Get Serious About Catholicism - A Call to Action
Welcome to the Catholic Experience. I'm your host, the Catholic adventurer, the one, the only, and I thank you very much for joining me. This is recorded Sunday, August 3 in the year of our lord 2025. Yes, sir. And I thank you again for joining me, and I thank you, Catholic church.
Speaker 1:Are we taking this thing we call Catholic seriously? What do you think? Are you taking it seriously? Are your brothers and sisters in the pews taking it seriously? What about those who aren't in the pews?
Speaker 1:Are they taking it seriously? Clearly not. And frankly, and I mean this, this is not me trying to be dramatic. I am really getting very, very sick of it. We're gonna talk about that a little bit today.
Speaker 1:This is gonna be a rather short show. Of course, I always say that, and then it's like a six hour show. Let's see. And we're going to talk about a disturbing pattern in in Canada that we are seeing around the world, and we're going to talk about that as a component to this point, this ultimate point I want to make. It goes a little something like this.
Speaker 1:The church would lose the great battle between good and evil were it to happen today. You don't believe me? Look around you. It's already happening. We're already in a losing position.
Speaker 1:We're already of a losing posture. We're going to talk about that today, not to be hopeless, but as a reminder that we need to get serious in this thing we call Catholic. All of us as a family, you individually, me individually. Let's fade that music out. Get right on down to it.
Speaker 1:Hello, those of you catching me on demand throughout my many and varied distribution channels. I'm very happy that you are here. I hope you are enjoying what you're getting. I have a little news for you guys who typically catch the the podcast on demand. Little update about what I'm doing with the podcast going forward.
Speaker 1:Good stuff. Nothing, like, earth shattering and and nothing bad. That's the important thing. Let's get on with it. I have to tell you, sometimes I really hate being Catholic.
Speaker 1:And I'm I'm being very serious. Sometimes I just hate being Catholic. The other day I was at confession, and it was a long line. I I have to say, I should I should give thanks to god for long lines at the confessional. It was a pretty long line, and I was, like, in the middle of it.
Speaker 2:And there was someone in front
Speaker 1:of me whose child was there with her. This child was traipsing about the sanctuary like it was a playground. I'm sure it was a very well meaning person. I'm obviously, I mean, the child was very young. The child obviously knew no better.
Speaker 1:And that's the problem is the child knew no better because the child's mother was not teaching the child any better. What is that child going to grow up to believe about the sanctuary, I wondered? And I really did want to I had to I had to gnash my teeth and grind my teeth to hold back the words. I was I was really upset. What's that child learning about the sanctuary?
Speaker 1:That it's just a playground? That's that it's just any other space. Now I'm not one of these people who's, like, super intense about everything right and wrong. Okay? So hard to believe, right, given what I just said.
Speaker 1:I'm not one of these people who are like, you have to face the tabernacle. You can never walk away from the tabernacle and, you know, have your back to the tabernacle. You have to face the tabernacle. You have to kneel down. You have to crawl up for communion on your knees on long trail of of broken glass before you can consider yourself worthy to receive the most holy I'm not that guy.
Speaker 1:Okay? But some lines should not be crossed. The sanctuary is a holy place. It is not a playground. And one of the reasons why we have to be respectful of the sanctuary, don't run through it, mind yourself should you ever need to be in it at all, The reason is because in respecting the sanctuary, we respect what happens there.
Speaker 1:We acknowledge and respect and internalize the depth and the seriousness of what happens there, the holy sacrifice, the offering of the holy Eucharist at Mass. And it's this sort of thing that I am I can't say I'm through being tolerant of or patient with, but I'm just about there. It's this sort of thing that I have really lost a great deal of patience for. I'm tired of saying, you know what? They'll figure it out one day.
Speaker 1:I'm tired of that. I'm tired of saying, yes, this is a flirtation with heterodoxy or even heresy, but they'll figure it out. I am tired, not just because I don't really exercise that level of tolerance, a level of tolerance that equates to indifference or not not caring at all. But as a church culture, we do. We do tolerate it to a degree that is dangerous to the faithful and to
Speaker 2:the church. We tolerate too much.
Speaker 1:We will not tell people you shouldn't be talking up a storm. You shouldn't be hosting talk shows right before mass. We don't tell men, take off the damn baseball hat when you're inside the church. We don't tell ladies you cannot walk into this building dressed that way. Are you nuts?
Speaker 1:Because we're afraid of pushing them away. I get it. I'm an evangelizer. I don't wanna push them away either. But damn it.
Speaker 1:Where is the line that we hold? You shouldn't let your child play in the sanctuary. Where is the line that we hold? I am tired of being part of a machine that does not hold the line because it's afraid that people will just abandon the line altogether. My friends, they've already abandoned the line.
