The Curious Case of Fr. Carlos Martins – #46

Curious Case of Fr. Martins (and Catholic Media Integrity)

CA: [00:00:00] And cue that microphone. Welcome everybody. Welcome to this special episode of the Catholic Experience. I am your host. I am your host, the Catholic Adventure, and I thank you very, very much for joining me this evening. It is Tuesday, November 26th in the year of our Lord, 2024. Thank you again for joining me.

Let’s fade that music to a little bit, a little bit lower, a little bit lower. Today we’re talking about the curious case of Father Carlos Martins. I hope I’m pronouncing his name right. Father Carlos Martins was recently, um, or is under investigation. Hmm, I wonder why. It’s not what you think. Also, this show isn’t really what you think.

This episode isn’t really what you think. I want to talk a little bit about integrity in Catholic media. I’m gonna talk a little bit about integrity. [00:01:00] Now, now that we’ve gone, now that we’ve gone rogue, let me turn the music off. I’m talking about integrity in Catholic media, because there is none. Well, there is in some.

There is some integrity in Catholic media, but it’s sorely lacking

Integrity in independent Catholic media specifically is a problem. So we’re going to talk about the Father Martin’s story, what’s going on, what has happened, and where it’s going.

Okay, let me just turn off my monitor. Wow, I’ve got seven people viewing this already? Do I have like seven windows of my live stream player open? Is that why it says I have seven viewers? I can’t believe it. ~Damn, I guess I better keep that open in case people need, in case people want to chat, I better, uh, keep that out there.~

~Hi everybody, thanks for watching.~ I have a funny feeling I’ve got like seven live stream windows open, like one, you know, my website is somewhere in the background, and maybe Twitter is somewhere in the background, maybe that’s why, maybe I’m being, maybe I’m being counted as a viewer seven times? I’ve never had seven live viewers, that’s like unbelievable to me.

~Anyway, and I’m able to chat with them no matter which platform they’re on, so that’s kind of cool. Well, I guess except Twitter. Twitter doesn’t appear to be cooperating. Alright, let me get on with it. ~

The Breaking Story of Fr. Martins

CA: [00:02:00] So this story broke a couple of nights ago, ~and I was damn near ready to participate in it myself. ~ ~I don’t know why that camera still doesn’t look right to me.~

I was damn near ready to participate in it myself. I was this close to writing a blog post about it. And, what’s the story? Well, I’m gonna, I’m gonna tell you that in just a second. I was very close to writing a blog post about it. And I mean damn close. Just at the last minute, I thought, Something smells wrong here.

Something smells very wrong. So I’m gonna get this on the screen if I can.~ All right, I forgot to load the story, the original story, but it was basically this.~ It was published by ThePillar. com ~Maybe I can sneak on to Twitter here and dig it up. It was published by ThePillar. com ~And it basically reported that Father Martins, do you know Father Martins? I assume that you all do, maybe you don’t, maybe I should fill you in.

He is a priest and an exorcist. He’s pretty popular. You might’ve seen him on interviews all over the place. He’s been on Matt Fradd’s show. He’s been on a few other shows. He’s been on a Christian podcast, not even Catholic. Okay. So he’s pretty popular. He’s what you might call a celebrity priest or a celebrity exorcist [00:03:00] priest.

I was even considering featuring him on, uh, an episode of my podcast. And then this story broke out, which I’m going to read to you in a second.

And then we’re going to go through the progression of everything that happened. Okay? I think you can see this if I do that. This is by the pillar. This is the original story that broke. St. Jude Relic Tour suspended over police investigation. Understand too, folks, this might have gone through some editing since I first read it, since it broke.

Because Father Martin’s attorney, , issued a cease and desist letter, so they might have edited it. I didn’t memorize it, so I don’t remember which parts might be edited, but here it goes. St. Jude Relic tour suspended over police investigation. So Father Martins was taking the St. Jude Relic on a tour through the United States.

It arrived at a parish in Illinois, where something happened. We’re not entirely sure what happened, but something happened. Police were involved, an investigation ensued, and Father [00:04:00] Martins was asked to leave the parish and the diocese. So here’s the story. A St. Jude relic traversing the United States came to a stop this week while the priest organizing the tour faces an Illinois police investigation over alleged inappropriate conduct involving children.

For those of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, there’s this picture. Okay? My, my opinion is seem and I’m just gonna lay down my opinion. If folks don’t like what I have to say, that’s just too damn bad you ain’t paying my bills. I think he’s a good priest. He seems a good and holy priest. He seems sincere, genuine.

