A group of Satanists are holding a convention in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Catholic evangelist Jesse Romero is organizing a public prayer presence in response. Learn about the growth of Satanism in this country and what Catholics should do in response.
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Eric Sammons:
A satanic conference is coming to Scottsdale, Arizona, and a group of Catholics is planning to take public action against it. Find out more about this on today’s Crisis Point.
Hello, I’m Eric Sammons, your host, and the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. Before we get started, just want to encourage people to like and subscribe to this channel, to this episode, wherever you might listen to it, wherever you might watch it. Also, follow us on various social media. We stream these podcasts on both YouTube and Odysee. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, but we’re also on the alternative channels like Gab and GETTR, Parler, MeWe, all those, because we never know when we might get canceled. Also, I just want to encourage people to donate to Crisis Magazine. You can just go to crisismagazine.com/donate.
So, our guest today is Jesse Romero. He has a master’s degree in Catholic theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville like me, but don’t hold that against him. Before and since then, he has spent his time teaching; speaking; writing; giving Catholic Bible studies, conferences, missions, and retreats on all matters related to the Catholic faith. In my opinion, he’s one of the top Catholic evangelists there are today. Welcome to the program, Jesse.
Jesse Romero:
Thanks, Eric. Thanks for having me on. I’ve been a admirer of your work for many years, and I’m a reader of Crisis Magazine.
Eric Sammons:
Thank you very much. Tell us a little bit more about your background, how you got… Are you a convert? Did you fall away from the faith in anything? Have you always been Catholic, and how’d you get into actually being a Catholic evangelist?
Jesse Romero:
I was born and raised in the Catholic faith. I’m Mexican-American. My parents are from Mexico. I was born and raised in southern California, but I grew up, born in 1961. So, I was a young, Hispanic Catholic in southern California during what I would call the balloons, banners, and butterflies years, post Vatican II, the diabolical disorientation that came into the church.
So, I grew up basically as a Sunday-checkbox Catholic, I would consider myself a secular humanist from Monday through Saturday. For an hour a week, I checked off the box, because that’s what all Hispanic Catholics do. We go to Mass on Sunday. We process with Our Lady of Guadalupe feast days. We have parish fiestas. We go to baptisms. So, Catholicism to me was a culture. It wasn’t something that was in my heart.
I joined the L.A. Sheriff’s Department very young, at the age of 19, actually, as a civilian. I went through the academy at 21. And it was little-by-little as I started encountering non-Catholics, what we would call Protestant brothers, in the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, which is the largest sheriff’s department in the world, and we would talk about politics, religion. And I was easy pickings because I was a low-information Catholic.
So, I was just listening to people, listening to different ideas. And I realized for the first time ever that there is such a thing as Protestant Christians, because I grew up in a little hub, a little suburb, a little body of community in Los Angeles, everybody was Catholic, the mayor, the cops, the crossing guard, everybody.
And so when I left that comfort zone and I realized that there are non-Catholics in the world, it opened my eyes. I started looking and reading and searching and questioning, and little-by-little through this relationship I had with a cop friend of mine, we worked together for about the next two years side-by-side eight hours a day. He was a young rookie cop. He was a black Protestant from Calvary Chapel.
We would get into long conversations in between arrests, giving tickets, towing cars. We would get into long conversations about Jesus; about the macro issues, death, judgment, heaven, hell. “What am I doing here? Who am I? Where am I going?” And he’s the one that started engaging my mind into what I would call mere Christianity, the fact that there’s nobody like Jesus. He is totally unique. He’s more than a carpenter. He is the unique Son of God.
And then little-by-little my wife, my parents started realizing that I was drifting away from Catholicism to Evangelical Protestantism with these well-reasoned arguments from mere Christianity, the Bible and Answer Man, Josh McDowell. I was cutting my teeth in all these books 30 years ago, all these radio programs put out by Protestant Bible exegetes.
So, my mom and dad saw me, and my wife saw me drifting away from the Catholic church. Guess what happened in 1989 who was coming to town? There was a small, little apostolate called Catholic Answers put out by Karl Keating and Patrick Madrid, 30-some-odd years ago. They were coming to the Long Beach Marriott.
The pastor of my parish said, “You know what? My mom and dad say that you have a lot of good questions. You’re really studying. You have that intellectual side of you. I’d like to pay for you, put you up in a hotel. Go to this conference. It’s called Go Forward and Teach. It’s being put on by an organization called Catholic Answers. We want to put you through a 30-hour course. You come back to the parish, teach RCIA, get involved in adult education. And all the other apostolates here in the parish, we want to plug you into teaching. But we want to form you well, because we see that there’s a desire in you.”
So, this is November, 1989. I sat through a 30-hour course, the young Dr. Scott Hahn collocating the young Patrick Madrid, Gerry Matatics, Steve Wood, Deal Hudson, Father Mitch Pacwa. They were all probably 10 years, a little older than me. I was like in my mid-twenties at the time.
