Henri Boulad is an Egyptian-born Jesuit monk who was recently granted Hungarian citizenship. The following interview with Fr. Boulad was conducted in English by a Hungarian TV outlet, and then broadcast with a voice-over in Hungarian.

Many thanks to CrossWare for putting the interview back into English, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:04 Welcome. Today we are talking with the Jesuit monk Henri Boulad,

00:08 on the occasion of his gaining Hungarian citizenship.

00:12 We are very happy to welcome you to the ranks of Hungarian citizens.

00:16 I am very happy too. You were born in Alexandria, Egypt;

00:20 your father was Syrian and your mother Italian.

00:24 No, my grandmother was Italian. Oh, yes, sorry; your grandmother.

00:28 You were living in Egypt — why did you requested the Hungarian citizenship?

00:32 Why did you think this important? This was a lucky chance.

00:36 The deputy of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Zsolt Semjén,

00:40 visited Alexandria and he asked me the question: how could he help?

00:44 I suggested: “With Hungarian citizenship.” He said,

00:48 “It’s taken care of.” My underlying idea behind this was: this is the way

00:52 that I can flow into the European politics in the future.

00:56 You could have applied to the French for citizenship, why the Hungarians?

01:00 The French refused me twice,

01:04 at the highest level.

01:08 My papers were perfectly prepared, and the French Immigration Office said

01:12 the papers were very impressive and they were fairly certain I would be granted citizenship,

01:16 but despite all that it did not came through in the highest level.

01:20 Then I tried a second time with the Élysée Palace, but I was refused again.

01:24 At that moment I understood, either the fault is with me or with them.

01:28 I accepted that France did not want me, with my cultural background.

01:32 But Hungary wants me, and I believe in Mr Orbán’s

01:36 politics. And Europe shatter slowly, if it doesn’t rethink itself.

01:40 If it does not restart its thinking and restore itself.

01:44 They must move again, because otherwise there will be a catastrophe in the end.

01:48 And the cause of that is liberalism, left-wing liberalism.

01:52

01:56 Earlier you criticized the modern form of cosmopolitanism,

02:00 and compared it with the world citizenship of Jesus.

02:04 What do you think, are modern cosmopolitans walking the path of Jesus,

02:08 or just the opposite?

02:12 Because the cosmopolitanism of Jesus was personal one,

02:16 his goal was to bring the people closer and unify them

02:20 in their difference. Do they contradict each other,

02:24 cosmopolitanism and the path of Jesus?

02:28 Jesus wants us to become one, brothers and sisters

02:32 in one body, as we say in the mystical body of Jesus. I state

02:36 this is globalism, but globalism in a spiritual sense.

02:40 This is a personal globalism, which respects all individuals,

02:44 all communities, all cultures, all associations and above all

02:48 human freedom. This is the word of the gospel.

02:52 But the present globalism tries to manipulate. First and foremost,

02:56 European countries in the interests of international capital groups.

03:00 I only mentioned them as “secret heads”,

03:04 those are pulling the strings in politics.

03:08 Very politely, but you criticized the Church,

03:12 because they do not resist political correctness,

03:16 the expected PC speech. Did you have in mind,

03:20 did you get any direction from the church about the

03:24 inflow of Muslim migrants

03:28 moving into Europe? One of the verses of

03:32 Psalm 85 is about the meeting of

03:36 love and truth

03:40 how love and truth are kissing each other.

03:44 If you have truth without love, it does not work,

03:48 because it is painful. Love without truth is not realistic, because that is just

03:52 wishful thinking. So the truth and love

03:56 must come together. Now the church

04:00 and those who live by those psalms are sacrificing faith.

04:04 We try to create a dialogue,

04:08 we try to please others, but this is all

04:12 the sale of faith and hiding of faith for truth.

04:16 So do you think political

04:20 correctness is false, and it is wrong? —Of course.

04:24 Political correctness is false,

04:28 the first person who fought against it was Jesus,

04:32 but the Church is politically correct, and with that it lost its goals.

04:36 It no longer proclaims the truth, not only the

04:40 truth of the psalms, but the TRUTH itself. The dialog between religions

04:44 that started fifteen years ago is a total slip-up,

04:48 a wrong path, but the Church does not want to recognize this,

04:52 it is unconscious, they flatter each other, say beautiful words to each other,

04:56 they drink coffee together… I have no problem with having coffee with others,

05:00 but we must say the words as they are; we do not have to please others.

05:04 On the other hand, the dialog between religions is not improving.

