Montessori Mindset: A Conversation on Faith, Virtue, and Leadership with Fr. Vito Crincoli

Welcome back to Montessori Mindset!

In this episode, we sit down with Fr. Vito Crincoli of the Legionaries of Christ, director of the Leadership Training Program (LTP)—a Catholic leadership formation apostolate connected to Regnum Christi.

Fr. Vito shares how LTP forms boys into strong Christian leaders through virtue, faith, brotherhood, and a deep friendship with Christ.

We discuss the challenges boys face today, the importance of authentic male role models, and how LTP seeks to form strong men of character—not just “nice guys,” but courageous leaders grounded in identity and purpose.

This conversation explores:

The power of fatherhood and mentorship

Forming identity as something received, not curated

Teaching boys resilience through risk, failure, and responsibility

Building virtue through service and brotherhood

Creating meaningful father-son experiences

Montessori Mindset is the podcast where we explore what it means to form the whole child—mind, body, and spirit—while spotlighting people and programs helping families raise confident, capable, faith-filled young people.

Timestamps

01:27 – Father Vito’s Background and Vocation
04:22 – The Mission of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi
11:58 – The Importance of Male Role Models
16:00 – The Leadership Training Program (LTP) Curriculum
23:41 – “Top Gun” Father-Son Weekend
36:01 – Club Meetings and Formation Structure
38:10 – Knights of the Altar
39:58 – Ukrainian Outreach Project
40:11 – Service and Apostolate Work
44:11 – Christmas Toy Outreach
46:53 – The “Iron Man” Summer Camp Challenge
52:01 – The Future of LTP

Books Mentioned

1.“The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt
2. "A Man on Purpose: 10 Rules of Life from a Faithful Father" by Pete Burak
3. “The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married” by Melissa S. Kearney

Connect with Fr. Vito Crincoli

Interested in starting an LTP club or learning more?
📧 Email: vcrincoli@legionaries.org

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome back to Monsori Mindset, the podcast where we explore what it means to form the whole child, mind, body, and spirit, and where we spotlight the people and programs helping families raise confident, capable, faith-filled young people. Today I'm joined by Father Vito Krinkoli, who works with boys through a Catholic leadership formation program called the Leadership Training Program, often known as LTP. This program is part of the Youth Apostolate connected with Regnum Christi and is the Legionaries of Christ. And it's designed to help boys grow into strong leaders, leaders formed not just by skills, but by virtue, faith, and friendship with Christ. So, Father Vito, thank you so much for being here with me. And I'm excited for this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Melissa, thanks for having me. I'm excited too.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

I'm excited too. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I know. This is the first time that we're meeting in person in person.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I know we've tried many times. And now finally this actually happened despite slow sleep.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

We're here.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yes, absolutely. For the audience, if you could tell everybody a little bit about you and about your mission.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Well, I'm um a member of the Legionaries of Christ. I've been a priest now 16 years of my life. I joined the seminary at 13 years old, believe it or not. Wow. That usually raises a lot of eyebrows. It's like 13. What happened at 13, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

No, you know what? I was watching something, and this was something different than when we were previously talking, but it was still Bishop Robert Barron. And he said, you know, if a child who's at three or four or five decides that he wants to become a swimmer, the parents put the child in swimming classes and nobody like raise raises an eyebrow. So if a child says that they want to go into religious, like why are we not supporting that as well? Like, where would that be? So I thought that was so beautifully said. You might say that they raise an eyebrow, but I think it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Oh no, it's beautiful. And I like the fact that people raise an eyebrow because when I say raise an eyebrow, it's not that people are like, like, oh, this is bad. No, but people are surprised. Like, how would you know so young, right, that you wanted to become a priest? And it's that focus too, which the reason why I always wanted to be a priest is because in my life I had very good role models.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I had good role models and people and men who really threw their example and how much time they invested in me, right? You mean starting with my dad, right? And my mom, of course, right? But the men in my life, these priests that invested their time in me and my family, the things they did with us, all of that was basically the seeds that were planted to motivate me to say, I want to be like them.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

I want to believe as they believe, and that's true.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, no, I love that. So tell us a little bit about your your mission then.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I've all my life as a Catholic priest, even as a legionary seminarian, I had been dedicating my life to the youth, um, working with kids in middle school, high school. I've even worked with college kids all my life. Before coming to Washington, DC, I was a missionary in Mexico there for 17 years.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Um, quite an adventure. Come back to the United States and you think I'm American, but I have to come back to becoming an American again for the whole thing. And now, here, that same mission of working with young people continues. It's a different culture, obviously. Um, it's a different standpoint, different mission, different challenge. But my mission is to form men. I work with boys. Um, I sometimes work with girls as well, but I must spend most of my time directly with boys. And my mission is to form young men to be Christian Catholic leaders in a society. That is very challenging. That's my mission.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yes, it is very challenging. I think that like culturally it's really hard uh on our boys right now, and so I love that you're doing this work and you are helping our boys become exact exactly at becoming young men, young men that can be the future leaders. And I I love that. So tell me a little bit about the Legionaries of Christ and the Regim Christi.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Okay, so the Legionaries of Christ, we're actually quite a baby order. We're now, I think, in 80 years of existence. Um, we were founded in 1941 in Mexico, and our prime mission actually is to form apostles. We're all over the world. We're in Ireland, we're in Italy, we're in Mexico. Like I said, I was missionary. We're in Chile, here in the States, we work through schools, we do through mission work, we through we do, we would some we would we call bring Jesus, bring God to the streets, right? But when we talk about forming apostles, it's dedicated to the family. We form families, we form young adults to be team leaders, and not just form them, but we give them an experience of Christ in such a way that they come out saying, I have to be a missionary. I want to be a missionary, I want to bring this. So our main mission is to form apostles. That's our characterism. Regnum Christi is, I would say, the lay movement of the lay part of our spirituality, right? Yeah. So Regnum Christi is the umbrella, and then under it you have the legionaries of Christ, right? Then you've got what we call the consecrated women of Regnum Christi, and then you have the consecrated men of Regnum Christi. That's a whole other discussion we can get into. And then we have the lay people who are the lay members of Regnum Christie. So we're the priestly branch.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

