What's Wrong in the Church?
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CA: [00:00:00] I promised I'd be right with you and here I am. Thank you everybody. Welcome to this impromptu episode of the Catholic experience. I am the inimitable Catholic adventurer here to talk to you about what's wrong in the church. Everybody's got an opinion about that. Kill the music. I'm getting serious now.
Everybody's got an opinion of that. What's wrong in the church. We're going to talk about three things that I think are going wrong. Theology, holiness, holiness. And sacraments. And at the end of this, I'm also going to talk a little bit about Cardinal Blaise Cupich. I think that's how you pronounce his name.
Advising Catholics, at least he seems to be advising Catholics. I'm going to give it another, we're going to give it another read today and I'm going to comb through it a little bit better. He seems to be advising Catholics to stand during a reception of Holy [00:01:00] Communion, which I think is BS. Now, for those of you who don't know my work, let me be clear.
I receive communion kneeling down and on my tongue. That's probably obvious. You can't kneel down and receive in your hand. But I receive communion on my knees and on my tongue. Okay? That's the norm for me. But I am not the kind of person who says receiving in the hand is a sin. Do you know why? Because the church doesn't say that.
And I don't have any intention of trying to be holier than the church. Receiving on my knees and on my tongue is a devotion. I didn't always receive on my knees. I've been doing that maybe 20 years, but I have always received on my tongue. If you receive in your hand, fine. I, I would advise against it, not because it's a sin.
Sacraments, Confession Story
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CA: I'll talk a little bit about my devotion, why I receive on the tongue in the course of all this. The first thing I'm going to talk about is, is sacraments. I go [00:02:00] to confession today. And what do I find? There's a young man. He's not like a child. He's not a teenager, but he's a young man compared to me.
Dreadful that I have to say it that way. He's a young man compared to me, but I'm not that old. And, uh, he looks a little nervous. So as I walk in and I see him, I say, are you here? I already know he's there for confession, but I'm just trying to figure out a way to, uh, open up a conversation. I said, are you here for confession?
He says, yeah. He says, okay, you're in the right place. This is, is this the usual time for confession? He asks, I say, yeah. Priest should be here in about five minutes, and then I said, listen, you're a good man. You should believe in yourself. This is because he looks dreadfully nervous. I said, you're a good man.
Believe in yourself. It's rare to find a man in confession. I said, you're doing a really good thing. Don't you worry about a thing? And I knelt down and I said my prayers and then I sat back down. He then asked if I was a Catholic with a [00:03:00] lot of knowledge of the faith. And I said, I'm a Catholic. Yeah, I do alright.
I'm not gonna share what, what, what he asked, because really that's not the point. The point is where the conversation went following that. Um, very ashamed of his sins. He didn't disclose what he, what his sins were, but very, very ashamed. You know, my sins are terrible. This and that. Um, and I encouraged him and I, and I said, uh, listen, man, whatever you have to confess, that priest has probably heard it.
And this is what I tell everybody. That priest has probably heard it a thousand times. There's no reason to be embarrassed about anything you have to confess, no matter what it is. He's, I guarantee you, he's heard it a thousand times. And I proceeded to tell him, you know, listen, man, and this is something I'm telling to all of you.
And I'm going to tell you why I'm bringing this up. I proceeded to tell him. Just before you go to confession, sometimes five minutes before, sometimes a couple of hours, sometimes the day before, the devil is already working on you to make that [00:04:00] a fruitless confession, to make you doubt, to make you ashamed, to make you diminish.
Your, your, your guilt, so that you don't confess something, or so that you don't confess completely, or with complete honesty, or so that you change your mind. The devil has been working on you already before you got here, because he knew you were going to come here. And once you get here, he knows that after that prayer of absolution is said over you, it breaks the hold he has over you.
Once the priest says the prayer of absolution over you, the devil knows his hold is broken. For And he doesn't want that. So he's going to try like hell to prevent you from going to confession, or he's going to try to diminish the fruitfulness of that confession. You understand? I said, don't you worry about a thing.
Just give yourself to Jesus and be at peace in him. You're going to go in there, you're going to confess whatever you have to confess. And I said, don't be ashamed of anything. Be strong, be brave and take heart and [00:05:00] have faith in Jesus and say what you have to say And know that Jesus frees you from those sins after the priest says the prayer of absolution over you.
And don't be afraid. And don't let the devil, don't let the devil try and diminish the fruitfulness of that confession.
Long story short, he went to confession, he was there a few minutes, and then he left. That's the end of the story with him. But I'll tell you why I'm bringing this up. Not enough people are going to confession. And I would like to take a minute. To throw some blame out there
Who to Blame
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CA: Who would you blame for the lack of people going to confession?
Who would you blame? Here's who I would blame first And I'm being really real with you first person or first agency. I would blame is parents parents And I would say to parents. It's your fault that your [00:06:00] children are not in this confession line. That's your fault
Okay It's your fault because your children should have learned from you how important confession is. Your children should have been encouraged to go to confession by seeing you go to confession. But you thought it wasn't important enough. Second, I would blame the world. Why are there not Understand, this young man was really suffering.
But thanks be to God that he got to confession. So I would say to the world, you see his suffering? That's your fault, because you lie to him and to everybody like him. You lie to these young people by telling them that you have what they need, by telling them that God is dead, that the church doesn't matter, that the secular message of love and wishy washy nonsense is as good or better than what you're going to get from the [00:07:00] church.
It's your fault, because you promised them nonsense. You promised them fulfillment and happiness that you can't actually deliver. But you tell them that you can deliver it. And so you string them along and you string them along week after week, year after year from their preteen years until they die. You string them along saying any minute now I'm going to make you happy.
