Religious Hypocrisy Exposed: Belgium Media Smashes Christ Statue but Against Offending Other Faiths

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]YEAH!

[00:00:04]ONE PART YOU HAD A STATUE OF JESUS.

[00:00:06]NOW, I know you laugh, but do you think that for many listeners they would find that so deeply offensive to take a a bat and to smash Jesus into pieces? These were all things that were already broken. Would you smash a symbol of the Prophet Muhammad?

[00:00:20]That is a very dangerous one.

[00:00:23]>> You wouldn't do it. Why not? Star of David for Judaism? I I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. No. They issued an apology, but they were only saying I'm sorry because they were embarrassed.

[00:00:36]So, let me tell you why I think that this is complicit with evil.

[00:00:43]Welcome to the Father Leo Show where I am dishing out faith, culture, and commentary. In this episode, I am going to first of all admit that this episode might make you mad. I am certainly very upset because you're going to hear how a traditional Catholic country in Europe is now destroying statues, and they consider that funny or fun. It's just a disgusting nature of what I call liberalism in the Catholic Church. But before we jump into it, please make sure you like, subscribe, share, and comment. And thank you to all of the executive producers on Patreon. Without you, we can't have this show, but only with your support. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're not a supporter of Patreon, please know that you can get access to extra content and special perks. And also you get the satisfaction of knowing that we are using your support to help build up this channel so that we can provide good, balanced, practical, and Catholic perspective. So, this will maybe challenge your perspective, but let's just jump right into it with why I am so annoyed with the Catholic Church's lack of faith in a beautiful country of Belgium.

[00:02:01]>> [music] >> Belgium is known for many things, probably most famously, let's not kid ourselves, it's waffles, okay? I mean, it has a a beautiful, rich tradition of of European cuisine, and it came with the European Catholic sense of faith. I mean, at one point it was almost 60% Catholic with the other percent being Protestant. These days, it's now less than 10% of people who identify as Catholic, and the majority of the people consider themselves agnostic, atheist, or at least subscribe to this cult called N O N E S, the cult of nuns, okay? People who don't have any religion at all, but they still have beautiful, magnificent churches. They still celebrate the celebrations of Christmas and Easter, and and they buy into all of the other secularized versions of saint days, whether it be Valentine's Day, Saint Blaise, Saint Francis, you name it. But this is a country in need of serious reform. I'm going to first show you why I'm so upset, and then I'm going to offer you some ideas as to why. And this is an interview from Colm Flynn. He is an EWTN correspondent, but he also is a freelancer. He is a great friend of mine. I'm going to show you his interview with some sort of effort to deal with your frustrations on Monday, which they actually take out on the statue of Jesus and Mary.

[00:03:38]It's disgusting, but control your energy control your anger when you SEE THIS.

[00:03:44]YEAH! [screaming] LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION CUZ YOU MENTIONED RESPECT, respecting each other. I'm thinking of respect towards all of the listeners. You played a video in there. What was it? The smashing video. You were doing a smashing class.

[00:03:59]>> Wait wait wait. Each room because we were beating the blue out of the Monday.

[00:04:03]So, people could text us like, I have a really a blue Monday because my car broke and everything. Okay, we'll smash something for you.

[00:04:10]And you smashed >> he was out. They said like, wow, this really felt good. And it was pretty intense, and I saw one part you had a statue of Jesus.

[00:04:17]Now, I know you laugh, but do you think that for many listeners they would find that so deeply offensive to take a a bat and to smash Jesus into pieces? Madonna, by the way. No, There was there was one I think of Madonna and the Madonna and the child, and there was one of Jesus. So, the thing that's a very good question cuz I think it might offend people. I think in Belgium, not really. We're not a very religious country. Anymore. Definitely not the listeners of Studio Brussels, but what we did all the things we smashed, we we made it very clear as well that these were all things that were already broken. So, the statue, it was turned uh face towards the back of the room, so you wouldn't see the face as well because that was already it was a broken statue as well. But I think I I would have been more careful in another country, definitely. In Belgium, it is not a big issue.

