Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
#576 “Show Me Your Scars!” Buckle Up with Warrior-Author Steven Thomas, Battling to Save Marriages and the Hearts of the Young!
Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”
Struggling in your marriage? Feeling lost in today's world? You're not alone! Discover the powerful messages on faith, family, and fighting for truth that will inspire action. Join the conversation with Steven Thomas, the insightful author of "Catholic Joe."
Steven and Jack shine a light on the pressing issues facing the Catholic Church and our Culture.
🌟 “Show me your scars!” Dive into the urgent need for strong leadership and the fight for family values in today's church and culture. Let's reclaim our identity and call for action!
Visit Steven or Purchase Catholic Joe at https://catholicjoesuperhero.com/
(The Video-Podcast of this Episode will be made available on Rumble. For past episodes on Video visit our Rumble Channel and don't forget to subscribe!)
Follow us and watch on X: John Paul II Renewal @JP2Renewal
On Rumble: JohnPaulIIRC
Catch up with the latest on our website: jp2renew.org and Sign up for our Newsletter!!
Contact Jack: info@jp2renew.org
Read Jack's Blog: https://jp2renew.org/
I'm excited to be with a good friend, steve thomas. Steve, how are you, brother?
Speaker 2:I'm good, jack it's. It's good to be with you, it's good to be seen, it's good to see, it's just yeah, right, you know we got some.
Speaker 1:We got some great battles we want to talk about today. So so, steve steven, if, if you forget, from the last show, steve wrote catholic joe, one of the reasons he wrote catholic joe was to, you know, to bring some of these teachings forward. And, yeah, thank you steven, to bring some of these teachings forward that that aren't getting enough play. So we're not here just to promote the book, but it's a good book, a good read, and talk a little bit about some of the things that you saw going on. I know that you were a little mad at some of the bishops, some of our shepherds, and you want to get this message out what's the big theme that really bothers your heart today?
Speaker 2:Steven, yeah. So I would say maybe strongly disappointed is a better word, Because, again, it's like when your father lets you down. You know what I mean, and it's one of the things that brings about the greatest level of frustration I ever experienced in my life. Brings about the greatest level of frustration I ever experienced in my life is that frustration of knowing that we have leaders that are not giving us the tools to succeed. And I'm going to go into a number of things.
Speaker 2:So, first thing, I want to do so this morning, when I was at Adoration you know I'm sitting there with Jesus, you know I'm staring at him, he's staring at me and you know, every once in a while I'm like Jesus. Why don't you talk? Why don't you know I'm staring at him, he's staring at me and, and you know, every once in a while I'm like I'm like Jesus. You know, why don't you talk? Why don't you? Just? You know, and and he's like, yeah, you just listen, right, just listen. And you know. And then I start to listen a little bit deeper and and I was thinking about, I was thinking about you and I were we should talk about, and I was thinking you mentioned the book, so Catholic Joe's Superhero and I've been on I don't know maybe 50 podcasts and everybody asks why did you write it? And I'm like, yeah, I wrote it to give men hope, I wrote it to ignite men, but I was thinking about today that adoration and I was like you know what? I wrote it because I was pissed off.
Speaker 2:And I was pissed off at the leadership and again, I don't.
Speaker 1:I smile and laugh because I meet a lot of people that are pissed off today, and you know, I don't know what the percentage is, stephen, but people that are in the know with what's going on in the culture.
Speaker 1:Let me just frame it this way Sister Lucia, the main visionary of Fatima right, lived up until 2005. She died the same year John Paul II died, went into a cloistered you know was a cloistered convent later on, I mean a very holy woman. So the last great battle between our Lord and Satan is going to be over marriage and the family, and this is what we're seeing playing out. And so I just want to frame it with that, because I know one of the things that are on your mind when you mentioned earlier about the shepherds not speaking out and a lot of our priests aren't speaking out. Certainly the Pope isn't speaking out enough about this it's really marriage and the family, and we fight this. Look, I'm with the John Paul II Renewal Center. Theology of the body. We have the answers, and this is what frustrates us too. We have the answers and it's not as easy as you would think to get into the churches to speak on all these issues.
Speaker 2:Let's peel the onion a little bit. It's not as easy as you would think to get into the churches to speak on all these issues. Let's peel the onion a little bit and not to get conspiratorial or anything like that. But so let me finish my thoughts. So the reason I wrote the book was because I was so frustrated with the fact that they weren't giving us what we needed to succeed. And when I say that I mean in marriage. All right, because again, marriage is the, you know, it's the domestic church, it's the primordial sacrament, it's the foundation of everything in our church, our faith, our society, our culture. So, you know, marriage and the family is everything. And, like you said, you know what our Blessed Mother said to Sister Lucia.
Speaker 2:So it's that frustration and I was trying to peel the onion about. You know, why is it that they don't speak out? Why is it that, you know? And I thought to myself and the cynical part of me started to think about, you know, jeffrey Epstein and you know how he worked. You know he was part of. He was like Mossad, right. What he would do is he would get basically incriminating evidence on people to, you know, use it as leverage to kind of control them.
