"Endless Scrolling": Pope Leo's Blunt Warning to Catholics (Full LOCALS Show)

A two-minute clip from Pope Leo kicks off a much bigger conversation: where do we actually look for joy, and why are so many Catholics being formed more by screens than by silence, prayer, friendship, and real community? We react to his blunt list of modern traps: endless scrolling, pornography, promiscuity, superficial relationships, and obsession with image, then ask why that kind of moral clarity feels rare in public Church life right now.

From there we get personal and practical. We talk about daily Mass vs Sunday Mass, why obligation can warp desire, and how “do the thing” faith often comes before feelings or certainty. A strange daily Mass prompting becomes our on-ramp into the deeper theme: American Catholicism can drift into intellectual Catholicism, shaped by Protestant convert culture, apologetics-first catechesis, and a constant need to argue instead of embody the faith.

We also wrestle with what a uniquely American Catholic culture could look like without becoming performative. We trade ideas like parish pilgrimages, seasonal traditions, rosary walks, and building local customs that grow year by year. Along the way we connect it to pop culture through The Odyssey as an allegory of crisis and restoration, plus a frank take on how leadership failures can damage trust in institutions.

If any of this hits home, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one Catholic tradition you wish your parish or family would start this year?

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Transcript

Cold Open And Tonight’s Agenda

SPEAKER_05 0:39

You look way cooler as a black guy than I do.

SPEAKER_07 0:41

I got it's because you do the there there was not much change to make you look black. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 0:54

So we uh we're skipping Rarum Navarum tonight because we have an interview on Thursday, and I'm gonna be out next week, and I just I have so many freaking thoughts going through my head, man. Like I saw the Odyssey, and I want to talk about that tonight because uh there's a couple of things that like I've heard a hundred reviews on it, but I kind of had some different thoughts on it um that I that I definitely want to get into. Like I saw the whole thing as like an allegory for the church crisis, like I just couldn't help but see it that way. There's some things I hated about it, there's some things I liked about it, so we're gonna talk about that. Um, and then somebody tweeted something this morning that just annoyed me to no end. And and I was just like, like, I'm so tired of like Protestant Catholicism. And it's a it's a theme that Rob and I have touched on a bunch of times on this show. We've talked about how how much Protestant culture is seeped into Catholic culture because of the converts that came in, which I'm not knocking converts, it's just something that kind of happened. Um, talked about like the um testimony culture, things like that. But I kind of got those thoughts a little more succinct this morning, uh, through whatever the heck happened. And uh then Pope Leo came out with a little video that uh wasn't really about the endless scrolling that caught my attention. It was uh he made a comment about promiscuity, and I was like, Oh, I was I was happy to hear that, you know.

SPEAKER_07 2:22

Well, hold on. So just to clarify, we will be watching a video from Pope Leo about you know, like not scrolling on endlessly online. How many of your own tweets will we be reviewing tonight?

SPEAKER_05 2:36

Well, like I said, the thing in Leo's video that stood out to me wasn't about the endless scrolling, it was first of all, it was a it was a good short mat. It is kind of odd to hear a pope speaking English properly, right? And it's like even when we had Benedict and John Paul II, like they they spoke English, but like Ben Benedict's English was way better than John Paul II's, but it was still very heavily German accent in English. John Paul II I felt I felt like he couldn't really fluently speak English, he kind of could read it, you know. So like he he could read a a sermon in English, but I'm not even sure he fully comprehended what he was reading. Um uh look, the thing is I I have I'm actually pretty good about my online usage lately. Like when I'm when I'm off, I'm not like I'm you look through the weekend, like I'm almost never on there on the weekends. It's actually hard for me to get back into it, but then when we have to do the show, it's kind of show prep. So I'm working on figuring things out, and then also like the way Rob and I think is so completely different in that I for me to get an idea like worked out, I kind of have to just throw it out there and get it into the into the you know into the Twitter world. Like if I if I didn't tweet that this morning, I'd have forgotten about it by the time we did the show. And it's not I'm not good at like taking notes and stuff. So like that's kind of like Twitter's kind of like my notepad, and I'll just fire a thought.

SPEAKER_07 4:09

That's what you are to Anthony. What is it? I said, hear that everyone. That's what you are to Anthony.

SPEAKER_05 4:15

Yeah, well, you guys are like you're like my journal in a way, where so I said, like we know the difference between me and you is therapy. Yeah, like I tweet before I think, you think before you tweet.

SPEAKER_07 4:26

Yes, which is it's why you make more money on Twitter than me.

SPEAKER_05 4:32

But it's also why we're complimentary on this show. It's like it's like if if you were if I had to talk to me every episode, I'd flip, I'd lose it. If you had to talk to you every episode, you'd lose it. Like you can't, it's kind of the reason this dynamic works.

SPEAKER_07 4:46

If I had to talk to me every episode, neither one of us would talk.

SPEAKER_05 4:49

It'd be wonderful. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna be off next week. Yeah, Kale, I think you're very similar to me too, right? Like, Kale does that too. He'll I'll I'll see him like I'll see him tweet things sometimes that I don't even understand. And I'm like, what's he doing here? But then I'll see him flesh it out in a later tweet. He'll like it seems cryptic sometimes what Kale tweets. I'll I'll say this also. Um, one of my favorite podcasts right now is Kale and uh Steve Skojak's podcast. Like, I I listen to every one of their episodes because it's like a it's a break from like Catholic content, but it still has Catholic flavor because they like the other the other day, Steve and Kale were discussing uh Steve was talking about when he was invited to Rome for one of these like super secret trad meetings, and it was just like really interesting because especially from him being outside of it now and looking back on it, he was explaining he get he got invited to Rome to go into one of like these secret trad meetups, and his experience of the people that he was there with made him go, I can't be a part of this just because I don't want to be involved with these people.

SPEAKER_07 6:00

Hey, I know that feeling.

SPEAKER_05 6:02

I know I really could relate so much to what you say.

SPEAKER_07 6:08

The deeper we get involved, the more I understand that completely.

SPEAKER_05 6:12

So, um, yeah. So I mean, look, they're talking about completely different things than we are, but it was kind of especially I was operating a machine the other day, and uh it's it was good to just like listen to to their stream of thought on how they work ideas out and stuff.

SPEAKER_07 6:25

So it's it's uh people just so Kale, uh Kale, what are you doing next Tuesday and or Thursday? That would actually be an awesome episode, right?

SPEAKER_05 6:33

So all right, so I don't know what to think we would talk about. I'd leave that up to him probably. I kale, would you would you be open to filling in for me uh next week one day? That would actually be a I think that's actually the perfect fill-in. Like you, you and Kale would have a really good, a really good uh back and forth. I think that would be oh, he's gonna be in Oxford, he's away. Oh man. So uh the Bosch murder we talked about last week. Uh yeah, somebody's asking what happened to the Bosch murder. We talked about that last week. You guys missed that. Um, yeah, so I don't I don't know. And then I also had um I did jot a few notes now because I couldn't really put everything into my tweets, but I saw them arguing with like Patrick Madrid over the Beatles again, and Patrick Madrid blocks people if they say the Beatles suck. That's how Jason got blocked. That's how Jason got blocked, right? And I'm like, I I think I understand what the Beatles thing is. Um because I like the Beatles, but it's not necessarily about the music. It's because when I was a kid, my dad loved the Beatles, and when I hear Beatles songs, it makes me think of being on my dad's boat with him as a kid. So it's like a nostalgia thing for me. It's not so much that like I actually like the music as much as it kind of transports me back to my childhood a little bit, and like I have some really good memories of just like same reason why I love the song Erica. Yeah, I mean that that's just kind of how memory works and nostalgia works. So um yeah, that was one, and then uh I had some thoughts about Trump and Francis, and then also the spirit of Attic and so we'll get into all that tonight. We got uh we got a long show ahead of us. Um uh we also have a great Knickknack success story. I'm hearing Sean Ryan. Somebody sent Sean Ryan some Knickknacks, and then he uh he went on Tucker Carlson's episode and he said that uh he's back at mass and he's taking his faith very seriously. So shout out to Nick Knacks. Nick Knack's got another Knick Knack success story. So go to knick knack.com, use code come on, help me out here, bring the banner up. Oh, yeah, sorry. Killing me here. Go to knick knack.com, use code AB25 for 25% off your first purchase, use code AB10 for 10% off subsequent purchases. And if you really want someone to convert, you have to give them the knick-knack black monk rosary combo because that is like forget it, you know. You do something like that, and there's no chance the person stands any any more of their atheism or Protestantism or anything. So go to uh, he also said Alps suck straight to Tucker's face. That's awesome. Um, yeah, go to Black Monk Rosaries, use use code avoiding Babylon for 10% off your uh or any black monk rosary. We love black monk rosaries. If you don't pray your black monk rosary, you're not on the team. Steve is making fun of that too. Uh like like the Steve Skoja, he's like, you know, like I look because look, I it's something I struggle with in the space we're in as well. In that like being being a trad, right? Like you're expected to hold certain opinions and you're expected to be a certain amount of like corniness together. It's like I've always resisted that. That's that was the episode. If you guys want to check it out, they were talking, it was actually their Candace Owens episode with where Kale Kale has this really good thesis on like profilicity and like how how we put ourselves out into the online arena and stuff like that. But um, yeah, like the trad profile, like the typical trad profile. I think the two of us strongly try to reject it. Not because we don't believe the traditional faith, not because we're not trads, just because sweet is itchy. Yeah, well, no, it's more just like the like the whole um what would you call it? Like the like the not the trad aesthetic, even like the like the trad LARP, yeah, like the the especially the the content creator space, like to the traditional Catholic content creator space is something that I don't know, I never felt like I really fit in, but it and it goes to this this larger question. Oh, should we do Pope Leo first before we get into it? It is very sculpture right, Gail. It's very stuffy, and uh yeah. All right, but that kind of will piggyback into the culture debate. Should we do should we do that first or should we do the pope leo thing? We should probably do the lead. All right, we'll do we won't bury the lead, we'll do the pope leo video. Uh we'll play that real quick. And then I want to talk about like why your why Europe has these beautiful cultural Catholic it's like it's like it's like a beautiful Catholic culture that came from Europe, and then when you get to America, it's like we will look on at that and we'll be like, look how beautiful Catholicism is, but then we've failed as Americans to produce our own unique cultural Catholicism, right? So it's something I I know Rob has some thoughts on it. I have some thoughts on it also, so we'll get into that next. But all right, let's jump into Pope Leo's uh short, short, like two-minute little video he put out that I actually did enjoy.

SPEAKER_07 11:57

I just I hate that it's Pope Respector getting all the views for this. Who cares? He clipped it. Just saying. Yeah, let him get it. Who cares?

SPEAKER_06 12:18

No volume. What? I don't hear it. Try to.

SPEAKER_07 12:26

First of all, you said no volume before I didn't hear it. Sound came out.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Okay.

Pope Leo On Joy And Vice

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Is it really possible to have joy in such difficult circumstances, we might ask? It is only possible if our life is founded upon our relationship with God as a loving Father. The joy Saint Francis was speaking of cannot be found through electronic devices, spending hours in front of a screen, endlessly scrolling on social media every day. These activities often waste precious time that could be used for moments of silent prayer, of cultivating authentic friendships, spending quality time with family, learning more about our faith, studying, or playing sports. Joy should never be sought through drug use, alcohol abuse, promiscuity, superficial relationships, obsession about our image, or any kind of damaging behavior. Surprisingly, neither can it be found in goods such as wealth, beauty, fame, or even health, for one day we will leave all of this behind. Only the love of God can provide us with true and perfect joy.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

I don't know, it's like a very simple thing.