[00:05:04]Let me ask you this, if you were doing the video again, would you smash a symbol of the Prophet Muhammad?

[00:05:10]That is a very dangerous You wouldn't do it. Why not? No, because that would be inappropriate because in Belgium there are many uh But there are Christians, too. I know the Pope visited Belgium recently.

[00:05:21]>> I'm I know there are Christians, but it's um since we are all from the Christian tradition, I think it's like laughing with your self.

[00:05:31]Or like You would never do it with Muhammad. No. Star of David for Judaism?

[00:05:37]I I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it.

[00:05:38]No. It's the same thing. I think we we have all been raised uh Catholic. Um so that gives us a little more credit to do this, but it's harder if you do it from a uh a religion that you know nothing about. I think that is very dangerous as well. You know the main ideas and teachings are the same. It's just interesting watching it. I cover spirituality and religion normally on the BBC and other networks. So, when you see it, you see that hypocrisy. Yeah.

[00:06:04]Jesus Christ, the statue, smash it in two, but never for Muhammad or for anything to do with the Jewish faith.

[00:06:10]And you have listeners who are Christians, too, and it's And it's taxpayer-funded VRT. It's the public broadcaster. Absolutely, but I think you have to um look at the specific audience of your station. I would definitely not do this on every station. Um but the the Studio Brussels station is very alternative. Um so the I mean, we know that they're not very religious in in any way. Uh there are other stations where I would definitely be very, very, very careful for that. Um But you said you wouldn't do with other religions.

[00:06:42]No.

[00:06:43]Now, I'm now we have this having this conversation, I'm like, I'm I'm so sorry, Colm. We shouldn't have done it because No, I We didn't think that much about it. We're just smashing all kinds of stuff, and there happened to be an old Jesus sign, and we smashed it. What we would do when we have a listener that takes cuz that happens as well. We do some things out of a silliness, and then someone lets us know this was really inappropriate, then that becomes a talk topic for us to to sort this out, and and to be able to say, "Oh yeah, wait, we never thought about this, actually.

[00:07:14]That's pretty stupid." Yeah. This would have been like the if somebody Colm would text us in the app like, "Why did you Why the hell did you smash a Jesus sign, and would you We would call you, and we would have this conversation. I'm going to be on VRT next week, guys. Tune in.

[00:07:30]So, I again, I know Colm Flynn. He's a consummate professional. He's such a good man, but you could see he wasn't going to let his emotions get into the way of actually getting to the interview. You can see how, for example, when people interview Donald Trump. I know that I just bring this up, but you can see their bias, and you can see how like ragey they get when talking to someone they disagree with. Colm was completely calm. He he is a a great example of a professional journalist who integrates his Catholic faith well.

[00:08:05]And even brought up the point of hypocrisy because this is nothing but not only ignorance, but arrogance, and I would even call a complicit complicit relationship with evil, truly evil. I'm going to explain why.

[00:08:23]They issued an apology, but they were only saying I'm sorry because they were embarrassed.

[00:08:30]So, let me tell you why I think that this is complicit with evil.

[00:08:36]>> [snorts] >> Because it's an image of Jesus and Mary.

[00:08:41]And as a Catholic, we are so glad that we actually have images of Jesus and Mary. I know that the image is not God. I get it. We get it. Protestants, relax. We know it. We know it. But if someone were to just simply take your Bible that your grandmother gave to you, asked you to read it, and someone steps on it, and spits on it, and rips it apart, and then burns it. Wouldn't that make you mad? Why? Because that Bible is connecting you to God.

[00:09:17]It is not God. It's God's word on human paper.

[00:09:23]These are images of incarnated truths.

[00:09:28]Jesus walked the earth. We didn't have cameras or cell phones back then to take a picture of them, but we had artists who reflected on the tradition and created images so that we can at least use the senses that God gave to us to know more about Jesus.