Speaker 2:And I thought you know who's controlling the bishops. Because, again, you know you and I were speaking before it's almost like you know a father who sees. It's almost like you know a father who sees. You know a figure, rapist, trying to break into his daughter's room at night and not doing anything. Can you imagine, can you imagine knowing the danger that's that's going to, that's going to happen to your daughter and not doing anything? It just, it just frustrates the heck out of me. It just frustrates the heck out of me. And the thing is is that we've got a situation where we know, you know again, we know that you know 95% of Catholic couples are using some type of contraceptive or sterilization or you know. And the thing is, we know that as a church, we know that. And how could you not do something different? If 95 of your priests were in a serious state of sin or fornicating, you better believe the bishops would do something about that.
Speaker 1:Well, we would hope so. Wait, wait, let's, let's back up there a little bit too. We would hope so, but not all of them do, right. I mean look at, look at the problem we got into because they just shuffled those priests around for decades right.
Speaker 1:So I wish that was always true, but unfortunately we have corruption in our hierarchy in the church and we know this right. Pope Paul VI said a long time ago now the smoke of Satan has entered the church. Said a long time ago now, you know, the smoke of Satan has entered the church. John Paul II, cardinal Cofara I'll just put this quick context on this, because that quote I just gave you from Sister Lucia on marriage and the family that was written to Cardinal Cofara and John Paul II when they were putting the Institute for Marriage and the Family together in Rome to get this teaching out.
Speaker 1:And they said this, steve. They said that not only do we feel this pressure from the outside they didn't want this Pontifical Institute for Marriage and the Family but also from within the Church. So you see, the evil rose up, my friend within the Church.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the greater enemy is the one that's on the inside. No question, no doubt.
Speaker 1:So what happens is a lot of these priests and certainly the bishops come out of that were not formed well and also there was homosexuality. We know this. All came into the church in the 50s and the 60s and stuff, and we let it play out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was in the seminary in the 80s and homosexuality was rampant.
Speaker 1:Rampant.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was at Minerids and I got kicked out. I got kicked out of the seminary because I was very vocal about what was going on.
Speaker 2:I had a brother in the seminary in the in the late 70s the same, same type of a thing and yeah, guys, I had guys like kind of like you know, trying to groom me and feel me out and stuff, and they'd be like you know, what would you do if you know, if somebody you know, I'd say I'd break their bleeping neck and and so they didn't come around me. I used to chew tobacco. I was more of a you know, grew up on a horse farm. I was more of somebody that didn't tolerate that type of crap. And let me share a story. So you mentioned the Pontifical Academy of Life, right?
Speaker 1:Well, the Pontifical Institute for Marriage and the Family is separate from that, but they also started the Pontifical Institute for Life. So that came out of John Paul also.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, two institutes, so just let me share a little story with you. So, going back probably about three years, I was involved with the Eucharistic pilgrimage. So I was praying the Eucharistic pilgrimage. So you know, I was praying asking our Blessed Mother. I was, like you know, this is about 18 years ago. I go, mother, what's something we could do just for your son? And the whole idea of a national Eucharistic procession, or I wanted to call it a march because we're going out with Jesus in battle, anyway. So long story short. When the bishops announced the Eucharistic Congress. So long story short. When the bishops announced the Eucharistic Congress reached out to Bishop Cousins and, long story short, they said, yeah, we'll do a Eucharistic pilgrimage. So, and then I was, and then I was kind of like squeezed out.
Speaker 2:But what we did is we, we actually walked that pilgrimage before them with. We had a relic of the true cross and it was a friend of mine, bud, who kind of instigated everything. But I remember walking. So this is this. This actually ties back. So I remember I walked from the shrine of the mecca conception to the grotto at notre dame and we were getting close and and I was walking with bud, mcfarland, randall, terry and and randall. You know it's about 650 miles. Randall takes a wrong turn right at South Bend and so we're like you know, bud's going just ballistic and you know like how you know. So anyway, so we were delayed about a half hour and because of that, as we're getting ready to walk into Notre Dame, to the grotto at Notre Dame, so my son's wearing that we had a relic of the true cross, so we, everybody who walked, because we took turns walking, would wear that relic of the true cross.
Speaker 2:And again, we were especially praying for marriage and for family, for our church, for our society, our culture. And we walk in and we see this entourage coming towards us, you know, and I see in the middle there's this short man. He's got a pectoral cross. I knew he's a bishop. I told Bud I'm going to go over there and I'm going to ask him to bless what we're doing. And he goes no, don't do it. And I was like no, I'm going to do it. So I go up to him.
Speaker 2:I said I said, bishop, you know we're praying especially for family. We're walking across the country in the form of a cross. And so I said I want to ask. And all the people around him were looking at me like with daggers, and I said I want you to bless what we're doing and he like in a very thick Italian accent, he, like he, you know blessed us almost, like almost against his will. And it turns out it was Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia who was in charge of so it was almost like our blessed mother wanted to bring us face to face with the evil inside of the church right.