SPEAKER_07 13:54

Very uh very Augustinian.

SPEAKER_05 13:57

Yeah, I I liked that he because the whole time I was listening to it at first, I was like, all right, this is kind of you know, just it's kind of like simple, like, okay, don't endlessly scroll. But then when he got into um uh promiscuity and even material possessions and stuff, it's like I because one of my biggest criticisms of the modern hierarchy is that they don't touch on a lot of these topics at all, and they just want to touch like he didn't mention anything about climate change, he didn't mention anything about you know uh, you know, any of the normal nonsense you're hearing from Rome. So it was look, I know it wasn't some fiery sermon that he gave, I just thought it was a good message that he gave. And I I, you know, like it's not good to have this immediate suspicion of the Pope and trash everything he does, right? So if he puts something good out, like commend him for it. And that is actually the message I think priests should be hammering down on in their homilies now because this is like the stuff that's actually facing young people, yeah. This addiction to their phones, the looking at pornography, this uh, you know, using each other for for satisfaction in ways that isn't you know, isn't the marital union, things like that. So I um it wasn't even the dopey way of saying these things.

SPEAKER_07 15:17

No, he kind of like it was just it was simple, but it didn't need to be anything more.

SPEAKER_05 15:22

Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm going to um yeah, yeah, but he did say sell the boat.

SPEAKER_07 15:27

I heard the Pope say I know well then again, water skiing's a sport.

SPEAKER_05 15:33

Well, I'll tell you the the thing uh and Kale, please don't leave because I want to talk about this because uh something very important happened that I have to discuss with you guys. Really weird. Like Kale knows about this a little

Daily Mass Promptings And Weird Timing

SPEAKER_05 15:45

bit, but we'll talk about that in a second. But it goes back to kind of the Beatles thing where I was saying I had I have these really great memories from my childhood about being on my dad's boat. Um, I always wanted my kids to have those memories, so that's like the two things I remember from my childhood the most were going on my dad's boat and snowboarding. Those are two things my dad gave me that I just like I I loved them so much, I wanted to make that a tradition I passed on to my kids. Right? Like, this is like my ever every time every time the weather changes, my kids start to get excited that snowboard season's coming up. Then towards the end of the winter, they have boat season coming up, like they get excited to be out on the water. These and it became just this tradition that I do with my kids, and I hope that my kids pass it on to their children. Um, this this this comment real quick. So Kale and I all right, so all right, so Steve put out uh a tweet the other day, Steve Skojak put out a tweet the other day saying so. I I think everybody knows the story of Steve Skojak. He used to run 1 Peter 5, and then he had a real crisis of faith, and he wound up selling 1 Peter 5 to Crisis, but uh Steve's been going through some stuff where he uh he's his family situation is kind of chaotic right now, and he wrote a tweet the other day saying, I find myself praying to God, even though I'm not even sure if I believe in God. And he kind of said, I'm not sure if I should just do the thing, like, should I just LARP and do the thing even if I don't necessarily believe it? So I called Cal on the phone and we talked about this, and I said, Yeah, like 90% of being Catholic is like doing a thing you don't want to do. Right. And it led to this conversation he and I had about daily mass versus Sunday Mass.

SPEAKER_07 17:46

I mean, faith is that that that kind of is faith, right? Doing things that you don't have necessarily intellectual certainty for, but you still do them, you know what I mean? Like Yeah, because like LARP, because fake it till you make it.

SPEAKER_05 18:04

There really is something to it. Like do the thing, and it will f like faith may follow from doing the thing, right? So we we we had this interesting conversation about daily mass versus Sunday Mass. So there's there's a um St. Joseph Atts in Queens has a 7 a.m. daily Latin mass that I'm sometimes able to like go and slip into before work. Yeah, so like my guys will be out and I'll be able to slip in. And I'm like, I can't wait to go to it, right? I'm like super excited to be able to go in and catch a daily mass.

SPEAKER_07 18:39

Cale was telling me I would give anything to be able to like have a 7 a.m. low mass all by myself.

SPEAKER_05 18:45

So Kale meaning like he's like, I go to daily mass four times a week. But both of us were like, but why do I not want to go on Sundays? Right? Like, like there's Sundays. It's the obligation. Like I go every Sunday, but it's this weird thing where when you're not being forced to go, you get this like real joy from going to a low man. Well, first off, it's it's way less um of a of a there's way less theater to it. There's there's usually no singing, it's kind of just you go in, you have some quiet time. You can break, even if you're going to a daily novus order, it's like that. Yeah, go in and it's very quiet, and there's often no canter, yeah, no altar servers, nothing. You're kind of just going, it's like going to a low mass, you know. And yeah, it's the quiet, and versus you go on Sunday and there's a thousand people there, and you know, it's just not the same intimate experience, but you still go, right? So you like 90% of being Catholic is you just do the thing, even if you don't necessarily want to do the thing. So Cale and I had this whole discussion about daily mass, and Thursday night, my sister texts me and she says. No, actually, it worked like this. My mother called me on Friday. I was out to dinner with my wife, and she goes, Anne, I don't know why everyone always calls me and makes me do this. I don't know why your sister won't just call you. But your sister told me you have to go to daily mass, and it's Friday night. And I'm like, But like she's like, uh Teresa wants you to go to mass tomorrow. And I'm like, like tomorrow for the 5 p.m. for something. Like, what I don't know what she meant. She goes, No, she said, You have to go to mass tomorrow. I don't know, I don't understand it. So I'm like, all right, I'll call Teresa. So my sister Teresa tells me, she goes, Aunt, look, I don't know if I'm crazy. She goes, I might be crazy. She goes, I was brushing my teeth, and I got kind of this like burning sensation in my hand that I heard tell Anthony to go to daily mass. She goes, I don't know if it's just in my imagination. I have no idea what it is. But I just had this conversation with, and my sister then launches into she goes, Aunt, I just all I know is when I go to daily mass, it's like this amazing thing, and I love going. I start my day off doing it, but I never want to go on Sunday. So she literally says to me the exact same conversation Kale had with me like 12 hours earlier. And I'm like, this is so weird. So now my wife was going into the city on Saturday to go to a museum with her friend, okay? And I'm like, Ocean, if you're just gonna start simping for me, I'm gonna block you for simping for me, okay? I know what you're doing, you're not gonna just sit here and simp for me in the comments because I yelled at you last episode. I will block you for simping. It took me it took me a it took me a while to realize what he's doing. I hate positive ocean way more than negative ocean. So go back to making fun of me. All right.

SPEAKER_07 21:51

So oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 21:53

So my wife was going into the city Saturday to go to a museum with her friend, and she was going to take the training. And I was like, I don't know. I didn't want her taking the train in. And I'm like, I guess I'm driving her into the city so that I can go to low mass in the city. Because like the only the only daily Latin mass I could go to is holy innocence. So my Saturday, I was going to do things around the yard, and instead I'm leaving my house at 10:30 in the morning to drive my wife into the city, to drop her off at the museum, to meet a friend, to then go to mass in the city. And I'm waiting with like this anticipation, like what's going to happen at this daily mass, you know? And I go in and it was very uneventful. It was very uneventful. It was, I mean, look, it was the holy sacrifice of the Mass, but it was very uneventful. Like nothing happened.

SPEAKER_07 22:49

I was waiting for, and this old woman was choking out to give her a Heimlich maneuver and I saved her life.

SPEAKER_05 22:54

I kind of went not sure like what was going to happen. And I and I didn't want to go expecting something to happen either. Like, I don't know. Like my sister might just be crazy, you know, or maybe you really don't know. Maybe God wanted me to drive my wife into the city because something was gonna happen to her on that train. Like, you don't you you really don't know. I would have bought at least two extra guns that day just in case. Yeah, but you so you really just don't know what God's up to with things sometimes, you know. But I just took my wife into the city, went went to the Daily Mass, and then she wouldn't have driven by herself, right? She'll no, she won't drive into the city, I won't let her. So she was going to take the trip.

SPEAKER_07 23:38

Because if that was the case, then you definitely saved her life, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:42

Uh, and also, like, I I did just have a nice ride with her, just like me and my wife like sat and got to talk for for two hours while we drove in and stuff, but it it was just kind of strange how like Kale and I had that conversation, then my sister called me with that conversation.

SPEAKER_07 24:00

And did you have any desire to go, hey sis? Uh why didn't you have that burning sensation before you reached for that lawnmower?

SPEAKER_05 24:08

Different sister. I have a lot of sisters, different sister, yeah. No, it was just like I it made me like ask the question like, have has anybody had any um like has anybody had any supernatural things happen, like things that they just couldn't explain? Yes, you know, because you hear stuff like that all the time, and I thought this might have been one of those situations, and it wound up not being anything spectacular, and it was just going to a to a math, you know, but I don't know, it was just interesting the way that whole thing played out.

SPEAKER_07 24:45

I definitely have, and I'm pretty sure I've told the story on here before, so let's hear it. I suppose okay. Uh you're on you're on a show, you can't not tell the story. Um I'll save it for locals. How about that?

SPEAKER_05 25:07

Okay, okay, okay. Um okay, so let's get into the culture thing though.

SPEAKER_07 25:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

So um, okay. Uh this is why I tweeted it because I would totally have forgotten like what my point of this was.

SPEAKER_07 25:24

So yeah, guys, these are the tame.

SPEAKER_05 25:26

I knew what I was getting into. These are the tame stories. Well, somebody somebody had said to me, like, why do you always have things happening? And like part of it is because I'm out in the world a lot, like I don't have a desk job, I'm always kind of out and about doing things, and you know, I I have I work in the city and I'm around people all the time, and stuff just kind of happens. Like, and the stuff with like my sister, I don't know, I have a big big Catholic family, so like weird, weird things will happen like that. Um and I I I'll be honest, I wanted to ignore my sister like bad. I I didn't want to go to mass on Saturday, like I really didn't. I just because I had so many things to do, and this kind of threw a wrench in my entire day. Like, I I had I have my daughter's party coming up next weekend, and I have a million things to do in my yard and get everything ready, and it was just you have to go to mass tomorrow. And I'm like, I really considered just ignoring what my mom told me and not calling my sister or anything. And um, I mean, I'm glad I went in the long run, just because you should never ignore God's promptings. Yeah, if you you know what I mean. Like it, I'd have I'd have felt terrible if I didn't listen. Even though it wasn't an obligation to, you know, it's just my

The Protestant Ethos In Catholic Life

SPEAKER_05 26:40

you know, my sister just had some wacky thought that went through her head. And you know, women, they're always saying, God told me, God told me. All right, so somebody uh a Catholic tweeted something this morning that just made me just cringe. And the thought came to me what was it? I forget, I forget what it was, but this thought kind of came to my head, and it's something Rob and I have talked about on this show from time to time, but the whole the whole thing kind of like came together for me this morning. Um, so I wrote, American Catholicism is largely just intellectual Catholicism, heavily influenced by Protestant converts and the American Protestant culture they converted from. It's why the videos of Holy Week in Spain get so much traction on this site. The American convert looks on and says, Look how beautiful Catholicism is, while failing to produce our own unique Catholic culture ourselves. I'm not knocking converts, just making an observation. I think outfits like Catholic answers are great for answering Protestant objections to Catholicism, but they've also created a Protestant ethos where Catholicism becomes something like faith alone plus the sacraments. It's still mainly based on what you believe rather than how the faith is embodied. It's quote mining certain scriptures to combat the quote mining of other scriptures. The closest thing we get to genuine Catholic culture is that ethnic parishes that have a remnant preserved from their European heritage. So you'll get Polish parishes or Italian parishes that still do processions, but there's nothing that is unique to America. And we should work towards changing this. Now, a lot of people were like, um, I think Ryan, uh Ryan's in the chat, he said, like, I don't, I don't, it would feel performative to do something to to like it. So we I want to talk about like the the obstacles to building that uniquely American Catholic culture, and I want to talk about maybe some small things and what cult what what genuine true culture actually even looks like. Because it shouldn't be performative, it should be something like building a small family tradition that you do year after year that eventually kind of gets a little bit added to it, a little bit added to it, a little bit added to it, and then all of a sudden you kind of have this unique thing that you do with your parish family every year. And I think one of the main obstacles look, there's tons of reasons for this, right? You can't leave the council out of it. Changing the form of the liturgy itself was a huge blow to anything that could have arisen from it.

