The Pulse #3 – Flubs, Flops and “Falls”

00:00 – Host (Host)

This is the pulse. You hear that buzzer? See the light. A Denver Catholic High School is using buzzers to signal students that the confessional is ready for them. Alternate headline Denver Catholic High School comes up with a new way to enable students to get out of that damned math class. Chris Christie puts down that cheeseburger just long enough to tell us why he’s shifted his opinion on gay marriage and also why he would have failed Theology. I Lies and falsehoods, trapped and exposed as Church militant, and Michael Voris appear to be losing the final battle for survival in a defamation lawsuit. What should we learn from this epic Coming up right now on the pulse, let’s go. Can you check for a pulse? And we now embark on the final pulse for the final episode of the Catholic Experience in 2023. 

00:45

The first story up to bat your confessional is ready. Buzzing into confession at a Denver Catholic High School. This is actually pretty neat, by Catholic News Agency, written by. It appears written by Denver Catholic. As you walk the halls of Bishop I cannot pronounce this name, folks Bishop looks like Maccaboo, maccaboof, maccaboo. I don’t know, you’re going to have to read the story yourself. As you walk the halls of Bishop Maccaboo, maccaboof, whatever it is, high school in Denver, you won’t find any lines for confession. Instead, students simply pick up a buzzer and wait for it to light up. So apparently this started out as a joke. According to Father Mass, who’s the chaplain at the high school, it started out as a joke and their principal, mr Siegel, said actually, why don’t we just try it? If it flops, it flops, maybe it’ll take off, who knows. So they tried it and apparently it’s working out. Now you’re familiar with these right folks. 

01:36

You go to I don’t know if it’s in a neighborhood restaurant, but it’s usually in those big chains are sure to have them. Where you go in, you put your name on a waiting list and they hand you this buzzer. You go out to your car and wait. You go outside and wait. Whatever you want to do, you wait. When the buzzer lights up and starts buzzing, it looks like a hockey puck. It’s about the shape and size of a hockey puck. When it starts lighting, lighting up and buzzing, your table is ready, right, so you can kind of do what you need to do. As long as you’re within range of, I guess, the transmitter, you can do what you want to do instead of having to just babysit the vestibule of the restaurant. So they’re doing that at this high school, where it’s kind of surprising to me that I guess these work throughout the building. 

02:17

Students just take one of these buzzers, they put their name on a list, they put the best times when they can be buzzed to get out of class and when the light goes on and the buzzer starts buzzing, they take themselves over to a confessional. Here’s a little something from Father Mass. Again, this is in the article. When I was thinking through, when I first got assigned to the high school and I was thinking through how I structure my day you know when Mass is going to be, when the Bible study is going to be, and so on and so on One of the things he says that he was trying to factor in was when confessions would be, because it’s very hard for students. He says students are very, very busy. They’re probably some of the busiest individuals in the world. I disagree, but whatever, and he wanted to be able to have confession times that would suit them. Apparently it’s really working out. 

03:10

Paolo Chacon, arendondo why are these names so hard to pronounce? Paolo, a junior at the high school, said using the buzzer has helped her state of mind. Oh, I’m sorry, that’s Paola P-A-O-L-A. Sorry, sorry, paola. She says using the buzzer has helped her state of mind Quote there’s nothing to worry about, and I think that’s. What’s really nice about it is that Father CJ doesn’t want you to be afraid to go and confess. He’s inviting you and this is why he has the buzzers and I’ve seen that it’s really helped. So there’s one or two other quotes in the story that kind of reflect what she’s saying. Without a line, they feel like there’s no judgment. Without a line, there’s no judgment. They’re not kind of under a spotlight standing there in a line for a confessional. I can kind of understand that. What I find kind of interesting, kind of in a funny sort of way, is the students put their name on the list and I don’t know how the priest manages this, but I guess he goes through the sign-up list and I guess he looks for the students who wrote that they’re able to get called out of class at these particular time slots and then he flips the switch, the buzzer goes off and in comes the student. 