Speaker 1:They've already abandoned it. It doesn't matter that they're there bodily. They are absent spiritually, mentally, psychologically. They've already abandoned the line. At what point do we stop and say, listen.
Speaker 1:I'm glad that you're here, but there's a line here. There's a line here for a very important reason. Whatever the line is, maybe it's hats in in church or the way you dress in church or the damn coffees that people bring to bring with them to mass. Maybe it's the sanctuary. You know how many times I've had to tell my son, do not run-in the sanctuary?
Speaker 1:Why? Here's why, and I would teach him why. Of course, it it took, like, three or four lessons before it finally got through. But I wouldn't just say, don't run into the sanctuary. I would explain why.
Speaker 1:What's wrong with telling people this is serious? This is not symbolic. This is real. And this is why we have to take this line seriously or that line seriously. When do we stop just chuckling and laughing it off?
Speaker 1:When we hear that people are coming into the church and willfully, knowingly supporting abortion, or they're active mask goers willfully, knowingly supporting abortion, and we say nothing, well, I guess we'll have
Speaker 2:to agree to disagree. Is that
Speaker 1:the best we can do? And sometimes, feeling like I'm the only one who gives a damn, it makes me hate being Catholic sometimes. And I'm being serious. Sometimes it makes me hate being Catholic because I feel like Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah. That I'm the only one who sees this?
Speaker 1:Am I the only one who cares? I'm tired of being the only one who cares. I'm tired of being the only one saying anything about it. I'm tired of being in the vanguard, in the front of the battle because I'm an active evangelizer or a Catholic educator and so on and so on. I'm just tired.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, I hate that I'm part
Speaker 2:of a of a church
Speaker 1:where it feels like everyone else is just living in a dream, and I'm the one in this sordid reality. And honest to God, man, sometimes it makes me hate being Catholic because sometimes it's painful to care. That's the truth. Sometimes it's really painful to care, and sometimes I just get damn tired of it. What do we do about that?
Speaker 1:I have no idea, man. I don't have a solution. I have no idea. I'm not coming to you with a solution. I'm coming to you with this to share my heart.
Speaker 1:Maybe it reflects what some of you feel, experience, think. And maybe that will help you to feel a little bit less alone yourselves, if you
Speaker 2:can relate to what I'm saying. Maybe it will remind you we really I, as a person, as an individual, should take this more seriously too. And me too. Me too. Who am I
Speaker 1:to judge? I'm not perfect. I have my issues. There are lines that I cross and none come to mind right now, but I know how I am. I know that I can get sloppy.
Speaker 1:But I'll tell you, damn, if I don't feel like Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah more times than not.
Speaker 2:And it's just so damn lonely and so damn infuriating. And I
Speaker 1:asked the Lord to give me patience and and and let me tell you. I'm I'm not gonna tell you the rest of it, but that's one of three stories I could tell just over the past two days, and the other two are far worse. But those I won't share. So I ask the lord to grant me patience,
Speaker 2:grant me an eye that sees to the
Speaker 1:extent that it benefits my soul, my salvation, my work as an evangelizer. And I ask the Lord to make me blind to everything if
Speaker 2:it doesn't benefit my salvation. If it if it's not
Speaker 1:if it won't be fruitful, then don't let me see any of it. I don't wanna see any of it. To the extent that it
Speaker 2:will be fruitful in the work of the gospel and service of the truth,
Speaker 1:then let me see and let me see clearly and deeply and come and completely and understand it. Not just see it, but understand it fundamentally. And, Lord, grant me the wisdom to do something about it first in my own house, you know, because those are the souls I'm responsible for. I'm not responsible for other people's souls. First in my own house and then to the souls that I touch in in my work and in in my lived experience.
Speaker 1:What's your prayer? Drop a line. Drop a comment. Let me know if you if you can really and I'm serious. Let me know if you can relate to this.
Speaker 1:Folks, if you don't know, I am not an engagement whore. I do not do, hey. Everybody comment. Comment. Comment.
Speaker 1:I don't do that. First of all, when people leave comments, I actually read them. And when I ask you to comment, it's because I really wanna know what you have to say. So what's your prayer? Do you feel what I feel?
Speaker 1:Do you experience what I experience? How do you deal with it? And what's your prayer to God to help you along the way? I really wanna know. And I think others can benefit from that too.
Speaker 1:So don't be shy. Chime in. Speaking of not being in an engagement whore, here I am being in an engagement whore. You know, folks, it occurs to me that I never say like and subscribe because I hate it. I hate that that's said at all, all over the socials.
