick one that wants to be political again,’” Sara Gonzales of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” comments.
“They could have picked a complete looney liberal. I mean, I’m not surprised that he’s different than a conservative on immigration,” BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden counters, though he believes that “a lot of that has to do with wanting to fill the pews in Catholic churches in the United States.”
“The majority of the people, if you go to Catholic churches here, are Hispanic. So part of it is that,” Marsden continues, adding, “It’s nice that it’s an American pope though. I’m going to take that win.”
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