Hippie Jesus, Hippie Gospel
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CA: I blame the world. They're suffering because of you.
And ultimately I blame anyone responsible. Who might have had a role, played a role in edifying these young men and women, but nope. You wanted to deliver, you wanted to deliver the hippie gospel. You wanted to deliver a Jesus who loves without a standard. That is a Jesus who does not exist. [00:08:00] You wanted to deliver a Jesus who welcomes everyone into heaven with blinders on, and that is a Jesus who does not exist.
I'm not just talking about parents, or catechists, or teachers, or preachers. I'm talking about the body of those involved, which is all of those people and then some. It's a body of responsibility. You wanted to deliver a Jesus that does not exist? You want us to proclaim the hippie gospel? Well, that's what you've got.
That's what you've got. So, luckily, there's at least five people in a confession line, most of them old, some 30s or 40s. A couple of them here and there. Where are the young people? Where the hell are they? You know where they are? They're boiling in a pot. Dying. Slowly. Because of the evangelization of the hippie gospel.[00:09:00]
The teddy bear Jesus, who does not actually exist. I'm sorry, but he doesn't. And because parents failed to give the faith to their children. I am sorry if that insults anyone, but that's someone else to blame. You're welcome. You know who else to blame? Everyone who's so damn afraid of saying what needs to be said.
They don't want to offend anyone. Okay. I don't want to offend anyone either. You think I want to offend someone? But what I'm saying is the truth. And it just needs to be said by more people than just me. By more influential people than just me. I'm a nobody. And I'm happy to be a nobody. Believe me. But this needs to be said.
Lapsed Mass-Goer
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CA: Which takes me to point two. I'm a nobody. The sacraments. The sacraments have become a secular rite of passage, and people, Catholics, just don't take them seriously anymore. I was in church just [00:10:00] recently. This is an old story. You've all heard it before. You've all experienced this before. It was very apparent to me that the person next to me has not been to church in about a hundred years.
He was in his thirties. Maybe 40s, maybe, but I think he was like in his early to mid 30s. Didn't know when to stand, when to sit, didn't know the gestures. He sort of knew them, so you can tell he was really a Catholic. Plus, he was there with his family, and his family were, I know, are Catholics. Hasn't been amassed in a hundred years.
Very, very, very apparent. Peace of the Lord be with you, and also with you. Okay, so you haven't been to church in at least, when did we change it to, and with your spirit, was that 15 years? So you haven't been to church at least in that long Plus you don't know when to stand and sit and all the other things.
Okay But wouldn't you know, he trotted right up and received communion Went right up to receive communion if I was if I was his family member I would have said don't you dare walk up to receive communion Don't you dare? Says listen, I didn't say this but if you were my family I would have said this listen.
You haven't been to [00:11:00] church in 100 years, man You really shouldn't go up to receive communion and then I then I would leave it at that You Then it's up to him if he goes or she if it's a female if they go for communion Then it's on them, but I at least will have told them something Family didn't say anything to this to this young man fine So we don't take Holy Communion seriously And we're gonna get more into not taking Holy Communion seriously when we get into Cardinal Stupich's letter about receiving communion standing up or discouraging people from kneeling , when receiving communion.
We don't take the sacraments seriously because we don't take Jesus seriously. We don't take Jesus seriously so we don't take, uh, his faith seriously or the church seriously. That's just the bottom line, my friends. That's just the bottom line. So this is the state of the church and that's why the state of the world is what it is.
To the world is what it is because the church is what it is. And so here we are face to face Let's talk a little bit more in just a second about how we don't take the sacraments Seriously have a couple of specific sacraments in the mind first [00:12:00] again. I want to say hello and thank you I am streaming live on my new favorite partner.
I'm just kidding about the new and favorite part youtube lately I've been really prioritizing, youtube so i've been really focused On YouTube. If you're not familiar with my work, you're probably extending your time in purgatory. I suggest you watch everything that I produce. Listen to every one of my podcasts and certainly hit that subscribe button.
Hit that like button because not only will you stay in the know of everything I'm putting out there, you're also going to help my content to gain some traction. You got to know it's the, it's the content producer against the algorithm. And so the way Catholics have to see this is, It's Catholicism versus the algorithm because I'm not producing art here.
I'm not singing songs here, right? What am I putting forward? The gospel, the Catholic faith. So what you have here is Catholicism against the algorithm. Would you like to help Catholicism win? Would you [00:13:00] like to help win one for the team? Click like, click subscribe. It helps my channel. It helps the content.
It tells the algorithm this content is worth distributing wider, more broadly. Click like, click subscribe, click share, click anything. Click everything. Okay? Because you're not helping me. You're helping me. This is not my bread and butter. This is not how I earn a living. You're not helping me. You're helping the gospel.
You're helping me to advance the message of Catholicism, the message of the gospel. It's Catholicism versus the algorithm, man. I'm keeping it real with you. It has nothing to do with me. It's Catholicism versus the algorithm. Do you want to help Catholicism win for a change in this digital world? Or do you want real Catholicism to win in this digital world?
Or are you okay with the hippie Jesus and the hippie gospel? That's entirely up to you.
Love and Mercy of Jesus is Real. So is Justice
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CA: Okay, that's all I'm gonna say. Now, let's get it back into [00:14:00] this. And folks, let me be clear about something before I get into the next point. This, this does tie into the next point and it's a bridge from my previous point.
I understand the message of love in the gospel. I'm, I'm, I'm working that angle all the time. I upset a lot of folks because I do, except I, I work that angle properly. I talk about the love of Jesus. I talk about the mercy of Jesus. I think I talk more about the mercy of Jesus than I talk about the justice of God.
