A Brother's Hunger for Becoming a Better Catholic Man (Part 1)

In this episode of MBJ, Baron and Greg ask brother John Chiorona from St. Philip the Apostle men's bible study to reflect on his faith journey and discover (and discuss) how his desire to become a better Catholic man helped shape his volunteer actions. This is the first of a two-part discussion.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right, well, welcome back to my brother's journey. As I usually say, I'm half of the tag team. I'm Greg Josefchuk, and with me is Baron Fink.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Good to see you, Greg. Great to see you. Welcome back into the country.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Thank you. Thank you. I took a very long uh sabbatical, three weeks, uh, just about, and I'm glad to be back uh in the chair uh doing the podcast with you. And you know, I am so doggone excited because we have grabbed yet another brother from our men's Bible study, and we brought the rubber hose out. Oh no way, but we have a mystery guest here. Yes, we do. And um so before we ask the mystery guest to introduce himself, um, Baron, would you mind uh starting us off in prayer? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. Dear Lord, we're thankful that uh we had this opportunity to get together, to to share our faith, to grow in each other's experiences, uh, to encourage each other. Lord, we're grateful for for all the opportunities we have to serve you and to serve everyone around us uh and and share the love of Christ. We ask that you're uh with us during this conversation and throughout uh the rest of this day. Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Father, sons, and holy spirit, amen. Thank you for that. All right, Mystery Guests, would you be so kind to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Who are you? So this is John Corona, and I thank you guys for twisting my arm to come on the program. I mean, uh for asking me to come on the program. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

John, uh excited to have you here, and uh you're my best friend, as you know. And there's a there's a story behind that that maybe we'll get to today. A little embarrassing on my part, but uh that's the way I roll. Uh anyway. Um, so John, you know, again, you're one of the brothers from our Bible study, and and I'm and we're very uh very glad you're here, and and thank you for so graciously um sharing your time with us. My soldier. So I'm gonna start with are you a tell us about your your your your Catholic journey. Are you are you born Catholic? Are you a cradle Catholic? Are you a convert? Um tell us about little Johnny growing up and kind of take us from there.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Sure, happy to do that, Greg. Um so I am a typical uh cradle Catholic that grew up in the Northeast in New York and Connecticut. Um as such, um, you know, reading the Bible was not really a thing uh for us back then. I I don't know if it is today up in the Northeast. I I I need to find that out actually, but um uh we moved down to North Carolina about 12, 13 years ago and uh started joining uh finding uh not only a men's Bible group like this one, but also small groups with couples, other couples interested in learning more about their faith, uh Catholic, Catholic faith, more about the Bible, and really understanding it more deeply. And it's been wonderful. Excellent, excellent.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

So um when would you say your Catholic journey really started kicking in in earnest? Like, you know, tell us about uh your high school years, your college years, kind of where were you? Uh, because we've asked other brothers, and our we've talked about our own, and and for a lot of us, it seems like there's a similar pattern where, yeah, I go to church, but you know, I'm not really into it kind of thing. And then something generally happens at some stage in our lives where they're like, hey, the Lord gets our attention one way or another and says, I need you to, I need you to step up the game a little.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah, so um I think I I don't know if I'm different than some guys or not, but we're unique. Exactly. Um, you know, I I I tell people I was the only uh New Yorker that went to the University of Georgia in the mid-80s. Yeah and so uh there weren't that many Catholics, at least at the time, uh down in Georgia. Go dogs. We did go dogs. They did have a Catholic center, and um uh there were times um for whatever reason I just I I felt a pulling uh from God and I I went to church uh every day for a semester, which is about 90 days, three months. Um that was once in my four and a half years uh of my undergrad program. Still impressive, still impressive. Um uh but uh I would say that other than that, um I I definitely went to church every Sunday, um, whether in the beginning, you know, parents made me go, but um after that um it was it was kind of important to me. And uh we we've raised our children Catholic. I have uh three daughters um and a son. Um very proud of all of them. Um and uh they're they're on their own faith journey, I would say. Um and um it wasn't until though that I got to North Carolina in 2013, I think it was, and then um started go, you know, joining like I think my wife joined some women's groups through the church, whether it was St. Mark's or St. Therese. Um, and uh and in doing that, you know, she dragged me along a little bit um to the small groups uh with other couples, and and and I'm watching these other men that are going through a similar journey, but also, at least in my mind, boy, they're stepping up their game. And I'm thinking to myself, I don't want to look like a fool. I I gotta step up my game. And um, and also the other thing, I'm a competitive person. So you come down south, and um a lot of people down here, uh uh possibly non-Catholics or what or or just maybe Catholics also, um, they know their Bibles. And when conversations came up, uh I kind of just sat off to the side and didn't have much to say because I didn't know much about the Bible. I mean, I I know what the Ten Commandments are, and and that's kind of how I try to live my life, I would say, uh up until you know North Carolina. And then after North Carolina, I started to try to do more works and get involved in things, and we'll probably get to that later, but um uh but also just become more learned about what the message is from our Lord.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Yeah, yeah. And um raising kids during that time, um were you know kind of were you leading them into more of a Catholic uh stronger push? I mean, or did you kind of, you know, what was your parenting uh direction at as you were getting more involved?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yeah, um, I I think my wife and I shared that responsibility. She probably was a little bit more uh forthcoming? Yeah, a little more forthcoming and a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

