Want To See The Pope? That Will Cost You A Small Fortune

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1:02Tap the banner to learn more. Now with the Home Depot, receive 12 months special financing and free basic installation on carpet projects with life proof, life proof with pet proof technology, home decorators collection, and traffic master carpets. Bring a new look to your floors, or give them a durable surface that stands up to life's tough messes. Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Cover valid March 12th, March 29th, 2026, exclusions and additional charges may apply for licenses. See Home Depot.com slash license numbers. Well, there are a lot of people who want to have time with the Pope. And for most people, typical normal Catholics, they can get maybe a brief bit of the Pope's time, just a few minutes. If the Pope and his annulers, deem to decide to let you see him. Of course, also elites want to see him. So how do you manage this? Well, for several papuses now, that has come with a price tag, a pretty steep one.

2:06And it was just announced for under what that will cost for under Pope Leo. We're going to tie this directly to the SSPX situation right now. Both of our following stories come to us from InfoVatucana. This is kind of amazing, honestly, at least to what they suggest the SSPX do. And I think you'll see where he's going. When we go to the first article, which is not about the SSPX, but it's directly related. headlines from InfoVatucana. Meeting with Leo the Fourteenth now has an official price. 500,000 euros. Half a million dollars give or take depending on the exchange rate. Half a million dollars. Now, when they reported this, the article was first posted to ex groups like Rate Chaley and others pointed out that this was the practice also under Benedict and before him. Fine, and this isn't for normal Catholics. If you are a normal Catholic on pilgrimage and you for whatever reason want to see the Pope, you might get you have a tiny chance of maybe being able to see him.

3:07And as far as I know, they're not going to charge you for it. This is for the elites. Still, it's amazing how much we're talking here. This is the article. It's not very long. It starts here by referencing ABC. This is not the American ABC. This is this is a, I believe, Spanish or Italian network with the same acronym, but not the same company. So ABC, which is not usually known for criticizing the Vatican, today, she immensely publishes a story that if true, when there's no reason to doubt it, this has been verified as true already. Because the church itself seems to have decided to publicize it, starkly portrays the state of affairs. Private sponsors are being sought to finance the Pope's visit, with a minimum fee of half a million euros and an explicit reward in the form of a personal meeting with the Pontiff. This is not a hostile leak. It's not an anti-clarical campaign. It is by all accounts and offer launched casually among, almost proudly like someone presenting a cultural sponsorship program or a VIP box

4:10at a Champions League final. The church, which for centuries, preached the free gift of grace and the radical equality of souls before God, now appears to be organizing access to the successor of Peter with criteria more akin to a marketing department. The problem is not merely aesthetic, though, it certainly is. It is theological, ecclesial, profoundly scandalous. Because this is not a discrete donation or the silent support of benefactors, something that has always existed. We are witnessing is the institutionalization of a system in which closeness to the Pope, the visible symbol of the church's unity is in fact conditioned by financial means. Half a million euros is an entry threshold. The figure is not anecdotal. It is a filter. It defines who can access the church and who cannot. And it transforms what should be a sign of communion into a privileged reserve for an economic elite. Meanwhile, the ordinary faithful, those who feel parishes, sustained modest collections, and silently transmit the faith, watches the church consolidate itself in which some enter through the front door and others simply don't.

5:11The scene unfolding is predictable. We will see carefully framed photographs of the Pope smiling, shaking hands, and blessing with his presence of businessmen and millionaires of the worst kind. Many of them with no real connection to the life of the church, with more than enough power to write a check. And these images will circulate as proof of closeness as if they weren't, in reality, the staging of a growing distance. It will be said that financing events is necessary, that logistics cost money, that someone has to pay. All of that is true, but not everything is acceptable. Not everything can be done without consequences. Because when access to the Pope is publicly linked to a specific sum of money, what is a road is not only the image, the very credibility of the institution. For centuries, the church has been accused, often, unfairly, of selling what is unsealable. Today, there's no need to exaggerate. Just read ABC. I don't know if this is a practice that existed before the council or not. After the council, hierarchy of the church became much cozier

6:11with the posting light in the midst of secular world, which had before the two world wars. It was very hostile to the Catholic Church. I do think this is scandalous, or at least it could be scandalous. It's going to cost scandalous among people without question. Because that means that some people can get access to the Pope for some specific fundraising cause. Now, if it was conditioned to, here's a list of acceptable charities, and most of them were like corporal works of mercy, kinds of charities, you know, food box programs, and that kind of thing. Fine, it probably would be less scandalous, although still, a price tag to meeting the Holy Father is a bit much. But then in Favetta Kanna took and decided to use this story as a solution to the SSPX problem. Remember, Father David Pallariani has said he tried multiple times to get a meeting with Pope Leo. It could not get one. So we go back to Infavetta Kanna. Headline, a proposal for the SSPX. Those were wonderwise as FSSPX.

