73. From Methodist to Catholic: Learning to be a digital disciple - Kyle Whittington of the Catholic Creator Conference

Kyle Whittington: From a Teen Trip to Europe to Founding the Catholic Creator Conference

Host Sheila Nonato has a candid conversation with Kyle Whittington—father of five, Air Force veteran, and founder of the Catholic Creator Conference in Steubenville, Ohio—on conversion and digital evangelization. Kyle recounts growing up around various Protestant churches, and then encountering Catholic beauty at Notre Dame and Rome on a 2008 People to People trip in his mid-teen years.

He is later drawn to attend Mass through a Catholic schoolmate, via the offer of a free pizza, and a profound realization of the Eucharist as the real presence of Jesus. After recognizing he had “converted internally,” he entered the Church at the 2010 Easter Vigil. He met his wife Julia at the Franciscan Universityof Steubenville, served 10 years in the Air Force, and later helped build Catholic Creator Conference, and creator collaboration through this in-person conference aimed at reducing online conflict and strengthening evangelization across platforms.

HIGHLIGHTS
00:00 Europe Trip Awakening
01:22 Conversion Theme Intro
02:29 St Patrick Episode Setup
03:57 Show Intro And Prayer
05:20 Kyle's Background and The Catholic Creator Conference
06:39 How it all began
11:33 Why In-Person Community Matters
14:25 A Trip to Rome And Pope Leo On the Digital Mission
16:26 Speaker Lineup: What can we expect?
18:47 Bigger Venue Tickets And Studios
20:57 Application Rules And Catholic Unity
25:41 Kyle's Unlikely Conversion
27:08 Europe Beauty And Vatican Moment
29:25 Pizza Invite, First Holy Mass And Eucharist
32:00 How he told his parents
34:11 Steps towards conversion
35:07 Meeting his wife, Julia
37:57 Air Force And Deployment
39:45 Faith In The Military
41:30 Why Steubenville Matters
47:28 Chestertons Cigar & Co. And Masculinity
54:33 Debate Club Brotherhood
57:33 Creators Beyond Apologetics
59:31 Conference Details And to Register

To register for the conference:

https://catholiccreatorconference.com

Kyle Whittington on social media:

https://www.youtube.com/@Catholickyle

https://www.x.com/@Catholickyle

Thank you very much for joining us this week! If this episode helped you in some way, please feel free to share with a fellow Catholic mom or a friend who'd like to attend the conference! Hope to see you there!

Transcript

Kyle Whittington 0:00

OPENING CLIP #1: When I was 16 years old, I got the chance to go, uh, in the U.S. we have this, uh, Student Ambassador program that President Eisenhower started, called "People to People" and whenever I was 16, I got the chance to go on a people to people trip to Europe. From, like, June 1st to June 20th or something like that of 2008, I got to go spend, I, we, we landed in Paris and we ended in Athens, and we hit everywhere in between basically.

Kyle Whittington 0:26

So the first Catholic church that I ever stepped foot in was actually Notre Dame in Paris. Um, and that was kind of like my first like, encounter with the beauty of it, uh, which was really cool. But yeah. And then later on we, we did go to Rome. And afterwards I asked, uh, Tyler, my, who eventually became my godfather, like Tyler was, uh, was this, was this girl's older brother too. So I was like, uh, Tyler, what was that? Can you explain that to me? And he was like, oh, yeah, well that's, you know, that piece of bread that the priest was holding up became actually Jesus. And I'm like, yeah, but yeah, like, "Y'all don't like believe that because that's kind of crazy."

Kyle Whittington 1:00

And he's like, "No, no, no. We, we believe that that is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ physically present." And I was just like, "Wow. Okay, so what now?" "Well, now we go get pizza." I was like, "Okay, cool." So, you know, the community was great and I kept coming back, kept coming back, and then, you know, I, I kind of started feeling this pull, like maybe I should, no, I can't. Catholics are crazy, but these are good people. No, but they're crazy. I can't convert.

Sheila Nonato 1:22

FIRST INTRO: Do you remember your first experience of God? Was it like St. Paul's radical discovery on the road to Damascus, or was it a gentle revelation like the disciples on the road to Emmaus? We each have our own unique conversion stories, yet we follow the same path, the path to the cross and the call to evangelization in our own way, in our own life journeys. This week we take a look at an interview I conducted in November with Kyle Whittington, a father of five, an American Air Force veteran, and the founder and main organizer of the Catholic Creator Conference in Steubenville, Ohio.

Sheila Nonato 2:07

And this May, it will be the third Catholic Creator conference. How did his call to Jesus and the Catholic Church become a mission to digital evangelization, and bringing other digital disciples together to speak about Jesus, and take the culture back for Christ? Thank you very much for joining us this week, Sisters in Christ. Thank you and God bless.

Sheila Nonato 2:30

SECOND INTRO: Hello and welcome to the Veil + Armour Podcast. And this week we are celebrating St. Patrick, the patron state of Ireland, who converted the country from Paganism towards Christianity. We are going to be continuing on the theme of conversion, and we're gonna be looking at the conversion story of Kyle Whittington, the founder and organizer of the Catholic Creator Conference, and whatever you may be hearing from social media right now about the conference. It's, uh, about two months before the conference and there has been some chatter about it, some controversy, but please have an open mind and let's hear what Kyle has to say. Let's hear his own story of how he came to Christ, how he came to the Catholic church, and why this conference is such an important endeavor, such an important meeting, gathering of Catholics who want to be digital missionaries to spread the Gospel.

Sheila Nonato 3:31

And I wish you a blessed St. Patrick's Day. And as we all know, it's not just about green beer. We're celebrating the patron Saint of Ireland, a formidable saint who has brought many, many conversions. And we, uh, ask him to intercede for us on this day on his Feast day. And, uh, please do have a listen to podcast episode, Mr. Kyle Whittington. Here's his story. Thank you + God Bless. Hello and welcome to the Veil + Armour podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay at home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of our lady. I strive to tell stories that inspire. Illuminate and enrich the lives of Catholic women to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints.

Sheila Nonato 4:25

Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour Podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist lens and mother's heart. So, welcome sisters in Christ to the Veil and Armour podcast, and we have very special guest, Kyle Whittington, the organizer, the brain, you know, the, the one who came up with the Catholic Creator Conference. Um, he's a Catholic genius in my opinion. Um, just bringing all these, uh, brilliant minds together, uh, who want to evangelize for, for Christ. Um, would you like to start off with a prayer, please?

Kyle Whittington 4:58

Sure, sure. Why don't you go ahead and lead.

Sheila Nonato 5:01

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Ah, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord Is with thee, Blessed art thou amongst women. And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Kyle Whittington 5:13

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Amen. In Name The Father and the son of the Holy Spirit. Ah, Amen.

Sheila Nonato 5:20

And I just wanted to introduce listeners to Kyle and pardon my reading. So Kyle Winnington grew up in a rural town in Oklahoma and he converted to the Catholic faith at 18. He went to Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he met his wife Julia. And after running out of money after two semesters, he joined the U.S. Air Force. So thank you for your service, sir. Mm-hmm. He was there for 10 years. Almost by accident. He started a YouTube channel and started connecting with Catholics on YouTube in 2024, he and his business partner Drew, Drew Lowen. Is that how you pronounce his name?