He doesn’t seem like a flake. He seems very, very busy, very engaged. He’s a late ordination, and late ordinations are usually extremely devout. Okay? So my opinion of this man is he’s a good fella. Do good fellas do wrong things? Sure, that happens. But, it, it happens more rarely, right? It’s, it’s a little more [00:05:00] seldom, so, yeah, good fellas do bad things, it happens, but my opinion is, he’s a good guy.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. Okay. The priest, Father Carlos Martins is well known for The Exorcist Files, a 2003, sorry, 2023 podcast featuring dramatic audio portrayals of allegedly demonic encounters, Martin, uh, demonic encounters Martins claims to have experienced in ministry as an exorcist.

According to a statement from Queen of the Apostles Parish in, I think it’s pronounced Illinois. Martin was accused Thursday of an unspecified incident involving students, which prompted Father Michael Lane, parish moderator, to contact the police.

False Story?

CA: So right away, you’re getting an idea of what he’s being investigated for.

Did he touch a child? Did he have, you know, , you [00:06:00] know, an inappropriate relationship with a child? Did he abuse a child? Did this just happen here, or are these, is this a line of allegations and it just now caught up with him at the time that he happened to be at this parish?

But that’s sort of the narrative you start to spin in your imagination, right? Mar, uh, Martins was confronted with the information, Lane wrote, and we informed the priest, him, or the priest. We informed the priest. That he must depart from our parish and our diocese. I want to point something out, my friends.

Do you see anything shady on the screen in front of you? Except for me. Do you see anything shady? The name Martins is not in quotes. What is in quotes? What came directly from this priest, Father Lane, “was confronted with information.” That’s what’s in quotes. And also in quotes, “we informed the priest…”, Uh, stop.

What priest? Wait a second. [00:07:00] We informed the priest. What priest are you talking about? Aren’t we talking about Father Martin’s? You smelling what I’m cooking here? We informed the priest that he must depart from our parish and our diocese. End quote. While Lane’s statement did not provide details about the allegation, It also did not provide details about who the allegation was against.

Let’s point that out. That’s me saying for those of you catching the audio only, that’s me saying that the article doesn’t say that here’s, let’s go back to the article again. Sorry for the confusion. While lanes statements did not provide details about the allegations, the parish priest aimed to assure parishioners that all involved in this incident are safe.

The police investigation is still ongoing.

‘I’m not buying it’

CA: I was all ready to write about this, and I’ll tell you [00:08:00] very plainly why. Because he’s a popular priest, and because I wanted to say, here’s what we know, and this is all that we know. So what we know is very little, almost nothing. So don’t rush to judgment, don’t rush to conclusions.

And in that little blog post that I wrote, I put the details that I could find, most of it was from Pillar, and then scoured some socials and some new sites. Again, very little information. Most of it was from pillar and then very little elsewhere. Some, but very little elsewhere. I was all set and ready to go that night, ready to click publish on that post, but something kept nagging at me.

And I kept feeling something doesn’t feel right. Something smells wrong. In fact, I went back to the post and I said that. I said, I don’t know, something smells odd about this to me, so don’t rush to conclusions. I went back to the post and wrote that. [00:09:00] And I’m thinking about it, and I’m thinking about it, and I was looking at this face, Father Martin’s face, and I, you know, and once you see a face, you see a person, you know.

And I was like, I can’t do this. I can’t do this because guilty or not, I’m not going to throw in whatever he’s guilty of or not guilty of. I’m not, I’m just not going to throw in and whether intending to or not, I’m not going to tear this man to pieces. I won’t be one of the people who tears this man to pieces.

Not because I think he’s a good priest, just because he’s another human being. He’s a priest and he has done good work. He does good work. I’m sorry. I am not going to descend on him with the rest of the feeding frenzy wolves in this business.

And then I turned it off and I went to bed. And in bed I thought about it and thought about it and I [00:10:00] said something just doesn’t seem right. Got out of bed, came back to the article, read it again, and some of the things that I shared with you, some of my thoughts that I shared with you as I was reading it.

Were things that went through my mind. These quotes don’t seem right. Nothing seems right. Go to the statement by the priest. And the letter that he issued. Nobody was named. Just nothing seemed right about this. And so I was at peace to leave it alone. And let’s see what truth comes out. Next day I went to Catholic News Agency.

