Louisiana Catholic Mom to CNN Vaticanista. This is Katie McGrady.

🎙️ She called it. In 2005, as a high schooler, Katie McGrady emailed her principal requesting they air the papal conclave on school TVs — and she correctly predicted Benedict XVI. Fast forward to 2026, and she was front row in Rome on a CNN panel when white smoke rose over the Sistine Chapel. No theology PhD required — just a lifelong obsession, a microphone, and a Cajun accent.

In this episode of The LIVing Room, Liv Harrison sits down with Katie to unpack the Catholic revival happening right now (those 139% conversion spikes aren't a fluke), why Gen Z is actually turning toward the Church, what it really means that we have an American Pope — and what parishes have to get right before this moment slips through their fingers. This one's for you if you love the Church and want to actually understand what's happening inside it right now.

Guest Bio:
Katie McGrady is a Catholic media personality and radio host based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, known for her work as a Vatican commentator and her on-air presence in Catholic broadcasting. She serves as a regular contributor for CNN and hosts a show on SiriusXM, where she has covered papal transitions including the elections of Benedict XVI and Leo XIV, the latter of which she reported on live from Rome. She and her husband Tommy co-host *Family Mass Prep* on the Hallow app and she recently launched a segment called *Call In the Converts* on The Katie McGrady Show. A lifelong Louisiana native, Katie has chosen to root her broadcasting career in her small hometown while maintaining connections to major media markets in New York and beyond.


In This Episode

00:00 Colors Done, Taxes Paid, and One Toilet Flush for NASA
02:20 The American Girl Book, an 8-Year-Old, and Impending Doom
05:15 Karma, Kids, and Bluey at Easter Mass
07:00 Two Catholic Kids and the NFP Judgment Olympics
09:30 Europe, Legoland, and the Grace of the Family of Four
11:45 Matt Maher, Spontaneous Concerts, and the Joy of a Small Family
13:30 Why Katie McGrady Has Not Left Lake Charles
16:00 Her Sister Entered the Convent — And She's It for Her Parents
18:20 Missing Ryan Gosling at SiriusXM (And Getting Andy Weir Instead)
20:00 "I've Been Vatican Influencing Since High School" — The Origin Story
22:30 Predicting Benedict XVI as a Teenager, and Getting the Call from CNN
24:45 Was She Surprised It Was an American Pope?
26:00 "He's Not Conflicting — He's Contrasting": Breaking Down Pope Leo XIV
28:30 The Catholic Revival Is Real — Here Are the Numbers
31:00 What Parishes Have to Do Before This Moment Slips Away
33:30 Hallow, Call In the Converts, and the Digital-to-Parish Pipeline
36:00 Bob from Chicago Is Still WhatsApp-ing People
38:30 AI, Human Wisdom, and the Moon Crater Named After Someone's Late Wife
42:30 Prayers for Big Transitions — and Sister LP Who Kept Her Initials
44:00 Big Cajun Hug Goodbye

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

In 2005, when JP2 passed away, I was the nerdy kid at my high school who insisted the teacher let us watch the news. Because I had said consistently, it's gonna be a short conclave, and it's gonna be the man who gave the homily at his funeral. I had like written an email to the principal. We should be watching the live stream. And they did. They like turned it on on all the televisions. From when he went into the hospital in February to when Leo walked out on the balcony May the 8th. I was just I was immersed entirely in the world. I believe the Lord has given me a gift in being able to then explain this stuff in a way that is not jargon, but is instead like, how cool is this? Pope Leo is not a conflicting voice in the world. He's a contrasting voice in a world of conflict. I think it was 139% higher the number of converts in Los Angeles this year. We saw, I mean, 100 plus percentage rises across the board. Yeah, what's going on? It's the bounce back. The coverage in a social media world has made it in some ways kind of a social contagion, and there is a hunger. Gen Z is not millennials. Gen Z are sick and tired of the lack of stability and answers. They're looking for community.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

It's great. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I'm loving this color on you. I feel like you've been wearing this color a lot more. This is this isn't my autumn palette. I had my colors done. I had my colors done. I'm a true autumn. It was not a tax write-off like my I thought it would be. So it was, you know, it was fine. I um, yes, I've chosen to embrace some of my this shirt, actually. I didn't even know I had this shirt. I don't even particularly like how this shirt lays if I'm standing up, but it looks nice top up. It looks good now.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yeah. You look good for camera. I love that. And nobody needs to, you know, you I love it. No, I was just noticing that you are wearing some different colors lately. And I I just want to say, I see you. I see you.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

I validate it. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

And I'm a warm autumn. I'm a warm, is that how I say it? A warm autumn.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I I I was true autumn. I was a true autumn. Yeah. It was, I loved doing it. It was something I did with some friends of mine in Dallas. I call them my woo friends. They are like just incredible, they're pump up gals, and they will be on your side and they're like, let's go get your colors done. And it was expensive, but fun. And it did teach me what not to wear. I I don't know that I've totally changed every part of my wardrobe, but like it was super helpful to kind of know, like, hey, like stick in this color palette rather than that, especially for TV. It was like very helpful to know. Yeah. Baby blue, gonna wash you out, sis. Like, don't put that on. But like dark auburn or green, like I look good in a green, like that, that is good. Um, and then it wasn't the tax write-off that I thought it was gonna be because my mom's my CPA, so she doesn't let me write off extra stuff. She's like, no, no, you take the standard deductions so that you don't get audited. What? I mean, I'd like to deduct flights and all that stuff, but I can't cheat on my taxes. That's not allowed. Not that I would. I paid my taxes yesterday and I said this is for Artemis 2. I believe every dollar went to one flush of the space toilet. That's my deep-seated belief with taxes this year. Mine go to NASA. Your NASA taxes. Yeah, my NASA taxes. I mean, look, like I don't know where they go, but NASA got funding, so why can't my it could be your colors funded the Artemis 2 mission?