04:30

Listen, if that were me, I would be going to confession three times a day Once to get out of math class and then I’m going to make stuff up. It’s going to be the longest confession. Let’s see what’s the period. Oh, there’s the buzzer, so I’m 15 minutes in. That means I have a half hour to burn. Five minutes to get there, five minutes to get back. That means I need to do a 20-minute confession. Okay, let me think I’ll make a few things up. That’s what I would do Three times a day Once for math class, probably once for science and well, okay, maybe two times a day, because those are the only. Those were the two awful ones for me. I’m definitely using this buzzer to get out of math class and I’m absolutely using it to get out of science. 100%, 100%. You can bet your bottom dollar. 

05:14

Some of those high school students at this Catholic high school are doing the same thing, but I’m kind of I’m half joking, but I’m sure one or two of these students are going to do that. But I think, for the most part, this is a really great way to get students into the confessional, especially high school students who should be in there like every week. I think it’s a great way to get them to the con, not only to get them to the confessional, but to get them comfortable with going to confession to get them comfortable with it, because I don’t know why people so fear confession, but they do. It’s all over the church. It’s not like it’s only a couple of people. It’s kind of a normal thing that people are afraid or embarrassed to go to confession. But if they’re conditioned in a way that makes them comfortable to go that kind of carries over to subsequent years or for these students, for instance, by the time they’re adults, if they remain practicing Catholics, they’re going to be very comfortable with confession, with going to confession, and that means they’re going to teach their children to be comfortable with it. My kids do not fear confession at all, not in the least. In fact I’m very surprised but proud to say sometimes my kids look forward to being taken to confession, which I cannot believe. And sometimes if I have to drag them to confession because they haven’t been in a while, the only thing that they don’t like and it’s really usually it’s both of them, but they usually alternate, it’s not both of them at the same time. But the only thing that they don’t like is being taken away to do something else. They’d rather play or something, but they don’t fear going to confession. So I think these high school students are being put on the right track and this is a really, really novel way to get them into the confessional and to get them comfortable with going. So hats off to you. Denver High School, whose name I cannot pronounce Denver High School, bishop Machindeboth High School In Denver. Hats off to you, thank you. 

07:19

This story up to that, chris Christie ties his shift on gay marriage to Vatican ruling on same-sex blessings. Catholic news agency. Written by Joe Bucharest. Republican presidential candidate, chris Christie, once an opponent of same-sex marriage, said Thursday his views on the matter have shifted, citing the Vatican’s recent document on same-sex blessings as evidence. That quote even the church is changing. End quote Folks, I hate to say I told you so, but I did One or two podcasts ago, certainly. 

07:53

In the last podcast that I did and a few comments and statements I made on X, I said that people are going to get this document wrong all over the church, all over the world. The language of the document fiducia supplicons. The language is pretty tight. It’s tighter, I think, than most of the Vatican II documents. The language is pretty tight. And I said, and I said, and I said and I said people will still get it wrong. They will still interpret it not from its own substance, which even the substance. It’s tighter, but it’s not perfect. They won’t interpret what the document puts forward from its substance but from the headlines about the document. And they will interpret it not just from the headlines about the document but from commentary on the document, some of that commentary coming from independent Catholic media, by the way. And I said just you wait and see. It won’t be long before people start making major decisions based on an incorrect interpretation of this document. 

09:02

I went on to say that at some point you may and I’m saying may, you may even see lawsuits being brought by same-sex couples excuse me or couples in irregular relationships, where they’re denied a marriage ceremony at a Catholic church and they take, or at a Catholic parish and they take the parish to court. They might even take the diocese to court, because whenever a parish is sued, they love also to name the bishop of the diocese. And so they’ll haul a parish to court because they won’t give us the marriage ceremony. And as their argument they’re going to say look, even the Vatican now endorses my marriage, says it right here in the document. Here is what everyone is saying about the document, your Honor, including some people in Catholic media. Here’s what they’re saying about the document. They’re saying that the pope endorses blessing my marriage, but this parish is full of hate and they will not grant me a marriage ceremony, in defiance of church teaching. So now, your Honor, I want $5 million for my pain and suffering. I said it then and I’m saying it again. 