But I mention that too. I'm always talking about God's love and mercy. The hippie gospel and teddy bear Jesus is not about the real love of God. And it is not about the real mercy of God. It isn't. It's about a God who loves because he's too stupid to do anything else. That's what the hippie gospel is.
It's a God who loves. Because he's too stupid, he's run by AI, he's a two [00:15:00] dimensional fake cartoon character, and all he can do is love. That is the hippie gospel, and that is not a gospel that's real. Because God does love beyond words, but he also has a standard. He also gets upset. Yes, God is merciful, and he is also just.
We may be faithless to him, but he remains faithful to himself because he takes himself seriously. When Paul wrote that, you know what he was talking about? At least one of the things he was talking about? That God will always take his law seriously, even if we don't.
And I'm sorry, that truth is in conflict with the hippie gospel that we are giving our young people. I get, I get the love of, and mercy of Jesus. I get it and I preach about it all the time. But I'm sorry, the hippie gospel is not the love of, and mercy of Jesus. It's a script written for a cartoon character.
And cartoon characters are not real. Moving on. [00:16:00] Sacraments. We don't take communion seriously.
We don't even take baptism seriously. Baptism has become another rite of, a secular rite of passage, which is something we do for the party. It's something we do because it's a custom. There's actually nothing wrong with doing something religious because it's a custom or, or as one of the reasons is it's a custom.
There's really nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, an ethnic custom, a national custom, a family custom. Sometimes those are the things that tie us. To the truth that tie us to things like the sacraments where we would otherwise have let it go. Sometimes you need just a thread to hold on to and sometimes that thread is a custom.
It's a family custom. It's a, it's an Italian custom. It's a, I don't know, a German custom. The sacraments I'm saying. It's not always a bad thing, but it's a bad thing when we're only doing that because it's a custom. [00:17:00] We're only doing that because it's a custom. Increasingly, parents are withholding or, or not going forward with, um, baptizing their, their, their babies.
Because they want to give a baby the choice. Okay, you don't give a baby the choice to eat. You feed that baby. You give that baby medicine when he, he or she is in need. Whatever. Because you know better than the baby does. Right? You have to eat your vegetables. I don't want to eat my vegetables. You know better than the child does, right?
That's why God made parents. And so, you get the baby baptized, because you ought to know better than a baby does. Don't wait. Don't say, well, I'm going to give the baby the chance to figure it out when they're a teenager. You should know better than the baby. We don't take baptism seriously. We don't take confirmation seriously.
We don't take the sacrament of [00:18:00] matrimony seriously. The sacraments are interfaces, interactions with God's power. And the sacraments do. Each sacrament does. If we do not take them seriously, we are not receptive to the graces we're supposed to be receiving in each of those sacraments. If we're not taking the sacraments seriously.
Holiness, and Deficient Theology
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CA: Let's talk about the next point before I get into Cardinal Cupich's ridiculous letter. Holiness. The problem with the church and the problem with the world is a lack of holiness in the church. Okay, that's the problem. If there are no saints in the church, then there will be no saints in the world. Okay.
If there are no saints, uh, I don't want to say improving the holiness of the church because the church is the mystical body of Christ. You can't make it any more holy. But if there are no saints in the church to, I guess, I guess to adorn the [00:19:00] mystical body, that would be a way of putting it. Or to advance the holiness of the members of the mystical body, the people.
If there are no saints in the church Then the church, the church, lowercase c, the people, not the institution, the church is just going to be a dark and dismal place, and we will continue to see churches close, and we will continue to see Catholic schools close, or worse, we'll continue to see Catholic schools remain open and fail to teach the Catholic curriculum, or to fail, or fail to teach the Catholic religion in a way that's a cut above the hippie gospel, the gospel of Teddy Bear Jesus.
And I'm going to tell you where my authority comes from. I have been doing Catholic media, apologetics, and Catholic education for 30 years. Particularly, I've [00:20:00] done a lot of evangelization of youth, families, um, parish level, diocesan level, national level. I've been in Catholic media, um, I guess that would be like 25 years, 26 years, something like that.
So I've been doing this a very, very long time, not from behind a desk, but on the ground with the people, evangelizing the people. And believe me, I've had, I've heard crucify him, crucify him. Believe me, I have heard people freak out or families freak out or parents freak out or children freak out or strangers freak out.
Over basic catechesis. Basic catechesis. Activate the freakout. Basic stuff. Very, very basic. How dare you! You've never, you've never heard that people go to hell? You've never heard that? [00:21:00] Have you really never? Or, I don't even remember. I mean, there's a handful of times that basic catechesis caused a freakout.
One was confession. Confession. One was hell, and I didn't bring it up on purpose, somebody asked, so I gave them the answer. It was basic catechesis, hell is real, people actually go there, and you know, wages of sin is death. And of course I followed up with talking about God's mercy, because I always want people not to be weighed down, but to feel like they have the ability to be set free from the hard things of reality.
Right? I don't want people to be weighed down by the wages of sin is death, though that is true. I want them to see that's a reality, but Jesus offers you a way out. Holiness offers you, and so on. You get the idea. I always try to keep it positive. Within reason when I say something critical. I always say we, we, we, when I say something, you know, that, that's, that [00:22:00] lords the faithful, something laudatory.
I usually say you, you, you, I usually give the praise to everybody. And if I'm saying something critical, I share myself in that. I share in it still causes freak out. So I've been doing this a very long time. Believe me, when I tell you, I know what I'm talking about, not from theory, but from experience, a lot of experience.
