Parish Life, Squirrels, And Ministry From Prayer Not The Algorithm (Season 4 Episode 9)

We catch up on real parish life with Father Stephen Sanchez, from the labor of so many First Communions and Confirmations to what it means to shepherd a loving, very poor community on a shoestring budget. Along the way we laugh about tomato-stealing squirrels and get serious about grief, memory, and why Catholic “content” only works when it flows from a deep spiritual life. 

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Transcript

Welcome And How To Support

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to the My Friend the Friar podcast, and thanks for listening. If you like My Friend the Friar and want to support us, please consider subscribing or following us if you haven't already done so. And if you found us on YouTube, then don't forget to click the notification bell when you subscribe so you'll be notified of new episodes when they release. Thanks again and God bless.

Cats, Coffee, And Catching Up

SPEAKER_04 0:26

I forgot to close the door. Hold on. It's gonna be one of those. Yeah, I can't totally close the door because then the cats will be like banging on the door trying to get in. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining me and my friend the Friar, Father Stephen Sanchez, a discalced Carmelite, priest. Good morning, Father. Yeah. So um we're just chatting. We're just catching up. I haven't seen you in forever, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

I know you've been busy, I've been busy, you've been traveling, I've been traveling.

SPEAKER_04 1:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And um, as you so uh astutely noticed right before I hit record, you stepped in carrying it. There's cat vomit in the hall, and I'm like, what the heck? So um oh my gosh. I just don't even know. And I've been dealing with work stuff since about five in the morning. So that's fun. But I've kind of got it all settled down, so that's good. Um most of the fires are out, or at least continue. Yeah, everything's smoldering, but it's yeah, it's not out yet, but I can take time to talk to you. Good. I've got my third cup of coffee, so okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

You're ahead of me by one.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

Oh, well, come on, man. Normally you're the one who drinks more than me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is true. Yeah. Today's the kind of day I will I will just have an acids and stuff to fight the potential heartburn. I need the coffee. So, um goodness, what have you been up to? Uh like yeah. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

I'm what's going on, man?

Sacramental Season And Parish Demands

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I was looking forward to Pentecost because I thought Pentecost would be uh a uh respite, but no, still going at it. Uh there's a lot of uh first communion retreats, first communion uh confessions, then uh graduations from eighth grade, both schools, graduation masses, uh, and then also confirmations, getting ready for confirmations, confirmation retreats, confirmation confessions. It's just been crazy. It's been crazy. Uh uh so then Pentecost, and so then I've got um I've got our Lady of Mont Carmel Novena coming up on the 16th, so I have to prepare for that. I'm preparing the mass schedules, the house schedules, the um end of the quarter financials. It's been interesting.

St. Mary Of Carmel’s Story

SPEAKER_04 3:32

What's the name of the parish that you all serve?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

St. Mary of Carmel.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

Oh how appropriate. Yes. So did it do you know the history of the the parish? Like was it was it there before the um friary, before the monastery?

SPEAKER_01 3:49

No, it was something that uh we founded actually. We were administering the parish, the old Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in downtown Dallas. And then one of our priests um started a mission on the wrong side of the Trinity, uh, on the poor side of the Trinity, and for the poor uh migrant children, uh started a school and a parish, a little mission parish, a little mission school, and finally got established. So that was in the 40s. So we've been administers of the parish since the 40s, uh, but it's a diocesan parish. But uh we've been there since then, since the very beginning.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

Dude, have they ever had a non-Carmelite friar pastor? Nope. Nope. That's pretty cool. Bertha's joined us, her tail is right up in front of the camera. Um just been busy with that parish. Excuse me? How big is the parish? How many families? How many people do you know?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

I wouldn't say it's huge. I'd say maybe six to seven hundred families.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