SPEAKER_02 4:02

And for that, America thanks you.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yes, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

I'm grateful to have been of service.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

My one tiny contribution. You're the greatest thing we've ever done as human beings. Yes, Katie. That's the only thing you've given America is a single toilet. Toilet flush with my taxes. Everyone else is like, I don't know. She looks pretty familiar on CNN.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

And it's you'd be surprised. That's it. That's all she's contributed. No, but I'm loving the color thing. I gotta say, it does make a difference. I don't know about you, but I had a little bit of grief after I got my colors done. I was like, man, this would have been great when I was 15 and 16, and my wedding. This would have been good to know, you know. Like, I'm like, I want to do you have daughters. I have one daughter. I told her I want to get her colors done before she graduates high school because I think it's kind of a good lady thing to have. You know what I mean? It's a positive. There's a lot of not positive lady things we gotta hand off to our daughters. That's one of them.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

I literally the American girls, uh, the the book, the book that did you get this? Is this my generation more than your generation? There's like an American girl doll uh lady handbook. This is the best way to describe it, and it's like the care and keeping of you. Did you okay? So my I remember my mom handing me this book at like 11 years old in her bathroom and being like, This is everything you need, and it is everything you need. Really? But it's very perimenopause in there because I need that. No, it doesn't, you know, as somebody who just had to get all this blood work for thyroid stuff, it did skip that chapter. Like that wasn't available. Um, but I bought a copy of it. That book was like out of print for a while, and then they brought it back. And over Christmas, Tommy and I were in Target and I saw it, and I was like, grabbing that. And he went, She's eight, and I went, Yeah, and she's gonna need it in three years, and I see it now, and I have it on my nightstand. Because if I put it somewhere else, I will forget about it. So it's right there, it like haunts me every day. Your child is approaching puberty, she's getting closer and closer. Prepare for the doom. Um, and like I say that in a joyful way. I know you do. But every now and then, you know, her brain's on fire because she's eight, and I have to call Sister Josephine Garrett. I'm like, talk me off a ledge. Like, what is happening? She was like, Well, you're the therapist. Yeah, you know, you're aging and your daughter's about to go through puberty. So those two things combined, it's just like it's a hot mess expressed in the McGrady household these days. And it starts around it can start around nine, Katie. Like eight or nine, their brain starts firing. So I've done like a deep dive. It's crazy. And I I I called my mom and I was like, was I like this? And she went, Oh, honey, karma is coming for you. Every now and then my kids will do something at dinner, and my parents, who are over here like five times a week, will just look at each other and I'm just like, I'm sorry, I apologize for everything on every day. Yeah, as a child, I apologize. They're very my my children are the daughters of a radio host, so it's just constant talking in this house.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

They are so precious. I gotta say, but my favorite thing about you guys are number one, my kids are 87 years old compared to your kids. They are so little. They you have little guys, and mine are like many, they're like, Well, no, one is an adult, they're a young adult. They are young adults. Um, but we love Bluey, and we don't have everybody little in the house, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And when the new CZ uh seasonal Bluey comes on, we watch it, and I think in the McGrady's all the time.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

We are the beautiful my husband is the dean of an elementary school, like he's the dad from Bluey, and I travel a lot, and Chili works in an airport, so there's that. And then I have two daughters who are three years apart. So this is what I'm saying. We dressed up as them for Halloween one year, and it was very true to life. I turn Bluey on in hotels, so when I'm traveling, sure, I just want background noise. Yeah, it's very comforting. We had it on on Easter Sunday. There was like a at mass on Easter Sunday, Yezu Joy of Man's Desiring was the communion hymn, and Claire turned to Tommy and went, This is from Bluey. And I wanted to be like, it's also a beautiful liturgical hymn, but sure, it's from Bluey. Get in line. We've got to go get a blessing, right? Like, such is life. You know, our some people liturgically live, we watch Bluey, you know.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Well, at least you know what you would be like as Australians, you know. Uh not everybody gets to hear themselves with a beautiful accent. I love it. So that the the Bluey with you guys and the dance parties. I mean, oh yeah, you've definitely I've gotta say, Katie, I also really relate because I only have two kids, and being Catholic and only having two kids, you might as well become a different religion. You know what I mean? Like, I'm sure people are like, Are you Catholic? Like, what is okay? What is happening?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