SPEAKER_07 29:11

He was talking about King Deplorable, who is an article. No, no, I'm I was talking about this Ryan. I don't think it was, I think it was Oh, it was King Deplorable.

SPEAKER_05 29:21

Oh, okay. I get you guys confused a lot because you guys both have a similar PFP. So um, yeah, like the the council itself, right? Now, after the council, the hierarchy drops the ball with catechesis completely. And what you get is the Protestant converts of the 80s and 90s, you get Catholic answers comes up, you get Steubenville pops up, and that's kind of the main like driver of catechesis for Catholicism, other than like your local parish C C D programs, which kind of fell apart in the 80s and 90s, like things were so nuts at the parish level, unless you had like a vibrant good parish, there wasn't really great catechesis. So people were finding these cassette tapes and CDs and things like that. That is what kind of taught them the Catholic faith, and they were taught the Catholic faith by these Protestant converts, which is a largely intellectual pursuit because they're coming in through argument, but they're not they're not being persuaded by beauty and culture necessarily, like it the beauty of the faith, sure, and we all talk about truth, beauty, and goodness. But you're like these Protestant converts are not from ethnic communities, they're not from like your local Polish parish or your local Italian, you know, they're not from those communities, they're largely American Anglo Protestants that intellectually convert, yeah, and then are kind of just left to say, okay, well, I have I have the faith, but what do I do with it?

SPEAKER_07 31:02

What made me kind of sad about your tweet is that I I grew up in a good parish, and like there really was kind of uh a Catholic culture I I grew up in in that good parish and in in my town. You know, we it was it was largely um at that point a town still of um descendants of like Croatian and Polish immigrants, you know. Uh all of our big events of the town happened at either at the Croatian hall. People went to drink at the Polish National Alliance, which was in the bottom of someone's house, basement of someone's house, stuff like that. And and like our our parish had you know, had processions. It we had uh a Fatima Cadet Youth Group. We did things. This is probably more of a night something from the 1960s, but we did a you know, a living rosary once a year. We had May Crowning events, you know, where that where everyone I knew took took part in, right? All the kids I knew, all the families I knew in town, we were all a part of it. And you know, we had a big annual parish festival that lasted three days and and you know, a ton of other stuff.

SPEAKER_05 32:14

Um but that but that's but like like you're saying, like that's coming from a European like a the remnants of a European culture, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 32:26

That kind of carrying over here. But what what made me sad is like that even there now that's gone.

SPEAKER_06 32:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 32:32

Like uh the the parish that I grew up in had to be combined with another parish, you know, in town and uh eventually shut down until it became a TLM oratory, and now it's in terms of number of people going to mass there, it's probably as busy as it was when I was a kid, but the community that was there is all it's it's it's people that drive in from all over the Minneapolis and St. Paul and like they don't do the festival anymore, they don't have all the events anymore. So like that that culture I grew up in is even where I lived is gone, and like I have I I don't have that to give to my own kids now, I can't find it anywhere anymore.

SPEAKER_05 33:14

I well, I the thing is you think to even that period you're you're talking about growing up, and it's like you would go to those events, your kids. If you're if you're a parent and you have children, you're meeting other parents with their children, and now your kid could meet their future spouse at one of these events, and that's how you kind of carry that culture on. The way things are done now, it's like people are meeting their spouse on Catholic match, or they're meeting, you know what I mean? Like it's such a weird way how people are even meeting each other. Our like our our my local parish does the first Sunday of the month, they do the get together down, you know, down in the parish basement, and and the and you know, they have stuff together, but it's not like the community center, right? It's not like it was 50, 60 uh years ago, even where I mean people are just so dislocated from one another from the online stuff that the way these culture, the way these cultural um traditions form is by having in-person meetings, right? Like you like you get together with each other and you start this small tradition, like, oh, every you know, I mean your your best bet for getting something like that would be if you're in a small country town and your parish really is like the center of the vibrant life of your community. But it's so, I mean, for me coming from New York, it's such an I'm I'm parish hopping. Like I'm not even at the same parish every Sunday. I'm going the first and third to the one that's closer to me, and then the you know, the the all the other ones I'm either going into the city for or I'm going to freaking Glen Cove for. Like, I don't have a like a focal point where my children have friends at the parish and things like that. It's just and and you add into that like the sex abuse crisis, nobody really wants their kids getting close to any of the priests anymore because we have this this distrust of the priests, even if men, like you just have this intuitive distrust of them, and it's like, how can we even form our own American tradition? Somebody was making jokes, they're like, Well, how do you add uh Costco Buckies?

SPEAKER_07 35:22

Like, like, what is what is real Americana that you and and I think that's the problem because like the culture and community I grew up in, it wasn't destroyed by Vatican II, it had survived Vatican II, right? Like it was this was in the late mid-late 90s and early 2000s, it had survived the worst of it, it was destroyed by by like corporate globalism that's you know destroyed every other aspect of local cultures these days. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_05 35:49

Like, so much of this was social engineering, right? Like, so much of it was breaking up the cities and pushing out to the suburbs, which if you look to 1950s suburban life versus 2026 suburban life, even that is drastically different, you know what I mean. Like, even even when we got pushed out to the suburbs, like when I was growing up as a kid, I knew all my neighbors, like it just all the kids, and especially because I grew up on a block with a lot of kids on it, so all the kids from the neighborhood played manhunt. I lived on a court too, so like all the kids on my block played manhunt together every summer, and we, you know, but half of them were Protestant. There wasn't like anything that like really united us other than we lived on the same block. It was it what it's just so different now. I don't know if you could, especially because the liturgy has changed so much, like there's nothing deeply forming the American soul in the Catholic, like in true Catholic sensibilities anymore. It's like the like the the new mass is just kind of like this Protestantized. I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_07 36:57

It's just yeah, but there's there's I don't know if we would have it have more of a Catholic culture right now in the country if we all had the TLM.

SPEAKER_06 37:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 37:18

It may be a little better, right? Um there'd probably be more the a greater number of people who stayed Catholic, but I think you still have all the other same forces at work.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

Yeah, yeah, there's so much going on during this like this whole period, the past 75 years that have kind of destroyed the fabric of Catholic identity completely. Is it's not just the council, it really isn't. It's all these other forces, it's the way media functions now, it's the social engineering breaking us up. It's like you don't have human connection the way we once did. It's um and and the way it is now, especially for those of us who do travel to go to a traditional mass, like you're not you don't live close to the people at that parish. No, you just don't. We're all driving from all these. So I it kind of goes to like E. Michael Jones's point about that, but there's no way around that because even if I was going to go to the Novus Ordo near me, I'm not going to go to my local Novus Ordo because it's so bad. So I'd still be traveling even to go to a semi-decent Novus Ordo.

SPEAKER_07 38:32

Like it they really destroyed this the whole idea of community with the even if everyone went to their local parish that was nearby them, and you were at mass every week with the same people that live near you, like like all the other aspects of a culture are gone. Like the like there is no more folk music, you know, that people share that people can dance to at community events, right? That that's been entirely destroyed. There's no there's hardly any more, even like regional cuisine, right? Like, yeah, Minnesota's got uh tater tot hot dish. Yeah, um, and people talk about Ludafisk, but no one's ever actually had it. Um, even when I think these other aspects of culture, they're just gone.

SPEAKER_05 39:18

Even when I came to Minnesota, like you took me to a Russian restaurant, you know. It's like it's like it's not like you're taking me to some local delicacy, you're taking me to uh which is totally fine too if you have a large Russian community living there, you know, yeah, and and they all have bond the bonds of of you know just community within that, within like there there's something to be said about how there used to be ghettos, used to have the Italian ghetto, the Irish ghetto, the you know, all of that, and then your kids would marry within that community, and but the way things are now, ever since the social engineering, it's like I I think about it with my kids, man, because me like my wife is half Italian and half German, so her her dad's Italian and then her mom's German, right?

SPEAKER_07 40:04

That's exactly where I took him. Yep. Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_05 40:08

Uh well wait, one other thing that was funny. Um, Ocean Ocean said something. Hang on. Uh let me find it.

SPEAKER_07 40:16

Uh oh, there is one culture that has folk music in cuisine.

SPEAKER_06 40:21

Wait.

SPEAKER_05 40:23

Well, wait, what did he say? Ocean made a joke about Catholic match sponsoring our show. I'm trying to find it.

SPEAKER_07 40:30

Because funny you guys should say that. Uh I might have mentioned it in a Guns N' Rosary show that he was up in.

SPEAKER_05 40:39

Yeah, so Catholic, Catholic, the guy that runs Catholic Match, Ocean made a joke. He's a Catholic match now sponsor in ABA. The guy who runs Catholic Match actually was like, he used to give us like six, seven hundred dollar super chats early on. And he wanted to sponsor our show, but he was afraid that we were too controversial. And he was right.

SPEAKER_07 41:01

I mean, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_05 41:03

He's like, he's like, I don't know. I could maybe I can maybe do like a pint to the quieters or something, but I don't think I could actually like sh I don't know if I could let you guys advertise for Catholic Band. But meanwhile, like our show would actually probably be a great place for him to advertise because the people watching our show take their fate seriously. So I mean, uh, whatever. Never mind. I was gonna say um, yeah, it

Building Traditions Without Performing Them

SPEAKER_05 41:25

it's uh it it goes to this. So, like, what are some ideas for ways you could start it? I mean, some people had some good ideas in that thread where um you could start pilgrimages, like small pilgrimages with your parish that aren't like these grand distances, you just walk from like maybe one parish to a um uh like if there's a uh what do you call them? Shrine, yeah, shrine. So you do you do like a like a five, six mile walk to a shrine with your parish community and just start doing it. And if you do it once a year, and then you do it by everyone. No, but maybe you don't start it from your parish, you know. Maybe you you find there's a shrine and you say, Okay, let's plot a walk that we do every year. I mean, if it's something in Manhattan, you could do it from one parish to another. If it depends where you are in the country, we have to get the men at your parish to organize it and say, hey, look, what if just once a year on the second Saturday of June or in May, right? Like for Our Lady, do something during May for the month of Our Lady, and just say on the second Sunday of May, we get together and we do a three-mile rosary walk together. And like you do that, and by year three or four, you start introducing little things to it. So it's not this performative thing, it's more organic, and then it kind of that's how you would kind of start building one of these traditions. But because we don't do that as Americans, I don't, you know, like we're we're kind of hoping for the like in New York, you have the San Janeiro Fest where it's the Italian immigrants that came over kind of kept that tradition and they still do march those statues through. And um, so um one of one of the priests I'm friends with Father McDonald, he's he's going to a parish with a heavy Spanish community because he speaks really fluent Spanish. But I was talking to him about it, and it's like those Spanish communities, man, they they kept a lot of their traditions from their home country and they bring them back, and they still do a lot of those beautiful things, you know. So, but we have to do some that are uniquely American for those converts that come in and they want to explore what is uniquely American.

