A fortuitous (or providential) recording of Strickland acting in favor of Trad Inc. reveals the modus operandi by which Deep Church operates: This man has passed for many as a traditional bishop, despite the fact that he says the new Mass, accepts the legitimacy of Vatican II, was "consecrated" in the new rite, and tried to counteract +Vigano.
"But Mr. Johnson, it was Rome who silenced him!"
Nonsense!
Rome gave him "street cred" with the appearance of a censure/removal.
The dupes from that point onward began fawning over him as a "trad" persecuted by the "modernists."
Ahem, are these people simply naive, or are they also part of Trad Inc?
Francis deployed +Hounder to the SSPX in 2017 explicitly to "help them in the reconciliation process." What he really did was condition them to accepting the ministrations of doubtfully consecrated bishops and ordained priests. Initially, they stated he was simply there to retire. Soon, he was saying public Masses, then confirming, and finally "consecrating" holy oils for the SSPX. Today he rests next to Lefebvre in Econe (the gorge rises)!
The sheep said nothing (except this blacksheep).
The point being, if Rome wants to inject an operative bishop into a traditional/semi-traditional venue, it is very easy to do. They don't operate according to Catholic morality. Its a war, and they use Satan's tactics. Strickland is exposed as a control agent, and its a blessing he's exposed.
Until Catholics rise up en masse against the revolution which has robbed us all of real Catholicism, the crisis can only continue. Heaven forbid I should be numbered amongst the pathetic, disinterested silent masses!! But until the indult-types understand they're begging for favors from wolves, and shun them, nothing can change.
They took your sacraments, ecclesiology, canon law, saints, popes, catechisms, rites, and replaced them with....something else, and you sat there and said nothing. So this is what you got.
If there were 25 Jacksons in the world, what a run for the money we could give them!!
Bp. Strickland’s Substack shortly after JHW’s firing admonished in a finger wagging fashion anyone assigning unseemly politics to the decision. He assured us that it was purely a business matter and that we should , in so many words, mind our own beeswax. Given what we now know, in that one Substack posting his eminence squandered every precious drop of authority and credibility that he’d accumulated since his own ostensible canceling. Man am I ever sick and tired of being deceived and disappointed by our shepherds playing fast and loose with the trust and faith of their flocks.
The irony of having an Orthodox schismatic on the LSN board, worried their readers would be alarmed if they knew LSN was working with sedevacantists, is too rich not to highlight.
Yeah, I have to admit that when someone makes a very astute observation that paradoxically reflects a great analytical take, yet is actually quite obvious on the hearing of it, it makes me a little jealous!
We already know that Rome/VII is pro-ecumenism in all its modes and so unity is probably being sought, so it's not a surprise that, if Lifesite was being 'taken over', that would happen.
I personally am far more concerned about the possible (I'm being hopeful there) Bill Gates connection. "co-CEO Robert Hoover, a former Microsoft executive with no prior experience in Catholic media" appears to have played a major role in this debacle. Apart from wondering why they would employ someone unconnected to Catholic media (someone might be a good Catholic with good relevant skills), it's highly suspicious that he's also ex-Microsoft. Again, it could be coincidence (just happened to work for Microsoft) BUT, I think it needs investigating by someone who can do so in detail. Just wondering if anyone knows anything else about him. I'll be having a look around online but there's not necessarily much available online, although I have found a partial email address.
At the end of the day, Gates is running a death cult so any even tenuous connection to him is highly problematical. I suppose it depends whether one believes such coincidences are usually innocent or more likely a case of 'no smoke without fire'.
This is the bit which made my eyes cross! "And it’s not about me but for LifeSite to simply say a successor of the Apostles is not significant to have their support, to me that said something very troubling." Is he saying here that everyone should support his opinion on the matter just because he's a Bishop? The board should just do as he says?
Yes! That was the passive aggressive line that upset me also. He was using guilt, passive aggression, and manipulation using the moral authority of his office.
Maybe those of us who are truly born again in the Lord Jesus and have Him living inside of us while we are continually consecrated to the Truth (who is Jesus) should say the same to Bishop Strickland and other clergy when they abuse their positions and are either ignorant or ignoring of what the Lord our God has to say about such behaviors within the c/Church from anyone. Do as we say Bishop, …, etc. because Jesus lives within us! Ha.
Instead, we should all just do what Jesus tells us to in His living word, and help one another to confess and repent when we don’t like His family is supposed to! What glorious days those will be!