I love that. Even Catholics would have a hard time understanding this. So for our audience that's Catholic and doesn't understand it, and our audience that are not Catholic, maybe this is also helpful, I think, to understand where this is coming from.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

It's also good for people to know, too, that the lay vocation, like the movements, is practically a new thing in the church. It's like a new, I don't even want to use the word fashion, but it's a new thing that's happening in the church that lay people are discovering more and more the call to their baptismal vocation. Right? If it's not priestly vocation or consecrated vocation, as lay people by baptism, they're also called to bring the gospel, right? So that's the whole thing that we are living in Reggae and Christie is to live that.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

You know, and I so this is like such an aside, but hey, I think it's kind of fun doing this in person. Like now I can tell you these stories. Yeah, it's so easier. Like when I started the school, um, I was working with a spiritual guide over at St. Vincent de Paul.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

And I was telling him how I wanted to start a school and it was going to be a Christian school. And he's like, and he said, But you're Catholic. Why are you not starting a Catholic school? And I said to him, and I in complete earnest, I said to him, Well, father, I'm part of the laity. I cannot start a Catholic school. And so he showed me all of these examples. I had no idea. So I also wonder if I'm not alone in this you know misunderstanding of what we can and cannot do as part of laity.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Well, Laity, you have a very specific part in the church. Um, it's actually interesting to see, like even in the past years, starting with St. John Paul II, right? In the sense of how he was bringing lay people to take on roles within well, first of all, St. John Paul II came out and brought out the idea about the importance of lay people. Right? Even in the life of St. John Paul II, it was a lay person who invited him to be a part of an underground group, prayer group, this simple layman, right, who got a group of people together and look what happened, right? Then you have Pope Francis, who had been bringing lay people into the church in the sense of, well, taking on certain roles within the church. Now, Pope Leo more or less doing the same thing. But remember something. By baptism, we are all called to holiness. Yeah. We're all called in one way or another to bring the mission to bring the gospel to people. You in your particular case, for example, you look at this school, right? We were talking about it before. I mean, but there's the we we you might call it crazy, right? It is crazy to do something like this, right? Or we can look at the founder of the Halo app. I mean, 76 times asking people to help find it. It was at the 76 time that the person who needed to give him money finally gave him money. His own mom didn't even believe in him. He thought he was crazy, and his capitalists were telling him, You're not gonna this is not gonna be possible. But he believed in his heart and that God was calling him to do this. And he, you are just living out, Melissa, your vocation as a lay Catholic. Yeah, and that's being a missionary.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Yeah, right, absolutely. I 100% agree. So um now regarding the leadership team, so tell our audience why it's important this work with the boys. What are you seeing culturally, socially? What are you seeing um and the importance of it?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

So I'm seeing from a perspective of someone who works with kids, I'm seeing that the world is challenging the identity of our kids, right? The identity, but also just growing up, the world is not making it easier. So one of the things that we have in the LTP program is we don't want to form nice guys, we want to form strong guys.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Right? That go let's go with that slogan. Yeah, we don't want to just form nice people, we want to form good, strong kids to be strong and good men. And if we're talking Catholic, we want to form to form holy men, right? Holy kids. So what I'm noticing even as a formator is, and I don't know if you've ever read the book Anxious Generation.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Okay, so those of you who are listening who get your hands on that book, and then there's another book that I would highly recommend that for me was a huge help, is actually by it's called A Man on Purpose, 10 Rules of Life from a Faithful Father by Pete Burak.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Okay, yeah, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

And he and he goes into four things that we apply in LTP. First of all, is identity received, not curated.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Okay, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

The second one is communal witness and support, training in failure, risk, and suffering.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

And the last one is pursuing holiness and the power of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

So when you ask me, what are we doing with these kids? We're bringing these kids to bring to make them strong leaders. How do we do that in an LTP club? Well, first of all, you'd be very surprised to know that we do a lot of one-on-one with the kids. There's a lot of teen games with the kids, but what are we doing by that is, and there's also formation. So here's what's happening: we're looking at kids who need, number one, need to learn how to think and not just feel. You and I have heard the phrase, um, I think, therefore I am. Yeah. Well, nowadays it's I feel, therefore I am.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Right? And in that one point is first we're teaching kids to learn to think why they say what they say, why they do what they do, what is their deepest motivation, and to learn to really use that for the good. Right. In the games, for example, yeah, sure, we play games, but in the games, there's lots of things you can form in a kid. Right? Learn to take risks, learn to accept when you fail, learn how to fail, learn how to win. Right?

unknown 11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

And when you're doing that, you're teaching a kid to live.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

And that he's not defined by his failures. On the contrary, if you teach a kid to learn how to get up again and to continue moving ahead, those kids eventually are going to become strong leaders. And here's a last thing that I really wanted to mention to you when you asked me that question. It's the importance of role models.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

We have seen in the work, and this is very interesting, we have seen in the church, the amount of men who have stayed strong on their faith, it's because they've had good influences in their life. They've had good role models who have fed them the faith, who have invested in them, have given them time. And they've been surrounded by people who are doing the same thing. So, youth work, and this is really the idea I want to get across to people who are listening. Youth work that we do, we're trying to build a community of young boys who want to strive for the same thing. And the amount of time, and we're encouraging dads, because we work with the boys, so we're we're doing a lot of father-son activities because we're in we're in we're really getting the dads to understand your time, the way you live with your kids, the way you teach your kids, the way you pray with your kids, just being with them, you are forming them to be kids that are strong in their faith. Yeah, we live in a fatherless generation nowadays.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