SPEAKER_07 43:42

I don't know, it doesn't have to be at this point in time. Like, I think that's the problem.

SPEAKER_05 43:47

It would be bizarre if we wore the KKK hoods like the Spanish do, is what I'm saying, right? Like, not that they're you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_07 43:55

There may be some misunderstandings, right?

SPEAKER_05 43:58

So it would be bizarre if. If we tried to mimic what the Spanish do during Holy Week, but we could do something on our own with uh with more of an American flavor to it, it doesn't need to be a copy of the European format. I just don't know what we would do. Yeah, it could be like it can be Archbishop Fulton Sheen after his canonization, like make the procession in honor of Archbishop Fulton Sheen and do something unique to him, I guess, right? Because these these processions start as like devotions to saints, don't a lot of them, right?

SPEAKER_07 44:34

Yeah, so I just think that the the real the the heart of the problem is that in most of the country we in most of the country we've lost everything that is you unique, right? I think that's you know, when you say uniquely American, your average person couldn't describe something that is actually uniquely American, other than you know the worst things about America.

SPEAKER_05 45:03

Yeah, yeah. We have so like our like if you're gonna really describe American culture, it's like I mean, I guess cowboy culture is American and what fireworks on 4th of July. Like, like what is the America never had a real culture.

SPEAKER_07 45:17

That's because it means there were there were regional cultures, but those are gone now, too. Yeah, I mean, you know, one thing I think one I think you could say something like um the hillbilly tomus, right? The the those those Dominican monks that play bluegrass, like yeah, that I think is a a uniquely American expression of Catholicism, right there.

SPEAKER_05 45:44

Yeah, yeah, that's actually interesting. Yeah, it is. Yeah, maybe it's something like that. I don't know. I I it probably really does need to be regional and uniquely regional to each person's location, right? So I think it needs to start at the parish level. I think I think that's really the only way to do it. You have to start it at your parish level. You got like us young, younger. I mean, I'm not young anymore, but you know, like the younger guys that have young families, young children, you rob, and all the guys like if you the problem is you're in the middle of nowhere too. You're traveling so far for mass too. But if you live in a smaller town and you see the same people at mass every Sunday, like the guys got to get together and just go, dude, let's do something. Like, let's do something, let's let's get something on the calendar and just set it and let's start our own little thing and see if that turns into something. It doesn't have to be weekly because it's hard to do things weekly. People are busy, people have a lot going on, but yearly or seasonally, something like that.

SPEAKER_07 46:42

You so Bobby says America avoiding Babylon National Park meetups. One thing like my parish did growing up is we would do an annual youth trip um to the boundary waters, yeah. You know, here, which is something a lot of people do in Minnesota, but we did it as a church youth group, and you know, the you'd have uh men's group and when women's group, and the priest would be with the men's group, but you'd meet up in the morning from different campsites every day for the for the priest that was with you to give to do an outdoor mass, you know, in in the the middle of the boundary waters. John Paul's the second style on top of a canoe. Uh yeah, actually, yeah, basically like that's how they often were, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:25

That was, I mean, honestly, that was actually kind of cool seeing those, you know, those pictures of John Paul II taking taking the young students out up into the mountains and doing stuff like that. Um yeah, it's I don't know. We have to do something though. And this kind of goes to um my Odyssey review a little bit too, because what I don't know, this is gonna be kind of a hard segue. You're trying, aren't you? I'm trying to segue it, but uh, I don't know. I don't know. Do we do we have any final points about the the culture thing? Like, because I I yeah, the the Odyssey thing was interesting to me, but it kind of does relate just because of the council

The Odyssey As A Church Allegory

SPEAKER_05 48:10

and what we're talking about, them robbing us of these opportunities. Because when when I watched the odd the Odyssey, a couple things first off, it was very jarring to see Elliot Page. Like you can't the casting thing is a debacle. I'm sorry, it is. It's just the the the the black girl is Helen of Troy, takes you totally out of it. Uh Elliot Page takes you totally out of it. John Barenthal, um, he was in The Walking Dead. He plays like the you remember you remember John Berenthal.

SPEAKER_07 48:40

He was in uh Fury, right? With uh Brad Pitt, too.

SPEAKER_05 48:45

He basically plays the same guy from Fury that he plays in this. Like he just plays the same guy in everything, everything, right? So he's just John Barenthal, and he's just like that tough guy, Jewish guy pretending he's a tough rapper.

SPEAKER_07 48:56

Like that's John Barenthal, you know. Uh well, the other um John, how do you pronounce the name?

SPEAKER_05 49:06

Like Guizamo? He was he was okay, he was okay. Yeah, I just can't stand him. I did like Matt Damon in it. What I okay, what I didn't like was um Matt Damon's character, Odysseus, did not long to go home. I uh guys, if you're gonna yeah, I I don't I don't I did I say she? I did not you said Elliot Page. Yeah, I thought I don't if I gave the wrong pronouns, it wasn't intentional. Like it's a it's a girl, it's a she. I mean, I don't I get confused because he's it's meant to confuse you. It is Ellen Page, Elliot Page. I don't know. You guys know I don't buy into the ridiculous nonsense, whatever the hell it's Juno.

SPEAKER_07 49:44

I just call her Juno. That's all I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_05 49:46

Yeah, it's jarring to see a girl playing a guy, and it just took took took you out of it. John Baron thought it was terrible. What I didn't like about Odysseus's character is that like he's not really longing to go home. Like, like I loved the Greek myths growing up, and especially the Odyssey. And it's like he he he he he was kind of like avoiding going home, right? But the things I loved about the movie was the ending first off, the ending is phenomenal. Okay, so but the way the way I saw it is Penelope's his faithful wife at home. He's off uh he goes off to the Trojan War.

SPEAKER_07 50:29

He's gone guy, he's he's about to spoil a 3,000-year-old story.

SPEAKER_05 50:33

3,000-year-old story. I don't know what to tell you guys. Like he's off in the Trojan War for 10 years, and then it takes him another 10 years to get home. Okay. His wife is the Penelope is his faithful wife, and she's surrounded by these suitors who are all looking to basically pillage Odysseus's home. Okay. And they're not just looking to like be suitors so they can marry her, they're looking to take everything from Odysseus, right? Like, and they're gonna take her, like, and she knows it, right? So she's trying to fend them off. And I just I couldn't help but see it as Penelope is the bride of Christ, and all the hierarchy is the suitors trying to just defile the bride and take the church. And Odysseus, who's Odysseus? Odysseus is the return of the king, dude. And when he comes back, he puts his house in order, like, totally just puts it back in order, and there is hell to pay for all of these suitors who are trying to defile the bride. And it's like, this is the end of the story we're all waiting for. But it's not just the church, it's also our country that they've allowed all these invaders and these suitors to come in that are trying to defile our country, and it's like look, the the main point of the story is Odysseus is dealing with all this trauma for what he did in the war, and it's like the the one thing that's such a modern thing. It is, but I mean, you called it shell shock when the guys came back from World War One. Like, there is something to seeing track like atrocities that messes you up, right? Like they called it shell shock when the guys came back from World War One, they called it shell shock.

SPEAKER_07 52:28

We have a world war world war one is like you can't compare World War One to ancient combat, like it is so inhuman on a whole other thing.

SPEAKER_05 52:38

So he's not just dealing with what happened in Troy, he is dealing with what happened in Troy, he's also dealing with what happens to his men on the journey back, and he's dealing with a lot of stuff, right? But and I gotta man, I I I gotta like Peugeot kind of explained this that it's like what it is is even when you look at the post-war consensus, it's like we did some bad things during World War II, but that doesn't mean you let the suitors come in and just destroy your country because of this guilt, right? You you still do need someone to come in and put the house back in order, and like that's kind of the moment we're waiting, we're all waiting on it.

SPEAKER_07 53:17

I would say our problem is we have no guilt over World War II and what we did in it. Sorry, yeah, no, because as America, anyways. Obviously, Germany is a different story, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:36

No, but the West in general, the even if it's this false guilt from the narrative that came from it, right? Like it's the reason we opened our borders, yeah, right? It's like, oh, well, you know, we can't let another white nationalist society, like a German society, have pride in itself again. So like we opened up our borders and let all these savages come in through the borders, right? And has to do with this guilt. And like the the purpose of the story is that, like, yes, okay, you can you can have this guilt from this thing that we did, but it doesn't mean you can't have the house put back in order, and we need the house put back in order, and somebody needs to come in and put the damn house back in order and slaughter our enemies and make people pay for the crap they've done to our country over the past. You know what I mean? So, like that, if you see the story in light of that, it actually is a really good story. It's just it's dressed up in all this modern nonsense with the casting and the you know, like all that stuff, but like the ending, man, is just like we're in this, we're in the church right now with with these suitors who are looking to rape the bride of Christ and they're trying to destroy the church. Like you're why I mean, I have three different tweets from bishops that I was going to highlight tonight. One talking about how we have to freaking basically worship Muslims, uh, another one talking about how the Latin masses, like people who are attached to the Latin mass, are dependent upon it, and they and it's basically spiritual milk, and one day they'll have faith enough to come into the new Mass. And it's like these are the freaking suitors trying to destroy the church right now, and all we're waiting for is the return of the king to put the freaking house back in order, and it's it's going to happen, it's just how long, Lord, like how long must we go on with this? But it there's something to also even Rob, do you have the clip of the priest I sent uh talking during Vatican II?

The Spirit Behind Vatican II Upheaval

SPEAKER_05 55:35

I sent it to the telegram and it was positive.

SPEAKER_07 55:37

Oh, the one posted by the Chris guy. Um if you didn't verify it, I wouldn't trust it.

SPEAKER_05 55:44

Yeah, no, no, no. Uh just just play it. It's just a priest during Vatican II talking. It's like an interview. Yeah, it's from that guy. It's from a sede, but whatever.

SPEAKER_07 55:55

Yeah, but he also tweets stuff that's just not true.

SPEAKER_05 55:58

Uh it's just a video clip. I mean, even even if the uh like it it makes the point that we're gonna we're gonna go with. You didn't it's worth it's worth playing because it kind of goes to this idea of a spirit that kind of came over these people. Like, this is even us in our country, like we all see how crazy it is to keep the borders open and let all these people come in, but it's almost like we're possessed by an outside force that it just won't allow us to stop this thing that we know is going to destroy us. It kind of gets to like this whole idea of spirits and like even Benedict, when he talked about the spirit of Vatican II, like there was a spirit of Vatican II, it was Judas's spirit that kind of overtook these men. Now, this is just a video, like an interview clip or like a you know, whatever. Play it real quick, let's say.