Speaker 1:But things have really changed in social media. Like, it's not really social media anymore. It's more about your interests than about the people you're following. When was the last time you saw someone that you follow in your timeline? It's more about interests and less about social media.
Speaker 1:And because it's about interests, the algorithms are gonna show you what you're interested in. The way the algorithms know what you're interested in is in those damn likes, comments, shares, and so on. And so unfortunately, I have to play this game a little bit. If you like something I am posting on socials or this podcast, whatever, I beg you, please tap like, drop a comment. Don't drop a fake comment.
Speaker 1:You know, don't just comment for comment's sake. But if something is thought provoking, drop your thought in the comments. Okay? And and tap like, because this really is about it's it's an interest medium. It is not a social one.
Speaker 1:It's about
Speaker 2:interests. And the way you tell the algorithms that this content is interesting is through your engagement.
Speaker 1:So comment like, and subscribe, hit that little bell, hit the notification button, send up a smoke signal, dispatch a carrier pigeon, let the big blue bird know that you love what I'm doing. Let the big black X know that you let them know that you love this stuff. Let the IG know that you're a fan of what I do. Tap lie, all
Speaker 2:that stuff. Anyway, enough shit about that. And that having been said, I'm
Speaker 1:gonna get into part two of what I'm talking about. But also stick with me because there there are some some developments and things that I wanna share with you that I would like you to to kinda hook up with me on. Okay? Let's move on. I dropped this note.
Speaker 1:If you're catching the video, I don't I don't I I'm not sure I'm gonna keep doing video podcasts, but for now, I'm still doing a video podcast. If you're catching the video, look at your screen. Drop that coffee and look at your screen. Also, you're catching the video, please don't judge me on this really effeminate looking mug. It's the only giant mug that I had left.
Speaker 1:The others were still in the dishwasher. Don't judge me. I I can smell it. You're judging me already. Stop it.
Speaker 1:And there's one one of you out there is laughing. Stop. Alright. I dropped this note on, Substack notes, catholicadventurer.substack.com. Super active on Substack.
Speaker 1:If you don't know, you're going to hell. So I dropped this on Substack notes, it went a little something like this, for those of you who are catching the audio only. The church would lose the great and final battle between good and evil were it to happen today because the church is undisciplined and largely unholy. Pause. There's more to it, let me pause there.
Speaker 1:This was before this was set a few days ago. So what I just shared with you at
Speaker 2:the top of this happened after this. Okay. Moving on. The church is undisciplined and largely unholy.
Speaker 1:You know what was going through damn, wrong screen. You know what was going through my head when I when I wrote that was, without getting into the whole story, it's just how sloppy the whole damn church is. Just incredibly, incredibly, incredibly, incredibly sloppy. We are undisciplined and largely unholy. When I say church here, I'm not really talking about the institution.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about the people. The people compose the the I don't wanna say they compose. We are the members of the mystical body of Christ. The institution, the mystical body, will never fail or falter. It's two thousand years, folks, and we're still here.
Speaker 1:We will never the church institution will never fail or falter. But the members of the body are a total freaking mess. Incredibly undisciplined.
Speaker 2:Look at what you see from
Speaker 1:Catholics on social media, comments being left, and stuff like this. I cannot believe, and and so many of them swear to God that they are the remnant. Wow. You know what that is, my friends? That is a career criminal who swears to God he's of the elite forces of the United States Marine Corps.
Speaker 1:No. You live in prison because you are a hardened criminal.
Speaker 2:You are of that quality. But you think you're the best of the best in the world? My friend, you're only fooling yourself.
Speaker 1:Look around you at the state of things through the prism of how the members of the mystical body act, behave, the things that they know, the things that they that they don't know, and swear to God that they know everything anyway.
Speaker 2:Incredibly undisciplined and largely unholy. There's a deficiency of holiness in the church that is deep and frightening. My comment continues.
Speaker 1:What is that great and final battle between good and evil? I wonder if we're seeing signs of it already. Wonder if we're seeing signs of it already. Not the battle itself, but a foretaste. Now in case you don't know folks, in case you're not really up on your bibble stuff, I'm talking about the final battle between good and evil which the church will face and win just before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:It's in the catechism. It's in the book of Revelation. Enough said about that.
Speaker 2:So what is this great and final battle? I wonder, and
Speaker 1:this is me saying in the comment, I wonder if we're seeing signs of it already. Not the battle itself, but a foretaste of it. Because I do think, folks, that the battle itself will be worse than what we see in the world today. So I wonder if this is a foretaste of it. The comment continues.