Kyle Whittington 5:55

Yeah, Loen.

Sheila Nonato 5:57

launched a Catholic Creator conference. He currently lives in Steubenville, Ohio with his wife and five children where he now works full-time on planning the next conferences and consulting with creators and apostolates on social media strategy. Okay. So we were, my family and I were there specifically me because I was the one registered, but my family came along to that conference last year. My kids have not stopped talking about Steubenville. They wanna go back. And I'm like, "Okay. It's, it's a great place. But, uh, yeah, we live in Canada," so, but anyway. But now you're like converting them to, uh, to America. Can you tell us, first of all. Start off with a conference. Like where, where did this idea come from? How did this all come about?

Kyle Whittington 6:39

Yeah, so, um, it actually kind of started off with, um, that in-person debate that Matt Fradd hosted between Gavin Ortlund and Trent Horn. Um, at the time I had, you know, was running a very small YouTube channel, but I'd already connected with some people like Noah Braden, Swan sona, Braden Cook, who runs The Catechumen. Um. I, I'd already been kind of interacting with those guys online and, you know, a lot of us wanted to, to go to this debate and it was great. Um, so we went and it was, it was a fun time. Like the debate itself was, was fine. Um, but.

Kyle Whittington 7:21

What was really cool was just hanging out with our online friends and it was, it was a great time and you know, at this time it was, uh, what was that, like March of 2023 and, yeah. And. Whenever we did that, it was just like, man, this was, this was such a good time. We were living in St. Louis at the time and, you know, I'd kind of had some hopes and dreams of possibly moving to St. Louis, but we hadn't made or to, to Steubenville, but we hadn't made the decision yet. And, uh, later that year, we moved, uh, in, in November that year, we moved to, to Steubenville and I was a remote worker at the time. You know, it, it was great. And I started, you know, finding myself, hoping that like, man, I wish Matt would put on another one of those things. 'cause that was really fun hanging out with the YouTubers. And then I just got to thinking like, why do I need to wait on Matt to do this? I can just put together an event myself and. The original idea was it was gonna be a weekend with the boys at the cigar lounge, and maybe 12 people would show up if we did really, really well.

Kyle Whittington 8:23

And it was just, we weren't gonna have any speakers, we weren't gonna have any programming. I definitely wasn't paying for food. And you know, we just all show up at Chesterton's and hang out for the weekend and I thought. "Hey, that's gonna be a great time." You know, father John Brown, uh, who's, uh, he's like in the comments section of almost every Catholic channel. Uh, he's the president of the Jesuit Jesuit High School down in New Orleans. He like came on as the chaplain and it just kind of like threw an active divine providence. He, uh, uh, he was able to make it that first year. I thought that was awesome.

Kyle Whittington 8:58

And then, you know, I was living in Steubenville, Matt Fradd was living here at the time, and I asked him like, "Hey Matt, you're probably gonna be here anyway. Would you mind doing a q and a for us? We're, we're not gonna, um, you know, uh, you don't have to prepare anything. Just come here and have a great time with us and answer some questions and, and it'll be great." And he was like, "Sure." And, uh. I was super excited about that. Um, you know, we didn't have a lot of traction. We didn't have a lot of advertising. But then Matt offered, he said, "Hey, Kyle, do you, do you want me to advertise this thing?" And I was like, uh, "Sure. Thanks Matt". And he is like, "Yeah, just, just make the, make the graphic and I'll post it on my Instagram and YouTube community. And, and, uh, it'll be, it'll be great." Well, we did that.

Kyle Whittington 9:51

And next thing you know, the applications. 'cause from the very beginning we always, we always made it applications 'cause we didn't want just random people showing up it, it was for creators and the applications just started pouring in. And I was just blown away by like how many people were, were coming in and, and doing all this stuff. And next thing you know, Catholic Answers is on the phone with me. Trying to say like, Hey, we think this thing's gonna be big in like in five years, and we wanna be able to say we've been a part of it from, from the very beginning. And I was just like, okay, yeah, let's do it.

Kyle Whittington 10:28

Um, and we came together at the St. Paul's Center, um, in July of 2023 and, or 2024, excuse me. And it was, um, it was, it was amazing. Uh, just. We just wanted to get everybody together and like have some good authentic community. And part of it was to just like put out the fire of like the toxic dumpster fire that is the Catholic media space, at least on, on the social media space. And, you know, just have people interact with each other and like actually have a chance to become friends. And it worked. Um, you know, we watched some conflicts get. Squashed. You know, it's amazing what happens whenever you're actually interacting with a person and not just text on a screen and it's, it, it was, it was just really, really, really good.

Kyle Whittington 11:22

We, you know, you, you, you went to the second one and now we're, we're in the midst of, uh, uh, you know, having the third, so, yeah. That's amazing. And yeah, just talk to me about, you know, so you were saying about, you know, text on the screen. Mm-hmm. And there can be a bunch of Twitter or I guess X Wars go going on here and there. Right. Um, but I was listening to your entry with Keith Nesters that you're talking about. When you have the person in front of you, it's harder to insult them. Right? Right. And so there's this sort of component where you bring. People together in the same room. Mm-hmm.

Sheila Nonato 11:59

How important is that, especially for Catholic evangelization and you don't need to be doing Catholic content, right, to come to the conference, right? You can be just a Catholic and doing, you know, videos about, I don't know, golf or something like that.

Kyle Whittington 12:11

Sure.

Sheila Nonato 12:12

But how important is that component of like actually meeting people?

Kyle Whittington 12:16

Well, I mean, it's, it's. You know, we've all heard the phrase, you know, "Oh, it's, it's great to finally put a face to the name." Um, you know, if you think about the bad guys from like, G.I. Joe and, and Star Wars and stuff like that, what do all those bad guys have in common? You know, the, the, the troops that get slaughtered by the thousands and you cheer while you do it. Well, you never get to see their faces. Like that's actually a very intentional, like artistic choice is the face is obscured and so is the humanity.

Kyle Whittington 12:45

And whenever the humanity is obscured, you can be as evil as you want and you can cheer because it doesn't matter because those aren't people, you know, it's not, it's not gonna res register at your lizard brain that that's a human being, you know? Uh, you know, he might just had a very entertaining death, but if you don't think about it for a little bit in that universe, like that person would've been born, would've been raised by parents, would've had siblings, would've had hopes and dreams, and you know, it's like, okay, but then Luke Skywalker cuts him in half and we're supposed to laugh about it.

Kyle Whittington 13:15

You know, it's actually like a very like, tragic thing once you like really zoom in on it and you're like actually confronted with the humanity, but. So it, it's kinda the same thing with Twitter. Like you're not really interacting with a person. You're interacting with words on a screen and that can really inflame the passions and you can get kind of crazy. But, you know, whenever, as we like to say, when you're, when you're within strangling distance of somebody, you are confronted in an inescapable way with the humanity of the, of the other that you're, that you're interacting with. That's just kind of what we wanted to do. We wanted to create this environment where that reality is apparent and inescapable. And I'm not saying that like tense conversations didn't happen.