I'm afraid you may be correct, and it's so very disheartening. Is it too much to hope this may be an occasion for +Strickland to have a deeper conversion and reject modernism en toto?
Everything that goes on in the Lord Jesus' family that I belong to is my/our business, and the clergy who wrongly think they have partiality and lordship abilities need to continually learn and live all the facets of that reality until they get it right with Him.
I feel youve written a Nagasaki of Truth with your comment. The other day on canon 212 I posited its time for organization and action. Yes its uncharted waters, certainly unusual, and slightly scandalous to even ourselves, but can we continue the way we are. They gaslight us so badly we cant speak truth to power, and they rape the church while we pretend we dont see it. The lack of ability to even address it is intolerable. Is this our most heroic response? Has any battle been won this way. Would we not rather try something new, that may fail, but make it harder on them to bury the faith as they are. We have some numbers and money to give or withhold. We use neither effectively, or haphazardly. We're entirely dishointed The church does not like bad PR. We can send emails, make phone calls, even picket, withhold money, educate catholics who hipefully join us. One wonders what it would mean if we organized into an active apostolate. They always want our active participation.
We are completely impotent. Shouldnt we think outside the box? What is the alternative.
We are NOT impotent with the Lord Jesus, but we do need to be organized and aligned with Him in order to be successful in correcting this nonsense. The answer and related practice is outlined in Matthew 18:15-20, which applies to EVERYONE within the Lord our God's Church (including the clergy who wrongly think they are beyond reproach and discipline/governance from the rest of us).
I recently went back and researched LSN content history to try to establish who the staffer was that banned me for questioning the preponderance of weird anti-government articles utterly unrelated to any Church, pro-life, or Catholic issues in general. Turns out it was most likely Steve Jalsevac, who scored the highest number of such articles, if not the sole content contributor of weird secular anti-government content at LSN. Aside from appearing paranoid in a creepy Captain Queeg sort of way, I also find it ironic that Steve emerged from the interwebs woodwork like an evil genie from a magic lamp and jumped ugly at my rather pedestrian comments here when the news broke about JHW getting fragged by his own board. Speaking as an engineer who troubleshoots system faults, I think we’ve identified one of the cross beams that have gone out askew on the treadle at the LSN mill.
Shortly after October 7, Steve Jalsevac banned me from commenting. I have his explanation interview. I was too supportive of Israel. I have a Jesuit history degree & am a Navy veteran
I know I said this on another thread, but it's worth repeating. Jalsevac 'rearranged' one complete thread by tactically deleting comments (inc. mine) so that instead of most posters disagreeing with him, suddenly there was little disagreement and he still had about 7 upvotes. I thought that a bit over the top, really - and not exactly subtle!!!
I gotta be honest, it doesn’t reflect well on JHW over recent years that LSN engaged in such rampant mean spirited and arbitrary censorship of curious and reasonable site commenters on his watch. Whether he honestly didn’t know about it, or simply let it slide, it goes a long way towards explaining how his own board and staff could pull a coup on him, catching him totally off guard. Not a good look.
It's not worth it - they'd just ban the username again! Not that I really want to post there any more - who wants a mouthful of abuse for daring to disagree?
…and just as suddenly, my LSN commenting privileges, after a brief reinstatement during which time I said nothing controversial, have been revoked again (does that suggest Westen is losing the tug of war, or was he the one to reinstate the ban?). Hmm.
Not sure how the organisation ever had any cohesion after reading the above insights?! Unfortunately I’ve never really trusted “deacons” and the back story to Ann Lyke is comical. If I was to give them any advice after this school yard biff, I’d briefly say
“We live in a carefully crafted and extremely deceptive time in human history, both inside and outside the Church that will lead to events that will only happen once. If you are not genuine in your Catholic Marian directed faith, guided by Our Lady to Her Son, resulting in a heart full of zeal & clarity, you will be easily deceived and not make it. Divisive choices started long ago. The chaff are becoming more easily identifiable by the week - if they continue to think this generation has the capacity to compromise & evolve to avoid the consequence of apostasy - their spiritual blindness to the incumbent hierarchy is as good as complete. Pray you empty yourself of self & turn to Church wisdom of old to see with clarity why events are happening since lightning struck St Peter’s basilica”
Turns out the LSN Board lied about the extensive drop in page views and traffic to their site, blaming JHW and his change in mission for that. A commenter on LSN provided this link to show the actual web traffic, it's called Lookle.com (I'm sure there's many such sites). Just type in https://www.lifesitenews.com to get the results. (Here's the link: https://www.lookkle.com/web-analytics/website-traffic-history-checker-tool.php.) But it shows a steady growth upward from when they started in 2002 to the present, with a slight dip around May 2025. Not the 72% drop they claimed and blamed on JHW. Such damn liars! I hope JHW can fire them all!
