The Catholic Experience

Okay,

welcome to the Catholic
Adventurer Podcast.

I, I'm your host, the Catholic
adventurer, trying to keep it mellow.

Today.

This is gonna be a short broadcast
going out live to Substack.

And I wanna thank you very much for
joining me on demand and thank you to

so far, Alice and Kenneth following
me, or, uh, checking me out here

in the live broadcast, but talking
about the death of Pope Francis.

Shocking, absolutely shocking.

Uh, not surprising, but still shocking.

Well, how can it be
surprising but not shocking?

I, I'll get into that.

I'm gonna talk about my
thoughts, my reactions,

what I expect the reaction is
going to be from others, other

commentate horrors in Catholic media.

I am not gonna talk much about what I
think, who I think the next Pope will be,

but I do have some thoughts about people
who are thinking about that already.

This is recorded April 21st
in the year of our Lord, 2025.

You know, it's so funny, I remember
one time I was doing a live broadcast,

um, on the day that Pope Benedict
the 16th announced he was abrogating

stepping down as as as pontiff.

Um, and I remember too, when I plugged
the date, I had it going through my mind.

I have to be very careful to
plug the date, which wasn't

something I normally did.

I have to plug the date because I.

This date is historical.

Not it's historical because I'm, you know,
doing it, but it's a historical date.

And years later, I remember one time I
was, uh, looking for something for a clip.

I don't even remember why.

I mean, this is several years ago.

And I ran across that show and there
was the date, you know, memorialized.

There was the date in that I plugged in
that show the day that, uh, he abrogated.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

I guess IJ I'm just saying I had the
same thing going through my head today.

Gotta put in that date.

Hello, Helen Tarantino.

God bless you, and thank
you for joining me.

So, it's surprising, the news about Pope
Francis is surprising and it is shocking.

Uh, the Pope was not well.

He had, uh, he, he ran into a rough
patch, um, I don't know, a month

or two ago, and he has not been,
well, frankly, I didn't think he was

going to make it outta the hospital.

But I thought if he does make it out,
I hope he resigns or he retires or

abrogates because the job is just too
much for someone in his condition.

It was already too much for someone in
his condition the day that he was elected.

Um, then he got out, he, he healed
up from the hospital, came out.

I'm sure, you know, I'm
sure he wasn't good as new.

I'm sure he wasn't as, as good or as
tight as he was when he went into the

hospital, but it was really, as far
as I was concerned, it was really a

bit of a miracle that he made it out.

And still, I thought maybe the first
bit of news we get after he gets

back to the Vatican or to his office
is that he's going to, uh, resign.

You know, my health, I'm,
you know, I'm a lot weaker.

I'm realizing I need to clear the
way for somebody else to do this.

And, you know, I just don't have
it in me health wise anymore.

I wasn't looking forward to it.

I'm just, I was just projecting thinking
that's probably what's gonna happen next.

And then it didn't.

So I said, okay, great.

Pope is in it for the long haul.

He's 88.

He's missing, or he was 88.

He was missing a lung or
half of one of his lungs.

I don't remember now.

Um,

it's, I mean, he, the, the pope was not
going to be with us very much longer.

So it's not surprising that the Pope
has passed away, but it was really

shocking that it happened already.

Hello Matt.

Thank you for joining me here on Substack.

God bless you brother.

Lemme tell you how I got the news.

So, um.

Uh, uh, it's, it's fun.

It's kind of a funny thing.

Lemme tell you this.

There's an old custom.

I think it's a custom, I don't think it's
a rule, I just think it's a tradition

that when the Pope dies, the church
is told about it before the public

is, which I think is still the case.

The word gets disseminated from
the Vatican to the con local

to national conferences, to the
local diocese and stuff like that.

I think that still happens.

So traditionally, and this doesn't go
back too far, this, this, the church

knows before the rest of the world
doesn't go back too far because we didn't,

we didn't have such direct connection
between the Vatican and local churches

until rather recently in history.

But when the churches, the local
diocese and parishes hear that the Pope

has died, they ring the church bells.

I dunno for a minute, two
minutes, five minutes, whatever.

I remember that happened
when John Paul II died.

Um, and churches everywhere, bells
ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing

all over the place, ringing, ringing,
ring, ringing before news broke.

Literally before the news broke.

In secular news, news this morning

rather early, my parish
church's bells were ringing.

It wasn't on the hour of the time.

Mass was not about to start.

It was the strangest thing I thought
must be a glitch because the only time

that happens is when a Pope has died.

For some reason it didn't dawn on me.

It didn't even occur to
me did Pope Francis die?

Sometime later af.

Now if you, if you don't know, I don't
really follow the news too tightly.

I follow it very loosely, if at all.

So my first stop, you know, when I'm
awake and through my morning routine,

my first stop is not the news.

I received a text message from
one of the newly baptized and

confirmed Catholics that I helped
to see through the OCIA program.

Actually, this person sent it out to
the group of the other new Catholics

and you know, to me saying, I don't
know if you heard the news, but

Pope Francis died this morning.

I'm not sure how to handle this.

That's how I got the news.

Then I went to Catholic News
Agency and saw it for myself.

It was interesting because that,
I guess they're called neophytes,

the ones who, who newly come into
the church after they've received

their sacraments at Easter.

I think they're called ne, I
guess they're called neophytes.

This particular neophyte, I think it's
a dumb word, but if that's what they're

called, that's what they're called.

This particular neophyte had a
special connection to the Holy Father.

They came into the church, sparked
by the Holy Father's influence.

And let me tell you, this person's
conversion is just about miraculous.

I wouldn't call it a full blown miracle,
but it is just about miraculous.

So they had a special connection to,
uh, Pope Francis, and that's why there

was this reaction and things like that.

Anyway, that's how I got the news.

My fear.

And we're gonna talk in a second
about, we're not gonna talk about

who may be the next Pope, but
we're going to talk about things

related to who may be the next Pope.