Speaker 1:Why don't you? Why don't you for people that don't know who that is? You want to unpack?
Speaker 2:who. That is the one that's. He's the one who's. How did he?
Speaker 1:how did he end up being here at?
Speaker 2:notre dame well, so he, obviously he's there for, for some, something that's going on in the church in regards to family and life. And you know, because he's in charge of the pontifical academy of life family institute right, I'm, he is the archbishop that's in charge and and it just so happened that we kind of came face to face, he was forced to bless what we were doing and what people don't know. He's very controversial. He's brought on pro-abortion members into the academy. He's gutted.
Speaker 1:He's gutted and also gutted the Institute for Marriage and the Family, and let's not forget, Pope Francis is the one who appointed him for this, so it's not like he just stepped into this role. This was done on purpose, unfortunately, to gut out both of those institutions. And we found the same thing they got rid of all of the professors from the Pontifical Institute for Marriage and the Family, and so again, you see this attack from the inside. These institutions were set up by John Paul II with Dr Wander Foltrowska, who had been in the Nazi concentration camps, who had suffered terribly under medical experiments there and stuff. She just died recently.
Speaker 1:She was 102 years old, Stephen, Wow, yeah, and she said that of all the suffering she went through, all those things that she went through, even in the concentration camps, that today is more evil. She said at her 100th year anniversary, which was just a couple, a few years ago, and she said that evil today is worse than she's ever seen again. So what we're facing today is really something and I'm going to let you go on here, but I think we might as well. I got a little ADHD is if we didn't win this election, if we didn't win this election, if Trump didn't win this election, I think you'd see really a downward spiral accelerating. You know, we all felt that, you know that kind of downward movement with the World Economic Forum and all that and we didn't see the Vatican pushing back on any of that stuff and so here, comes Donald Trump back in and we have this feeling like maybe we pulled back from the abyss a little bit.
Speaker 1:But right now what we're talking about, steve is all there. It's all right behind trying to push us back in. So these are very important things to talk about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and let's not discount the fact that, again, our country is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, right, south America, our Lady of Guadalupe, canada to St Joseph. Let's not discount the fact that Our Blessed Mother at Fatima, she said in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. And the thing is is that we are experiencing, in my opinion this is my opinion. My opinion is we are experiencing the beginning, the beginning of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, and what I mean by that is it looks. It was so. I mean before the election, before Trump was in. I mean it was dire. I mean there was no light at all because nobody was taking the lead. Anybody that took the lead got their legs taken out from under them, whether it was Bishop Strickland or Cardinal.
Speaker 1:Burke, cardinal Burke, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know, anybody that was trying to really take leadership and to do something, you know, got their legs taken out from under them and leave it to God to use a flawed, a very flawed man like Trump Again. I don't know if you know, but there was a prophecy about Trump right back in the 80s from the Hermit of Loretto, right? Have you heard that story?
Speaker 1:Jack yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the thing is, is that, again, you know the fact that you know, the bullet didn't, you know, impact his skull and kill him instantly? You know, was it just happenstance? I don't think so, man. I mean, was it you know? Was it happenstance when you know one finger pulled the trigger, another finger guided the bullet when St John Paul II was tempted to be assassinated?
Speaker 2:Now, the thing is is that you know God and through our Blessed Mother, there is a very distinct, precise plan, and the thing is is that we all have a part to play, and that's the thing that we have to try to convey to people, jack, is that everybody, everybody, no matter how small. Again, because my conversion really happened, because probably some lady left a little Mother of Christ Crusade booklet in the back of a church that you know I was a smart aleck teenage kid. You know my parents are going through divorce and just a really just dark moment in my life, I picked up this little booklet that somebody left there and it changed my life. I mean, I've you know all the things that I've done. You know I've got eight children.
Speaker 2:My oldest son is with the Franciscan Friars of Renewal and, again, all my kids love God, because some person left this little booklet there. So so I just no matter how small of a thing you do, you never know how God's going to use it. And the thing is we all everybody that's listening right now God is counting on you, right? Everybody's got a part to play. There's going to be souls in heaven because you played your part. But if we don't play our parts, you know they may not be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and let's step back a little bit now, now that we've said all that, because we started out really and your beef with the bishops really was over marriage and the family, and I think that when people are wondering, okay, what should I do? This is the main thing. This is the main attack today, and not only is the main attack, it's the foundational attack, because, because they're they're the foundation of civilization, the foundation of each one of us is coming out of a mom and a dad, and so you see the attack going on today. You see the attack and redefinition of marriage, the abortion, but nowhere is the insanity more clear than in this trans ideology. You know where you can, you know where, right now, right now it's right in front of the Supreme Court right now is whether or not we're going to be able to medically manipulate and mutilate young children's bodies. In this gender madness, right now, this trans madness that I'm talking about young kids, it's really pathetic actually. You know what's going on. It's very nefarious.
Speaker 1:So again, Steve, when we do that we have to stand up and really stand for that. But now your question was how come we're not in the church right.