Sorry, I only just posted it after you had already written your post. Harrington is supposed to have the second part of the recorded meeting up today sometime on her YouTube channel. If I can get past having to watch and listen to that hypocritical, judgmental broad, I'll try and transcribe it, too.
Now she says she has a source that inaccurately says that Steven Kokx was removed because of allegations of harassment! It turns out the source is the Microsoft executive who was about to take over instead of John Henry. This just keeps getting more awful.
I wonder if she/they are trying to infer that Steve is the employee referenced by Patrick in the meeting tape that had multiple allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him by several female staffers. These people need to be sued big time! The Catholic Esquire made a very sensible video on this whole matter about breaking it all down objectively, and actually finding more in John-Henry's favor. Cool guy! Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo09ZuDOiYE
I just posted a newly revised transcript to include the second tape (which is actually the beginning of the Board meeting), combining both tapes into one document for easier continuity. If you'd like, please read it at my Substack. Thank you for all your kind comments and likes.
By the way, I'm boiling after listening (again) to these so-called paragons of Catholic piety and virtue, and if I may share my own personal opinion of this alleged meeting, I have little to no doubt that - with the exception of a few, maybe - these men and women, including (and especially) Deacon Fournier and Bishop Strickland - planned and plotted this coup for the purpose of getting rid of John-Henry and highjacking and taking over LifeSiteNews. Deacon Fournier appears to me to be an obsequious, smarmy opportunist out for himself (I've seen and worked with his type within the Church too many times) and I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw his more-than-ample ass (and since I'm a fairly small woman with aged, arthritic joints, that wouldn't be too far); and Bishop Strickland certainly - in my book, anyway - is far from being the kind, holy, sympathetic character he led us all to believe. He is, without a doubt, not. (Now I'm wondering if Francis didn't have good cause after all to remove him from Tyler. Two sides, everyone; two sides.) It's also very suspect that after decades of running LSN successfully, a few relatively new upstarts to the company (namely, Patrick Fabian and Ann Lyke, who both should be thrown out on their ear), who have been there less than four years each - including DF and BS, both of who started there, I think, around late 2023, or thereabouts (correct me if I'm wrong) - suddenly claim to work for the devil and evil, Nazi sedevacantists. I could go on, singling out several obvious illegal as hell remarks and nuances in the meeting (Royce and Dominic both tried to but not hard enough), but let me calm down and get off my soap box before I stroke out. God bless every one of us, imperfect human beings that we are, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Jesus: "There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest."
Christian NGOs: "Don't forget you signed an NDA. If you spill anything that was said in this room, we will crush you. In the meantime, we will put out our dissembling spin, squid ink and bureaucratic obfuscation."
I don't understand how people who in theory devote their lives to Truth, default immediately to deviousness, lies and misdirection. If they want to fire someone for a reason, say the reason, and say the reason publicly. It is sickening how among those most consistent obfuscators and dissemblers are far too many Christian organizations. (Broad brush, I know, but I think people know what I mean and we all know it when we see it.)
"Let your communication be 'Yea, yea; Nay, nay', for whatsoever is more than this cometh of the evil one."
A quick look at the editorial content over recent years would indicate Strickland and Hoover are actually just fine with LSN being an “opinion site.” As long as they agree with the opinions, or if the opinions are just weird secular argle bargle.
Anyone working in a bureaucracy recognizes rhe night of the long knives. Once you're the target, you're isolated, frozen, and out they come. Charity has no place in this situation, tears may melt some hearts, but when its been decided youre the problem, theres no shortage of coworkers who will happily join in. Psychology kicks in, mass bullying. Theyre in, youre out. Its horrifying to observe, worse to endure. The Board comes off idiotic, what poorly cobbled together reasons, they ambushed the man, and as you said, insulted when he resisted? My goodness. That seems lacking in all empathy and compassion. It is abusive, if youre on the receiving end of it. Obviously this is about Leo and Trad Inc. In this debacle, only John Henry demonstrated dignity and christian behavior. But I dont know how comfortable he should feel given what he knows now.