One of the movies that I really enjoyed the most, I don't know if you would agree with me, is Braveheart.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

I yeah, it's a little gruesome at the very start, and it's very hard for me to get past it. But yes, I can appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

This is a man's, a man's movie. I agree, okay. There's some parts where you know I won't go into too much detail. But there's something interesting that really clicked with me when I was watching that movie. It's the relationship, there's some moments where you see like William Wallace and the relationship with his father. Then you have Longshanks, the relationship with his son, and Robert the Bruce, the relationship with his father. And you have three types of fatherhoods being lived out. You look at William Wallace and the way his father encouraged him, saying, Your heart is free, now pursue.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

I might have to watch this movie again.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yeah, yeah. And then you have Longshanks the way he treats his son, and his son ends up just being weak and David and not being able to move ahead and just vengeful, right? And then Robert the Bruce, who has a divided heart because he gets to know Wallace. His dad wants him basically to live for the idea of honors. But Robert the Bruce looks at Wallace and Robert the Bruce tells his dad, I want to believe like Wallace does. That's what we want. We tell dads. Because we showed this movie to the dads.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Like, look, guys, you want your kids to say, I want to believe like you, dad. I want to have the same faith as you, dude, dad. And this is an LTP, what we're teaching the kids. Right? We're teaching the kids to learn to believe, to learn to be strong. And when your faith is strong, well, failures actually become an opportunity for growth. So there's a lot we can embark there.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

But we're trying to form not just good kids, not just nice, sorry, not just nice kids, strong and holy kids for a future that is challenging.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah, I think that like what you just said there, I I want to kind of restate it. Let me know if I've got it wrong.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

I want to restate it in Montessori terms. Because as you know, as I said, Dr. Montessori was Catholic, and she writes about all of these types of things, about the importance of resilience in children. How do you create resiliency in children? And so if a child is cared for and loved, then it's easier for them to take risks. And when they fail, that's how they learn. And so the more times that they fail, they are practicing how to become resilient for those bigger challenges that are inevitably going to happen further in life, right? So that is going on. The other thing that you talked about is like all the different things that are very important in leadership. And it was funny because just this afternoon, or this morning, excuse me, I had a lesson with one of the children. And we, you know, I have a bunch of task cards, and I said, just pick one task card, uh, and then we're going to write an essay based on your task card. And so the task card that he picked out was, What are your what are some of your qualities that make you a good leader?

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

And so the the so he came up to me and he said, What are some qualities that I have that make me a good leader?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

I said it's a typical question from a kid.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

No, no, yeah, no, absolutely. And I said to him, I said, Well, right off the bat, you're a very caring person. And he said to me, But that doesn't make anybody a good leader. And I said, I disagree. I disagree. And this is why. What does every leader need? And he was like, and I said, followers. If you no one's following you, you're not a leader. And he's like, I see your point. And I was like, So are you going to follow somebody who cares for you, or are you going to follow somebody who's going to abuse you? Right? And so he was like, Okay, all right. So I think that like having the integrity, right? That integrity is a way of caring for people. And I think that that is something that's really brave, which requires faith.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Well, you know what? Thank you for saying that. Because I think what we're emphasizing here, Melissa, and I think this is what parents look for when they send their kids to a program, the amount of time you're going to invest in their kid. We say there's games, they play games, we get we do activities, but what you did, for example, is something that we try to do with the kids is to get them to think. Right. And also the aspect, which is children, if they feel loved, they'll advance.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Oh, absolutely. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

And you made a very, and I want to bring up another story, what you just said, right? Yeah. Very simple story. So you're always going to have a crazy kid. Right? There's all there, they exist everywhere. There's no perfect kid. And so one kid, we had one kid in our LTP program who's very, I mean, you want to be accepted, so you do crazy things to be accepted with your peers, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Oh, you see what you're saying. Yes, yes, yes. You get what I'm saying, right? I now I understand, yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

So the audience that's listening, they'll they'll catch on to this. So it's very easy. St. John Bosco used to say, it's very easy to get angry. It's very easy to punish, right? And usually if we lose, I mean, if we just punish easily, it's sometimes insecure on our part, right? But I noticed that there was one kid that we were having a talk, and he was purposely just trying to be a distraction on purpose. And you're like tempted to like, look, kid, you're about to lose, you're about to lose the game right now. And I remember at the end of the talk, I pulled him aside and I said to him, I said, Look, I really, really don't know why you're acting like this. But deep down inside, you're a good kid and you're better than this. I said, I have you eyed out to be a team leader, and I'm still thinking about it, but you need to prove to me, you need to show me. And why am I telling you this? Because you're a good kid. And I will not I will not lie to you, and this is the Holy Spirit when I said it's like two months after, you know, God does work. Two months after he came up to me and he said, This is at the end of the year, actually. And they have to each of the kids at the end of the year have to do a speech and present it. And it was God's consolation to me because the kid in his speech said to the parents, I want to thank Father Vito because he told me I was a good kid. And that was a lesson for me, for me, for me, to learn that it is so easy to lose patience, and I'm not perfect. I think we all at that one point do lose that that merciful hand. But I learned so much that these kids really do take this hand.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

They do.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

And they need to hear that. That's when we talk about when you say that we invest in these kids. And I don't know if that's usually the best word, but we put a lot of love into the kids. We pull them aside, we talk to them, we form them. But that and that's why youth groups exist. It's one of the reasons because if we can invest love, integrity in these kids, they will follow people who believe in them.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

And they need to see, they need those role models.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