I walked out of there, Eric, completely transformed, and I took out my credit card. I told Karl, the young Karl Keating and Pat Madrid, I said, “Every book that you have there, every cassette, I want everything that you have there.” I put my credit card down. My bill back in 1989 was $1,500. I bought everything that they had there. I went home, and the next month I literally digested this. And at that moment, that changed my way of thinking. I said, “Protestantism is lacking so much. I am a Catholic Christian.”
From that point on, I was 27 or 28, I began preaching the gospel. Every time I had a day off Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays as a cop, I was plugging myself into some parish around Los Angeles and giving a lecture on apologetics and sharing my faith. I almost left the Catholic faith, because I wasn’t well-formed. I was forming myself with Protestant material, and the way the Catholic faith is the one true church. I’ve been doing this for 30-some-odd years.
I went 20 years. My wife said, “I think God is calling you to be an evangelist.” I retired early from the sheriff’s department at 20, after 20 years. The sheriff said, “Are you crazy? What are you going to do with your life?” He was a Jew, Sheriff Block. I said, “Sheriff, I’m going to go serve another Jew. His name’s the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Are you kidding me? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to be a missionary Catholic lay evangelist. I’m in love with Jesus.” I turned in my badge and gun to him. There was tears in the room. And from that point on, I picked up a Bible and the rosary, and I’ve never looked back.
Eric Sammons:
That’s awesome. Well, that $1,500 you put down in 1989, that was better money spent than if you put it in Apple. I mean, that was a better investment than if you’d done Microsoft, Apple, or anything like that or if you had gotten in on Bitcoin first thing. That was the best investment you probably ever made in your life.
Jesse Romero:
Amen. It was life changing. I just turned 60 last month. I’ve never had any regrets retiring early from the sheriff’s department. I loved the job. I loved taking people to jail. I love police work. I love hunting for criminals. I love the action. I love running after people, jumping fences, car chases.
But when I fell in love with Jesus, when I came to see the uniqueness of Christ, I said, “There is something far greater that I can do with my time here on earth than serving in law enforcement. That’s serving the gospel of Jesus Christ as a Catholic lay evangelist,” because I saw what Billy Graham was doing and other people.
I’m saying, “Where are the Catholic lay people talking to other Catholics about how amazing our Lord Jesus Christ. There’s nobody like Him.” So, I figured maybe the Lord has called me to do this, and I’ve been doing it for at least the last 20 years. And I’ve never had any regrets.
Eric Sammons:
So, you’ve been out in the public eye as a Catholic lay person for decades now, and that brings us into what we want to talk about today. So, explain what’s happening. I mentioned there’s a Satanist conference coming to Scottsdale, Arizona. Explain to us what’s going on here.
Jesse Romero:
Well, first of all, there’s a rise of Satanism in America and even in the Catholic church. A few months ago, somebody sent me an email, said, “Hey, Jess. Did you know this is coming down in your neck of the woods, satancon.com?” I looked into it. And the Temple of Satan, which is very organized, they got cells all over the country, they’re coming to Scottsdale, which is a city in the diocese of Phoenix, to do the first annual Satan conference next Friday, well this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, February 11th, 12th, and 13th.
This is kind of in your face, Eric. They’ve never done this before. This is the first time they’re actually going to do an organized three-days conference. They’re bringing in their high priests, witches, wizards, shamans; and it’s an organized conference. They’re going to be doing sex magic in there.
I looked at their schedule. There’s a lot of dead space where they have a few hours where they have nothing posted. What they’re going to be doing is the black mass, because that’s what they do when they come together. They’re just not going to post it on their website because they don’t want, again, real, real pushback.
So, what I did, knowing that lay people are called to sanctify the temporal order, it says that at least 15 times in Vatican II and three different documents. There’s also a document written by my bishop, Bishop Olmsted. It’s called Into the Breach, and it’s an exhortation to Catholic men. He also wrote another document. It’s called Catholics in the Public Square. I reread those documents. It’s very clear what he says, the marching orders. Lay Catholics are supposed to go out into the streets and pray and sanctify the temporal order.
So, I started organizing through my podcast and through other friends of mine, like you, for example. This is probably about the 10th podcast I’ve been on where I’m sharing that we need lay Catholics to come out, to bring their rosaries, come and live in a state of grace. We need to stand in front of the Saguaro Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona. We need to do prayers of reparation. When there’s public evil being done just like this at this magnitude, lay people need to come out, be in a state of grace, and do prayers of reparation.
As Our Lady of Fatima said in 1917, many souls go to hell because they have nobody to pray and do penance for them. That’s exactly what we want to do to these Satanists, because many of them, let’s just be honest. They’re baptized Catholics or baptized Protestants. If one out four, one out of five of Americans are baptized Roman Catholic Christians, and two out of three Americans are baptized Protestant Christians, there’s a bunch of children of God there that are in apostacy, that are in dissent. We need to go out there and pray so that we can merit the grace of conversion and it can come down upon them and they could have a Saul of Tarsis moment.
The very famous Satanist, blessed Bartolo Longo, a very famous Satanic priest back in the Middle Ages, who the Catholics prayed rosaries and rosaries for him, he received the grace of conversion, went and saw a Catholic priest, went to confession, was received into the church, spent the rest of his life promoting the holy rosary and evangelizing Satanists and bringing them into the Catholic Church.
