Go Make Disciples
Audio releases from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to further the mandate to "Go Make Disciples."
Go Make Disciples
Dr. Karlo Broussard Interview | Red Dirt Catholics LIVE — 2025 Discipleship Conference
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Jayce and James sat down with Dr. Karlo Broussard from Catholic Answers at the 2025 Discipleship Conference for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to share why conversions are surging in Tulsa and how credible witness, patient timing, and deeper dialogue are changing evangelization. Real stories, practical tactics, and a hopeful read on where the Spirit is moving.
• live from the discipleship conference floor
• Karlo’s Tulsa partnership and parish missions
• proclaiming why Jesus is Lord across the diocese
• training in evangelization, tips, and tactics
• conversion stories from pastors, evangelists, and families
• how to talk to loved ones far from God
• discernment and relationship with the Holy Spirit
• shifts from atheism debates to deeper Protestant dialogue
• credible Catholic witness and shared language
• cultural pressure prompting a search for truth
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Live From The Conference Floor
SPEAKER_00Hey, thanks for listening to Red Here Catholics. If you were not at the 2025 Discipleship Conference, you're in for another treat. And we've got another one of our guests or attendees on the lineup here. Hope you enjoyed the listen, and it's as fruitful for you as it was for us.
SPEAKER_01Hey, and welcome to Red Dirt Catholics live here at the Discipleship Conference. You can kind of feel the energy, James, going on right now. Like, what have you been seeing?
SPEAKER_00We can feel it. You guys can hear it, I think, probably a little bit of chatter in the background. I've been seeing a lot of friends. I haven't got very far. That's so true. But it was really, really great. I had like five conversations with people who are on fire talking about real things in their life. I haven't heard like content from the show yet or from the the conference, but it was just like this gentleman with the woodworking and then someone else about Catholic education.
SPEAKER_01You know Nathan from Fabri Philius?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we knew we know Nathan from way back when at our OU days. Yeah. Um he's he's a master carpenter at Fabriphilius who's making absolutely beautiful works of art out of wood for altars, for tabernacles.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful kneeler that would go great for the domestic church or a sanctuary, from what I can tell.
SPEAKER_01That's absolutely amazing. But we also have a special guest here with us, Carlo Broussard. How's it going today? Hey guys, it's going all right. When when did you get to Oklahoma? Oklahoma. Oh, no, wait, you've been in Oklahoma. You're two years in Tulsa.
Introducing Carlo Broussard
SPEAKER_02Two years ago, yeah. We're I'm doing some work in the Diocese of Tulsa. So a full-time apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers. But we entered into a formal partnership two years ago with the Diocese of Tulsa in Eastern Oklahoma. So they subcontract me for some of my time. We moved there, and I just hop around from parish to parish throughout the week, giving talks, presentations, workshops, retreats, uh, meeting the pastoral needs that the pastors have given my formation and training. So whatever they need, I can help them out with. So it's been such a delight working at the Chancery and uh being integrated into the diocese of Tulsa in Eastern Oklahoma. And so here I am, just a I just had to hop, skip, and a jump to come to Oklahoma City for the discipleship conference. So blessed to be here, looking forward to giving my presentations. And I tell you what, I'm super impressed with uh the crowd and the turnout.
Parish Missions And Tulsa Partnership
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love it. It's an amazing turnout. What are you what are the pastors telling you that their needs are?
SPEAKER_02Well, uh, we so Bishop Conderla last year came out with a pastoral letter of why Jesus is Lord. So a lot of my talks and presentations were centered around that theme. But of course, given my training in apologetics, I was giving presentations of why I believe Jesus is Lord. So the divinity of Christ and his resurrection. And then this year I've been traveling throughout the diocese giving presentations on evangelization. So empowered to share, answering the call to evangelization, why should we answer the call and evangelize? And then, secondly, uh forming minds for mission, how to be intellectually prepared for mission and tips, tricks, and tactics in order to engage in conversations from an apologetical perspective.