SPEAKER_09 56:52

The priesthood, hoping that the celibacy requirement will be changed, but many are deciding they won't stay under any condition. One priest allowed PBL to film his last mass.

SPEAKER_10 57:04

I am Father Bob Brusseau. I have been a priest of the diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa for the past 13 years. Approximately six months ago, my bishop gave me permission for a leave of absence. During this period, also I have been employed by the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. As of today, I plan to discontinue all of my priestly functions.

SPEAKER_05 57:31

Listen to what this guy says.

SPEAKER_10 57:33

When I was ordained, this was the center of my life because I felt like this was the center of our religion, that everything was oriented toward the mask. Certainly, I don't believe any such thing now. I think the real monster is the organization of the institution itself. And I think because everything must be passed down through the uh the authoritarian structure, that it's an encroachment upon human freedom. To me, the important thing is to break that structure. Then I think after we break the structure, we ought to go on to the evaluation of individual beliefs, like the mass. I think it's important that people communicate with each other, but I don't think they need a church or a public religious act as an excuse to communicate. You know, in any community, it's very convenient for people to go to church. You want to be said to be a church goal. Your friends see you there. It's a time to dress up, it's a place to be seen, and it becomes a very social act, which in itself isn't bad, but it's associated with a kind of class distinction. And I always felt like the purpose of Christianity and religion is to get down to the nitty-gritty work of bringing equality and justice and fairness and love to everybody.

SPEAKER_05 58:51

Like these these men were possessed by a spirit, this revolution that was happening. Like we I think we have a hard time, like we look back upon it and we don't understand what was in the air during the 60s, man. Like it was just this spirit that overtook them, and even the spirit of Vatican II, like, there is a spirit of Vatican II. It's just a dark, dark spirit that pushed these men that doesn't even sound like Catholic modernism, though.

SPEAKER_07 59:25

That just sounds like evangelical from that guy.

SPEAKER_05 59:27

Sounds like a Protestant, right? But he's it's just that that spirit did think. Do you think about look? I'm sure a lot of people left left the priesthood and left the convents because they were devastated at the changes, but there were way more that left because they thought like him, because they got caught up in this revolution, and they they saw the church as oppressive. Like you think about how much enthusiasm these people went out of the count.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:01

Like there was they were then that guy would have left anyways. Don't you think? If if his problem was with the oppressiveness of the church, remained in 55 and was a priest for 10 years before the end of the council, he probably would have left anyways.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:18

He might have. I think I still I think a lot of people still would have left, is my point, even if the changes never happened at the council, is kind of my point. Like the the revolution in the air at that time. I think I you would have still had tons of people leaving just from the propaganda they were receiving from outside of the church. Like, I think so many people correlate it's like, oh, the changes happen and then everybody left. No, it's like this was a spirit that overtook all of society, man. Like, to the point where at the council they fell for this spirit that was just pressing in upon them. And the same thing is still happening to us today, not just in the church, but outside the church. Like you're seeing, I know like conservatives and Republicans are like, well, build a wall and we're against this, but it's like this this cultural suicide that we're embarking upon that we know is going to destroy us, but for some reason we can't stop it. Like we just can't stop it. You got it, doesn't matter who you vote for, who you put in. It's the and it's easy to just blame it on the elder brother, but no, man, there's like there is a spirit that especially when you look at liberals and leftists and stuff like that. Like these people are overtaken by a spirit that they've just given themselves over to. It's not even something that's coming out from them, it's something being pressed upon them, and they're just going with it.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:40

It's like I mean, it's it's like watching the popes try to stop what it's like watching the 19th century popes try to stop what was coming and not be able to, right? And it's like it's like that the them and and people now I think people don't realize and probably don't want to realize the level of violence that is actually going to be necessary to stop this stuff, dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:14

And I'm telling you, the Odyssey makes that point. Like Rob, the Odyssey makes that point. Like what it what what Odysseus has to do to put things in order, he gets exiled for. Because the retribution is so intense, and it needs to be, and that's kind of the point. Like, that's that that's what like I I didn't hate the Odyssey, man. Like everybody's being, oh, this movie, it's uh it's a it's woke, it's this, is that like I'll be honest, the the the couple of like the casting decisions, they take you out of it very it's a very small thing that they take you out of. If you overlook that and you just like take yourself out of the five seconds that Elliot Page is in the movie or whatever, and you actually look at the story, like it's a it's it's a good story for us to hear right now because it kind of prepares people for what the hell needs to be done to fix the situation, which is complete violent retribution.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:17

Yeah, and like I'm I'm not saying obviously like it would be moral to to to start uh violence, you know. But I think it's just it's just I think if we put if we if if we put our foot down the way you know as strongly as it needs to be, the violence will begin, you know, in in response to that. I think LD. They will, yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:44

They're going to start the violence if we just like you said, put your foot down. But the the the point of the return of the king is also like I saw it as like the return of a good pope or even the return of the king of kings, like the like it's the it's the apocalypse, it's the just judge coming

Christian Morality, Borders, And Boundaries

SPEAKER_05 1:04:00

back and separating the wheat from the chap.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:02

Like it is it is a very Christian story, it's kind of weird because and the the history involved is it is an apocalypse in a sense, too. This was the end of the the Minoan um and Mycenaean civilizations, basically.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:17

So that was the other point I was kind of wanted to make is that you could like Nolan is telling an apocalypse story, okay? And he sees it, it's it's almost like Nolan can intuit we're coming to the end of a story in our own civilization, and the kind of wrapping up the point of the movie is him saying, Let's not forget the things that made this culture good, so that whatever comes next, we did we bring those things on. It's kind of weird because the whole point of the movie is like this Christian principle of love your neighbor and treat others as you want to be treated, which is like nowhere near an ancient Greek principle at all. You know, it's like love your neighbor and treat others the way you would. It's like the golden rule is the point of the movie. And it's like the golden rule, the reason it was so revolutionary is because Christ said it and it was never heard before. Like, you know, and it's like love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Like, we're so desensitized to how radical that is. We just it we just we're we're bathing in Christian waters, and we're so desensitized to how radical that message really is. It is a radical message that you're Christ comes into a world where an eye for an eye is seen as like that's not even really seen as just more like somebody takes your eye, you want to do 10 times worse to them. So eye for an eye were seen as kind of like moderating it. And Christ comes in and he's like, no, not eye for an eye, turn your other cheek. Like that's like, wait, what?

SPEAKER_07 1:05:49

Well, I I think we're so desensitized to it that we don't we don't, we really don't understand it. We think, you know, love your you love your net neighbors and and treat them as you'd like to be treated. means we get to give them everything, right? We yeah. Whereas if you truly love them and treat them the way you want to be treat them. You set boundaries, right? And you recognize that what would truly be good for them would be to actually help them in in their in their own country.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:19

Their home treat others as you want to be treated doesn't like I want to I want to be treated good in my country. So I'll treat you good in your country. Like that doesn't mean I don't I don't want to be mistreated here. But I'm just saying like the movie itself is very it very Christian principles, you know, and I think what Nolan is trying to say is we're coming to the end of the world. Let's not forget the things that actually made our civilization great and forget those lessons you know like like and and then and there's a point to that something's coming next something's coming next and we and we've talked about this before too where the the getting to the culture thing right we see the remnants of European culture like Catholic culture right you see it and you're like man it was so great in the middle ages like what comes next will not be that it's going to be something different but that doesn't mean there won't be remnants from that that we bring forward just like how the how how the the European middle medieval states brought aspects of Romanitas into into medieval europe and and could say you know potentially even improved on the on the good things. So like the idea of Rome never ceased even after the Roman Empire collapsed right and what came after Rome wasn't the Roman Empire but it kept so many of the good parts of Rome the system of governance and law and things like that that it brought over right what comes next is not going to look like what we see now. I hope not there are elements of what there are elements of what we see now that are good that we need to bring into the next the next phase of whatever happens uh it does know there are many odys I'm sure he knows that yeah no but I mean this one was so relevant because it was in the theaters and the and the other thing is my my daughter still loves to go to the movies with me and while she still loves to go to the movies with me I'm taking her to the movies because that's going away soon because it's like you want as your kids start to get older you just want to hold on to any of that special one-on-one time you get to spend with them it's like my daughter likes to go to the movies with me we make a thing of it we go to the supermarket beforehand we buy a bunch of candy and we go together and then we talk about the movie afterward and it's like I'm not going to deprive me or her of that experience ever.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:58

Yeah Mina

Parenting Rituals And Holding On

SPEAKER_07 1:09:00

and I went to uh the live action Moana remake last week just her and me well in bash I took bash too and uh I get a big popcorn and a Dr. Pepper thinking we could share it. I got two sips of the Dr.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:14

Pepper and I bought a handful of popcorn and the three year old ate and drank everything else at one point I I reach over to get popcorn and it's gone and she's got the empty popcorn bucket on her head while she's watching the movie you said the sheep detective movie was good right the sheep detective movie was pretty good actually like unironically right like it was actually a decent movie yeah it really was actually yeah pretty good movie yeah um yeah like uh well that that can lead us into locals because I want to man I we're doing a Deloney clip over there we're doing a Deloney clip well because we got a comment and not even on Deloney I don't even care about him uh it's more about women being awful to their daughters in law um I want to talk about women women being mean to their daughters in law um just because I see a lot of it all over the place like I just see I just see families being like like like women especially if it's an only son will lose their minds when their sons get married because they feel like they're losing their son to this to this woman they married and I don't know I just got some comments and this this mother's scenario where her her son is married and he didn't bring the kids by for Halloween and I'm just like you awful woman you are going to lose your son and your grandchildren so we're gonna do Delaney over there we got some other stuff too though I'll uh I'll tell my supernatural story over there too if you guys want it again supernatural story and then I uh man I should do this before we go um while we're while we're talking about the church and stuff because I like I see I saw a clip of uh Fuentes talking about how nobody cares about politics anymore and it's because Trump destroyed the prestige of the presidency

Francis, Trump, And Lost Prestige

SPEAKER_05 1:11:15

in the same way that Francis destroyed the prestige of the papacy. And I I kind of should have talked about this when we did the Leo thing because the Leo's clip today that we talked about was kind of just like a a good thing a Pope said. Yeah and it's like because we did 13 years of Francis and he did so much damage to the prestige of the papacy like we look upon the papacy with such suspicion now because of it. And it's like every little thing that that comes out we have to we think we have to nitpick and find the find the little mistake he made and it's like man I'm really angry with Trump and Francis for that like the two of them just just kind of wrecked the prestige of those offices for us where I don't give a crap who's running for the next election and I'm jaded when it comes to even Pope Leo and it's you know it's kind of sucks but this situation we're in so that was the point I wanted to make about that but um yeah all right so we're gonna go over to locals