10:19

That scenario is going to hit. I don’t know what will come of it. The complainants in a case like that, or the plaintiffs in a case like that, may lose the case and the parish, the defendant, may win. I don’t know, but here’s what I do know. I know that the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage because marriage between a white person and a black person is constitutionally protected. That was the basis by which they said well, marriage between two men and two women is also protected. That’s the same thing? No, it is not the same. You have to be half-stupid to think that a white person and a black person being married is of the same nature as Johnny and Harry getting married or Sally and Sue getting married. You have to be half-dumb to really make those connections. This is the Supreme Court that made that connection. 

11:23

Do we really think that any couple. It doesn’t have to be a same-sex couple. It could be a couple that’s divorced and remarried and they have no annulment and they want to marriage ceremony in the church. Do we really think that a lawsuit won’t happen where fiduciary supercons is presented as part of the, I guess, evidence I don’t know if you can call it evidence if it’s a civil suit, but anyway as part of the evidence and also as part of the evidence will be the news headlines, commentary in secular media and even yes, even commentary in Catholic media. Do we really think that won’t happen? A hundred percent it will happen. There are probably people right now planning lawsuits, planning scenarios from which they can launch a lawsuit, similar to how some people plan to go to some Christian bakery they don’t really care to get a cake, but they come up with a reason to buy a cake. Can you please bake us a cake for our wedding? And let’s say it’s a same-sex couple. Maybe they really are getting married, maybe they’re not, but they plan to go there. Or they go to a Christian florist specifically, specifically to be denied service so that they can haul the people to court. 

12:38

You think that isn’t happening right now, that there aren’t people plotting right now, of course there are Again how that will play out in the end. I don’t know If that happens and I’m pretty confident that’s going to happen, because you’re already seeing Chris Christie doing exactly what I said people are going to do make major decisions based on ridiculous and flawed interpretations of fiducious supplicants. You’re already seeing it. Boy, that was quick. So I called this one right, but I didn’t think it was going to happen that quickly. So you’re already seeing it. Do you really think you’re not going to see this playing out in courts as well? Whether or not the church will win, I really don’t know. I can’t make that call. I guess it depends on the judge, and it depends on how much Kool-Aid the judge is drinking, how secularized his or her thinking is, how far detached from reason and truth their thought processes are. 

13:46

One more thing I wanted to mention in this article. This is a quote from Chris Christie in the article. By the way, in case I haven’t said it yet, if you’d like to read these articles for yourself, you can find them on this episode’s on-demand page on my website, catholicadventurercom. And so this is a quote from Christie, and so you know, for me it’s still. 

14:06

It was a process I had to go through to change the way I’ve been raised. Let me repeat that it’s a process I had to go through to change the way I’ve been raised, both from a family perspective and what my mother and father taught me and felt, and also from a religious perspective, what my church taught me to believe. Christie said in a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. The former New Jersey governor continued this past week or two Pope Francis is now allowing blessings of same-sex couples. Even the church is changing, in fact. I okay this is me now breaking from the article. I kind of want to go back to the past two podcasts because I can almost swear that I said exactly that. Watch folks. They’re going to say look, even the church is changing. I can swear I said exactly that, that someone was going to say those words. Even the church is changing. 

