WATCH: John-Henry Westen’s speech at the Bringing America Back to Life Convention

(LifeSiteNews) — My friends, we are living in an age of crisis – a crisis of truth, leadership, and courage.

Until the last seven weeks in America, the land of the free, your nation was being torn apart by a government that abandoned its own people, trampled its own laws, and weaponized power against those who upheld its founding principles.

The Catholic Church, the rock of Christ, in an eerily similar way, is being shaken from within by leaders who betray its mission, silence the true faithful, and open its doors to confusion and error.

But this is not about blaming just the leaders. As your own Thomas Jefferson famously said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”

Additionally, in an 1816 letter to Samuel Kercheval, Jefferson warned about the dangers of government corruption and the responsibility of the people:

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

This reflects his belief that an engaged, educated populace is necessary for good governance and that neglecting civic duties leads to poor leadership.

And in the Church it is exactly the same.

In the Old Testament already we got the teaching that God permits unjust rulers as a chastisement for the people’s sins, as seen with Saul and Nebuchadnezzar.

St. Augustine wrote in City of God that: “If the people are corrupt and depraved, they will necessarily demand wicked rulers, who are like themselves.”

St. Thomas Aquinas said it only slightly differently: “If the people become corrupt, they will tolerate a corrupt ruler.”

But to me the most powerful truth on this comes from St. John Eudes, a priest who lived in the beginning of the 17th century in France:

“The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world is manifest when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.”

And we also have the solution – but before we get there, let’s look at this comparison of what you experienced under President Biden and what the Church has experienced under Pope Francis…

For much more, please watch or listen to the full speech.

The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show’s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog.

It is also available in audio format on platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and Acast. We are awaiting approval for iTunes and Google Play as well. To subscribe to the audio version on various channels, visit the Acast webpage here.

We’ve created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week when we post a new episode. Please sign up now by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel, and you’ll be notified by YouTube when there is new content.

You can send me feedback, or ideas for show topics by emailing [email protected].