Faithful in the Crisis: A Priest's Advice for Catholics w/ Fr. Amato

Death doesn’t schedule itself, and when it arrives suddenly it can make even strong people feel numb, angry, or terrified. We sit down with Father Anthony Amato to talk about what happens on the ground when a family gets that midnight phone call and a priest gets asked to step into the shock, the hospital room, and the aftermath. Along the way, we clear up the stuff Catholics constantly misunderstand, especially last rites, anointing of the sick, confession, and why waiting until someone is unconscious can mean missing the comfort and grace people actually need.

We also dig into the spiritual and emotional side: what “cast your anxieties on Christ” looks like in real life, how Eucharistic adoration and the Blessed Sacrament can become the one place you finally stop performing and start trusting, and why abandonment to divine providence isn’t passive, it’s faith under pressure. If you’ve ever wondered whether God loves you personally, especially if you’re dealing with scrupulosity, shame, or despair, we talk through concrete ways to rebuild that trust without getting trapped in fear driven spiritual reading.

Then the conversation takes a sharp turn into the “alien” moment in modern culture. We ask the uncomfortable Catholic questions about revelation, salvation, and whether the popular “non-human intelligence” narrative is really science fiction, spiritual warfare, or a replacement religion. From there we tackle discernment around demons versus mental illness, why it can be complicated, and why the ordinary sacramental life, especially a good confession, is still the most practical place to start.

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review. What topic should we tackle next: last rites misconceptions, scrupulosity, or the alien question?

Transcript

Welcome Back And Quick Catch-Up

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Stupid Rob never changed the intro video for me. That was what we did on the That's what we did when we did the last um the last history show. Just as a countdown.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

He thinks like I know how to do things, and it's really frustrating. He's supposed to take care of everything for me, and he just trusts me.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

It's better. Just get just gets right, it just gets right into it. So don't worry about it. How have you been, Father? I've been great. A lot going on, good things, but uh it's good to be back on the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

So for anybody that doesn't know, this is uh my friend Father Anthony Amato. Um he's uh you you're sometimes a guest on um what what radio uh show do you do?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Ask a priest live through the uh the station of the cross, the Catholic radio station. And um I kind of was one of the priests who started that show. It was uh I was the only Diosthen priest on it at the time. It was uh FSSP and Institute priest. And um, so I did it for two years, and then they um they changed the schedule to noon, and uh which is when my daily masses are. And so I like I said, okay, well, it's probably time to do uh do something else, especially with all the other things I had going on, confirmation class, the men's group we were starting. So I was like, well, two years is a lot of episodes. That's like it was like 30, 40 episodes. I caught, but you did one recently, right? Yeah, so they had their uh spring fundraiser uh last month or so, and uh so they said, Hey, when you want to come back on. So I went into the studio, drove to Buffalo to do it live in the studio. So it was that was a lot of fun. I like I like that. So I told them I'd do it occasionally, you know, for a device schedule.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Because I caught it and I'm like, man, I don't think I could ever do like professional radio. Yeah, they're just so professional, like everything is so professional. I had um I had a huge argument with my wife tonight because she didn't like the sign. She thinks the sign doesn't look very professional. I don't think I don't I don't think she understands the show's supposed to be on professional. Is it like a neon sign? It's a neon sign. I can I can change like the the uh the brightness on it and stuff. It's pretty uh it's pretty bad. But like if I go too bright, it'll it'll blare out on the on the screen. But um yeah, so I'll we'll keep it low. It's fine. Um yeah, so I caught yeah, I caught that episode and I was like, oh my goodness, I don't think I could ever do radio. It's just they're they're super professional, and and then they they threw you on the spot with a question that you didn't know the answer to.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, I was just like, I wasn't ready for I think it was that the uh the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Like, I know that, but I was just like, I wasn't ready for that, that kind of thing, but we got it eventually. We got it, yeah. Yeah, the way everything's like timed and scripted, and it's just a different genre, you know, than what we're you're dealing with here, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

I was um I was on John Henry Weston's show one time, and uh he starts to show off with uh Ave Maria in Latin, and he throws the second half to me, and I'm like, No, I did remember it, it was okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:29

I did remember when you're put on the spot like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

But um, so uh before we get into anything, because I have a few things I wanted to talk to you about tonight,

Sponsors And Catholic Inside Baseball

SPEAKER_02 3:40

but I have um I have another um knickknack success story. Okay, please. Possibly two. And so here's the thing. I can't I don't know if I can prove this scientifically, but I'm I'm I'm going to Italy on a pilgrimage in a few months, and a couple of the guys that are coming on the pilgrimage are married, and they bought knick-knacks. I just got uh messaged by two different guys that their wives are pregnant, and I don't know if we can prove it scientifically, but I think the knick-knacks might be like a super enhancer of fertility. I'm not sure. I mean, not sure. I buy it. I buy it, yeah. Can I get away with saying something like that? It's gotta be true. Yeah, I don't I don't know if I can get in trouble for that. I am not a doctor, I'm not a scientist. All I know is there's a couple of guys who are coming to Italy with us, and uh they took knick knacks, and now their wives are pregnant and they can't come. So, not just knick-knacks. So go to knick knack.com, use code AB25. Oh man, I better pull the banners up. I never get these right. Hold on. Um media ass uh, what am I supposed to do here, Rob? I hate when he doesn't tell me what to do. I don't know, guys. What is it? Is it A B25 or A B25? Where does he keep this stuff? Oh, I got it. Wait, I don't know where it is. A B25 for 25% off your first purchase, AB 10 for 10 off uh subsequent purchases. Nicknacks does contain nicotine, it has it is a nicotine product, nicotine is an addictive substance. Go to nicknack.com. Um, and the other thing is I sent you a uh Black Monk rosary.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

You did.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

You did. Am I lying when I say it is the most heavy-duty rosary you've ever had?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely is. No, I love it. I love it. I'm gonna keep it in my dresser right now. I'm gonna get it in my car. It's gonna be just indestructible.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

We uh we yeah, we sent one uh as a as a gift to Father Amado, and uh I it's it's my favorite, my favorite rosary. So go to Black Monk Rosaries, you use uh code Avoiding Babylon to checkout, and