Nothing there. And I said, Well, if, if, If he’s guilty, not guilty, but if these allegations are what the Pillar, whether the Pillar intended to do this or not, the Pillar did, inadvertently or on purpose, paint this story, not through its words, but through its omissions, through the [00:11:00] crafting of the rhetoric, as far as I’m concerned, And I just felt like The pillar painted this story that if that’s, if the story is true, if the painting is at all accurate to the facts and to the reality, we would have seen that on National Catholic Register.

We would have seen that on Catholic News Agency. We would have seen that in Secular News. Next day, there was nothing. ~And so, I was at peace, leaving it be. Now, fast forward.~

This was, I think Boy, I’m really losing my mind. I think this was, uh, the 25th, so what is that, yesterday?

The Plot Thickens, Story Evolves

CA: Here’s what we have yesterday.

Father Carlos Martins, through his attorney has sent a cease and desist letter to the pillar, alleging defamation. Now, I should give credit where it’s due. This comes from Christine Niles, who I do not like, do not respect, do not trust. We’ll get to her in just a second, but I will say this, she’s, she’s active.

She’s active. She tries to do her job. I just don’t believe she does it honestly. She may not even, she may not even realize she’s not [00:12:00] doing it honestly, but I will say this. She tries to do her job. She’s active. She’s in it to win it. She deserves credit for that. So I didn’t want to read this without first giving Christine Niles credit.

Breaking father Carlos Martins through his attorney has desist letter to the pillar alleging defamation. This misinformation is so obviously damaging to Father Martin’s personal and professional character and reputation by implying that Father Martin’s behavior mirrors other instances of clergy abuse.

And that’s exactly right. That’s exactly how I took it. I took it as an implication that his behavior mirrors or mimics priest abuse behavior that we have all come to know and loathe. Back to it.

By implying that Father Martin’s behavior mirrors other instances of clergy abuse, a deplorable [00:13:00] allusion, it is, and it is a deplorable allusion, that in no way reflects the facts. In addition to being defamatory, these statements may also constitute a violation of canon law, which protects a priest, a priest’s good name and reputation.

Boy, that’s, that’s actually kind of laughable because they, the diocese are breaking that code of canon law all the time. If there is the hint of a whiff of an echo of an allegation. Many, not all, many diocese will drag their priests through the coals in public. Not all, but many, many diocese will do that.

They will not protect their priests at all. Not all, but many. In fact, I will even say it’s probably the minority, but a minority of, of all the diocese in America, that’s still a lot of, a lot of places. All right. Anyway, back to the subject. [00:14:00] Okay. So, Father Martin’s attorney issues this cease and desist.

I do feel like the story on the pillar went through some round of modification because I do feel like it’s a little bit less, I don’t know. I just felt like there were things in there that I caught the first time that I didn’t catch the second time that I read it. So maybe there was some modifications.

Maybe the modification was minor. Maybe it was a modification to the subtitle. Maybe it was a modification to the headline, but I do feel like something changed, it was like the Matrix, you know? Every time, when you experience déjà vu, that means something changed, that means the Matrix changed something. I felt like the Matrix changed something there, but I could be wrong.

Beware of False ‘Proffits’

CA: Let me tell you a few things about the Pillar, and to be honest, I have very little to say. ~My impression, which is mostly I don’t know. ~My impression of the pillar is that it’s a normal, legitimate, independent Catholic news site. [00:15:00] However, my intuition is a little upset by the pillar and I cannot put my finger on why.

I feel like in the past, the pillar made waves with some story that it reported some way that I don’t remember. I feel like the pillar really disappointed me in the past, not that I was a, an active reader of the brand, but I, in my, I just feel like in my intuition somewhere in there is a memory that pillar let me down or pillar disappointed me or pillar got me upset about his reporting and I stopped trusting it instantly and I, I don’t know what it was.

I don’t recall. Anyway. But it’s not, um, uh, a church militant, it’s not, uh, LifeSite News, and no offense to those of you who liked Church Militant or who like LifeSite News, in my opinion, you can save your, you can rescue your Catholicity from the pit of despair by never [00:16:00] looking at LifeSite News again, because it is a radical rag.

Their reporting is so incredibly dishonest, it might as well just have the word fairy tale over its title. Their reporting is so dishonest, it’s incredible to me. One day they are going to get sued out of existence. I said that about, said that about Church Militant and it happened, and I’m saying that about LifeSite News, and it’s going to happen.

One day they’re going to be sued out of existence because they are so flagrantly dishonest and so careful about how they do it. I’m sorry, there’s evil behind that brand. So no offense to those of you who like those sites. Truly, no offense. I used to read LifeSite News all the time. Every day I was on LifeSite News.