SPEAKER_01You have a do you have a story that like sticks out to you from this last year on that evangelization?
Pastoral Needs: Proclaiming Jesus As Lord
Training For Evangelization And Apologetics
Conversion Stories Across The Diocese
SPEAKER_02Man, that's a good question. You put me on the spot there. But uh well, I mean, we have several stories. I mean, the conversions in the diocese of Tulsa have been massive. So I played just small roles in conversions, but you know, those conversions happened from other folks as well. But we had a Presbyterian pastor who gave up his 10-year pastoralship at the University of Tulsa in the Reformed United Fellowship Church, came into the faith, and now he's our full-time director of spiritual formation at the cathedral in Tulsa. We had a Church of Christ who I was very much involved in in his conversion, a Church of Christ evangelist who was kind of like a pastor but evangelist, traveling the country, giving uh Bible sermons and stuff. He came into the church and converted last December and is now beginning to be involved within the diocese. We I was just the other night we had an event in a social where we have a young couple who are graduates of Oral Roberts University, one of which has a theology degree. They came to our home Bible studies or apologetic group studies a couple of times, super fired up, and we just found out they signed up for OCIA coming up in the fall. Last year, we had a Baptist couple who came to my home for our home ministry, and after they came, they said they learned more in an hour and a half with me than they did in four years with their Baptist minister. They signed up for OCIA like the next month they came into the church this past Easter vigil. So it's been crazy, man. So that's just a tip of the iceberg of some of the stories and the fruits of the ministry that I've been doing in the Diocese of Tulsa and evangelization. And I gotta share this. So in Spyro, rural town, right? It's two hours from Tulsa to drive, two and a half hours to drive there, literally old town. Due to the ministry of this partnership, three of the people from that community who were not Catholic, and it's like one big family that's kind of running the church. Yeah, three of those family members who were not Catholic have now decided to become Catholic. And in and it was large part to the evangelistic work of one of their relatives who was there. But the ministry of Catholic Answers and my work and my presence there in the diocese, going giving presentations was sort of the input, um, sort of the final push, so to speak, of the prompting in order for them to become Catholic. So those are some of the stories of the work that the Diocese of Tulsa and uh Catholic Answers is doing. And hopefully, who knows, we might be able to kind of share some of that work here in the Oklahoma di uh Oklahoma City Diocese. I got a question for you.
SPEAKER_00So let's say, and it might be the vignette of the family members in the rural town, but let's say I have a family member or friend in my life, and and I've been undergoing conversion, I'm living my faith out well, but now it's it's really heavy on my heart that this person's life is heading in a direction that's just like not after the Lord.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What am I to do?
Helping Loved Ones Far From God
SPEAKER_02Well, that's the million-dollar question, right? And I do not think there's a silver bullet answer. Uh, precisely because every individual is different, every circumstance is different. It all depends upon the relationship that you have with the individual that will determine when and how you engage in conversation, right? So, I mean, the first thought that comes to mind is assuming that you have a relationship with the individual to where you have enough trust that you've built up where that person will lend a listening ear to what you got to say because you're a first credible witness. Well, then I think it's it's called for to honestly share with them, look, the path that you're going down is not gonna make you happy, right? And I'm I love you and I'm concerned about where your life is heading. So would you consider what I have to share with you? You know, I got a few thoughts to share with you. Would you be open to me sharing that? And you gotta see where they're at, right? If they say hell no, you know, or something like that. Sorry, I probably shouldn't have said that. That's the Louisiana boy coming out of me. That's fine. If they say heck no, then you know, you gotta shift gears and and be patient and wait for that opportunity because we know in Providen God's providence, not everybody is disposed to receive the seed, the sowers of the seed, right? And our Lord gave that parable himself, not every soil is tilled. So it's our job to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to try and discern to what degree, where is the soil of the soul, and that will determine how much seed, you know, when to sow the seed, etc. And so sometimes it just requires patience, you know, and and a sense of humility because we're not everybody's savior. It's God's problem. God might call us and does call us to be his hands and his feet. But you know what? At the end of the day, he's the one who's gonna give the conversion. We pour the water, we sow the seed, but we have to realize we're not everybody's savior, and it's not our it's not our responsibility, that's God's problem, you know. So if they reject or if they say no, or if they don't want to go forward in the conversation, then it's like, well, Jesus said, you know, dust the sandals from your feet. There's gonna be people who reject. But for that individual, it might not be a rejection, it just might be a not now. That's right. And it will be a a yes further, perhaps.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're waiting on a new season.