Sudden Loss And The Shock

SPEAKER_02 5:55

they'll give you 10% off. So um, so last night my wife got a phone call um at around midnight, and uh our like our our very close friends, my wife's best friend. Um I'm like pretty I I think it's weird when guys say they're best friends, but like her husband and his husband and I are very close. And uh they were supposed to be coming, they live on Pennsylvania and they're supposed to be coming to Long Island today to help her parents pack the house up because they were moving to Florida. And my wife got a phone call at midnight last night that her friend's mother, uh her friend's father died. Like he went up to go to bed. He told his wife, uh, I'm gonna go up, I'm gonna put my pajamas on, I'm gonna lay down. He went upstairs, and when she went up to bed like a half hour later, he just he just died like unexpectedly. And it made me think about like how how often you have to deal with death as a priest. Yeah, like it because because death is one death is one of those things where we go we kind of go through our lives pretending we're not going to die. And then every once in a while somebody close to us dies and it hits us like a freight train. But as a priest, it's a constant thing you're dealing with because you have parishioners and they're you're dealing with their extended family and their friends and things like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. You asked me uh today. Uh, so it was 30 years ago, um, uh Friday, it was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend 30 years ago that my my grandfather had died. Um, he was only 62, and uh he was a barber, and as he was cutting someone's hair, just dropped that, died of a heart attack. And I was uh I was nine years old. So that was my first experience of death. Because you know, when you're a kid, hopefully you have this very stable, you know, life. Things don't really change, you know, you don't really move, parents are together and so forth. But that was like the first experience of um the things aren't always going to be the same, right? And so I experienced that, you know, pretty early on, and it was it was you know pretty shocking. But now as uh as a priest with a lot of experience of that, not just with funerals, actually, uh funerals aren't so bad because usually don't you don't like see the person they're in the coffin, or these days they tend to be cremated.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Um, but when you're in the hospital, is there real is there a lot of Catholic cremations?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

The vast majority. Yeah. What? Yeah. Interesting enough, Italians tend not to cremate. But that's just my scientific, unscientific uh experiment. That um, yes, I get a lot, a lot of cremations. Yeah. I don't know if that's just around here or if that's pretty common. But um yeah, that's I think that's most people what they're experiencing. But I think it's actually harder dealing with someone who's dying rather than someone who has who has died. Um, you know, I just the other day go to the hospital to anoint someone who's on, you know, end of life care, and they're it's a bad scene. You know, I've knew this person for a few years now in the nursing home, and to see them in such a state is different. I think it's so you have to find this balance between being emotionally invested enough to know to the family, and the person knows you're you care for them, right? But you you can't let it like destroy your day or anything, really, right? You have to go on like tonight, you have to go like, okay, I have to go anoint this person who's in their their final agony, and then um go meet with a couple for marriage prep.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

You know, so okay, so so so Keith Nestor, um, his wife just went in for surgery um the other day. His his wife had to go in for surgery. Keith Nestor's wife was diagnosed with breast breast cancer, and he said he he tweeted out that his wife, he it was the first time he had ever experienced the anointing of the sick. Um but the anointing of the sick is only part of last rites, correct? Right? Like, because you can only get last rites once, can't you?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Well, yes, we use the last rites as a the term for like the multiplicity of the sacraments, it'd be confession, anointing of the sick, and usually the apostolic pardon. Um, a communion would be, you know, including the viaticum. So yeah, you people would call it the last rites typically when they're you know uh pretty sure they're they're going to die very soon.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

But technically you would you would do all those same sacraments when someone is going into major surgery, you know, for except for the apostolic pardon, I would assume but you you can get the anointing of the sick multiple times.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, yeah. So if you again a girl face, are you going if you're going under general anesthesia? That's you know a pretty good time to do the anointing of the sick because you just don't know what's going to happen. And if you're going to um and someone is going to die, you know, very soon is pretty clear. Or if you anoint them and they end up recovering. If they're in the hospital, they recover, they come out, you they can be anointed

Hospital Visits And Facing The Dying

SPEAKER_01 10:45

later if their condition gets worse, even uh significantly worse. Um look at the making point of wife, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Have I ever received lance rights or something? I don't know. What's the point of asking a priest? What are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, so it's um yeah, it's important, I think, because most people, most people, the vast majority of people, these people who are at mass every Sunday, don't know, I think, about about that. I my experience has been that people, the fam, the families think that if you call the priest to anoint their loved one, is that they're it's like they don't call the priest until they're ready to give up on their loved one. Like I'm ready to let go of my loved one who's clearly dying. And so now I'm gonna call the priest rather than letting their loved one have the constellation of the sacraments while they're still fully conscious, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yeah, and especially, especially confession before before that that point, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Gary, because that's one of the one of my favorite lines in the uh the litany of the saints. Um we're asking when one in the petitions part, uh asking God uh to protect us from an unprovided death, you know, and that's one of the most important petitions, right? That are that we be provided for um by the sacraments.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

That death is such a crazy thing because we were we'll like we were talking, I was talking to Nicole about this. Like um, so our like our friend Tina lost her dad and she's devastated. Uh and so are her kids. But I know in a couple of weeks there's some there's something that's not unnatural about losing a parent, even if even if they pass young, there's something natural about losing your mother or your father, right? And yeah, you you you know, you you are going to have a heavy grieving process, but then after a few months, it's it's going to be like the big events, the you know, when your kids get married or a sweet 16. Those are gonna be the times that are difficult, a birth that when the when the father's birthday comes, the anniversary of his death comes. But it's nothing like when a parent loses a child, like there's something so un like we were talking about it. If like if you lose one of your children, there's something that I don't know if you ever go about your life the same without thinking of your child every single day of your life.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Right. No, I yeah. I mean, I don't think I've I mean, I've been with people who've experienced miscarriage, you know, and that's yeah, some people can be pretty devastated, you know, for that. And but I've never I don't think I've experienced that where someone has lost a child, you know, um between ages of birth and any any age really. I mean, and and it's certainly a young child anyway. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Do you have to if for those people that are doing the cremation, because the like uh under Francis, they released uh a document on cremation because people were yeah mistreating the remains, right? So I I guess cremation is technically allowed as a Catholic. Yeah, it was never it was never ever encouraged, but people would like hand knickknacks like trinkets with the ashes in them and give them to different, and they would

Last Rites Explained Without Confusion

SPEAKER_02 13:55

kind of separate the body from each other, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Oh, it's wild. It's wild. I I have I haven't seen, I mean, I've heard people doing that. I haven't seen like Catholics uh doing that for you. I think at least for the most part, some things I've seen. I mean, the worst I've seen is that people will like not bury the the remains, they will just keep on the keep them on the mantle or something. I'm like, look, we gotta bury like your father or something. They're like, no, we're not ready yet. Like, what is what does that mean?