I think that like our as a whole, our society needs more male role models, specifically male role models. Yes. So Dr. Monasori talks about, especially in the adolescent programs, how having quality role models is important. So when you when as the as the directress of the school, it is my responsibility. It's always my responsibility, but specifically in the adolescent program, that I am bringing in quality role models into that program. And so I don't take filling that position, oh any position, but specifically this position. I I really do it with a lot of care and intention because I am looking for those things. And um, but you know, there's a her name is Melissa Swoman. Um, she wrote it's called the two-parent privilege. And it her argument is that having uh a male and a female as the parents in a family, right? So um that child is privileged over the other children that do not have that experience. And she goes into all the research on this, and it's very, very interesting, especially since there's a couple of things I think that are happening in society that we need to be very aware and cognizant of. But um Boys need male role models for the reason of specifically a couple of things. One all children, including boys, they need some kind of rough housing so that they can, it helps with their brain and their equilibrium, it helps with their gross motor. So this is like the younger children, their gross motor, because um all of those types of things. Then, but when they get older, men speak differently than women do. Women are a little bit more gentle, and we have to anthropologically women have to, because we we have to protect ourselves. We're more vulnerable. And so we have a little bit of a silver tongue, right? Whereas men have more brute strength on their side, so they can speak a little less gracefully. Right. And so, but we shouldn't be tearing down men for not being able to speak the same way as women, or should that be an expectation? And so our boys need to hear how to communicate in a world of men. I don't know if that makes sense what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yeah, I I see what you mean. For example, when we do the father-son, so we have a father-son weekend, we do two every year. Um, and that's where we actually begin to see, for example, how a male role model really forms his kid in the vivential aspect. When I say viventio, I mean like being with his son. So men actually, dads and their kids, in when they're with their sons, they're actually giving them that strength, they're teaching their kids to be strong. Right in the way they live their own manhood, the kids watch. Now, I'll give you an example. Every year we do something called the Top Gun Father-Son weekend.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Tell us more about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Okay, so we started. I don't know if for those who are listening, if you've seen Maverick, Top Gun Maverick. Okay. So one of the moms was actually watching the movie, and we've been doing father-son camps every weekend, but we like to have a themed camp with the father-sons. It makes it more interesting, get more focused, right? So one of the moms had seen, I hadn't seen yet, Top Gun Maverick, and she's like, Father, have you seen the movie? And I'm like, No, not yet. She goes, Father, you gotta see it because it really plays a father-son role. And I'm like, Okay. So I saw the movie, and for those who've seen it, don't want to spoil it. You've got Maverick, right? And you have Rooster, who's the son of Goose. That if you've seen the first Top Gun has died. So Maverick takes on this fatherly role of making sure that Rooster's ready for the mission. And there's different moments in this movie where you're seeing Maverick face his own limitation. He's he's made mistakes, he doesn't want to fail. And yet, Rooster, what he's looking for is to see his dad again in his life. And Maverick sort of takes that on. Right. We decided to do that, this camp based on that movie. So we brought in actually a Top Gun pilot to come and put the whole thing together for us. Actually, the Top Gun pilot who actually participated, he had a friend who flew one of the actors in the movie because they really flew in the movie. So it was Phoenix. So her his friend actually flew her in the movie. So but this pilot comes and you mount, you put together this whole thing. First of all, the first part of Top Gun is really cool is the idea of being a father. So there's a really cool ceremony at the beginning of the camp where the dads receive real naval aviator rings. And there's obviously there's a process of becoming a top gun dad. So there's the top gun dodgeball, there's the top gun training moment. And I have a little more time to explain. But the whole cool thing about it is the Navy personnel who have come to help us, they would dress in their blues, put on their best uniform, have the dads line up, flag, our Christian flag, our EC, our LTP club flag, then they have all the wings on the table. And it's a ceremony. And one of them had said, Father, just for what fatherhood is, this deserves ceremony. And the kids are watching it. Then during that whole time, it's all Top Gun based. So there's the mission at night. They have to go out into the woods, they have to crack codes, they have to do everything. And then the Top Gun pilot is giving them the lingo of what it is, like the language they have to know, the things they have to do. It'd take a while to be able to explain that. But the cool part about that whole moment is that at the end of it all, the last activity after mass, the dads give their wings to their sons.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

They and it's a ceremony.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Oh, how beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Again, we had two midshipmen that came from Annapolis to be a part of the event. The Navy actually helps us with this. We're very blessed to have them on board. Um, they put their best uniform on, the dads were lined up, kids were lined up, and then the midshipman gives an explanation to the dad saying, the most important moment of your life is what you're passing down to your kids. And this is ceremony. So you see, each dad goes up to his son, pins to his chest. Sure, sure, yeah. And he's whispering, and the midshipman will tell him, make sure you either say a prayer and say something that to your son will be memorable. We have seen tears, we have seen um emotion. The kids are like, because the kids are surprised because they're like, wow, this is really cool. And the the whole point of that is what these gestures are forming in their son a sense of what fatherhood is. And what you're talking about there, this is in the experience of it. Even when they're out there in the mission in the dark, they can't see anything, they're camouflage, they've got their compass, they've got they have to crack codes, they have to do it together. There are moments where dads will say to you, that very dynamic is where I saw how I and my son have to talk to each other. There were kids that were like, Dad, I don't think I can do this. And the dad's like, look, you can do this, I'm behind you, but the only way you're gonna do this is that you've got to do it. You were made for this. I mean, all of that, yeah, that's the camp.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Then we have the father-son Eucharistic procession. This is something, Melissa, that is so important that kids watch how their dads pray.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Oh, there's some good science on that too. Keep going.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

