Episode Description
New March for Life president Jennie Bradley Lichter joins to discuss this year’s line-up and why she has been marching since 2001. The event defends the dignity of every human life and will take place on January 24th, as supporters converge in DC on the anniversary of 1973’s Roe v. Wade ruling to legalize abortion. The March for Life is the largest annual human rights demonstration in the world.
We speak with two moms who survived the California wildfires and all they are doing to help the victims in their communities. They invite everyone to join them in a novena starting Friday for all those who are displaced and suffering in the aftermath. The novena will conclude February 2nd on the Feast of Candlemas. Our Lady of Champion, pray for us! Please see the links in their bios below and find out how you can help to come alongside families who have lost everything in the devastating fires.
Msgr. Roger Landry also offers an inspiring homily to prepare us for Word of God Sunday!
Bios
Jennie Bradley Lichter is President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, and longtime supporter who began marching as a college student in 2001. She previously served as White House Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council where she led initiatives to defend human life. She worked on confirmation efforts (including Supreme Court) at the US Department of Justice, and served as in-house counsel for the Archdiocese of Washington. She is a former Deputy General Counsel at Catholic University of America, where she founded and directs the Guadalupe Project. She is also a fellow at the Center for Religious Liberty at the university’s Columbus School of Law. Jennie graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Law School, earning a Masters of Philosophy in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge. She and her husband have three children who all enjoy attending the March for Life.
Kendra Tierney is a Catholic author, speaker, graphic designer, and founder/CEO of the popular blog and marketplace, Catholic All Year – a site dedicated to celebrating the Catholic liturgical year at home, highlighting the saints and seasons of the Church calendar through food, prayer, and conversation. She is the author of numerous books, including The Catholic All Year Compendium, The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion, and her latest, Liturgical Living: Weekly Meal Planner. She is also a regular contributor to Blessed Is She Ministries, and is the voice of liturgical living at Endow Ministries. Her blog also explores family issues relating to parenting, pregnancy, homemaking, and homeschooling. Kendra is the mother of a large, blended family living in Southern California. She is currently leading efforts to help families who fell victim to the recent wildfires. You can help here: https://market.catholicallyear.com/pages/wildfire-relief-effort
Micaela Darr is a trained childbirth educator who leads Beata Birth childbirth classes – an approach that combines evidence-based modern labor techniques with ancient God-given wisdom from a Catholic perspective. She is active in Catholic ministries, including the Take Up & Read scripture study series, and the annual Fiat Catholic Women’s Conference, which encourages women to faithfully live out their Catholic vocation to holiness in community. She is a vocal proponent for God’s design in families and childbirth, and is the mother of homeschool children and high school students. Micaela lives in California with her husband and seven children. See Micaela’s relief site here, dedicated to help families whose lives have been shattered by the California wildfires: https://www.micaeladarr.com/eaton-fire-relief
Monsignor Roger Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. He writes for numerous publications, speaks on radio and TV, and is the author of the book, Plan of Life: Habits to Help You Grow Closer to God. A graduate of Harvard and the Pontifical North American College in Rome, he served as Attaché to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the UN in New York. Father Landry traversed the full 1500-mile Eucharist Pilgrimage in 2024 and joined the historic Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, an event which coincided with his 25th year in the priesthood. He was recently appointed the new National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the USA.
The following transcript is machine generated.
