The Truth Comes Out: John-Henry Westen Fired for Making LifeSite too Traditionally Catholic

Criticism of the Pope Lead to a Perception of Sedevacantism That Hurt Donations

It didn’t take long.

Just days after the boardroom coup that ousted LifeSiteNews co-founder John-Henry Westen, a coordinated, three-phase damage control campaign began rolling out, designed not only to calm supporters, but to reprogram the memory of why he was removed.

What started as vague talk of a sabbatical, wrapped in thoughts and prayers, quickly morphed into a sanitized corporate narrative: “It was just business. Nothing personal. Please stop speculating.”

But the sequence of events, and the tone of those involved, tells a different story.

Phase I: Bishop Strickland Offers a Gentle Reassurance

(https://x.com/bishstrickland/status/1942982186988130615?s=46&t=R4xyMNVYgeB6hu6jyd3HHA)

The first public response came from Bishop Joseph Strickland. His statement framed Westen’s ouster as a sad but not sinister development:

“Some have suggested—or outright claimed—that he was removed because he spoke the truth about Pope Leo XIV… Let me state this clearly: that is not true.”

He continued:

“We must resist the temptation to turn every change into a symbol of betrayal… John-Henry remains my brother in Christ, a man I respect and admire, and a voice we still need in this battle for the soul of the Church.”

The tone was pastoral, almost fatherly. And while Strickland’s loyalty to Westen is evident, his insistence that “speculation” is harmful rings hollow when the facts are plain. The decision to fire Westen was not made in a vacuum. It followed months of high-profile speeches, interviews, and editorials in which he criticized Francis, Leo XIV, and the postconciliar regime with growing clarity.

This wasn’t speculation, but cause and effect.

Phase II: LifeSite Corporate Blames the Metrics

(https://x.com/lifesite/status/1943061958720110962?s=46&t=R4xyMNVYgeB6hu6jyd3HHA)

Next came the official LifeSite statement, posted to X under Steve Jalsevac’s name. Here, the tone turned managerial:

• 72% drop in readership from 2021 to 2024

• Declining donations

• “Staff sentiment and safety scores”

• Organizational restructuring

This is classic HR-speak. The kind of language used to fire someone without admitting why. Westen wasn’t cast out for telling the truth, we’re told: he just confused the branding, scared the interns, and hurt the fundraising.

Curiously, no mention is made that many websites and organizations faced reduced traffic and fundraising post-Covid; nor what specific content LifeSite is blaming for the downturn. But we’re left to infer: it was the increasing focus on Catholic tradition, the Latin Mass, and public confrontation with the papacy. In other words, the very things that made LifeSite matter.

Phase III: Steve Jalsevac Goes Public and Blames Westen

(https://x.com/jalsevacs/status/1943060853881999769?s=46&t=R4xyMNVYgeB6hu6jyd3HHA)

The final phase came when Jalsevac published a response on his personal X account. Any pretense of neutrality was gone:

“In recent years, John-Henry worked and insisted that we change the highly successful LifeSiteNews mission to become a dramatically different one of a traditional, Latin Mass Catholic evangelizing, religious organization to draw readers into the Catholic Church according to the teachings of the Council of Trent…”

He accuses Westen of turning LifeSite into a kind of retrograde missionary society centered on the Council of Trent. He says readers became confused. He claims donors felt alienated. He even admits some board members were removed to push Westen’s vision through, until the rest of the board removed him.

And then comes the most damning quote of all:

Our fears about the dangers of the dramatic mission change have proven to have been valid. Readership has plummeted, many have been dismayed by the change, LifeSite has been widely viewed as a sedevacantist website and donations have dramatically declined this past campaign.

There it is.

That’s the heart of the problem. Not metrics. Not confusion. Not internal polling. The problem is that Westen was increasingly unwilling to play the game; unwilling to pretend Leo XIV was a break from Francis, unwilling to fake optimism about a synodal Church now openly affirming same-sex “blessings” and praising non-Christian religions as valid paths to God.

He didn’t go full sedevacantist, but he broke the invisible rule: Never say out loud what traditional Catholics are whispering in private. The truth hurts donations.

From Correction to Erasure

The LifeSite leadership isn’t just explaining a firing. They’re rewriting Westen’s legacy:

• From courageous critic → to confused evangelist

• From faithful reformer → to mission creep

• From truth-teller → to liability

They want to retain his credibility without his conclusions. To preserve the audience without the message. They’ll praise his past while quietly removing his future.

And to do this, they need you to believe this was a misunderstanding, not a betrayal.

What They Want You to Forget

Let the record show:

• John-Henry Westen was fired after months of escalating clarity about the crisis in the Church.

• He said publicly that Leo XIV would continue the war on tradition.

• He called out synodality, Fiducia Supplicans, and doctrinal confusion with force and frequency.

• And now the organization he helped build has exiled him, buried his message under “staff sentiment,” and told us all to stop speculating.

They didn’t just remove him.

They’re trying to unwrite him.

Don’t Be Gaslit

If you’re a faithful Catholic who saw in Westen a rare voice of resistance, you weren’t confused.

If you sensed his firing was about fidelity, not finance, you weren’t paranoid.

If you find this coordinated PR campaign grotesque in its condescension, you’re not alone.

This was a purge, followed by a spin operation. And the only way it succeeds is if we agree to pretend otherwise.

Don’t.

Update: It has come to my attention that Steve Jalsevec deleted his last X post referred to above. Here it is in its entirety.