That's a good size, though.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Yeah. Mostly I'd say 90% Hispanic. Uh a lot of them come from outside the territory. A lot of them, it's more of a heritage kind of a parish in that uh people come back, even though they move away, they come back or they move out of the area. They come back. Some people travel 40-45 minutes uh to come to the church. Because this is where they grew up, or this is where they went to school, or some connection, their family or something. So yeah, they're very, very loving community, very supportive, very um service-oriented, very poor, very, very, very poor parish. Um so we it's sort of like a uh shoestring budget, right? So it's sort of like uh we have to depend on volunteers for almost everything. Uh we we don't really have, we only have one full-time staff in the office, um, one part-time staff in the office. Um we have uh part-time, two part-time uh caretakers that help clean uh the property and stuff and the the church and the the old rectory. So it's it's um yeah. Hand to mouth kind of perish. You you watch every penny.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna come back to that later. Uh because I did write down some things that I've wanna I just want to catch up with you and talk to you about. But there's something it's funny that you're saying all that because one of the things down on my like, hey, here's a if you forget like things to talk about, don't forget you wanted to talk about this. There's something I'm gonna come back to. So that that's really kind of interesting.

Directing A Priest Retreat At Deer Run

SPEAKER_04 6:58

Um you just took a trip. Where did you go? Maybe a little plug for the place because that place was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Oh yes. I took a couple of days to go and direct a retreat, uh, a priest uh retreat uh outside of uh Fort Worth, south of Fort Worth in Cleburn. It's um retreat center for priests, and so yeah, it was established by it is established by this family, this couple, um, this family, and they've they subsidize it. So they've built this place, they've got hermitages, really nice uh uh little cabins, a central uh dining area, they have a chapel, a private chapel. Uh so yeah, and it's it's I don't know how many acres. They've got lots of acres, they've got lots of acres on their side of the they have their own property, and then they dedicated this acreage for this uh retreat center for priests. So yeah, that's where I was.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

And it looked like it looked like some of the cabins were kind of on top of a a hill, almost like they were kind of on still balcony, so maybe they were just like, Well, you can't really do a lot with this kind of property land, so let's figure out how we can do something with it.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yeah, it's very nice. I mean, you look out into a valley uh along the fence line, and so I sent you some pictures and some videos, and so yeah, it was it was very nice. Uh relaxing.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

Betty was like, all the statues and paintings, she's like, Well, who is that? Who's that? Who's that? Why is it purple? And I was like, I don't know. And she's like, Well, ask Father Stephen. Well, he's busy, he's not there just like twiddling his thumbs, but I'll see if he knows any of them. But where is there any uh is there anyone, any saint that it was kind of like um uh maybe dedicated to? Uh dedicated to, thanks. I can think of the word.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Yeah, it's still early. Uh yeah. No, uh, it's the chapel is the chapel to the holy family. Uh but the the whole it's called uh Deer Run. So it's it's is uh beautiful out out there, and just you know, just we're just like five minutes away from Cleburne State Park, so very nice.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Yeah, really nice. Well, any priests who maybe listen to us, you need to go find them take a visit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anything been going on at at uh Mount Carmel? You still I still see that drill behind you, you still drilling holes in prison walls or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

To hang my hang my artwork, yeah, yeah. But nothing nothing major is going on, just same old, same old same old, just administration, day-to-day stuff.

unknown 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Trying to survive the storms that have been coming through here, which have been really weird. This is such a weird summer.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

Yeah, and it's cloudy right now. It looks like it might rain again today. Yeah.