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Why would you want to keep the remains on the mantle?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, that seems a lot worse. That seems a lot worse, uh, to me. Like, why would you I wouldn't never want to do that? Like, would you if it was if it was not cremated, would if it was body his body was in the coffin, would you keep him around? Like that'd be that'd be crazy.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Like how um how serious of a surgery does it have to be? Because uh people are saying like um uh for for the anointing of the sick, like does it have to be a very serious surgery, surgery you're going in for?

SPEAKER_01 14:54

I would say if you go under general anesthesia, you can be anointed. Yeah, so if you're unconscious, you're out. Um because like no matter what the surgery is, if you're no longer conscious and you're under general anesthesia, like you're there's a chance you won't wake up. Yeah. Um, so I just yeah, I think that's I think the um the rubrics provide for that. Um so you can be anointed for that. Um, I also I had um I had a friend.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Oh, I know Bobby's asked me. Uh yeah, yeah, Bobby. It's Tina and Mike. Uh Tina's Tina's Tina's father passed last night at midnight. So Bob Bobby knows knows uh the couple. Um yeah, my wife is just like in shock from this whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

And then and um his name's Keith. Keith. Well, you turn over the song to him, oh Lord, let perpetual light shine upon him. Be his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed to the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Um, yeah, it was just like one of those things where like I you know, I wasn't planning on talking about that tonight, but it was just it kind of just was my whole day was just thinking about about her and her whole family, what they're going through. And just like her mom, right? Like you, you know, talk you you lose your father, that's one thing, but like how do you go? You there is something so um uh like if you lose a spouse, you lose a part of yourself. Like, there's a the you know, if you if if C. S. Lewis says grief observed is probably the best book to give somebody who's going through grief, but and he wrote it after he lost his wife, and it's like there's something so profound about the loss of a spouse because the two really do become one in a very real way. So I don't I mean, I just I don't know how her poor her her poor mom's

How To Cast Worries On Christ

SPEAKER_02 16:40

gonna get through these next yeah. Um but uh yeah, then uh there was uh my friend my friend Jason had uh texted us last night and I think I think he's going through something heavy and he he just said how does casting your anxieties and worries on Christ actually work, like in reality. It's not it's something you know, we say, Oh, cast your worries on Christ. And uh he cast me, and I said, you know, I don't I don't know if I can give you a a great answer for that, other than um like really whatever you're going through, kind of just understand that it's in God's providence, and and maybe you'll see it in hindsight. And I said, honestly, you should really just go sit before the blessed sacrament and just give it away.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

You know, I know just from my own um experiences as a priest. Um, you know, of course, speaking of priests, I have more uh more access to uh to being in front of the blessed sacrament. Obviously, I think as you said, that's uh that's really important. Um, and because you're speaking not only to to Christ that is in his divinity, but in his humanity present there in the Blessed Sacrament too, right? So you can see yourself there with him speaking to him. But I know from difficult situations that I've just had to deal with just as a priest, um, that it's in those those moments, those really difficult moments, that you realize that I am completely at the mercy of God. And you don't know those things. You don't understand God's um, well, you totally understand God's providence, but the reality of of God's providence doesn't is not clear to you when you're in control, when you or at least you feel like you're in control and things are going well, or it's only when things are are shattered or potentially so that you realize, oh, I have not yet abandoned myself to God's providence. And but what's required first, I think, for that is to to abandon yourself is just a trust in God's actual love for you. You know, if you if you believe that that God actually loves you and wants you to be with him, and that everything he gives you is some in some way, somehow is for your good, for you to grow in virtue, to learn something about him, then you're going to that's how you're going to eventually abandon yourself to him, you know. And um the you know, two books on that you probably have read them. Uh, I think it's Kaussad's book. Um I probably read them.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

I don't know if you've talked to I only read Rob Gives Me Homework.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

There's the abandonment to divine providence and actually I've read that surrender to divine providence. Or uh I forgot who wrote which one uh right now, but those books are extremely powerful. I know people have read those 20 times, and we have to keep learning those lessons over and over again. Um, but yes, um it's yeah, it's kind of kind of nuts.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Like when you're going through something, you think, especially those well from personal experience, those moments in my life when I thought I was the furthest from God, where I I, you know, you have that where you think God has completely abandoned you and you have no connection to God. I I've seen in hindsight, looking back, that I mean it's the stupid footprints prayer, right? Oh man, it's so it's so cheesy, but it really is one of those things where everyone, yeah, the stupid footprints prayer. Oh, that was when you were carrying me. No, but there's like something very real about that. Uh, I especially um at probably the toughest points of my marriage when I thought my marriage was going to fall apart, and like me and my wife were going through stuff, and um just different different stages in in in my own life where I was in really bad shape. And then you kind of it's not maybe it's not that you were the closest to God at the moment, but that God was using those experiences for his providence to bring you into a deeper relationship. Well, all things work for good for those who trust in God, essentially, right? Like the the horrible things that happen to us, God will still use those. Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

The hard part is that the is the the the not knowing what the what the future is, right? Because you you want to understand right now, and but this is really the the fundamental act of faith is the the is is trust, right? It's entering into that uh that relationship of trust that I don't see everything, I don't know everything, I can't possibly know everything. That but I do trust that God does, and that and trust in his confidence and his love and his mercy. So whatever it is I'm going through now, that but I know that as you mentioned, this is going to make sense some at some point, but I I can't see it now. I just have to keep going through this this darkness, um, knowing that there's there's light there. And where does that light come from? Well, uh, we always see that light just beaming, you know, from pulsing from the tabernacle. Um I always like to see the plus the sacrament, even as the the tabernacle itself is like the the beating heart, right? The sacred heart of our Lord. And I think you see it like that, and you can just feel that pulse of of our Lord's heart coming from from the heart from the center of the church. And what's more attractive than that, you know?

