On Good Friday, the day on which the Holy Catholic Church was born from the pierced side of our Blessed Savior, Tucker Carlson published a lengthy (one hour and forty-five minute) interview of Fr. Chad Ripperger.
For those unfamiliar (and there aren’t many), Fr. Ripperger is an exorcist, but not just any exorcist. He also happens to be a celebrity exorcist, probably the most well-known exorcist by name in the English-speaking world since the death of Fr. Gabriel Amorth.
I watched the interview and found parts of it interesting and informative. Other parts, however, were extremely disappointing even if predictable.
One of the most unfortunate things that I learned during this interview is that Fr. Ripperger is, shall we say, ecumenically sensitive, so much so that he very casually committed a grave sin of omission that we will discuss momentarily.
Tucker Carlson, in my opinion, appears to have a growing sense of awareness concerning certain spiritual realities, in particular, the presence and operation of evil in our world. He strikes me as a sincere man who is open to having his own errors (like, for example, his heretical beliefs) challenged. In other words, he seems genuine in wanting to know the truth.
His detractors will disagree, of course, but beyond any debate is the impressive reach of his platform. Carlson has, in addition to paid subscribers to his online network (TCN), more than five million followers on YouTube. This means that an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show represents a tremendous opportunity to deliver a message to a huge audience.
Fr. Ripperger was afforded that opportunity and he blew it.
Throughout the interview, despite knowing full well that his interlocutor (and a very large portion of the viewing audience) is the member of a heretical sect, Fr. Ripperger consistently and repeatedly invoked the name “Christian” in a generic sense, and in such a way as to give the ignorant the impression that “Catholic” is just one flavor among many.
Worse, he gave the impression that generic “Christians” (i.e., those outside the Catholic Church) are numbered among the elect.
For example, in speaking about the role of St. Michael, he said:
… St. Michael, his originally assigned task is, according to the theological tradition, is that he’s actually the guardian angel of the elect. That’s why he was originally the guardian angel of Jewish religion, but then once they apostatized, and because they refused accept Christ. He then became the guardian angel of the elect of the Christian religion.
Let’s give Fr. Ripperger credit for speaking some plain truths about today’s self-identified Jews, but let’s also be clear about his failure to speak plainly about Catholicism: St. Michael most certainly is not the guardian of any heretical sect. He is the guardian of just one religion, the true religion, the Holy Catholic religion.
Consider this vile notion as it relates to current events: Just imagine the harm that is done by giving one the impression that St. Michael the Archangel is the guardian of Paula White’s diabolical Zionist religion, the same that is actively encouraging nations to carry out genocide!
Furthermore, one wonders to exactly whom he was referring as “the elect of the Christian religion”?
Later in the interview, Fr. Ripperger spoke about the demons, saying:
… the point being is that they [demons] basically are, they go through phases where their goal is ultimately to destroy the Christian religion, that’s their goal ultimately, because they know deep down that is the religion that Christ established, period.
No, Christ did not establish a generic “Christian religion,” he established the Catholic Church, period.
Again, consider the audience, namely, countless persons who, like Tucker Carlson, sincerely believe that they are members of, and practitioners of, the Christian religion, despite the fact that they reject the priesthood, the papacy, the teaching authority of the Church, the Most Holy Eucharist, the unique role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc.
Worse, perhaps, is that Fr. Ripperger spoke as if Satan and his minions are out to destroy the heretical communities when in reality he delights in those operations insofar as they keep souls away from the sacraments and lead them to perdition.
Pope St. Leo the Great, for example, teaches the following:
There is no doubt that our enemy, Satan, who is so eager and so skilled in harming us, is aroused with keener stings of hatred, that under a false profession of the Christian name he may corrupt those whom he is not allowed to attack with open and bloody persecutions, and for this work he has heretics in his service whom he has led astray from the Catholic Faith, subjected to himself, and forced under various errors to serve in his camp. (cf Sermon 16)
Fr. Ripperger went on to discuss corporate media, which, under the influence of the demonic, often serves as a mouthpiece for evil:
But generally, it’s Christianity that’s under attack. You can be any other religion you want, you can believe anything, do anything you want. But don’t, whatever you do, don’t be Christian.
Once again, Fr. Ripperger speaks of a generic brand of “Christianity,” one that takes no account of the many false professions of the Christian name of which St. Leo the Great warned.
For many readers, at this point, the Council surely comes to mind given its deliberate blurring of the lines between the heretics and the members of the Catholic Church. In other words, Fr. Ripperger’s Vatican II bonafides were rather plainly on display.