7:15That's because in Europe and abroad, the SSPX are known as the FSSPX. In the US and a few other places, they're not called that because the FSSP is said that took the letters FSSP for them almost as a slight against the SSPX. I don't know how true that is, but you do see that frequently brought up. But that is the proper name, the fraternal society of St. Pius X. But this is a proposal for them on how to get a meeting with Pope Leo. I think you can already see where this is going. Published of the same day. ABC reports it today with a frankness that borders on the pedicagogical. Half a million euros and guaranteed access to the Pope. No walkward into mediaries, no endless weights, no letters lost in some office, the curia, transfer, confirmation and with a bit of luck, a smile and a photograph. From this point forward, it's important to start setting priorities, because while this premium channel for meeting with the Pope is being effectively established, there are those who have been knocking on the door for years that receiving a response.

8:18The priestly society of St. Pius X, for example, has long insisted on the need for a meeting to address issues that, according to their understanding, directly affect the salvation of souls, episcopal consecrations, canonical status and definitive regularizations. Perhaps someone should suggest to them with the charity that characterizes these times that they review their strategy, fewer letters, fewer fundamental requests, fewer appeals to tradition, and more financial engineering. Because now we know, thanks we insist to ABC, which is by no means suspected of animosity, that there is a clear objective and verifiable threshold for accessing the successor of Peter, half a million euros. It's not a symbolic figure, it's a key to access, a criterion for discernment, if you will. What can imagine the scene? The superiors of the fraternity, after years of waiting, finally decide to raise the funds. Perhaps an internal campaign, perhaps some providential benefactor. The amount is reached, the protocol is activated, and then at long last, the long awaited audience.

9:21Some inside, with their allotted time, they could raise that minor issue they've been dragging along for decades. The regularity of their consecrations, full communion, the canonical structure. Secondary matters, of course, compared to what is truly urgent, which is having overcome the financial barrier to entry. Everything would fit together. The synodal church, open and dialogical, would thus find an effective method for prioritizing interlocutors, not according to the seriousness of the issues, nor the pastoral urgency or doctrinal truth, according to the capacity to finance the event at hand. It will be called a caricature. It is, but like all caricatures, it exaggerates real features, and the most visible one today has a price tag, half a million euros. That is scathing. But why not? So if somebody close to the society is hearing this, if you want to just find out what the reaction would be to the

10:21to the men tasked by God with running the SSPX, suggest it to them, send them those articles, had loved to know what they said in response. Famously, the SSPX don't exactly have a lot of money, but they do have benefactors. The construction of the immaculata in Kansas was financed by their benefactors. Maybe half a million euros can be raised to get a chance to meet with the Pope. I'm very curious what you think about this. Let me know in the comments. Do you find that situation the story outlandish? Do you think that this half a million euro thing is not that big of a deal they have to have some kind of mechanism for controlling who among the elites can have access to the Pope, although half a million euros or anybody who's truly in the upper echelons of society is probably not that big of a deal. But still they have to have some mechanism. Or do you think this is scandalous or could be under could be the source of a grave scandal? And do you think the SSPX

11:25should use this? When do you think if they did that would cause graves to candle even among the SSPX or among the lady large? What do you think? Let me know in the comments please. I'm very curious what you think. So let me know in the comments. Hit like and subscribe if you have not. It certainly does help as a sharing this in social media that helps too. And if you've ever thought about supporting the work we do here at Return to Tradition, subscribe, scar, patreon, all that stuff, there's options in the description box below. Jackson Hewitt has a great tax prep deal, $149 or less. Missing out is like ignoring the check engine light in your car. You regret it. Seriously, the price is only $149 or less no matter how complicated. So don't wait. Like when you go to password expires today alerts or you're shopping online and there's only one item left. It's like your taxes are in the cart just complete the purchase. Hurry, this deal for $149 or less is like your phone at 1%. It's about to power down. Limited time offer for new clients on federal returns participating locations only turns the Jackson Hewitt dot com slash $149. Oh, your support does help keep these messages coming and is greatly appreciated. Please pray for the church. And tomorrow, by the way, is

12:29we're coming up soon on the end of light. So please be prayerful. I'm Anthony Stein.