Episode 301 Transcript
| Ashley | Hello friends, and welcome to Conversations with Consequences. We are the radio show and podcast of the Catholic Association where we aim to change the culture one conversation at a time. You can listen to conversations with consequence US on the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network Saturday mornings at 7 a.m. Eastern or catch the encore at 5 p.m.. We are also on Sirius XM Channel 130. Of course, our radio show is also a podcast. Go to the Catholic Association dot org or directly to wherever you listen to your podcast. Welcome to Conversations with Consequences on EWTN Radio. I'm your host as Ashley McGuire, joined by my TCA colleague and dear friend Elise need. And we're so fortunate also to be joined by another one of our friends and a amazing pro-life leader and mom and Catholic lawyer Jenny Bradley Lichter. Jenny, welcome to the show. |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | Thank you very much. It is such a thrill to be with both of you. |
| Ashley | So, Jenny, this is such an exciting moment, both for the pro-life movement and for you personally as you've just taken over the March for Life. And this will be your first march for life as its president. So tell us a little bit about your journey from your very first march for life to being the woman who's going to be emceeing the entire thing. |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | Thank you. I mean, this arc is almost it's almost overwhelming to me to think about my first march for life when I was 18 years old, a freshman in college at Notre Dame, and now know that I'll be standing on the stage greeting all of the marchers as the new president of the March for Life this year. And when I kind of look back at that arc, I just see God's providence and sort of every element of my life. And my career and the way that it's unfolded. So, yes, my first March for Life was 2001, and I came with a bunch of friends from Notre Dame on an overnight bus ride. I had just the absolute best time because how can you not at the March for life, especially when you're a college student and you're surrounded by tens of thousands of other college students with their homemade signs and their puffy coats and their fuzzy hat. We had so much fun. And one of my dear friends from Notre Dame actually just pulled out of her college scrapbook for me, kind of a blurry film camera photo of the two of us at our first March for Life and mailed it to me. So I have that little piece of history, which is so much fun. So since that first march for life, I've come many, many times in the intervening 24 years, initially with friends or I'd meet up with the Notre Dame group. Then I started bringing by my boyfriend. Now my husband and I started bringing my children. So they've been to the March for Life a bunch of times. I know yours have to actually at the local D.C. area kids, they get the day off school and love coming down with their friends to march. And I've been working in the pro-life movement as a lawyer and a policy adviser for many years, too. So to now be called by the Lord to step into leading this organization and to have the opportunity to be a part of giving the gift of the March for Life to the movement, to marchers, to young marchers and to the nation is is so humbling. And I'm just super, super excited about it. |
| Betsy | Did you think about when you decided to go to law school, follow in your dad, in your mom's footsteps? Did you imagine have any idea that this is the kind of work you'd be doing like that you're going in this direction? |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | It is sort of why I went to law school in a sense, when I moved to D.C. 20 years ago, right after I graduated from college, I was planning to go to graduate school in theology and be a theology professor, and I was planning to basically just kill time in D.C. with my friends before I went to grad school and sort of started a different life. And I was working as a junior research assistant at a local think tank doing pro-life and religious freedom policy. And I ended up just falling in love with Washington, D.C. that year. It was a presidential election year, the Bush reelect year. The President's Council on Bioethics was sort of added, Dean is doing really interesting, thoughtful, kind of meaty work on. I remember being like, Well, right. Yes, that's right. The first time I met Carter Sneed later husband was was that year when he was working at the president's council, which was terrific. There was just a lot of interesting things going on in the pro-life and religious liberty space. And I got a little taste of that when I was here working as just kind of an entry level person here in Washington. So at the end of that year, I did go to graduate school as as I had planned, but I knew even when I went to England to start my graduate degree that I that I wanted to come back to the U.S. and go to law school because I wanted to come and work in Washington as an attorney doing policy. And I didn't even totally know what that looked like at the time or where my career would lead. But my initial here in D.C. is what sort of opened my eyes, that there were all of these interesting things that lawyers and others in town could do and were doing for the common good. And that sounded just really exciting and interesting to me. |
| Ashley | So there's a lot of intro fiction going on right now about the state of the pro-life movement. You know, I think on the, you know, some negative Nellies are like, we're so divided. We've had all these state losses and, you know, others I mean, I I've we've talked a lot on the show about an article that Ryan Anderson wrote about the the way forward after the fall of Roe v Wade. And and he makes the point that, you know, for 50 years the law, which is a teacher, has been shaping the national conscience to become accepting of the, you know, the violent horror of abortion. I remain optimistic. I know he does, too. And that's what keeps us in the movement. But, you know, as someone who's really becoming the face of the movement. What's your your take on on the way forward after after the fall of Roe v Wade? |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | I feel really optimistic as well. And there are I guess you could say, theological reasons for that, right, as well as sort of practical and legal and cultural reasons. But first and foremost, I just feel a lot of peace and confidence. And I and I think all pro-life people can feel a lot of peace and confidence because we're working for a really righteous cause. And we know that Christ has won a victory. And it takes a while for that victory to be realized here on Earth. But but we know that that that the arc of history as you, you know, as people say, bends toward justice, in this case bends toward justice for the unborn. But more practically, yes, it's true. After Dodds, there were some real legal and political and cultural convulsions where for a couple of years we were seeing losses in ballot initiatives in the states, including in some pro-life states or states that seemed like they were reliably and reliably pro-life voter base, for example. But that