This was evidenced in a different way when he was asked why the demonic had come to be so de-emphasized in Christian culture, to the point where it nearly disappeared in the last century. Fr. Ripperger responded, saying:
I think there’s a historical reason behind that … So when psychology came on board, it became in vogue, especially in the 50s and in the 60s, to just think that all these people’s problems were just purely psychological. I mean, there are psychological issues. It very much looked like that. But the fact is that, so they just started chalking it up, and that’s one of the reasons why in the United States, before the 1960s, the number of dioceses, that is the Catholic diocese that had an exorcist, was fairly high.
Now, I didn’t go hunting for statistics to back this up, but it seems rather clear to me that, despite whatever influence was brought to bear by pop psychology, it was Vatican Council II that led to the drastic decrease in Catholic dioceses with exorcists. Fr. Ripperger vaguely alludes to that timeframe, but one notices that he is careful not to indict the Council for the fact that belief in the existence of Satan plummeted in the years following.
Nearing the end of the interview, Carlson asked an important question: “How does a person get possessed by a demon?”
Fr. Ripperger replied:
There’s three ways. So, the first is you commit some grave sin, like abortion, murder, engaging in the occult arts is one of the principal ways that we see people becoming possessed, selling your soul to the devil, stuff like that. So you do something really bad and then that opens the door.
Fair enough, but then he states:
In the Catholic sphere, we call it a mortal sin, something that’s really grave that you commit, and those sins can open you up to diabolic influence.
The Catholic sphere?
Why is it so difficult for these weak men to simply speak the truth as if it is exactly that, the truth, and not just a turn of phrase used in the “Catholic” segment of the broader “Christian” religion?
He just as easily could have said, I am referring to what is known as mortal sin, ‘mortal’ because it severs one’s relationship with God and, left unabsolved, leads to eternal death.
This brings me to Fr. Ripperger’s most egregious failure.
Carlson asked about how best to avoid falling victim to a demonic curse, or opening oneself up to demonic influence, to which Fr. Ripperger said:
The main thing they have to do is make sure that they’re leading an authentic Christian life and not doing anything sinful that would open the door for the demons, so they become subject to the curse.
He later added:
Well, the main thing to do is stop sinning, especially the more serious stuff…
What exactly is an authentic Christian life if not a Catholic life, lived in a state of grace?
Fr. Ripperger then spoke at length about the necessity of a disciplined prayer life. No doubt this tickled many Protestant ears. After all, they can (and many do) pray with frequency.
Left completely unmentioned, however – and this in relation to avoiding the demonic – was the protection derived from the grace of the Sacraments, most notably Confession and Holy Communion.
In its treatment on the Most Holy Eucharist, the Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches:
There is such a power in the sacred mysteries as to preserve us pure and unsullied from sin, keep us safe from the assaults of temptation, and, as by some heavenly medicine, prepare the soul against the easy approach and infection of virulent and deadly disease.
The fact that Fr. Ripperger is part of the conciliar enterprise is no excuse for his dereliction of duty to speak the truth. In 1985, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a Letter to Ordinaries regarding norms on Exorcism, which included the following:
Pastors may take this opportunity to recall what the Tradition of the Church teaches concerning the role proper to the sacraments and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Angels and Saints in the Christian’s spiritual battle against evil spirits.
I’m more than willing to assume that Fr. Ripperger believes what the Tradition of the Church teaches in this matter. So, why, one wonders, couldn’t he bring himself to mention these things?
Lastly, I wish to point out that Fr. Ripperger, a few weeks before appearing on Tucker Carlson’s network, was interviewed by another very popular figure, Shawn Ryan, who has even more YouTube subscribers.
That interview is over four hours long. I did not take the time to watch it in full, but having given the transcript a cursory review I did take note of a few things worth mentioning.
For one, Fr. Ripperger does mention sacramental confession as an effective means of freeing persons from diabolical influence. Unfortunately, however, he prefaced his comments with, “in the Catholic sphere,” once again wasting a magnificent opportunity to kindly, and in charity, educate the audience on the vital importance of the sacraments of the one true Church and how indispensable they are in protecting us from evil.
One of the most peculiar parts of that interview occurred when Fr. Ripperger said that we need to “pray and become holy ourselves so that we merit having leaders that we’re worthy of.”
Shawn Ryan then asked: “You want to pray for that right now?” To which Fr. Ripperger replied, appearing visibly nervous:
Uh yeah. The primary prayer that I, um, would probably pray for that is the, is the Hail Mary because Our Lady, because she’s the one that’s going to, I think, convert them in the end.
You can watch for yourself below. The video is cued up to that exact exchange.
I may be accused of picking on Fr. Ripperger, but I point this out only to show how incredibly uncomfortable conciliar churchmen are with the actual Catholic faith, almost as if they are embarrassed by it, even the parts that they themselves hold to be true.
Regardless of whatever excuse Fr. Ripperger’s “fans” (for lack of a better word) may provide, his performance in these interviews was, as I said at the outset, extremely disappointing even if predictable.