Speaker 1:Look at the world and analyze the church's place in it right now. This is already a war that we are not winning. We're surviving. And in some ways, in some areas, we're growing. But we are not taking a collective stand against the culture of the world we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1:Let me explain. The Holy Spirit is hyperactive all over the church. I know it. I believe it. I've seen it in person.
Speaker 1:In my in my work, I have, I read about it, stuff like that. Holy the Holy Spirit is super active. And there are areas where the church is improving. For instance, I don't have it in front of me now, but wait. Give me just a second.
Speaker 1:Let me just get this up on the
Speaker 2:screen right quick. This is something
Speaker 1:else I posted the other day. Global crisis sending or global crises, I think it says, sending Gen Z to church. There is an elevation of Gen Zers coming back to the church. That is the truth. Now
Speaker 2:my first thought is what kind of Catholics will they be? Because they are really, really, really
Speaker 1:victimized by the culture they grew up in. What kind
Speaker 2:of Catholics will they be? I'm not gonna talk
Speaker 1:about that. Maybe I'll talk about that a little bit in an after show, but let me get back to the to the point. There are things like that where the where we're seeing growth, improvement. That's for sure. That's for sure.
Speaker 1:But my concern is what I say here. We are not taking a collective stand against the culture of the world we find ourselves in. Rather,
Speaker 2:we're cooperating with it. Yes, there
Speaker 1:are things improving throughout the church. That is true, and it's undeniable.
Speaker 2:But it's also true that we're just sort of getting by. We're surviving. Sometimes we give up ground. We're not being defeated, but
Speaker 1:we are just barely surviving. It's like, you know, you throw someone who can't swim into the water, and they flap their arms and legs like crazy just to keep their nose afloat, their nose above the surface so that they can breathe. I feel like that's what the church
Speaker 2:is doing. We
Speaker 1:are not taking a collective stand against the culture of the world that the church today finds itself in. Instead, we cooperate with it. We laugh it off. We chuckle. We say, okay, let's agree to disagree.
Speaker 1:The culture of the world, its shadow, is cast over us everywhere. The the shadow of the culture of the world is cast over us, the church, everywhere. And we laugh it off, and we say, let's agree to disagree. We let the children play in the in the sanctuary because it's a a playground. Comment continues.
Speaker 1:But this will change. God will have the last laugh. He's already setting up for it. Oh, boy. Do I believe that.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes. I believe that. Absolutely, a 100% I believe that. The Lord is letting things he's allowing it. He's not causing it.
Speaker 1:He's allowing things to get this stupid because he's setting up the biggest laugh in the history of reality So that when God sets it all straight, no one will be able to deny that God did it. Because how else could all of
Speaker 2:that have happened? There's no
Speaker 1:way it got set straight on its own. Not as far not as as far low as
Speaker 2:it has all sunk. I believe it. And I believe what
Speaker 1:I said in this comment. I wonder, are we seeing a foretaste or a foreshadow of the final battle between good and evil? Look around you folks. People don't know what a man is, what a woman is. My friends, even people who know what males and females are do not know what a man is or what a woman is.
Speaker 1:Men are not gentlemen. Women are not ladylike. Beautiful people, I'm sure. I'm I folks, I don't doubt that. But no one knows what being masculine means anymore or what being ladylike means or why it why it even matters.
Speaker 1:We're surviving the church. We're surviving. In some areas, we're even growing. But we are not taking a collective stand against the culture of the world. And frankly, that first falls to the agents of the church.
Speaker 1:Clergy, religious. We need someone to finally stand up and say, Father James Martin is a good hearted priest, but his theology is often terrible. And he does not accurately or justly represent what the holy church holds, teaches, believes, with regard to same sex attraction or marriage or whatever. Father James Martin is not the theological scout well, let me back up. He's he's not the devil.
Speaker 1:He really is not the devil. But his and sometimes his theology in general, I don't mean on specific things, sometimes his theology is good, but his theology with regard as it relates to his his apostolate is shady at best. And it's shady in a way that is so intentionally deceptive, it makes me wonder about the heart of the man who conceived it.
Speaker 2:When is someone going to stand up and say that? Someone who's not a
Speaker 1:layperson, someone whose statement means something, has authority, has impact, and may actually change the course of his of of of his
Speaker 2:rhetoric. When will that happen?
Speaker 1:When will agents in the church, whether it's from the Vatican or national conferences or local diocese, when will someone say this is what the church teaches? This is this thing that you thought the church has moved away from? No. This is what the church teaches. When will we have a collective of pastors say, listen, you're no longer allowed to receive communion if we know you are not ready to do so.
Speaker 1:When will we see that? Because you you can't just have one pastor say that. It has to be a bunch of pastors saying, we will all act to that end. For whatever reason, because we know you're a heretic, because we know you support abortion, because whatever, whatever. Because because we know you never had first communion.