The Squirrel War And Just War

SPEAKER_04 10:06

Well, well, um, only real kind of update I have is, and I I do want your your your kind of direction, spiritual direction on this, um, is I've declared war on the squirrels um for our garden, but I'm not sure if it's justified. I know there's like the whole like just war kind of um theory, whatever it's called, yeah, theory. So it's like because at this point now they have eaten more tomatoes than we have, um, and they particularly love them when they're green. So literally you can see what's funny is because they're all indeterminate tomatoes, so they're a vine. So we've trellised them all up, and so at the bottom it's like uh you know, like you when you're in like a woodland area and there's lots of deer, you can see like a line from the the foliage where they just can't reach any higher than that, so there's no tomatoes below that line, and then at the top, along the trellis, all the vine well, a lot of the vines have been broken over because the squirrel's trying to get stuff up there. Um, and so like there's this little gap in the middle where there's still some tomatoes left. But you know, the the just war doctrine, it says um, like a war can be justified if the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations, it must be a lasting damage, grave and certain.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

So well, yeah, I think I think the squirrels being an eminent threat to future Gospacho would make this war just.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Um you could Yeah, because we we know it's certain, they're not gonna stop. They're not gonna stop. They're not gonna stop. See, it says uh all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective. I got this little little like snippet from the USCCB. Um you know, we've tried reasoning with the squirrels, we've tried feeding them peanuts instead, see if we can like give them something else that's more in the world.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

So they're not, yeah, it's not it's not that because they're starving, it's because they're being recalcitrant, they're being disobedient, they're being unwilling to negotiate. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're being tyrants. So that was one of the reasons for the just war is the elimination of a tyrant, because the elimination of a tyrant was something that was considered uh overriding all things that you needed to save the society from the tyrant.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

Yeah, here's one. The the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

So that means you could only use pellet guns. A pellet rifle is all you could use. You can't you couldn't use anything other. That's it, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:01

Yeah, maybe or so we've we've started trying like deterrent kind of sprays, things that like either make stuff taste bad or it smells like I don't know, fox urine or something to make them want to go somewhere. Hasn't been very effective so far. Okay. But the last one, and this is where I I wonder if if this war is justified, is there it there must be serious prospects of success. And that's where I just don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yes, I think I think there will be, because I think as you begin to eliminate the eminent threat, then even though squirrels tend to be territorial, they will they're not that stupid. Uh they are smart. Uh they'll know that this is an area where they would be risking their lives so they would not um risk themselves anymore.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Yeah, I think it would be successful. You're saying there's a chance. Yes, there is. Okay. They still haven't touched our onions. Okay. And they still haven't touched our peppers. We we've got lots of serranos and jalapenos. Okay. It's just those tomatoes, man. They're so enticing. I mean, as long as I have your blessing, then I think in fact, I'll come help you if you need. We just go sit in the back and we'll get rocking chairs and pellet guns and drink beer. I have my rifle. Yeah. And we'll just deal with them. We're like, hey, squirrel, come here. Um, oh, poor little things. Betty loves these squirrels too. But it's funny too, like hearing the not trying to, you know, slander my wife on the internet, but like hearing the obscenities being hurled from her mouth at the squirrels as they run off with tomatoes in their mouths and stuff. It's so funny. She's like, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. Because like they used to just come out and sit in her lap in the front, you know, on our little bench and sort of her hand and stuff, and now she's like so. Oh my gosh.

Corpus Christi, Grief, And Family Memories

SPEAKER_04 15:02

Um, yeah, so other than that, I went to Corpus Christi last weekend um to deal with mom stuff. Uh it'd been like a it's just been over a year since mom passed away, and so um, which interesting. Um, so I think, and I could be wrong because I don't I don't live there anymore, but I I feel like Corpus Christi was part of the Galveston diocese. Um but when I went to, but I don't think it used to always be that way, um, like when I was young. And when I was um there this weekend, I went to mass at the church where I grew up, and it was a confirmation Sunday, and so um the bishop of Corpus Christi showed up, and he that's how he introduced himself, not the bishop of the diocese of Galveston Corpus Christi, but just Corpus Christi. And um he said like the the cathedral's getting renovated and he hasn't even seen it yet, and stuff like that. So I wonder if if the parish or the diocese got split, and maybe he's a new bishop.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Because it is the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston, and Corpus would be under Galveston Houston, so they would still be under Galveston Houston, but uh Corpus now is its has its own is his own diocese, so yeah. Yeah. Um but they he would be what they call a suffragan bishop, he would be under the archbishop uh of Galveston Houston, right? And so who's now a retire are the the cardinal is retiring, so we're waiting for a new I think we're waiting for a new uh archbishop for Galveston Houston.