[00:09:47]And there's nothing more that the devil wants than to destroy any image of Jesus. That's why pro-abortionists want nothing to do with sonograms. Do not lie to me, Planned Parenthood. Your abortion, killing, dismembering, ripping babies apart in the mother's womb is a failed attempt at medicine. It is hardly health care for women. It is destruction. And you, Planned Parenthood, you don't even let women see a sonogram of the baby's face in the mother's womb.

[00:10:23]And why? Because that image of the sonogram is an image that points to the holiness of God.

[00:10:31]And the statues that were smashed on TV as entertainment point to eventually the face of the unseen God.

[00:10:46]Of course, we know the devil hates Mary.

[00:10:48]They took special joy to destroy Mary holding the child Jesus.

[00:10:54]>> [snorts] >> So, I I mean, I'm sorry that I get so upset here, but I thought iconoclasm was done because of the ignoramus of just of unthinking, non-critical thinking people. But that's the part that's also complicit with the evil. These people said, "Oh, it's okay because we are Catholic. It's kind of laughing at ourselves." You're going to be laughing yourselves all the way to hell.

[00:11:16]Thank God Callan brought this issue up to you, you three people who are probably incredibly cool.

[00:11:25]But you could have done something else, you know? But no, you took what was your country's patrimony and destroyed it for everyone to see. And the girl even said, "It makes people feel good because somehow getting your anger out by smashing things make you feel better."

[00:11:47]You know, it just really shows how immature people are if they have to smash things because they get upset.

[00:11:53]I mean, that's what leads to violence.

[00:11:56]That's what leads to destruction of property. That's what leads to a disrespect for the dignity of human life. Because if I'm in a bad mood, does that give me a right to smash your car with my car or your face with my fist?

[00:12:10]No.

[00:12:11]So, this is allowing people to have fun.

[00:12:15]But I'm sorry, a smash room, you know, I've never been in a smash room before.

[00:12:20]I'm sure it could be fun. But if you're doing it for fun, because obviously there's junk anyway and they're going to clean it all up. Okay, I get it. You know, stomp on a glass or break some plates and scream, "Opa!" Fine. Fine. Fine.

[00:12:38]Fine.

[00:12:39]But this is what she said was a reaction because of anger, the Monday blues.

[00:12:45]So, I say, if that's how you handle a bad day, I don't want to be anywhere near you. And you need counseling. It's all there is to it. But I get it, they're a radio show, right? And they're kind of catering to their audience who they accurately claim they're not much believers anymore.

[00:13:01]They just don't care. They they really don't care about God or anything sacred.

[00:13:08]That's another sad part of this episode because it comes from where? Where does this lack of faith come from?

[00:13:16]Well, I'm just going to call it out.

[00:13:19]It's coming from their their leadership.

[00:13:22]I I want to just show you this here because this is why I think This is why I think the people of Belgium have lost their faith.

[00:13:33]Because the bishops have lost their faith.

[00:13:38]Catholic bishop in Belgium wrote an 11-page pastoral letter that included a plan to ordain married men into the priesthood by 2028, even though such actions would violate the code of canon law and lead to an excommunication.

[00:13:54]Bishop Johan Bonny, the head of the Diocese of Antwerp since 2009, noted that the topic of ordaining men was discussed in Vatican's Synod of Synodality 2023-2024.

[00:14:08]Although the topic was openly discussed, neither the late Pope Francis nor the authors of the final document authorized the ordination of married men or recommended any future change to canon law to authorize it. Despite this, Bonny writes in the pastoral letter that in every synodal discussion, the question of ordaining married men for the priesthood, he claimed, "The consequence on this question is almost total, especially among the most faithful and devout, and has existed for many years.

[00:14:37]The question is no longer whether the church can ordain married men as priests, but when it will do so and who will do it." The bishop said, "Any delay comes across as an excuse."

[00:14:51]So, here is a bishop, the bishop of Antwerp in the country of Belgium saying that by 2028 he is going to basically ordain married men. And it's contrary to the asserted consensus in Canon 1042 that prohibits the ordination of married men in the Latin Rite under the most normal circumstances.

[00:15:16]It states clearly that the only holy orders a man who has a wife is eligible for is the permanent diaconate, not the priesthood.