I don't want to say aggressive.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

No, no, not aggressive, but just she made sure that we got to church. Because you know, there were there were some Sundays where we had a lot going on. And it's easy to play armchair quarterback, right? Or hindsight's 2020. But if I look back now, I think to myself, boy, there were a lot of there were a number of Sundays that either I missed or the kids didn't get to because they had activities on Sundays. And I think I feel like today, I feel like that was a mistake, and that I should have put our you know, our Lord first. Um and again, it's easy to say now. Um did I think of it back then in that in that kind of way? I don't think I did. I just felt, oh no, this this you know, this travel team is super important, and this this dance competition is really important, and it's only on you know, we don't get to dictate when it is. Um, and so we just kind of rolled with it.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

I want to say, I just want to say, first of all, I I definitely can relate to that. I I have three we have three sons, and when we moved down here, well, we we moved from Chicago area, but you know, we had always lived in the Midwest. So my three sons, they all played travel hockey. So we come down here, we jump into travel hockey, and I can definitely relate, right? And it became I hate to say it because I do look back and and and now realize how wrong my priorities were, yeah, right? Yeah. Um but travel kind of in the sport became our god on the weekend. Like it it dictated the that weekend. And if we could squeeze church in, which was rare, right, especially with three of them on three different teams, you know what I mean? Exactly. But I so I can understand it's a common journey.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah, I I'm not trying to let us off the hook, so to speak, but at the same time, um, as we get older, right, we have a little bit more time and uh maybe maybe we start thinking about our own mortality.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Um I don't think we're that close, but uh well I I think one of the one of the goals or or hopes that we have for the podcast is maybe again out of the handful of people that trip uh having to trip by and find this podcast out there, uh like I said, Rogan's not worried about us. But um, you know, uh there may be younger younger families that are going through what we've already experienced.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Well, you know, I want to ask John, because you you mentioned you you grew up as a critical Catholic. Learning from your your faith from your parents, what was that like? Were they did they live their faith, or was it seen as more of this is what we do on a Sunday, we go to Mass. Not not why we do it, but this is what we do.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, it was more about what we do, yeah, but he also definitely um uh exemplified it in terms of being very charitable, um, not just to church and and and not just to charitable organizations, but people as well. Like when he saw someone in need, um he didn't think anything of writing a pretty hefty check to help them get through something. Um could family members or otherwise. Um and uh that's just the way he was. He was always that way, and he and he and he kind of taught me that for sure. Um I don't think I'm as charitable as he he was, but I still got time. He was 94. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

So so when you're when you were kids, if you were to ask them what they what their experience would be like growing up in a new as a great going to church, did they understand or appreciate why they were going to church? And and did you guys ever talk about faith outside of any match?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

It's funny. Um I I don't I don't feel like we did that often. Like we kind of just followed and did what we were supposed to do and understood right or wrong, well, right today I would say, but understood that we were supposed, you know, we were Catholic. We were we were baptized, we were con uh uh confirmed, um, and so on, and this is what we were supposed to do. And you know, and I knew that someday I wanted to have a family and I wanted to get married in the Catholic Church and receive that sacrament as well. Um, and didn't have a whole lot of questions. Now there were some questions when I got to college, and um we're gonna leave those questions aside here because I believe this is a PG podcast. So uh but uh questions, pretty deep questions I had with my father, and uh we we may have had a little disagreement over it. But uh anyway.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Yeah, I can certainly appreciate that. Um one of the things I know also about you uh as I've gotten to know you, and now that you're my best friend. That's an inside joke that I guess uh before I go any farther, I should explain it for again for those handful that are out there. We had a um men's retreat here at St. Philip the Apostle. And uh I I I couldn't spend the whole day at the retreat, and uh they asked us to pair up and and and get to know someone during lunchtime, if I remember right. Yeah. And I picked you, John, my best friend. Get to get to know each other only two by the time we got to lunch, say, hey John, I gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Yeah, I think it was right about the time when we were gonna do some pairing. You said, sorry, I gotta go. I gotta go. And so that's kind of the story of my life, could be now.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah, the background story. Um, what I want to get to though, um, is uh I know that you uh volunteer at the NC Feed program. And uh in fact, we'll be eating lunch there tomorrow, some of us, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