Locals Pitch And Prayer Request

SPEAKER_05 1:12:10

uh if you guys are not locals members if you enjoy this show how are you not we've kept it at five dollars a month for you guys there's no other show that keeps it at five dollars a month and Anthony's been talking guys dropping it threatening it $799 he says I'm threatening it I have I haven't pulled the plug yet I haven't pulled the trigger yet but come on man keeping it at five bucks a month like you guys think about how much you waste five bucks on like to come and sit and hang with us for the rest of the show think how much inflation has gone up since 2022 guys and that's how long we've had it at five bucks and we're keeping it there for now so get over there. Come on five dollars a month and you get to hear the rest of the conversation yeah I agree Molly 100% locals live views should match the YouTube views like we it's just a continuation of this except we get a little more personal and we uh we give you guys gossip that we we won't say over here we'll we'll talk a little trash about and you can you get to join the telegram group and speaking of which we have a uh there's somebody in our telegram chat today that has been going through some suicidal ideations so if you guys can say a prayer for uh what's his name uh Wesley Wesley say a prayer for Wesley he also found out his dad just died today so say a prayer for his dad and become well he's going through it he's in the he's in the thick of it so yeah if you guys want to join our locals if you want to come hang for the rest of the show we're going over to locals now so um we'll see you guys on the inside you gotta you gotta show those on the thick uh yeah it's not another five dollars to join the locals Rob will give you guys the link if you're in locals you get the telegram link it's not another five dollars to join telegram somebody say it's I mean unless you want to Rob will put the uh telegram link in for you guys how long how long are we gonna be on locals because that's gonna because whether or not I go to the bathroom depends on how long we're gonna be on air um if you want to uh you know what maybe I can do it maybe I can well no because then you'll miss the conversation about the Loney go take a leak I can handle it okay you figure out something to say for the next yeah I I I got plenty to talk about let me say um oh I hate being on screen I don't mind being on screen alone with you guys but uh come on give me some topics to talk about guys um it's crazy when somebody's not on screen I just lose all train of thought um hang on I got something for you guys hang on let me see oh here's what we could talk about uh the uh either the bishop's message or this let's do this uh let's do this priests thing on traditionis basically so this is message from

Latin Mass Dependence Argument

SPEAKER_05 1:15:50

uh father Paul Fliss uh talking about the society stuff he says more recently in church news Pope Leo recognized the excommunications of members of the Society of St. Pius X within the church a bishop is chosen by the Pope and can only be ordained so he goes through the whole society thing then he says uh this is not the same group that has permission to celebrate mass in Latin according to the 62 Roman Missal within the Diocese of Milwaukee they are in union with the church though the ritual they use does not share equal status and dignity of the Mass of Paul the Sixth which which we celebrate in English every time we celebrate Mass. That is a crazy statement having the opportunity to celebrate this Latin mass is an accommodation meaning it is allowed for those who have not grown deep enough in faith to accept the mass approved by the Second Vatican Council. The hope of that can you believe he said that that he says the the mass according to the 1962 ritual does not share the same uh status and dignity of the mass of Paul the sixth that is ruthless to say funny how when you say that about the novus ordo you have a ton of people come for you and say that that's blasphemous but apparently you can say that about the TLM the hope is the grace of God will help those participants to move past dependence on the old Latin mass and come into communion with the rest of the church and celebrating mass in the vernacular you you Latin massers and your dependence on the spiritual milk we want to give you spiritual whole food in the new mass these sickos man holy cow I just can't these are the suitors looking to rape the bride of Christ that's what I'm telling you guys these men are are are the ones looking to destroy Penelope and and plunder the church's goods like this is Odysseus's home that they are looking to plunder. I don't know I couldn't help but see it that way man it was just the whole movie I just kept looking at it like that I'm just like these look at these these ravenous vipers in in the in the in the bosom of the church looking to plunder the spoils of Christendom just animals um yeah well they did say that ocean what if somebody said I want to wean you off dependence on the rosary they did do that um all right let's do the Deloney clip though because man his advice sucks his his advice always sucks I'm surprised he didn't encourage somebody to get divorced in this clip but he didn't he just caters to the woman no matter what it's so nuts what what Deloney clip I didn't send it I thought I sent it it was my tweet wasn't it um if not I'll send it I can I mean I can find it on your Twitter I'm sure let me see sorry guys okay I got it here phone on your Twitter yeah just play the video another selfish woman another selfish woman that's it oh I hate his face um I was calling about our relationship with our son and his wife um my question was how can we best communicate with our son and his wife that we feel hurt left out by them always choosing her son of a family over

In-Laws, Holidays, And Peacekeeping

SPEAKER_05 1:19:55

us.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:55

We miss out on seeing our granddaughter especially during the holidays because they spend more time with our daughter in law family and the multiple branches of her extended family um I think that our son feels cool both ways I would never ask him to choose us over his wife but I feel like they don't divide the holidays equally or fairly between our families how's that conversation gone in the past um well it's been only with our son generally because he doesn't like confrontation um oh boy this just sounds gross let me ask you this yeah has your husband taken your son out for coffee or a drink or whatever however they communicate and they may not communicate at all but say hey ma'am I miss you miss my granddaughter is there something I've done is there something that we're doing to make people feel uncomfortable because I miss you guys yeah there's been conversations both me and him have had conversations with him okay um we do get to see them some it just seems like the holidays are um a little one-sided you know we do we do they live close so it's not like we don't see them at all we do um she has divorced parents and divorced grandparents as well as a robust stepfamily through her stepmom and so there is a lot going on with her you know especially during the holidays um but just this past Halloween we got kind of left out in the cold and it really is feeling Halloween yeah right like Halloween is for the children you psychopath not for you this woman the guy married a woman who has divorced parents so they already got to whack up the time with her side of the family and I can tell you right now what happens to this guy.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:54

They because she says in the clip eventually she goes you know they do come and see us on the holidays they come but I feel like we only get a half hour or an hour and they spend more time with the and it's like this poor guy's got to go and deal with his wife to go see the the the divorced dad the divorced mom and he still sets off time to go see his own mom for an hour.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:17

And instead of this woman being grateful that they dude I'm telling you like me and my wife did this early on in our marriage where we would on Christmas we'd have to go to my parents then her parents then on Christmas eve we'd have to go to her parents and my parents then on Easter we'd have to do my parents and her parents and we got to a point where we just said listen Easter this year we're with Nicole's family Easter next year we're with my mom's family. Christmas Eve we're with you guys Christmas day we're with them. I can't do the jumping around on the holiday thing seeing multiple people anymore. It's too freaking stressful it's like the day I dread the most is actually Father's day because Father's Day you have to see both fathers on Father's day. And it's like we do brunch with my family and then we go out to her family and it's like I'm at brunch with my family and you know you you you eat and the whole time you're looking at your watch going oh my gosh I still got to go to her family's house and I have the doom and gloom of Monday hanging over my head the whole time because I know I have work the next day. It is a nightmare for me. So the fact that this woman instead and I'll tell you what she's doing is he comes spends the hour and then he's like we still got to go see another family. And instead of her just being grateful and saying thank you for slipping us in she's giving him a hard time and she's acting bitter. And what that does is it makes seeing your family a chore and it's where you will find any excuse not to do it. You don't even want to see them at that point. And it's like for because look we're all going to deal with this my kids are going to get married and they're gonna have kids like first off generally I'm not saying this is always the case but generally mothers stay closer to their daughters than sons do to their mothers right so my my wife talks to her mother every day on the phone. My wife like we see her side a little bit more than my side just because my wife is it's her mom. Like I'm a man I go to work I call my mom on the phone once a week I'll stop by on occasion on my way home from work but like my mom doesn't put any pressure on me if I can't make it to something which makes me want to go and see her. And if I don't see my mom for a period I'm like oh I miss my mom I want to go and see her. But it's because she's not like you didn't do the right thing and you didn't spend you spent this much time with her family and not this much time with us. And it's like like I don't know why women do this to their sons it makes their lives hard. Like you're just making your son's life hard nothing yeah I'm very lucky my mom lives four blocks away and sees us all enough during the week that on most holidays she's like if you want to come over for a while that's fine otherwise no big deal family lives down in Florida so we have very that's why I said generally right because it's obviously there's exceptions to the rule but there's there's this thing where like I I mean it's something I'll never get because I just don't I don't deal with it. But I did early on in my marriage like early on in my marriage I uh I I my mother-in-law was very um nosy and like constantly like Tom made comments early on in my marriage and there was constant comparisons to the other ones and things like that. And it used to really drive me nuts and I used to like not want to accept help from them because I didn't want them to think I needed their help. Like I really I went through that in the first few years of my marriage and it took me viewing the whole thing differently and instead of viewing it like a chore like I just genuinely let them know I loved seeing them and it kind of flipped the whole thing. Like I have a really really good relationship with my in-laws now where they freaking love hanging out with us. Like they just you know they're they just do. So it's like I could I can't I can't really relate to people who hate their in-laws because I love my in-laws my wife my mom views my wife as her daughter you know it's not so I I don't really get it but I I guess early on in my marriage there was a little bit of tension there so I could kind of understand it. But for those of you who have kids or who have in-laws like handle those relationships you you have more ability to like make that relationship smooth than you might realize because we let people get under our skins very easily and it's like there's ways to handle it that it doesn't always have to be that I I know some people have in-laws that are really just a nightmare like we've talked about this like the the no contact thing like some some people you they're just so freaking toxic you have to cut them out of your life like it it it just is that way sometimes um like I know I do know of one couple where the mother-in-law just butt into their marriage so much like just incessantly butted into their marriage that like they just had to say like enough they had to put their foot down and just say like we just can't do like you're causing friction like if if if you have a mother in law who's causing friction in your own marriage you need to put boundaries down like it just is like your your wife comes before anything so if you have a family member that's causing you and your spouse to fight you need to do something about that right yeah there's been times where my mom's been not super bad but like I would have had a set boundaries and yeah you know like just our history together like with my mom like in in the stuff like with with my dad growing up like her and I we were always really close I've had to adjust right in order to to make sure hope is being put at you know first and and stuff like that so yeah your mom's your mom um your your your handling of your family situation is like inspirational to me like because I know I know it gets tough at times but just like even seeing how like when we first started the show how differently you are now even compared to then like I think you've how so um I think you had less patience a few years back like I see I I I'm serious like I've seen even conversations me and you have had behind behind the scenes and stuff like I see I I've seen you grow in patience with a lot of the relationships in your life and me too though I think this show helped me with it I think talking about it yeah about the stuff with each other and stuff has helped for sure and just I think that for me like doing this show especially talking about all the patriarchy stuff like kind of made me reenvision my role in my family as like kind of the glue that's keeping everything together. So like where I might have added fuel to the fire in previous scenarios where things were going on now I try to quell it and now like I don't I don't step in the middle of those things anymore because I want to keep the family together. And I mean dude I like I was the center of a lot of fights in my family through the years. No I don't do I don't believe doing this show has kind of transformed my role and how I see my role in my family you know so like part of part of us talking about this stuff is like trying to give you guys that insight into your own relationships because it's especially for the men like you you really have to view yourself like your role as a patriarch is look and like I said there are always going to be situations where you just you have to draw a boundary and put your foot down but any any chance you get to be the Christ figure and keep peace in a in a place where it should be like that's kind of our role and our role is to keep the family together if possible especially with your own kids like we should learn from the mistakes of our parents and one one thing I really learned from watching my in-laws is like never compare your kids never say things like well your brother did this like that that has an effect on a kid it really has like a deep effect like and your kid thinks you love the other kid more and things like that. Like you have to be super careful not to do that stuff because it it really does put this competition between the siblings and then you wind up siding with one over the other and it it gets it gets very very complicated and it really isn't good for the kids. Someone says the dynamic between Rob and aunt has been making me emotional this past couple weeks both of you seem more peaceful and your flow has been awesome I'll always be praying for you all who said that um Adam Atum BB 805 I said uh thank you but you need to say no homo after stuff like that now look I mean we've even talked about like like even even friendships are hard to freaking keep together right like they're just hard they're hard man look I'm I'm I'm I'm very stretched right now um especially because a lot of the relationships we've made through the show and it's like a lot of time like over the weekends my phone goes off a lot and it's like I I've I feel bad not responding to a lot of things but I had to say like my weekends are for my family and it's like I used to always give attention to everybody like if I could if somebody texted me I'd always respond and I had to start saying like I can't I just can't like I can't I can't allow people to just always have my attention when my