You know, do you like your husband? More than a few people have implied we've used NFP with a contraceptive mentality, right? And I'm like, Right, shut your pie hole. That is not a conversation we get to have with strangers on the internet.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Thank you. Thank you. It's like it's crazy, and I have a lot of medical stuff, so my stuff is because of medical, but still I do feel weird being like I I I just always bit what my positive thing was to say is you show me how beautiful and full and rich life can be still with just just two kids. Just two kids.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah, it's not like their souls are less valuable because there's only two of them. Exactly. I actually we you know, Tommy and I have always thought we'd have more kids, and like we're not opposed to that, it just hasn't happened. Like the Lord gave us two kids, and we're grateful for those two kids, and we honestly also don't feel like anyone is missing in our family. So, like, there's obviously an openness to life, but when we look around at the four of us, I mean, we literally bought the minivan to fill it, and we have a whole empty third row, which is great because it's like uh an indoor uh uh pickup truck. We can get lots of things in the backseat. Um, or like all six of us, my mom and dad and and Tommy and I and the girls are going to New York and we're driving to Houston in one car. Like we, you know, we can road trip together as a family. But the Lord gave a great grace to me a couple years ago. We were actively trying, wasn't happening. It's like, okay, Lord, like are there are there more babies or is is is it the McGrady four? Um and just a great consolation and grace of like, you know what, you can do a lot with a family of four that maybe a family of eight or a family of of ten wouldn't be able to do. Like, we're taking our girls to Europe this summer. Uh, and and like we can all stay in the same Airbnb room, you know, like we are able to take this trip to Legoland this week after we go visit my nun sister. And and praise be that like we as a family, the four of us, can go on these little almost sometimes even spontaneous adventures because, especially as they've gotten older, you know, it's easier, like put your shoes on, make sure your teeth are brushed, and get in the car. There's not as much stuff that has to come now that they're a little older and a little more self-sufficient. Isn't this nice? You don't have to sit back and play the swing. Oh, it's the diaper bag. Sleep on that couch, be quiet, you know. And my five, yeah. My five-year-old has a a superpower where she can just sleep anywhere. I mean, she'll sleep standing while waiting in the TSA line if you let her. So, so there's like also like a beauty in you teach your kids to be a little more chill, yeah, and go with the flow. And there's just we've so many spontaneous this Lent was like such a spontaneous. We got to hang out with Matt Maher like randomly. Like, I picked the girls up from school, I said, All right, go change, we're going to Lafayette for a concert. And they were so excited because like they got to see Matt. And I that was literally an hour. He texted me instead of in Lafayette. I'm like, great, we're on our way. Like, we were able to do that with an eight and a five-year-old, like, no harm, no foul. They were able to come with me to a youth conference a couple weeks ago, and like we can all stay in one hotel room. So there's so much joy in just embracing what the Lord has given you. And that's not to that. No, that's not to denigrate other every family's size is what the Lord has deemed it needs to be. I I think that's kind of cool that you can find the grace within that.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

No, what you said is so true. We've been able to do the things that we I know we couldn't have done if we had eight kids, which listen, I would have loved to have had more children. Love to. And uh, and and that's just not how our journey ended up. And here I am, I'm I'm you, although not you, because you are you and you're so much more spectacular than I ever will be. But in 50 years, I'm you. And so I'm bad at math, Katie. Um, and so never do math live on a live show. Never do a radio show.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

You always look silly. You've learned ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

That's why I just always go way over top, so then people know that I'm just making it up. But you know, it is neat when you have two kids and what you can do, and there are things that we can do in the church that we couldn't have done. You know, there's things that we can ways that we serve in a mission as a family that we couldn't have done if we were a different size family, and I have to come to peace with that. Yeah, absolutely. It's me, but you give me hope and you show me how fun it is that you can still have a full house because that's what you miss with all the little kids. You know, if you grew up with a big, I'm from a big Cajun family and there's a billion of us. And so, you know, seeing y'all do what you do in your kitchen and your living room, I just want to say thank you from all the little, the little Catholic families out there.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Absolutely. Look, the holy family was three people.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Exactly. I love that. I love that. So, speaking of those Cajun roots, you're very proud of being from where you're from in South Louisiana. And yeah, Mardi Girl Beads behind me. I know, I love it, I love it. My mom is from a town very close to Katie, and Katie knows actually a lot of my family, um, because that's what it is in Louisiana. You just know, you know, you just know people who are especially Cajuns, Catholic Cajuns, they're gonna know each other. Have you thought or have you been approached with all that's changed in your career to move?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Oh man, that's a great question. Um I there have been so many opportunities uh to for Tommy and I to go other places in the country. Um Tommy's family's from Pennsylvania, uh his sister lives in Nashville. I've got lots of roots in Dallas. I obviously work for the Archdiocese of New York. I mean, pull out the map and speculate wildly, and we always come back to kind of two things. One, Louisiana is cheap to live in. Amen, sister. I can buy a house, right? And we have a home. Um but two, it really comes down to family. So my sister entered the Sisters of Life in 2023, and there's just the two of us. I come from a family of just two kids, and so she's in the convent, she's taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. I'm it for my parents. And that's not to say that like my mom and dad's aging holds me back from going, we want to be here, but we want to be here because we have deemed it really critically important to stay close to family. Yeah, I couldn't travel the way I travel or work the way I work. Tommy's career couldn't have advanced the way his careers work if we didn't have my mom and dad three turns away. My parents still live in the house that I grew up in. And also just like this incredible community and network of people in our small town. Just yesterday, first day of spring break, we took the girls to the Mario movie, and the entire theater was people that we go to church with because we had mentioned to one family we're going to the Mario movie, and so then that family, the Angie family, sent out like the APB and like half the family was there with all their kids. And like we walked into the movie theater that's like 10 minutes from our house, so there's also no traffic here, which is great. Every time I go to Dallas, which is probably the place that we would move if we ever moved, it takes like 40 minutes to get anywhere. I'm like, that's your day. Like that is that how people listen to podcasts because they're in the car all the time. Like, I have to listen to podcasts when I'm doing my laundry or like trying to cook dinner, and I'm never, I'm never on top of my shows. I'm always behind because I just my commute is 12 minutes. So we we have been given so many opportunities. A couple years ago, we seriously discern for a hot minute going to Dallas because of the American Airlines Hub, and we've got great networks and community there, and a really cool job opportunity was available for Tommy. And you know, we just decided, like, you know what? No, like we're good here.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