That’s why we must go out there, because also God is being offended by what’s happening in that three-day conference. And we also have to do prayers of reparation to satisfy and appease the anger of God, because what’s going on in there offends the first commandment.
Eric Sammons:
Okay. So, this the Satanic Temple, you said. Is that an officially organized, I should say officially recognized, nonprofit religion or something in America?
Jesse Romero:
Yes, they are.
Eric Sammons:
What exactly is the Satanic Temple?
Jesse Romero:
Yes, they are, because they take a lot of other cases to court, and they also have a legal side to them where they battle their rights in court. They’ve been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court. They’ve been recognized as a religious organization. The Temple of Satan, the Church of Satan has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Now, these guys are the Temple of Satan. I would call them the second wave of Satanist here in America. The first wave of Satanist was Anton LaVey and his family. They started the Church of Satan back in 1966 in San Francisco, California. Then one of their disciples, Michael Aquino, he started the second Church of Satan over in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Those are the first wave of Satanist.
Lucien Greaves, basically the founder of the Temple of Satan, he’s now the second wave of Satanist. Those have passed on to their exit interview. I know Anton LaVey has. I’m not sure about Michael Aquino. So, the second wave of Satanists, they call themselves now the Temple of Satan. They’ve got covens all over the United States. They have covens here.
What’s a coven? It’s comprised of 13 Satanists. Once you get 13, they break off, and they start another coven. They keep themselves small so they can be accountable. That’s like a strike force, and so their curses and hexes could be very powerful. They’re very organized.
So, what happened here, if you want to know the background, why they chose Scottsdale, what they do, the Temple of Satan, what they do is they’re always petitioning from one city to another, kind of harassing, I would say. And they’re asking the mayors and they’re asking the city hall people if they can do an invocation, what we would call a prayer. Usually, prayers are done in these city hall meetings or civic meetings by a rabbi, a priest, or a Protestant minister.
Well, the Temple of Satan, since they’re recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as a religious denomination, what they’ve done, they’ve asked several cities, “Hey, can we go in there and do an invocation?” Well, Scottsdale said, “No. No, you can’t. No, we don’t recognize you guys. We ultimately could make a decision what we want to do here in our meetings.”
So, the Temple of Satan took them to court, and guess what? They lost in court. Scottsdale beat them. The court ruled that, “Hey, just like a store. They have the right to refuse service to anybody.” So, the city of Scottsdale, the court sided with them, says, “Yeah, they don’t have to let anybody in here. They don’t have to let a shaman, a witch doctor, an indigenous Indian. They can allow whoever they want.”
So, the Temple of Satan lost in court. So, as an act of revenge, or as we say, “sour grapes,” they said, “Okay, Scottsdale. We’ll show you guys. We’ll fix your wagon.” They said, “We’re going to go to your city. We’re going to consecrate your city to the devil. We’re going to rent a room in the Saguaro Hotel, which is in downtown Scottsdale, and we’re going to do a three-day conference. Take that,” and they go like that. “Take that.” So, that’s where we’re at right now.
I call the city of Scottsdale. I notified them. They said, “Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Hey, we’re kind of happy that you guys are coming down here. We can’t do nothing about them. We can’t stop them, legally. But hey, Jesse. You Catholics going to come down here? Okay.” And they’re very cooperative with me. They’re very like, “What do you need us… What do you need? You don’t need no permits. Yeah, here’s where you can stand.”
I also called the police department. They’re also very cooperative with me as well. And they’re saying, “Don’t worry. We’re going to have security there. We’re going to have uniformed officers there. Overtime has already been authorized by the chief of police. So, whatever you need, Jesse, we’ll be there.” So, I can tell you, the community’s coming to together because nobody wants these knuckleheads in their backyard.
Eric Sammons:
Right. And you said they’re going to be… Are they planning on performing some type of ceremony at their conference about Scottsdale, like some type of curse or something like that? I mean, these things, I know a lot of times today, moderns, we tend to laugh at these things and just think it’s just some weirdos or something like that. But, I mean, there really is a Satan. There really are demons. So, are they planning to do something to try to open up, I guess, Scottsdale to a more satanic influence, for lack of a better term?
Jesse Romero:
Without a doubt. I mean, Lucien Greaves has actually said… It’s on their website. He’s actually said that, “We’re going to come to consecrate Scottsdale to Satan.” I mean, that’s about as clear as you can get.
Eric Sammons:
Right.
Jesse Romero:
As Catholics, we have our own consecration prayers. They’re usually done through St. Louis de Montfort. Generally speaking, we consecrate places and people to our Lord through Our Lady’s Montfortian consecration. So, what this is, this is an inversion of Catholicism. Everything that they do… Because the Church of Satan, the Temple of Satan, the independent Satanist, all of them know… I’ve talked to many of them. They know that the one true church is the Catholic Church, and so everything that they do is an inversion of Catholicism.