If the board had issues with JHW, they should have handled it internally, under the radar, and not publicly. What were they thinking? John Henry was the face of LifeSite News. Did they not anticipate the pushback they would receive from the readers?
And the board did not take into consideration any other people behind him, specifically, Stephen Bannon. And I believe Bannon helped Westen behind the scenes, as he knows people who won’t back down from a fight.
So, the board is in partial schism, the CEO seat was sedevacante for a few days, and an orthodox marketing director read from a bull of consternation that she inherited chaos.
Call me naïve, but I honestly didn't believe Strickland was involved like this. Yes, his post the day Westen was ousted seemed suspicious, but for some reason I thought he had more conscience than that -- at least, that's what I would've liked to believe.
Seems to me that this is all part-n-parcel with the challenge Satan laid before Our Lord 100 years ago. There he said how given 100 years he (Satan) if allowed to run amok, would destroy the Church. Our Lord basically said…”go for it”. We also have apparitions from Our Lady warning us of such things. Thus we find ourselves in the current situation. Needless to say we’re being tested and chastised at the same time…only problem is that it’s going to get worse. Fortunately Our Lord wins in the end (obviously) but the turmoil in the interim will be devastating. Seems to me that we hold fast to the authentic faith/Church, pray the rosary, and push back wherever possible. Pax
For one thing, you don’t just oust a CEO based on one flimsy survey. CEOs very much have corporate rights in such situations. This did not happen so the Board is grossly incompetent on many levels.
For another, Steve Jalsevac had been uniquely unhinged, anti-Semitic, and obviously bullying in LSN’s own comments in articles before and during Iran/Israel war. It caused me to call them to explain my donation withdrawal, weeks before this incident. Why was he not fired?
"anti-Semitic" - I don't think that word mean what you think it does. You seem to be using it in the sense of "any criticism of Jewish / Zionist behaviour". As E. Michael Jones explains: "Anti-Semitism is a biological term which came int being in Germany in the 1870s, largely because of the writings of Wilhelm Marr, who was looking for a non-theological way of criticizing Jewish behavior. At no point in the period following its invention did any Catholic subscribe to "Anti-Semitism," because its biological determinism ran afoul of the fact that both the Jews who worshipped Christ as the son of God and the Jews who called for his death shared the same DNA." (The Holocaust Narrative, p. 225). Steve Jalsevac and LifesiteNews have certainly criticised the ethnic cleansing and supremicist policies of Zionist Jews in the Middle East, as well as their "Christian Zionist" supporters in the US -- in the same way that non-Zionist Jews have criticized those same policies.
As Col. Douglas Macgregor pointed out, the current phase of the Iran/Israel war began with a Pearl Harbor attack on Iran by the Israeli regime -- and we all remember how that worked out for the Japanese in the 1940s.
It is you who brought up the word anti-semetic. And the Mr Chapeskie's response, IMO, was correct in pointing out your incorrect usage and context of the use of the word.
One more thing: Strickland.
A fortuitous (or providential) recording of Strickland acting in favor of Trad Inc. reveals the modus operandi by which Deep Church operates: This man has passed for many as a traditional bishop, despite the fact that he says the new Mass, accepts the legitimacy of Vatican II, was "consecrated" in the new rite, and tried to counteract +Vigano.
"But Mr. Johnson, it was Rome who silenced him!"
Nonsense!
Rome gave him "street cred" with the appearance of a censure/removal.
The dupes from that point onward began fawning over him as a "trad" persecuted by the "modernists."
Ahem, are these people simply naive, or are they also part of Trad Inc?
Francis deployed +Hounder to the SSPX in 2017 explicitly to "help them in the reconciliation process." What he really did was condition them to accepting the ministrations of doubtfully consecrated bishops and ordained priests. Initially, they stated he was simply there to retire. Soon, he was saying public Masses, then confirming, and finally "consecrating" holy oils for the SSPX. Today he rests next to Lefebvre in Econe (the gorge rises)!
The sheep said nothing (except this blacksheep).
The point being, if Rome wants to inject an operative bishop into a traditional/semi-traditional venue, it is very easy to do. They don't operate according to Catholic morality. Its a war, and they use Satan's tactics. Strickland is exposed as a control agent, and its a blessing he's exposed.
Until Catholics rise up en masse against the revolution which has robbed us all of real Catholicism, the crisis can only continue. Heaven forbid I should be numbered amongst the pathetic, disinterested silent masses!! But until the indult-types understand they're begging for favors from wolves, and shun them, nothing can change.