[00:15:28]A married man can enter the permanent diaconate with the consent of his wife if he is at least 35 years old, but a permanent deacon who is a widower cannot remarry.

[00:15:40]And so, you just see he says, "I will make every effort to ordain married men as priests for our Diocese by 2028." He said, "I will approach them personally and ensure that by then they have the necessary theological training and pastoral experiences comparable to that of other priest candidates. This preparation will be transparent, but discreet."

[00:16:10]And it's just shocking to me.

[00:16:13]"But discreet, away from the media spotlight."

[00:16:19]Ugh.

[00:16:21]2028 is in 2 years. I'm recording this episode on in the year 2026. So, that means he is going to jam 4 to 5 years of seminary formation into 2 years, discreet.

[00:16:37]Discreet. Away from the media spotlight.

[00:16:41]Yet we in the seminary were, you know, there was discretion for sure, but everything had to be transparent.

[00:16:48]And yeah, the media wasn't involved, but there was media where we had to talk about what we were going through in our experience of formation. So, not only does he want to do something that canon law does not provide, it's not within the church's teaching, but now he's going to do it in a very subverted and cheap way.

[00:17:07]Just cheap.

[00:17:08]He writes, "For many a bishop, the ordination of married men has become a matter of conscience." He wrote, "At that level, too, transparency, accountability, and evaluation are more important for the credibility of the church." I'm just so sorry. But you can see how this kind of mentality is why we have a messed up understanding amongst the people of God regarding what is sacred and what is not.

[00:17:38]So, I know that these are two issues, but they're all connected to the same thing, a lack of faith which leads to ignorance, leads to defiance. It leads to basically making up your own rules.

[00:17:52]And also, it makes you look kind of It makes you look very wrong to the point where you come across as ignorant.

[00:18:05]And not just ignorant in the innocent sense, but as an ignoramus.

[00:18:10]Why doesn't this bishop just leave the Catholic Church and become a Protestant minister?

[00:18:17]Just be a Protestant minister who doesn't believe in the sacred nature of the ontological requirements for the ontological effect to ordain a priest. Saving the Family is a book that talks about how to save your family around [music] your dinner table. We know, as statistics tell us, that one of the healthiest things you can do [music] for you and your family is eat together regularly. But how do you do that in the different generations of life? This book covers those different generations and teaches you how to celebrate [music] a meal when you're feeding your children mashed peas to at the point when they have to feed you mashed peas and everything in between. It's a book [music] that deals with the problems of different ages and age groups, different cultural experiences, [music] but more importantly, different stages of family life. This book can help you not just with >> [music] >> incredibly delicious recipe tested by parents and chefs, but more [music] importantly, the message that is behind it because it talks about how families [music] change. But one of the best ways to experience the change in the family is when you, with different generations, all come [music] together around the dinner table and eat some traditional family favorites. But I think this book is going to even give you some new [music] ones to come. So, stay hungry and make sure that when you feed your family, [music] you're also saving the family.

[00:19:54]Now, in the Catholic Church, we actually have priests who are married. You know this. I know you know this. This is when they're coming from a a different religion, namely Anglican. There have been an exception that I know of where it came from Lutheranism, Lutheran Church. These ordained clerk clergy members were married, a abandoned their Protestant faith, became Catholic, and because the Catholic Church recognizes their sacramental marriage, they they keep that, and they're given a special indult, an exception in order to be recognized as a Catholic priest, but they have to go through extra formation and training.

[00:20:38]This bishop wants to do it without much scrutiny to the public eye, basically secretly, and to jam it all in 2 years.

[00:20:47]Yeah, okay.

[00:20:48]Good luck with that.

[00:20:50]But, I think, even more than anything, God bless the people who have to listen to this nonsense from a bishop, but also the nonsense from their entertainment industry. What happened?

[00:21:04]What happened in such a Christian-centric country?

[00:21:10]Well, I think we know.

[00:21:12]I I think we just know.

[00:21:14]It's a loss of a sense of sacred, which means disregarding tradition, and opening up your sense senses to liberal relativism.

