In Rome today. It is the first day of the papal conclave, when 133 cardinals from around the world will sequester themselves inside the Sistine Chapel until they choose the next pope. Typically, no one knows what goes on inside the chapel during this process, [00:00:17] and the process itself is supposed to be divinely guided, right? They're supposed to choose which the next pope, and then they send out puffs of smoke to let you know when he's been chosen. However, despite the fact that this is such a secret conclave. Right? Nobody knows what's going on in there. [00:00:33] MAGA is still trying to infiltrate the process and trying to sway the Cardinals decisions to pick the Pope that they want to pick, and they're using money and wine to do so. So the days leading up to the conclave are typically full of a lot of wining and dining, which feels a lot like political lobbying, [00:00:52] where various wealthy donors and interest groups hope to convince the cardinals to vote for their preferred Pope candidate this year. The conclave happened to coincide with something called America Week. America Week America Week happens once a year, and it's when wealthy Americans [00:01:09] make a so-called pilgrimage to Rome, and they pledge their funds to the Vatican. Of course, in in exchange for absolutely nothing. Right. Well, the organization behind America Week is the papal Foundation. And you can join the foundation for a small donation of just $1 million. [00:01:28] President of the foundation is Ward Fitzgerald, the third. And he touts the foundation's impressive history of donations to the Catholic Church. They gave $250 million in grants, scholarships and humanitarian aid since 1998. [00:01:44] Doesn't sound bad. At a dinner last week at the Saint Regis in Rome, the foundation announced its very ambitious fundraising goals for the coming years, and members disclosed who they would like to see as pope. So I'm sure that neither of those two things are related. [00:02:00] One guest did tell reporters this room could raise a billion to help the church, so long as we have the right pope. There's more to this story. But wise is I don't see any quid pro quo, do you? [00:02:15] I mean, look, the the Catholic Church is one of the few very powerful remaining institutions, right? About a billion members of the Catholic Church, I believe. Last I checked, obviously super well funded and well resourced. [00:02:34] It's understandable that people would want to lobby them to curry favor with them, because they do have some level of influence. I'm just a little bit skeptical as far as the reach, because I'm born and raised Catholic baptism, communion, freaking confirmation, the whole thing. [00:02:53] My confirmation name was Peter for those Catholics out there wondering, I've never in my life heard a Catholic person say I can't or won't or will do something because the Pope suggested I do it like never. [00:03:09] It's never happened. I don't know Catholics who care about the Pope, so I don't get this, like hand-wringing about who the Pope is and what he does, because even Catholics don't even care. Yeah, that is interesting because, you know, I'm not Catholic, but, [00:03:25] I always wonder about something like that. But the truth is, even though this is a religious appointment or, you know, religious position, it's a very political role. And we'll get into that a little bit. So the politicking and the wealthy just buying power from, this very ancient [00:03:42] institution is even more entrenched in politics than it appears on the surface. So also in Rome last week was the Napa Institute with founder Tim Bush. Blush. So this institute is comprised of wealthy Catholics from the Napa, California area. [00:03:59] Emphasis on wealthy Catholics. But more on that in a little bit. So about 2,020% of the Napa Institute's members are also affiliated with Opus Dei, and that is a conservative Catholic sect that is also affiliated with project 2025. [00:04:18] And there it is. And this makes sense because, you know, many conservatives have felt that Pope Francis was far too liberal for their liking, and they want to push the Catholic Church in a much more conservative direction. And according to Tim Bush, the wealthy are just the people to do that. [00:04:34] Here's what he actually said. It's the lay apostolates that are going to make a difference because they have better funding, they have smarter money, they can be made more mobile. So Bush was also a supporter of the Red Hat report, which was an effort [00:04:49] led by former FBI and CIA agents, and they were going to dig up dirt on potential papal candidates that they perceived to be too progressive for their liking. So this overarching effort to install a more conservative pope has been going on [00:05:06] for years, and that makes a lot of sense when you consider that, you know, not just with project 2025, but the Republican agenda to push this entire country in a more, not just conservative direction, but also more religious direction. They've been playing this game since at least the 80s [00:05:22] in a in a very organized and focused way. Also, just a quick