It’s not an inversion of Joel Osteen’s feel-good, prosperity gospel church. It’s not an inversion of Judaism, not an in version of Islam or Buddhism. Everything they do is an inversion of Catholicism, because they’ll tell you to your face, a Satanist and a witch will say, “We know which is the one true church started by Jesus Christ the Son of God.”
Eric Sammons:
Wow. So, the question then is, they’re doing this conference. Why do you feel there’s a need for you to be there physically as opposed to just praying at home or maybe at a Catholic church fasting on your own, things like that? I mean, I feel like I know the answer’s going to be very related to how I always argued years ago why we had to be at the abortion clinics for very similar reasons. But why don’t you lay out for us why you think it’s important for Catholics to be there at the hotel instead of at home or at their parishes?
Jesse Romero:
Well, I’ll tell you why. Let me give you a few reasons. Bishop Olmsted, who’s the bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix, wrote a book. It’s been put out by probably the tens of thousands all over the country through the Knights of Columbus. It’s called Catholics in the Public Square.
On page 33, here’s what he says. So, I’m being obedient to what the written instructions of Bishop Olmsted, what he’s written to Catholic men around the country. He says this. “Finally, prayer is a primary means of promoting and fostering a culture of life. While personal daily prayer is always important, public prayer gatherings can provide a striking witness to the rest of society.”
He also says in a letter called Into the Breach, another one that’s sold tens of thousands around the country to Catholic men, he says this on page 22. And by the way, the word “into the breach,” it’s a term for Ezekiel the prophet, Ezekiel 22:30. What does it actually mean? This is the passage where God warns the people that the people are going to perish for their sins unless one man is willing to stand in the gap, in the breach to first to all the destruction that’s coming upon the Israelites.
And so the bishop wrote a book with this title, and he says this on page 22 of his book. “My sons and brothers, men of the Diocese of Phoenix, we need you to step into the breach,” in other words, to stand in between the Satanists and all the innocent people behind us that don’t know that they’re being cursed and hex at the Satanic conference. So, I’m being obedient to the written words, the written works of Bishop Olmsted, what he’s clearly stated.
And not only that, you actually have great Catholic minds that talk about the power of public prayer. St. Louis de Montfort says, “Public prayer is far more powerful than private prayer to appease the anger of God and call down His mercy and Holy Mother church. Guided by the Holy ghost, Holy Mother church has always advocated public prayer in times of public tragedy and suffering.”
One more, St. John Vianney, Patron Saint of Parish Priests, “Private prayer is like straws scattered here and there. If you set it on fire, it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws together in a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire rising like a column into the sky. Public prayer is like that.”
So, although I acknowledge as a lay Catholic Christian that the most powerful prayer of the church is the holy sacrifice of the Mass, no doubt, obviously. And I thank God that the bishop, he’s calling for all the priests to do additional sacred liturgies. He’s calling all the parishes out here to expose the blessed sacrament, those times this weekend so Catholics can be praying inside of the churches prayers of reparation and prayers of supplication and prayers of petition and prayers of conversion.
There will also be Catholics that are home-bound, Catholics that have little kids home or Catholics that have medical issues. They will be praying from their home, and we covet their prayers. It’s what Protestants call their rooms “the war room.” Many Catholics will be praying from their war room, or as we Catholics call our house, “the domestic church.”
So, Eric, the more prayer power we have, the better. So, this weekend we’re going to have Catholics praying from inside churches. There’s going to be more sacred liturgies, more times of confession. We’ll have Catholics praying from their houses. Again, like the Bible calls prayers, it calls them arrows fired into the air in Psalm 18, Psalm 68. So, Catholics will be firing these arrow prayers from their home as well.
And then there will also be Catholics like myself in front of the Saguaro Hotel, praying on the public sidewalk, firing our arrow prayers of conversion from the sidewalk. So, it’ll be a threefold strategy. Catholics will be… And then there’s Catholics from all over the country. My phone is ringing nonstop. My social media, Catholics are saying, “I’m in New York. I got a prayer group. I got a men’s group. I got a this. Hey, I’m flying down with a couple of guys from the Knights of Columbus.”
We’ve got people calling in, coming in from all over the country. And I’ve got at least 15 cloistered Carmelite Orders and other orders of nuns that have contacted me saying, “We are going to pray for you Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the Diocese of Phoenix for the conversion of these Satanists and for your protection.” I have Carmelite Orders calling me from all over the country. I have never seen a more unifying moment in the life of the Catholics in the United States than this moment right here.
Eric Sammons:
I tell you, once you get the nuns involved, you got it.
Jesse Romero:
Game over. Game over.
Eric Sammons:
I know exactly. Now, you got the heavy artillery when you get the nuns praying for you, let me tell you. And it really though is a very Catholic… Your physical presence there as part of this multi-pronged approach is very Catholic, because it’s like, yes. God could, for example, have saved us without coming down. But, no. He did. He came to down into the midst of sin, into the midst of our fallen nature, and he became one of us. And so I think that’s very much tying into that.
Now, you noted, though, a couple times earlier, I noticed you mentioned a couple times being in the state of grace. Why do you emphasize that? Particularly, it sounds like for those people who are going to be there, why are you emphasizing? Obviously, we should always be in a state of grace. But why are you emphasizing that particularly?