And so believe me, when I tell you. The church is lacking saints, big time. Not only is the church lacking saints, big time, and there is the message of hope here, which I'm going to get into in a second. Not only is the church lacking saints, big time, but the adhesive that should make holiness stick and grow, the adhesive isn't even there.
People don't even understand basic catechesis. People don't take sin seriously because they don't take God's mercy seriously. God's mercy is just automatic. It's owed to me. I demand it [00:23:00] and I will definitely get it. Well, if that's the nature, if that's the nature of salvation that it's owed to you and you're definitely going to get it, well, why should you take sin seriously?
I wouldn't. And if you don't have to take sin seriously, why take confession seriously? Why take the Eucharist seriously? Why take any sacraments seriously? If heaven, if the gate of heaven is just wide open and everybody can get through, as long as you're nice.
The Damage of 'The Hippie Gospel'
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CA: Once again, we run into the hippie gospel, where the important thing is to be nice and to reflect the love of Jesus.
My brothers and sisters, do you know how easy it is to be nice? But narrow is the gate that, that is the road that leads to eternal life. It's very easy to be nice, but narrow is the road that leads to eternal life. So clearly being nice is not enough. That damn hippie gospel, man. [00:24:00] And again, I'm going to tell you from a lot of experience that hippie gospel is causing, is costing a lot of lives, spiritual lives and bodily lives.
That hippie gospel is doing so much damage. You can't, you can't even imagine how much damage that has done and continues to do. The hippie gospel and teddy bear Jesus. Can anyone out there responsible for that? You should take your ass to the confessional immediately. And you should say, I had an opportunity to serve the Lord and I failed him because I decided to evangelize Jesus as I understand him, which is in conflict with the Jesus that we see in the gospel.
It's in conflict with the Jesus of the church evangelizes and has evangelized for 2000 years. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
A Lack of the 'Adhesive' of Holiness
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CA: There's a lack of holiness and there's a lack of the, the adhesive. It causes holiness to stick and grow. What do I mean by that? ~It's hard. I'll go back to the example that I made.~
~I made it loosely, but I'll nail it down here. ~It's hard to get people to take mercy seriously. For instance, if we take mercy [00:25:00] seriously, it's going to affect our relationship with God because we'll appreciate him differently. We'll take our spiritual life or prayer life More seriously, in a different way, if we're taking, if we have an appreciation for the mercy of God, if we feel it's just owed to us, then who cares?
Why even go to church? As long as you're nice. Without an appreciation for God's mercy, there's no appreciation for sin. If there's no appreciation for sin, why should there be an appreciation for the faith? Well, I know about Jesus, so that's enough. Okay. It's not enough to just know about Jesus. That's not enough.
So in order to bring someone closer to the truth, closer to God, closer to the church, closer to Jesus, they have to at least understand these fundamentals, right? The basic, basic things. If they don't have an understanding of the basic, basic things, nothing you throw at them will [00:26:00] stick. Go to confession.
That will never stick. If a person does not take sin seriously. Sin is serious. That will never stick if they don't know what sin is. Do you realize everything that you've done this past week is a sin? For instance, the gossip, the slander, the cruelty, the injustice, the Sixth Commandment stuff, maybe the First Commandment stuff, the Eighth Commandment stuff.
You've been doing those things all week. Those are sins. You see what I'm saying? So when you say sin is serious, even that doesn't stick. 'cause they don't know what that is. Tell them what sin is. That doesn't stick. Because what is sin when God loves you anyway? What? What is the gravity of sin? Any sin, sinfulness a sinful life.
What's the gravity of it [00:27:00] all? If God loves you unconditionally, and I'm going to heaven anyway.
God doesn't love you without condition. He has conditions and people can go to hell. Well, how does that stick when people believe that Jesus Christ is a teddy bear? Actually, Jesus Christ talked about hell more than he talked about heaven. How does that stick when they have not even picked up a Bible?
When they have not even heard the Bible read to them at mass because 20 years. You understand? We've lost the adhesive adhesive. On which the material of holiness sticks, so that holiness can develop. It's not hopeless, for sure it is absolutely not hopeless because we are not dealing with mathematics.
Mathematically we're screwed, but we are not dealing with mathematics. We are dealing in the realm of grace. So of course it is not hopeless. [00:28:00] Miraculous conversions happen, even small ones. Small miraculous conversions. Thanks. Right, I'm not talking about Hitler becoming St. Augustine, I'm talking about small miraculous conversions.
Your average secularized Catholic taking holiness seriously, even if they don't know to call it that. They take their faith seriously. They take God seriously. They want to have an encounter with a God who loves them with a purpose, not by accident, and not by programming. You understand? You understand? So these things happen.
That's why it's not hopeless. It's absolutely not hopeless.
Change the Church; Start With Yourself
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CA: But we all have to be prayerful. For better days in the church and in the world. Because as Cardinal Sarah has said repeatedly, the problem with the church is that there are no saints. As I have said repeatedly, [00:29:00] if you want to change the world, change the church.
And if you want to change the church, change yourselves. Not just you. I mean every, everyone in the church. Not just you. Everyone in the church. If you want to change the world, change the church. If you want to change the church, change yourself. And what I say to you individually, if you want a holier church, you have to be the change that you desire.
You, you have to be the change that you desire if you want to change the church. And if you want to change the world, you have to be the change that you desire. Good luck. Good luck. Because that's real hard. I know we all have our ideas of what will, you know, what will fix the church. Right, we're talking about what's wrong with the church.