SPEAKER_04 16:48

Well anyway, so like I said, I've been I went down to Corpus this weekend, deal with mom stuff. It's been about a year. All my siblings went down. Um and uh and you know, I was I had a certain uh degree of I don't know, stress. Uh, you know, but nobody gets on your nerves like your siblings. Of course. So they know all the buttons. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, oh, this is gonna be more fun than it really ever needs to be. But it ended up being really enjoyable. It was a good, pleasant um visit. Side note, because mom liked this stuff, and that's the only reason I looked. Um, we're over 8,000 downloads now, and the amount of countries that we've been downloaded in has jumped to 110 countries. Whoa. Yeah, I was like, whoa, when did that happen? No idea, haven't been looking for a long time. Um okay. Anyway, that that's pretty cool. Um, but yeah, so it was it was a fun, it was fun just getting to to hang out with my siblings. And and we, you know, we went to the cemetery, we brought mom and dad flowers, we went to the beach, took like a group photo, we went to mom's favorite Mexican food place, you know, for dinner one night and stuff like that. So it was it was good. Um I got a lot of um things that I took back with me is I found my dad's um baptism candle when he converted. Um and so question for you what do I do with that? Like, should I just light it and let it burn down? Or like is it a sacramental thing that it's like you gotta burn it or bury it, or it's just it's yeah, I would consider it sacramental.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

I would just keep it. Um right, uh maybe light it on their anniversary for a little you know prayer or something, but yeah. Yeah, my mom used to have my first communion candle, like I only knows what happened to it, but yeah. Uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

And then I also found um my dad had a brown scapular, so I was like, oh, cool. So I got that. Um, and then just the kind of other various little things. Um, mom had a record collection, she left it to me, and so I was like, I don't need a hundred thousand records from the 60s or whatever. And so I went and picked a couple, and then I told my brothers and sisters, Oh, y'all y'all go pick now, and everyone's like, Oh, look at this one. I'm like, take it, take it, take it. So it was fun, it was fun. Um kind of dealing with that, and and uh the it's a long drive, it was like a seven-hour drive down in the seven-hour drive back from Dallas, and so I was just thinking about a lot of stuff, right? Like Betty's getting close to retirement. Um, Sophia's getting her first apartment this fall. Um so it's like all those kinds of things are transitioning, I guess, making me yeah, it's making me nostalgic. And you know what I mean? And so it's like it's weird because it's sometimes it feels like it's so long ago, and sometimes it feels like it couldn't have possibly been that long ago. It was just like yesterday, you know what I mean? When you start thinking about stuff. Um and like pictures, oh my gosh, there's so many pictures. Mom had photo albums and photo albums. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 19:57

What's a picture?

SPEAKER_04 19:58

Yeah, and so it's really it was interesting though, because like looking at the pictures, especially like little kid pictures and stuff, it it kind of made me stop and think about like who I was then, who am I now? Like, have I really changed that much? Like, am I a fuller version of myself as I've grown up, or like have I maybe lost things along the way, you know, just going through life?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Um true and true, probably both are true, probably.