Jesse Romero:
Because, Eric, this is everything in spiritual warfare, and this is everything in the interior life. I’m being very upfront with Catholics. We don’t need Catholic Lookie-loos or Catholics that just go to Holy Mass on Easter, Christmas, and Ash Wednesday. Okay? Your prayers have no power. They have no merit. There’s no efficacy. John 9:31, “God, doesn’t hear the prayers of the wicked.”
We need Catholics in a state of grace. When you’re in a state of sanctifying grace, that means you’re in a right relationship with God. That means you’re free from mortal sin. That means you’re even fighting against the inclinations towards venial sin. And that also means the James 5:16 principle, “The prayers of a righteous person have much power.” And you can read the power of Elijah’s prayers as James comments on it.
The holier you are, the closer you are with God, the more merit and the more efficacy there is in your prayer. The merit in your prayer is based on your holiness, and that’s based on your interior life. We call that living in the state of sanctifying grace.
I’m a retired cop, so let me give you a policeman analogy since a lot of guys that I know… I’m in a Second Amendment state here in Arizona. A lot of guys like their guns. Okay? I tell guys this in Arizona when I give lectures. I say, “A lot of you guys like to go to the range. If you keep on firing your rifles or your guns and you never clean them, they’re going to eventually misfire. They’re going to jam. They’re going to stovepipe. Why? Because the barrel is dirty.”
I said, “That’s the same thing with the soul. The soul projects prayers into the cosmos. Psalm 141:2, “Their prayer rises into the cosmos like incense.” And what happens with those prayers that rise up into the cosmos, where you have the world of angels and demons, the preternatural world? What do you have? Revelation chapter eight, Tobit chapter 12, Eucharistic prayer number one, it says, “The angels take our prayer to God.”
So, as we project our prayer from our soul, either vocally or mentally or in contemplation, the angels immediately come down, and they take our prayers to God. If you’re in a state of mortal sin, guess what? Your prayers are not going to project. They’re going to misfire. They’re going to stovepipe. They’re going to be stuck in the barrel. Your prayers are worthless if you’re in a state of mortal sin. Isaiah 59:2, God does not hear your prayers.
Eric Sammons:
Very good. So, definitely by whose landing to go to any of the days, you need to get to confession. I mean, just get to confession this week. Get to confession beforehand. Make sure you’re in a state of grace.
Now, there has been a little bit of controversy beyond just the fact that the conference… I mean, with the fact that it seemed like the Diocese of Phoenix where this is happening under Bishop Olmsted… Who is definitely, I think most people would consider him one of the better bishops in our country today.
But it sounded like the diocese was saying that they were discouraging Catholics from going to this because I think their argument was… And I understand their argument. Their argument was it gives more credence, gives more publicity to the event than if you just stayed at home. What do you say in response to that, and has the diocese like reached out to you? Have you talked to the diocese directly to discuss this issue?
Jesse Romero:
Great question. Thanks. Thanks for asking, Eric. As you well know because you’re a theologian Theo, and as you all know, there are some things, some areas in Catholic life, that are outside of dogma, doctrine, and liturgy that we as Catholics can have another opinion about. Even Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI back in 1994, wrote a clear letter to the U.S. bishops. And he said there are some things which fall within the category of prudential judgments, a prudential judgment or a prudential decision. Every Catholic is even free to disagree with the Holy Father on a prudential decision or a prudential judgment.
In other words, I don’t have to ask… I love my bishop. I have a great relationship with him. I had a meeting with him, and I’ll tell you about it. But we have to act like grown men and women, and we shouldn’t be running and saying, “Oh, Bishop. Can I drink a glass of milk? Bishop, can I put Nestle’s Quik in my milk? Bishop, can I…” We got to quit acting like children.
There are clear teachings of the Catholic Church that have been put out there. And my website, azriseupfaithful.com, azriseupfaithful.com, look at page two, and you can see all the teachings of the Catholic Church as it relates to this topic, including the bishops, his own books I quoted in that website. So, the point that I’m making is that we don’t have to ask, “Who do I vote for, Bishop, Biden or Trump? Can I go and pray in front of an abortion clinic? Bishop, should I… We got to stop acting like kids. These are prudential areas.
I met with the bishop for 90 minutes. He graciously received me, because again, this has gone national now, Eric. So, as a faithful son of the church, I reached out to him. He was there with his right hand man, the Vicar of Evangelization and Education Father John Nahrgang. They graciously met with us, me and my wife Anita, and we sat there. We spoke for… He prayed before. It was so beautiful.
It was the classic example of people coming together united in creed, united in faith, and discussing like grown men and nobody lording over each other, nobody saying… There was no clericalism, is what I’m saying like, “I’m a bishop, shut your mouth. Here’s what’s going to happen, and that’s it. Get out of here. You and your wife get out of here.” There was none of that stuff.
This Bishop is such a genuine human being, such a holy man. I’ve always known that he was holy, but this meeting took my love for him to a higher level. He allowed me to speak, Eric, uninterrupted for 30 minutes. He goes, “I want to hear from you, Jess, and your wife Anita.” And so we did. We basically laid out our case.