Well, so we all have ideas of what will fix the church. If only the church did this. If only the Pope did this. If only my priest did this. Oh, yeah? Okay. Eh. There may be some legitimacy to all of [00:30:00] that. There's also legitimacy to this. If you want to change the church, change yourself. That's something you can actually do.
Do you want to know how hard it is to change the church? Try changing yourself. You're going to see immediately how hard it is. Whatever your problem is, Could be a grave sin, could be, um, uh, venial sins. It could be your failure to grow in holiness. It could be that holiness to you is just about orthodoxy and that's really all you're interested in.
Whatever, what, each of us has our own thing. Whatever your thing is, change yourself in order to change the church. When you see how hard that is, you're going to look at everyone else's flaws in the church very, very differently. If only the Pope said this, but I get it. It's hard to change yourself. If only the priests in the church did this, but I get it.
Having tried to change myself, I can tell you it's very, very hard to do, so I understand. If you want to change the world, you've got to change the church. You want to change the church? Be the change that [00:31:00] you desire. Be the change that you desire. Best advice I can give you. Be the change that you desire.
If you like what you are getting, if you are catching this on YouTube, please hit like, please hit subscribe. I'm trying to grow this channel. And your likes, your subscribes, and all of that will help to advance this content. And I would thank you very, very much for it. I'll even put in a good word for you at the resurrection when I meet Jesus.
In fact, what I'm going to do to distract Jesus from talking about my life, I'm going to talk to him about yours. And I'm going to be real, real complimentary. I'm not going to tell him bad things, because what do I know from the bad things in your life? But to keep him from talking about the bad things in my life, I'm going to distract him by saying great things about you.
If you hit like or subscribe, whether you're catching this on YouTube or anywhere else. Tap like, tap repost, do something to push this content forward, [00:32:00] and I will talk to Jesus at length, very positively about you. Yeah, Lord, that person over there, let me tell you something. They are so holy. Holy mackerel.
They are so, they are such good people, oh my goodness. You, you probably know some bad things they did, but let me tell you about the good things. You might not know all the good things they did, let me tell you. Oh, I'm gonna make some stuff up. Don't worry about it, I'm gonna talk to Jesus about you. It's all gonna be good, believe me.
Now for the piece of resistance. And I'm just to close off that point. If you want to change the church, change the world. Or if you want to change the world, change the church. If you want to change the church, be holy.
There is Hope - 'Saints' Truth Bomb!
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CA: Because the church's biggest problem is the lack of saints. But, this I have to tell you.
~This I have to tell you. Damn it. Wrong camera, stupid. This I have to tell you. ~There are saints in the church. I know it. It's not theory. It's not hypothesis. There are many, many, many hidden saints in the church. God is working. And oh boy, [00:33:00] does he have something planned. I don't know what he has planned. But I gotta tell you, man.
After 30 years doing this work, evangelizing, parish level, diocesan level, national level, in Catholic communications, and so on, um, everything that I have seen, I have seen little segments of God's work in the church, and each, let's just say it's five things, okay, I'm just trying to make, boil this down to make it easier to talk about, let's just say it's five things, each of those five things are, I'm Confounding.
Uh, this is strange to find this in the church. For instance, I'll tell you one of those five things and this is real. To find youth talking like the church fathers is very, very confounding, very strange. Where did that come from? Not one, not two, but I would say a score or more [00:34:00] youth, 12 year olds, 13 year olds, 15 year olds.
And 20 or more, let's say 40, I think 40 would be a safe bet in my experience, talking like the church fathers in terms of their spirituality, their thinking about the scripture. I'm not kidding. I am not kidding. 20 to 40 youth between the ages of 12 to 17 talking like the church father. You think I'm kidding?
Go look at Carlo Acutis's life. I never met him, but that's an example of things that I've seen. That depth, in very, very young people, who should not have that level of depth. And I don't mean just intellectual depth, I mean a spiritual depth. That's one thing I can point out, that I have seen, not in one diocese, but throughout my work as an evangelizer.[00:35:00]
Multiply that by, again, just to boil it down, let's say five major things like that, each of them confounding. And you have to say to yourself, God is definitely up to something, a hundred percent God is up to something. And when he launches it, it's going to be huge, huge, huge, huge. I believe this with my whole heart, I would bet my soul on it.
You mark my words, man, because when it comes, you're going to remember, I told you about it. Or I told you that it was coming. I don't know what the it is, but it's going to be huge. There are saints in the church. They are hidden. And I even feel like God is hiding them. I do. I feel like God is hiding them.
He shrouds them in [00:36:00] secret and quiet lives. Where he allows them to be shrouded in secret and quiet lives. And I can tell you this too. There are saints in the church that he, that God allows to be shrouded in turmoil and tribulation. And even the saints themselves don't realize that it's happening.
And this is one way that God is concealing his saints. He doesn't keep them chained up and locked away. They're making influence, they're making impacts. But small scale impacts on an individual level. I do believe that God is concealing this vast army of saints. It's very exciting. Very cool. It's very exciting.
And at some point he's going to unleash them. So [00:37:00] that strategy that I just laid down, that's my hypothesis. But the fact that there are many, many saints in the church, and that they are hidden. You can take that one to the bank. You can take that one to the bank. Why do you think I do what I do? Just to play some small role in forming those saints.
Because many of them are you. You think I'm lying? You think I'm kidding? You're thinking me? No way. Oh ho ho ho. Oh boy, the surprises God has in store. Ha ha ha. Alright man.
'Please Stand!' - Cardinal Cupich Letter
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CA: Let's get to this. I gotta tell you, this is the most un YouTubey Podcast stream ever and I kind of don't care. I'm kind of breaking away a lot.