SPEAKER_04 20:29

Yeah, um, it kind of makes me think like um so I'm also listening to the audiobook version of the Lord of the Rings right now when I go for walks. And um it because I'm thinking or reading or listening to the to the stories, it made me think of like the ent's because the ants kind of like are they like are waking up from their kind of not engaging with the world and they're like remembering how strong they are and they go off and fight Sauron and you know what I mean, um and participate. So it's like I don't know, it's kind of making me wonder like am I waking up and remembering things about myself and and whatnot? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

I think that's good. I think part of part of our journey, right, and part of the fullness of the person is remembering where we've come from, integrating that into our lives, right? Obviously, um whatever bad parts, whatever traumas we've survived, uh to also look at them and go like, okay, uh that wasn't such a great space, but from there, there has been something that has helped me in my own journey, my own growth. Hopefully, if you know, if I've been able to integrate and make peace with some of those things and recognize. I think it's very helpful to remember where we're coming from or remember where our roots are. And helps us understand who we are now. And as we move forward, hopefully to make better decisions and decisions that continue to lead us to a fuller humane personality.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

So good.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

It's good to do those things.

Formation Stories And Carmelite Mentors

SPEAKER_04 22:39

Like what year?

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Uh 83.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

Oh my goodness. You were like 12 years old. How'd you join when you were so young? How many friars were there when you joined? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 22:55

No. My class was um six.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

Wow. And look at you. Because you joined here in Dallas, right? No. In San Antonio. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

I entered in San Antonio.

SPEAKER_04 23:09

That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

And there were in the house, as far as I remember, that might have been six, seven, eight friars. I don't really remember. It was very weird, scary kind of a thing, right? Uh so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

How many do you how many do you think were in the whole province?

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Between 30, I think probably around 30, 20 to 30. I'm not re I don't remember that well. I don't I don't I didn't get to see that many as in the beginning. Because we were in formation, so people in formation are always isolated from everybody else. So uh yeah. It was interesting. I remember being in San Antonio when I entered the monastery there at the basilica. Well, back then it was the shrine, the shrine of Our Lady of Mont Carmel and Saint Therese. Uh there in West San Antonio. As a postulant, that was the first um step. Uh six months as a postulant. I remember we used to sit next door to next door in the refractory. In the refectory, in the kitchen, in the dining room. I used to sit next to Father Sebastian Valles, who used to be uh the provincial older gentleman, now he was in his eighties, beautiful baritone voice. Oh my god, he used to love to hear him sing and chant uh the mass. But uh very uh warm, generous man. And uh then there was Father Raymond who was the provincial, and the only way you can describe Father Raymond is imagine Yosemite Sam in a Carmelite habit, and that's basically that's who basically Father Raymond was. It was uh interesting, very interesting.

SPEAKER_04 25:01

So um did he have a spectacular mustache too, or just the personality?

SPEAKER_01 25:05

The personality, the personality, the boots and the personality, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

We're uh were um was it a semi-province still, or was the population such that it was a full province?

SPEAKER_01 25:21

It was a full province back then, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:24

Yeah. Who um who was your your best friend, the friar? Like who who like along the way, and and it like is he still alive or when did he pass away if if he's not alive still?

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Um a close friend of mine information um was one of my classmates, uh Eugene brother um Eugene Mossberg, who's left the Order after Salembao is now married and has four or five kids living in Oklahoma City. Um wow, but he and I were close, and as far as the older friars, um I was closest to one of the some of the older friars, one was Father uh Juan Emanuel from Spain, uh and also then later Father Gabriel Hintrick, uh older friar German background. Those were the ones that I was in term more friendly with and familiar with. And then probably my closest relationship was one of the older friars, Father Raul Reis, who was and is my spiritual director. He's in his butt he's about 85 now. Um and he's from Uvalde, but so you know he was back when I was in formation, he was a provincial for a while, a couple times. Um so yeah, he was really, really hard on me, but he needed to be hard on me because that's just who I am.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Yeah, some of us need to get a little whack upside the back of the head every now and then.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Yeah, and he was the one that would do that. So yeah, yeah.