And um, so I want to just talk a little bit about that. What led you to donate your time and why NC Feed? And maybe you could just talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Sure. So it's actually Feed NC. Feed and Crimea. And um which started out way back in 1987, I think, as uh the Mooresville Soup Kitchen. Yeah. And interestingly, way back, well gosh, when I moved down here, so I think you're talking 2013, uh, my company uh was very into doing uh charitable works, and they'd give people half a day or a day off if you volunteered to do a certain thing. And so uh there was a day where uh me and probably 15 others uh went to Mooresville Soup Kitchen and painted all their walls. Oh wow on their whole inside. They cleared everything out, we repainted it and everything. And I thought it was just really kind of neat uh what was going on there. Now that building was so tiny compared to where Feed NC is today up on Charlotte Highway. Um and it's gone from and and the reason it's it's feed and see is um it's much more than just a soup kitchen, right? So the the for those that don't know it, feed and see, it actually stands for food, education, and resources. Uh uh, and sorry, and well, now I've messed it up. Well you're on the right track. Yeah. So so anyway, let me let me let me back off of that one. Whoopsie. Yeah. Um, but let me tell you what feed and see does, if I may, because it it does so many different great things. Um, for instance, uh, it does, of course, feed people. It's there's a place in within feed and see the the overall structure called Donny's Kitchen, and they serve breakfast and lunch to fight against food insecurity in in in Mooresville and and Statesville and and neighboring uh areas. Um I myself volunteer there. I wash dishes, I sometimes I cook, and people still seem to eat the food, which is shocking when I'm the cook. Yeah, but let me know what days those are. I think y'all probably might avoid that. It won't be tomorrow. It will not be tomorrow when we're there. But um uh there's so there's that. Then there's a what's called a grassroots grocery, and uh people members who uh are qualified uh you know to meet certain very low hurdles, but um, once they qualify as a member, they can come in there each week and get like 125 or 150 or dollars worth of groceries um for their families. And um uh so there's that. And then we have um we also have some workforce education programs, specifically on the culinary side where we kind of teach people to become a sort of a chef or whatever, understand how uh work uh uh food processing goes so they can get a job in a restaurant um or or somewhere else, catering or what have you. And then we also have as you can imagine, it's such a big building, we have tremendous amounts of food going through that building. And um so uh we just in 2025 alone, for instance, we rescued $1.7 million worth of food uh annually that year. Um and so we also have a program where we teach people uh how to deal with uh warehouse distribution. And we help and then we help them get jobs and uh I believe the statistic on our graduates is that um we have increased on average their their uh wage uh by $11 per hour on average uh after they go through these. They're only like a three-month program, maybe two and a half months to three three months or so. So um, you know, uh the old saying, right, you can uh uh feed a man a fish, but uh teach him the fish, and and and then that's way better, right? So um so there's that, um, and uh and then there's also all sorts of food drives, of course. And that was that was probably the second thing that I did with feed and see. I got involved in a um Thanksgiving can drive. And I just was there, showed up. I was just more hands, right? Work gloves on, moving food around, sorting food. And as I saw the operation, uh it just became uh kind of like a no-brainer. Uh and and so that went on for a few years, and then uh I guess about four years ago, a friend of mine at my company he was on the board of feed and see. And he said, Hey, would you like to get on the board of FNC? And I said, You know, I really would like to. I'd like to get involved. And and you know, I think they had a need for a finance background person, and now we have several of them, but um uh so so they you know we have about a 15-person board and they all bring different disciplines, uh, which are very helpful. And it's it's just a wonderful environment. There's there's it sounds almost too good to be true, but there's no uh there's no egos on the board. Uh there's no egos when I when I volunteer. Everybody there, uh whether it's volunteers or staff, and by the way, it takes 70 volunteers on a daily basis there to run that place. So we're we're feeding a lot of people and doing a lot of good in the community. But um everybody there understands the mission of Feed NC and they live it and breathe it and and really want to help people out.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Well, I can tell you uh I was extremely impressed at my first time there, and uh and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. That'll be my second time there, but very impressed with it. Uh Baron, I can't believe it. I mean, it just the time flies by. Um, so John, I'm gonna ask you, uh, do you mind staying for one more session? We'll we'll we'll we'll record one more session, but for right now, I'm going to do our uh our winding down here. And uh hey, I want to thank you for tuning in uh and being a part of my brother's journey. Hey, seek Jesus in all you do and be fishers of men. God bless you, and please join us again. Viva Jesus.