Speaker 1:You told me just yesterday you never had first communion. Here you are standing up. Know, folks, and if you're a priest watching this, I don't care. I know you have to be pastoral. And you know what?
Speaker 1:After thirty years, I got it down. Now I have to ask you, after fifty years of taking a lash to the mystical body of Christ, after fifty years of failing to teach God's children good, strong, thorough catechism, at what point do we say, in pastoral interests we have to be a little clearer and we have to take a stand on the lines that matter. Because if we look like we don't care about X or Y or Z, the Eucharist, the sacraments, whatever, if we look like we don't care, how do we expect them to ever care? How do we expect them to be Catholics who stick around if the church behaves as though it's not worth being stuck to? Come on, man.
Speaker 1:Pardon me as I clear my throat there. I'm getting so worked up. I'm getting so worked up that I'm screwing up my throat. How do we expect them to stick around if we don't even take ourselves seriously? My friends, and I said this before in a podcast that I think now is for subscribers only, so I even mention it.
Speaker 1:I mean, subscribers. I said this before that had I not known if I didn't know any better, I don't know that I would still be Catholic. Because sometimes, and I I wanna step lightly as I say this, sometimes the church looks so stupid. The things not the not the things that the church teaches, but the things that are taught about what the church teaches, what people are getting in catechetical programs, religious ed programs, adult programs, sometimes in retreats, and so forth. So it's not what the church teaches.
Speaker 1:It's what is said about what the church teaches. What is said to represent what the church teaches when often it does not. It just looks so stupid. I started this saying, sometimes I hate being Catholic for that reason. Because everywhere I go, I feel like Catholicism is just so damn stupid.
Speaker 1:I know that it is not, but I feel like I'm the only one in the world who does know that.
Speaker 2:And and I wanna say too, all
Speaker 1:credit to God and to the Holy Spirit because all credit to God and to the Holy Spirit because the priesthood is solid. The priesthood is solid. I know a handful, a rather large handful, of really good priests. Really good priests. You know, very orthodox, very old school, and not and several of them aren't even old.
Speaker 1:They're my age or a little bit older. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for for your priesthood and and for the work that you're doing in the priesthood. So it's not it's
Speaker 2:not doom and gloom. Okay? But I long for the day that
Speaker 1:we see more of them and that they're normal. That they're they're the normal class of priests, which right now, sadly, they're still rather the exception. Not the great exception, but the exception nevertheless.
Speaker 2:Let me go to this here. You can call this a segment three.
Speaker 1:Something a little disturbing. I'm sorry, but I want you to watch this. This is now this is old news. I think this happened in October. This is a church, Notre Dame Des Something, De La Something, Qua Something, whatever, some French place in French sounding place in Canada.
Speaker 1:And this is a historic church. It's more than a 100 years old, burned to the ground. K? There's nothing left of it.
Speaker 2:Well, there's practically nothing left of it.
Speaker 1:I'm just letting you watch this for a second. I mean, that's a ferocious fire, man. That's a really, really serious fire. So the caption actually, let me go back to it. The caption says, a massive fire has destroyed the historic Notre Dame De La A La Grege Church, whatever, in Tra Riviera, whatever, Canada.
Speaker 1:Another tragic blow to religious freedom and Western identity. It seems seems a little dramatic to me, but okay. Since 2021, over a 100 churches across Canada have been burned or vandalized. This isn't coincidence. It's a pattern.
Speaker 1:Okay. So my first thought is, well, hang on. Was it vandalism? Was it intentional? Or was
Speaker 2:it an accident? I did a
Speaker 1:little research, and I'm very shocked to discover that this fire happened in October, and there's still no official word on the
Speaker 2:start of it on the cause of it, I should say.
Speaker 1:No one? What? Wait. No one knows what started this fire?
Speaker 2:It's been since October. No one knows what started this? You know
Speaker 1:what that tells me? It was probably arson, and they're keeping it hush-hush. Could be that that they suspect it's arson, but they're will they're waiting to get bulletproof evidence before they
Speaker 2:come out saying that. But I don't think so. I think
Speaker 1:this was arson, and someone is afraid to say it. But I did a little bit of research, couldn't find any anything
Speaker 2:conclusive. But
Speaker 1:I will say this. It does appear that this is part of part of a pattern. Clear evidence of a disturbing pattern nationally in Canada of fires and arson attacks targeting historic Christian churches across Canada over the past few years. That's my conclusion based on personal research. So this is part of a pattern.