Time, Aging, And Memento Mori

SPEAKER_05 1:32:15

family's around like my family has to be my main focal point. It's different when we're doing the show or during the week if I'm at work and I have a minute or I could you know that I can I can tend to those relationships during those times but like my kids are getting old like mom we're we're doing my daughter's sweet 16 on Saturday and I'm like holy crap my daughter's freaking 16 years old like I'm going to like stop she was 12 when we started this dude that's nuts. She's a baby still right like she's like she was a baby actually yeah like she was a she was still like my little Stelly you know like and I just that's why this weekend when she was like dad you want to go to the movies I just stopped what I was doing I was like let's go and uh it's like the the time goes so freaking fast man I was talking to Gordon about this I was like when you hit 40 it's kind of funny because you still feel young like you really do still feel like I still feel young I'm still able to do everything I did in my 30s but when you hit 40 you start looking at people in their 50s and 60s going all right he's in he's in good shape all right 10 more years I'll still I'll still I'll still be in good shape and then you look at other people and you're just like oh shit man that's look like at 10 years like oh my gosh but it's it really is like if you look at my dad versus my father in law they're only like four years apart my father in law looks 15 years younger than my dad just my dad smoked and he just and it's like when you hit 40 that's all you start thinking of also time your dad raised you and yourself that aged them he raised nine kids he did construction right like he dealt with that traffic coming home every single day it's just a it's a they live very different lifestyles but it's stress levels it's there's a lot of things that come into it but the the point is when you hit 40 you start viewing time differently and you start like Memento Mori really comes into play. You start like going man all right all right then how many years I got left like when you're when you're in your 20s and 30s you just still you think you're gonna be young forever and then once you hit 40 it just time just feels different. And then you start seeing things through decades and you're like okay I'm 44 now and it's like I'm looking forward to this trip that's coming up it's like but that's six months of the year that's throwing out like I don't want to I don't want to miss six months and like live in the present moment because that's six freaking months and I'm gonna be 45 in March and I'm not trying to rush being 45 man it's like it's just wild how fast dude you think about how fast it's been since we started this show like it feels like just yesterday we like does reaching out on Twitter it's like hey you want to do a podcast like the other day I I realized it's been uh four years since we hung out in person with Jason and Mark that's not we have not seen them in person in four years. Steubenville that's nuts Steubenville dude we went to Steubenville to meet up Matt Frad Matt Frad is like he's in Tennessee now he's moved three times since then he went to Florida he went to Austria and now he's in Tennessee he works for the freaking Daily Wire now like you think about how man time man it's just wild how fast time goes yeah look at the comparison ocean just put up how different we look I'll just generally look younger if I shave though like if I shave I I will generally just look younger but like we I saw I saw videos of like us doing trivia and I have like a very dark beard I'm just like holy cow I went gray in the past couple of years uh 20 to 25 left for me I guess 25 at the very outside hard to tell these yeah when you're in your 20s you're you just think you're gonna be young forever and you're not like 30 comes so fast. 30 was the hardest birthday for me by far the hardest birthday for me. I like harder than 40. 30 because like going from my 20s into my 30s just felt like whoa I'm not young anymore.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:26

And then my 30s I was still very immature in my 30s really guys really I I the only thing I remember um that made my 30th hard was I had three beers and I woke up with a headache the next day and I was like are you serious?

SPEAKER_05 1:36:48

Let me tell you something okay drinking after you hit 40 is so different. Like I when we started the show I was 38 38 or 39 right like 2020 I was born in 82 we started I started the show 2021 was I 39 you started in November of 2021 I came March of 2022 um yeah it was 39 so 39 when we started the show like I could sit and have a beer on the show and it was like nothing the next day like I go into work and I'd be fine like if I have two beers on a weekday I actually thank God I have to wake up at 4 a.m every day because I don't drink during the week ever because if if I had a job where I could wake up at like seven I would drink every night I'd have a couple of beers at the end of the day. But because I have to get up at 350 in the morning um like I don't want to feel like crap at work the next day and it's not it's not a hangover. It's it's not if I have two beers I won't be hung over it I'll just be low like I'll I'll kind of not have the same kind of like uh energy like I'll just be kind of like like uh um sloth sloth whatever you call it like I'll just I'll just have that like kind of you guys yeah kind of so I so I won't drink so what's funny is like uh Friday uh Friday night will come and it's like okay I'll have a cocktail Saturday I'll have a cocktail Sunday I'm like I'm not drinking on Sundays because I don't want to feel like crap on Mondays I still feel like crap on Monday and it takes till Tuesday till I feel better. So like Tuesday I start to feel better from drinking on Friday and Saturday and then Wednesday I finally feel good and then I start the whole cycle over on Friday again like drinking just hits different when you're in your 40s man. Yeah sluggish. Yeah sluggish and like it it's it definitely affects your sleep quality for sure like I don't you don't get a deep sleep if you have a couple of drinks like you're kind of antsy all night and you don't sleep well. So yeah just you just kind of generally feel like lethargic the next day um yeah I'm sorry guys you guys are all watching me get old before your eyes and some of you guys are in your 30s and 20s but you don't feel like I said you don't I don't feel old like I still feel like I can still hang with young guys and stuff and like I don't feel like the old guy yet but I'm the old guy now just waiting for Bobby's uh bachelor party yeah but even um like next week all right so next week I'm going away my uncle all right so this whole trip that I'm going on you haven't told me what what you're even doing so all right so so when I went to I I was hanging out with my uncle like two weeks ago and we were on fire island hanging out

Block Island Plans And Guest Ideas

SPEAKER_05 1:39:55

we stayed on the boat that night and he's like oh yeah we're going to we're going to block island um in in all in August the first week of August I was like oh yeah we've never been there he goes you want to go I'm like yeah I guess I'm like I you know I don't is this the uncle you work for uncle that I work for yeah I was like I don't I don't have any vacation days he's like don't worry about it he's like just come I looked it up the hotel he booked me he's like 1200 a night dude and he he didn't like six my uncle doesn't just take like when he goes away he takes groups of people with him so he booked eight rooms okay so and they're all 1200 a night and we're going for five nights so he's 50 grand six grand in each hotel room eight hotels of 48 grand on hotel rooms to take a group of people away and then when we get there he's going to pay for every freaking meal like he just does he won't let you pay my uncle is incredibly generous man like like I I've never met someone with his generosity like he's just looks out for everyone when you go with him no I've actually said to him like being your nephew is kind of like it the only thing better would be being your son like you know what I mean like I didn't get the golden ticket because that would have been just oh my gosh if I could have got that golden ticket to to be yeah but sometimes like people think people feel like they have a duty to make sure like their own kids don't get spoiled they don't feel that way about nephews. Yeah yeah well my my uncle's always been like a father figure to me anyway though like it's uh like I've always looked up to him and always wanted to hang out with him I'm just old enough to hang out with them now you know where when I was in my 20s I was still a little too immature to hang out with them but now like my kids are older and his wife loves my wife and he's just like yeah come on let's go do this together let's go do that together and he he was always good to me like letting me use his stuff I mean we used the house in PA all the time. I mean when my boat was out for the count last summer he let me use his boat the entire stuff he's just always just super generous but I have no vacation days left he's paying me for the week still and he's taking me on this trip paid for the room for the week and he's been it's basically a free vacation and a paid week off too like it's a dude you're talking like the generosity of this I just like you I cannot believe this. And me and my wife have never been to Block Island. Block island's part of Rhode Island it's just this little tiny island off the coast of Montauk and it's supposedly just like the most beautiful New England little place to go and we've never been there and I'm like really excited. So like I I didn't even have that much warning to put it on the calendar to tell you I'm not gonna be here so I just notice I literally told Rob yesterday I'm like dude I'm not gonna be here next week you have to find a fill in it kind of sucks that Kale's not available kale would have been the perfect freaking fill-in who should Rob get to uh take my spot yeah guys I need ideas it would have been I I wish Kale wasn't going to Oxford because he could have Kale lives in Rhode Island he could have shot over to Block Island and came and hung out with us I mean you could go uh Pantile is always easy to talk to you could get him on yeah um you but you need a topic that's the thing like Majorian won't want to there's a reason why uh Lads and Slavs isn't happening and also Majarian he's not gonna come he's good he's a good filler mic you need somebody that's kind of gonna come and bring something to the show where you where you can like be second mic for him you know like that'll yeah unless you have a topic you want to dive into and bring someone on to do that topic with you know so like Thursday we have this Fulton Sheen interview and this is um this is a favor we're doing for someone um and I don't know how that's going to go so I asked I said do you want to do that interview while I'm gone he's like no absolutely not but I don't know it could dude just look up a bunch of questions they ask about Fulton Sheen it might be easier for you no to interview somebody and just ask questions it doesn't mean it's gonna be interesting but you could make it a 40 minute episode it doesn't have to be a two hour you are not getting out of this you are the reason this is happening in the first place nice try I will well even that show Thursday's show right so Thursday's show like if the interview is boring I'll just wrap it up early like I'll just wrap it up and mean you'll jump on locals and we'll finish the show out of I'm figuring it's gonna be like a 35 minute 40 minute interview and then we'll just jump over to locals and then uh but next week Sam Shimon would be good but uh I don't know how it'll work with just me like I will I like going on journeys with Sam Shamoon too much. The interview is Dr. Peter Howard I think his name is so uh I'll tell you right now hang on uh his name is Dr. Peter Howard they are having um they're having a um let me see it's um just two months uh so uh there's a lay-led Fulton Sheen conference the day before the beatification in St. Louis um there's two months out from it and they're trying to gain awareness and registration uh so they're basically there's a conference that they're having and they want to they want us to help promote it and I I I'm not always a team player with stuff like this and I said you know what let's just let's do it you know like we we typically turn down interview requests like for books and things like that like it we generally don't like and it's not it's not because like I don't think it'll be a good interview as much as like for me to have a good interview I have to kind of be into the thing yeah and and then it becomes a good interview because I want to ask questions about the thing like I'm interested in it. But when somebody kind of hits you with hey will you have me on the show because of this it's not has nothing to do with the person or anything it's just more like what do I need to do to prepare for this to make it an interesting interesting interview so plus a lot of times those guys are going on multiple different podcasts right and saying the same stuff and it just it doesn't what are we gonna add to it yeah so I mean oh supernatural story before we go you want to do it now yeah yeah it's not supernatural in the