SPEAKER_02That's right. We're all on the journey, right? And we can reflect upon our own lives and realize, listen, there was a time when I wasn't ready to receive something, the soil wasn't ready, I wasn't disposed. But yeah, you know, a year later I was, you know, or I didn't see a truth at some point in the journey. But now I do see the truth for whatever reason in God's providence, and He's given those graces and sometimes not given the graces to enlighten the mind to see the truth and empower the will to follow it.
Discernment And Attunement To The Spirit
SPEAKER_00I love it. Do you have any word on like spiritual attunement or any advice in that regard? You said kind of in being in tune with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah. So um, I mean that in order for me to know what you're thinking and your heart's desire, I gotta spend time with you, right? I gotta have intimate conversation with you, deep conversation with you. Well, I think the same thing applies with spiritual attunement. The only way we're going to know and and discern the promptings of the spirit in my interactions with folks and in my conversations, and if I is if is is if I'm spending time with him in deep conversation with him and invoking his help and invoking his presence constantly throughout the day to have the spiritual insight in order to see his hand working in my life in order to discern those things, to sort of see the writing on the wall as we read in that uh example in the Old Testament. And so it's just a matter of spending time and intimacy with him and being a little charismatic, but in the good sense, that's right, yeah, having having a couple of gifts, you know.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Well, we're just invoking his presence. A little bit of human formation. Yeah, I mean the Lord conversation.
Cultural Trends And Protestant Conversions
SPEAKER_02The Lord promised to give us the Holy Spirit to be not only with the magisterium of the church, but also us as well in our individual lives to guide and lead us in our relationship with him. And so that's a gift that he's given us, and we have to utilize the gift, right? And establish relationship with the Holy Spirit. So we talk about relationship with the Father, we talk about relationship with the Son, Jesus, but we also have to foster relationship with the Holy Spirit in order for uh for us to begin seeing, you know, his movement in our lives and his hand working in our lives.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for that. Yeah. I I feel like we've got a great gift having you at the table here from talking before we got on here. You know, you spend time with Catholic answers, so the online community and and the speaking and the teaching that way, but then on the ground here in Tulsa, here in Oklahoma and Tulsa with people, you know, doing the work of evangelization and training. So I I sense you're probably kind of plugged in to maybe what's happening in our culture. I'm just curious, are you observing any themes right now or trends or common obstacles or common, you know, movements of the spirit?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I mean, the movement of the spirit, if I were to use the Tulsa as a litmus test, right? I mean, in Tulsa, we're in Protestant land, right? There's a Protestant church on every corner. But the movement of the Spirit is that Protestants are converting drastically to Catholicism, at least in the Diocese of Tulsa. I mean, our Holy Family Cathedral alone, last Easter vigil, had 95 people come into the church in OCIA. But what's interesting there is it, you know, it's sort of a half and half right down the middle. 32 of those people were catechumens. So it's not like they're coming from a Protestant tradition. 32 people were baptized, coming from a non-religious tradition.
SPEAKER_00I saw that this Easter too.
Deeper Catholic–Protestant Dialogue
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But there were a lot of Protestants coming into the faith. We have our OCIA summer program right now. 85 people are signed up for that, and we already have 40 people registered for the fall, many of whom are coming from a Protestant tradition. This home ministry that I was speaking of a while ago that we do in my home where we have an apologetics group study, both teen and adults.