Every single day. This is years ago. They, they might have been fairly new at the time. I, I don’t remember. But anyhow, but over time I was like, this stuff ain’t right. And I lost my love for them very quickly. Well, not very quickly, but gradually. [00:17:00] So my point is, I can relate. If you’re someone who likes life side news, I can relate because I used to really, I used to really enjoy them until I started seeing through the haze of, of their magic spells, the spell that they cast over people’s minds.

And I have a mind for rhetoric. I have a mind for the truth. And I’ve said this a hundred times. I am an extremely stupid person. And I say that flippantly, but I mean it. But I have one or two superpowers. Only one or two. I have about a thousand passions, and I have no gift or skill for any of them. Any of those thousand passions.

But one of my one or two superpowers that I have is I can spot the truth and I can see it when it’s hidden and that means I can tell a lie even when it’s well disguised as the truth. And I have a knack for rhetoric. I can see what people do and why they’re doing it and how they phrase things and Believe it or reject it, it’s up to you.

But I am telling you that is my superpower [00:18:00] and I know bullshit when I see it. I don’t care. I don’t care how much whipped cream and cherries you put on that you’re not gonna slap bullshit in a ball, hand it to me, and tell me it’s ice cream. You’ll fool every living human being on the planet before you ever fool me.

And it’s not because I’m a genius. I only have one or two superpowers out of the thousands of things that I wish I could be good at, that I have a passion for. So this is not me being proud, this is me being humble. But it’s me being confident. I’m awful at 998 things, absolutely awful, absolutely incompetent.

You But there’s one or two things that I’m very, very good at and that’s one of them. So believe it or don’t believe it, that’s up to you. Anyway, my opinion of the, of the pillar is shaky going into this. Going into this, it was already shaky. After this, I am telling you, you best stay away from the pillar.

Stay away from the pillar. It’s not life site news. Let me be clear. It is not life site news. It’s definitely much more legitimate than a life site news or a church [00:19:00] militant or whatever. It’s definitely much more legitimate than that. But I’m going to point out a couple of other things that bugged me about the pillar.

Here we go back to it. I really have to make this quick. This is already going longer than I expected there’s a next phase to this.

Because there’s a next phase and there is an order in which it should be presented. Oh, I remember where it is.

Newsletter Plug

CA: Hey, while I’m looking for this, did you guys know I do a newsletter? It’s called Notes from the Field, and I really want you to subscribe to it. It’s free. I just sent out the next one today, and I just launched a, um, a newsletter subscriber exclusive podcast series called The Scripture Sessions, where I read a couple of verses of Scripture.

I share my. Analysis, and I share my reflection on it. Sign up for notes from the field. It is free. Go to the link in my bio. You’re going to see a panel there to sign up. You’re going to see a panel or a [00:20:00] link there to take you to my website to sign up, or go to my website, catholicadventurer. com. What a moron.

Go to catholicadventurer. com and you’ll be greeted with a pop up window there. All I need is your, your, all I need is your email address. It’s going to ask you for your first name so that I, you know, it’s nice to know a first name. Um, it’s not like I’m going to memorize you guys, but it’s nice to know a first name.

All you really need to put in there is your email address when you’re done. It’s free, there’s a lot of great stuff in the newsletter. If you don’t sign up, you’re missing out. Alright. Let me see now.

Here it is son of a gun. Yeah

sorry about it

The Pillar Reacts

CA: Following I Assume this is what it seems to me. Oh, yeah, loy. Okay So this was the next action that I found that I found You By the Pillar. It was a post on Twitter. Or on X. It says, Lawyers for a priest accused of an, quote, incident, end quote. So, so far, they’re putting incident in quotes because it was [00:21:00] called an incident.

Originally, by the priest of the parish, it was referred to as an incident. Okay, so that’s the first thing to point out. Second thing, it doesn’t name Father Martins. Now it just says, Lawyers for a priest accused of an incident. That’s it. An incident which halted a, let me, so let me start from the beginning.

Lawyers from, for a priest accused of an, quote, incident, end quote, which halted a nationwide relic tour say that Father Carlos Martins touched a student’s hair last week to build, quote, rapport. And police are investigating the matter only at the insistence of an, quote, outraged father. My response was this.