Unexplained Moments That Strengthen Faith

SPEAKER_05 1:47:05

um like the ghost sense right it's supernatural in like something I have one too I'll uh yeah I'll I have I have something that happened to me that was pretty wild it's something that you know either got either God had a hand in or preternatural in like um guardian angel um and I'm pretty sure I told the story so I hope hope it doesn't mind me telling it again but um so uh when hope and I first met before we started dating she was 19 at the time and she's always um she's struggled a lot in her her life especially in the teen years with depression and um so we we had met and we we hadn't begun dating yet so we were kind of just talking um getting to know each other and um one night um she was struggling especially uh with depression and had um decided to to kill herself that night she had she had made that decision but she decided to kind of have one last like I don't want to say cry for help but more or less so she uh called her boyfriend at the time and he didn't answer and this was middle of the night now me for anyone who knows me especially my children know that I sleep very I'm a very hard sleeper.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:31

I don't wake up for anything the first the the the night after Maddie was born sleeping on the stupid couch in the hotel in the the hospital room hope had to throw ice at me to wake me up because I wasn't waking up when Maddie was crying. So I sleep through literally everything. But so after Hope had tried calling her boyfriend at the time for some reason she decided to to to call me next um and we her and I had just just like I said we were just starting to kind of get to know each other. And my phone was on silent no ringer no vibration nothing and I woke up woke up saw that my phone was lighting up I looked at it and it wasn't you know it's this this girl I just just met basically calling me at 3 a.m but I I decided to answer it. And she didn't tell me what was going on or or anything like that. She just basically said said hi and I said hi and I'm like well what's up and I don't remember exactly what she said because I was but we talked for a couple minutes and said goodbye and you know and uh it was a few weeks after that I think when she told me what what that phone call had had really meant to her.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:52

So uh you know like I said it's not super neutral supernatural in the grand miracle but there's definitely some kind of prompting from the Holy Spirit That minimum for you to wake your ass up and look at that phone and it led to your freaking marriage and she didn't even call me.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:06

She texted me, and I woke up right after that text and called her.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:12

I think she texted me asking if if we could talk. Something like that. And like I said, I she'll attest to the fact that I sleep through anything and everything to this very day.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:23

I've had a few things happen to me. Like, um oh man. One has to do with my wife that uh like the first time I well man, I don't even want to tell this one. All right, I'm gonna hold up on that one. That's for another night. Oh, wait, I gotta think about if I want to tell that one. It's just it's just pretty corny and cheesy.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:49

Oh, come on, who cares if corny and cheesy?

SPEAKER_05 1:50:53

All right, so my wife was going to her first year of college, and like she was about to leave, and almost made out with Avra Levine. I didn't know if I was going to stay with her and wait for her to like do her call. I was like, I'm I'm not like I'm not really gonna like do this long day. Like she was going to Chicago, and I was like, God, if you want me to stay with this girl, you gotta give me some kind of sign. And I was just like sitting on my patio, and I was like, You gotta give me some kind of sign. You want me to stick it out with this girl? And I saw my first shooting star in my entire life. Like, I never saw a shooting star in my entire life.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:37

Never seen a shooting star in my first time. You lived in New York.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:41

When I tell you, this thing streaked across the sky for like 25 seconds. It was like the most vivid sign in the skies I'd ever seen. That was one, but really, the the one that really freaked me out was on like I had stopped going to mass for a few years. We were married at this point, like um, and I was seriously like questioning the resurrection, and I was just like, I I like it was on Easter Sunday, and I came, I came home, I went to the freaking Lutheran liturgy with her on Easter Sunday, and I came home and I was like, I heard this Lutheran pastor's sermon, and I was just like, I don't know. And I came home and I was just like, like, did Jesus really rise from the dead, or did he like like I was just having like these weird doubts? Like it wasn't like like I I wasn't I don't know why these doubts even came into my mind because it's not like I didn't believe, like I was just having these weird doubts in my head, and I was just like, like, what is like what what is I don't know why I was having these weird doubts that night, and I came to my house, I came in my house, yeah. The Netfli Netflix Shroud story. I've told it before, but I come in my house and I look on Netflix and in previously watched was a documentary on the Shroud of Turin, and nobody in my house, like nobody else had my Netflix password, nobody, my children were like infants, and my wife didn't watch it, and it was under my recently watched this documentary on the Shroud of Turin, and I'd never heard of the Shroud of Turin before. And I started that documentary, like questioning some things, and by the end of it, I was on fire for my faith in a way you cannot imagine. That's when I start, that's when I find Scott Hahn's conversion story. Like, and I wasn't just like nominally Christian, like I like I started that way by at the end of the documentary, like I was actually listening to like Protestant stuff and not knowing like the distinctiveness of Catholicism, and that led me to Scott Hahn's conversion story and the rest is history, and then it was just then I became like proselytizing every freaking person I know about Catholicism.

SPEAKER_07 1:54:04

That was like Francis would be so disappointed in you.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:07

Yeah, it was like the origin story of my like serious Catholic art. Like I had always been Catholic, I just never was like catechized well enough to understand the differences.

SPEAKER_07 1:54:16

Amazing, amazing story. No glaze, ocean says ocean. You're about to get uh somebody somebody I just watched that stupid Project Hill Mary show, so all that's going through my head right now is amaze, amaze, amaze, dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:32

That movie it like I said when I watched it, it was uh like a feel-good movie, good family movie, like it's a totally happy ending, wraps up really nicely. But the freaking rock takes me out of it, man. Just like the idea that a rock evolved and could build a spaceship, it's as dumb as a dog, like it has the intelligence of a dog, but it built this complex spaceship, and it's like it's just dumb.

SPEAKER_07 1:54:58

It didn't, I don't know. It just took me out of it, did not have the intelligence of a dog, dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:04

It definitely had the intelligence of a dog, like it definitely did. Like he would get like excited like a dog when he would pet it and stuff. It was just dumb.

SPEAKER_07 1:55:12

It was like but that's just your average all that's your average autist when you talk about trains.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:16

I don't know. First off, like even like these people who believe in evolution, their idea of what life would evolve like on another planet, and it looks like it doesn't have a face. Like where's its face? Like, I don't understand how you could have something evolve on another planet and it's a rock. It's just dumb. But the movie itself was still good. Yeah, I wanted them to go home too, but at least it like wrapped up where like you found out what happened on Earth, and you know, there was no loose ends at the end of it, there was no chance for a part two. Uh, somebody said have TLM Ryan on, but I don't know. That's pretty low energy.

SPEAKER_07 1:55:58

When Ryan Gosling accidentally commits rock genocide.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:04

Uh TLM Ryan and you, you guys are both pretty low energy.

SPEAKER_07 1:56:07

It might be uh we'll just end up talking about numbers all night.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:11

No, no, no, but Ryan could come come with something good, I think. Um was young Washington good? Ryan Catcher Rivera might be a good one.

SPEAKER_07 1:56:24

Yeah, could uh could have Keith tell us all about Majigori. That would be a good one. Keith, Keith.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:35

Well, I mean, go back to when I was go back to when I was in Italy and just think of who some of the good guests were. So when I go to Italy this time, what I think I'm going to do is a lot of behind the scenes stuff for locals. Like while we're there. I'm gonna have a group of young guys with me, and I think we might just do like some kind of like fireside chat without a fire, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_07 1:56:59

Like I wonder if I wonder if I could get Heschmeier on. I don't know what I would talk with him about.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:10

It's worth asking. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:13

If I could think of a subject.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:20

Well, we'll figure something out. So we still got Thursday's show. We're doing the interview. And uh we'll uh we'll find a guest for Rob to fill in for me on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:31

If I knew someone that knew um the Spanish Civil War a lot, you know we should get that kid Muse.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:36

Uh what's his name? Uh Ethan? Ethan Muse.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:42

What could we could what could I talk to him about that's different than what he's talked about on anything else? I mean, he knows a lot about Fatima, and I've always loved Fatima, but he's done Fatima shows.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:56

Yeah, but people don't watch every interview. Like, I I don't think our audience watched his Frat interview, and they like us, you know. Some people are just gonna watch it if you if you're doing it.

SPEAKER_07 1:58:13

It's been a while since we've had Fawaz on.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:17

Fawaz gets caught up in the chat, bro. I'm just giving you a heads up. Caught up in the chat, and he leaves you hanging. Just telling you, he's worse than Joshua Charles.

SPEAKER_07 1:58:28

I yeah, we don't want you know what would be a fun show? Joshua Charles convincing Rob we're in the end times. That actually would be kind of money.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:40

Well, if you need me to reach out to somebody and ask them to fill in, I'm sure they'll do it. Um but you what honestly, the the show you did with Hitchborne while I was away was really great, but like you don't want to repeat the same episode, you know.

SPEAKER_07 1:58:57

No. Um is uh American Reform ready to talk about race?

SPEAKER_05 1:59:04

I want to be there for that, but I know you do, but I I I do want to be there for that. Um needs two people to take my place. Look, the thing is like I don't I don't know. I I feel like uh a lot a lot of guys are good, especially if you give good leading questions and stuff like that, but you kind of gotta have uh a topic in mind, you know. You're not like there you're not gonna be able to just come on and wing it like me and you do, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like me and you, like we can just wing it and then we're talking about our childhood, and then we're talking about whatever. Like, you're not gonna have that kind of chemistry with a guest coming on. So you do need a topic if they're coming on. So have Bobby on, he'll spill the real Bobby T. There's not honestly, guys, there's not much that happens in my life that I don't tell you guys about. Like, I'm always looking for something that happened for me to bring to air. So it's not you're not gonna find much out about me that I haven't told on air. Um, if he had Adrian on, it's just a guns and rosary show. I mean, you could do it, but it's just a guns and rosary show. You'd have to you'd have to do something other than gun topics.

SPEAKER_07 2:00:29

I wonder if um Chivalry Guild would want to do a show on Franco. That would be see, that's what you should you should do a history show with somebody. Like that's or I could just wing a lecture on the Spanish Civil War. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:51

Whatever you do, just make sure you get a knickknack ad in.

Wrap-Up And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_07 2:00:55

Just keep keep the checks rolling in, Rob.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:59

Knickknacks and locals keeps the lights on, guys.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:02

In Black Monk.

SPEAKER_05 2:01:04

Black Monk, 100%. Yes, absolutely. I am curious. We're gonna have to talk with those guys because I wanna I want to know if they hear our ads. Like, do they know do they know how like how off the cuff our ads are? Like how we've we've brought something very unique to Knickknacks. Like, there's nobody else that does knickknack reads like we do, you know.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:29

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 2:01:31

Um, all right, we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:33

We'll have we'll have a guest pick that we could have Daniel O'Connor and Father Modsley on to debate the divine will.

SPEAKER_06 2:01:39

Oh my gosh. That would be so awkward.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:43

That would be terrible. Oh, especially because I love both those guys.

SPEAKER_05 2:01:49

Yeah, I don't honestly, that's why I'll never even touch touch anything like that with them. Like, that's their thing. I don't I'm not getting involved in that. I don't know enough about the divine will thing to care. I just don't care. I don't know anything about Luisa Picaretta. I don't know anything about any of it. I don't really care. So, um yeah, get John Deloney on. All right, we gotta wrap this up. It's 10 o'clock. I gotta get some sleep. We will see you guys on Thursday. Take us out, Robert.