And we're content where we are. And I think the Lord puts us where he wants us to be in the seasons of life that he wants us to be there. I we often joke that as soon as the last one goes off to college, we'll get an apartment on in the Upper East Side. Because we love New York and my connection with New York with the Archdiocese and with Sirius, and but also like if I stay in Lake Charles, Louisiana for the rest of my life, I love 70605 too. Like the Lord can do great things wherever you are, and with the internet these days, right? Like you don't have to be super fine, do the show from right here. Um so yeah, but it's never been I love home. Like I am such a homebody. Yeah, like I love to travel, but there's nothing better than sinking into your own bed at night. There's nothing better than like I walk into our my childhood parish. I was sitting next to my childhood best friend's mom for Good Friday. And like it was Miss Lisa's birthday. She just buried her husband a few weeks ago. Like it was just kind of perfect that like I was sitting next to somebody whose house I've grown up going to, and then like brought her a present on Holy Saturday, remembering that it was her birthday. Like, I didn't have to punch it into my GPS, like I just know where she lives, and it's right around the corner from the Chick-fil-A, right? So it's just like this beautiful small town. You're from from family's from Jennings, which is even smaller than Lake Charles. Yeah, it is. Yellow the big city, yellow the big city. We are all 65,000 of us. We are people will sometimes say like their diocese is small, and I'm like, how small? And they're like, oh, like eight parishes, and I'm like, we've got 31. We had 32, and then we had a hurricane. So we're down to 31. You know, so like, no, it is tiny, it's and I really love it.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

It is, it's lovely. And I wanna, you know, that's also what I think is so cool, Katie, that the choice, like I I love the intentional decisions you and Tommy have made for your family. And one of them being staying in a small town and staying, you know, close to your roots into family, and you have so much Cajun pride and Louisiana pride, and it's a great place to live and grow up. Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Nackitish, and which is North Louisiana, so you know people say it's Arkansas.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

You're above I-10. But I married a Yankee, so I love them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

No, I know. But you know, you do show women, and this is what I think is is so really what I respect and admire about you, besides knowing you as a person, uh, and all the wonderful characteristics that you hold, is that you show women you can grow where you're at. Yeah. You know, you can be a stay-at-home mom, you can work from home, you can have an international show in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

And people around here don't even know it. Like it's kind of fun, you know. I uh yeah. It's I love the Lord the Lord can do great things wherever you find yourself. And it's also like just a there's a hustle component. I absolutely miss out on certain professional opportunities because I'm not in New York or DC or or Dallas, but I'm also okay with that because in this season of life, so I was at the Series XM studios a couple weeks ago, and uh they were talking about the week before the Project Hail Mary cast had all been there. And I have been like Jones in to interview somebody from Project Hail Mary, not just because Hail Mary is in the title, but like I think the story is so Christological. And I was a fan of the book, huge fan of the movie. And like they were there, they were like down the hall from the studio I use when I go into town, and like a small part of me was like, you know what? If I lived on the East Coast, I could have just hopped a train and gotten up here and like cornered Ryan Gosling and been like, I just need 10 minutes of your time, you know. But like I didn't have that opportunity because it's a day to get up there and a day to get back. And then I just kind of held that loosely of like that's okay. Like, first of all, lots of things can be done remotely, which is why we have Andy Weir coming on the show in a couple weeks, because we did secure an interview and we're like scheduling it. Good, good, but I but I also think it's there is so much to be said for not everything happens in hubs. The Lord can do incredible things in your life when you're open to his movement wherever you find yourself planted. Um and and I just I the internet is a great thing.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

We didn't do this from anywhere in the world, but it's a wonderful thing, and you've you've used it well. So cutting into the other things that you do, I love that you're now a papal expert, which you got without even a degree in papal seat. Like, is there even is the papacy? What is the word?