05:08 There is no evolution in it, because we are afraid to call the really hard

05:12 things by their names. We must face reality.

05:16 …One of the burning questions

05:20 is the present situation of European Christianity.

05:24 The churches are full of old people.

05:28 So what do you think,

05:32 is it a realistic danger, that Christianity will disappear from Europe?

05:36 In thirty years Europe will be Muslim.

05:40 Thirty years, that is the maximum. It is simple mathematics.

05:44 But this is only mathematics. Yes,

05:48 plus immigration, open and unlimited

05:52 immigration, which is also supported by the Pope.

05:56 There is an invasion occurring in Europe; the continent is under attack.

06:00 Migration is getting stronger and increasing; the European fertility is

06:04 only one third of that of the migrants. A European couple has one or two children, while

06:08 they have six or ten or more.

06:12 The numbers do not lie; Europe will be Islamized.

06:16 And there is the question of conversion, too.

06:20 More and more European converts to Islam, because they do not get answers and

06:24 they do not find a faith in the Church. And then Christianity will collapse in Europe.

06:28 The ones to blame for this will be the Europeans. They do

06:32 everything, but really, everything

06:36 to replace Christianity with Islam. You say that

06:40 Christianity is too abstract?

06:44 Does not give answers to burning questions such as,

06:48 for example: abortion, celibacy,

06:52 or divorce, remarriage and gender problems?

06:56 Do you think Christianity should be sharper?

07:00 You mention moral and ethical

07:04 questions. These questions must be asked,

07:08 but in an alternate way from the usual.

07:12 Not about the voice of acceptance; for openers, we have to talk about abortion;

07:16 the language of faith is incomprehensible for the Christians of today.

07:20 We have to talk about what is faith, the holy Trinity, what is God,

07:24 what is salvation, resurrection.

07:28 We talk about these with such words that nobody can understand anymore.

07:32 The purpose of religious education and Sunday sermons is

07:36 to bring the meaning of faith into everyday life. But today’s faith

07:40 does not bring any meaning into people’s lives. They are bored with the teachings,

07:44 the words of the priests. And the Church does not want to think about

07:48 its own thinking. They do not want to re-think it.

07:52 While we are on this topic, how do you think we can

07:56 make the Church more attractive to people?

08:00 Jesus is not about attractiveness; this is not about attractiveness

08:04 He himself was not attractive. Attractiveness means we fall into the media and commercial trap.

08:08 But we are now in the media and we talking on a television channel.

08:12 So is it important? —I do not try to please people;

08:16 I hate pleasing people.

08:20 I just tell the truth, and if that pleases someone,

08:24 it’s OK, it is all right by me, but I will not

08:28 try to please you or anybody else.

08:32 But the issue is that the Church is incapable of rethinking the way it should pass the message.

08:36 In 2007 I drew up these issues and problems, too,

08:40 in a letter I sent to Pope Benedict; the letter can be found in the Internet.

08:44 In that letter, I wrote that the Church must be reformed on three different sides.

08:48 In theological content, the work of the clergy and priests, and in spiritual meaning.

08:52 The theological reform must be about

08:56 how to put faith into words and how to hand it over.

09:00 Today that is simply horrid. An example here is the story of Creation.

09:04 There is Evolution and not Creation; God has no place in phylogenesis.

09:08 About the incarnation, we say Jesus came from Heaven.

09:12 Who would understand that? What is incarnation or Heaven?

09:16 Nobody could understand how it happened, why salvation

09:20 happened. We say he gave his blood for us. Who would understand that?

09:24 Or what is Original Sin? Nobody believes in Original Sin.

09:28 The Church is incapable of phrasing the meaning of Original Sin.

09:32 Two days ago I participated in a discussion, which was about

09:36 the new meaning of salvation. How it will be

09:40 meaningful to people. But do you see

09:44 a godly sign, something that will save the Europeans?

09:48 Do you see the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is

09:52 blowing out of the Church now.

09:56 I am sorry that I have to say this, but the Holy Spirit is leaving the Church.

10:00 In the past 400-500 years the voices they called heretic prepared the path

10:04 to the Second Vatican Synod, the results of which are indisputable.

10:08 It opened the windows and the voices escaped from the Church,

10:12 So the Second Vatican Synod was a blessing,

10:16 but it should have happened 200-300 years ago.

10:20 Well, it seems like it came too late; let me give an example:

10:24 this is like swallowing, you can’t stuff a week’s worth of food into yourself in twenty minutes,

10:28 because we would die. The Synod was not bad, just the opposite,

10:32 but came too late and too sudden too. Suddenly

10:36 it was there and it confused people and disturbed them.