15:06

Christie, who identifies as a Catholic, said quote society has changed and what people are accepting in our country now is different than when I was growing up, certainly than when I was your age, and you know I don’t have any objection to it any longer. In the end, I think I’ve been convinced Wow, wow. That’s the end of the well, it’s not the end of the article, but it’s the end of the article that I’m going to read. It’s the end of my reading of it. So what Chris Christie has said is basically this Well, first, what he said is he’s a politician, so he’s going where the wind blows. Whatever is gonna get him the most votes, that’s where he’s going. So that’s the first thing. Okay, we get it. But there’s an honesty in how he got there. There’s an honesty to how he got there. 

15:55

Listen, for me it was a process, folks, abandoning truth often is a process. It doesn’t take magic, it only takes time. Abandoning truth is a process. It’s a slow and subtle process because the devil is an expert liar. It was a process I had to go through, he said, to change the way I’ve been raised, both from family perspective and from what my mother and father taught, and from what I felt, and also from a religious perspective. Folks, it is so important that you not only teach your children what is the truth but, as they are able, teach them why it’s the truth. 

16:42

Fulton Sheen once said I don’t remember the context, but he said once you know, one plus one is two. Nothing but nothing can convince you that one plus one is five. I think he was talking about how the angels decided once and for all, like where we choose again and again and again to follow God. The angels chose once, forever, and he was describing it as kind of like that, if you know, one plus one is two, nothing can change your mind. The angels cannot change their minds. So I would say this is similar. What I’m trying to tell you is similar to that. 

17:22

You have to convince your children why one plus one equals two. Don’t just tell them what the truth is, as they are able and they are usually able sooner than you realize they are able, as they are able tell them why the truth, whatever the truth is, tell them why it is the truth, help them to understand it. Some things they won’t be able to understand until they’re a little advanced in age, a little more, I guess, exercised in reason and so on. Some things, for instance, you can’t explain to a child why I mean this is a stupid example why divorce is different from annulment. That’s hard to explain to a kid who’s like seven or eight but, believe it or not, you can explain to a child, even that young, why a man is a man and a woman is a woman and one’s gender can never, ever change. You can explain to them that behaving like something else doesn’t make you like something else. 

18:25

I explain once to my kids what I’m trying to remember exactly how I phrased it. Oh, I said, listen, if I go out and if I have to go to the men’s room, but instead I go out and I urinate on I don’t know a tree, what animals do that? Dogs, okay. So if I do that, and then I come in and I’m on my hands and on my knees and I eat my food out of a dog bowl, what animal does that? Dogs. So if I do this and I gave them several examples if I do all these things, am I acting like a dog? Yes, but am I a dog? No, why not? Because you’re not there? You go and then I explain to them the difference between a nature and a character and a this and a that. You’d be surprised. What if you’re clever? You’d be surprised how much truth you can chew horn into an adolescent mind, as they’re able. 

19:18

Explains to your children what not just what a truth is. Whatever the truth is, that God is God. Jesus Christ died on the cross. Whatever the truth is, explain to them why it’s true and how we arrive there, how we know it’s true, and explain to them that some truths we don’t know why they’re true they just are. Why did Jesus Christ have to die in a cross? Why did he have to die at all? I mean, there’s theological answers you can give to that, but at the end of the day, it’s a mystery, right? 

19:51

Teach them that some things are mysteries and some things that we don’t understand today, god will help us to understand another day. But you believe it anyway and you trust. You don’t understand all the things mommy and daddy are teaching you, right, but you believe, you trust us, that we’re teaching you good things, right, and you may not understand them now, but you’re going to understand them as you get a little bit older. But if you don’t follow them now, if you don’t follow them now, even though you don’t understand them, you could be very, very badly hurt. You could risk your life or your health or you could lose something that you value. Even though you don’t understand some of the things that Mommy and Daddy are teaching you, you follow them first because you have to, you have to listen to us, but also, you trust us right, we’re not going to teach you bad things. 