There’s still some this was my response to them on X. There’s still something accusatory and even a little sinister about how you’re wording this. Facts don’t always tell the [00:22:00] truth. If you can’t fit the truth in a post, which sometimes you can’t, sometimes you can’t fit the facts that are necessary and, and the explanation that is necessary and pertinent, sometimes you can’t fit that in a, in a, in a post.

So I go on to say, if you can’t fit the truth in a post, which happens, then compose a post that get the people to read the full story on your website. Compose it in a way that ideally, I know you can’t guarantee it, but ideally gets them to read it on your website. So Listen, could I be reading into it too much?

Yes, I absolutely could be. I could be reading into it too much. But I’m going with my gut, and my gut tells me that was worded in a way that was deliberately accusatory. Or, it says just enough to lead the people to accuse, or to, or to indict, or to judge. The [00:23:00] priest who may or may not be Father Carlos Martins.

I’m sorry, if I get what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to, maybe not correct, but maybe refine what they had originally stated. Okay, that is not the way you do that. And if an idiot like me knows that, I’m sure the professional journalists at The Pillar know that. That is not the way you do that, absolutely not.

Too vague. It includes just enough to paint a picture, but not enough to paint a picture that is accurate to the facts. It does state facts, but it doesn’t tell the truth. Because it puts things in there that lead people to a different conclusion. Now, what is it talking about? And I’m going to get to this really fast.

Or go through this really fast. If I can find it now. I keep losing all of my things. [00:24:00] I’m not going to read it, let me just explain it to you, and then I’m going to explain this to you, what actually happened, as best as I can remember from the stories that I’ve been reading about it. And then I’m going to show you a couple of weird pictures, that I’m not sure what to make of.

The Real Story

CA: Okay, here it goes. Father Martins was in a school setting, I don’t remember if, I don’t know if it was a classroom, or an auditorium, or the lunchroom, I don’t know. But he was in a school setting. It was a class or several classes all together. There were adults, there were priests and faculty slash teachers.

He was not in a room with this child alone. He was, Oh, I remember where this came from. The lawyer, it’s from this story on Lifesite News, which I’m just going to go over briefly. Update. Father Carlos Martin’s attorney provides fuller context of the church incident. Folks, I’m just going to explain this and I will link this.

To this episode’s on demand page. [00:25:00] If you’re seeing this on socials, you’re out of luck, because Facebook, I hate you. I’m not giving you any more of my content. Not the Facebook people, the Facebook platform. So you’re not gonna have this on demand on Facebook. So, the first place to check for the on demand version is going to be my, the link in my bio.

The second place, probably almost as good, is my website, CatholicAdventurer. com. I will place a link to this article. In this episode’s on demand page, okay? So I’m going to link this article, but I’m going to explain it to you right now from memory. So he was in a room, a large room, with all these people, a bunch of people.

He was just, you know, trying to open up the floor, not open the floor, but open up the discussion with, you know, some like attention getting, some conversation, some hooks. He’s talking with the, with the kids, and these were teenagers, I think they were high school students, I think, young high school students, or maybe 8th grade, I, I don’t [00:26:00] remember.

, they weren’t 5 year old kids, they were older kids, much older kids than that. And he’s gabbing with them, he’s talking with them, he, he’s talking to one girl in front of the crowd, in front of the group, he’s talking to one girl. And he comments on how long her hair is. And he said, yeah, I have the same hairstyle.

I have the same hairstyle as you because he’s bald. So he’s making a joke. He said there, there was a time when my hair was just as long as yours. I mean, it was so long. I could floss my teeth with it. Joking. According to the article or the attorney or both, um, everybody in the room, you know, laugh. They thought that was funny. He, then after he said, you know, I could floss my teeth with it. Okay. He asked the girl, do you ever floss your teeth with your hair? She said, no. He says, well, you have the length for it. Look how long your hair is. And he picked up a lock of her hair and showed how long it was. Is that a little weird? I don’t know.

I don’t, I don’t know. It’s one of those things that could be [00:27:00] weird culturally in some cultures and in other cultures. It’s like, that’s not weird. Really. I really don’t know what to make of that. If my daughter came home and said a priest did that, I, I’m gonna tell you very honestly, I would, I would say it’s a little weird, but it’s not that kind of weird, like he did what I, I, I, you know, I guess the situation will dictate, but I’m telling you very truthfully right now, if my daughter came home and told me that whole story and said the priest picked up her hair and said, look how long her hair is, and, and she does have long hair.

I, I really don’t think I would find reason to flip out. Is it weird? Eh? Is it that kind of weird? No. You know, the kind of weird where it’s like, Oh my God, he did that? That’s so inappropriate. I don’t think so. But the situation will dictate. Different cultures, you know, understand things differently, have different norms.