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Papal papal history. Yeah, there's a small weird part of my brain that was given to that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

I'm like, that's incredible. You remind me of like the Wizard of Oz, and he took out of his bag at the end, and he's like, and you shall be the papal expert, you know, and you're like and you know, I love that go off in Oz.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

I love that you think I'm an expert. I'm gonna tell all the Vaticanistas that that's and you're a Vaticanista. There we go. You're a papal Vaticanista expert. There you go. That's the that's it's so funny to say that. It was like right around this time last year when we were getting all the contract stuff worked out with CNN because it's like you gotta be on the bench ready to go when the Pope dies. Right. And that's gonna happen, right? Like he was ill, we knew he was sick. We we were all kind of predicting it was gonna be within the year. And I'll never forget, I was sitting right in this spot and I was on the phone with the talent acquisitions producer from CNN that you know, we'd connected a couple different ways, and when you're in the Series XM world, like you're on lists, and okay, so we like had found each other's contact information, and she was like, So, like, how how do you learn this stuff? That's what she asked me. How do you learn this stuff? And I just said, I just it's like a combination of Os. Cosmosis and you like read and you listen and you're just like in it's a very niche world. I mean, how does anybody learn about this? It's gonna sound like a ridiculous connection, but like I don't know anything about Burning Man. Is there a book on Burning Man, or do you just like go to Burning Man and then you like learn about Burning Man? It's the same thing with the Vatican, right? Like, you are Catholic. I have a theology degree. You do, I've watched conclaves before. Like the information is what the information is. And so I pretty much from from when he went into the hospital in February to when Leo walked out on the balcony May the 8th, I was just I was immersed entirely in the world. And I think it's not just a matter of like knowing the stuff. I I believe the Lord has given me a gift and being able to then explain the stuff in a way that is not jargon, but is instead like, how cool is this? And my mom very quickly pointed out to me that in 2005, when JP2 passed away, I was the nerdy kid at my high school who insisted the religion teacher let us watch the news on the day that we were like, you know, gonna meet Benedict the 16th, because I had said consistently, it's gonna be a short conclave, and it's gonna be the man who gave the homily at his funeral. And my mom was like, You were telling us this stuff when you were a high school student. And I kind of vaguely remembered that. But I had like written an email to the principal because our religion teacher wasn't gonna put it on, and I was like, We should be watching the live stream in our school, and they did, they like turned it on on all the televisions because we're a Catholic school, right? So apparently I've been Vatican influencing and conversing for quite some time, yeah. Since high school, I mean this only happened three times in my life. Um so yeah, and it's so cool. People it in the same way that so I found myself in that CNN green room for many, many hours from when he died through the installation of of Leo. And like, it's the coolest thing in the world to meet people who are experts about their thing. Yeah, like I got to sit there with Chuck Rocca, is a Democratic strategist who's on CNN pretty frequently. And the day that Leo was elected, we he and I were on the morning show together and then like the late, late night show together. And it was so cool because I'm like, all right, tell me about the tax code. Like, what are the Democrats doing? Like, what is because like that's your area of expertise. And then he's then he's like, Okay, do you think an American can win? Who's it gonna be? Like, we were picking each other's brains. I live for that. Put me in a room with people who know everything there is to know about the thing that they love, yeah. And I I will talk to you all day long. I love that. Did you think it was gonna be an American? Did you guess? No. I my so I had a list. CNN had me create like a list of just the the papabilae or the papabila, whatever pronunciation you want to use. People with the pronunciation. And I'm like, look, guys, nobody cares. It's the papal contenders. Um and it's like The Bachelor, but yeah, it's the Bachelor, right? Who's gonna get the rose? Who's gonna get the smoke? Um I had I had he was in my top five. So my first one was Perilin. I thought it would be Perilin, Togley, Pizzabala, Soupy, or Prevost, right? Like they were kind of my my top five list. And it was it was for a couple different reasons. He's got the perfect resume.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Yeah, he does.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

We all could have kind of seen him coming, I think if we'd maybe paid a little bit more attention. Yeah. There were some rumblings. If it is an American, it would be this guy. It would never be Dolan, it would never be McElroy, it would never be Supic, but it but it could it could be him. Right. But all I had on my list, I had four bullet points about him. Uh, from Chicago, lived in Peru, Augustinian, and in charge of the the Bishop's decastery. And that was really the clue. Now, in all the analysis, that man knew everybody in the room. He was at the Synod on Synodality for two years. He'd been appointing bishops around the world in a conclave with so many cardinals who had never been to Rome for a consistory or who had never really met each other or spent a lot of time with each other. He was the guy who probably knew the most names. And he wasn't shaking hands and gladhanding. It was more, hey, have you met Bob? Like he's the guy that kind of knew everybody else. And so I think, and of course, the Lord can can do a mighty work. And I think that he was absolutely who we needed at this precise moment. Oh, yeah. I am such a fan.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

I was at the conclave in Rome. Uh, I was in the front row, and with the moment he came out, which I'm sure through the screens you guys could tell as well, but the moment he came out, it felt it was just like, oh, this is it. This is the guy. He's ours. He's ours. Like he's this man. And I remember when when he got elected and they said it and they say it all like in Italian or whatever. They're saying it in Italian Italy. Yeah, like how American was that? They didn't say it in English. And I'm from Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

That's what they really should have said it.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

That's what they should have said. And everyone around us started going, Americano, Americano. And I was like, Are they ordering coffee? Like, what are we doing here? What's happening? Like, why are we saying that? And then, like, no clue that it was an American, you know. Like, that's it, we didn't hit any of us that that's what they were trying to say. But I gotta say, I'm very impressed with him. You know, I'm loving this time that he's done. I think he's been fantastic for everyone. So, since you are the expert, what on a you know, what grade are we giving Bob from Chicago?