Speaker 1:I mean, dozens of churches either conclusively or strongly suspected of being arson. Dozens of churches since 2021. That's a lot. Do you know what that means? That means the world has gotten so used to us being chumps that they are dumbasses who think nothing of setting fire to these national treasures.
Speaker 1:Whether you're Catholic or not, a 100 year old church is a national treasure. They think nothing of it because we're just a bunch of sods, a bunch of suckers, a bunch of chumps. Of course we are. That's the message we've been sending for the past fifty, sixty years. Of course that's true.
Speaker 1:Let me go back to my comment. This is already a war we are not winning. No, folks, I do not say it's a war that we're losing, but we're getting there. I say, this is already a war we're not winning. We're surviving in some areas we're surviving in some areas growing, but we're not taking a collective stand against the culture of the world we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1:It's a culture whose shadow is cast over us everywhere. Everywhere. Now, what does that mean? How do how do you expect us this is you speaking to me how do you expect us to take a stand a collective stand against the culture? I don't know.
Speaker 1:What I do know is what we're doing is stupid, and it is not working. That's what I do know. What I do know is each of us individually compose the collective. And so each of us individually have to change the way we talk, the way we act. I'm not saying we need to take up arms unless it's a rosary.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that. I'm saying we, each of us, hold a piece to this puzzle of showing the world and the secular culture that we are serious. We are serious about our faith, about what the church teaches, about what God has revealed in Jesus Christ, in sacred scripture, in sacred tradition, the teaching of the church. We are serious about what God has revealed. And we're done feeling bad about it.
Speaker 1:You really believe the church? You know, you really believe what the church teaches in terms of
Speaker 2:X and Y and Z? Absolutely. Why don't you? No. But you really be able
Speaker 1:to stop. Why don't you? Okay. If you think I'm ridiculous, that's fine. Why don't you believe it?
Speaker 1:Well, because there's no evidence. What evidence would you like? Be more aggressive that way. I don't know. That's just how I am.
Speaker 1:That's just how I am. But you see what I'm saying? It's very different from saying, yeah, you know, we believe that, you know, marriage between a man and woman, but, you know, no big deal. Whatever. Yeah, I still believe that.
Speaker 1:I know, it's crazy these days. Come on, man. Stop being apologetic and ashamed of it. And immediately again, I'm not saying this is my prescription for all of you. I'm telling you, how would I, as an individual, improve things as a component to the whole to the whole church?
Speaker 2:Maybe I need to turn it around more more frequently. Not be less charitable, but maybe less passive? I
Speaker 1:don't know what we do as a collective. What I do know is, what we're doing as a collective is not working and really is stupid. So we need each of us to be doing something differently. Or to be doing this differently. Read through the comment one more time, then I'm gonna move on.
Speaker 1:The church would lose the great final battle between good and evil were to happen today. My friends,
Speaker 2:I believe that. And I
Speaker 1:believe the Lord is preserving us. Maybe the great great battle between good and evil would have happened already, except the Lord knows that we're laughably weak laughably weak and inept. And he knows we would lose. The church would lose. We'd lose the battle between good and evil were to happen today because the church is undisciplined and largely unholy.
Speaker 1:I'm going to
Speaker 2:add something to that, and this is
Speaker 1:going to shock and scandalize a lot of you. The church is large and, again, I'm talking about the mist the members of the body, lowercase c church, undisciplined and largely unholy. I'm gonna add something to that. And this points a finger directly at the hierarchy. Okay?
Speaker 1:Still the lowercase c church, but now I'm talking about the hierarchy. And I mean this
Speaker 2:with all due respect. But someone has
Speaker 1:to say this because everyone is seeing it, and no one is saying it. If we learned anything from the COVID nineteen lockdowns, it is this: The church is weak and impotent and not taken seriously. Forget about that third part. We can focus on the first two. Weak and impotent.
Speaker 1:The church proved itself to be weak and impotent. How could you betray your own children? How could you let them be locked up inside, no sacraments? And I'm going to say something else. There were, in many dioceses, there were churches that secretly stayed open, were secretly and safely administering some of the sacraments, and there were parishioners who ratted those pastors out.
Speaker 1:If you are one of those, you are a traitor. You are a traitor. How could you dare do that to your brothers and sisters and to your spiritual father, the pastors of those parishes? How dare you? You're a traitor.
Speaker 1:And everyone who knows you did that, they know you're a traitor too. They're just afraid to tell you. You think you think my courage comes from the fact that I'm behind this? Oh, my friend, you don't know me.