I'm not doing a whole lot, making a whole lot of effort to keep people interested. It's just like, you know what? And I just gave somebody this advice recently. Don't work the business. Do the work of the gospel. Do the work of the gospel the way, you know, the way God calls you to do it. And don't focus so [00:38:00] much on the work of the business.
Got to grow my followers, got to grow my subscribers. I was just telling, giving some of this advice recently. Um, you have to do the work of the business. It is part of what we do here as you know, internet evangelizers. You have to do some of the work of the business, but that cannot be your focus. And so I try, I don't always succeed, but I try to keep that in the front of my mind.
And so today, as I sat down to do this, um, this stream, it's not really a rant. It's there is ordering to it. I do have notes of things that I wanted to hit up, but I decided, you know what? I'm just going to do the show. I'm going to do, it's not going to be very YouTube y. Um, or social media y, uh, people might click away after 30 seconds, I, I don't even give a damn anymore.
I can tell you now, I can drop a 20 second brilliant video, and 90 percent of the people won't get past 5 seconds. It's like, how do you compete with that attention span? You just don't. You just don't try to. This is the show that I want to produce, this is the way I'm going to put [00:39:00] it forward, if you don't like it, I am sorry.
If you don't like it, you wouldn't have even gotten this far. So if you're, if you're hearing me say that, then you must like what you're getting. And I'm very glad that you do. Please hit like, please hit subscribe. It's not about being popular. It's not about doing the work of the business about it's about doing the work of the gospel Your likes your subscribes your shares your reposts all that stuff It advances the message of the gospel that i'm putting forward here message of the real gospel not the mamby pamby Stupid a hippie gospel.
I just can't stand anymore that hippie gospel. I'm, sorry the last breakway I promise that damn hippie gospel has done so so much damage 30 years in this business, man 30 years. I'm no amateur, and I'm telling you this from experience and from authority. That hippie gospel has caused so much damage in the world and in the church.
Spiritually, hell, spiritually, even temporally, it is like an atomic bomb. Has caused so much damage in the church, in the [00:40:00] world, in the pews, and in the line at the shopping, uh, shopping mall. The nastiness of people waiting in line when you go shopping. That's what I'm talking about. Stuff like that. It has caused so much damage.
And it has deprived so many of their inheritance. You can't even imagine the hippie gospel. That's why I'm so on about it. Anyway, let's get on with this. I wanted to do a stream about this by itself. I didn't have the time to do it. And it's even when I wanted to do the stream, this is already a couple of days late.
It's about a week late now, so you've all probably heard of this. Cardinal Blaise Cupich asks Catholics to receive Holy Communion standing in Chicago Archdiocese. You'll notice if you're watching the video Um, you'll notice this is in soft quotes because, as I understand it, he doesn't come out and say, Stop receiving communion kneeling down.
He doesn't come out and say, Hey, receive [00:41:00] communion standing up. But he does imply that. I'm going to talk about this article with you. I'm going to read a little bit of it and talk to you about what we're reading. And, um, I'm going to say some things that are positive about it and some things that I think are just silly.
Just give me a break. All right, we're gonna get let's get into it right now Let's stop talking about it. Cardinal Cupich asked Catholics to receive Holy Communion standing up in Chicago Archdiocese. This is from Catholic News Agency written by Tyler Cardinal Blaise Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago in a letter published this week in the Archdiocesan newspaper Urged Catholics to stand while receiving Holy Communion and not make gestures that draw attention to oneself.
Okay. Let me just keep reading. In the letter published in the Chicago Catholic, Cupich said, The [00:42:00] norm, quote, the norm established by the Holy See for the Universal Church and approved by the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is for the faithful to process together as an expression of their coming forward as the body of Christ.
And to receive Holy Communion standing. Ah, I don't think that's the norm, to receive Holy Communion standing. I believe the norm remains on your knees. I believe that is the preferred way of receiving Communion. If I am wrong, then I'm open to correction. What I think, this is only what I think. What I think is going on here is Cardinal Cupich is saying the norm established by the Holy See.
Is for faithful is for the fable to progress to process together as an expression of their coming forward for the body of Christ I think that is the norm I think he inserted and to receive holy communion standing. I think that's what's going on. I could be wrong [00:43:00] I am prepared to be corrected But it doesn't matter Here's why it doesn't matter even if it's exactly what the cardinal is saying.
It does not matter Whether he's saying what he's saying or he's playing fast and loose with the facts, it doesn't matter. Here's why.
He begins with an appeal to the authority of the Holy See, and that's fine. But once I see that, I know you're up to something. Once I see the strategy, once I see the technique, Because rhetoric is one of my superpowers. Once I see that, I know you're up to something. Because you don't start with an argument, you start with an appeal to the authority.
Not always a bad thing, sometimes you have to. Depending on who you're dealing with, sometimes you have to. But once I see that, I know you're up to something. For the faithful to process together as an expression of their coming forward as the body of Christ. Okay. Well, they're already doing that, right? So why do you have to insert, whether this is the norm or you just made [00:44:00] that up, why do you have to insert and to receive Holy Communion standing?
If they're already doing the procession, why do you care if they're standing or not? The Cardinal goes on to state that nothing should be done to impede any of these processions, and that disrupting this moment only diminishes this powerful symbolic expression by which the faithful In processing together, express their, express, their faith that they're called to become the very body of Christ they receive.
What is the impetus for this catechesis that people are kneeling? What's the big deal? It takes as much time to kneel for communion as it takes to bow and reverently. Receive communion in the hand. What is the problem? Is it not fast enough for you? We'll make it easier for people. Have kneelers there, so that people don't have to go all the way down [00:45:00] to the floor.