20:40

God is the same way. God is the same way. He doesn’t teach us bad things. He teaches us beautiful things, amazing things. Sometimes there are things that we don’t understand when we’re young, and we understand them better when we’re older, and sometimes even when we’re very old. There are some things we don’t quite understand, but they are true, because God is good, he’s our Father and he teaches us what’s good and true and beautiful, and so we accept it and we believe it and we put it into practice, knowing that it makes our lives a little bit better. 

21:15

See, it’s that simple. In fact, you can clip this and play it back for your kids. If you want to Run up through some AI, maybe you can do it in your voice. Give it a shot. Give it a shot. Okay, let’s move on. I spent a little too much time on that story. I’m telling you, folks, you watch, you watch, you wait and see Famous last words. This document is going to find its way into a civil courtroom. You just watch, okay. The last story that I’m going to cover today isn’t really a story, because I’m not reading from an article. It’s more about commentary. It’s more commentary on, I guess, a new story. 

21:51

Recently, I think just before Christmas, michael Voris was forced to resign as whatever his official position was at Church Militant. The Board of Directors there forced him to resign for violating the company’s morality clause. What that violation was, what was its nature, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows. Of course, everyone has their suspicions. I don’t like to do that so I’m not even going to guess. Back in 2016, michael Voris came clean about his past living as a gay man, living a gay lifestyle. So a lot of people are suspicious that that’s what the morality clause violation was. I would say let’s not go there. Really, it doesn’t matter what the violation was. 

22:46

Michael Voris posted a video to his account on X. He didn’t give much detail. He basically said he’s been dealing with I’m paraphrasing dealing with a lot of demons from way, way back in his past, I guess his childhood. What those demons are, he said, is his own business and nobody else’s. He provided no detail and I think that’s fine, because it’s none of my business. I don’t want to know. I don’t care to know. I wish him well. I wish him the best. I hope he comes out on the other side of this, not just refreshed, but renewed, truly renewed. I really pray and hope for that for him.

23:24

This isn’t really about Michael Voris, this segment, it isn’t even really about Church Militant, but it involves that Church Militant and Michael Voris are in the middle of a losing battle in a defamation case against a priest who they reported on. And yadda, yadda, yadda, the priest sued for defamation. It appears that he’s going to win. It is not at all going well for Church Militant. It appears the priest will win. I don’t even think the actual trial I don’t think has begun. So who knows how it’ll play out, but the hearings so far and I think discovery has already happened. 

24:08

It’s just not going well at all for Michael Voris and Church Militant. I think they plan on selling their two buildings. Apparently they’ve laid off a lot of staff. The staff they have has been trimmed to the bone in terms of I think their medical insurance was canceled. Most of them don’t have phones on their desks and stuff like that. For all intents and purposes, church Milton is operating on a skeleton crew. It’s possible they won’t survive beyond February. So there’s that. That’s the story. Here’s what I want to say about it. First lesson we should take from this epic be careful of the shepherds you follow. Be careful of the shepherds you follow.

24:59

Church Milton had a very strong effect on the Catholic population or the Catholic culture, because it failed to void. People were sick and tired of Lucy Goosey, watered down representations of Catholicism. And now here was Michael Voris, entering the scene, speaking truth to power, sometimes, oftentimes, in ways that I would consider highly ill-advised and highly imprudent, not technically incorrect, but a pastoral trainwreck. But okay, that’s just me. Here’s Michael Voris speaking truth to power, telling truths about the Catholic faith, and people were inspired by it. Right, finally somebody sees the light, finally. I’m not crazy. I get it. I understand, because when I first came upon the vortex, I was pretty inspired by it too. It didn’t take long for there to be a blip on my radar. But I’m not going to get into that. But I could already tell something was not right there. I’m not going to get into it. So people were inspired, understandably so, because Michael Voris was telling the truth about the Catholic faith. 