Kyle Whittington 14:00

They absolutely did. Um, we just wanted to create an environment where you could actually have those tense conversations in a productive way.

Sheila Nonato 14:13

Right, right. Absolutely. And So, social media can be toxic. Well, it can be a blessing and a curse. So you're trying to make it go the other way, the blessing part. Right. And so you were in Rome too, right? Yes. And you met other creators, influencers. Mm-hmm. And you, you were, um, at a mass with the Pope. Is this correct?

Kyle Whittington 14:33

So. The, the Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Tagle, but Pope Leo did show up after the Mass and he gave, you can Google this, it's a great read. The, like his, his address to the, the digital influencers, um, which was, which was beautiful.

Kyle Whittington 14:48

Um, I think it's a very good address that he gave. Um, and my big reaction to that was, um, I was, uh, my jaw was on the floor because I feel like whenever it comes to social media, the past two popes have cared. Pope Leo gets it, which like he both cares and gets it. And I, I think that's a, that's a wonderful, um, I don't wanna call it a change. It's a wonderful development, so. Awesome. And I think today he has like some sort of video conference or interview with E-W-T-N-I think it was early. Yes. Like right now. Yeah. Uh, I think it was 45 minutes, so it ended, uh, as of this recording like 45 minutes ago.

Kyle Whittington 15:35

But, um, yeah, no, Katie, Katie McGrady, uh, was moderating a conversation with Pope Leo 14th at the NCYC, which is like the National Catholic Youth Conference, uh, in Indianapolis. I think they had like 20,000 teens or something like that. And Pope Leo was just. Answering questions and, uh, I, I didn't watch it. I don't know how it went. Uh, but this is actually kind of, you know, we've already announced this, but that that same woman who was. Uh, moderating that conversation, kind of managing it is gonna be one of our keynote speakers at the Creator conference next year. Uh, specifically speaking on how to engage the institutional church. Um, so, uh, we're, we're super excited to have Katie on board and, uh, yeah, I can't wait to hear more of her wisdom, but yeah.

Sheila Nonato 16:26

Okay, so you gave us, um, one of the speakers. Who else is on the lineup that you know of at the moment?

Kyle Whittington 16:31

Ooh, okay. So we're, we're still kind of hunting down speakers as of as of this recording. Um, but we have, um, Mike Pantille, uh, another Canadian, um, and Keith Nester, um, that are coming back. They're gonna be leading a men only session, specifically speaking about, um. Like authentic masculinity in the, in the, in the among Catholics in the media space. Uh, one of, I, I was actually just talking to Drew about this last night where he says, you know, I'm not sure that makes, makes a lot of sense to have it.

Kyle Whittington 17:05

And I said, well, of course it does, because our. Overarching goal. Our long-term goal with all of this is to put Catholics and the church back into the driver's seat of the culture. That means taking over in every facet. That means unseating, the Andrew Tates, and like all these like really toxic, like, um, you know, like, oh, this is what a real man is. And you know, they just talk about like the most childish things. So, um. So we're, we're inviting these two pretty manly men to come in and, and talk about like, authentic masculinity and what that actually means. Um, and so it's gonna be, it's gonna be a good time.

Kyle Whittington 17:46

Um, uh, let's see here. Past that we have, um, who else can I announce? Um, well, I'll tell you what, if you guys are, are, uh. Diligent enough to be watching this channel. You get, you get privileged to some insider information that you're not gonna find anywhere else. Um, we're gonna have Evan Raugust come do a session on YouTube strategy. We're gonna have Dino Antonuccio who, uh, there's a name that nobody's ever heard, but he runs the Twitter account or X account called the Art of Purpose. Um, he's gonna be coming to talk about. X slash Twitter strategy. And we have, uh, Franco Fernandez, uh, Franco Aurelio, um, coming and talking about Instagram strategy.

Kyle Whittington 18:36

And then, uh, there's a few more invitations that are kind of like out and we're waiting to hear back, but uh, we're gonna be adding even more to that lineup.

Sheila Nonato 18:45

Okay. Wow. Amazing. Thank you for that. And it's gonna be at Steubenville University. So last year it was at St. Paul Centre.

Kyle Whittington 18:51

Yep. Yep. So, uh, it's effectively across the street, so, um, uh, across the street and up the hill. So, uh, it's gonna be Franciscan University from May 28th through the 31st in 2026. And yeah, it's gonna be at Franciscan. It's gonna be a great time. Last year we were limited to only 80 because of. Like the space constraints. I mean, you were there, so you know, like it was pretty, uh, it was pretty cozy at times with everybody there. Um, this year we're gonna be at the new Christ the teacher conference hall, and so we're gonna actually have enough for like 250 attendees. Um. Then with additional, like we're, we also set aside an additional 50 tickets for, um, sponsors. So it's gonna be, uh, it's gonna be a lot bigger, a lot better.

Kyle Whittington 19:39

Uh, we're, last year we added the edition of having three professional studios for any, for any of the attendees to come in, like record interviews, podcasts, whatever. Um, and. This year, uh, next year we're gonna have it. We're gonna have five studios. So, um, you know, so if anybody watching this is interested in sponsoring, get in contact. Um, if you want your name on one of these studios, I think we added it up. Um, like all the content that was generated. In these studios, is it, it's currently up to like 700,000 views, uh, or something crazy like that. So, you know, if you want a piece of that pie, you know it's gonna be much bigger.

Kyle Whittington 20:19

Um, uh, it's gonna be much bigger, much better. I'm actually kind of disappointed with those numbers because you, we didn't really have like a real content plan. So that's something we're gonna do this time, is we're gonna be a little bit more intentional about the content that we create, because we absolutely want these things to perform well, because, you know, you can do the good and virtuous thing, and that's. If it's good and in a way it's its own reward, but if we want to actually like impact and take over the culture, we need to be doing it with excellence in a way that's optimized for the platform, so that way it reaches as many souls as possible.

Sheila Nonato 20:51

Awesome. So you're, you're basically blowing it up. You're, you're, oh yeah. 250 plus 50. So 300. Where's the website if people wanna apply? Yeah. So it's catholic creator conference dot com catholiccreatorconference.com Um, pretty easy to remember. It's a long, long name, but it's easy to remember. So, catholic creator conference.com. Um, creator is one singular. It's, it's, it's not creator. Um, but, uh, yeah. Just go on, check it out. Um, it is open to anybody who is a digital creator that has published their first piece of content before November 1st, 2025. So, um, we don't have a follower subscript, uh, like threshold. It's, uh, I, I don't care, you know, if you've been posting for three years and never broke 200 subscribers, that's fine. Like we, we care more about that you're actually putting in the work, putting in the reps, um, and that, you know, you're looking to c

Sheila Nonato 21:47

onnect. Um, so it is only available to Catholics. So we actually have a part of the application process. We have like a statement of faith that you have to, uh, that you have to agree to. So, uh, you have, and it's basically the Nicene Creed and saying that, uh, you also, uh, submit to all the teachings of the church. So, uh, including all of the. Church councils and stuff. So pretty basic stuff. Um, a set of a contest, uh, can wait outside in the rain, but, um, you know, or something far more charitable than that. Um, but yeah, that's um. Uh, that, that, that's basically it. So fill out your application. Um, and it's, it's literally just to make sure that, um, you know, you actually meet the criteria.