After the meeting, well right after I spoke, he agreed. “You’re right, Jess. This is a prudential decision. I, as a bishop, or no other bishop can tell you how to act upon this issue. You have to make that decision for yourself.”
Let me read to you what he’s allowed me to post on my social media channels. We came up with a statement. He says, “Go ahead and let people know the synopsis of our meeting.” It’s on the website azriseupfaithful.com page two. And here’s what he’s allowed me to put out, him and father John Nahrgang. I’ll read it.
“I, Jesse Romero, a faithful son of the Church am in communication with the Diocese of Phoenix. I met with his Excellency Bishop Olmsted and Father John Nahrgang, Vicar for Evangelization and Education. It was clarified at our meeting and agreed upon that assembling for prayer in front of the Saguaro Hotel on February in 11th, 12th, 13th falls under the definition of a prudential judgment.
“A Prudential judgment is an evaluation of a situation where we use the virtue of prudence in order to determine the best approach to resolving the issue at hand. When faithful Catholics disagree on a matter of Prudential judgment, the key difference is over the particular application of a moral principle, not the moral principle itself. The moral principle in play here is confronting evil, and we all agree on its importance.
“Now, Bishop Olmsted has invited the faithful to apply this principle in this way.” He put out this letter called A call for the Faithful to Unite in Spiritual Warfare before our meeting. So, he’s allowed me to put this out on social media he’s. So, with the Bishop permission and Father John, I continue.
“Catholics may discern with the help of God in examining their conscience whether they’re also at peace with gathering in front of the hotel to pray in reparation for the evil being done and for the conversion of the participants. We can all agree that we must all unite in prayer. Let every person listen to God speaking through his or her own conscience and not look down on anyone else for their decision.”
So, that was what he’s allowed me to put out in public. I share this with you and your audience. Again, I’m impressed with the way he treated me and my wife with such dignity and such respect.
Eric Sammons:
That’s great. That’s great. I mean, that really is how the bishops and the laity should be working together. It’s okay for, for example, the bishop or somebody at the diocese to have a different opinion on how things go like this. It’s okay for you to have a different opinion, but that’s what needs to happen is there needs to be a discussion.
And honestly, it’s interesting because a couple years ago, I remember when they were having all of the troubles in 2020, summer of 2020, and there was statues being defaced, stuff like that. Some people criticized Bishop Barron for not… I’m sorry, criticized the bishops for not doing more. And Bishop Barron rightly said… I know some people gave him a hard time about this, but he actually rightly said, “That really is the job for the laity.”
And I think it sounded like a cop-out at the time, but I do think he’s actually right about that. When it comes to the public square, things like that, it is the job of the laity to be there. So, here’s the application of it. Here’s you doing exactly that, where we have a public event that’s happening, where our Lord is being blasphemed and terrible things are going to be happening. And so publicly, you’re going to make a statement as laity. That’s what we’re called to do, what we’re supposed to do. Right?
Jesse Romero:
By the way, Eric, I’m glad you brought that up because I asked my Bishop Olmsted. I said, I told him about Bishop Barron’s statement that he put out on Word on Fire, on his blog and on his channels, that it’s lay people’s job to go out there and protect the statues. It’s not a priest or a bishop’s job, and Bishop Barron was very clear about that.
He even quoted the documents of the Second Vatican Council, that it’s the lay people’s job to go out there in the public square and to go out there and protect these statues, to pray, sanctify the temporal order. Bishop Olmsted told me, “I agree with Bishop Barron. He’s absolutely right.”
And by the way, I have a younger brother, name’s Johnny Romero. He’s a ex-Marine. He’s a serious Catholic. He’s got half a dozen kids. He’s a RCIA teacher at his parish. He’s a blue collar, just one of those guys that you just love, just a blue collar, no-nonsense, lunch pail Catholic. But he’s well formed. He reads lot.
So, he found out that Black Lives Matter and Antifa were going down to the city of San Fernando, which was one of the 21 mission cities along the coast. They were going with chains and crowbars to go destroy one of the statues of Saint Junipero Serra. Somebody called him up as he got off of work after 10 hours of digging ditches, and they said, “Johnny, Antifa and Black Lives Matter are going to go down to San Fernando mission, and they’re going to tear down the statue.”
Well, my brother Johnny calls up his wife and says, “Honey, I’m not going to be home for dinner.” She goes, “Where you going?” He goes, “I got to go stop these guys from tearing down the statue.”
“You can’t do that. You’re a married man with a bunch of kids. Get home right now.” He goes, “Honey, don’t wait for me tonight.” He hung up. He drove over there. He goes, “I just started praying. I drove there.” And I asked him. I said, “Dude, are you crazy? You’re going to stand by yourself against 100 guys from Black Lives Matter and Antifa? Have you seen what they do to people on YouTube?” He goes, “Jess, there’s just some things that you have to do because of duty. Duty calls.”