Speaker 2:Yeah let me just jump on what you said. So one of the trademarks of Satan is a disorientation of identity, right, one of the trademarks of Satan is that he blurs what our identity is. I mean, let me take you to a little—do you remember Lord of the Rings? Do you ever watch Lord of the Rings? You know what?
Speaker 1:I, I, I tried to a couple of times and I like it and and, and I never got through the a whole episode. You know I've I've watched lots of parts of it and of course I am okay so there's so the movies, so the lord of the rings movies.
Speaker 2:there's a scene in there where the theoden King, theoden was actually we call it possessed, right, he was possessed by Sauron and Gandalf came there and basically you know, kind of exercised him, right, he exercised Theoden. And there's a scene in there, after you know, this evil presence is cast out of him, where he's getting ready for battle and gamley his, you know is helping him with his armor, and theoden looks down at gamley, he says gamley, he goes who am I? And gamley looks up at him and he says he goes you're our king.
Speaker 2:But but there's something about when evil has its way, we lose our identity and I and I one of the things I like about what you guys are doing is you're helping people, because that's that's the thing that we suffer from in our world, in our country especially, is that you know who the heck, who am I, what's my purpose in life, and you know and that's why when you talk about the trans movement, it's just a you know. It just typifies what again, what evil can do and in just blurring the whole definition of our identities, yeah, yeah, you're at the root of things.
Speaker 1:Now think about this when we're talking about human identity, if you take God out, stephen. So here we're having a conversation, we take God out and then you say, okay, describe a human being to me. Now, describe the identity of a human being without God, without any supernatural life. And it's amazing the answers that you get. People really stumble around when you say you know what you just said. You know, I don't know who I am. Well, I'll tell you what. You take God out of a conversation and describe to me what a human being, who he is, who she is, what their meaning and purpose of their life is, you're going to get some wild answers and a lot of them won't make sense to you and it's all going to be opinions, all going to be based on the wind, the spirit of the age, and so it's amazing what happens.
Speaker 1:And John Paul II this comes from Gaudium et Spes Jesus reveals man, man and women, man to himself and makes his vocation clear. God himself has to reveal himself to us, to make our vocations clear, that we're a beloved child of God, if you take that out, and the meaning and purpose of our life is to be filled with divine life and love and then make that visible in the world. Right, if you take that out, you lose your identity. You know you, you really lose it. You know you're trying to grasp your identity and we see this in these, in these gender movements.
Speaker 1:Are you an, l, a, g, a, b, a, t, a, q, an, I, an, a, a, double s, you know, plus, nobody knows. It's amazing what's going on in college campuses you ask kids who are you and they, and they, and they have to take a label off the shelf and slap it on themselves if nobody's given them one because they don't know who they are. So it it's. It's interesting. The reason I bring it up, steven, is is it's really important to start to think about those things? Because it's easy for people to go through life and not, you know, you know, have some kind of a faith in the background and never really wrestle because they're too busy looking at those phones and stuff, like who am I? Like you said, what's my purpose?
Speaker 1:we don't even know, how to I how to define a woman anymore, let alone wonder why we're created male and female matt walsh did a pretty good job, I think yeah, he did. Anyway, sorry about the rambling, but you're exactly right. You know we're attacking. This is attacking the human person.
Speaker 2:It's all good and I, you know, and again, getting back to you know, getting back to what we originally talked about, the frustration, the frustration with the leaders, leadership in the church, you know, I was going back and forth with a very prominent I'm not going to mention his name priest, publicly known, and you know, and, and I was, you know, I was saying that, listen, you know, leadership has failed us and he goes. No, he goes, it's it's, it's on you, it's on the lady. And I'm like, I'm like, really, I go, you know, and in fact I got, I did, I did, I was getting into it with Father Rippinger. So we were, we were talking and and I asked him this is kind of, I was kind of like baiting him I said what do you think the most noble vocation on the planet is? He goes priesthood and I go.
Speaker 2:I would argue with that. I would say it's motherhood, because I, again, if you look at the sacrifice so my daughter Mary just said she had twins and if you look at the sacrifice that a mother makes, I go. I have never seen a priest. I mean, again, and I love the priesthood, I love the. I wanted to be a priest, I still want to be a priest, but you know, my vocation is marriage and.
Speaker 2:But the thing is, but, the thing is that the sacrifice that mothers go through, so I would argue and say there's still a very strong clericalism that exists in the church because, again, you look at the sacrament of holy orders, they give them eight years, at minimum eight years of training where they really help them understand what their vocation is. You know, they educate them and again, they should I'm not saying they shouldn't, but when it comes to marriage, again the sacrament of matrimony, what do they give? You know, maybe a weekend, maybe a full day with a pamphlet that talks about. You know, you know, maybe mentions. You know what the church is teaching on family planning, and you know I mean, but know what the church is teaching on family planning, and you know I mean, but that's see, that's the thing that just frustrates me and just you know, I just think there's such a disconnect and disproportionality of focus on, and again, that you know you don't have priests without marriage.