They took your sacraments, ecclesiology, canon law, saints, popes, catechisms, rites, and replaced them with....something else, and you sat there and said nothing. So this is what you got.
If there were 25 Jacksons in the world, what a run for the money we could give them!!
Bp. Strickland’s Substack shortly after JHW’s firing admonished in a finger wagging fashion anyone assigning unseemly politics to the decision. He assured us that it was purely a business matter and that we should , in so many words, mind our own beeswax. Given what we now know, in that one Substack posting his eminence squandered every precious drop of authority and credibility that he’d accumulated since his own ostensible canceling. Man am I ever sick and tired of being deceived and disappointed by our shepherds playing fast and loose with the trust and faith of their flocks.
Agree. He came off as a condescending holier than thou manipulative passive aggressive bully/ hypocrite in the meeting imo.
I just added quotations that highlight just how bad Strickland comes off. Take a look.
The irony of having an Orthodox schismatic on the LSN board, worried their readers would be alarmed if they knew LSN was working with sedevacantists, is too rich not to highlight.
The board is now in schism and the audio recording has become the equivalent of the ColdPlay Judas Kiss Cam.
Yeah, I have to admit that when someone makes a very astute observation that paradoxically reflects a great analytical take, yet is actually quite obvious on the hearing of it, it makes me a little jealous!
Who is this Chris Jackson, anyway?! Me likey!
We already know that Rome/VII is pro-ecumenism in all its modes and so unity is probably being sought, so it's not a surprise that, if Lifesite was being 'taken over', that would happen.
I personally am far more concerned about the possible (I'm being hopeful there) Bill Gates connection. "co-CEO Robert Hoover, a former Microsoft executive with no prior experience in Catholic media" appears to have played a major role in this debacle. Apart from wondering why they would employ someone unconnected to Catholic media (someone might be a good Catholic with good relevant skills), it's highly suspicious that he's also ex-Microsoft. Again, it could be coincidence (just happened to work for Microsoft) BUT, I think it needs investigating by someone who can do so in detail. Just wondering if anyone knows anything else about him. I'll be having a look around online but there's not necessarily much available online, although I have found a partial email address.
At the end of the day, Gates is running a death cult so any even tenuous connection to him is highly problematical. I suppose it depends whether one believes such coincidences are usually innocent or more likely a case of 'no smoke without fire'.
This is the bit which made my eyes cross! "And it’s not about me but for LifeSite to simply say a successor of the Apostles is not significant to have their support, to me that said something very troubling." Is he saying here that everyone should support his opinion on the matter just because he's a Bishop? The board should just do as he says?
Yes! That was the passive aggressive line that upset me also. He was using guilt, passive aggression, and manipulation using the moral authority of his office.
Passive Aggressivism is the english translation of aggiornamento.
I think it would be what these days is apparently termed 'spiritual abuse'. A lot of it about at present!
Mainstream Catholicism worships Catholic bishops. Sad, but true.
Talk about being caught dead to rights in the act of crass, naked clericalism. Yikes.
Maybe those of us who are truly born again in the Lord Jesus and have Him living inside of us while we are continually consecrated to the Truth (who is Jesus) should say the same to Bishop Strickland and other clergy when they abuse their positions and are either ignorant or ignoring of what the Lord our God has to say about such behaviors within the c/Church from anyone. Do as we say Bishop, …, etc. because Jesus lives within us! Ha.
Instead, we should all just do what Jesus tells us to in His living word, and help one another to confess and repent when we don’t like His family is supposed to! What glorious days those will be!
https://crisismagazine.com/podcast/building-a-catholic-community-in-east-texas
I'm afraid you may be correct, and it's so very disheartening. Is it too much to hope this may be an occasion for +Strickland to have a deeper conversion and reject modernism en toto?
Everything that goes on in the Lord Jesus' family that I belong to is my/our business, and the clergy who wrongly think they have partiality and lordship abilities need to continually learn and live all the facets of that reality until they get it right with Him.
Holy subterfuge, Batman!! Looks like Trad Inc had a mole on its team!!