He gets there. Thankfully there’s six other Catholic guys. They’re there with their rosaries, and they’re around the Saint Junipero Serra statue. Johnny runs over there. There’s seven guys. So, they exchange pleasantries real quick. So, seven guys, and Johnny starts saying, “Let’s pray the rosary.” They all start praying. They’re around the statue.
100 men from Black Lives Matter and Antifa get off their cars and start coming towards them with chains and crowbars. My brother Johnny, through their prayers and basically just a physical presence, says, “You’re not going to take down this statue. You’re going to have to get through us.” They’re cussing them out. They’re spitting at them. They’re throwing water at them, and it’s a standoff.
And I tell my brother, “Are you crazy? Johnny, are you crazy? They would’ve made minced meat out of you guys, 100 of those guys with crowbars.” Johnny says, “Jess, there’s just some things you have to do as a lay Catholic for Holy Mother church.” He said, “It’s the principle.” He goes, “I know that statue is not really Junipero Serra. I know that. It’s the principle. For us to allow them to start tearing down Catholicism in the public square, I can’t do that.”
Thanks be to God, because of their prayers, the Los Angeles Police Department stormed the park about an hour later, and they got in between Black Lives Matter and Antifa and my brother Johnny and these six Catholics. And Antifa, eventually, they were told by the police, “You got to leave. You can’t do this.”
But the point that I’m making my brother Johnny didn’t say, he didn’t got on his cell phone and call his pastor, Father Robert Gerrin and say, “Father Gerrin? Can I go and stop Antifa and Black Lives Matter from tearing down a statue?” He doesn’t have to do that, because the natural law tells them what to do, the natural law God put in place in a hearts, and the senses for today that we all have because we live in a state of grace. We pray. We receive the sacraments. The senses today, we know what right and wrong. We know the teachings of the church in our heart, and we know what we must do.
So, Johnny didn’t have to call the bishop either and say, “Bishop, can I go to the San Fernando mission park and stop Antifa and Black Lives Matter from tearing down a statue?” He doesn’t have to do that. He knows the teachings of Vatican II, what they teach. Catholics, go out there and make the streets holy.
Eric Sammons:
Amen. Yeah. Yeah. That’s what we need, too. And, of course, but most importantly, he had the biggest weapon because he had the rosary with him. So, that’s what’s going to stop anybody.
Jesse Romero:
It was not fair.
Eric Sammons:
It really wasn’t a fair fight.
Jesse Romero:
It was not fair.
Eric Sammons:
And that’s one thing I do want to mention is that we also have to remember Satanism’s real. It’s very powerful. It’s very evil. But it’s a completely unfair fight when it’s between God and Satan. It’s not like they’re two equal things that are on the same side. It’s a route. It’s always a route. I mean, our Lord will and our Lady will… I mean, there’s a reason why our Lady’s foot is on the heel of the, I mean, on the head of the serpent, because she can crush him just without even thinking about it because just there’s no contest there.
Jesse Romero:
Amen.
Eric Sammons:
Yeah. Now, give me the specifics of exactly when you’re going to be there and what you’re going to be doing while you’re there. I mean, obviously you’ll be praying. But what is your plan of attack, so to speak?
Jesse Romero:
Okay. We started a nine-day novena to Our Lady Guadalupe on February 2nd of this month. But if you didn’t jump in the novena, that doesn’t preclude you from coming. Just make sure you’re in a state of grace and make sure, as we say when I was a young cop… I used to tell young cops, “Hey, dude.” When we used to hit the streets, I used to say, “Are you prayed up? Are you churched up?” And all the other, the Catholics and Protestants that were, they knew what I meant. They meant, “Are you in a state of grace before we hit the streets?” So, I’m going to just tell anybody who come, “Are you preyed up, and are you churched up?” That means, “Are you in a state of grace?”
But for some people that I was able to communicate, we started a nine-day rosary to Our Lady Guadalupe? Why her? She’s a patroness of the Diocese of Phoenix. She’s also a patroness of the pro-life movement, and let’s be honest. The Satanists are the religious component of the abortion movement.
Eric Sammons:
Absolutely.
Jesse Romero:
Okay? They’re the spiritual power for Planned Parenthood Family Planning Associates. So, we start a nine-day novena to her. It ends tomorrow. And also I’m asking people to go there, make sure you’re in a state of grace, make sure you go to confession this week.
We’re going to be praying in front of the Saguaro Hotel from 12:00 noon to 3:00 PM, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Why? The Satanists, I don’t want to be there for 10 hours, 12 hours making a big uproar. We’re going to be like a surgical Roman legion, Greek Spartan strike. We’re coming in at 12:00 noon. Bam! And we’re going to start projecting prayers, the Angelus first. And then we’re going to go for three hours of the holy rosary with Gregorian chant in between, with Saint Michael’s prayers in between. And we’re going to end with the 3:00 divine mercy, and we’re out.
Why did I choose 12:00 noon to 3:00 PM? The reason is because in Mexican households, from 12:00 to 3:00 on Good Friday, your parents don’t let you do anything. They take you to church. They say, “Sit there and stare at that crucifix.”
“But, mom, I’m bored.”