Okay?

The, the Holy Father
just passed away today.

It's highly inappropriate to
now start saying, who do you

think the next pope's gonna be?

He's gonna be Cardinal Sarah.

It's gonna be Cardinal V Cardinal.

That highly inappropriate.

And really, it doesn't matter really.

It doesn't matter what anybody
says, who's the next Pope gonna be?

But anyway, um,

what's going to sadden me, but
not surprise me, is there will

be people practically gleeful
about the Holy Father's death.

Again, it's not a surprise.

He was 88, he was not well, and he has
a demanding, he had a demanding job.

So it's not surprising, but there are
gonna be people who are gleeful about it.

Usually, or mostly that's going
to be in the traditionalist

camps, but not exclusively

hello to Anderson and
and how to be Catholic.

Joining me here on live, live
on Substack, it's not only gonna

be the traditionalists, and
again, there are traditionalists

and there are traditionalists.

They're not all the same, but there
are radical traditionalists and there

are traditionalists who aren't radical,
but they are radicalized and then

they're just plain all traditionalists.

It gets worse and worse.

Every five years or so, this whole
traditionalist thing gets worse and worse.

Used to be just traditionalists.

Were just orthodox Catholics.

20, 25 years ago, a traditionalist
was just an Orthodox Catholic,

just a regular all Catholic.

Anyway, I.

Mostly it's going to be people in the
radical traditionalist camp and the

traditionalists who aren't radical
traditionalists, but they are radicalized,

they have radicalist attitudes.

I guess not to be confused with ordinary
traditionalists who are orthodox, but

a little bit more right-leaning, but
not quite over the edge of radicalist.

My, my, my traditionalist
brothers and sisters.

I just wanna put this out there for you.

You do recognize that there are at
least three or four camps in the

world of traditionalism, right?

I mean, you, you must recognize that
there are at least three, probably four.

Not all of them are crazy.

At least one of those
three or four camps is sane

and I'll, I'll leave it at that is
sane and the other two or three.

Crazy.

You recognize that right?

No matter where you fall, no
matter which camp you fall

into, you must recognize that.

And I have to ask you, do you think
such faction and splintering in a

span of only 20 years, do you think
the Holy Spirit is behind that?

If you're, and I'm, and I say this
with charity as your brother, if

you think, yeah, that doesn't sound
like such splintering and faction

does not sound like the Holy Spirit.

If it isn't the Holy Spirit,
what do you think is behind it?

And I'll drop it and leave it there.

So it'll usually be the, the, um,

I don't wanna say far right,
because I think it's a stupid term.

It's, it's going to be the tr radical
traditionalists and the traditionalists

who aren't radicalized, who will be
gleeful about the Holy Father's passing.

I haven't really taken to, I took
to Twitter only to, you know,

express condolences and sadness
about the Holy Father's passing.

That's it.

I didn't really browse
timelines or anything.

But I'm sure it's gonna be
post, after post after post.

And it's going to sound something
like this from some of those people.

Pray for the Holy Father soul.

He's really gonna need it.

Now let's move on and look
forward to the next conclave.

By that accent, you may even
know who I'm talking about.

Pray for the Holy Father's soul.

It's very sad, but I'm not
a radical traditionalist.

But anyway, thank God that we're
gonna get a new Pope now, who

do all think it's gonna be?

And that's just one character of many,
many I could point to who are going to

be gleeful about the Holy Father's death.

I'll leave it to you to decide
just how Christian they are,

and I'll leave it alone.

Drop it and leave it at that.

Lemme just check in with the chat room
here, see if anyone's got anything,

any chatter to say Nothing yet.

Okay.

Hello to those of you who are catching me
live, I see you there in the chat room.

When you join, it tells
me that you've joined.

Um, I don't see a user list, so
I don't know who's still there.

If you have something to say, put
it in the chat room there and I

will read it and respond to it.

Okay.

How to be Catholic says, I also
dread the praise from those who

constantly disparaged Pope Francis,
you know how to be Catholic.

That brings me to my next point.

Literally, it brings me to my, to the
next thing I wanted to talk about,

people who disparage Pope Pope Francis.

You may not be familiar with my
body of work, but I have said

this before and I'll say it now.

For those of you who haven't heard
me say it before, I am not a huge, I

was not a huge fan of Pope Francis.

I.

But I'm not, I was, I was not an OT
anti Pope Francis at in, in the least.

I didn't see Pope Francis as a
rockstar, but I also didn't see

Benedict I 16th as a rockstar.

My rockstar days with the pontiff ended
when John Paul ii John Paul II died.

Now the popes are just
high ranking priests to me.

And that doesn't mean you
have to see them the same way.

I'm just saying where I am.

So I saw Pope Francis pretty
much, honestly, not as somebody

who was in love with him and not
somebody who was against him.

I thought he was a bad communicator,
but I thought he was a good theologian.

He was the holy father.

He was the, he was the man with,
uh, the, the, the brass as we

used to say in the military.

He had the brass.

I just have chevrons.

He's the guy in charge.

He's the general and I'm behind him.

Period.

Period.

So I never disparaged him.

If I had something cri critical
to say about him, most of that I

kept to myself if it was something
worthy of, of giving a voice to.

I was very charitable and reserved.

Respectful, absolutely respectful.

I tried to see things from the
other side of my personal argument.

I tried to introduce that so I
wasn't just responding and saying,

this is what I think, you know,

but they were really, there were a lot of
people who just dragged him through Coles

and my friends.

They didn't drag him through
Coles because he was, as they

might have seen, the liberal pope.

The next, listen, some of these characters
were also not fans of Benedict the

16th, the so-called conservative Pope.

You can't please some people, right?

How to be Catholic says, I was
not always his biggest man, but

he was God's anointed bishop.

See, that's how I see it.