SPEAKER_01Amazing.
Credible Witness And Shared Language
SPEAKER_0280% of those adults in that apologetics group study are Protestant converts. You know, so there's just a drastic movement of the spirit moving Protestants' hearts and minds. And so that's something that I am seeing. Which is what's interesting is um 10 about eight years ago, 10, 8 to 10 years ago, when I first came on with Catholic answers, there was a shift in the landscape of apologetics that was having to deal with atheism and the rise of the new atheism. And so secularism, relativism, atheism, that was sort of the the focus of apologetics. But interestingly enough, that has kind of waned a little bit. I mean, it it you have it prevalent in some areas within the culture, but overall it seems to have waned a bit. And now what the real focus is is what it was in the early 90s and late 90s of the modern new modern apolog apologetics movement, namely the Catholic-Protestant dialogue. But it has deepened. It's not surface level anymore where you throw your Bible verse, I throw my Bible verse. It's a lot deeper now because the conversations are going into the theological weeds more now. Um, it's some of the same issues, but just the conversation has changed a little bit more and got more sophisticated. And so that's what I'm seeing right now. Yeah. Do you think the pursuit of truth is higher? There does seem to be that. I mean, people are. I mean, I think the conversions that we're experiencing and witnessing are a testimony of that where people are literally desiring to know what's true. And the majority of those people are converting, it's not like they're just converting, oh, because oh, you got great community over here, you know, and you make me feel good. Like these people are serious.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a high percentage of our Catholic churches do not have better community than our Protestant brothers and sisters. Like that's real.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's why I said, you know, the cot the conversations between Protestants and Catholics are more sophisticated now than what they were before. So the people who are coming into the faith, they're more well read and they're engaging in the sophisticated conversations, and so they in turn are a little bit more sophisticated in their formation and in their desire for truth, right? So it's it's amazing what's happening.
SPEAKER_01I think in our volunteers are also there's a di there's a difference in the sophistication as well, but maybe not as much in the in the intellectual formation that we're seeing. I think that that's always kind of been there kind of front and center for the Catholic Church for a long time. But I think that we're finally we finally caught up on the emotional intelligence level of being able to talk about our relationship with Jesus in a way that doesn't come off at or doesn't ring the same alarm bells that it used to for for a lot of our Protestant brothers and sisters because we're because we're able to communicate it in the in a in a similar way. And that vocabulary I just don't think was there as much now. So I think we've grown on both sides in a way to meet closer in the middle, and that's just the whole thing. I agree.
Culture Shocks Driving Truth-Seeking
SPEAKER_02I mean, that's a that's a great point to where Catholics now are I hate to say this, but Catholics finally are coming to the point of having an authentic true relationship with our Lord. And so whenever they evangelize or talk now, they're able to do what evangelization is, which is essentially just sharing a lived experience with the Lord Jesus. As Pope Pope Benedict XVI had stated in one of his addresses. I mean, that's what evangelists, you know, when our Lord called the disciples, he called them to come and be with him for three years, to sit with him, to eat with him, to converse with him, to cry with him, to be frustrated with him, to live with him and experience him. And so when he sends them out, all they gotta do is just go and share the lived experience. And I think that's the lesson for us to learn in evangelization. And so we ain't gonna be able to evangelize unless we have first unless we're first with the Lord. You can't give what you don't have, you know?