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Um I uh Just to change gears a little bit. I I so I watch your homilies every week. I listen to your homilies every week. I that uh they're so I used to I used to listen to uh with my kids, I used to listen to Father Mike Schmidt's homilies with my kids on the way to church. We we've replaced our Father Mike Schmidt's homilies. Wow. Father Mike Schmidt.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Oh my goodness. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

No, but they're always they're always so interested. I'll I'll I can't I would tell you guys I'd post the link to his his parish website, but I don't know how to do that stuff. So um I don't know. DM me and I'll give it to the biggest.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

If you go on my if you go on, yeah, if you go on my parish's website, you'll see the live stream. And then what I do is I have a SoundCloud account, which is mostly for music. I I discovered SoundCloud because I was listening to the Tomistic Institute and they post their stuff on there. But I record most of my homilies uh for my Sunday homilies, and I pick what I think is the best one and post it on SoundCloud. Um so I post the best one on

Aliens And Catholic Revelation Boundaries

SPEAKER_01 23:05

SoundCloud, and um, but you can watch the live stream too because it this live stream's at eight o'clock, so I'm like, I'm not in my in my rhythm yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I post on SoundCloud. But in any case, yeah, well, thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yeah, so all right, so so I caught uh your your homily last week was you dove into the alien topic, and you were the first priest I have ever heard give a homily on aliens, and I had I had just uh I I I screen recorded it and I posted it to my to my Twitter account because I just wanted other people to hear the homily. Because I just had uh Joshua Charles and and uh Daniel O'Connor on about this. Yeah, the the alien thing is such a weird thing to me when I see Catholics trying to downplay like the seriousness of this issue that you're kind of playing around with the idea that God's rev revelation wasn't fully given to us, right? And like we as Catholics we believe that the fullness of God's revelation ended with the last of the apostles, right? So like you you jumped into that a little bit, and it was really people people don't I I don't think they see the fundamental issue, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:20

I think if they'd be made more aware of it, which I which I tried to do. Um, because and I I wanted to preach in that for a couple of reasons. One, I saw your episode with Daniel O'Connor and and Joshua Charles. The next day, Daniel posted like a think it was like the next day, a three-hour video, which is basically his Facebook. Daniel's like Daniel's nuts in this topic. He's just going, he's just going. Like, and uh it and it was fantastic. And so, and then on Monday, I had our like our men's group, and the topic came up on that. So I was like, I should probably preach a homily on aliens. So by the end of the week, I was went to the first hour of Daniel's video, and um again, and I was like, okay, so give me some give me some good references here, and just pulled that, pulled that together in like an hour or so. Um and yeah, because I think the the fundamental issue really, what it comes down to is if you can show from the data of tradition and scripture that man is unique amongst intelligent beings in the universe, that is beings and uh the corporeal intelligent beings, uh, other than the angels. If you can show that definitively, then that would rule out aliens. Uh, because what you're are other intelligence beings in the universe, because to have an intellect and a will is therefore necessarily ordered towards God. I mean, ultimately, and therefore we need a savior.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

For for me, it's we we say our lady is the crown of God's creation, yeah, right? She is the crown of God's creation. So, this idea that there could be these beings that are that I mean, they would have to be superior to us if they're from another planet traveling through galaxies to get here, like they would have to be superior. Like the theological issues that come up if you if you believe this are preposterous. I have no issue believing there is something here that is a non-human intelligence that has always been here, and that the ancients always had a category for, but then once you get to the enlightenment, materialism kind of gets rid of that category for people, right? Like, like you get you get to the enlightenment and they want to write off all the things that the medieval's believed as superstition. So any encounters with the demonic, any encounters with these non-human intelligences just gets written off as just crazy lunacy, mental illness, things like that. But like the the the people in the ancient world actually understood this stuff way better than we do.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

And they had a yeah, they had a far greater understanding, and just read the gospels, you know, and you'll see that they had a far greater understanding of the deep and abiding relationship between the spiritual world and the material world. I mean, look at like would anyone think like today, when someone is physically ill, um, for example, it's some kind of long-term illness, that by casting out that you think to cast out the devil from them and they would be physically better. Usually it doesn't happen, right? Yeah, um, but you see that in the gospel, right? You see the forgiven and the forgiveness of sins, it's of course a spiritual reality, and and it's some kind of a physical malady, usually are going hand in hand very often in the scriptures.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Um we just especially, especially, especially when Paul says, Are any of you unwell? Right? Like Paul's talking about the the Eucharist making people sick. Like there's something I think we I don't think we grasp what he's getting at in that, right? Right, he he's equating demonic possession to illness when when he's saying, Are any of you ill?

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah, and yeah, I don't like you're you're receiving he he equates receiving the body and blood of Christ in a state of mind. Yeah, what is he talking about? Is there a physical illness or spiritual illness he's talking about? Yeah, you're kind of breaking up on me here, by the way. Yeah, you're breaking up and then you're kind of uh it was just I think you're a little behind.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Okay, I think it's good now. I think it's good. Oh no. Are we uh are we lagging? Oh no, we have a lag.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Now we have a lag. Uh oh.

unknown 28:44

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Hold on. How about now? I mean, I think it may be a few seconds.

unknown 28:52

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Oh no. I don't know if I don't know. Well we'll we're gonna try it. So I think there's a um besides the theological issues with the the alien question, I think there's just some logical issues that people need to like think, just kind of think about. Like, for example, um, you know, why would we even think about aliens if it wasn't something that was just such a common part of our media is experience? Like starting with like, you know, uh let's say Star Trek, you know, like was it the late 50s, probably early 60s, and then up until all your all the great shows and movies that involve actually terrestrial life, you know, great

Demonic Influence Versus Mental Illness

SPEAKER_01 29:30

stories, fun stories. But would that be in our consciousness like now thinking this is a real possibility or then just science fiction? I don't know. I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Okay, so the because I in some ways I feel like trad's Trads, like uh what some of some of the um uh some of some of the exorcism, exer like seeing exorcist stuff, like I feel like that's like like trad corn. You know what I mean? Like I feel like I feel like it's um it's almost like I equate it sometimes to um apparition chasing, where people just want to hear the next apparition that's going to predict the next thing, and you're seeing what what our lady's message was in this place and uh do you think that um especially like more traditional Catholics? Do you think they make too much of the demonic or not enough? Do you think mental illness is under like under prescribed or over-prescribed? Like what what have your experiences been with this?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Yeah, the issue of the relationship between mental illness and demonic activity is a difficult one. I actually just went to uh a conference on this uh on Monday. Actually, just this Monday on that very question. Um and it is it can be very different. Now, there are distinct criteria um when you're talking about, say, various mental illnesses, schizophrenia, depression, so forth, um, and demonic possession, specifically possession. But when you get into different types of diabolic activity, what we call someone would call oppression um or other such thing, lesser things than that, uh obsession, it gets very difficult to determine what exactly is going on with someone. Um, and because but because the relationship between the spiritual reality and the material reality of our of our being, not surprising that there's you know often an overlap. And the best thing to do, really, I mean, any the best, I would say, uh, I want to say the best exorcism, but the best way to be rid of the influence of the devil is a good confession. Yeah. You know, make a good confession and return to the regular practice of the sacraments. And yes, it'll take time, but um exorcisms from what I I hear from these priests on the internet can take a very long time, too, you know. But but those only happen when someone is like already striving to live in a state of grace.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