Speaker 1:We got to get and the thing you know, wait. So you know I never went to the seminary, so you mean to tell me that they don't address marriage? More than that, it's amazing that they don't have theology of the body as a mandatory foundation for the priesthood.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm not talking about their training of the priests. I'm talking about what we do for engaged couples when they're going to get married. You know we don't give them, you know, anywhere near the training that we would give to the priests that are. You know that are out there.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, you didn't make that clear, so let's make that clear then. So you're not talking about, because you were talking about the priesthood vocation. So, yeah, that could be a little confusing. So when you say that again you're talking about now what You're talking about, yeah, so the priests get eight years of training with their vocation.
Speaker 2:But married couples or engaged couples, what do we give them for their vocation, for training? Again, it's apples and oranges a little bit, but I still think again, like my wife and I, we did a couple classes and we got a pamphlet that said what the church's teaching is on family planning. I mean, that was it, and my point is that we've got to give much more emphasis and again, you guys do this.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing we shouldn't be waiting until people are getting married to be talking about this.
Speaker 1:This should be happening when they're young, when these kids are young. So, when I mentioned theology of the body, priests, hopefully, are starting to learn some of that, but certainly kids should be learning this stuff right off the bat. We should be teaching them at a very young age about the meaning and purpose of their bodies, of marriage, of love and what all those things are for. What's frustrating to me is we're not. And we have it. We have it. We have everything that we need. It was passed down to us and we're not doing that.
Speaker 1:You know how many times I walk into youth groups and I say what are you doing with these kids? I hear it. Yeah, it was a great talk that you gave them. But I said you know here I'll give you an example. So I just got an email from a parent that he just found out his 16-year-old son is having sex with his girlfriend. Very, very disappointed. Good Catholic family. The young guy goes to youth group, meets the girl in youth group, you know. So here's two kids, 16-year-olds, that don't want to miss youth group, right, which you don't have to go to when you're 16 years old, but yet there's such a disconnect, stephen, that they'll go out of youth group and then go have sex. You know You're not bringing out.
Speaker 1:So you can give them all the talks you want, but unless you link it with their hearts, yeah right we're not evangelizing, we're giving them some kind of catechesis and we've never really evangelized them and brought them into the beauty of the faith which is, you know, we're sexual beings, right, right. We're created the in the.
Speaker 2:Dei.
Speaker 1:I can vouch for that Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we're created in the Imago Dei, genesis 1,. God created us, male and female, in his image and likeness. There is a reflection God's not a sexual being, but there's a reflection of us reflecting back on the Trinity Through our sexuality. If we're not talking about this with kids, then we're spinning our wheels, to a large extent because the culture is after them twisting and distorting their hearts and their minds and their very bodies themselves, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the nature of sex. Obviously God doesn't have to have sex, but his nature is it? Images sex, right, and that he wants to continually give, he wants to continually pour himself out. Well, yeah, you have to be a little careful with the wording there.
Speaker 1:So God is an eternal exchange of love and right. So you have the father who pours himself out to the son, you have the son that receives that love, and it's so beautiful and profound it comes out in the form of a person. We call that person the holy spirit. God says, okay, he draws back into himself in genesis, you know, and he's got everything ready for the wedding. He's got five days he's been putting everything. He's got the plants, the animals, he's got the mountains, he's got the sun, everything's ready to go. Why is it ready for? It's ready for a wedding feast. And on the sixth day he pulls back into himself, he takes a selfie of that eternal exchange of love. Now he's going to create a created version of that. Right, god is not a sexual being, he's a, he's purely spirit. But we are. You know we're spirit and body. Right, we're a created being. You know we're in between.
Speaker 1:So you know we have three types of persons. We have the divine persons Father, son and Holy Spirit. We have the angelic persons pure spirit. And we have human persons, human beings that are of creation and of the spirit. Both.
Speaker 1:God takes the clay in Genesis 2, 7, blows Rua, blows into us, gives us intellect, reason, fills us with his very divine life and love and then makes a created version. So now he flips the selfie. Right, he's in heaven. Boom, he flips the selfie and he's going to bring this couple into the wedding. And what does he do? He creates this male and female. He flips the wedding and says what he says. You know, go multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. It's all yours.
Speaker 1:And so this is how God brings his divine life and love into the created world. In a sexual being. We're a father, a wife right, the two become one open to the third, one open to life. Right, this is where your contraceptive mentality comes in. And boom, it's so beautiful and profound, it comes out in the form of a person. We call that person a baby. This is a tiny, created reflection of God's love, right, his divine love. And so we're sexual beings, but our sexuality is so beautiful and profound, stephen, that it reflects divine life and love, and this is the reality. This is our job is to bring this divine life and love into the created world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Satan, he's done a really good job of distorting all of that, that's right.