Have a separate line for people who only want to receive on the knee, on kneeling down, and on the tongue. What's the problem? Disrupting this moment only diminishes this powerful symbolic expression. Listen, are we supposed to believe that the procession is, is more powerful than how people are actually receiving communion?
You Do you really want us to believe that? Is this really because you think the procession is getting all messed up because of those pains in the ass we're receiving kneeling down? Is this re Is this really what we're supposed to believe? Come on now, man. Come on. Nothing should be done to impede any of those, any of these processions.
You know what? I, I kind of agree with that except You You know what also should not be done? When a Communicant goes up to [00:46:00] receive Communion from an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, and the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion decides to make a show of it by refusing to give them Communion on the tongue, which has happened many times in my, in my viewing, where it becomes a tug of war between the Communicant and the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.
Where after, I don't know, five, six, seven seconds, one of them finally gives in. Either the communicant usually just receives communion in the hands, or the extraordinary minister finally just puts it on the person's tongue. I would like to see a letter admonishing that injustice. I would like to see that.
Nothing should be done to impede these processions. What I do like and think is positive about this is the [00:47:00] catechesis. The cardinal is offering interesting catechesis. I don't know how helpful or how important it is, but okay. All catechesis is, is, is interesting. So I think that's a positive thing. We're getting catechesis about the, which probably many Catholics don't know that the procession, processing up for Holy Communion is a special moment.
I don't like using the word symbolic there, but okay. I can see stretching to call it symbolic. Okay. Disrupting this moment only diminishes this powerful symbolic expression by which the faithful, in processing together, express their faith. Express their faith that they are called to become the very body of Christ they receive.
I would like, I would really like to think, sorry, I would really like to think that what the Cardinal is really after is to just share this catechesis about the procession. Maybe that is what he's after. Let's continue and see. Certainly [00:48:00] reverence can and should be expressed by bowing before the reception of Holy Communion.
But no one should engage in a gesture that calls attention to oneself or disrupts the flow of the procession. That would be contrary to the norms and tradition of the church. Really?
That would be contrary to the norms and traditions of the church, which all the faithful are urged to respect and observe. Let's talk about the norms and traditions of the church for a second. Cough, cough. First of all, tradition is a funny word. Not everything that's customary is actually sacred tradition.
Even receiving communion, kneeling down technically is not sacred tradition. It is customary. It's an old custom, but it's customary. It's not sacred tradition. We, for many generations, we all knelt and received in our tongues on communion rails or at communion rails, because that was the law [00:49:00] of the church.
The law of the church now is you may receive in your hand. It is by indulge. It's a special permission. But it is it is still the law in the church you can receive in your hand So receiving your hand is not a sin now if we're really interested in the norms Hang on. Let me just get that would be contrary to the norms and tradition Of the church.
Well, he's definitely not talking about sacred tradition unless he's using that as a reference to Let's say interruptions of the procession Maybe you could call that sacred tradition. I don't think so, but maybe if we stretch far and wide, maybe you could go there. But what we're really talking about is customs.
Okay. And really the custom of receiving on your knees is a whole lot older than the custom of receiving standing up and just bowing. And I'm not saying receiving standing up in your hands and bowing [00:50:00] is wrong. I'm not saying that I am not saying that. And I don't, I don't believe it. I don't believe that it's wrong.
And I'm not saying that it's wrong, but we're talking about respecting norms and traditions of the church. Okay. Then, then what, what I think the Cardinal should be issuing is a letter, encouraging people to receive on their knees, or at the very least a letter encouraging people to receive on their tongues.
If we're really worried about the norms and tradition of the church. That's just the way I see it.
Advice and Opinion about Communion in the Hand
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CA: Folks, if you receive standing up, let me just say this. The church doesn't say that receiving on your hands is wrong. Therefore, we cannot say that it's wrong. And I don't think that it's wrong. I do think that it's unwise.
Because I think receiving communion on your knees, or at the very least, if you're gonna stand up, receive it on your tongue, it's a more humb it's, it's a more humble and It's a more humble expression of [00:51:00] gratitude to be fed by the shepherd. To be vulnerable by receiving the Eucharist on your tongue instead of taking, being able to have control over it by receiving your hand.
Again, these are just devotional things. These are things that, I guess, evangelize the self, evangelize others. These are not right or wrong things as far as I'm concerned. I know and have heard the argument that you shouldn't receive communion in your hands because your hands are not consecrated. I don't subscribe to that argument, but I do believe receiving on your tongue at the very least is spiritually more fruitful.
I don't think it avails you of more graces when you're receiving communion, but it's spiritually more fruitful in that The, the humility and surrender that it fosters in your heart does, over time, make you more receptive to the graces you're receiving at Mass and in the Eucharist. It [00:52:00] isn't the reception itself, it's what the reception does to us spiritually, or does to us, I guess, ontologically, that makes us, over time, more receptive to the graces that God is offering to us in those moments.
Does that make sense? So, I strongly recommend you receive on your tongue, at the very least. Ideally on the tongue while you're kneeling down. It's humble. It's reverent. It's submissive. It's an act of surrender. Is it necessary? No, it is not necessary. It is not necessary. But there are a thousand things that are fruitful and beneficial for us spiritually that are not necessary, okay?
So, if you're receiving your hand, fine. At the very least, please do so reverently. Do so reverently. A nice reverent bow. Um, check your hands to make sure you didn't, you know, [00:53:00] uh, drop any specks in your hands. Okay, that sort of thing. I don't want to make this about holy communion. So let me move on. Oh, and I really have to get, get a move on because I have to leave for mass soon.