I I man, uh I gotta be careful because it's another close family friend. But uh we my wife and I have another friend who we grew up with, and um she's struggling with with some kind of mental illness, right? And she's she supposedly has schizophrenia or was schizophrenia, I don't know how you pronounce it, but um, we were at like a Halloween party with her, and she was explaining to my wife how she sees things and hears voices and all this stuff. And my wife was like, You mean like right now? She's like, Yes, I I hear the voice right now while I'm speaking to you. And all I'm thinking while she's telling my wife this is you're a Catholic, you need to go to confession. Like, I'm I'm I it felt like you don't need medication, you don't need a doctor, you need to go to confession and you need to go receive communion. You need like that's that's all I could say because she's been going to doctors for years, struggling with this thing, but she hasn't gone to mass once. Oh, and yeah, everything she describes sounds sounded like demonic possession.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, yeah, it could be schizophrenia or um schizoaffective disorder, you know, if she's having hallucinations, um, yeah, or or delusions. I don't know if there were delusions involved, but like that's um from what I've read. And that's yeah, that's it's a difficult thing. But if you're hearing like but so many people do hear voices, uh like they're schizophrenic, that's what they're hearing. But yeah, where is that line? I mean, you really got to sit down with someone and get their whole story. Um say, well, when did this come about? How did this how do you think this kind of thing came about? Was it always there, or was it something that came about after a specific event? Were you playing with like tarot cards? Like, and then all of a sudden you start hearing these voices.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Probably was. This person specifically is probably playing with crystals and all that that kind of I uh yeah. Next time I see her, I'm gonna bring holy water and throw it on.

Scrupulosity And Believing God Loves You

SPEAKER_02 34:05

The power of Christ compels you to see what happens. Um, this is a good one. No, wait, Father, I have a quick question. If if if all right, guys, if you want to ask Father a question, you got a super chat. Is that Simony? I'm gonna charge people to ask you questions. Is that's not Simony?

SPEAKER_01 34:19

That's a good no, because I'm not getting the money. You are.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

I'm getting the money, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

All right, so this is actually a good question because I know a lot of young guys like this. And so the question is a question for father. I'm a Gen Z young adult struggling with believing that God could actually love me on a personal level and trusting in his love for me. How do I learn to believe in his love? And I've heard this a few times, especially with the younger guys. Yeah, um, I think scrupulosity um and despair is something very big amongst Gen Z. And I don't know if it has a lot to do with their online constantly, things like that. But I I I have some insight on my advice, but I would let I want to hear what you would have to say.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Um I don't know what our questioners you know struggling with or what you know his sins are and all that, but various sins can bring about a sense of uh shame, you know, to think that we've done things that make it so that God doesn't love me, or I don't have tangible signs of God's love. You know, um one remedy, there's a reason why so many of the saints will tell us meditate upon the cross of Christ. Like you get a nice crucifix and meditate upon that, because there's no greater sign of our Lord of our Lord's love for you than than his cross. Um do you need you need greater proof? Um well, if you need greater proof, then you can see the living God in the tabernacle. Um that's as I mentioned earlier, the see that as the very beating heart of God. You know, then that's the same heart that you that John the Apostle, you know, you know, heard beating at the Last Supper, and he laid his head upon our Lord's chest at the Last Supper. Um, you get that experience too. No one understands the greater, no apostle understands that greater love of God than than John as he as he wrote about that so frequently. But you know, immerse yourself in the writings of the saints on that particular topic. You know, you need those ideas filling your head. I mean, if I were sitting down with you, uh questioner, I would ask, okay, like what does your day look like in terms of what are you reading on the internet, even if it's not impure material or whatever. Um you're filling your mind with things that are going to contribute to your knowledge of the love of God or or just other things, you know, other things.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Like I think I think those guys have to be careful reading the scholastics and moral manual. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Yeah, I'm thinking more of the spiritual text of like um there's a million, there's a million things. Uh, even even some newer things.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

It doesn't have to be something from the 13th century or something, but um uh I'm trying to think of no, I'm I'm so I I because because the guys I've encountered, they're they're they tend to be these younger guys who fall in love with the traditional faith, and then they will start reading like Saint Alphonsus, and they get like they I think they feel overwhelmed and they get really scrupulous. Because look, you if you if you're reading from some of these saints, these are saints who have you know, they're not they're like they're barely committing venial sin, and they're and they're talking about things like the fewness who were saved, and man, that like some of some of those saints you'll read and you will feel like holy cow, nobody's going to heaven. You know, it's like and I think if you have a certain kind of temperament, you you do have to be on guard for certain certain reading materials, and then there's probably um reading material from that time period from different kinds of saints that may speak more to help you with the with that area, possibly.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Yeah, I mean, again, if it if someone is struggling with a particularly moral issue, um then yeah, I mean, but if it's just this overall sense of of the love of God, I mean there are plenty of good of spiritual writings of the saints that don't involve specific moral questions. I mean, there's a reason why these moral manuals are written in Latin, we're written in Latin, right? Because so because when the common person might read them, um, if they're written in a vernacular language, you these problems, you know, problems may happen where you someone might become scrupulous and things like that. You need someone who has a a sense of the bigger picture, like uh perhaps they're they're priest, who can guide someone to help them understand from an objective uh perspective uh on their life. But if you're just reading it alone, you know, not really understanding the full like picture, it's yeah, I can see how someone can get scrupulous because of that.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Well, I think I I think um I think I even went through a phase like that when I when I was early on in my conversion, like you just um like even even reading what was it, St. John Climactus, like the ladder of divine ascent, things like that. You know, like you start reading stuff like that. You're just like there was something there's actually something really good in that book, actually, that uh because it might it might I think it was that book where that that comforted me a bit, where he was talking about um uh uh if you're married, if you if you're in a state of marriage, right? And you have you have everyday worries, you have a family to tend to, you have all these different things. Uh, because he he was like, Look, you're obviously didn't say it like this, but like if you're not a monastic, you can't forego the world. So it was really uh like a simple thing. It was like just make sure that you stay away from mortal thin, uh attend as much prayer as you can, and make sure you're raising your like it was a very simple thing, it was a one-page thing, and it brought me great comfort because it was like, okay, I am working these 12-hour days, and I don't have hours to devote to mental prayer and things like that. And it's like your state in life is very dependent on that stuff too.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Yeah, so a couple things that some of these a lot of these writings, uh, I'm thinking it's like the imitation of Christ, right? These are written for monks, like the imitation of Christ, for example. Um, I think he was written it for early religious brothers, from what I understand. And a lot of the writings like that as well. So I think that has to that context has to be taken uh into um consideration, I think, when you're you're reading those kinds of things. And as you just said, um not everyone is required the same kind of of prayer life, right? I mean, I chose this life as a priest, and like that means that not only do I drawn to that that sense of uh of prayer and to have that time to do that, but I