He is the Pope and I am a soldier.

And that is it.

That is that because this
is the Catholic church.

This is not the Boy Scouts.

As I say, it's the military.

I remember one time in the Marine Corps we
had such an idiot of a platoon commander.

I mean such a phenomenal moron.

But you better believe I had his back
and you better believe I punished my

Marines who said anything against him.

Do you know why?

Because if we have no unity as a unit, if
there is no unity, we're a unit defeated.

We're just waiting to be conquered.

You have to have unity.

And unity starts at the top.

And if you are a member of this
unit, you fall in line, you

close ranks, you don't divide.

And that's how I view the Catholic
church and that's how I view our

relationship as laypeople, our
relationship to the Holy Father

Ellis, the critic says you can tell
a lot about the moral character

of the kind of man who speaks
ill of the recently deceased.

Mm-hmm.

Those who hold nothing to be sacred
are incapable of seeing the world

through any lens other than their own.

Absolutely true.

How to be Catholic says millions
upon millions are grieving his death.

And that really means something
regardless of opinion.

Exactly.

Plus, he's another human soul.

You know, if you don't have something
good to say about anybody, don't say it.

Don't say anything kind of thing.

Um, anyway, so there's gonna be
people gleeful about it, and I want

you to pay attention to who they are.

'cause those are the people you should
never listen to Again, I'm dead serious.

Pay attention to the people who are
gleeful about the Holy Father's death.

And those are the people that
you should never listen to again.

Don't watch their podcasts.

Don't listen to their, their streams.

Don't read anything they write.

Don't read anything that
they post on social media,

because you can tell a lot about a person
who's that classless and that tasteless.

Now there's going to be
people who are speculating.

Who will the next, um, Pope be?

Which can be fun.

That can be fun.

When it comes time to go there.

Maybe when the conclave opens,
that can be kind of a fun

little intellectual exercise.

But let's not go there because it doesn't
matter who the next Pope is going to be.

Only the Holy Spirit knows that.

Only the Holy Spirit knows that,

and really our speculation means nothing.

I did not, I did not think
Benedict the 16th would be the

next Pope or Joseph Ratzinger.

If you asked me, I would've said, no way.

No way.

Only because I didn't think
he, he could get elected, not

because I didn't like him.

When, you know, in the last conclave,
when Pope Francis was elected,

I, I did have this prediction that the
next Pope was going to be an unknown.

Someone who's very, very humble.

And because we've had such, such
rockstar theologians as Pontiffs John

Paul, the 16, I'm John Paul II and
the 16th, this, the next vote probably

will not be a theological rockstar.

Sure enough, we got Pope Francis,
not a Theo, a good theologian.

He's a good theologian, but he is
not a Theo, a theological rock star.

He is humble and he was largely
unknown, so unknown that when

they announced, um, and whatever
his last name is, I said, who?

Who the hell's that never
heard of him in my life.

I had to Google him.

I had no idea who he was.

My first thought when he came
out to greet the people as Pope

is, my God, he looks terrified.

Are those glasses he's wearing?

Have we had a pope who
wore glasses before?

I think this is a first.

Those were my thoughts.

I'm kind of an idiot with things, I guess.

I don't know.

But I will say this about the thought
process of who will be the next Pope.

I believe we always get the Pope
that we're, uh, sorry about that.

I believe that we always get the
Pope that we're supposed to have.

Sometimes we get the Pope that we deserve

and sometimes we get a
pope that we don't deserve.

Should I, should I build on that
or should I just leave it to you?

If we have, like for instance, was
Pope Francis the Pope that we needed?

Probably, probably, I, I'm not God.

Was Pope Francis the Pope
that the church deserved?

I, I don't know.

I guess it depends on your per, first
of all, we, none of us can know, but I

guess it depends on your perspective.

My, my point is this, sometimes in
church history we get a pope that's

a little rickety, a little shoddy.

And I'm not saying that was Pope Francis.

What I'm saying is sometimes the
church, this is my belief, okay?

This is my belief.

My personal belief, my opinion.

Sometimes the church gets a
pope who pontificate, purges

and punishes the church.

Sometimes the church deserves
punishment and purging and, and is

in need of purging, but we get a pope
who's better than what we deserve.

You see what I'm saying?

Sometimes we deserve a rod and we get it.

Sometimes we deserve a
rod and we're spared it.

I.

How to be Catholics said, ouch.

The pope.

We, we deserve build on that.

I hope I didn't disappoint you
with my, uh, my explanation.

And again, I'm not saying the
Pope, you know, the pope was a

terrible pope, but we deserved it.

I'm, I, I don't believe that.

What I do believe is the church is in need
of some purging and, and some whipping,

not, not the divine institution, but the
human element of the Catholic church.

You understand?

I think Pope Francis something
that used to irritate me about his

pontificate has nothing to do with him.

Something that used to irritate me
about his, his pontificate is you

had those who swore he was a flaming
liberal, he was not, and you had those.

Who said he bridged the gap
between conservatives and liberals?

Let's be honest, he did not.

And I don't think he, he intended to,
and I don't think he, he was, I don't

think that's why he was made Pope.

I mean by, by God, you know?

And then there were people who
just blindly defended you know,

everything that they wanted to
defend without looking at the facts.

There were people who said, Pope Francis
is a great conservative, no, he wasn't.

Stay with me.

Pope Francis is a great progressive.

No, he wasn't.

Pope Francis was just a
Catholic, he was orthodox.

I think this is again, is my opinion.

He, he, he wasn't a conservator and
he wasn't a progressive, he was just

Catholic, which is what he should have
been, which is what everyone should be.

I also think that conservatives
in the church, and I'm only using

those terms through the lens of a
secular understanding of the word.

Okay.

I don't believe conservative and liberal
really has a place in Catholicism, but

it's the word that we're familiar with.