fun fact at one of the dinners, Bush, who is of the Napa Institute, he served his own line of Trinity's wine, and it was a part of his faith collection of wines [00:05:38] with bottles retailing from $50 to $125. And really, honestly, no shade to Napa Valley, no shade to their wine. I love going to Napa, but like you're in Rome, you know, like they have. They have wine. They have wine. I don't know if you're going to win them. [00:05:54] - Over. - With the wine. Okay. - So real quick, one. - Last. Thing. Remember that AI generated image of Trump as the pope that he shared on social media? Well, he was asked about it recently at a press conference about the backlash. [00:06:10] And he said, well, first of all, there was no backlash. Second of all, he said that Catholics loved it. And also, by the way, even though he shared it, he had nothing to do with any of it. So watch this. Three Catholics were not so happy about the image of you looking like the Pope. [00:06:27] Oh I see. You mean they they can't take a joke? You don't mean the Catholics. You mean the fake news media? Not the Catholics loved it. I had nothing to do with it. Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the Pope, and they put it out on the internet. That's not me that did it. I have no idea where it came from. [00:06:44] Maybe it was I, but I know nothing about it. I just saw it last evening. Actually. My wife thought it was cute. - She said, isn't that nice? - His wife thought it was cute. I, you know, I kind of don't believe that she said that, [00:07:02] which is sad for him, I guess. But seriously, this is a very interesting story to me because, you know, I'm like, as I said, I'm not Catholic, but I found the Catholic church very interesting for a long time. You know, even in history classes, whenever you learn about it, it is a political institution, the papacy, the Vatican, [00:07:19] it functions as a political entity. Yes, it's religious, but it's also very political. And, you know, the choosing of the new pope is a very political thing. Did you see that movie? Conclave was of course, I thought it was excellent, one of my favorite movies last year. Yeah, I thought it was great. [00:07:35] I didn't know what to expect when I watched it, but I told you I was very interested in what goes on there. And, you know, as I said in the story, the conclave is so secretive, it was interesting to see what might be going on on the inside, but what are your thoughts as a Catholic, especially, seeing all this happening? [00:07:53] We kind of know that these things go on, but seeing it happen so blatantly, there's this thing called America Week, which feels very icky. They're not even trying to hide any of this stuff anymore. I think it is important. [00:08:08] Like, for instance, Papa Francis, who did who was again, we got to keep this in context for the Catholic Church. Yes. This was this guy was considered to be a very liberal or progressive guy when he's like, all right, we'll we'll pray over gay marriages or, [00:08:25] you know, he'll come out and, and, stamp his approval or suggestion that countries take in refugees from war torn areas in the Middle East, etc.. He comes to a I think he came to San Francisco, I believe it was San Francisco [00:08:41] could have been in LA. And he goes and like has lunch at the homeless shelter, right at the soup kitchen or whatever. Like, these are all political statements where, you know, the pope of if the leader of this vast religious institution is signaling that like, [00:08:58] this is what he thinks is the right thing to do, it puts pressure on other religious institutions and of course, politicians whose constituents happen to be Catholics oftentimes. Right. From, you know, the little bit that I've been able to read about this, [00:09:15] apparently Pope Francis kind of like all over the institution of the Vatican, he seeded it with a bunch of his own homies, a bunch of progressive kind of homies. It seems like the cards are pretty much stacked against the the old fogy kind of [00:09:32] conservative wing of the Catholic Church. And so that's why you see so much saber rattling from that side of the church. They know that the odds are stacked against them in terms of getting a less quote unquote progressive pope in there. [00:09:48] But yeah, I do think, on balance, you know, for people like us who want to see a little bit more justice and equality in our world, if the freaking pope of the Catholic Church is somebody who is broadly in favor of a world that moves in that direction and doesn't demonize, [00:10:04] you know, Muslims or Jews or, you know, people from downtrodden places of the world and suggest that we live in a more harmonious fashion as global citizens. I think that's an excellent thing that could happen. Yeah, yeah. So we'll have to keep an eye on it. [00:10:20] We'll see how long it takes before we have a new pope. And to your point, yeah, about 80% of the the electors right now were Pope Francis appointees. So it seems as though they would like for him to, you know, would like to further his legacy. [00:10:36] Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.