Pilgrimage Updates Mediums And Odd Questions

SPEAKER_01 41:10

need to do that, right? Because if I any state of life you that you are called to, God's going to give you the graces to accomplish it well and to attain heaven by that state of life. Therefore, you need to live up to those graces that God is giving you. I didn't see that.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

I'm sorry, my brother-in-law is a doctor, and he can prove that term fertility maxing something. This may or may not be the guy who is expecting he may not be. I don't want to blow his spot, I don't know who he's told yet.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Fertility maxing, that is a new term.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Um, there are two couples that are coming to Italy with me who um this is the danger in booking a Catholic pilgrimage, especially with young people, because my pilgrimage that I'm doing is filled with young people. It's so look, there's also possibly four spots that are opening up, uh, two for sure. Uh, so there's two couples. One is like, we can't make it, but she's going to be 32 weeks and it's just way too close. The other couple's like, we're gonna speak to our doctor, and if the doctor says it's still safe to go, we're gonna go. So there's going to be four spots available. If anybody would like to go, uh email me, Anthony at avoidingbabylon.com, uh, and we'll see if we could get you in in one of those spots. Now, Molly, you had asked something earlier. Um, I'm not, but the person I referenced who lost their father is. So my wife's friend Tina, who lost her father, her aunt is the Long Island medium. So that's what that's an interesting connection. Interesting. Yeah, and they're all Catholic.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Um there's a place right across the street from one of my churches that's having a medium uh comment. It's an old church that was closed down, and they're having a a uh describe yourself as an energy practitioner. What is that?

SPEAKER_02 42:59

I find I find it's it's the it's mainly Catholics who fall for the going to mediums carbon, falling away Catholics, lapsed Catholics, things like that. It's like there's this yeah, this acute awareness of the spiritual realm in these people who were raised Catholic, uh, maybe were never like brought to church, they were like Catholic in name only. They have this acute awareness of the spiritual realm, and they're the ones that are most susceptible to falling for going to mediums or psychics and things like that. It's yeah, one of the scariest things ever. Yeah. Uh what do you think of this, Father? Kneeling for the chalice at the Novus Ordo.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Kneeling for the chalice. That's that is a new one. Um, I don't think it. Um, I think so. When it comes to the chalice, obviously it's allowed, you know. Um, but anything that's going to increase the chances of you dropping. Stopping it, I think, could be um a problem. You know, so if someone handing the chalice down to you while you're kneeling at an angle they're not used to, it may seem like something small, but the routine of handing something back. I know from giving communion to hundreds of people every week, the routine and the proper angle really matters. Um, but if you're handing something with liquid in it that is that precious, are you are you just too for not like receiving the channels, you know? Uh in that case, yeah. I think you're right there.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

Um, okay, so there's a couple things. So um locals tonight. I have a John Deloney clip for Father that I did not let him preview. I have a John Deloney clip for locals that I did not let Father preview tonight. I also have the funniest video I have ever seen in my entire life. And it's not an internet video, it is a video of a coworker. And this coworker, it's I thought you would find it funny because you're Italian, and this is a very Italian family. The and the daughter calls the father and tells the father she wants them to come to church because they're gonna she's she's like, Dad, I want you to come to church next Sunday with me. They're gonna baptize the dog. And the father's like, What? Like, but it's one of the funniest. I was my ribs hurt from laughing at this video, and I thought I give people a little insight into what my world is like outside of the podcast. I just showed you the characters I work with, so that's what we're going to be doing on locals tonight. But the the John Deloney clip is going to get into male-female dynamics because I'm interested to hear what you think on this. I know I have my opinions, but I'm a bit of uh bit of a chauvinist, they say. So it'll be interesting to hear your take on it. Um, are there any other questions before we head over there? Let's see. Um, oh, somebody asks, are you guaranteed a girlfriend if you come on the pilgrimage? We don't do girlfriends, we do straight to uh engagement. So you meet someone there, you have to buy the ring while you're there, and you'll have a fiance by the time you leave. That's that's how we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

I'll get faculties to do the wedding right there.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

I will say this Bobby met my sister in January, and I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure they'll be engaged. Wow. Well before well before Italy. We'll see how it goes, but it does seem that way.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

We're uh yeah, that's well, hey, if you um give them a knickknacks and this this adds to it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

I am I'm looking to do better than than uh uh Tim Gordon's pimp service. I mean uh dating's come on, come on. I know I'm just teasing. We love Tim. I'm just kidding. Um, all right, so before we go, I'm trying to think. Uh oh no, actually, there is a couple things. Um I

Bad Catechesis Colbert And Strange Liturgies

SPEAKER_02 47:05

had uh I wanted to know if you saw uh a couple of things. Um hold on one sec. Let me pull these out. Um Stephen Colbert. Stephen Colbert. Uh uh he's been called the greatest Catholic evangelist of our time by yeah, by James Martin. Oh man. All right, hold on, let me see. Uh all right, hold on. Wait, what did I do here? I know what I did, hang on. I'm sorry, guys, you know me. All right, I'm gonna share this and we're going to play this video. I want to see what you think of this.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

That's what I want to say. All right. So all right, hold on.

SPEAKER_02 48:08

You guys gotta be on with me here. All right. Ready?