[00:21:30]You know, there was a big movement in the church.

[00:21:33]I'm going to kind of talk about this maybe in a in a future episode, or even a a simple post on social media, but you know how like the whole transgender thing, you know, not knowing if you're a man or a woman, him and her becomes interchangeable, replacing with they them.

[00:21:51]Can you know where I think it got started, to be honest with you? I know that this might sound odd, but I think it got started with the liturgical liberalism in the Catholic Church that wanted to deny God as father.

[00:22:06]So, there were many movements among a lot of liberal liturgists, especially in the '80s and parts of the '90s. I can tell you this for sure, because I became a seminarian in 1990 three.

[00:22:21]Yes, in 1993, a year and a half after college.

[00:22:25]I um >> [clears throat] >> yeah.

[00:22:28]Uh and what happened, I didn't know that this was the case, but I was considered conserve considered a conservative by a very liberal seminary where I attended for pre-theology.

[00:22:42]Uh it is definitely improved over the years, in part because I think my class really fought this liberal push, because I didn't even know what a liberal or conservative was.

[00:22:54]But, I started hearing how priests were not calling God father, and basically changing the Trinitarian formula to creator, um sanctifier, and redeemer, as opposed to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creator, redeemer, and sanctifier, yeah. So, they kind of prayed in the name of not the Trinity, but in the name of the function. And why?

[00:23:24]Because they didn't want to be so focused on men.

[00:23:30]I mean, it was like the feminist movement took over liturgical prayers, and started changing things around, and they wanted to remove any references to the male gender ascribed to God.

[00:23:45]I honestly think that that is deeply connected to the transgender confusion now, because of liberal ideologies. And don't think that I am against liberalism, because I believe that there is a place in time to have these discussions.

[00:24:03]I really believe that. Clearly, this bishop wants to have this discussion, but there also needs to be something called obedience, because that obedience is actually going to form a consciousness that tells us what's right and wrong, so that you're not blowing up and breaking up statues of Jesus and Mary or other saints, just because it makes you feel good. I can tell you, the only people that felt good about this are liberals, are non-believers, and people who dabble with the devil.

[00:24:35]Anyone else who is faithful should be righteously angry, almost the zeal of the Maccabee brothers.

[00:24:42]Now, it doesn't mean that we're going to lose our cool, even though I'm probably speaking a little bit more vociferously than normal, I'm just annoyed when I see these things. I thought we were past it all, at least in America. Thank you, Jesus, we're at least swinging back to the center, perhaps a little too far to the right, which could cause its own problems. That will be talked about in an upcoming episode. I guarantee you my team and I are working for that. We just have to be very sensitive about it.

[00:25:11]I can tell you that I thought we were done with this, but then we come up with this nonsense. Again, my recommendation is for this bishop to just leave his post if he can't buy into or believe and assent to the gift, and yeah, the responsibility of a celibate clergy.

[00:25:35]We know it's history, but we know that that's what the church teaches. And until well, it's not going to happen, but we're hearing how someone like this is kind of forcing the issue.

[00:25:48]We're also hearing that Belgian bishops want to ordain women.

[00:25:53]We also hear that there are some German bishops, it's closely related culturally, are doing blessings for gay couples.

[00:26:03]And now we have them literally blowing up or breaking down statues. Ah.

[00:26:09]So, what do we do about this? Well, I'll tell you.

[00:26:13]This is what we do.

[00:26:15]Ah.

[00:26:15]>> [snorts and sighs] >> Let's not double down with anger, but with proper formed consciences and devotions, and pay more attention to how we can experience the sacred in our life.

[00:26:31]It does require deeper prayer.

[00:26:34]It requires a proper use of of of the sacramentals, like statues, devotionals, candles, anything that is kind of sensory-oriented.

[00:26:45]Let's make sure we have appropriate use of it.

[00:26:48]But, this also raised the question, because the guy said, "Well, these things were already broken." I'm sorry.

[00:26:53]There is actually something we should be doing when statues are broken and no longer fit for public veneration.