Conservatives, I feel had their
day in the sunshine with John Paul

II and Benedict the 16th was Pope
Francis the Pope that we needed?

Probably because probably there needed
to be some attention paid to the

other side of the theological aisle.

Not that conservatives should be
ignored or anything like that.

I'm not saying that.

What I'm saying is John Paul
the 16th, John Paul, dammit,

John Paul ii be of the 16th.

Were kind of like a warm
blanket for conservatives.

But what about people who are on the
other side of the theological aisle?

I'm not talking about the, the heterodox
progressive wing of the Catholic church.

I'm talking about ordinary Catholics
who are not as conservative as a

Benedict the 16th, or John Paul ii.

So I think that he was the pope
that we needed in that sense.

I think he was the pope that we needed
in the sense that there were some valid

things in the public spectrum that
the church needed to plant its flag

into, for instance, climate issues.

I am not a big climate guy,
but I do believe we need

to take care of the planet.

I believe we often maybe mostly
fail in that, where we see the

planet as just a tool when really
the planet is another creation.

It's our sister.

There's no such thing as Mother Earth.

The earth is our sister.

It's another creation and
we should take care of it.

When man was given the, the
charge and the authority to subdue

nature, that requires that we
respected, not that we dominate it.

Right.

I think that needed to be looked into.

I think the church needed to plant
its flag into issues like, um, the gay

agenda, trans, whatever you call it, trans
theory, I don't know what you call it.

Not that we, not that I think the church
should have said, okay, no problem.

You can do whatever you want
and think whatever you want.

No, but I think the church needed
to have its voice in there.

The voice of justice and
also the voice of truth.

I think the church needed to be
there and I think Pope Francis

was probably the better pontiff of
the last three, himself included.

He was probably the better pontiff to do
that, to bring the church's voice there.

Okay.

I think he was the po And it's so weird
because I don't know that the church,

I don't know that the world needed that
when he was elected, but it turned out

the world needed that, it's so weird.

We weren't talking about
most of these issues.

Immigration too.

And you know, I, I'm politically
conservative when it comes to

immigration, but I'm also Catholic.

I believe in mercy.

I also believe in justice.

A nation is entitled
to its borders, period.

The borders are in the
United States are not closed.

You can still come into the country.

It's not like we closed the doors,
but you can't just slip in through a

window or sneak in through the basement.

You have to come through the front
door, and you need permission anyway.

So a lot of these things that Pope Francis
talked about, the world wasn't in need.

The world didn't know it was in need
of the church's presence in those

subjects until maybe the past 10 years.

So it turned out Pope Francis was
the, the pope that the church needed.

I think also Pope Francis was

something about Pope Francis is he
brought to surface something that has

been in the church for at least 20,
30 years, probably longer than that.

All of these rifts that you're seeing,
people calling for the pope's head and

insulting the Pope and the lack of unity
and the disharmony, um, that has been

in the church for a very long time.

And the Holy Father, probably without
intending to but may, maybe it

was part of his strategy, the Holy
Father brought all of that stuff

to the surface and now you see it.

I approach all of these things.

From the perspective of warfare, okay?

You cannot shoot at an
enemy that's hiding.

You cannot defend yourself against
an enemy that is disguised.

You want the enemy to come out of hiding.

You want to stir them up.

You want them to tell on themselves.

I'm not saying my fellow brother
and sister Catholics are the enemy.

I'm, I'm talking about warfare.

Okay?

You want them to come out from
wherever they are because if

they're hiding or if they're
disguised, how do you address that?

How do you defend against that?

You can't now.

I mean, it's unbelievable there.

There are characters out there, Catholic
commentators, who have been in the

game a long time, almost, almost as
long as I have some of them, almost.

I still have 'em beat.

You didn't see their true
colors until Pope Francis.

There are people who apostatized that.

You never would've thought that possible.

You never would've thought that
possible until Pope Francis.

There are people who are showing
their true colors for the

first time since Pope Francis,

I think the church needed to see that.

You know, if COVID-19 was a catalyst
for people leaving the church and

not coming back, you know, what was
in their hearts that prevented them

from coming back was already there.

The Covid lockdowns just
pushed them over the edge.

That's it.

It just sped it up.

But it was already there.

Those folks were already going
to leave and not come back.

Now, now they just had a reason to Covid.

Lockdowns was just the trigger.

Same thing.

What Pope Francis' pontificate stirred
up has been in the church a long time.

Oh God.

A long time.

Long time.

His pontificate just
brought it out of hiding.

Good, good.

Because now you can see what orthodoxy
really is and what it really is not.

Orthodoxy is not just right belief.

It is right belief.

It literally means right belief,
but it is not just right.

Belief orthodoxy is not
just a right belief of mind.

It's a right disposition and attitude.

It is a right dis.

I'll give you an example and I, I say
this, uh, flippantly, but I mean it

seriously, if the church tomorrow were
to say that clouds are made of cotton

candy, I would be on board cotton candy.

Are you?

Hey.

Okay.

If the church teaches, so then it
is so that is a right disposition.

It sounds foolish.

I know, but I've had my, my go, my back
and forth with trying to understand

church teaching for a very long time
and, and one thing I have learned

is, damn, the church is always right.

It doesn't matter how
outlandish the teaching seems.

The church is always right.

You put that teaching to the
test, the church is right.

You scrutinize that teaching from
the perspective of logic you find.

And logic is mathematics.

It's not opinion, it's mathematics.

Follow the logic.

You arrive at the truth.

It's mathematics, it's not
opinion, it's not philosophy.

You scrutinize the church.

Any church teaching from the perspective
of logic, you find it holds up

from the perspective of evidence.

You find that it holds up.

Look at the world where the world
is today in terms of like sexual

ethics, divorce, contraception.

And read Hu Vita.

It was like Hu Vita was, was so
prophetic you would've thought

it was written last week.