Sheila Nonato 22:35

Um, we're not gonna be judging you on, you know, the quality of your content because, I mean, part of the reason people are coming here so they can learn to get better. And if you were already, it was like, oh man, some of these guys come and have like millions of subscribers. Well, if you had millions of subscribers, I'd probably be paying you to show up. So like. It's okay. Like don't, don't think that, like you're, you're, you're not one of us or whatever.

Sheila Nonato 22:58

And, and, and we also emphasize that too, of like, um, you know, we had some creators, um, specifically, um. Some people who have some like six figure followings hanging out with a dude who had just barely started his creator journey. He had a double digit number of, of subscribers and, uh, but they, they welcomed him as one of their own. Um, you know, 'cause at the end of the day, like, you know, I, I like to think that if your follower count comes up at your judgment, it probably won't be for a good reason.

Sheila Nonato 23:32

So it's like, we're all people here, we're all, um, um. We're, we're just, uh, trying to all figure it out and, you know, we, we try to like, make sure that the playing field is very level and, and, and as much as possible we even, like have our, have our speakers come as attendees as well. So, um, even then it's like, yeah, come, come interact with everybody. Don't, don't turn your nose up at anybody.

Sheila Nonato 23:59

And if you do, and if you are turning your nose up at somebody, we'll talk about that. Amazing. Like, yeah. Last, yeah. In the summer, uh, my husband and I were looking at each other when, after I told him all the things that happened in the conference, he is like, can you believe this? Like, it's the Catholic who's who pretty much Star Trek starstruck. To be honest, sometimes I'm not. I wasn't even, I wasn't even afraid to go up to people. 'cause I'm like, is that really who those person is? You know, it's like, but they're so, like, the people I've met are so genuine, so humble, you know? Mm-hmm. And just. Yeah. It was just a, to, to be honest, it was a blessing to be there and to see how they, you know, how they, you know, to hear how they think, how they work, and, and most of all how they love, they love Jesus, you know? Mm-hmm. You know, they really want to show that love to others, you know, and, and, and not in a, like, hammering somebody over the head Right. With, uh, with the Bible, you know? Yeah. If that's your thing, I don't know. I guess, you know, that might work for you, but,

Kyle Whittington 24:59

Well, I mean, you know, it, it's one of those things of like, you know, spreading the gospel Yes. Does include preaching and like sharing, sharing, uh, the good news with somebody.

Sheila Nonato 25:09

But like sharing God's love also looks like, "Hey, we're going to McDonald's. Do you wanna come with us?" You know, just little things like that that's also showing God's love as well. And you know, you can't really do that online, which is why you gotta get everybody together. Yes. Amazing. Amazing. And so before I get sidetracked, 'cause I wanted to get that conference info in there in case people wanted to, to apply 'cause it was really amazing, maybe even life changing to be honest. And thank you for that. Um, we wanna get to your, your conversion story. I was gonna say vocation story, I'm sure. Kind of the same thing, you know. So you grew up Methodist, is that c orrect?

Kyle Whittington 25:52

On paper, Yes. Um, I can count on both hands how many times I actually went to a Methodist church, but, um, it was, uh, I mean I was never baptized. Um, I was actually baptized Catholic. Um, but I think my parents were, on paper Methodists, if that means anything. So, um, but primarily I grew up just kind of bouncing around the various Protestant churches in my town of 600 people in Oklahoma. We had two Baptist churches, a few, uh, a few Pentecostal churches, and then various Pastor Jim's Bible churches would pop up, uh, depending on the year, and then they would close and, and, and whatever.

Kyle Whittington 26:33

But it's, um. So, uh, Pentecostal was what my grandmother, so from like, by the time we, until I was like 12 years old, I went to a Pentecostal church and then from there I went to like the Church of Christ a little bit. And I, I really didn't understand that there was really any, like, theological difference. It was just church. Church, you know. So what, what was your road to Emmaus like, where did. Jesus and the Catholic church, you know, when it was not part of your life and all of a sudden it's like, Hey. Yeah, yeah. Well, so what happened? Whenever I was 16 years old, I got the chance to go. Uh, in the US we have this, uh, student ambassador program that President Eisenhower started, called "People to People" and when I was 16, I got the chance to go on a people to people trip to Europe.

Kyle Whittington 27:22

So I, from like June 1st to June 20th or something like that of 2008, I got to go spend, I, we, we landed in Paris and we ended in Athens and we hit everywhere in between basically. So the first Catholic church that I ever stepped foot in was actually Notre Dame in Paris. Um, and that was kind of like my first like, encounter with the beauty of it, uh, which was really cool. Um, but yeah, and then like. Later on we, we did go to Rome, so I remember sitting in the Vatican, um, and I, you know, I was having a rough time 'cause I was 16 in a whiny teenager. And, uh, you know, I could find myself like. Just kind of griping at myself, you know, or the situation in my head.

Kyle Whittington 28:08

And I kind of had this like thought of like, you know, I'm in a country right now, Vatican City that's completely dedicated to the service of God, and I'm, and I'm being like, and I'm acting like a petulant child right now. So it was a kind of like, I was like, okay, kind of straighten up and then. That was kind of really my only like, good encounter with the Catholic church because the other, uh, the only, the only thing that I really knew about the Catholic church was they called priest's father. And that was bad. And like that, that, that was it. That's all I knew. Um, and then I, you know, I had some vague ideas of, like, other stuff. There wasn't really any, I didn't, I didn't really know much. Well then. Um, I did get to know a, um, a a, a cute Catholic girl that I, uh, went to school with who was smarter than me, um, which. Uh, this is gonna sound arrogant, but that's actually, that's actually really saying something. 'cause uh, at the time I was the academic team, chap Cha, uh, captain.

Kyle Whittington 29:13

I was on the All-State team, you know, we were state champions multiple times. Uh, and this girl was actually smarter than me. So like, uh, you know, she's cute, she's smart, and she's Catholic. That's kind of weird. Um, well, after I get back from Europe, I get invited to church. To go with her. And I'm just like, mm. Well, you know, I'm kind of a world traveler and I'm, I'm very worldly and I'm very well-rounded and, you know, I'm happy to come visit your churches as a, uh, as a tourist, but, uh, as a participant, Ooh, I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, that's a, that's a bridge too far. I, I don't think I can, uh, I don't think I can do that. And then. She said something, and I'll never forget this.