SPEAKER_03 48:16

What do you think happens when we die? Here's what I here's what I picture. Some of these questions, if I answer them, I have to think of what do I think as I'm waiting for the person to answer them when I give it to them, what comes to mind. When I come to mind when I ask this question, I think of uh almost like uh it's more like a feeling, and the feeling is that when we die, I think there is some continuance of some kind, but it's a um like a dispersion of the self into some other greater being, and I don't know, I don't have any of the feelings beyond that.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

What you're saying is we become freeze, yes, right, that's exactly right. So greatest Catholic evangelist. Um that's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

I've been having this fight on on Twitter with no, I've been having this fight on Twitter with the set of Acantists who um they say the Novus Order was a new religion, and um like okay, that's ridiculous, right? Um the church has the authority to change things, this and that. But every once in a while something like that comes out, and you see Stephen Colbert is one of those guys who's like brought up by the, you know, I mean, the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan brings him up, like he's the you know, he's this and it does at times feel like there are two totally different religions inside the same church. Yeah. But you just wonder like how how people even get these ideas in their heads that when when we die, I feel like we just go into this greater like I I think the the state of cat catechesis is just so hard.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

That's the thing though, that the church does has has some pretty clear answers. I mean, it open the catechism and um read the writings of the saints, you know, and um in some ways and the catechism was written in like the 90s, okay, so that's very uh novus order time period. So, you know, and it's it's solid. And I think the question is about eschatology. So, you know, I don't know why uh Stephen Colbert happens to not uh understand, not think that uh what the church teaches about the beatific vision, okay, um, about being communion, you know, with uh union with God in that way. I don't know. And I don't know why he someone would want whatever he just just described there, or why someone would strive for it. Um because if you don't have a good idea of what heaven is and um and what hell is, then you know, I guess I can understand that you might work for something other than you know the attainment of heaven, the avoidance of hell, right? Um I don't know. Yeah, I I I can't imagine. I don't know who taught him that or where he got that from, but it wasn't the catechism of the Catholic Church. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

Well, the I mean, you know what, we could keep doing like the I I just think like what you because this g does get discouraging, right? Like we'll see. All right, I'll play one more, and I don't want to actually do this, but it's kind of like you kind of have to. Um, I'm trying to find a bit of this. I'm so bad at this. I need ROM. Here we go. So bad.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

From the earth to heaven, it's what Jesus did for you and me. Let's be grateful for the end of our life. What is going on here? And for the gift of new eternal life when we're with Jesus Ascension, it's often I think I know it's a life side thing. Like, this is real eternal life sublime.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

What the ascension, it's the focus of this literature of all of all tunes that you could choose to like do a homily for.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

What are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 53:02

Like, I'll I don't I don't know. Like, you know what I wonder these kinds of things, like when you like start making up stuff at mass or doing kind of crazy things like that, like uh why are you bored? Like, are you like how do how does that how does that like when I'm sitting down to write a homily? I'm not it never has now I've been ordained almost nine years, but it has not crossed my mind so okay, what tune am I going to preach this homily to uh this weekend?

SPEAKER_02 53:33

Um I don't that's exactly how the book of acts so when I see like really bad Protestant stuff like that, or it's like like smoke machines and fog machines. I'll that's my tweet. I'll write this is exactly how the book of acts describes work. But it's it's as bad in Catholicism at times when you kind of get this look, they they had a uh I saw an article of uh the like Pope Leo's going to Spain or somewhere, and they're not setting up confessionals, they're going to set up listening stations, right? And you're just like, man, like what what is it with that older generation of, and it's not all of them, obviously, but there's like this very liberal version of this older generation who sings Flintstones at Mass. They they're like Stephen Colbert, they think heaven is ethereal and it's nothing. They want to set up listening stations and they want to do all this stuff, and it's like I'm I I have no experience

Confession Habits That Actually Help

SPEAKER_02 54:30

of people who take their faith seriously that think any of this stuff is okay or enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

Yeah. Yeah, I I don't know where it came from. I don't know. I think it's um maybe I don't know what the confessionals are like where you well, are you live everywhere you frequent, but um do you have you know more traditional style confessionals, or is it like the option of going face to face?

SPEAKER_02 54:50

I uh so it depends where I go. Like if I if I go to the more traditional parishes, you're in a box. If I go to but even the even the Novus Ordo parishes by me, they always have a screen option. You always you could do either, or I've never been to one where you only can do face-to-face.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

Yeah, no, I mean like even just the like one of my three churches, one of them had the traditional style confessional all set, but two of them were adapted so that you can do either. And I said no. So I put up a barrier, um, and then two separate entrances so that there's no way that you can go, you know, face to face. And that's protection for the honesty for the priest, not just for the uh anonymity of the penitent, but you gotta be able to say that I have I didn't see the person. You know, I think that's very helpful. Um yeah. Uh I don't know, I don't know why why personalizing confession made people thought that would be better. Um so you can see someone's face. Uh seems like it'd make you more nervous um if someone is anxious already about going to confession. I don't I don't know. I don't get it.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

We I had uh some so I saw somebody the other day. I mentioned this on the on locals the other night. There was a guy who was uh coming into the faith and he was coming into the church and he's like, well, now I've gone to I've gone to uh learn the faith. Like this priest catechized me and he knows my voice so well, and I don't want to go to confession with him. And I like personally, I would rather go to the priest who knows my voice, and but because not not maybe not for the for the initial one, because then it's kind of daunting. But once like I I can see his point and not wanting to do your general confession with the priest who knows you, but then I don't know, I don't even think that's an issue either. But I do like going to the same priest every time because when I leave there, I'm more aware that I have to confess my sins to that same man, and it it it puts my guard up way more, and also uh the priest, like I don't I don't know. I I I would prefer that. I but I but a lot of people do will will parach hop and go to a priest they don't know so that they can, you know, I don't I don't know what yeah as a priest, like do you do you ever judge somebody that comes into confession?

SPEAKER_01 57:13

No, no, never. Um, and I think any of the any of the saints will tell you you should have a consistent confessor if possible, um, precisely because you do want them in a way to be able to help you if you're struggling with something consistently. It's not the the embarrassment about some sin, really, it's pride. Yeah, right? I mean, it's pride. Like, of course, like if you're struggling with something and you really want to get over it, um, you don't just go to confession just to feel better about yourself. You go to confession so that you can be healed, or at least take that next step towards the eradicating of this particular sin or tendencies, whatever they happen to be. Um, so that's how I think a priest approaches confession. I've never had uh a confession bother me outside of confession, really. It just doesn't. There's I think I do think there's certain graces given, you know, to priest to be able to deal with it in that moment and then just it's just gone. Right. And I think and partly because we know we know our own sins, right? As being just humans, we know what we're capable of, you know, as well. So it's not people should never I get why people are nervous going to confession. Who wants to just say your sins, right? Um, to someone. But there's I've noticed just from catechizing people and you know hearing general confessions is that once you build up that that trust with someone, I do think that they who else are they going to confess to, right? Because they want someone who already knows them. I think as he said, partly my experience is that that's what people that's what people want. So how is it for you? Like, um, do you have to go to confession too, right? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

Like like for you, do uh and especially confessing to another priest, like yeah, man, that's gotta that's gotta be a bit of a humbling experience, too, right?