26:01

Church militant captured people’s, I guess, imaginations, captured people’s hearts, captured people’s intrigue, and people were just madly in love with what they were getting from church militant content. What happens then is it’s like with anything, with anything that commands your deep admiration, your deep respect. When someone has you, when someone or something has you spellbound, you begin to reflect that thing, the object of your affection, let’s say you begin to reflect it, you begin to imitate it. For example, if there is a person who inspires you, you have deep admiration for them, you may begin to mimic some of their mannerisms, without even thinking about it, without trying. You may begin to use some of the phrases that they use. You may begin to say things that they say, for instance, e-r-r-o-r. 

26:49

I don’t know how you pronounce it, but I pronounce that error. Why? Because the first time that word entered the foreground of my mind I heard it from Mr Spock on Star Trek, and that’s how he pronounced it, and I thought it was a very cool sounding word. So I have always since pronounced it error, even though I realize the more common pronunciation is error. But now error sounds weird to me, so I always pronounce it error. So we begin to do things like that. You start to imitate, to reflect, to mirror, often without thinking about it. And that’s what happened with Church Milton. It had such a strong effect on the Catholic culture that many Catholics began to imitate, to reflect, to mirror, to emulate Right. And this is why I say, even if Church Milton were to collapse and burn to the ground tomorrow, even if that were to happen and it may not but even if it were tomorrow, the effect it has had on Catholic culture is going to last at least a generation and possibly two. 

27:46

People will resort to polemics, people will be rash in their judgment, people will be judgmental, people will equate sinner with sin, sodomite, sodomite, sodomite, sodomite, which is horrible. We don’t call a patient their disease, and I realize a disease is something that you get, it’s not something that you do. And a sin is something that you do, I get that. But we don’t call a patient a disease and we shouldn’t call a sin. I’m sorry, we shouldn’t call a sinner their sin, but that is now normal in the Catholic culture. Half-baked reasoning and half-baked arguments, that is now normal in the Catholic culture. 

28:20

A refusal to say I don’t know, a resistance to saying I’m wrong, you’re right, I mean. That’s kind of in the human, that’s kind of in fallen humanity. But I have never seen it so thick and so dense in the Catholic culture until the rising of Church Milton. In my experience, catholics were always the most intellectually if not honest, then honestly disposed Right Catholics in disagreement with one another, in my experience. Traditionally we’re okay with saying, yeah, I don’t know, maybe you’re right or yeah, I get your point. I think you’re right, I’m probably wrong Until the rise of Church Milton and its content. Now I’m not saying Church Milton had the absolute effect over the Catholic culture. I think that’s impossible. I don’t think it had an absolute effect over the Catholic culture. I think there were other components that did these things to the Catholic culture. But I do think that the Catholic culture was affected in this way in no small part, in no small part, by Church Milton’s content. 

29:26

Some of the stones I see being hurled at Church Milton and at Michael Voris are incredibly cruel. First of all, some of them are respectful. Most of them incredibly cruel and mean-spirited. Well, where did they learn that from? They learned that from Church Milton. Accusations being thrown by people online at Church Milton and, more commonly, at Michael Voris, half-baked accusations, completely baseless. What they’ve done, it seems to me, is they’ve taken a few grains of facts. They’ve weaved basically a tapestry from their imaginations, the accusations they’re hurling at Michael Voris. They’ve taken a few facts and they’ve taken a bunch of suspicions and they’ve hurled a whole new narrative. Well, where did they learn that from? They learned that from Church Milton, playing fast and loose with truth. They learned that from Church Milton. 

30:20

So I say, be careful of the shepherds you follow, because when people command our deep admiration, we begin to reflect them. So make sure that the shepherds you follow reflect the mind and heart of Jesus. If you’re a real fanatic of a particular brand and that brand may be a person, that brand may be a company make sure they reflect the mind and heart of Jesus, because a lot of you might look to something like Church Milton or I don’t know, I can’t really name any others that are similar. A lot of you might look to them and say, well, they reflect the mind of Jesus, they always speak the truth. Well, I can tell you from what I’ve seen, they don’t always speak the truth. They always tell the truth. They reflect the mind of Jesus. Let’s say I grant you that. Can we also say they reflect the heart of Jesus? 