So there's some good science on that. But that was so vital and so moving. Because at our campsite in Castleton, where we we have a campsite in Castleton, Virginia, huge place, 180 acres, really big. We made like a trail for the Eucharistic procession, and there's torches, and there's the priest carrying the bus that the dads are walking with their sons, carrying torches, praying, singing. That for a kid, because my dad was with me. Right? I've also seen too where dads would say, Father, I'm gonna bring another kid with us because his dad can't make it. And this is where I want to actually get this across a little bit. We've seen this happen, where a kid will be watching his, you know, he's watching the dad who took him giving his wings to his son. And you could see how the kid is saying, and I mentioned this to the crowd out there who's listening, how important is for a dad to be present. This kid's dad wasn't there, he's watching this, but this dad who took him pinned another pair of wings on this kid. It is very important, and I tell the dads, if I would re-if your son, I don't want, and this might sound bad. We really encourage that. Please, if you come, come with your boy. This is why we have it. Yeah, you know, you are a father, is a carpenter in the life of their kid. And that in that experience, it's very, very important for them to live. The kids need to see it, experience it, hear it. It's actually pretty funny, but when we have the father-son top gun questionnaire, because the dads and the kids have to answer questionnaires, we actually do trick questions. So for the dads, one of the questions would be, What's your son's favorite gift for his birthday? If you knew what your son wanted for his birthday, what would you get him? Right? And so the the kids have to look at the questions of the dads and then vice versa. And the kids sometimes will tell dad, dad, that's not what I would want for business. And the dads are like, Whoa, I didn't realize. And that's even the point. It's like, you know, how well do you know your son? So these activities are very useful to build that bond with their kids, but it's the experience. My kids watching me. I'm forming, I'm passing on to them who I am. It's not just teaching you something. As a dad, I'm passing on to you who I am as a father.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Your reflection of me, right? You won't do the same things as I do, but you are my boy. So that's just sharing that. That's what we do at the top con.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Well, I think in going back to the mentorship part of it, there's some really good research that shows that fathers who go to church with their children, their children, I think the number was like 70% are likely to continue in the faith. And why is that a gift? That is a gift because people who are faithful are generally in their life happier.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

You know, and so I you know, I I would say successful, except for everybody measures success differently. But like happier for sure. So I but I would argue successful, but I mean everybody defines that one a little bit differently. But yeah, so I just think that that it's it's a beautiful gift that you can give your child, and like as a father, that mothers simply can't. We have a lot of gifts that we can give that is one that we we have to make sure our husbands and the children's fathers can do for them. So it's it's really truly a partnership. And I think that like, but what you're doing is something so special because the reality is is that the children need to be in an environment, especially in our current society, where all of this is not only accepted but celebrated.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Yes, thank you. That's that's the word we need to celebrate this. Like I really enjoyed, and I'm not just saying because it was something that we do, but when this top gun pilot, this Navy official dressed in his blues, right? And then we had actually, no, yeah, this was the top gun pilot, but the one who actually did it really cool, he's a CD from the Navy. He came with his blues, his blues is is medals, and he's like, Look, this deserves ceremony. We're celebrating fatherhood. The more better ceremony we give to it, the higher we raise the dignity of what it is. Now you talked about success, right? What is successful? Of course, we want to teach our kids to be successful, but the greatest achievement you can achieve in your life is to be coherent and integrated. A person who's honest, right?

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

That's what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Yeah. Rook, I know we've talked about the um, I mean, I feel like we've talked about the leadership training program, we've talked about the um Maverick uh ceremony, we've talked about um the games. So tell like kind of more of the details of like what is the program.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

So the program, first, just to give you a brief thing, brief explanation, it started back in the 90s, precisely here in Washington, DC was the first place it actually started.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

I didn't know that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Um, we have clubs all over the country, all over the world, but LTP started particularly here as a way to, because you're in a city that's probably one of the most influential cities in the world, right? For what it is. So here a lot of these kids, what will God call them to do? So focus on Christian leadership, right? Everywhere, of course, but here in DC in particular, this was a name that caught the attention of a lot of parents. So um basically what we do, what LTP had been doing was giving the faith to the kids, but also focusing a lot on I always is going to be very funny, but it started out by doing public speaking, right? Like certain qualities that you teach a kid for leadership, but then you integrated the virtues, you integrated the spirituality, and then you integrated what is like um apostolate. So apostolate is like going out there and doing service work, right? So, how does LTP work? So LTP is actually we have juniors and mentors, right? Juniors are those that come from second grade up to fifth grade, and then sixth grade up to eighth grade, they're the mentors. Um, every LTP group we meet weekly, once a week, every week, because with the boys you have to be more consistent. Um first three weeks are mentors only, right? So, what do we do during those three weeks? We prepare them to be the mentors for the juniors, right? So after the three weeks, when it's just mentors, then we start with the juniors. So now you have juniors and mentors, and so the mentors become like big brothers, the juniors. And we start asking for the mentors to be like the right-hand men of the senior mentors that are like the team captains. And then after, and then so when the juniors come, you have five weeks. So as mentor and junior, five weeks, the mentors are learning to mentor with the juniors, and then after the five weeks, you have um three more weeks, which is just mentors, to evaluate what they've done, how they've done, and just then actually to award them for their service. So this is the curriculum, and we are divided into two semesters. One semester and the other semester, right? And so that's how LTP works. Um, and you go through certain virtues, it's actually pretty cool because each semester has a particular virtue that you focus on. So you have A, B, C, and D. And so every year, sorry, you have two virtues that you work on.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

One virtue for one semester, another virtue for another semester. And the whole day in the club is actually pretty cool because the kids arrive. Um, we have like a PT moment, so like physical, yeah, or physical PE moment, not PT, sorry, P-E.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

So you basically get the kids running, get them doing certain exercises because they bring a lot of energy to the table. So you get them moving, and then you start with lines, and lines are their team. So each team is like a clan, they have their own clan, right? They like the word clan because it sounds very manly for them. They love it. They love it.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Yeah, Braveheart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

The kids love it. And then they have the name of their clan, and then they get points for their work, and then you have the game. So they'll play either dodgeball, they'll play flag football, they'll play gladiator, they'll play all these different games, but the whole focus of that is to build their team, to learn how to lose, how to fail, how to take risks. It's got its formative part to it. What's even more interesting is it really brings the kid out of himself. There's so much you can know about a kid in a game, right? After the game, you have what we call the donut moment. So we bring donuts.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Tell me about the donuts.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