It evokes the image of Batman running around on the pier with a bomb marked BOMB in capital letters and he can't find anywhere to throw it. https://youtu.be/Nri3o0KFg-8?si=tD-9JhrLjCbeJ41U
I feel youve written a Nagasaki of Truth with your comment. The other day on canon 212 I posited its time for organization and action. Yes its uncharted waters, certainly unusual, and slightly scandalous to even ourselves, but can we continue the way we are. They gaslight us so badly we cant speak truth to power, and they rape the church while we pretend we dont see it. The lack of ability to even address it is intolerable. Is this our most heroic response? Has any battle been won this way. Would we not rather try something new, that may fail, but make it harder on them to bury the faith as they are. We have some numbers and money to give or withhold. We use neither effectively, or haphazardly. We're entirely dishointed The church does not like bad PR. We can send emails, make phone calls, even picket, withhold money, educate catholics who hipefully join us. One wonders what it would mean if we organized into an active apostolate. They always want our active participation.
We are completely impotent. Shouldnt we think outside the box? What is the alternative.
We are NOT impotent with the Lord Jesus, but we do need to be organized and aligned with Him in order to be successful in correcting this nonsense. The answer and related practice is outlined in Matthew 18:15-20, which applies to EVERYONE within the Lord our God's Church (including the clergy who wrongly think they are beyond reproach and discipline/governance from the rest of us).
Excellent points Sean! You should start a substack (you have always had something to say <gr>).
Funny you should say that, Stephen. I just published my first post 5 minutes ago:
https://seraphim54.substack.com/p/apologia-pro-vita-sua
Amen
Well said Sean! I agree 100%!
Might as well turn the comments box off on this one: Jackson has stated the case so well as to leave scarcely anything else to say.
PS: Suddenly my commenting privileges on LSN have been restored. What a coincidence!
I recently went back and researched LSN content history to try to establish who the staffer was that banned me for questioning the preponderance of weird anti-government articles utterly unrelated to any Church, pro-life, or Catholic issues in general. Turns out it was most likely Steve Jalsevac, who scored the highest number of such articles, if not the sole content contributor of weird secular anti-government content at LSN. Aside from appearing paranoid in a creepy Captain Queeg sort of way, I also find it ironic that Steve emerged from the interwebs woodwork like an evil genie from a magic lamp and jumped ugly at my rather pedestrian comments here when the news broke about JHW getting fragged by his own board. Speaking as an engineer who troubleshoots system faults, I think we’ve identified one of the cross beams that have gone out askew on the treadle at the LSN mill.
Shortly after October 7, Steve Jalsevac banned me from commenting. I have his explanation interview. I was too supportive of Israel. I have a Jesuit history degree & am a Navy veteran
I know I said this on another thread, but it's worth repeating. Jalsevac 'rearranged' one complete thread by tactically deleting comments (inc. mine) so that instead of most posters disagreeing with him, suddenly there was little disagreement and he still had about 7 upvotes. I thought that a bit over the top, really - and not exactly subtle!!!
I gotta be honest, it doesn’t reflect well on JHW over recent years that LSN engaged in such rampant mean spirited and arbitrary censorship of curious and reasonable site commenters on his watch. Whether he honestly didn’t know about it, or simply let it slide, it goes a long way towards explaining how his own board and staff could pull a coup on him, catching him totally off guard. Not a good look.
Apparently, he had a lot of faith in them. I don't think he'll be as naive now.
Wish they'd restore my banned personas!! Actually, I think it's the IP address they may have blocked.
or you could use a free vpn
It's not worth it - they'd just ban the username again! Not that I really want to post there any more - who wants a mouthful of abuse for daring to disagree?
I guess if you count J-H westen as one of the dupes who trusted Strickland then I was in good company.
Really. Not mine. Prediction : JPII, defender of the V2 faith V Prevost as the unofficial 'mission' statement of the return.
…and just as suddenly, my LSN commenting privileges, after a brief reinstatement during which time I said nothing controversial, have been revoked again (does that suggest Westen is losing the tug of war, or was he the one to reinstate the ban?). Hmm.
I have not been so fortunate…
You're now in full communion with LSN.
Not sure how the organisation ever had any cohesion after reading the above insights?! Unfortunately I’ve never really trusted “deacons” and the back story to Ann Lyke is comical. If I was to give them any advice after this school yard biff, I’d briefly say
“We live in a carefully crafted and extremely deceptive time in human history, both inside and outside the Church that will lead to events that will only happen once. If you are not genuine in your Catholic Marian directed faith, guided by Our Lady to Her Son, resulting in a heart full of zeal & clarity, you will be easily deceived and not make it. Divisive choices started long ago. The chaff are becoming more easily identifiable by the week - if they continue to think this generation has the capacity to compromise & evolve to avoid the consequence of apostasy - their spiritual blindness to the incumbent hierarchy is as good as complete. Pray you empty yourself of self & turn to Church wisdom of old to see with clarity why events are happening since lightning struck St Peter’s basilica”
Many thumbs up to this response.