Where I’m from, when you greet a friend, you always kiss them on the cheek. Even if it’s [00:28:00] another guy. A hundred percent. You always kiss them on the cheek. If it’s a really close friend. When you greet each other. That’s just normal. Once you leave where I’m from, you never, never do some mess like that.

Because it’s weird. It’s weird everywhere else. Where I’m from, it is not. That is normal. Or, Europeans love to kiss on each cheek. To me, that’s weird. You do a special greeting hello or a special goodbye to a close friend, You kiss on one cheek. You don’t do both cheeks. That’s over the line. To the Euros, doing just one cheek is rude.

So, so I’m not telling you what to think. If you think holding up the girl, a lot of the girl’s hair and saying, your hair is long enough [00:29:00] for it, you could floss with it if you wanted to. If you think that’s weird, okay, God bless you. I don’t. I think it’s awkward, but not weird. I don’t know. It’s hard to say.

It’s one of those things. It’s just hard to say. Okay. Anyway, so that’s what happened. I think the girl was upset by it because she went home and told her father this, or she told her parents or her or her mother and her mother told her father, I don’t know, but they got it. The parents got it from somewhere.

I suspect this upset her and that’s why she spoke about it. Otherwise, why would she even bring it up? Right? And if she felt uncomfortable, fine. I’m not telling anyone how they should feel. I wasn’t there, and it wasn’t my hair that was, you know, held up. So the girl said something to her parents or to her father directly.

We don’t know what. Father freaked out, called the cops. Cops investigated, found no cause to arrest or press charges. And so that was that for the cops. [00:30:00] The father didn’t like that outcome, so he called, uh, or so he got ahold of the police again, made a big stink over it. The police went back to continue investigating.

I don’t know what more you can continue to investigate. I mean, the facts are pretty much there, but okay. Uh, I’m not in the situation. I’m on the outside looking in. Okay. I don’t have the perspective

now,

as far as I know. And my knowledge of this is, is fairly up to date within the past few hours. No one has pressed charges against father Martins. No one has even contacted, the law enforcement has not even contacted him at this point, up to this point. They may have by now, I don’t know. But up to a few hours ago, several hours ago, they had not.

Again, I don’t know where this investigation is going. When you don’t even feel like you need to speak to the alleged accused. Right? Uh, when there are no charges pressed. Not even for battery, nothing. I am not [00:31:00] saying a crime has not been committed. I’m not saying a crime has been committed. Some crimes are weird that way.

We’re holding up a child’s hair might be considered battery. Um, throwing a paper clip at somebody even playfully could be considered assault. Even if you miss them, it’s one of those things. So I am not saying a crime has or has not been committed. I’m just telling you the facts as I understand them. I will link this, so everything that I just explained came from this story on Catholic News Agency, which I will send a link to.

‘Graphic’ Content

CA: Just a couple more things, and these are not stories, these are graphics that I wanted to share with you, which, just weird, what the hell is going on here? This, from BLG Tweets, Burke Law, uh, I wonder if that’s Father Martin’s, uh, I don’t remember the name, if you don’t know this about me, I’m very bad at remembering names.

So, I think this might be his attor uh, Father Martin’s [00:32:00] attorney, I think. ~This is a po uh, uh, uh, I was gonna say a post. ~This was a text message sent to Marcella Burke. Which, I can go back and look, but I’m not gonna bother wasting my time. I think that’s his attorney. Anyway, this was a text message. You see here, it says, M.

G. for Mel Gibson. And then the name, Mel. Mel. And yet, the text opens with, Hello, Marcella, this is Mel Gibson. Well, don’t you think she knows that? You’re in her freakin address book. You’re in her contacts. That’s was a little bit weird. This is a picture of father Martins with Mel Gibson. I am very surprised to see that because father Martins is a normal priest and Mel Gibson, great director, great actor, but he’s a city of a contest.

So I’m surprised to see him pousing around with a quote unquote Novus Ordo false priest. Very surprised to see that. I love Mel Gibson. I am not passing judgment on him for being a Sede. I’m just saying that’s [00:33:00] weird. Do I deny that they’re photographed together? Of course not, because I’m not dumb, and I am not blind.