You could do so much with a donut. You could control kids with one donut. You can control the masses. I want to jump in there.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

So the whole point of the donut is um now when the kids line up after the game, you you have the kids nominating another kid to receive a donut. So let's say, for example, I nominate you and I say, Melissa, I want to nominate you for a donut because I saw that in Dodgeball you got hit with the ball. And instead of faking it that you didn't get hit, you were sincere and left the game. I nominate you for that. Then another kid says, Hey, you know what? I want to nominate you. Um, I want to nominate this kid, sorry, because he was patient. He could have gotten angry and he got paid. I mean, they nominate for little things, but here's the thing everybody gets nominated. Everybody gets recognized for the good they do. That's very important in a kid's boy's life. To recognize each other for the good they do. They're kids. They're not gonna have the perfect resignation. They might just say, well, he played good. All right, it's fine, right? Then they get their donut and they get good donuts. Uh, we have a small group apart with LTP, which is called the Knights of the Altar.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

So from all the different LTP programs, we have kids who are interested in serving mass. And so we formed a little club called the Knights of the Altar. And they even got to go to Rome and serve at the Vatican. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Yes, they did. They've had a chance to serve at St. Patrick's Cathedral as well with Cardinal Dolan.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Um, they had a chance to serve um at the military ordinary. They've had no they've got they had a chance to serve, I think, at Villanova University.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Because they went to know a little bit about the life of Pope Leo because there he had studied. So these are the experiences that the kids have. And we want these kids to have these experiences because it helps them to grow in their faith and love their faith. And for the parents who are listening, all these things that they do, they're very useful for their high school resume. It's very important.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Yeah. No, I I I think that well, just in in going into college as well, because you could still point to it. And I think that like that, you know, that's what institutions are looking, higher learning institutions are looking for. They're looking for things that are showing and pointing towards leadership and experiences and opportunities in leadership. And I think that that's it's the that's there's just not enough of it right now. And uh, and so that that I think is really important. That is really cool. So have you seen now you've been doing this yourself for 13, 14 years?

SPEAKER_00 39:49

So youth work, I've been doing it for more than 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Okay. So can you do you have any stories that you can share of the children that have gone through the program and what they're doing now?

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Okay, so some of our kids, for example, I could share a few stories with you. Um, one was when we did the Ukrainian project. All right, so I'll I'll try to be as brief. I mean, it's just so it's really it was a really cool experience for the kids. So when the war started in Ukraine, um, we were thinking about what we can do for them over there because you want to create an awareness that you can change the world and not just change the world, but also be aware that people suffer, especially the kids. So we had thought about doing a collection for people that were in need over there and sending letters to kids in any way. So we were investigating, we went around investigating. There was a Ukrainian priest here in DC who opened a contact for us in Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

We went to Philadelphia, we got in contact with them. But then one of the moms of the boys, her name is Kira Phillips. Okay, she's from ABC News. Okay, she I had never met her. I mean, this is my first year, okay. I just arrived at DC, I was just getting started. Um, she comes up to me and goes, Father, and I heard you want to do this story. And I said, Yeah, I'm her husband is John Roberts from Fox News.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

So Kira comes up to me, she goes, Well, you know, Father, I don't know if you know, but I work for ABC. And I said, Oh, really? She goes, Yeah, we can turn this into a story and do something better than what you're already doing. And I'm like, Okay. So we talked about it, and she says, Let's go to have the boys write the letters, we'll film it, and we'll do an interview and we'll make this into a project. Um, Letters of Hope.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Amazing. Okay, Melissa. God wanted it because there were some obstacles that were weird. So we go to Philadelphia, and what happens is that well, ABC goes to the place where we had contacted, they interview the person, and that person said, We can fly to Ukraine and bring the letters to the orphan kids that are over there.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

So that so that was like awesome. We go to Philly, we bring the care packages, we bring the letters, we give the letters over, and all of a sudden I get a phone call, and it's like, it looks like it might not happen.

SPEAKER_03 42:22

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

And we're like, okay, in God's hands, whatever the Lord wants in me. So, Melissa, I go to the Ukrainian embassy here in DC, small place, and I said, Hey, you know, we're doing this project. I just want to know if I can talk to you for a moment. So I was and then they said, Father, we really can't do much for you. Everything seems to be blocked. All right, in God's hands. And all of a sudden, the day after that, I get a call from Kira, and she said, Father, great news. They're flying to the border, they're gonna go to Poland, and from there they're gonna go into Ukraine. I'm like, Oh, okay. What happens is they bring these letters, and so it's on the news, and you see the kids who received the letters. Wow, and the kids are reading the letters and they're moving, they're excited, and then they're taught, and they wrote letters back to our boys. Oh, wow, and so we showed the news piece to the kids, and honestly, kids are kids, but one of the kids was like, Wow, I did that, and I said, Yeah, you made a life better, you did. God used you for that, and that for the kids was in that was something that was very important for them, very important for them. They're not always gonna get a chance to see, but they're you're creating an awareness. People do suffer, they don't have their parents with them right now because they're fighting in the war. You made their life a little different. Yeah, another example another story. This is one of the beautiful things about working with kids. There are kids that really have a change in life, you know. God, I something you learn when you're working with kids. The test of faith is you don't always see the fruits in the first moment. But if you don't plant the seeds, there's no fruit. Right. It'll come, it'll come. It's like if you're farming, well, if we don't plant the seeds, no food after. So that's gonna work. So one kid, um, I'll never forget, we were on mission. We do we do a Christmas outreach every year. And um, this Christmas outreach, we can collect up to 2,000, 3,000 toys. The kids are doing it. Obviously, the parents are helping, right? And so you have people from the street. This is at Nativity Parish in downtown DC.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