Closing Thanks And Sendoff
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. It's interesting, I've been chewing on this exact conversation that both of you brought up for a little while, because there's a couple pockets in my community where it's whether it's work or where my kids are at school, where I can I can see this great desire for the ancient, the old, the the beautiful, the true good, the beautiful, the what we find in the Catholic Church. And it's interesting, I was actually thinking this thought last night, what you just said, Jay's like, okay, a lot of us Catholics are comfortable in talking about our relationship with Jesus and leaning into that relationship and growing in that, and we legitimately want that. And that was one of the reasons why a lot of Catholics left at one point because like my spiritual needs aren't being being met, and so that's why I went into another communion. But it's like because that witness is credible, and because the Catholic Church has all these treasures, you know, the liturgy, lecture of the vena, mental prayer, the saints. I mean, you could go on, like I've seen now I go outside of the I see like my Protestant friends like want that, like legitimately want that gift that we have, or set of gifts. And so what I meant by the pursuit of truth, like there's this book I have on my shelf that I when I moved to Oklahoma, I read to learn it's like called Cath Catholicism and Fundamentalism. And it like kind of walks through the fundamentalists cheating, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think the founder of Catha Catholic Answers called reading.
SPEAKER_00So I've like flipped through it and you can see kind of the Protestant Reformation almost like propaganda, I'll say, in some sense, but like these common things that were like attacks to the church. And I'm like, oh, this explains so many conversations since I'm moving to Oklahoma. And I felt like like in college, so about a you know a decade ago or a little longer, like those were the ground level conversations I was having where I felt like I was getting the zinger of here's this canned thing. Whereas the conversations now are like coming from this place of mutual hunger, if that makes sense. Like they're almost like really actually open and curious. And you can tell because they're reading things like practicing the presence of God and loving it. You know, like a bunch of Russens or like picking up you know a papal, a papal encyclical on evangelization and sharing it because it's so good. Yeah. And like they're not scared because they know Catholics who love Jesus. That's right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, for the longest time, they were blocked from even knowing about or seeing the treasures of Catholicism due to our Catholic's inability to shine the light of Christ. Like we were the impediment, right? Your normal ordinary Catholics were the impediment to for Protestants in particular being able to see the treasures of the church. And so, and that's because just of a lack of evangelization, right? This is the new evangelization, all these Catholics being sacramentalized but not evangelized in the heart, not encountering the risen Lord and having intimacy and relationship with him. And of course, from the outside, a Protestant's gonna see that and say, Well, I don't even want to know, I don't want anything to do with that if they're not gonna have the deep intimate relationship with our Lord that I have.
SPEAKER_00It's completely unattractive. Exactly. Yeah, heart passes.
SPEAKER_02But once that heart changes and Catholics start living out what they're supposed to be living out, namely an intimate relationship with our Lord, and then that establishes the common ground and the connection with our Protestant friends to say, wow, you actually love Jesus, man. So what else do you have? Uh-huh. You know, you know, what's brought about this? Oh, well, let me share with you all the treasures that we have in the home, you know.
SPEAKER_01Another thing that I think is kind of propelling the propelling Protestants, propelling anybody towards the truth of the faith, is the we're getting more and more polar in between, or at least the secularist movement is getting more and more polar. Like we talked about this with um with the religion of the day from uh you know St. Mary's Press with Monsignor Shea, that there's um that there's a pushing of more and more like almost all or a high percentage of the Protestants that are in our s the Cathedral Summer OCIA class, they're all Methodists. And the the culture of wokeness and not having an understanding of what being a true Christian is, like what following the teachings of Christ is and how that changes when it comes to the LGBTQ movement, it was a it was an automatic spark for them of I need to look somewhere else.
SPEAKER_02Right. It prompted them to try and find the truth and then landing in the Catholic.
SPEAKER_01So I think like in a in a way, the culture can begin to do some of our work for us as it becomes as we get more and more and more closely to the logical conclusion that we're that we're gonna be approaching, we're gonna be like, uh oh, I don't like where we're I want off of this train, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well that's where the devil's shooting himself in the foot, right? So he tries to influence religious communities, bring about chaos and disruption with false ideas, but of course, it the table is turned on him because it prompts them to begin seeking the truth because the heart desires it, and then finding that truth in the Catholic faith. There you go.
SPEAKER_01Take that, take that, devil. Well, Carlo, it's been amazing having you here. Hope you have a great rest of your day here at the at the conference, and um we'll see you around. All right, great.