Speaker 2:He's distorted the idea of what the beauty of sex, the nuptial act, as St John Paul II calls it. He's distorted what it means to be a man, what it means to be a father, fatherhood and even motherhood, what it means to be the feminine, the woman. So the question is all right. So one of the things, one of the things I struggle with is how, you know, we always want to be obedient, right? I mean, one of the greatest trademarks of saints is their obedience, despite, you know, st Padre Pio, who was forbidden to say mass for 10 years and hear confessions, you hear all these different saints that suffered out of obedience. The question is because, again, I feel like I want to push back against our leadership Again. That's one of the reasons I wrote the book was really to put that mirror up in front of them and just have them look at themselves and see the fact that they're not leading. I mean, you know, the culminating chapter 33 in the book is the USCCB. They invite Joe in to talk to them, right, and you know, part of the corrupt bishops wanted to bring him in because they wanted to find out what he had on them, because there's this hard drive, right, and the other good bishops wanted to bring him in because he's such a great leader, a strong leader, and he has this moment where he looks at them and he, you know, and one of my favorite favorite quotes from Fulton Sheen he describes what it's going to be like when we come before the Father in judgment he goes. What do you think God is going to say? And he goes, he goes, he goes. What do you think God is going to say? And he goes, he goes. God is going to say show me your scars, show me your scars. And you know, because, again, every, everybody who is faithful is going to have scars. Right, his son is the great example of who had scars. So the so Joe felt compelled by the Holy spirit to take his shirt off. And he's a big, you know, he's 48 years old, yeah, a little bit graying here, but he's got scars all over his body from from, because, again, he's a soldier. You know, he's worked his way up to lieutenant general. He's a soldier, but he, he shows these bishops, you know, he turns around, turns around. He's got, you know, shrapnel wounds, he's got knife wounds, he's got bullet wounds, you know, and he shows them to the bishops and he goes bishops. He goes show me your scars. You know, do you have scars? If you don't have scars, that's a problem.
Speaker 2:And the thing is is that we have to be willing to fight. You know, and again you know, we can't be afraid to engage in a charitable way. Our leaders, we have to. We've got to, and that's what I, that's what I plan on doing with the net. You know, it's this book, catholic Joe's, it's a series, so it's going to keep going. In fact, I'll give you, I'll give you one little, I'll give you one little sample.
Speaker 2:So one of the chapters in the next book is going to be a corrupt priest who is going to be ordained a bishop, part of the cabal, right. And when they go to ordain him, he goes out, he just loses consciousness. They didn't know if he had a stroke, heart attack, whatever. But what was happening is, as soon as he got ordained a bishop, god showed him his place in hell. And and if something is going to rock us, that's, that's, that's going to rock. I don't care if you're an atheist, that's going to rock you. And so the thing is, is that? You know, we all, you know God has a plan for all of us. So does Satan. Satan has a plan for every one of us and the thing is is that we, you know we have to, we have to fight, and you know we have to fight and we have to find out where God wants to put us. Jack, what you guys are doing, I love what you guys are doing, love that Beautiful, beautiful program, you know, with engaged couples, married couples, the programs you guys have is just incredible.
Speaker 2:The question is, what can people do? So so we're, you know, we've expressed our frustration with leadership and again, that only goes so far. Right, I mean, it's okay to do that, but you know, but you know you got to dust yourself off. And what are you going to do about it? Because to me, it's like we, you know, you don't get, you don't get the, you don't get the privilege to be able to complain unless you're in the battle, unless you have some scars. So if anybody out there, you know you, the only time you can complain is if you've you've been in the battle and you've got your scars. So the thing is is that, you know, I, I guess I would question all of us is you know, show me your scars, where are your scars at where. Show me how you've done battle for marriage and for the family.
Speaker 2:Because this is the battle. This is the thing that like. Because this is the battle. This is the thing that like. You said this is the final battle. It didn't say this is one of the battles. This is the final battle before the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, the reign of peace. So this is what has to happen.
Speaker 1:What you're seeing is the vibrant churches have marriages and families.
Speaker 1:That's just the reality and the dying ones, the declining ones, you could see them very easily. It's just a lot of older people in there. Could be very great, wonderful people, faithful people, but because of the lack of church teaching, the lack of good shepherds, the lack of priests that are formed enough, the lack of staffs that have lost their faith, really how many of these staff members we'll walk into churches all the time and to parishes and just hand them? Basically hand them. Hey, here we'll come in and we're going to help you form your youth ministers, we're going to help you with your young people and help bring the truth to them. And how many times they say no, no, we're just too busy, we've got too much stuff on the table, or they don't even have a youth minister anymore because they've lost all their families. So we're in a place where there's a lot of declining parishes.
Speaker 1:So my advice to people is to find a vibrant parish where you see families, young families. You'll see a barbell. Usually You'll see older people. You'll miss a whole middle part. Maybe the Generation X to a certain degree. The millennials won't be there, but you're starting to see this Generation Z come up and the older ones are in their late 20s and stuff right now, and they're starting to have kids again. And you'll see some millennials, of course too, that have large families and things. And those are the parishes you're going to have to go to and you're going to have to fight those battles there. And you're going to have to go to, and you're going to have to fight those battles there, and you're going to push those priests to be talking about theology of the body and bring the truth and usually they are, because otherwise you wouldn't have those young families there. And forget about the geographic. They always want you to say, hey, if you live in this geographic place, go to that parish.