Norms and traditions of the church, right? Okay. That's where I left off. The letter does not directly state what specific gestures draw attention to oneself. CNA reached out to the archdiocese, uh, but I think got no response. Fine. What I will say though, is this one thing that he said that I agree with about not drawing attention to yourself.
I am dead against people drawing attention to themselves. So when I receive communion, for instance, usually I will receive on one knee, and of course there was a radical traditionalist who had to admonish me because you're supposed to do it on two knees. Okay. Usually I do it on one knee because I have Marine Corps knees.
My knees are a little beat up. Um, from, you know, from service in the Marine Corps, my knees have never been the same [00:54:00] since. My ankles, too. And I can kneel down on both knees and get back up again. I mean, every time I kneel at mass, it is on, but well, half the time it's on both knees. I can, but I know that getting up, I may have a bad day about 50 percent of the time, and I'll be a little rickety getting back up from two knees from the ground.
I don't want to draw attention to myself. I just want to kneel, receive communion, get up, and get out of the way for the next person. I do not want to draw attention to myself. This has always been my attitude. Kneel, receive, get out of the way. So I kneel on one knee and receive communion on my tongue because I know from one knee I can kneel down, receive, get up, get out of the way.
No attention to myself whatsoever. Or as little attention to myself as, as possible. If I kneel down on two knees, I'm more likely to draw more attention to myself because you'll hear me go, uh, here [00:55:00] or there trying to get back up. And God forbid I try to get back up and my knees, like, give out and I fall, which has never happened, but God forbid, right?
In the middle of communion? Holy cow. So, I agree about not drawing attention. So, when you receive communion, I guess the cardinal's saying, don't do things like standing on your head, don't do a wave, right? You know, popping and locking and breakdancing and stuff. I don't know. The Cardinal doesn't want you to do this.
When you receive communion. He doesn't want you to go, Yay! Don't do any of those things. He doesn't want you to make a big, you know, 1930's cinema bow to the Eucharist. Just make a nice reverent bow. And by all means, please avoid making this big Vatican sized sign of the cross. After you receive [00:56:00] communion, please stop doing that.
What is wrong with you? Why are you even blessing yourself after you receive communion? It's never a wrong thing to bless yourself, but you really, right after you receive communion, I don't, I understand 90 percent of Catholics do that. I used to also. But, I just did it because I saw everybody else doing it.
No one ever taught me to do that. Technically, the Eucharist is in you now. You don't have to bless yourself. You've, you've, you've consumed the blessing you're asking for. You know? But then there's some people that they're like, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sanctus Like, what are you doing? Relax!
What? During communion. Yes, during communion. I've seen it. I've seen it at a few parishes. I agree, don't draw attention to yourself, okay? Don't do that. When you're at Mass, pretend like it's just [00:57:00] you and Jesus there. Because it really should, I mean, Mass is communal. That's an important part of the Mass, okay?
But in terms of your focus, it's Pretend it's just you and Jesus, just you and Jesus at the mass. And as I'm saying that I'm getting really revved up to go to mass right now. I'll be leaving in a little while to go to mass. The matter is also addressed. Listen, I have more to say about this article, but I'm going to do this in an after show.
So what I will do is I'll sum up. It's amazing. I've been doing a lot of, uh, broadcasting on this computer today and it hasn't blown up on me yet. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, if you haven't completely hated everything that I've been doing here in the past hour. If you have not completely hated it, what's it costing you to hit a like button, man?
Just hit that, hit that like icon. Let me take you over to a close real quick. Theology, holiness, and sacraments. [00:58:00] What's wrong in the church? It boils down to those three things. Theology, holiness, and sacraments. If we don't get theology right, we won't have sacraments right. If we don't have sacraments right, we won't get holiness right.
That's just the bottom line. When we begin to take anything in the faith experience like it's not serious, when we begin to take things in the faith less seriously, everything else suffers for it. I would like to do a chat session on this, like on my Discord channel. Um, I would love to do a lot of Hosted chat sessions on discord, but I cannot do that.
If people are not joining me on discord the link in my bio will Show you a discord link in there. Uh, so if you're catching this on socials youtube anywhere else or in the description in this episode I'll drop also the um the invite link But join me on discord. You know, discord's a, it's a pretty nice platform that I've never been able to use because none of my, uh, viewers or [00:59:00] listeners are on it.
Uh, I just added a couple of this past week. Um, check the link in the description or the link in my bio, join me on discord. If you'd like to join me on locals. I mean, hey man, whatever blows up, that's the one that I'll use. So if I keep getting active members on Locals, I've got like 56 members, not very much, not very many, and very few of them are active.
Um, if I get more active members on Locals, that's where I'll do chat sessions. If I get more active members on Discord, that's where I'll do live chat sessions. I like to do a live chat session on this, and on um, On the state of theology and the church in general, you can catch me on locals@catholicexperience.locals.com Catholic Experience the name of the podcast, not the name of the brand, right?
It's not Catholic adventurer. It's Catholic experience.locals.com. You'll find the link in the description anyway. All right, let me get out of here. I got to prep for mass, man. I got to fix my hair and fix my makeup. And now I'm just kidding [01:00:00] about that. This became a bit of a rant and I'm sorry about it.
This has been a special live stream of the Catholic experience podcast by me, the Catholic adventurer. Follow me on all my socials, please. Please hit like, and subscribe wherever you're seeing this hit like, cause everybody's got to like. Subscribe if you're getting this on YouTube, advance the real gospel, and let's hit this hard like a hammer.
I've been the Catholic adventurer, please say hail mayor for me and my family. God bless you. May God be with you all. Bye bye.