Speaker 2:You don't know me at all. Because believe me, I'm quick to go there in person. The church proved itself to be halfway incompetent, but fully impotent. Because the church and I'm sorry, I I love the hierarchy,
Speaker 1:and I'm I defend the hierarchy all the time. I love priests, and I love bishops. Yes, some of
Speaker 2:them are stupid. Most of them are not. A good number of
Speaker 1:them are saints, but you don't hear about them. And even the stupid ones, they are bishops or they are cardinals, and I still respect them. So I say this to you, as your son in the church and as your brother in Christ, you've betrayed and failed the church's children by letting them be locked up without any sacraments, without any hope. And most diocese in The United States barely put up a fight. Most didn't put up any.
Speaker 1:And the ones who did, fickle and stupid, the fight they put up. What did the church prove during COVID nineteen? You're impotent. That's what you proved. How many people died alone because you wanted to play ball?
Speaker 1:How many people died without last rites because you wanted to play ball? And for those of you who are heroically doing what you had to do as priests and as bishops, God bless you, and you are you are going to be
Speaker 2:one of God's saints. God bless you,
Speaker 1:and thank you. Because I I know one or two, I mean, personally, I know one or two who were heroic, and there were news reports of some others. I know they're out there. Those of you who who just would not sue your governors because you just wanted to play along, those of you who just wouldn't sue unless someone else sued first, and then you added your name to the lawsuit, shame on you. You should be ashamed.
Speaker 1:And you should spend the next year in prayer and penance for that betrayal alone. Impotent, foolish, weak, scared, and stupid. What is the great and final battle? I wonder if we're seeing it seeing signs of it already. Not the battle itself, but a foretaste.
Speaker 1:And this is what I mean, folks. It it I do believe it's a foretaste of the battle to come, and we're barely surviving it. So if the real battle were to hit tomorrow, how do you think the church would fare? Not well. That's my opinion.
Speaker 1:And it's a rather informed opinion. Let me tell you. We're surviving, and in some areas, we're growing. And that is true. In some areas we are growing.
Speaker 1:Believe me, there's a lot
Speaker 2:of hope out there. But we
Speaker 1:are not taking a collective stand against the culture of the world that we find ourselves in today. Instead, we're cooperating with it. Hashtag COVID nineteen. That's just one of many examples I could give. So what should we learn from this?
Speaker 1:I mean, mostly folks, know, this is the Catholic Experience Podcast. This is where I share my experience with you. And that's where I am in my experience. I am damn I am damn tired of the king behaving like a pig in the slop. That's a good analogy, I think.
Speaker 1:I mean a good and noble and wonderful king behaving like a pig and slop. And you almost wanna pick him up out of that pigpen and say, hey, you're the king. You realize that.
Speaker 2:Right? The most noble king that ever lived? The most charitable, the most beautiful, the
Speaker 1:most at one point, the most respected. You're the king. You're the king. You're that amazing, unbelievable king. Why are you wallowing in slop with the pigs?
Speaker 1:Don't you remember who you are? And my God, don't you care? Because somebody has to care. Because the people are out there alone, looking for something, looking for meaning, looking for purpose, looking for truth. And the church is where that comes from, or it it comes from God, but the church is where it comes through.
Speaker 2:They're looking for their king, and
Speaker 1:you're out here playing with the pigs. Don't you remember who you are? And, damn it, don't you even care anymore? Let me go back to this real quick. I know I said I wasn't gonna talk about this, but I just do wanna say a word real quick about this.
Speaker 1:Global crisis sending gen z to church. Well, that's great. Here's what I had to say about it. This is a very this is very positive. Now it's up to the church to not screw it up on the follow through.
Speaker 1:Give them, Gen Z, give them good catechesis. In other words, not stupidity. Give them good catechesis. I should have bolded that. Give them good catechesis, bold preaching, Catholic culture, which is something that's very lacking or deficient in the modern Catholic world.
Speaker 1:Catholic culture. And stop pretending that hippie Jesus is a real person because he is not. Give them the real Jesus for crying out loud. Again, talking about Gen Z here. They're coming for guidance, grounding, and purpose.
Speaker 1:Stop depriving them. Stand out and stop trying to fit in. That's all I've got to say about that. Folks, let me share some news with you. Please don't tune me out.
Speaker 1:Okay? The only access I have to you is social media and this podcast. And this podcast does not get a lot of a lot of listeners. Well, I guess that's a stupid thing to say because you're listening now. Right?
Speaker 1:I've got your ears. But let me just explain this anyway. Everything I do, I do on Substack. But I do I have developed a middle ground between the podcast and social media and Substack. Not everybody is interested in everything that I'm doing on Substack.