“I don’t care if you’re bored. You’re going to sit there for three hours, and you’re going to look at what He did for you and meditate and think about it. Here’s the stations of the cross book. You can walk around and do the stations of the cross. Here’s a prayer book. Here’s your baby Roman Missal. So, I just did that all my life. It was just something natural. From 12:00 to 3:00, everything shuts down on Good Friday, and we go and just meditate on what Christ did for us.
So, that’s why I chose 12:00 to 3:00, because many exorcists that I’m in contact with have told me that from 12:00 to 3:00 PM our prayers are very powerful when you intentionally, notice, intentionally join your prayers mystically to the blood of Jesus that’s flowing down from Calvary. And that’s what we’re going to do, intentionally. We’re going to unite our prayers to the shed blood of Jesus that was spilled for the sins of the world 2,000 years ago for the redemption of the human race. We’re going to join our prayers to that stream of grace that comes from Calvary.
So, this is very precise. Precision is everything in spiritual warfare, precision and prayer, and also precision in when you pray, because demons know that there’s certain times of the day that are sacred. And demons know that 6:00 AM, 12:00 noon, and 6:00 PM are sacred times in the Catholic Church because this is the monastic ascetical time when more prayers are being projected in into the cosmos through monasteries and abbeys and friaries, because that’s when they pray the Angelus, 6:00, 12:00, 6:00.
So, we’re starting our prayer with the 12:00 noon Angelus, so we’re going to join ourselves with millions of prayers all over the world. Demons fear 6:00, 12:00, 6:00. And demons also fear 3:00 PM. Why? Because demons know that at 3:00 PM the Son of God expired, gave up the ghost, and it is finished. The redemption of the world was accomplished. So, 3:00 PM has always been a sacred time as well. So, this is why we chose those times, because we know that precision and the days of the time to pray are very important in spiritual warfare.
Eric Sammons:
Amen. That sounds great. Now we’re going to wrap up here, but I want to ask, what can Catholics who are outside of Arizona, what specifically are you asking of us to do to help you out?
Jesse Romero:
I’m asking Catholics all over the United States to pray alongside with us because your prayers are like arrows. We want you to fire arrows from New York, California, Texas, Florida. Fire your arrow prayers into that Satanic conference that they receive the grace of conversion and that we do reparation, repair the damage of what they’re doing.
So, some people may be pretty hardcore. On the website asriseupfaithful.com, I’ve put all the prayers that we’re going to do for three hours. You can print them out in a PDF file. So, you may say, “I’m going to stay home in my war room, and I’m going to… You know what? Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I’m going to pray with these guys. These are what they’re praying. I’m going to unite myself in prayer.”
Or Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, just think about us. Go to the church. Do a holy hour those days. You can stay at home, do a rosary, two rosaries. You can go to Mass all three days, offer your communion, offer your prayers for the conversion of these Satanists and for the protection of those people praying. So, whatever you can do Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from wherever you at in the United States, whatever prayer you’re attracted to, you have that devotion to, please pray it Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and offer that prayer for what’s happening in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Eric, we have to make a strong Catholic showing. I’ll tell you why. If we don’t, these Satanists are going to say, “Catholics are a soft target. Let’s go to another city and do the same thing.” They have to feel the spiritual pushback like never before where they’re going to go back into hiding like they’ve been doing for decades. Right now, they’ve taken their head out of the foxhole. They feel comfortable. You know why? Because they’ve aligned themselves with a political party, the Democrats. They feel that they have political coverage.
So, they’re out of the foxhole, and they feel right now embolden because of the Democrat Party. So, we’ve got to make sure that there’s such a strong spiritual presence and prayers being projected their way that they’re going to say, “No more public Satanic conferences. Let’s go back into hiding in our caves and in our houses.”
Eric Sammons:
Amen. Amen. So, I just encourage everybody who’s listening to this to pray this weekend for the efforts that Jesse’s doing there. Now, remind us again. I’ll put a link in the show notes to this, but remind us again the website address that people can go to to find out more about this.
Jesse Romero:
A-Z, which is abbreviation for Arizona, azriseupfaithful.com, azriseupfaithful.com, all lowercase.
Eric Sammons:
Great. Like I said, I’ll put a link to it as well in the show notes for people who want to go to that. And I encourage people, everybody, you can do something. You can pray a little bit. You can pray a lot. But help out our brothers and sisters who are in Arizona and are directly confronting the Satanists. I mean, this is what we need to do. We can’t just let them take over. So, I appreciate it. God bless the work, all the work you’re doing, Jess. It really is inspiring. I love listening to you. I get more fired up just listening to you.
Jesse Romero:
Eric, we have a mutual respect and admiration for each other. I’ve been following you for years. We just have kindred spirits.
Eric Sammons:
Absolutely.
Jesse Romero:
If we don’t ever meet physically in this life, brother, we will meet in the next life. I promise you. That’s a promise.
Eric Sammons:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I’ll be looking forward to that. Hopefully, we’ll do it before that happens. But if not, that’ll be awesome. So, thanks a lot, Jesse. I really appreciate it. Okay, everybody, that’s it for now. Until next time, God love you.
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