"O Blessed Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to You."
Turns out the LSN Board lied about the extensive drop in page views and traffic to their site, blaming JHW and his change in mission for that. A commenter on LSN provided this link to show the actual web traffic, it's called Lookle.com (I'm sure there's many such sites). Just type in https://www.lifesitenews.com to get the results. (Here's the link: https://www.lookkle.com/web-analytics/website-traffic-history-checker-tool.php.) But it shows a steady growth upward from when they started in 2002 to the present, with a slight dip around May 2025. Not the 72% drop they claimed and blamed on JHW. Such damn liars! I hope JHW can fire them all!
I posted a written transcript of the leaked recording on my substack, if anyone cares to read it.
I wish I had seen this before I wrote the article. Would have saved me a lot of time! 😅
Sorry, I only just posted it after you had already written your post. Harrington is supposed to have the second part of the recorded meeting up today sometime on her YouTube channel. If I can get past having to watch and listen to that hypocritical, judgmental broad, I'll try and transcribe it, too.
Haha! It is already up!
I searched for it but couldn't find it. Can you please send the link? Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7fLJNx7MKg&t=704s
She has the unfortunate curse of a Michigander accent combined with an off register speech pattern.
The annoying tone deafness and myopic focus on minutae is thrown in as a free bonus for enduring the commentary.
Now she says she has a source that inaccurately says that Steven Kokx was removed because of allegations of harassment! It turns out the source is the Microsoft executive who was about to take over instead of John Henry. This just keeps getting more awful.
https://x.com/stephenkokx/status/1946432588362502636?s=46&t=R4xyMNVYgeB6hu6jyd3HHA
I wonder if she/they are trying to infer that Steve is the employee referenced by Patrick in the meeting tape that had multiple allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him by several female staffers. These people need to be sued big time! The Catholic Esquire made a very sensible video on this whole matter about breaking it all down objectively, and actually finding more in John-Henry's favor. Cool guy! Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo09ZuDOiYE
Yes, he is very good!
I linked to it. Thank you!
I just posted a newly revised transcript to include the second tape (which is actually the beginning of the Board meeting), combining both tapes into one document for easier continuity. If you'd like, please read it at my Substack. Thank you for all your kind comments and likes.
By the way, I'm boiling after listening (again) to these so-called paragons of Catholic piety and virtue, and if I may share my own personal opinion of this alleged meeting, I have little to no doubt that - with the exception of a few, maybe - these men and women, including (and especially) Deacon Fournier and Bishop Strickland - planned and plotted this coup for the purpose of getting rid of John-Henry and highjacking and taking over LifeSiteNews. Deacon Fournier appears to me to be an obsequious, smarmy opportunist out for himself (I've seen and worked with his type within the Church too many times) and I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw his more-than-ample ass (and since I'm a fairly small woman with aged, arthritic joints, that wouldn't be too far); and Bishop Strickland certainly - in my book, anyway - is far from being the kind, holy, sympathetic character he led us all to believe. He is, without a doubt, not. (Now I'm wondering if Francis didn't have good cause after all to remove him from Tyler. Two sides, everyone; two sides.) It's also very suspect that after decades of running LSN successfully, a few relatively new upstarts to the company (namely, Patrick Fabian and Ann Lyke, who both should be thrown out on their ear), who have been there less than four years each - including DF and BS, both of who started there, I think, around late 2023, or thereabouts (correct me if I'm wrong) - suddenly claim to work for the devil and evil, Nazi sedevacantists. I could go on, singling out several obvious illegal as hell remarks and nuances in the meeting (Royce and Dominic both tried to but not hard enough), but let me calm down and get off my soap box before I stroke out. God bless every one of us, imperfect human beings that we are, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Jesus: "There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest."
Christian NGOs: "Don't forget you signed an NDA. If you spill anything that was said in this room, we will crush you. In the meantime, we will put out our dissembling spin, squid ink and bureaucratic obfuscation."
I don't understand how people who in theory devote their lives to Truth, default immediately to deviousness, lies and misdirection. If they want to fire someone for a reason, say the reason, and say the reason publicly. It is sickening how among those most consistent obfuscators and dissemblers are far too many Christian organizations. (Broad brush, I know, but I think people know what I mean and we all know it when we see it.)