Online Catholic Content And Losing The Point

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Um we've been talking for a little bit. I don't want to I don't want to forget the circling back to what you were saying at the the beginning. I'm curious now what you think. So this is like the kind of stuff I you know when you're sitting in a car for seven hours and with nobody but yourself, you do a lot of I do a lot of thinking, I guess I shouldn't say everyone does, but I I do a lot of thinking, and so um I a real I I've been noticing lately that there's like a lot of people interested in creating like online Catholic content, which I think is is great. I think it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

There's a lot of like everybody, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:09

Um and like with us, we've always said we're just boys in the garage playing with our toys, right? Like this is this is about our friendship and learning a little bit, you know, about our faith. We're not we're not trying to do anything like super serious, right? I want people to know that y'all are still here in this part of the world. Um as as uh kind of obscure as as you guys seem to be. I'm still shocked at how many people in Dal's call. I didn't know there was a Carmelite monastery and stuff, which I guess means you guys are either doing something right or you're not doing something right, but I think you're doing something right. Um anyway, so I kind of wonder if like we're missing when I say we uh people who create online Catholic content, um if we're kind of missing the point, um the internet seems to be this really good way of losing sight of things. Oh yeah, I think so. So I'm gonna kind of let me elaborate that thought. So it's like because I'm not saying we should like stop making the podcast or anything like that. Um, because it's fun, it's a reason to hang out. But like what would happen if everyone who makes online Catholic content, if they stopped making that content for like one year, and all of the time and effort that they devote to making cot content, if they spent that time doing something offline for the church. Um like um I went to the Council of Trent uh conference the other, I don't know, the other month, whenever it was.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Explain explain what that is. Who is who is Trent? Because oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, because he he named it the Council of Trent, but it's not you didn't go back in time. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:57

No, no, no, no, no. So Trent Horn had he's uh he's an apologist for Catholic answers. Um write he's writes books. I've got some of his books too. Um does really good work, a really good apologist. Um I've seen him my favorite thing about him is I think he very charitably interacts with people. So um it's not very argumentative, it's way more conversational kind of thing. Um anyway, so his his podcast is called The Council of Trent, so that's why he had the Council of Trent conference, and um, so very, very catchy. But anyway, so there's a lot of content creators there that were kind of sharing stories and talking about stuff, but somebody quoted at this conf count yeah, at this conference, um somebody quoted this other guy. His name is Keith Nestor, and he also he creates content. He was like a Protestant pastor converted to Catholicism, you know, back in the day, kind of thing. And um, I like his stuff too. He's a very approachable down-to-earth kind of average Joe kind of thing, or kind of guy. But anyway, the quote that so whoever quoted him, the the quote was, your content should come from an overflow of your spiritual life. I was like, oh, that's really I like that. There's something there. Like, I'm gonna think about that. But the more I think about it, and this now goes back to what I was saying, what if everyone takes would take a year offline and do something offline? The the word content is the thing that bothers me because it's like it makes me feel like something's wrong. Like, should it have should should he have instead said your ministry should come from an overflow of your spiritual life or your service should come from an overflow of your spiritual life? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 31:45