Kyle Whittington 30:00

She said something that completely changed the whole dynamic. She said, Kyle, there's gonna be free pizza there. And I was sold, I was completely sold. Um, I was like, okay, well you know what? I can I you out, I can, I'm open-minded. I can do this. Uh, but I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll be sure to remain in my convictions. So, um, I, I get from a lot of Protestants it's like, oh, you were emotionally swayed. It's like, yeah, I was, that's actually usually how things start is they start off superficial and then you go into a deeper level. Um, so.

Kyle Whittington 30:39

Um, but I, I kept going back. The community there was great. Went to my very first mass and I was captivated from start to finish. And, uh, after that, like during the consecration, like I could tell that something like was sacred was happening and I, and I heard the bells go off and I had no idea what was going on. I thought it was a phone in like the sacristy that was ringing and I was just like, uh. What is going on here? What, what? And afterwards I asked, uh, Tyler, my, who eventually became my godfather, um, like. Tyler was, uh, was this, was this girl's older brother too.

Kyle Whittington 31:18

So I was like, uh, Tyler, what was that? Can you explain that to me? And he was like, oh, yeah, well that's, you know, that piece of bread that the priest was holding up became actually Jesus. And I'm like, yeah, but yeah, like, y'all don't like believe that? 'cause that's kind of crazy. He is like, no, no, no. We, we believe that that is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ physically present. And I was just like, oh, wow. Okay, so what now? Well, now we go get pizza. I was like, okay, cool. So, you know, the community was great and I kept coming back, kept coming back, and then, you know, I, I kind of started feeling this pull like maybe I should, no, I can't. Catholics are crazy, but these are good people. No, but they're crazy. I can't convert. And then eventually I was watching, I don't even remember the name of the comedian, but the, um, the some Comedy Central special.

Kyle Whittington 32:12

The comedian makes a priest joke and he, and I remember watching this thing before and I, well, I don't think I found it like particularly funny the first time I was like downright offended. This time I turned off the tv, I was home alone and I turned off the TV and I was so angry that I like ran into the kitchen to like go wash dishes or something like that. Like I was that upset and. I after that, I was just like, oh, no. Oh no. Okay. All right. Well, no matter what, if I, if I have to, there's no denying it. I've already converted internally. I, I, I, I already consider myself Catholic. Um, and then, um.

Kyle Whittington 33:01

You know, it's just a matter of like formalizing it. I asked Tyler later, I was like, Hey, Tyler, what, what does it take to become Catholic? And he is like, well, you gotta start going to mass on Sunday mornings. And I was like, a strictly evenings only guy. And I was just like, oh, well, well nevermind. Because that's, that's too big of a, it's too big of an ask. And then eventually like, no, I'm gonna have to do this. And I tell my mom and, uh, the, that, that's also kind of a funny story because she, um. She goes, uh, we were watching the Big Bang Theory. This was like Lent of 2009. So this is when we all still thought that Big Bang Theory was funny. And I, I asked her, or she, her friend calls, she pauses the DVR and for some reason I was just like, I have to tell her now, or it's never. And I, for some reason it was that moment. So after she gets off the phone and before she could resume the tv, I was like, "Hey mom." "What's up?" "I think I need to become Catholic." Uh, you would've thought I was coming out of the closet because she was just like, "Okay, okay. We're, we're gonna get through this. Okay, well, at least you're not becoming a Mormon." And, um, she gave me two, she gave me two conditions. She says, "Okay, you're gonna, you can do this, but you have to wait until you're 18 and you have to. You have to get educated on it because I'm not gonna let you just walk into this blind."

Kyle Whittington 34:28

So you actually have to study what they believe and, and everything. And I'm like, well, um, this is lent to 2009. So the next year is whenever I turned 18, uh, I was like, well, mom, I, I have, uh, the church. You and the church are actually on the same page because they're not gonna let me come in until Easter of next year. And. They're gonna make me take classes. So, um, so we did that. And so at the Easter vigil of 2010, I was brought into the church. And so it's been a little over 15 years now and it's been, uh, easily the best decision I've ever made.

Sheila Nonato 35:06

Wow, powerful, powerful stuff. Um, and so when did you meet your wife? So all that?

Kyle Whittington 35:12

Yeah. That was less than a year after that. Um, so it's, it's funny 'cause whenever I tell my conversion story, and I always say it's like, oh, it started with a cute girl. People always like, look at my wife. They're like, oh, is this her? Like, no, no. Um, uh, that, that, that other girl did her own thing. And, and then, uh, praise be to God, we both did not end up with each other. So, um, so anyway, they, um. Uh, that happened because, um, let's see here. How, how, okay. After I graduated high school, I took a semester off to work and then that following January I started at Franciscan.

Kyle Whittington 35:55

Um, and within eight, it didn't take more than just a few weeks before I met Julia. Um, we were. I didn't know anybody there, like all the people from my parish that were at Franciscan were kind of older than me, so it was kind of weird to hang out with 'em. Um, so I was just kind of like making my own friends, finding my own community. And I saw some girl that I had met in orientation that was sitting at the calf, and I saw that there was a seat next to her. And I sit down next to her and Julia is sitting across the table from me. Well. A couple of nights before this interaction, I had been helping a friend of mine try to fix his computer and there was nothing I could do and I told him, well man, you, you're gonna call the manufacturer, see if they can fix it under the warranty or something like that. So back to, I'm sitting in front of Julia, she. Um, my, my buddy walks up and just triumphantly, announces with no context for anybody else on the table. H e triumphantly announces , "I'm getting it fixed for free," and I high five him. I think that's a great deal. I, 'cause I know exactly what he's talking about. His laptop's getting fixed. I'm happy he doesn't have to spend money. And, um, he, uh. We, we, we kind of go and go and talk a little bit, and then I notice across the table Julia's over there just turning pink, just kind of giggling.

Kyle Whittington 37:25

And I just kind of give her this look of like, what? And she just squeaks out. I didn't hear the it, so she heard was, I'm getting fixed for free and. And I just kind of rewind the conversation back in my head to, to where her statement made sense. And I thought it was hilarious. I almost fall outta my chair. I was laughing so hard. And, uh, we just kind of hit it off from there. And, uh, so we dated for a couple years. Um, 'cause I, I had to, I ran outta money. Um, my Protestant parents weren't willing to pay the, like, the $30,000 a year it took to stay at Franciscan or. Whatever it was at the time. Um, so I joined the Air Force just to like, 'cause I knew that Julie and I were gonna get married and it was like, okay, I need to be able to provide for a family. So I joined the military in order to do that. And it was, uh, yeah, no, it was, it was, it was, it was a great time.

Sheila Nonato 38:28

And again, thank you for your service. Mm-hmm. And you in Afghanistan. Correct. Yeah, yeah, no, I, I, it was a very cushy deployment, so if any like army infantry or Marines are watching this, they're gonna be like, that's not a real deployment, and they're kind of correct. But, um, so I was only there for 90 days. Uh, I spent 45 days in Kandahar, 45 days in Bagram (Iraq). Um, so in the Air Force I put bombs and missiles on F -16s. So, uh, for the first six years of my career and then the, the latter four, I was a network engineer. So, um. But you know, whenever I, I was, I was working on the F-16s, uh, fighter jets whenever, whenever I was in Afghanistan.