Speaker 1:That's over with now, because there's just too many parishes that don't you know, frankly, don't care enough or are overwhelmed or for whatever reason. Whatever reason?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I don't even care. The reason the thing is at the end of the day, you've got a duty and an obligation to protect your family, and your number one goal as parents is not only to get each other into heaven, but to protect your family. And your number one goal as parents is not only to get each other into heaven, but to get your children into heaven and, in as much as you are, have authority over them. You know you got to make that again. If you have to drive, you know 45 minutes to go to some place. That's going to feed their soul and challenge them. That's what you got to do. So my wife and I, jack, we used to teach, we taught natural family planning and we did marriage prop. And then I also did like chastity, gave chastity talks to eighth grade kids and and I remember- when-.
Speaker 2:That's easy to do. So I would always ask them, I'd say when is a couple officially married? You know, and the kids raise their hand, you know when they kiss, when they say I do, and you'd always have this smart aleck like in the back of the room that says when they have sex, and I said, yes, I go, that's when you're officially married. That is the covenantal, physical sign of your yes to each other. That is the sign of your yes to each other. That is the sign of your covenant with each other. But, yeah, to try to bring that to the youth, it's always a challenge, but it's a fun challenge. It's something that I really enjoyed, but with marriage prep. So we would be teaching different things, finance all that stuff, and then it would come to like family planning and and my wife and I, you know we, you know we would try to again very charitably, because, because most of the couples are either contraceptive or living with each other or both, or you know. And so again, you, you wanted to hit them in their heart gently, and so you know we would, we would teach them about you know what the church taught and you know how. You know we've got natural means and how contraception, you know, really distorts the whole act of marriage. By, you know, by taking out the right, the two prongs, the unitive and procreative, by taking out one of those, you know the procreative aspect, it just totally changes it. And you know, and then you'd always get this one of those. You know the procreative aspect, it just totally changes it. And you know, and then you'd always get this one of the other. Like married couples who are teaching with us would always come in and they would say but the church always teaches that you use your. You know you can use your conscience when you want to. You know if and when you want to use contraception.
Speaker 2:And I was like, and then we, you know, again we would be fighting in front of these engaged couples. We'd be again, dude, I'm not going to back down, I'm like. I'm like, no, excuse me, I go. The church teaches that we can apply our conscience. If we're going to use natural means, only if you know there are serious reasons that we shouldn't again. If we're going to come together and have sex as husband and wife, there's got to be a serious reason that we don't want to have children. And again we may choose to wait if I know my wife's ovulating or going to be ovulating soon, we may have to wait, but we would always get into it, I mean. And eventually they kicked us out of marriage prep. So I've been kicked out of the seminary, kicked out of marriage prep, and yeah, I'm sure I've kicked out of it.
Speaker 1:Well, again as we wind down. Steve, we only got a couple of minutes left as we wind down, it's because we haven't proclaimed the beauty of all this. See, if you just tell me, no, I can't do this, I can't do that without the reasons why you don't bring the beauty, this is what the church is teaching. When done properly, it shows you the beauty of our sexuality, the beauty. We live in a world that has reduced love itself right, god is love, love itself and the sign of love down to a feeling, down to an emotion, and we further reduce that down to sex, to a sexual act. Think about the pornographic culture. All these poor kids are growing up in a trans culture, in a queer culture, in a pornographic culture, in an abortion culture, in a culture where you know they grow up without both biological parents. When we're speaking to, let's say, I'm speaking to 300 kids, half of them don't live with both biological parents. You have to be. I mean, how do you even approach this? Because when you speak the truth to them and the beauty of this, they'll start to cry because they've never experienced that before. This is where we're at If we don't nurture these, if we don't show young people the beauty of family and marriage and staying together and making that commitment.
Speaker 1:You talked about scars earlier. Those scars will come in marriage. Marriage to your earlier point, also, with that priest, father Ripperger you mentioned, and you were mentioning motherhood St Thomas Aquinas, by the way, would happen to agree with you. St Thomas Aquinas, by the way, would happen to agree with you. St Thomas Aquinas would lift marriage, family, parents up, way up, and said hey, look it, here's priesthood, ministerial priesthood. But don't forget that each person is called to be a priest, prophet and king. Now you have the ministerial priesthood. You also have the lay right Marriage as priest, prophet and king.
Speaker 1:When we are prophets, when we are actual prophets, we do that in our marriage. We do that through the language of our bodies, spoken in the truth. So what am I a prophet on when I speak the language and the truth? I'm speaking of marriage. I'm speaking of procreation, I'm speaking of being a reflection of Trinitarian love in the world. That's being a prophet through my marriage, through my body, created male and female, when spoken in the truth, is actually a reflection of authentic love. But we have to start to unpack that and do a better job. But will we do that? Well, I'll tell you what, brother, we're fighting a good fight all the time with the John Paul II Renewal Center. Part of our battle is and again, you would think this would be a no-brainer, because kids respond to it so well, it's amazing. Amazing, because they're so confused when they finally hear the truth. It's going to get through to some kids, there's no doubt about it. You can change a lot of lives just in a couple of good sessions with them.