31:12

I mean, my friends, I don’t care how much you like Church Milton or Michael Voris or anybody like them, there is no way a reasoned person can look to them and say, yes, they reflect the heart of Jesus. There’s just no way. There’s just no way. You can see that. If your brand is CatholicAdventurercom, that’s me. If that’s your brand, first of all, thank you very much. But if that’s your brand, make sure that brand reflects the mind and heart of Jesus. That doesn’t mean the brand is going to be perfect, but reflects the mind and heart of Jesus, and I’m not. This is not self endorsement, by the way. If your brand is oh, lifesite News, oh God, my brothers and sisters, if your brand of choice is Lifesite News, we really need to have a conversation, because Lifesite News is the church militant of, I guess, catholic News Repertage, where Lifesite News does it in print and Church Milton does it in video media. 

32:17

If that is your brand of choice, ask yourself do they reflect the mind of Jesus? That answer, my friends, is 100% no. Do they reflect the heart of Jesus? I don’t know, because I stopped reading them maybe 10 years ago because I was finding too many holes in this story, way too many way. 

32:38

They used to be one of my research sources in professional media. You can imagine how embarrassed I am to write a script partially with their substance as the research data, and then to be told this doesn’t add up. And then I have to go and fact check Lifesite News and realize, oh my God, this is almost a completely different story from what actually happened. You can imagine how embarrassed, as a professional, I was to discover that I didn’t give up on them. I kept reading them regularly. I just thought it was a flub. But now, now you’ve got my attention. So now I’m super alert to all of the rhetoric, all of the style, all of the detail and facts, and I found again and again this is black magic. What they’re, how they’re reporting, is black magic. So I can tell you this is not even an opinion, this is fact. 

33:40

My friends, life-site news does not reflect the mind of Jesus 100%. It is not my opinion, it is a fact. They’re the national inquirer of Catholic news. Ask yourself do they reflect the mind of Jesus? No, do they reflect the heart of Jesus? I don’t know, I don’t know. Let’s say that answer is yes. Well, they only have one of the two markers and so you shouldn’t. You shouldn’t bother with them, because when something has our attention, we begin to emulate, we begin to reflect, we begin to become you understand. 

34:15

So make sure the things or people who capture your admiration not just your respect but your admiration you really admire them or you really, really, really make sure those things reflect the mind and heart of Jesus and or the saints. So there’s that. What do we learn from this number two? So number one is be careful. The shepherds you follow Stay out of the Catholic cult, the cult of Catholic personalities. It’ll always lead you astray. And the other lesson that we learn is if something has your attention, if something has your deep admiration, make sure that it reflects the mind and the heart of Jesus or the saints, because that’s really all that matters. Make sure it reflects the mind and the heart of Jesus or the saints, and if it doesn’t, you really ought to walk the other way. 

35:22

You know what the most precious thing is that you possess? Some smart alec is going to correctly say my soul. Okay, fine, you got me there. Apart from that, most precious and most delicate thing you possess is your Catholicity, and you really, really, really have to guard it. You really have to guard your Catholicity. 

35:48

I’m not saying, be a snob and have a very high standard and this one didn’t know that such and such was a heresy, and I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that Be like Jesus. Be like Jesus. Don’t be the type that I mean. You remember St Peter and all of his flubs. Is that a word or is that just something? My kids say, flubs. Remember St Peter and all his mistakes. Don’t be the kind of Jesus that would have said Peter, I’m done with you, you’re a pain in the neck, peter, I’m done with you. That’s one too many mistakes. Be more like the Jesus, who was not only tolerant of Peter’s shortcomings but loved him despite his shortcomings, because most people are a Peter, but there are some people who are Judas. There are some brands that are Judas. Know the difference. 