"Let your communication be 'Yea, yea; Nay, nay', for whatsoever is more than this cometh of the evil one."
Hmmmmm...... The juicy parts of a 'survey' being used as the excuse to obtain certain predetermined ends?? Lifesite has learned a lot from Rome.
A quick look at the editorial content over recent years would indicate Strickland and Hoover are actually just fine with LSN being an “opinion site.” As long as they agree with the opinions, or if the opinions are just weird secular argle bargle.
Bingo
Anyone working in a bureaucracy recognizes rhe night of the long knives. Once you're the target, you're isolated, frozen, and out they come. Charity has no place in this situation, tears may melt some hearts, but when its been decided youre the problem, theres no shortage of coworkers who will happily join in. Psychology kicks in, mass bullying. Theyre in, youre out. Its horrifying to observe, worse to endure. The Board comes off idiotic, what poorly cobbled together reasons, they ambushed the man, and as you said, insulted when he resisted? My goodness. That seems lacking in all empathy and compassion. It is abusive, if youre on the receiving end of it. Obviously this is about Leo and Trad Inc. In this debacle, only John Henry demonstrated dignity and christian behavior. But I dont know how comfortable he should feel given what he knows now.
Very, very well put. Thank you, you said what I feel, too.
If the board had issues with JHW, they should have handled it internally, under the radar, and not publicly. What were they thinking? John Henry was the face of LifeSite News. Did they not anticipate the pushback they would receive from the readers?
And the board did not take into consideration any other people behind him, specifically, Stephen Bannon. And I believe Bannon helped Westen behind the scenes, as he knows people who won’t back down from a fight.
Bravo!
So, the board is in partial schism, the CEO seat was sedevacante for a few days, and an orthodox marketing director read from a bull of consternation that she inherited chaos.
Sounds like Season 14 of the Apprentice.
Call me naïve, but I honestly didn't believe Strickland was involved like this. Yes, his post the day Westen was ousted seemed suspicious, but for some reason I thought he had more conscience than that -- at least, that's what I would've liked to believe.
Seems to me that this is all part-n-parcel with the challenge Satan laid before Our Lord 100 years ago. There he said how given 100 years he (Satan) if allowed to run amok, would destroy the Church. Our Lord basically said…”go for it”. We also have apparitions from Our Lady warning us of such things. Thus we find ourselves in the current situation. Needless to say we’re being tested and chastised at the same time…only problem is that it’s going to get worse. Fortunately Our Lord wins in the end (obviously) but the turmoil in the interim will be devastating. Seems to me that we hold fast to the authentic faith/Church, pray the rosary, and push back wherever possible. Pax
For one thing, you don’t just oust a CEO based on one flimsy survey. CEOs very much have corporate rights in such situations. This did not happen so the Board is grossly incompetent on many levels.
For another, Steve Jalsevac had been uniquely unhinged, anti-Semitic, and obviously bullying in LSN’s own comments in articles before and during Iran/Israel war. It caused me to call them to explain my donation withdrawal, weeks before this incident. Why was he not fired?
"anti-Semitic" - I don't think that word mean what you think it does. You seem to be using it in the sense of "any criticism of Jewish / Zionist behaviour". As E. Michael Jones explains: "Anti-Semitism is a biological term which came int being in Germany in the 1870s, largely because of the writings of Wilhelm Marr, who was looking for a non-theological way of criticizing Jewish behavior. At no point in the period following its invention did any Catholic subscribe to "Anti-Semitism," because its biological determinism ran afoul of the fact that both the Jews who worshipped Christ as the son of God and the Jews who called for his death shared the same DNA." (The Holocaust Narrative, p. 225). Steve Jalsevac and LifesiteNews have certainly criticised the ethnic cleansing and supremicist policies of Zionist Jews in the Middle East, as well as their "Christian Zionist" supporters in the US -- in the same way that non-Zionist Jews have criticized those same policies.
As Col. Douglas Macgregor pointed out, the current phase of the Iran/Israel war began with a Pearl Harbor attack on Iran by the Israeli regime -- and we all remember how that worked out for the Japanese in the 1940s.
Not relevant to the current LSN debacle.
And this all has nothing to do with the appropriateness of actions and words of a co-founding CEO on a public forum.
It is you who brought up the word anti-semetic. And the Mr Chapeskie's response, IMO, was correct in pointing out your incorrect usage and context of the use of the word.
We are after all seeking truth.