No, but I think I think you're touching on something that I myself have I struggle with, right? And when we began this, remember the whole conversation you and I had in terms of like I don't want to get caught up into algorithms and worrying about this and worrying about that, and like no, I'm not gonna do no, I'm not gonna get into platforms. I I don't want to have anything to do with any of that. I I just I'm not interested in any of that. But that idea of content is a matter of how to me the implication or the inference is what can I sell? I'm selling a product. Yeah, yeah, I'm selling a product. Yeah, yeah. I'm selling a product, and what is it that I want to sell? When you and I began this and you talked me into this, uh it was more about just basically just talking about our faith, sharing our faith, something that you and I really enjoy and we love, and we get into. And again, I've had to learn to really filter myself because this is not the way I like to talk. Yeah. And so uh again, learning how to do this, and basically, so my problem is that a lot of people get caught up in um trying to sell and have more hits and more people to sign on and stuff, and so then they wind up, I don't say selling their souls to the devil, but because that would be a judgment. But uh it's a matter of they get people get lost in chasing the numbers, right? And it shouldn't be that, it should be really like okay, this is what we're talking about. We want other people to come to know who the Lord is and to really understand the fullness of the truth that resides within the church. Um, and if they're interested in that, uh discuss the richness of the church because there is so much richness in our in our heritage, in our patrimony, you know, 2,000 years of of the theology and philosophy and uh uh lights, uh doctors of the church, uh great thinkers. I mean, this is all something that I think is very beautiful and wonderful about our our our community of faith. And so when we people start talking about content, I just find it I find it distasteful for me. It just doesn't, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth because to me I was just gonna say it tastes bad. Yeah, it to me it just speaks of I'm trying to sell something. And so then how are we gonna do this? You know, I need to worry about how's he gonna present, what's the narrative, what is the perspective, you know, what do I need to do? And I'm like, okay, I understand that there that you know you want to make it approachable, but I think people can get lost in the logistics and the again, chasing the algorithm. How how can I how can I and sometimes, and this is this is a judgment, there are some content creators, not necessarily Catholic content creators, but there are content creators that are chasing the monetization, they're chasing the dollar.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

This because this is how they make their living, and so right, and then and that's the thing, there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting with desiring to make a living uh sharing Jesus with people. Like there's nothing inherently wrong with that. No, there's nothing inherently wrong with the internet, but again, I think the internet's a good way for us to lose sight of what really matters. And like, what if everybody just got offline and went down to the parish and spent their 20, 30 hours a week j just asking father, what do y'all need done around here? You know what I mean? Or like what going and and uh minister ministering or sharing in real life versus online, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:51

And I think I think there's been a lot of um within our community, and by our community, I mean the Catholic community, uh, there have been some people who get caught up in their own. In fact, I just had this conversation yesterday with somebody. People get caught up in their own hype and they wind up getting distracted by their own popularity, and then they wind up straying and leaving the church or doing something stupid. Um what was the name of that priest? Um he had a black he turned into the black sheep, something or other. Uh he was famous for being a convert and leaving his lifestyle behind from Las Vegas, and he used to be very proud about his sinful past and blah blah blah. And so he was he had all this huge following. Then uh eventually he wound up straying, thawing, embezzling money, and and again chasing, chasing things. I I thought it was very significant when one somebody showed me uh a video clip of of him that all of a sudden he'd gone from gray to jet black hair and jet black beard and mustache, like okay, this this this is not boding well. So and there's been others that like okay, you're you're you get lost in your own popularity, and and it's not about the Lord anymore, it's mostly about okay, how can I how can how can I keep um attracting attention, right? It's like the danger in that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

And I know like is it karate? Is it karate? Karopi, that's what just came to my head. Maybe I'll let you go look. I don't remember him. Yeah, like just thinking about that. I know too, like for us, we um because again, we don't know what we're doing, and we're not trying to get rich doing this, so it's like for a good long time, like we had content, I guess, every week, right? And uh it's every other week, and like there's a reason I think uh you know, life happened, like we've gone through a whole bunch of things lately, but it's I would rather us just capture our genuine love for each other and our faith, and that is when it is appropriate to to like share it than to go chasing an algorithm making sure that you've got something every single week or whatever, whatever. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 38:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was Father John Crappy. So yeah, and there have been others, and there are others who um are chasing, they're chasing a particular niche, they're chasing a particular um spirituality or stance, and look chasing chasing the money that can be found in those things, and like ugh, that's not what it's about, but okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

And I think well, well, there's like using Trent Horn as an example, I'm sure him and several other um online like apologists, content creators, whatever, have helped bring a lot of people to the faith, yeah, or deepen their faith, like and God bless them all, right? Um, but that should never I I think it should give someone pause if that is more attractive than being brother Lawrence in the kitchen, right? Oh, definitely that we need to always step back and go, you know what? Why don't I go get on my hands and knees and scrub a floor or something? Like God can work through that.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