SPEAKER_01 59:03

Like, I mean Yeah, I mean I think I think an important advantage of just um one of the graces just being being a priest is that you have plenty of opportunities to be humble, to be to be humble is that you get plenty of opportunities. Uh one is having to, you know, to go to another your friend, you know, someone who's uh do confession like that. And you know, I'm fortunate that I'll have any number that I can, you know, call and just go to when I and see them. And obviously priests will, at least priests I know, they will will drop everything and hear another priest's confession, right? They'll make whatever accommodation they have to, you know, to hear someone else's confession, hear a priest's confession. So yeah, it it yeah, I mean it's it's difficult. And I think actually one of the great privileges of uh of a priest is hearing other priest's confessions who come to, you know, and that's because like um helping them in their ministry um to continue on their ministry to be strengthened by by God's grace, that really is uh a profound thing that um most people don't think about. Most people don't think about priests going to confession.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:09

You know, I I I I did because I've been well, there's two two things. One, I've been with a priest friend when we went to a parish, and when we walked in and saw the priest, the priest I was with went, Father, will you hear my confession? And I was like, Whoa, that was it was a really a really cool thing to like. I I went I it was a priest visiting New York and I was showing him around New York, and when we went to Holy Innocence, I introduced him to Father Myara, and the first thing he said when he met Father Mayara was, Hey, will you hear my confession? And I was like, Oh wow, this is that that's pretty cool. Um, and the um the oh man, what was the other thing I was going to say? Um yeah, I don't know. I had something else I was going to say also, but yeah, it was a it was a very, very cool thing to be beat. I was there was a priest visiting New York who I was friends with, and when I introduced them, he was just like, Oh, well, you hear my confession. You forget, like, priests are Catholic too, and they're doing their best to be Catholic, right? And we're all human. And one of the one of the most interesting things about my friendships with priests has been how they've related to some of the conversations on this show because they're seeing the same thing I'm seeing, right? And they're like, Yeah, this stuff is kind of crazy, right? And uh, we're all trying to make sense of it. It's not like you're a priest and you stand in a different place than us. We all see the craziness in the hierarchy, right? And all of us are kind of like, What is you know, what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

Yeah, you wouldn't want like a a priest who didn't uh understand what the people are seeing, right? I mean, you you want that priest to be with them, um, to understand, to see the world as they see it, because that's how you can hopefully preach effectively and minister effectively to them. Uh, if you were just like separate in some way, um, that wouldn't be it wouldn't be good. You wouldn't want that. You got it. You got it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:09

Look, you you you think like you think about um, I mean, I think about my own reversion to the faith and coming in, and especially those of us who are like on fire for the faith, like you have this deep desire to see the the faith lived out fervently, right? And you and all all you want is to see the hierarchy, like Rob and I are going through this whole series of like pre-conciliar Catholicism. We're just like, Yeah, what a time to be alive, right? Like, even though the world's falling apart, it's like at least the Pope and the like, at least he's on our side, and then we're kind of in our age, and we're just like, Oh my goodness, they're doing what now? And you just but there are tons of priests out there who are in the same boat as us, all looking at the same stuff, and all of our hearts are aching as we're watching this stuff. But you know, you gave your life to the church and you gave your life to Christ, and you're and you're in it with us. That's it's one of my favorite things about making friends with priests is feeling like they're not like we're not crazy for thinking the way that we do, and you guys are kind of going through it with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

Yeah, and the priest, I think, sorry, uh, should be so I try to be, because you know, there's when you're in a parish, you have people who are at various levels of engagement with um, you know, the the kinds of things that you would talk about you're on the show, whether it's the the Catholic social media sphere or just you think general things going on in Rome, right? Most a lot of people don't pay attention to that, you know, especially some older lot of older people I know, and just like, and that's and that's just fine, probably for the best. And but to be, I think a priest should be it's just that stable force, right? Is whatever's going on in the world, when they go to mass, they know what they're gonna get day in and day out, right? They know here's how the mass is gonna be, and here's generally just how the homily is gonna go. Um, it's gonna be perhaps this long, it's gonna be um, you know, I'm gonna learn something, you know, hopefully, or at least be encouraged in some general way. Um, and as crazy as the world is, you you you should have that stability, and the priest, I think, just should represent that stability in this very person.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:24

Um yeah, the every every single parish I attend, I don't care what, you know, whether it's novels or or or traditional, what what we do at the parish, what the priest talks about, has nothing to do with what you see in the news cycle. Ever. Yeah, like the like the priest is never talking about like the what the latest thing. I've I've never heard never heard a homily on the Sonatal Way ever, you know. Every time I go, it's a reflection on the readings, and that parish life lived on the ground is so different from what they're doing on like the grand level of of of the church right now. It's kind of kind of interesting to to to live in this time period because when you just go to mass and you attend the sacraments and you and you find a a decent parish and you're living out your Catholic faith, it's like just you tune that stuff out and you can be Catholic. And you know, you can raise your family Catholic. And if you kind of just don't obsess on that stuff, you have a much healthier spiritual life. Are we freezing up again?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:33

Losing you.

Move To Locals And Goodbye

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

Okay, so what we're going to do. What we're going to do is we're going to go over to locals. We're going to hope that the delay goes away. Uh, for anybody that's not a locals member, we're gonna go have some fun over there. Locals is going to be uh we're gonna play a John Deloney clip. And oh, I don't know. I have to load that thing because I didn't think I loaded it. Um uh Let me see if I can find it. Alright, so we're gonna do that over on locals. I'm gonna kill the feed over here, and we're gonna we're gonna do two videos over there, and then we'll just continue the conversation. So let me kill let me kill the Facebook. Remove uh one at a time. This is Bru does this so much better than I do. All right, see you later, YouTube. You guys are gone.