Sheila Nonato 39:08

Uh, it was a great time. Um, you know, but, uh, people say like, oh, was it tough? And I'm like, listen, the most combat that I saw while I was over there was whenever I was playing Call of Duty. So, um, yeah, it, it was, it was, it's the most fun I never wanna have again. So and so you, so you're no longer. In the military, or I guess No, no. I, I'm very bearded now. Um, the, uh, I, I got out, so I, I went in, in 2012, May 1st, 2012 was my first day of bootcamp. Um, and then I got out April 30th, 2022. So I've been out for a little over three years now. So that military career that you had, did that have any impact at all on your faith journey? It was tough, uh, I'll be honest.

Sheila Nonato 39:53

So whenever I was active duty, there was basically no Catholic community whatsoever. I mean, I still went to Mass on Sundays and, uh, holy Days of obligation for the most part. Um, and, but like I, I was working nights a lot, so like, it was really hard to have like ca uh, Catholic friends from church. Um, it, it was tough. Um. It was kind of one of those things of, of, sometimes at times it seemed that the most I could do is just stay Catholic and just keep doing what the church prescribes, you know, like pray before meals. Um. Go to mass on Sundays. You know, I, I, I kind of got involved with a youth group for a little bit, uh, after I got married. Uh, that was just too much to keep track of. Um, so I did that for like two years while I was in. Um, and then, uh, yeah, but then like after, after I got married, um, things got a little easier, um, because it's nice to be able to, you know, come home to somebody. Um.

Sheila Nonato 40:55

And, uh, and we started having kids shortly after that. But, um. Yeah. Yeah, so it was tough. Uh, like I, I, I really kind of got into this like crazy Catholic mode after we moved, after I got out of active duty and I joined the International Guard in St. Louis, um, that's where we found a really solid, uh, Institute of Christ, the King Oratory in at St. Francis to Sales Oratory. Um, and, uh, that, that's kind of like where things like really picked up for me and I really started taking my faith seriously. Okay. And if you can tell us, you know, you moved to Steubenville, so, so for people who don't know Steubenville, it's like, uh, I don't wanna say Disneyland. 'cause that's not really, it's more like, you know, like you, you saw Notre Notre Dame, that's your first Catholic.

Kyle Whittington 41:41

Mm-hmm.

Sheila Nonato 41:41

Kind of like that, right? Like the pillar of France. I feel like that's the pillar of America, to be honest. It's like, oh yeah, spiritual. Um, richness there.

Kyle Whittington 41:51

Mm-hmm.

Sheila Nonato 41:51

I mean, Dr. Scott is there, St. Paul's Center and Steubenville, you know, Franciscan University. Um, yeah. Tell us like, is it worth the hype to go and, and go to visit Steubenville?

Kyle Whittington 42:01

Yeah, I think, um, everything that you heard from Matt Fradd is true. Um, including the bad stuff. Um, yes, there are meth houses. Yep. Uh, there's a lot of drugs. There's, there's crime here. I don't wanna undersell that. Um. But the community here is incredibly strong. So I live at the end of a cul-de-sac and I just have, um, all but like two of my neighbors are Catholic and they have children, and you know, my, uh, I, I, my second youngest is turning four in just a couple weeks, and he is. He has a best friend that lives like two doors down, that was born like two days before him.

Kyle Whittington 42:51

So we're gonna celebrate their birthdays jointly. Um, so, you know, it's beautiful. You know, we've got the cigar lounge here where like for men can just go and hang out with men without like any prior scheduling or appointments. You just walk in there like if you got a lunch break, go down there and just. Relax and get to talk with men about things that actually matter. And, uh, you know, the Leo's, the, the coffee shop here is also fantastic. Leo's was actually one of the things that kind of made me really wanna move here because, you know, you go into it like a Starbucks or something like that, you, you overhear conversations and it's, you know, it's talking about so and so in their soccer game or, um, you know, oh yeah, well. I, I did hear that from her, but I was under the impression, you know, you hear conversations like that, you go into Leo's and the conversations that you overhear is, well, I don't know about that because Aquinas says, and, and just stuff like that.

Kyle Whittington 43:54

And, you know, the university here really has a massive impact on the culture of the town. Um, and at this point, you know. Most of the Catholics here are not affiliated with the university. Um, it's a good, it's a great place for young families. You can find a house here for less than $300,000. I mean, heck, you could find a house here for less than a hundred thousand dollars, and it comes with a free crack lab. But like, it, um, um, you know, it, it, it, it's. It's a very poor area. If you have, if you have the ability to make a living remotely, it's a great place to live. Um, great place to, uh, raise a family. Um, and. Some people ask me like, well, "What's in Steubenville? Like, whenever I'm there, what, what should I go see?" And I said, "Well, there's not a lot of what in Steubenville. I mean, there's a few things that you can go see, but there's not a lot of what, what makes it really special is the 'who.' So it's not what you should go see, it's who you should go see. So like. If you're a man, come to Chesterton's, come, uh, you know, buy a cigar, smoke it, smoke it in a lounge. It's gonna be a great time. Um, you know, go grab a coffee at Leo's, go check out the pottery shop. Um, you know, that, uh, that is run by a local potter here who's very, very Catholic. Um, you know, the bookstore here owned by a Catholic. And you know, just go in, just talk, interact with these people. 'cause like there's so much, um, you know" ... in, in my town of 600 people in Oklahoma, we were talking to, uh, somebody who'd lived there her whole life.

Kyle Whittington 45:40

And she was like in her eighties and she was just lamenting the, the, the condition of the town. And she said it's like the worst part of it is that people just don't help each other anymore. And, you know, she lived through the Great Depression and she had seen how neighbors help neighbors. And she says, you, you don't. If that doesn't happen anymore, everybody's just in their houses and alone and in Steubenville, we kind of, I, I'm not gonna say that it's like a. A perfect utopia, but you have a lot more people outside. You have a lot more neighbors that actually know neighbors. Uh, the word neighbor actually means something whenever you go to church because you know you're going to mass with the people who live next to you. You know, the parish actually kind of means something here.

Kyle Whittington 46:26

Um, and, it's also kind of a place that, yeah, there's a bunch of movers and shakers here and, you know, these mover and shakers work together and then like, we do some pretty cool stuff. Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, like you said, and it, it looks unassuming when you go in there and you look at, hey, where do we, where, where are they attractions, you know? Yeah. You know, bells and whistles, all the, uh, crazy lights and stuff like that, but it's like, it's deeper. Right. That's superficial. Like even Notre Dame, if you look at the surface of it, beautiful, beautiful. But the heart of Notre Dame is the faith of the people. Mm-hmm.

Sheila Nonato 47:06

People worshiping there and God, obviously God's there. Jesus is there. Right. But it's not just the facade. Right. It's the interior. It's like what's keeping that place alive? It's the people. And I think that's what we saw at Steubenville and meeting. Yeah. All of the creators there. Um, and, and let's go to, um, the cigar shop chest. Okay. Because it's, so you're talking about Christian masculinity, um, and what, what was happening there during the conference? Why was it important for, for men to gather there? What, what is it about now in the culture? There seems to be this thing about toxic masculinity, right?