So I've had this experience and I
have come to, to this attitude of

whatever the, if the church teaches
dragons exist, I'm going to believe

it, even if it's unbelievable.

And then I'm going to do my research, try
to understand why the church teaches this.

How has the church come to this?

I already, and, and then I'm
going to really be on board.

'cause then I'm going to
understand it, but I'll believe

it before I even understand it.

If the church says that it's so, that
is the right disposition of attitude.

That is an attitude of docility,
that is an attitude of saints.

So with what Pope Francis stirred up in
the Catholic populace, now you can see

what orthodoxy really is and really isn't.

You can see what faithfulness and
fidelity to the church really looks like.

And you can see when it's just
a wolf in sheep's clothing.

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

Wrong camera, stupid.

Let's just check in with
the chat room real quick.

Hello to those of you catching
me live here at Substack.

And hello, of course, to those of you
catching me around the world on demand.

Kenneth, good.

Thank you for joining me, brother.

Thank you for being here.

John Benko has joined the live.

Alice says because he's the hero.

Gotham deserves, but not
the one it needs right now.

The Dark Knight, Christopher
Nolan quoting a movie, I guess.

Oh, there's the phone.

Don't even know who that is.

That means they're getting hung up on.

Okay.

Greg Henkel joined the chat room.

Thank you, brother.

Good, good to have you here.

How to Be Catholic says, I wonder how
many times a Pope prays to God and

asks, God, why did you make me Pope?

You own my honest opinion.

I'll bet, I'll bet that prayer leaves
a pope's lips a few times a week.

Truly, I'll bet you that leaves
the Pope lips a few times a week

and hello to, uh, an
American writer and essayist.

God bless you.

There's also someone here
whose name I can't pronounce.

I think they were in here, in,
in, in, they, they hopped onto a

live broadcast once before A INE.

I'm not even going to try to pronounce
that, and I, I don't wanna insult

you, but thank you for joining me.

So there's going to be people who are
trying to predict who the next Pope is.

It really doesn't matter.

I do wonder, will we get
the Pope that we need?

Probably.

Will we get the Pope that we deserve?

I hope not because we,
we deserve a nut job.

That's the Pope that we deserve.

We deserve a nut job.

This is God's most holy church, not
the most holy out of all of them.

It's most hyphen holy.

This is the most holy church of God.

This is the church of
our Lord Jesus Christ.

So when I say we deserve,
we deserve a nut job.

I'm not talking about
Jesus Christ's church.

I'm talking about the human element in
the church because for a long time we have

politicized what it means to be Catholic.

We have literally turned
it into a political party.

For a long time, we have failed the call
to be unified, to be charitable to one

another, to be respectful of one another.

The way the human elements in
the church has responded and

reacted to the pontificate of Pope
Francis is absolutely horrifying.

There is at least one veteran
in the chat room right now.

I'm not going to call them
out, but that person knows

exactly what I'm talking about.

In the military, you would
never do some outrageous, pardon

my English, shit like that,

where you take the, your
leader through the coals.

Never.

Never.

Certainly not in the Marine Corps.

You wouldn't.

Hell no.

And the punishment would be stiff
and severe if you tried that

because as I said at the top of the show.

A unit divided is a unit
just waiting to be defeated.

When we are attacked, we close ranks.

We don't turn our guns inward.

Hello to Tony in the chat room.

Thank you for joining me, my friend.

How to Be Catholic says, I
think a INE is pronounced Anya.

I think it is too.

It's funny you say that 'cause
that's exactly how I was going to

pronounce it, but I, I I wanted
to be careful and respectful.

I didn't wanna pronounce wrong.

Hello to Liz, Lydia.

I'm sorry, Linda in the chat room.

God bless you, sister.

Thank you for joining us.

Um, yeah, so how many in the church
have responded and reacted to

the Ponti pontificate of France?

And I get it.

I see every, everything
that they see I am seeing.

I just don't, or I was seeing, I
just didn't see it the same way.

The Pope was a rough around
the edges communicator.

Yes.

So what He was Orthodox.

He was a good theologian.

He.

And he's the pope and that's that.

But what's some, the way some of
the church responded and reacted to

his pontificate is just horrendous.

It would be horrendous in the
military and this thing we call

Catholic is even greater than that.

This is where we need, we,
we are, we are required to be

more disciplined, more docile.

That's why I say the
church deserves a nut job,

but we live in interesting times.

I believe we will get
the Pope that we need.

Maybe not for where we are,
but what, but for where we are

going like very, very soon.

That's how, that's what Pope Francis was.

I don't think that that Pope Francis was
the pope we needed the day he was elected.

But where the world went very, very
shortly after Pope Francis turned

out to be the pope that we needed.

So I think we'll get a pope
that the Pope that we need.

We de we don't deserve a good pope.

We don't deserve a solid
pope, but I hope we get one.

And if we don't, it'll be God
punishing the lowercase C Church.

It'll be God's punishment
to the lowercase C church.

It will not bring harm to the uppercase
C church because even bad popes in our

history did not bring harm to the church.

Their pontificate ultimately
was a blank slate.

Um, not a blank slate, a
blank pontificate, right?

There were no new
doctrines, stuff like that.

So I hope we get a better
Pope than we deserve.

I think that we will,
and I hope that we will.

It is true that the Holy Father made a
lot of cardinals and you know, I don't

wanna say most of the cardinals he
made are theologically just like him.

I don't know that, but
I know some of them are.

You know what, my friends,
it really doesn't matter.

Um, most people who really knew church
politics and church culture, most of

us in a million years would not have
predicted bene Joseph Ratzinger would've

been elected Pope in a million years.

Most, most of us would
not have guessed that.

Never people who know, you know, those
sorts of things or that sort of thing.

The politics, the culture in
the church, stuff like that.

But that was the Pope that we got.

Hmm, interesting.

Whoever the next Pope is, it'll be
the pope that we need, and hopefully

it'll be a better pope than we deserve.