SPEAKER_01 27:20

We don't we don't grade popes. We don't grade popes. That's a good answer. I I will tell you, I have been so struck by the great grace that he clearly has been given to be the Pope that the world needs. I I said it on CNN this past weekend. Pope Leo is not a conflicting voice in the world. He's a contrasting voice in a world of conflict. And and he is preaching peace in such a distinct way. I mean, the first thing we heard him say, peace be with all of you. And over 350 times since May 8th, peace has come up in a homily, in a message, in an address. And like you can, I mean, I'm literally I I track it on the Vatican website. You can go in and just type the word peace and then click Leo the 14th, and it shows you every single instance of the word peace. And it is the theme of his papacy. Papa Pache is kind of what I've nicknamed him in my in my mind. And I I think that that the Lord knew that this was the man we needed. In the same way that the Lord knew that Francis preaching to the margins was needed in a time when our world was so polarized and divided and nationalism was on the rise. In the same way that we knew we needed a quiet professor in 2005 after the the grandiosity of a of a JP2, a quiet professor to remind us of what did Benedict write on? Faith, hope, and charity.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

So you have faith, hope, and charity after the great evangelizer. You have margins, pay attention to the people around who have been ignored and stop navel gazing, you Catholics, who think you know everything, actually listen. And now you have, I think, this perfect amalgam of the heart of JP2 and the the mission of Francis and the wisdom and intellect of Benedict.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

So true.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

I love the guy. I love I'd walk over hot coals for him tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 29:14

All right. I'm gonna say, even though I I'm going on the record of saying KD did not say this, but she's giving him an A plus. Oh, A ⁇ . Yes. No, it's really it's been fantastic and such an exciting time. Uh, you know, we're coming out of a coming out of this Jubilee year, and not to not to date the podcast for whenever anybody's listening to it. But you know, sometimes you gotta talk about stuff that's happening because it's just that's just the way that it is. But do you see a resurgence in the church? You know, we're just we're coming out of Easter. We just had more Catholics come into the church, you know, like France is I don't know what happened in France, but apparently they handed out a pamphlet there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Thousands were baptized, like millions were baptized.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

Yeah. In 2020, we're filming this in 2026, the spring of 2026. We're having this resurgence of Catholicism enough to where your folks at CNN are talking about it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

And that's that's what's so fascinating. Secular media is covering this just as much as Catholic media is, and Catholic media is sometimes like, okay, guys, like let's get some terminology right. We've got catechumens, we've got candidates, we've got, you know, the word convert is kind of a a tricky little word. I think it was 139% higher the number of converts in um Los Angeles this year. We we saw, I mean, 100 plus percentage rises across the board in a number of large dioceses. There's two things I think happening. Yeah, what's going on? One, it's the bounce back. So numbers used to be huge in the early 2000s. Like the diocese Archdiocese of Detroit would put out like X number of people, like over a thousand people have become Catholic this year. And then we had the 2010s, where I think nihilism took hold of a lot of of people's attentions and minds and hearts. You then have COVID, which shuts the churches down, and now we're six years post that closure on the tail end of an American Pope after a year of Eucharistic revival where we process Jesus across the country. So it's it's a combination of the news about Catholicism has been good. The coverage in a social media world has made it in some ways kind of a social contagion, and there is a hunger. Gen Z is not millennials. Millennials were hardened to the world by the financial crisis by 9-11 and by everything is terrible. And we stayed in that everything is terrible. Gen Z, who've had phones in their hands since they were five years old, are sick and tired of the the lack of stability and answers and fruitfulness in life. And so this is why we're also seeing Gen Z's hookup culture is much less than millennial hookup culture was. What are they doing? They're looking for community, they're looking for answers. I do think the social contagion component of it will show that if the church gets its act together and advertises well, we can actually draw people in. It's what happens next, right? Like, yes, we're seeing these numbers surge in New York or Los Angeles. What happens when I don't know, Sally walks into our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Lake Charles and was like, I saw Father Mike Schmidt's video on TikTok. I want to become Catholic. Is the front desk secretary prepared to meet that person? So that's the next ministry challenge. Is all of this online content is great and fruitful, but faith is transmitted not through an app and not through Instagram, but in relationship. And so parishes really have to the next part of this is gonna be well, how do we meet those people who have encountered something digitally and bring them in in a human and relational way? And that's my real measure for is this a true revival, is this a true religious surge, is gonna be, okay, these people who are coming, uh, who are interested, who join OCIA, how many actually fully come in through OCIA and then get married in the church, baptize their kids in the church, send their kids to Catholic school? How many vocations do we see out of this? Are we gonna see young men enter the seminary? Are we gonna see young women discern religious life? Because it can be just a social thing. Great, the Lord can work through anything, but then how does it take deeper roots? So my next kind of analysis over the next couple of years is gonna be cool, St. Joseph's in the village in New York City. Are any of those guys becoming Dominicans? Are any of those gals? Like, what happens? And that's not to say, like, oh, you have to have a vocation to prove success, but it is to say, is it just an initial, oh, that seems like a fun thing to do, let me go do that because I have nothing else going on.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Is it a trend or is it or is it a real thing? Right. Yeah, no, for sure. And so what do you think? Like, do you know of anyone since you you have a little bit of of you know the pulse going on, you know, more than than the average bear, um, the average Bluey fan. Uh are there any like programs, organizations, digital people like doing what you said where they're trying to bridge the digital world of people coming into the parish life? Are there actual and who are they?