Kyle Whittington 47:43

Yeah. To counter that. Yeah, well, so there, there's toxic masculinity and which is just an over, it's a reactive overcorrection from like this idea that men are just defective women. Um, and you kind of see men get treated like that in, in schools and stuff like that, um, of like, Hey, you know, boys don't play rough and, and, and, and stuff like that. So, um. You know, to try to get some of this back, you kind like the temptation is to go way past, uh, what's actually good and moderate and you know, next thing you know, you're following the Andrew Tates of the world who are, you know, just doing all sorts of horrible things Um, that make the feminists angry, but it's just like, well, they should also make every Christian of goodwill angry as well.

Kyle Whittington 48:37

So it's like, just because you're on the same side of the, the bad guys or the bad girls on this, on this issue, that doesn't mean that you're correct. So Chestertons. And like, I mean, technically speaking, women are allowed in there. It's not like women are, are, are disallowed. It's just most women don't want to go smoke a cigar with a bunch of dudes, quite frankly. Um, so, and, and that's fine. Um, but they kind of just created a space that they thought that the Chester ons, the Tolkiens, the C.S. Lewises that. They would have gone and hung out and had their conversations. Um, so, you know, Chester ton was a big cigar smoker.

Kyle Whittington 49:22

Um, so, you know, a cigar is not, um, like a cigarette, which is, it's very, um. It's just to get your dose of nicotine. It's not, uh, it's not a leisurely thing. You know, you see somebody outside of a waffle house at 3:00 AM smoking a cigarette. He's not doing it to relax. He's, he's doing it because he needs to just cope with his existence. So a cigar on the other hand, I mean, it takes one to two hours depending on the size to smoke one. So whenever you light that thing up, you are committing to sitting down, slowly enjoying it to, um. Interact with the men who are around you. So there's no TVs there.

Kyle Whittington 50:01

It's specifically to build community. And you know, we've seen some beautiful things there. We've actually, there's actually a guy, a local business owner came in who, um, um. He's, he's now in OCIA, he's becoming Catholic because he showed up, just had conversations with good Catholic men who were normal and, um, enjoy the same things that he does. You know, it's like spreading the gospel's great. But hey, this guy wants to talk about how the Pittsburgh Steelers did last night, you know, and that's also, you know, good to like connect with him on, you know, so, um. You know, it, it, it, it's just a really good time and it's a really good place for like men to be men and like we can kind of let our guard down a little bit and then we can also. Like every man knows this. And some women might know it too, if they ever get to listen to men that don't know that they're there.

Kyle Whittington 51:00

Men will always interact differently with each other, but the moment that, you know, you throw a lady in the, in the, in the mix, and I don't think this is a bad thing. I think it's actually very appropriate, uh, the, the dynamic changes, you know, and, and not even that like, okay guys, quit swearing, you know, although that's usually part of it.

Kyle Whittington 51:20

Um. It's, you know, the, the, the dynamic just shifts and, uh, Chesterton's just kind of gives that place in, but like in a way that encourages virtues. And, you know, it's, it's more like how, like, like I said earlier, how like Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis would've talked and less like the locker room.

Sheila Nonato 51:43

So letting men kind of let your guard down.

Kyle Whittington 51:48

Mm-hmm.

Sheila Nonato 51:49

But also, you don't have to apologize for being a man or men. Right. It, it's okay. You, you can be a man.

Kyle Whittington 51:57

Right. Well, and I mean, you know, not, obviously there's exceptions to this, but in general, uh, at least, you know, in my, my experience with my wife, she's far more, um, emotion first. So whenever I'm talking to her, I always have to keep that in mind. 'cause I can't just, I can't just come in and just go. Well, we're not gonna do that because that doesn't make any sense for this reason, this reason, this reason. Well, that doesn't work because it's like, wow, I just came off as a massive jerk. And you know, that, that, that, that, that's horrible. But like when you're with the men, it's like, well, you can just kind of be a little bit more blunt and you can get to the heart of the matter without worrying about people getting offended. And, and if somebody does get offended, it's like, "Oh my bad, bro. I didn't mean to do that." And you know, it's usually pretty good after that. So, um, yeah, so, so that, that, that's part of, that's just part of the dynamic too. And, and like I said, like that, I'm just making generalities. Not saying this is across the board. I, I don't know, I don't know who your audience is, so I'm trying, I'm not trying to offend anybody.

Sheila Nonato 52:58

No, no, no. It's uh, no Christian masculinity and feminine genius. That's sort of our two Yeah, topics. But I can see what you mean. Actually, my, I had, I had an argument with my husband about this yesterday 'cause he was telling me about exactly what you said. That you know, women, we do tTend to go towards the emotional and the men are more factual. And I misunderstood what my husband said. So I, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to my husband because I'm trying to make up for what I said yesterday. Yeah, uUm, but I do understand what you mean and, you know, being with people who understand what you mean can be also just like, you know, you wanna relax, right? You don't wanna always be right. "I have to pick my words. I have to know how to approach this person. I have to..." ... you're just there. You're hanging out. Uh, you love Jesus. You love, you know you wanna

Kyle Whittington 53:46

Right.

Kyle Whittington 53:46

You wanna debate civil discourse without, um, people watching you like, 'cause I feel like Twitter X all that, uh, so, you know, social media people are always watching, right? So you always have to like, uh, what should I say? But maybe in this space with, you know, men who, you know, wanna be amongst each other, develop that comraderie, they can kinda like be themselves, like, honestly. Is that, is that sort of, kind of how. Chesterton's, uh, yeah.

Sheila Nonato 54:16

cigar lounge works? Like you, you guys You're gGonna hang out. You know, you can maybe say things that, uh, you know, uh, that you know is on your mind, but maybe like it's not something that other people Yeah. Think is, uh, I don't know, kosher , you know.

Kyle Whittington 54:33

Yeah. One of my favorite activities to do at Chesterton's, um, is to go there because if I'm toying around with an idea in my head. I can just go to Chesterton's and I can say, "Hey, so I've been considering this" And you know, I was like, oh, I've been, I've been, uh, toying with the idea of, oh, um, you know, the idea of Twitter as, uh, Plato's Cave. You know, like Twitter is the wall in Plato's Cave, where like all you see are the shadows of an artificial light, you know, uh, from an artificial light source. Um. You know, and, and you can kind of tease that out a little bit. And then you also got like other just brilliant guys that hang out there and be like, well, I think you've got this right, but you're dead wrong here.

Kyle Whittington 55:18

Or, you know, something like that. Um. And you know, it's just really good to be able to do that in a way where like you can just assume that people are respecting you and that like, Hey, I see what you're trying to say. Let me push back on this. Even like, I agree with you overall, but I think this point is kind of weak and you know, kind of treat it like a little bit of a debate club where somebody disagreeing with you is. Not hostility and you know, we, it's not just Catholics that hang out here. We've got Orthodox folks that hang out there and, um, you know, we've got, uh, Protestants that come in occasionally and, you know, it, it's just a really good time.