Does anybody have anything you wanna say
before I start bringing this to a close?

Any final thoughts or any thoughts
about Pope Francis' pontificate

your reaction to the news today?

Chime into the chat and let me know.

Ellis the critic says, think of how
much social media has changed mm-hmm.

Between po Benedicts, uh,
abdication, and today big time Ellis.

Big time change between Benedict's
abdication and today he goes on, uh, to

say if we, if we see even half of the rate
of development we've seen at the moment,

the world, uh, let me try that again.

If we see even half of the rate
of development we have seen at

the moment, the world will be
a radically different place.

Hmm.

I believe we are heading
for a crisis of value, so.

Given how much the world has
changed since Benedict's Benedict's

abdication, um, until, until now,
which is a lot, it's a whole lot

on current course and trajectory.

Where would that place us, say
in 20 years, I think is what he's

get is what Ellis is getting at.

I mean, my, my, my thoughts Ellis

are, you're exactly right.

I believe we are heading for a
crisis of value, and, and I, I really

have been saying this for some time
on current course and trajectory,

we are in very big trouble that's
only correctable by an act of God.

And I mean that literally

a course and trajectory
that is oriented to doom

only correctable literally
by an act of God.

When Covid struck and that really blew up.

I thought, maybe this is that act of God.

Oh, I do believe Covid was, was
not that he, God did it, but I

believe it was an act of God and
that he permitted it for a purpose.

Turned out it didn't change the direction,
or at least not, not that we can discern.

So, I mean, as an evangelizer, my, my
read of this is, is this, and there's a

reason why I say as an evangelizer, it's
hard to evangelize or catechize anybody

if they don't know how to think, if they
don't know what's truth and what isn't.

It's hard.

It's hard to explain even the basics
to anyone because they are so far

away from the most basic truth or the
most basic understanding of truth.

It's very, very, very, very, very,
very hard, and it really shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be that you explain
to someone the nature of marriage,

why it marriage is the way it is.

It's between a man and woman.

Here's why.

Here's how we can understand that
through, through a scientific prism.

Here's how we can understand that
logically through philosophical prism.

Here's how we can understand that
metaphysically now, metaphysics.

Now you're exiting the realm
of, of empiricism, okay?

But it does lend support to what we see
empirically in human physiology, the

nature of the body, the nature of the, um,

the way men and women operate together.

What do you call that?

Anyway, it doesn't matter.

You understand what I mean?

It shouldn't be that you present all
of this to a practicing Catholic and

they say, no, I think people should
be able to love whoever they want.

It should not be my friends that
you pour cold water on them and

they say, this is cold water.

And they say, no, that's boiling hot.

It shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be, but it is.

It shouldn't be that you have
to explain to someone, no, my

friend, your grandfather did not
become an angel when he died.

He didn't become an angel.

And you really, here's what
happens when people die.

So you really should pray for their soul.

No, grandpa's an angel,

my friend.

Here's scripture, here's Aquinas,
here's this, here's that.

Here's the catechism of Catholic church.

Nah, grandpa's an it really should not be.

That people are so far away from
un knowing just how to think.

And folks, I'm an idiot.

I don't think I'm a genius.

It should not be that the basics are so
hard for people to comprehend because

they don't understand the explanation.

And if they can't grasp the basics,
how are they going to understand

the dignity of human gender?

That gender is binary.

There's one, there's the
other, and that's it.

How are they going to understand that

the, the troubles we're getting into as
a human culture are no longer questions?

Like, is the earth flat?

They're no longer, um,
how are babies made?

The troubles we get into now have exited
the realm of the physical a long time ago.

Now they live in the
realm of the spiritual.

What is a man?

What is a woman?

I don't know.

I don't know.

A penis in a vagina doesn't do it for you.

That didn't come out right.

A be a penis in a vagina doesn't
make the argument for you.

What about chromosomes?

I mean, we don't see that.

At least we can't with
the naked eye, right?

But it's seeable, right?

It's still the realm of the physical.

Nope.

We still can't know what
a man and a woman is.

What is truth?

What is good and how can we know
that's a problem that has exited the

realm of the physical a long time ago.

Now it's in the realm of the spiritual.

You can still discern it.

You can still think about it.

You can still arrive at the truths
of it, but because you can't see

it with your eye or take a picture
of it or measure it on a scale.

It's unseen.

So now you can do
whatever you want with it.

You can do whatever you want with it.

And because there's no picture to say
here, this is what, this tru truth X.

Here's what truth X is.

Here's what truth Y is
here, put it on a scale.

That's what truth Z is.

Because, because what we are meddling
with are spiritual components and

problems, spiritual questions, right?

In in other words, they live
in the realm of, of this, of

the spiritual or the eternal.

Is the world flat, physical?

What is the nature of a man?

What is the masculine gender?

Spiritual, we can't see that.

Can't measure it.

So because we are meddling with what is
spiritual and he, and here's the rub.

Everything temporal starts in
the spiritual or in the eternal.

Everything, everything.

Starts in the eternal, even
your body starts in the eternal.

Your body's an expression of its, of
its spiritual truth, its spiritual self.

The body is a sign of the unseen you.

So if we are meddling with everything
on a, I don't wanna say a spiritual

plane, but everything rooted in a
spiritual reality, it's giving us

manufactured license to change what
happens in the temporal, physical reality.

You understand?

If I can say gender is whatever
I want, then I'm allowed

to make myself into a cat.

If I say gender is fluid, then I'm allowed
to be a five-year-old Chinese girl.

And if my body won't
cooperate, which it won't.

Because it can't, then I'm allowed to
get, um, surgery to convert me so that

my physical self reflects what I claim.

My spiritual reality is love is love.

Well, that's a spiritual claim.

That is not a temporal claim.

It's not a physical claim.

Love is love.

Doesn't matter who you love.

No love is bad.