Speaker 2:I love that, jack. What you're doing is so important, but it's not easy to get into these parishes.
Speaker 1:It's not as easy as you think, because they go, you know, I don't. They know, they know that there's going to be some pushback, you know, and they're going to say you know, what are you talking about with pornography? What's wrong with pornography? What's?
Speaker 2:wrong with this?
Speaker 1:What's wrong with that, steve? It's a crazy place, man out there we need.
Speaker 2:We need Catholic Joe, all right. We need military, we need that militants, we need the church militant to become militant again and to start really fighting for these things that are so important. Because, again, when you don't fight, kids cry themselves to sleep, they get pregnant, they commit suicide, they get addicted to drugs and alcohol and pornography and we don't do these things, our kids get destroyed. And the thing is is that we've got to fight and we'll talk more about what it means to fight and some of the things that we're all doing to kind of bring that fight to not just the world but the church. We're fighting our own church, jack. That's the thing. That's. The frustrating thing is that we're fighting our own church.
Speaker 1:Well, and let's real quick, just so people don't get confused. Let's make a distinction there. So the church itself, right, is holy, she's without blemish. The problem is we have people in the church, right. So the church that Christ handed down to us, I mean we have this beautiful deposit of faith that's come down to us. The problem is we have evil people in the church. If you followed the teaching that's been passed down to us, if you actually received the sacraments and spent time in prayer, you know it's amazing how your heart can change. If you're praying the rosary, if you're reading good literature, you're reading about our saints and again, you know the Catholic Church has a deposit of faith that's come down to us in its purity. Now it's trying to get distorted right now again, all the way up into the Vatican, you know, with the Synod of Synodalities and other things. So let's make a distinction there again.
Speaker 2:You make a good point. Good point. Yeah, no, no, good point. We want the bride.
Speaker 1:Because, there's people coming into the church. Right now there's young people coming into the church because they're finding in great parishes and in the liturgy. And the beauty of the liturgy and just one more thing, steve, is if you want to really raise men to be men, young boys, and then raise them to be men, start to share with them the beauty of looking at a woman and seeing it to her heart. Share with them the beauty of looking at a woman and seeing it to her heart, seeing her. This whole thing started this conversation with the beloved child of God that that girl right, that you're attracted to, is also a beloved child of God.
Speaker 1:When a man, a young man, understands this and he sees her and he sees her, his job is to see the beauty of that girl, to be attracted to it and then to go there and look into her eyes and see into her heart and see her as a person. That's when the beauty of her body and then the beauty of her heart comes together and then he's called to protect that beauty from other people and himself. When a young man understands that, that's when a young man becomes a real man. That's that warrior that you're talking about. But we have to. We have to show them the vision of that, what that looks like. See, a young man wants the battle, he wants to know what that battle is. But unless we show them the model and the beauty of that battle, he'll get caught up in the pornography and using a girl instead of looking at her and loving her and challenging his heart, getting those stripes, like you said, on his body, those scars. Because now I know what it means to be a man.
Speaker 1:And the first battle has to take place in my own heart and this is between me and Jesus Christ, me and Jesus who's hanging on the cross to give me that power to see the beauty of women. And that's a good challenge, steve. When we get that as men, that'll raise you up, brother. That's when we're all going to go to war, right? When we see the beauty of marriage, the family, those are the things we need to challenge young men for. They raise up man when they hear the message done correctly and said correctly, and the power of jesus christ, who did not come into this world to manage your sins. He came in the power to raise you up with him, right. That's the power christ.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the relationship that adam and eve had we get you know he enhances that right he redeems it, he redeems it. Yeah, just beautiful thing that we're meant for. Benedict XVI said we're meant for, not for mediocrity but for greatness, but we're also meant to be in God's family, to be children in God's family, you know, I mean the dignity that we've been bestowed, greater than the angels, right? But we have to start. Yeah, we got to heroic virtue, my friend.
Speaker 1:But that's what young men want, you know. Remember, let's leave it like this without John Eldridge. The three core things, right that we know. Life it's for. A young man, life is supposed to be an adventure. Number one, number one. Number two it's going to be a battle. And number three, we find out it's for beauty.
Speaker 1:It's for beauty, but you got to put all those together, stephen. So, yeah, let's talk again and let's continue to bring this out, and we'll pull something from Catholic Joe, something he said that challenges these priests and these bishops and stuff.
Speaker 2:I think you should interview him. I really think you should interview him, jack, yeah, okay, all right, we'll have.
Speaker 1:Catholic Joe on the show right. I'll see if I can get him If he comes on, though tell him not to hold back, though I don't want to hear you holding back. We want to feel the force of this huh.
Speaker 2:Joseph Salvatore is a man's man. He's a warrior's warrior. He's designated the leader of the church militant.
Speaker 1:Okay, beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 2:Hey.
Speaker 1:God bless you, Steve. Thanks for being with me, Thanks everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Talk to you again soon. Bye-bye.