Sheila Nonato 55:58

Absolutely. And finally, so I wanna reassure the female viewers, uh, those who wanna maybe thinking about this conference, like, yeah, there's a place for you. 'cause I was there. Oh yeah. And, uh, I met Amber Rose, "The Religious Hippie,"

Kyle Whittington 56:10

Mmm-hmm.

Sheila Nonato 56:11

Sarah Stock, so many other wonderful ladies there. Um, and Leonardo's Cafe you were mentioning. Mm-hmm. It's, um, it's like if you, if you wanna be in Paris, sitting outside or sipping your latte, that's, that's the place or inside. Yeah, obviously. But I, the one thing that I really liked about it was, um, and I was gonna pay for my latte. I, I saw a photo of the Pope and I'm like, you'll never see this at Starbucks. You'll never, yeah. Never. So it's like, it's like, wow, it feels like I'm home, you know? Like I can sit down, you know, read my Bible or you know, whatever. Listen to a podcast and, um, feel at home. Sorry, just one second. My son is here. Okay, he's gonna come here, say hello, Mr. Kyle. Mr. Kyle.

Kyle Whittington 56:56

Hey kiddo.

Sheila Nonato 56:58

Remember Steubenville? He always talks about Steubenville and saying, "When are we going there?"

Kyle Whittington 57:01

Ah, so you gonna come to college here?

Sheila Nonato 57:06

It's quite expensive.

Sheila Nonato 57:07

Yes. We'll see how it goes, but. But yeah, so I just want to reassure, you know, female viewers Yeah. If you wanna come, it's totally, it's, you are gonna feel welcome because Yeah. It's not, yeah, no, we, we so much, so much richness, uh, so many diverse, you know, people from different channels, like doing mm-hmm. Awesome things and not just Catholic. Right. So it's, it's amazing.

Kyle Whittington 57:31

Mm-hmm. Yeah. No. One thing we're really big on is that, you know, if we're gonna take over the culture, if we're gonna get back into the driver's seat, we need to be doing more than just apologetics. I mean, apologetics is great. Uh, Catholic Answers has been one of our strongest supporters since the very beginning. Um, it's good, it's necessary. We need people to keep like coming up through the pipeline there to like take up that mantle. But that's not all a Catholic creator can do. You know, um, Sarah Stock was there. Sarah Stock is like political commentary, um, like. And she's in that realm. Um, who else do we have?

Kyle Whittington 58:07

Oh, Master Sam Wise, he's probably no qualifier is my favourite YouTuber. I would never tell that to his face. And if you, if you sell him, I said it. I'm gonna call you a liar. But, um, he's a, he's a amazing, he does like story analysis and whenever you watch his videos, he's never. He never like denies the Catholic faith, but like he never says that he's Catholic. Um, so he is, he's transmitting these Catholic values in a way that like somebody who might be hostile to the Catholic faith would actually be receptive to hearing.

Kyle Whittington 58:40

Um, and it's kind of like this pre evangelistic, you know, one of their, one of our keynote speakers, Jon Blevins, uh, he's, uh, if you, if familiar with Fortnite streamers, he's Ninja's older brother. Um, he. Plays Fortnite for a living, which is like a dumb video game. And yet he still managed to do it in a way that has gotten people to convert before. And so, you know, we just need to be, we need to be in all corners of the earth, all corners of the media, um, all the good ones at least. And, um, you know, doing it better than everybody else.

Kyle Whittington 59:14

And whenever we can capture the hearts, minds, and imaginations of people, well, I mean, the soul's just gonna follow after that.

Sheila Nonato 59:23

Yes. And getting armoured up spiritually for the culture wars. Mm-hmm. Right. We don't wanna be powering in the corner. Yeah. We wanna be able to be prepared. So, um, was there anything else you wanted to add? And tell us about the, the website again, please. Oh, yeah. So catholic creator conference.com. Um, that's, if you wanna do that, just throw in, uh, the application is free. Um, so, and like I said, we just wanna see that you are a creator, um, that you are publishing content. Um, the, like, one caveat is that like, if.

Sheila Nonato 59:54

If you give me your Instagram page, and I only see pictures of like your family and friends, like, well, that's not really a creator. I'd like to see you, um, like doing some research and trying to like entertain or spread the good word or, you know, yeah. Stuff like that. Um, it's kind of hard to define, but we know it when we see it, so, um, but, uh, yeah, go out there, do it. And like, and if you, and if you had, if you miss the deadline and you've, you felt a pull to like possibly, uh. You know, go and start something.

Sheila Nonato 1:00:27

Mm-hmm. You know, pray about it. One, it's, you know, the most dangerous thing for your succe. The, the most dangerous thing for your soul in this, in this realm is success. Um, so if you are not praying, if you are not rooted in the faith, uh, your soul will die. Like it. This, this will like spiritually kill you. So like, it's not a joke, pray, discern. Then give it a try. Um, and, you know, if you find you enjoy it, keep going. You know, you'd be amazed about like, just the, the little stuff that you can do. So go ahead and start after you've discerned and prayed about it and, you know, we'd love to see you in 2027 or maybe something else next year that we've got cooking up that I'm not gonna talk about. And when is it again? Can you give us the date? May 28th through the 31st (2025). Okay. And the deadline for the application, uh, until we sell out. So, um, you know, in theory now, I will say February 5th is when the early bird window closes. So right now standard admission is $500 and, uh, VIP tickets are $750. On February 5th, they go up to $675 and $1,000. So don't. Uh, but if I'm gonna be honest, I don't expect a single VIP ticket to be left by the time the ear early bird, uh, closes. And earlier this year, we sold outta the conference within a month of launching. So, you know, if you're, if you are one of the privileged people who are watching and have stuck around for this long, your diligence is rewarded by me telling you the inside info of. Get in early because you will miss out if you don't. So, but anyway, that's, that's, I think that's all I've got. eah. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's, it's worth it. It's worth the drive to Steubenville, to be honest. Don't go to, don't, don't, don't go to Disneyland. Go to s Steubenville. Yeah. It's worth, I brought my family and I was the only one who was participating and they were like swimming in the hotel. Like they, they just loved it. They loved it so much. Um, we got to go to Holy Mass, uh, during the conference. Again, they love that too. So, um, you know, it's, it's a great way to bring the family if you, if you're thinking what are they gonna do all day, you know, there's stuff to do. There really is. So, um, anyway, thank you, Kyle, for your time.

Sheila Nonato 1:02:47

I really sincerely appreciate it and I'm looking forward to the conference and I hope there are gonna be other listeners who are gonna coming. Um, hopefully I'll meet you there too, so, um, absolutely. Yeah. Anyway, thank you so much again, and hello to Drew and God bless you, continued blessings to your work. All right, thanks Sheila. Thank you. Take care. Bye. Pray on that.

Co-Host 1:05:40

Thank you for listening to the Veil + Armour podcast. I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast on YouTube channel and please spread the word. Let's Be Bbrave. Let's Be Bold and Be Blessed together.