10:40 Ok, let’s talk a little bit about

10:44 Islam and migration. Previously you warned

10:48 the Europeans not to believe Western professors;

10:52 the true nature of Islam is different, and they should ask Middle Eastern Christians about it.

10:56 With this you tried to say, that Islam is worse than what we think about it,

11:00 in the Middle-East? You have only

11:04 seen the beautiful side of Islam.

11:08 But there are two Islams, the Medinan and Meccan.

11:12 From the very beginning Islam chose the

11:16 values of the Medinan side.

11:20 Western thinkers, experts, are trying to convince themselves that up through

11:24 today the Meccan values are still the ones that prevail. The openness, tolerance,

11:28 Freedom. But my opinion is that this is just wishful thinking,

11:32 because the Muslims refuse these values,

11:36 and every reformer who tried to reverse this process failed.

11:40 They were swept away when they wanted to return to the roots of Islam.

11:44 Tolerance, love and peace: these were refused

11:48 by the highest Islamic religious authorities,

11:52 and they train the religious teachers, imams, and send them by the thousands all over the world,

11:56 and those are the ones who refuse the Meccan path.

12:00 Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the President of Egypt, asked them numerous times

12:04 to change their teachings, but they refused him, because this is the tradition.

12:08 The nature of Islam is always dualistic. Always radical,

12:12 and always political. Christianity is also radical, but not political.

12:16 So when we see that Islam is radical and political,

12:20 then it showed us its real colors.

12:24 Western researchers of Islam do not want to understand this,

12:28 but the Eastern Christians gave their blood.

12:32 You mentioned blood. 90,000 Christians

12:36 were murdered — every six minutes —

12:40 most of them by fundamentalist Muslims, why they doing this?

12:44 Why are they killing Christians? Does that divide or unite the Muslims?

12:48 School textbooks in Egypt describe

12:52 how to kill Christians,

12:56 how to massacre them — do not be surprised — that is in their textbooks.

13:00 Muslims nowadays — Hamed Abdel-Samad published a book in Germany —

13:04 which examines the connection of fascism to Islamism.

13:08 It is not I who gives warnings, but those Muslims

13:12 who lost their destiny and become Christians or agnostics [apostates].

13:16 They are the ones shouting: “Do not live in a dream world.”

13:20 This is the true nature of Islam. This is not said by me, Boulad.

13:24 I can produce hundreds of news sources like this from ex-Muslims.

13:28 They themselves warn us about Islam, but the West

13:32 do not want to understand, they are just repeating that they are on the right path.

13:36 That is why they do not believe me. I do not mind, but Europe is about to

13:40 fall apart, Europe is finished, because

13:44 they are so convinced about liberalism, socialism. Liberal discourse

13:48 became mainstream in their thinking, but this is suicide.

13:52 In political and sociological terms they are committing suicide,

13:56 and they do not want to hear the warnings.

14:00 They do not want to be scared. This is dramatic.

14:04 At least I would like to ask you, please

14:08 send a message to Hungarians, how should we behave

14:12 about Muslims, what we should we do

14:16 about immigration? Open-door immigration

14:20 is wrong, because Sweden has done it and now

14:24 they are dying, Sweden is finished.

14:28 Sweden is dying and

14:32 already dead. Germany is the same;

14:36 France is in halfway. So

14:40 I think Hungary should follow Viktor Orbán’s politics.

14:44 One might imagine that a couple of thousand Muslims could settle here, but only

14:48 if they are want to and are capable of integrating. If not, get out.

14:52 The example of Australia is the correct one.

14:56 They welcome everyone, but if you do not integrate, learn the language,

15:00 culture, you do not want to live with us,

15:04 just like the Portuguese, Spanish and Polish who can fit in, in a single generation,

15:08 and integrate perfectly, then they must go. Hungary is

15:12 a small country, but forming alliances with other countries must begin

15:16 to form a new Europe, to save their identity

15:20 and traditions. Europe will die out, but it is your task to save

15:24 their souls, because they sink like a boat with only twenty seats;

15:28 when a hundred want to get in,

15:32 all will die. I think the quotas are only the expression of

15:36 leftist liberal ideology. Political correctness stops

15:40 listening to anybody else who might have a different opinion.

15:44 But this is not right. You have the right — only the people have rights —

15:48 so Europe would be able to save itself,

15:52 but we are running out of time; it is almost too late already.

15:56 Wake up, open your eyes. Wake up.