200 to 300 people are coming because they don't have to bring gifts for Christmas. So we do like a toy store where parents can walk in and they can pick out three, two to three toys so that they can have a Christmas for their kids. But these kids, these LTP kids, they're out there playing with the kids while the parents are picking up the toys and getting them wrapped, right? Yeah, it's a whole this year was amazing, praise God. We had 400 people who came. The fire department even came, not to save people, but to be with the kids. Um, but what was really amazing was one of the kids came up to me and said, because one woman had gone up to the kid and gave him a hug. And she said, I want to thank you because you made my Christmas different. And I'm looking, and I just happened to catch eye of it. And so I went up to him and I said, What did that mean to you? He says, You know, Father, I don't know. He says, Because he's processing it. But I said, Do you realize the difference you made? He goes, Yeah. He goes, It feels good to do that. And when you see the kids pray, this for me is is magnificent. When you see the kids pray, kids will not always tell you what's going on, but they're processing things. And one kid who went to Rome with us, he came up to me and said, You know, father, could I be a saint one day? And I'm like, Why do you ask that? Yeah, because I don't know because I feel because I feel different. And that's actually pretty cool to see that with the kids because it means that they're processing things, Melissa, they're thinking. It's not like they're they're not zombied, right? And I said, you know what? God will make you a saint with what he's given you. Because we were visiting Carlo Okutis.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

He was right there, and the kid's looking at St. Carlo Cutis, and he's like, Can I be that?

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

And I'm like, Look, guy, look, kid, you have all what it takes to be a saint. All what it takes. God doesn't want you to be another Carlo Kutis, He wants you to be Saint So-and-so one day. That's your goal in life.

SPEAKER_02 46:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:43

Right? And one last example in the summer camp, because we have a medieval summer camp every year.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Okay, tell us Valar. Oh I like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

Camp Valar. So the knights of Valar, the clans, you you unite the clans. I would need another segment to tell you about this because we really do have a blast.

SPEAKER_04 47:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

So they have this thing called the Iron Man. All right. And the kids do the Iron Man, it's going through the mud, it's going through the water, it's carrying barrels. So all of a sudden, we were before the Iron Man, myself and another priest who I work with, Father David Spillane, great priest. Um, we were with the team leaders, and one of the team leaders was saying, Yeah, you know, kids love to see adults involved with them. They just love it. So Father Dave and I we were looking at each other, we're like, Do you think we should do the Iron Man with the kids? And he's looking at me and goes, Oh, I don't know. Because we because we were actually going on the Camino.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

We're going on the Camino, so we didn't want to get injured.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

But then we were looking at the kids like, look, these are not Navy SEALs.

SPEAKER_02 47:46

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

I think we could do this.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

So when we got dressed and ready to do the Iron Man with these kids, they looked at us and they got extremely excited. Extremely excited, Melissa. They just were like, so we're running with the kids. I even got pictures, and I felt like a well going through the mud. So went right through. This is what I ran right through, swam right through. Oh, run mud, and we were all in mud. And the kids, and from that moment, there was a bond that went the whole week. And it was very moving to see the kids like in Eucharistic procession. You have something called the Honor Guard. So the kids, like when you're doing Eucharistic Adoration, we have these always these two kids with these big torches. They're like the honor guard.

SPEAKER_03 48:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

And so the kids will spontaneously go up and switch with their companions to guard Jesus, and they're there. And it's, you know, you're watching this and you're saying it's all worth it.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

We won't know what will happen in the end, but if we don't do this, we'll never know. And these are and there are plenty of stories. But it's very also very interesting, too, when they get to the high school. Like some kids have even become missionaries. Um, one of our boys went to do missions twice in the summer as a high school kid to Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

And he went and he came back saying, Father, the best summer of my life. And now we have one more high school boy going out to Ontario, Canada, probably to do a mission there.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

We prepare these boys for this. This is what we do. This is our life. And these are the stories I'm telling you because, oh, and the Ukrainian and Holy Land projects, the patriarchs, the cardinals of both countries wrote to the boys. They wrote to the boys, they sent them a letter. And what's really cool about the letter is it reminds the boys that one of the letters is very beautiful that children are the most vulnerable people in the war. And by what you did, you've made that different for them. And this is the joy, this is what makes it worth working with kids. But when you look at the kids and their reactions that the cardinal wrote to you guys, that's huge. That not to make you feel proud, it's make you feel grateful that you were a part of that people who said, I made a difference. Not many people just stand around and do nothing. But you guys didn't do that. You guys said, I want to do something different. I want the kids made baklava with the help of a Lebanese family.

SPEAKER_03 50:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Baklava to raise money to send to the Holy Land to a parish that had been in the middle of Gaza with all the bombing, and it was a parish that was in need. And so they raised$9,500.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Really?

SPEAKER_00 50:30

And they sent it over to the Holy, we sent it over to the Holy Land with letters for the children. So we had a Lebanese young woman who knew Lebanese, who knew Arabic. So she taught the kids how to write in Arabic. She put it on this is what you could write, and the kids would copy. But Melissa, I'm sharing with you, and even the people are listening. This is what we do with the kids.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

This is what we do, and this is the the feedback we get. And what's even more beautiful is how the parents change. Um, there's a lot of McDonald's effect here. I don't know if you might mean McDonald's effect. It's McDonald's's trick is that the kids bring the parents. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Yes, okay. Yes, I understand what you're saying. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

So here, LTP effect is um the kids bring the parents. And it's very moving when you see a dad who says to you, Father, I really just I've healed from a lot of things because of being with my son. Or then when moms are getting emotional because their sons are being with their dads. And we've even had a mother-son retreat, too.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

Oh, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

And it's there just there's just a lot I could tell you, but this is this has been the experience. Those are the stories.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

I love that. I love I'm so grateful that you're sharing all of this with me and with everybody else. It's so moving. I yeah, I'm actually pretty speechless at the moment. Hold on. Um, no, I think that like what you're doing is amazing. I love uh every conversation we've ever had has been wonderful. I know that our audience is gonna really enjoy this conversation. Um moving forward, just you like you said, you grow, you you plant the seeds, so you have the fruit. What are we looking at in the future for LTP and for what you're doing, Father?