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Yeah, you know, I was just talking to the the folks at Hallow. So a full disclosure, my husband and I have a weekly show on Hallow called Family Mass Prep. So these are friends of mine, and we always say that what we get paid to work for Hallow pays for Catholic school. So they go hand in hand, right? Our kids go to Catholic school because we love Hallow. Um, ironically enough, none of my daughter's friends are impressed when we tell them, Oh, we're the voices of Family Mass Prep. They're like, I don't care. It's just you guys, like they love Family Mass Prep. Not impressed at all that it's Katie and Tommy, Rose's mom and dad. Um but Hallow, like they made the phone calls to 140 of 175 dioceses in the country. And so then I was talking to them after the fact, it's like, this data, what happens next? Yeah, and there's this whole plan of like, we want an entire parish resource kit to be available. The person who downloaded Hallow because they saw the Super Bowl ad does the pray 40 challenge and is like, wait, I want to learn more about this Catholic thing. They pick up the phone, they call the Catholic parish closest to them, or they Google, how do I become Catholic? which is probably one of the number one queries around this time of year. What's greeting them on the other side? And and Hallow is working to create some of those resources to have the playbook, to have the the scripts, to have the invite somebody for coffee. I think the reason sometimes people hesitate is because they, and I've heard this. We've been doing a new segment on the Katie McGrady show called Call in the Converts. And one of my first questions is what's that initial interest? Like, what is it? Yeah, and it's the answers have been varied. We have one guy who's like, I just saw some Catholic stuff on online and I decided to go to Mass. Like I wanted to see what Mass was all about. The woman I interviewed this morning, her husband's Catholic. She got married in the church 23 years ago and just never became Catholic herself until during all the conclave stuff. She was like, Okay, like my Lutheran church, my Methodist background, like that doesn't have what this is. This is some this has lasted. So the Lord can work through anything, just like he can work in any place. And how is a parish responding? Because faith, you don't just become Catholic, you're baptized in a place. Like my my sister, the nun, who also happens to be a canon lawyer, always reminds me her favorite canons or her favorite law of the church is about baptismal records. It is canonically required that there has to be documentation of a baptism with haste. Like, father can't like wait to file the baptismal record. And that's because your baptism is worth paperwork, like it's worth documenting you coming home into the church. So a person online who's like, I want to become Catholic, great. You have to go to a physical parish. You can't do that online. There is no OCIA formation or baptism formation digitally. That has to happen in a place. So these parishes, these dioceses, we have to be ready to meet those digital natives who have encountered the Lord there and say, now you're with us and you're in this family and you're in this place and we love you and we want to invest in your life, and we want to. You can obviously still look at all the stuff online, but I think that's what's going on. People love that idea of being tethered to a place in New York City, especially, where it's so easy to just kind of be loosey-goosey. Oh, here's a place. I've got something to do every Sunday, and it edifies my soul and it forms my heart, it gives meaning to my life. Sign me up.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

I love that. No, that's so true. And that makes sense about New York and these other places. And I think you're right. I think a lot of it does have to do with the digital outreach. And we have this American Pope, and he is popular right now, you know. He's done really well. Thank goodness they haven't drug him down yet. You know, I keep waiting for metal.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Oh, he'll say something. His first big trip is coming to Africa uh for 2026. And like, you know, somebody will try to clip something or say something. Probably got some papal press conference on a plane coming up, and we are in the midst of a war. And, you know, it's like, yes, but that's that's actually kind of my favorite thing about Leo is that he has been a little more precise with some of the things that he said, even off the cuff. He has. Because he knows, he knows the media landscape of the day. He does. He's American.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

He's Bob from Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Yeah, yeah. He's got a phone in his pocket still, like he's still WhatsApps people, like he still plays Wordle every day. Like he's I know. Of the security concerns about his iPhone aside, like I love that he is still a person.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Just himself. Yeah, still a person. And I think that's pretty unique that that we're getting to see that for sure. So, Katie, into this digital thing, since again, you have the the pulse of I just love that you're just my expert on everything. Can I just say that? It's called being chronically online. Yes. Liv Harrison, this is CNN, and this is my expert. This is Catholic News Network. See? Hey, that's my dream, right? So um, so I'll be sending your contract to you later today.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

I can't afford you, but um neither can they, but that's okay. They got a they got a nice discount.

unknown 39:25

Good.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

That's weird. It was a bucket list item, you know. They can pay me nothing for the rest of the state.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

You're like $1.50 in a target gift card. Yeah, I'm good. So, where are you seeing in your line of work, especially with you know, the whole uprising of AI and everything that's happening, you know, on the on the Catholic landscape of it all, on the media landscape of it all, is it affecting you in the least? How is AI coming into play for you?