Speaker 1:Some people are only interested in, I don't know, short little blog posts instead of long articles. Some people are interested in something longer than an Instagram reel, but not as long as, you
Speaker 2:know, an hour and a
Speaker 1:half of an episode. The middle ground I've developed is called the Waypoint Dispatch. It is a website and a newsletter, and it's pretty damn cool. The Waypoint Dispatch, you can get there by going to waypointdispatch.fm or the waypoint.co. And check it out, and I hope you sign up.
Speaker 1:Here's what I'm doing with that. I'm going to start sending out weekly bulletins of of the the things that I've done, whether it's something that I've published or things that I've put on social, something that stood out. Weekly bulletins. Okay? And also, I'm going to put up, like, brief articles, extended clips, but not very extended.
Speaker 1:Instead of being a minute and a half to two minutes, the clips I'll have there will be like three minutes long, four, five, seven minutes long. You know, because sometimes you want a segment, not just like a little piece of a segment, segment being just a little piece of a whole show. Right? So check it out. If it makes it easier, just think of it this way.
Speaker 1:Meet me at the Waypoint. You know what a Waypoint is? Meet me at the Waypoint. Thewaypoint.co. It's the waypoint dispatch, and I want you to join me there.
Speaker 1:Check it out. You can see everything that I have there. You don't have to subscribe to it. But if you subscribe, you get that weekly bulletin. Okay?
Speaker 1:Or maybe you're like, no. I I would love a week a weekly thing or whatever. I would love for you, you know, to get your content in my inbox. Why don't I just go to your Substack and do that? Yes.
Speaker 1:Then go to my Substack and do that. Catholic Adventurer dot Substack dot com. The Waypoint Dispatch is although I don't do weekly bulletins from Substack. With Substack, every time I publish something, you get it in your inbox. But the weekly bulletins is just the Waypoint Dispatch.
Speaker 1:But, anyway, sup the Waypoint Dispatch is for people who don't wanna go as deep as my Substack, but they would like to go deeper than just, like, social media. The Waypoint Dispatch. You can find it at the waypoint.co. Thewaypoint.co. Do check it out.
Speaker 1:And consider subscribing. Folks, I don't do anything shady with your information. I want you to know that. I was in a store just the other day, and they were like, hey. Would you like $10 off?
Speaker 1:Just give us your email. Hell no. Hell no. Don't make me tell you where you can stick that $10. I ain't giving nobody my email, son.
Speaker 1:Are you nuts? Because I know I'm gonna wind up on 37 different emailing lists, and all of them will be emailing me every few days, every single week. Oh no. Keep your $10. How about I make it 20?
Speaker 1:No. If you like me that much, just give me $20 off without my email address. I don't like people abusing my email address. I don't do anything shady with yours either, because I don't want mine disrespected. Okay?
Speaker 1:I do not sell your information. I do not trade your information. I do not let people peek at your information. The info the mailing list, whether it's on Substack, or the Waypoint Dispatch, or the soon to come website for the Catholic Experience podcast, it's only so that I can keep connected to you, and you can keep connected to me, without an algorithm, which the algorithm is murder for a podcaster. The algorithm is murder for a podcaster because we never have direct contact with you, or hardly any contact with you because of an algorithm, because of how social media works.
Speaker 1:So that's the update. Keep an eye out for that because I think you might enjoy that. Waypointdispatch.fm or the waypoint.co. It'll take you to the same place. Waypointdispatch.fm.
Speaker 1:Check it out. Alright, man. So I saved the worst for last. People hate an announcement. I did the show first.
Speaker 1:Saved the announcement for last. Are you thankful? You're welcome. Hey, man. Remember to subs not subscribe or subscribe to the newsletters, but, remember to, tap like.
Speaker 1:If you have some if something I said provoked a thought, share it in a comment. Otherwise, don't don't do, like, the pity likes and the pity comments. I'm not trying to stress you and and pressure you. But if you did like something that I posted on social or a podcast or something, please tap like. Okay?
Speaker 1:Because, otherwise, the algorithm has no idea that my stuff is likable and will not distribute it to anybody else, especially don't get me started on TikTok. TikTok just changed their algorithm. That's really brutal. Anyway, if you even a little bit liked something that I post, tap like. If it was a even a little thought provoking made you go, drop a comment.
Speaker 1:Let me know what you thought because believe me, I read them. I'm a little fella. I'm not with some big organization. I'm a little fella. I've got I've got I get so few comments, it's very easy for me to read all of them.
Speaker 1:This has been an episode of the Catholic experience, and I've been your host, the Catholic adventurer. Follow me everywhere you find me. Go to catholicadventurer.substack.com for the main hub, and check out the Waypoint Dispatch at waypointdispatch.fm. Check it out. You can see it for free, but you can also subscribe for free and get those bulletins in your inbox.
Speaker 1:God bless you. God be with you all. Bye bye.