All love is good.

That's a spiritual claim.

Well, if that is true in a spiritual
way, then we should be able to manifest

that truth in the temporal order.

You can marry whoever you want.

That's where we're really running
into trouble because now the truths

that we're messing with are harder
to defend because you can't see them.

Not that they're hard to defend.

They're, but they're
much harder to defend.

You can't take a picture.

You can't put something
on a scale and so on.

They're harder to defend also,
because if, even if you want to

make a scientific or a medical
argument, you are, you are way beyond.

A person is ahead a torso,
two arms and a, and two legs.

You are way beyond that.

Now you have to talk about
chromosomes and we can't see those.

You understand?

And the experts who authoritatively
talk about them are easy to

just discredit and to ignore.

I'll give you an example.

Gender dysphoria used to be considered
a, a, a psychological dysfunction.

I don't think I'm using a misnomer there.

It used to be a psychological
dysfunction based on science.

It was taken off of that list based
on politics, not based on science.

You see?

So even where an argument becomes physical
is rooted in, in, in something temporal.

It is harder to argue and
harder to defend because the

proofs are smaller chromosomes.

Um, medical research, average
people can't interpret medical

research and average people don't
have access to medical research.

And because medical research is,
is in such far proximity to the

average person, it's very easy
to say, Nope, that's political.

Nope, that's nothing.

No, that's meaningless.

Is this peer reviewed?

No, I don't like the
peers who reviewed it.

So that's our real problem, is
the things that we're meddling

with live in the spiritual order.

And because we can mess with
those because we, we think we have

free reign to mess with those,

what we mess with in the spiritual
order gives us manufactured license to

change something in the, in the physical
order, in the temporal order, in the

human order, in the human culture.

And then how do you
push back against that?

How do you push back against that when
people don't even comprehend truth?

To push back against that, you have
to start in the spiritual order.

Metaphysics, philosophy,
scripture, whatever.

You have to start there so that
you can, so that what's med?

You have to fix what's
spiritually disfigured, right?

You have to fix a disfigurement on,
on the spiritual level so that you can

correct what the spiritual disfigurement
affected in the physical order.

You understand?

Because that's, that's the progression.

How do you address something that's
disfigured in the spiritual order?

Gender is fluid.

How do you correct that when
understanding the truth of it?

Requires a set of tools, a, a
facility, an intellectual facility

that people no longer have.

It's easy to destroy.

It's very hard to rebuild.

It's easy to disfigure a truth.

It's easy to come up with an
abstraction from a whole truth.

It's harder for that abstraction or
for that error to be corrected or,

as I always say, the truth doesn't
fit in a tweet, but challenges

to the truth very comfortably do.

It's easy to destroy,
it's hard to rebuild.

It's easy to meddle with
something in the spiritual order.

It's hard to correct someone's
error with what they've meddled

with in the spiritual order.

Whew.

Boy, that was a mouthful, man.

Lemme just go right back to
the chat room again, please.

Thank you.

Ella says, I will need to
oversimplify this, but it's rare

that you can change someone's mind.

Yeah.

What's doable is convincing someone that
their existing values already align with

yours more than other people's values.

How to be Catholic says those
convinced against their will

are of the same opinion.

Still, I feel like I, I'm, I'm jumping
into a conversation in the chat room

and I don't know what it is 'cause
I'm not quite understanding what

they're saying, but that's okay.

Ella says, both Pope Benedict and
Pope Francis touched on something,

approximating this in their encyclicals.

Telling the truth is an act of Christian
charity, a hundred percent not so fun.

Fact, US Army geneticists
refuse to acknowledge the

biological reality of two sexes.

US Army is unbelievable.

Yeah.

I did a show on that once,
about a year or so ago.

Um,

it, it's, it is just unbelievable.

And, and in, in part, I'm
gonna tell you the truth.

I, I blame, I blame the Catholic church.

Not, not the, not this Capital C Church,
but listen, in the church, we're even

afraid to press the father component,

um, of God the father.

We're too, we're, we're sometimes afraid
to even press that characteristic too

hard because what if people didn't have
a good relationship with their father?

Let's not work that angle too hard.

We're just, we're afraid of absolutely
everything in the modern church.

It's, it's disgusting.

We're afraid of everything.

This doesn't come down from
like the Vatican or anything.

This is just what I've experienced

probably over the past 15, 20 years.

Different diocese and parishes.

It, it's not like widespread,
but I do hear it don't work.

The the father angle too much.

They're not saying don't, they're
not saying make God a mother,

but they're saying don't work.

The, the father Cate is too much.

'cause what if people had a bad
relationship with their father?

We're afraid of that now too.

Holy shit.

We're really afraid of that now too.

Oh my God.

Holy cow.

I mean, we are just so crippled
by fear in the modern church.

And so when people say love is love,
which I wish that were true 'cause it's

a lovely thought, but it's just not true.

When people say love is love and
there is, there are few or no one

in the church chiming in saying,
Hmm, it's really not, there is

such a thing as a disordered love.

There is such a thing as a
disordered affection, and it's

not just gay people either.

There is such a thing as a love
that is disordered affection.

That is disordered.

That's just true.

But don't say that 'cause
you might offend people.

Okay.

Okay.

Well now you see what you've
got now on this plate.

You can take it back with
you and eat it, my friend.

Because that's why this pile
of shit is on that plate.

Because 20 years ago you should have
been opening your mouth and you didn't.

And in the absence of a voice, speaking
the truth, people have consumed

lies like giant glasses of water.

Okay?

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to have taken it there.

But that's just the truth of the matter.

The human element in the church, and
mostly that means clerics and bishops.

Well, bishops are clerics, but
you know, priests and bishops.

Preachers cas, you really have
to start opening your mouths.

And I know it's hard
because I'm there with you.

I know it's hard, but it's hard
because we've been silent for so long.