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Other than me screaming about how everything these days seems to be written by ChatGPT, and ChatGPT is not a good writer, other than that. Um, look, ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, whatever you want to call it, they're fancy Google. And I think when you turn your mind into an understanding of it is an engine to search for information, but will never lead me to deep learning. I think that it gives me a healthier relationship with it. Do I use AI to research something? Yeah, my favorite AI out of all of them is Magisterium AI because it has limits to it. So you can only ask so many questions, and it's plunging into the depths of so many. Well, I say it has limits to it. I don't pay for it, so maybe it's just limited because I use the free account. But it cuts me off after a certain point. That's good, that's good. And I'm good with free account, right? Yeah. I'm good with that. I I think let me let me back up and say this artificial intelligence will never be able to replace human wisdom. Just won't. And that's not my idea. That's the Pope's idea. It's why his first encyclical is set to be named Magnifica Humanitas, Magnificent Humanity. Because as fascinating as artificial intelligence is, as useful as it can be for certain menial tasks, I use a an AI email bot that helps glean through my emails and creates a to-do list for me every day. And that's really helpful to me to then free me up to be able to work on essential projects as a human. So I've I've recently been involved with I have to keep it kind of vague, but there's a big Catholic event coming up in the United States in September that I have found myself somehow a part of the planning team for. In the in the course of conversations about this event, we all realized human creativity and human wisdom is absolutely essential versus pop it into Chat GPT, give me a run of show for X, Y, or Z kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Because human creativity and human wisdom can lead to deep moments of of innovation, of conversation, of joy, of excitement. I'll I'll give a perfect real life example from this week. We've both been joking about the Artemis II mission and how I'm just like utterly I literally have the live stream on my computer right next to my downstairs. I'm just like fascinated beyond compare by what we did. We sent four humans further than any humans have ever gone before. And it's not like we couldn't have done robot research. Like we've sent rovers and rangers and all other unmanned crafts, but we needed human eyeballs and human wisdom, yes, and human insight to fully understand something that we humans are deeply affected by. And it led to one of the most beautiful human moments in all of history, when as they're going past they surpass the record and they see a crater in between the far side of the moon and the bright side of the moon, and they decide to name it after the captain's late wife. A robot can't do that. As much as Chat GPT tries to connect with me and was like, Oh, would you like me to give you some suggestions on how to make this fun for your girls? Like, as much as ChatGPT wants to be my friend, it's not going to name a moon crater after my deceased spouse. Only a human in relationship with another human can do that. And so I think as long as we have a healthy relationship with the artificial nature of the intelligence and see it as it will never replace the beauty of human wisdom, then we can use it as a an effective tool to say write show summaries. Or for Riverside in this recording platform. It pulls together some really catchy reels for me that then allow me as a human to go in and edit it the right way to make sure that this, you know, the absolutely touch, those kinds of tools make life efficient to free me up, not to scroll my phone or to just veg out, but to then have other really beautiful human encounters. And so I think as long as we keep that proper relationship there with it, our robot overlords won't overtake us. But I always like to joke we love our robot overlords because. You know, they listen to us constantly. And so when the rising comes, I want you to know I'm an amenable. If the zombies come, just bite me right away. I'm not surviving. I can't run. No. When the robots come, I will happily be your human servant with my human wisdom. But until then, stay in your proper place and I'll stay in mine.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

You stay in your lane, and Katie will stay in her lane and like Charles. Um, I love it. Katie, I just want to say thank you so much. With everything that you're doing and everything that you're putting out, and I mean this, and I'm sure you hear this every day. It's like when you have a baby and everybody says the same cliches where they're like, oh, your hands are full, and you're like, Yes. But oh my gosh, you must be exhausted. And I'm sure you hear that every day because you also start your day at 2 a.m. I mean, at this point, you're basically five, just five today's show. I know you're like, don't make this worse, Liv.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

Don't make this worse earlier. Don't move it earlier. On the occasional days when I do have to do the 6 a.m. start because mass isn't happening. I'm like, no. This was not in the contract.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

No. But um, but thank you for all that you're doing. I mean, I know that you're doing a lot right now, and we see it. And and one way that I like to end this show is I always ask my guests, how can we pray for you? What is it that we can do to uplift you, you know, and and pray for you? How can we support you in that way?

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Oh, that's so beautiful. Thank you. Pray for uh we're going through some big transitions as a family this spring. I started that morning show spot, and my husband started his new job this week as the dean of students of an elementary school. So it's just like we've got a lot of professional transitions happening while home life is like super stable, and you know, despite the fact that I've got to give the care and keeping of you to my eight-year-old, right? Like they're just praying for the smoothness and all of the transitions into different different responsibilities and things is always always very welcome.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

We can do that 100%. We'll pray for your beautiful sister, who is a sister.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

Sister Liliana Petra. Sister LP. Oh, I kept that. She kept her same initials, which makes our life. She was Laura Prajan, now she's Sister Liliana Petra. Very candidate. She did us a solid.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

She's so thoughtful, that sister.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

I was actually I do think it was her canon law brain. You have to send letters, right? Oh, yeah. Sisters forget each other's uh like pagan names, right? Like if you're a nun for so long, like I don't know. When I write sister's privilege, I still get to call her by her her baptismal name. And so when Laura Prejan male arrives, I'm sure it takes sister a half a second to like figure out whose box to go put it in. But LP, LP, I think Laura was just trying to get her mail faster, to be totally honest. Forget devotion to St. Joseph and St. Peter. No, no, no. It was for the mail source. It was for the mail service. She'll never hear this either because she's a nun without a phone. So like I can say whatever I want.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

She won't know. I love that's spoken like a true sister. Oh, yeah, big sister. I love that. Um, well, I can't thank you enough for your time. I know that you're a busy, busy lady being a Vatican expert and uh a Vaticanista and dancing with Bluey and all the things that you do all day long with the jet bridge. Um, so with all that, Katie, thank you so much for your time and thank you for what you're doing. Sending you lots of love from Texas.

unknown 47:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

Big Cajun hug. Thanks, Fred. Appreciate it.