I’m just saying that is weird for Mel Gibson to come to the defense of Father Martin’s. The text message that he sent, allegedly sent, we are being led to believe that he sent, Says this. Hello, Marcella. This is Mel Gibson. It’s ludicrous that a good priest, comma, father, period, Martins, comma, has been suspended from his ministry based on reckless allegations by, “The Pillar”

why am I doing all this with the punctuations and stuff? Does anybody want to guess? Is there anybody actually watching me who has access to the chat room? Tell me why you think I’m bringing all that up. I don’t know. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Time’s up. Have you ever tried to, well, he could have typed this on his computer, but, I’m assuming he typed it on his phone.

That’s really, [00:34:00] really precise typing for a text message that ultimately means nothing. It’s not like he’s sending this to the New York Times. He appears to be just texting an acquaintance, but he’s got all the caps in there, he’s got all the commas in the right place. Hell, you think I bother with any of that crap when I’m texting?

Hell, no! Are you crazy? But, he’s Mel Gibson, so who knows? Okay, let’s go back. Hello, Marcella, this is Mel Gibson. This time I’ll just read it clean. It’s ludicrous. Great word. Great word, ludicrous. It’s ludicrous. Wait, what do you mean it’s ludicrous? You just said it’s Mel Gibson. Oh, oh, he’s not saying it is ludicrous.

Oh, my fault. It’s ludicrous. It’s ludicrous. That a good priest, Father Martins, has been suspended from his ministry based on reckless allegations by the Pillar, and a diocesan statement that have [00:35:00] no basis as determined by law enforcement and are completely speculative. My friends, I apologize, but this sounds like lawyer speak to me.

The precision, the wording, the phrasing. It just sounds like lawyer speak to me.

Reckless allegations by the Pillar and a diocesan statement that have no basis as determined by law enforcement and are completely speculative. Sounds like lawyer speak. There were 200 other people there for Pete’s sake. He was making a joke! The police came and found no cause to press charges. The situation is

and the response from Marcella is, Wow, comma, thank you, period. I sure didn’t have this on my bingo card for today. May I share this? To which, [00:36:00] Mel Gibson says, Of course! Far and wide! Exclamation point. Heh. Heh.

Braveheart

CA: Hello, Marcella. This is Mel Gibson. Also known as As Braveheart. Ah, it’s ludicrous that a good priest, Father Martins, has been suspended from his ministry based on reckless allegations by ye pillar.

You have come to fight as free men and free men you are. Will you fight? No, we won’t fight. Okay, all right. I just can’t, I just can’t resist.

Did Mel Gibson really send this? I would say probably, because that would be really dangerous to falsify this. Send it out there in the public. If Mel Gibson wasn’t really involved. You know what I [00:37:00] suspect, and folks, this is my suspicion. This is only my suspicion. There’s too much precision here. There’s, there’s, it just sounds so much like lawyer speak.

Mel Gibson works a lot of lawyers, so he might have picked that up. That kind of lawyer speak. It’s possible. Heh. But looking at this, my fea and then the response, Wow, I didn’t have that on my bingo card today. May I share this? Even may I share this? Why wouldn’t you just say, Can I share this? Why do you I don’t I just feel like there was an exchange in private between these two parties, and Marcella said, Hey, would you mind texting me?

You know, you’re supportive of Father Martins. You think this is a and maybe he is supportive and maybe Marcella says, Could you say that? And I’ll make it public. You know, just like, cause we’re not faking anything. You really support him, and I’m just trying to find a way to provide a channel for you to voice that.

But I don’t want to make it look prompted. Okay. [00:38:00] Sure. What do you want me to say? I’ll type something. I’ll send something to you to say. And you can say something like that. Mel Gibson’s a very busy guy, so he’s like Okay. Beep! Text message comes in. Okay. I got a million things to do. I’m working on a sequel to The Passion of the Christ.

They’re thinking of doing a Braveheart 2, where Braveheart comes back to life. I can’t right now. Copy, paste, send. Send. That’s what I think. Or he copied portions of it. That’s what I think. I think this was prompted. I don’t think this was impromptu. That’s pretty good. Was that a good turn of phrase or what?

Is that what you would call a turn of phrase or what? You see folks, as I told you, I’m stupid. What do I know? I don’t know. I don’t even know how to speak English. One other thing I wanted to share with you. ~I~ don’t know.

~There’s actually two other things, but one thing I’m 100 percent certain of, but sharing it, even suggesting it might be defamatory and I don’t want to go there. So I’m going to leave that alone. ~This was posted by Christine Niles. This is father Lane, the priest who [00:39:00] confronted father Martin’s about this allegation or about this complaint.