[00:27:04]And it's not to air it out as a form of entertainment by smashing it on TV for your listeners.

[00:27:12]So, I want to just kind of show you just this ending it with a a happier video. Here we go. Our priest here gave a sermon that um did not agree with somebody, and they snuck into the church and smashed [music] a statue of Our Lady on the metal lectern.

[00:27:28]And the secretary handed to me in a box, and said, "You have a garden at your home, and it needs to be buried in the ground." There was about two or 300 pieces to it, and I looked at John, and I said, "Hey, you plaster, and I paint.

[00:27:42]What do you think?"

[00:27:44]He pieced the entire thing together, and then [music] I painted it, and we gave it back to our priest, and he thanked us so much for buying another statue exactly like his other one, and we flipped it over, and the inscription on the bottom told him that [music] that was his.

[00:28:00]And word got out, and pretty soon we became a statue hospital.

[00:28:06]And everybody's statue arrived here.

[00:28:11]That is beautiful.

[00:28:13]That's beautiful. So, first and foremost, if there is a statue or a sacred object that is no longer in condition, because, you know, we live in the material world, it's no longer in a condition to be used properly or venerated with respect, it no longer provides that beauty quality that an artist kind of created to commemorate the beauty of God. If there's like a brokenness to it, then what you do is you just simply bury it. You can bury it, or you can, you know, put it in a cloth or something like that, and just gently break it in into more pieces, so that it is at least treated with respect. And again, those things ought to be buried, not thrown in the garbage.

[00:28:56]So, for example, you know, if you have um candle wax that you used for your altar, just just burn it all the way down, and I would put that into the ground. And why? Because because we believe that we are all dust, and that statue will eventually return to dust. And and to dust it will return.

[00:29:18]And who knows, one man's garbage might become another person's treasure. Can you imagine if somebody brings up a statue that might be broken, but they they I don't know, like my my my romanticized notion of faith is like someone was looking for something, they find a statue that's broken, but then they take the time to fix it, and it becomes an heirloom. My goodness, this is the stuff of our faith. We actually have churches and shrines built around a statue that was discovered.

[00:29:50]Amazing.

[00:29:51]So, I just think that first of all, Belgium it makes me not want to eat a waffle, okay? That's just all there is to it. It makes me not want to eat a waffle, but it makes me also really angry, but as I talk, it makes me feel pity.

[00:30:12]Because now this is a country that senses no sacred nature of anything.

[00:30:17]And that's probably the greatest destruction of all. And it's because their leaders are not retaining the faithful traditions and transmitting it faithfully. It's literally a another protest to what we believe. Why do we have to look like every other church? We don't.

[00:30:39]We just have to take care of what we have.

[00:30:43]And I hope that this helps.

[00:30:45]I hope that this helps give you a sense of calm knowing that yeah, Father Leo can get upset too. Oh, trust me, I can lose my patience. I just have to prep myself when I do these videos, but I got to tell you that it's going to do no good.

[00:31:01]So, I knew that eventually this was going to turn to prayer.

[00:31:06]And I think that it's appropriate that we do pray for the people of Belgium.

[00:31:10]That they will see the face of God.

[00:31:12]That they will never be ashamed to do harm or disfigure anything that represents God.

[00:31:19]Especially since at least the hypocrisy of them not wanting to do it to other religions, yet they think they can do it to themselves and they're just shooting themselves in the foot.

[00:31:28]Lord, help us to never hurt ourselves, to shoot ourselves in the foot, to put ourselves in harm's way, to never act because of popularity or because the audience would like this, but rather let us act only in accordance with your word, your teachings, and the faith that you give to us through the Catholic Church.

[00:31:51]So, God bless all of these folks and we just ask forgiveness for them.

[00:31:57]And I hope to God that they do see their errors and turn away from sin.

[00:32:04]And believe in the good news.

[00:32:06]Thank you for watching. God bless you.

[00:32:08]Please make sure you like, subscribe, share, and comment. And please consider supporting us on patreon.com/thefatherleoshow so that we can continue to dish out faith, culture, and commentary. God bless you and stay hungry for God.

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