But it's it's it's the brother Lawrence in the kitchen, it's the it's the abuelitas in the church where you know praying the rosary. Those are the ones that are maintaining the church. Those are the ones that is that is the heart of the church, that is the the center, the heart, the the prayerful heart, right? And I think it's very, very important that that is something that needs to be emphasized. That it's not about popularity, it's not about I don't know what it is about uh wanting to make uh a mark, right? I I want to do something great for God. Like, yeah, just change your heart. That that that's that's all it takes. And you'll do something great for God. But I think it's more about um it's not so much about doing something for God as much as it is I want to be noticed, and that's what that's what I find kind of off-putting, right? And for me, I mean I I I find it I find it very um irritating. There's people, uh Catholics, that are using the faith uh to promote themselves. Or uh one of the things that that turns me off is to see some one who is a priest and and is not aware of the weight of their office and their word and saying hateful things or saying things that are things saying things that are disparaging or saying things that are divisive or right, uh, and I think that that's irresponsible. I just find it irresponsible and I just I just it just turns me off and I just can't I can't deal with it. I just I just shut shut it down like nope, I can't watch this because yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:25

Well the same for the I I would from my perspective too, which I 100% agree with you, I I would say the same thing for the laity. Oh yeah. The laity there is no church without the laity either, so it's like we have an office, so to speak, right? Like we have an obligation to not be divisive in the body of Christ and and all that kind of stuff. And I don't know, and I like just thinking about what you're sharing at the beginning, I think how beautiful is that your the parish that y'all serve has lasted for so long, and it's probably been hand-to-mouth the whole time. Yep. Yeah, and that's probably the way it exactly the way it needs to be. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?

unknown 42:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

In fact, you know, we always like, okay, so we're gonna be having a finance committee, a finance council meeting this coming Saturday to approve the budget for next year. And I and so our budget is like, you know, one-tenth the budget of a parish in in the north side of Dallas. And so, and for us, it's really like okay, can we afford this? Like, well, we're gonna have to afford this because we need this.

SPEAKER_04 42:29

So yeah, I don't know, like it just I don't even know what I would do. Um, I I I I can tell you this much, my initial response would be to be turned off somehow. Um if I don't know, you you and I released some episode that went viral and had like millions of listens or whatever, and like we got big somehow. Something about that would turn me off. I think it's maybe the fear of getting lost. You know what I mean? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

It would be it would it would be cause to pause.

SPEAKER_04 43:08

Yeah, yeah. That's not to say that anyone who enjoys listening to us shouldn't share. It's just you know, there's I think we we all need to be contemplative.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Right, but I think I think part of it and for me it's it's being responsible. I think a lot of people are not responsible. And a lot of people use the platform, any platform, to push their agenda, to push their preference, and not really enter into dialogue or enter in enter or address the faith, our faith, in terms of what is the overall teaching, what is what is the teaching of the church, and what you know, there are parameters, and so there's this wide parameter that you're allowed to to wander around and investigate. And so, yeah, and that's completely permissible. That that's absolutely permissible to to do that. So yeah.

Final Thoughts And Goodbye

SPEAKER_04 44:07

Well, Father, I see we've been talking for a little bit and I need to go get checking back on stuff. So um, I think this is probably a good place for us to go make sure that the smoldering fire hasn't. Yeah, it's like uh have you seen the the meme, I guess, thing where there's like the little dog drinking coffee in the kitchen, but like everything's on fire around him. This is fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's that's probably what I'm gonna go back to. So anyway, okay. All right, well, I love you. Thanks for spending a little time with me. Love you, um, and we gotta get together soon. We gotta go get a cheeseburger or something.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Yeah. So and maybe record it, record our theological discussions while we have our cheeseburger and beer. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_04 44:49

Okay, okay. Well, everyone, thanks for joining us, and uh, Father, I'll see you soon. I hope. God bless. All right, bye bye.