SPEAKER_00 52:22

So the future is right now with LTP. Here's what we have planned. One, more dad involvement. Right? This is one thing for those who are listening. So the the dads that were getting involved within the club were they they're feeling now. One thing is chaperone. Another thing is I want to mentor. So there are dads that feel like this is a calling to mentor. So they want to get involved either it's like we have one dad organizing the top gun father-son, he's in the Navy, he's a Navy CB. Um, we have other dads that run the club, they do the curriculum. They're really, they say, would say it's an extension of their fatherhood. It's very beautiful. So that's a more dad involvement. How does that go about? Through the different experiences we do in the clubs and in the activities that the dads get involved. Not all the clubs, it's like that. Not all the times we meet.

SPEAKER_03 53:12

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

Once in a while, there are experiences where the dads feel a part of it. We had the faith and football experience with the Washington Commanders.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

That was actually Yeah, you told me that that I don't know if we talked about that here, but I yeah, I I did mention it to you.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

I didn't go into too much detail. Yeah, it wasn't enough of time. Um, so that's one thing. Another thing is we really want to get we want to strengthen the high school branch of LTP because they're the team leaders, right? And we want to strengthen them too, because when they leave LTP and they go to study in college, their faith is important to them. So we want to prepare them for that. That look, wherever you go to study, don't lose what you've received. So we're strengthening the high school branch. Another thing we're also, and I'm gonna be very open about it, promoting priestly vocations. You know, priestly vocations, inviting the kids to think about. Can you can you see yourself doing what we do?

SPEAKER_01 54:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

No, I absolutely can you see yourself doing what we're doing? Can you see yourself being a priest? Could you? And also married life, of course, all the vocations, right? But not to be afraid to say, hey, look, could you see yourself doing what I'm doing? Yeah. That's one thing. Um, also greater formation for the families. There is a need.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

Um, there are lots of questions that the families have. We do have a curriculum, for example, the book that I mentioned to you about Peter from Pete about um, I actually have it here. Um sorry there. I can read it to you again. Um, what is the main uh a man on purpose, right? A man on purpose by Pete Burak. Um, we're actually trying to prepare a mini course, even with the anxious generation, putting some of these ideas and how the club forms families to form your kids. So that's very important. Many of the parents have expressed that, they're very interested in that. And that is for the moment what's on our radar right now, and trying to open up more LTP clubs in order for people to see that we can spread this formation and help out families and parishes.

SPEAKER_01 55:13

I love that. I love all of these things, and I hope to be a part of this in some some small way, whatever I can do to be helpful and we'll get this information out. And if somebody wanted to start a club, how would they do that? Or how could someone reach out to you?

SPEAKER_00 55:29

So listen, I you can reach out to me through the email.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Right, through the email or through uh messaging on my phone.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:36

I would prefer actually either way.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

I do see both.

SPEAKER_02 55:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:40

Right. And what we would do is let's get a good, I mean, a good group to start out could be eight kids, eight or nine kids, just to get started. Um, and then what we would do is I would like to meet with the parents first, that group of parents first, to show them the dynamic of how it will work. And from there we can meet weekly, right? Or depending on the parents, we can meet every 15 days. It's more convenient to meet weekly because then you give it more consistency.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 56:09

So that's how you would go about starting a club.

SPEAKER_01 56:11

Okay. No, I so uh is do you feel comfortable providing an email that someone could reach out to?

SPEAKER_00 56:17

So my email is the as in Victor, Kringoli, C-R-I-N-C-O-L-I at legionaries.org.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

Okay, perfect. And I'll go ahead and put that in the show notes as well so people can reach out to you.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

Reach out to me. Um and then also too, yeah, reach out to me. I am we would love to start a club here. That'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 56:38

Yeah, absolutely. I'd love that.

SPEAKER_00 56:40

We would love to start a club here.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:41

And yeah, let's go for it.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

Okay, fantastic. Um, we did have questions about um girls in leadership as well. What does that look like if you know, even just like if you want to touch on it for just half a second?

SPEAKER_00 56:54

No, no, no problem, no problem at all. As a matter of fact, there is an LTP girl branch, right? Um, the name of the person who runs it is Natalia Santos. She's actually a consecrated woman in Regnum Christi. She's one of the branches in the Regnum Christie, consecrated women, incredible woman. She had worked in Atlanta, she's from El Salvador. Um, she has this group of girls. So if one wanted to reach out to her, they can go through me. I don't want to give her information.

SPEAKER_01 57:21

No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, absolutely. No, I but I just I will say that like leading into this conversation, I've had some parents ask me about that. So I just wanted to like. Yeah, the good girl's brand. Yeah. Okay, that's wonderful. So, Father Vito, thank you again so much for being with me today and doing this in person and all the grace that you've shown. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And all the work you're doing with the boys, uh, creating strong and faithful young men. This kind of leadership formation is so deeply needed right now. And it's encouraging to know that boys can grow up surrounded by truth, brotherhood, purpose, and courage. For anyone listening who wants to learn more about the leadership training program and youth formation opportunities, we'll include the links in the show notes uh as well as Father Vito's uh email address so you can explore and get connected. To our listeners, thank you for spending this time with us on Montessori Mindset. And if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a message, and share it with someone who cares about forming children into strong leaders in faith and life. Until next time, stay grounded, stay hopeful, and keep leading with purpose. See you on the next episode of Montessori Mindset.