36:43

So if something has your deep admiration, make sure they reflect the mind and heart of Jesus. And the saints Don’t have some incredibly high standard, like they couldn’t write a textbook so I’m not gonna read them. They can’t. They don’t have the kind of quality that I think they ought to have, so I’m not going to watch them or listen or read whatever. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. But make sure they reflect the mind and heart of Jesus If they’re going to capture your admiration and if they do. If you do have deep admiration for them, please make sure it’s tempered. Make sure it’s tempered. 

37:17

Some of you may love Bishop Barron, who I have a lot of respect for, but again, I’m not a member of the cult of Catholic personality, so I can’t say I love him because I don’t love any of them, any of them. I appreciate them for what they’re worth and I think Bishop Barron is an excellent theologian, a very good communicator. Sometimes he disappoints me, okay, whatever, so what? But he reflects the mind and heart of Jesus. If Bishop Barron is your thing, you’ve determined that he reflects the mind and heart of Jesus Great. But make sure that your admiration is tempered. 

37:53

If something should happen tomorrow to tarnish Bishop Barron’s credibility or his reputation, have a disposition where that doesn’t impact you too much. I mean, I gotta tell you you know who someone I had deep admiration for is Fulton Sheen. I call him my spiritual father. Deep, deep, deep admiration for him. I’ve been all over his work, his videos, his book. Forget it. Forget it. If there was a Fulton Sheen fan club, I would be the president If it came out tomorrow that Fulton Sheen covered up or protected a known child molester in one of the parishes in his diocese, wherever he was stationed. That’s not going to affect me in the least. Oh well, that’s really sad. That’s really messed up. I’m very sorry to hear that, but it’s really not going to affect me in the least in terms of you know, oh, now I can’t respect him anymore, or I don’t know, now I have to burn all of my books by Fulton Sheen. 

38:58

No, I’m not a member of the cult of Catholic personalities. Jesus and the saints command my fixation and focus. Jesus and the saints command my fixation and focus. That doesn’t make me super holy because, believe me, I struggle with it. Believe you me, I struggle with it. I was struggling with it just the other day. You should have heard the rant that I set loose to heaven. That doesn’t make me super holy. It just makes me, I would say, on a good track to holiness. And that doesn’t mean I’m some great person. My point is you can do that too. You can do that too. If I can do it, you can do it, because I’m not some great saint, I’m really not. I’m just someone who’s trying real hard, just like you. Just like you. Be measured, be tempered in how deep your admiration goes for anyone out there. If somebody commands your respect and admiration, make sure they reflect the mind and heart of Jesus and the saints. If they do not, follow them not. 

40:11

This has been a super long episode of the podcast. This was supposed to be a segment and it really became a podcast. In and of itself, that’s all right, because the podcast that I had planned for this wasn’t going to be as good as what this quote unquote segment turned out to be. So, but check this out, don’t leave me yet. Let me tell you what the next podcast is in 2024. 2024,. 

40:35

The first couple of podcasts are gonna be about truth. What is truth and how can we know? Folks, you may think you know the answer, but believe me, you don’t know what I’m gonna be dropping in that episode. What is truth and how? It’s probably gonna be two or three episodes. What is truth and how can we know? What is capital G good and how can we know that? Those two are intertwined, truth and goodness. Those two are intertwined Like heads and tails are intertwined on a coin. Truth and goodness are To know one, you have to know the other. To know the other, you have to know the one. If you don’t know them both. Well, you’re not gonna know the whole at all. That’s gonna be the first, at least the first two episodes of the podcast going on in 2024. Thank you for joining me on this final episode of 2023. 

41:29

I have been the Catholic Adventurer. Follow me on X at for the Queen BVM. Follow me on Facebook, if you care, at Catholic Adventurer, signing out of here. God bless you and be with you all. Happy New Year. I’ll see you in apostrophe 24. God bless you. Bye-bye.