Complaint, I think is a better word. This was posted by Christine Niles. I did see this elsewhere. on the interwebs and Christine, and I’m just going to paraphrase cause I need to get this over with. Christine said, this is the man who should be reported. Or she said something like this. I really shouldn’t put words in her mouth, but she was pointing out the fact that look at this.

He’s holding this child against himself. That’s the man who should be investigated. ~I apologize, but I just don’t trust Christine Niles. And I have a thousand reasons not to just based on her reporting here. ~Is this inappropriate what we’re seeing this priest doing? It doesn’t look like he’s holding her against his his body.

It looks like he’s saying something or explaining something maybe He has his hand on her shoulders, but probably not by the look of it Maybe he’s a little close. Maybe he’s just explaining something. He’s about to point to something. I just don’t I don’t see this as being against his body and I don’t see this as him holding her against his body [00:40:00] I’m sorry.

I am sorry. It is irresponsible and reckless to put that, that suggestion out there. I should get my face out of the screen so you can see. You see, his hand is not on her shoulder. It doesn’t look like it. This is his hand here. It doesn’t look like it’s on his shoulder, her shoulder. It doesn’t even look like she’s against his body, or he’s against her body.

It looks like she’s up to the case to look at what’s inside. That’s the Relic of St. Jude. And it looks like he’s looking here at the Relic. Right? You see the line of sight from his eyes? He’s looking at the Relic. And he’s speaking. What I take from this is he’s explaining something. And he’s getting as close to the Relic as he can, with somebody already in front of him.

And he’s just casually explaining something or talking about it or something. That’s all I see in this picture. Folks, I say this from time to time. And I don’t know if you understand [00:41:00] just how serious I am about it when I say this. There’s a lot of grifting in media. An awful lot of grifting in media. Huh? There’s a lot of money in media, and so, people have a vested interest in grifting, in conning you. If you think it’s unique to secular news, Mm mm.

They do it in Catholic news, too. They do it in, or I should say, they do it in independent Catholic media. And they are almost as good at it in independent Catholic media as they are in shady secular, or in, in, Proper secular media. And I can tell you many, many, many, many, many Catholics are being led astray by their trusted sources of Catholic news and, and, and commentary.

It’s not just independent Catholic news, it’s independent Catholic commentary too. Podcasters and [00:42:00] such. I generally do not name names. , and, and I won’t, uh, unless I need to, because I don’t want to be gossipy. Also, um, you never know if some of these names turn themselves around,

and so I don’t want to take part in, in ruining that turnaround by taking some role in ruining their reputations, and I don’t want to ruin people’s reputations anyway, and this is the honest to God truth. People are dear, and people are precious, and I really don’t want to cause people harm. Especially in including people’s reputations.

I will name names when I have to. For instance, today I had to name the pillar. I had to because it was, it was the subject. And I want to say this again about Christine Niles. As far as I’m concerned, and this is my opinion, in her career, where she has been, and the work that she has done, I will never, ever find her trustworthy.

But maybe she’s turning herself around because what I will say [00:43:00] positively is this she works she’s passionate about investigative journalism Credit where it’s due I just hope and I pray and I mean this I hope and I pray That she comes to an understanding of just what it means to be ethical in journalism I don’t think she’s evil I think she’s been misguided Over a long period of time, by slow degrees, and she may not understand that some of her techniques, some of her reporting, is unethical. ~And I will again say that that’s my opinion. It’s a pretty well informed opinion, but it’s my opinion. I think Christine Niles will be one of those ones who turns herself around. I think, I don’t know how long, but I think in time, I do believe she’s going to be a rock star in Catholic investigative journalism.~

~She’s not there yet. She’s not going to be there for at least another year or two or three, but I think she’s on track because she works hard. She’s hungry for the work for the, for the, the process of the work you can tell you can tell. And I think that’s very, very good. I think it’s very laudable. ~The pillar.

Especially after this one? That’s enough red flags for me. I won’t be reading anything from them again. You do what you like, because I don’t think they’re poison. Hmm, that’s weird. My stream just got cut off. That’s very, very weird. My stream just got completely cut off. It’s just the strangest thing.[00:44:00]

Alright, well let me bring this to a close. Um, I really said everything that I have to say anyway. Be careful about the folks that you follow. Don’t be mice following the Pied Piper. This has been a special way too long episode of the Catholic experience. I’ve been your host, the Catholic adventure. God bless you folks.

God be with you all. I’m going to try and solve this mystery of where the hell my stream went. Signing out of here. God be with you once again. Bye bye.