So now when you say even a BA,
folks, you have no idea the

basic truths that trigger people.

You have no idea the basic, basic truths
that trigger people Do you know why?

Because they've been permitted to
go their own way without a teacher,

without a voice of truth, and now
they are so far off the trail.

Anything that even pushes them back
on track, they just can't bear it.

The light came into the world and
the world hated it, and they shouted.

Crucify him.

Crucify him.

That's a paraphrase and conflation
of at least three scripture passages.

I.

To paraphrase in a conflation, but
it's not a different truth than what

we were seeing in those scriptures.

How to be Catholic says, great
live stream have gotta bounce.

If you are a practicing
Catholic practice harder.

Who?

Damn, I love that.

If you are a practicing
Catholic practice harder.

I agree.

ELs says, if people had a bad relationship
with their father, that's all the more

reason to introduce them to the capital F.

Father.

That was my experience.

That was exactly what you said, ELs.

That was exactly my experience.

I did not have a good
relationship with my father.

The concept of a perfect father
in heaven did not terrify me.

It gave me hope.

It gave me hope.

It helped to remedy some of those issues.

But honestly, man, we can't go on
living like we're afraid of everything.

I mean, it's, it's just so pathetic and
it's it, and it's really causing a lot

of harm and we just can't go on this way.

We gotta really toughen up.

So this became, this was a, uh, and it
is a, a podcast about, uh, the passing

of the Holy Father, Pope Francis.

And it became something
a little bit different.

I guess that's kind of how I do,
I intend to have like one segment

and it becomes like three segments
of three different things that

are interlinked, but different.

In closing, I'll, I'll, I'll say this.

Um, I am sad that the Holy
Father has passed away, but as I

said at the top of the episode,
um, it's, it's not a surprise.

He was very old.

He was weakening.

Not a surprise.

It is shocking that it ha
just outta the hospital.

Um, I don't know.

I.

I would've expected him to hold on for at
least another year after that, you know?

So it's, it's shocking because
it's so sudden, so abrupt.

Had he passed away in the hospital,
that wouldn't have been shocking, right?

That wouldn't have been shocking.

'cause you feel like that, that's the
progression for someone in his condition.

So, shocking.

Uh, it's sad, but at the
same time it is normal.

It's normal.

He wasn't going to live forever.

He wasn't gonna be Pope forever.

Right.

That's normal,

but shocking.

Nevertheless.

Pay attention to other
Catholic commentators.

What are they saying?

And what do they mean
by what they're saying?

Because they're going to, they're
going to expose themselves

further for who they really are.

Pay attention to what they say about
themselves through their rhetoric.

Pay attention because they're
telling you the truth about

themselves through their rhetoric.

Their words may not be the truth,
but they're telling the truth about

themselves through their rhetoric.

Pay attention to what they
say about themselves and then

never listen to them again.

Don't watch a single stream.

Don't download a single podcast.

Don't read a single paragraph
or a post on social media.

It's an old, uh, bit of wisdom.

You lie down with dogs,
you're gonna get fleas.

You play in a sewer, you are
gonna come out smelling like crap.

I think I swore twice on this episode.

Lemme not make it a third time.

You are gonna smell like crap.

If you play in a sewer, you play in
the mud, you are gonna get muddy.

Listen to them.

When they tell you who they really are,
when they tell the truth about themselves.

Listen, and you should believe them and
then never listen to another word again.

Be hopeful and stay prayerful.

Um.

Lemme just check in with
Catholic News real quick

just to see if there's any
word on like a conclave.

Probably not.

It's ju it's literally the
day of the Pope's death.

They're not gonna be talking
about a conclave, but let's,

there's all kinds of surprises.

So lemme see.

Trump will attend Pope Francis'
funeral death, Pope Francis

live updates, yada yada here.

So whenever the conclave
opens, um, be prayerful, be

hopeful, be excited, be joyful.

There's gonna be a period of
mourning, uh, for Pope Francis.

And then it's going to be a period of,

I guess revival would be a good word.

Renewal.

I don't know.

I, I don't like the word renewal
for this, but revival maybe.

'cause you're coming out of grief.

Right.

Enjoy it.

Let yourself enjoy it.

That's okay.

That doesn't mean you're celebrating,
doesn't mean that you're throwing

a party for Pope Francis' exit.

Right.

Be joyful about the next phase.

It's a little frightening.

It's a little intimidating,

but who the hell told you being
Catholic was going to be easy?

It's not easy to grow,
to be, to be like God.

It's hard.

It's painful.

If anyone told you that was going
to be easy, like tiptoeing through

the tulips, they lied to you,
you shouldn't be their friends.

Let's get outta here.

Remember to pray for the repose
of the Holy Father, Pope Francis.

Pray for his soul.

You don't know, he might
be in purgatory right now.

Maybe he'll be there for 10 minutes.

Maybe he'll be there for 10 days.

Who knows?

Pray for his repose.

His prayers are gonna do a lot more for us
in heaven than they ever could down here.

Okay, this has been the
Catholic Adventurer Podcast.

I will probably.

Provide this, um, to everybody
on the public stream.

The public podcast is called The Catholic
Experience on iTunes and Spotify and such.

Um, I might like shorten it
down for the public stream.

The full episode video is
available to paid subscribers.

Speaking of subscribing, if you are
not subscribed to my substack free or

paid, I encourage you to please consider
it catholic adventurer.substack.com.

God bless you too,
Ellis and God bless you.

Dominic, I'm sorry I
forgot to shout you out.

Dominic, join me in the chat room just
as I'm about to close the show here.

I thank you to those others.

There's, there's quite a number of
you, uh, in the live chat today.

Thank you for joining me.

I hope you enjoyed the show.

Hope you liked what you received.

Please keep me and my family in your
prayers and I'll keep you in ours

Catholic adventurous signing outta here.

God bless you.

God be with you all.

Bye-bye.