started changing. And this year, November elections, where we saw a big win in Florida, a big, big win where Governor DeSantis leaned in hard alongside his wife and other leaders in the state to overcome just the onslaught of lies and misinformation from the media and the abortion lobby. And the voters of Florida heard that message and they responded and protected their pro-life law. Then a couple of other states, you know, voted a great pro-life outcomes on their ballot measures, too, and were returning to the White House. A president who has a really strong record of pro-life accomplishment from the first time he was governing. And the American people rejected the most extreme pro-abortion presidential candidate in history. Right. Kamala Harris ran on abortion and it didn't work. That in itself, I think, is a great reason for optimism. So I think we'll see the next few years, maybe start to be a turning point where the American people, whether it's through ballot initiatives or lobbying their elected officials, who, of course, respond to public pressure in a lot of ways and just through different signs. And our culture will start to turn back towards protecting the unborn and supporting vulnerable mothers, which is a big part, of course, of the pro-life message and the pro-life pro-life goals as well. |
| Betsy | Well, I know that one of the big initiatives lately with the march, because of these state laws, has been to really amp up these state local marches as part of that to, you know, sort of get people involved. And if you can't travel to D.C. or, you know, you want to or whatever you can you can participate closer to home. I mean, even in South Bend, we've got a little marches going on. But, you know, I know the emphasis is really on changing the culture, changing hearts and minds in a post job world, the post jobs world. Right. So I know I don't want to take you backwards in your career because it's so exciting what's happening right now. But I remember when you spearheaded the launch of the Guadalupe Project. Is that is that something that you're going to carry forward into your work at the march? Or can you just tell us a little bit more about what that project was and how that does support mothers and families? |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | Sure. Guadalupe Project, a Catholic university, was and is the university's response to jobs essentially. So at the time of the jobs decision, I was practicing law at Catholic. I was the university's deputy general counsel, and the president was a lawyer, a former law school dean named John Garvey. He he and I were having some conversations about what he might want to say after Jobs. He wanted to respond to the decision and call it out for being a moral and constitutional abomination like it was. And in the course of those conversations and again, I was primarily acting as his lawyer and just sort of advising on his draft. We ended up talking quite a bit about what is appropriate to a university, to a Catholic university in particular, as we look to meet the moment. And we talked through how we're not going to we're not running a maternity home, we're not a social service entity, we're not a lobbying shop primarily. But what we are is we're the home to thousands of people. And that's literally in the case of undergrads who live on campus and figuratively, But really importantly for all of our faculty and staff members who build their lives around the university. So what we decided to do is just sort of pour ourselves into making Catholic University the best possible place to be bringing children into the world. Whether you are an undergraduate in an unexpected pregnancy or a tenure track, young faculty member who's recently married and wanting to have children and grow your family, or how can we just move heaven and earth on campus to make it a really good place to be a parent and to have a baby? So we did all kinds of things through the Guadalupe Project, which I ended up leading for two and a half years until I left the university this past fall. We extended paid parental leave for staff and for faculty. Wow. We yeah, that was that's a big one. That matters a lot for big, right? Yeah. So we were very excited about that. And we put three diapers and wipes in the campus food pantry. We ran a maternity clothing drive for anyone who needed maternity clothes. We did things that sound so small, but that were directly responsive to the needs of our community that they communicated to me. We put some maternity parking spaces on campus, was blessed to have a big, physically big campus with a handful of parking lots. And that's something that makes a big difference for moms. I know that myself from being nine months pregnant in the middle of August, kind of walking around our university campus when I was pregnant with my third and so conveniently located maternity parking spots, we did things like purchase and we found a new chair for the Law School Student Wellness Room, where the law school being a place where the students are older, they're actually a number of mothers with student body, and they had given me the feedback that like, look, this room is like really not that not very inviting and it's not very comfortable in this chair is just like not structured for someone to be holding a baby or needing to pump breast milk. Like we need some more infrastructure to make this a place for moms. So the Guadalupe project was our vehicle for doing things like that, putting more changing tables and bathrooms around campus. And it was so gratifying and satisfying to work on. Had nothing to do with my legal work. So this was like my side hustle at the university. But one of the amazing things about it, just to take that kind of step back and draw lessons from it is that it was universally well-received on our campus. And this is a place of course it's a Catholic community, but nonetheless a place where there is some real ideological diversity. And and especially by the time you adopt decision talking about abortion was was hard and people were bringing really strong feelings and big emotions to it. But the Guadalupe project was really well received even and up to by the unauthorized pro-choice undergraduate student group, which would occasionally talk about the Guadalupe Project on their anonymous social media accounts, but would always say something like, God bless them. They'd say, This is actually a really good thing for our campus and we're really glad it exists. We just wish that they would also give out free birth control, you know, and I would say we're not going to do that. And then we'd kind of like all move on, you know? But but it was exactly the kind of thing where some people would say to me, We are so glad that the university is showing what it means to be pro-life as an institution, Right? It means fighting for the unborn, but it also means really walking with moms in the concrete and specific ways that make a big difference to women who are pregnant or who have newborns or who are raising young children. So that is the kind of thing, you know, my organization now, the March for Life is not in a position to be standing up. Guadalupe projects ourself, but we certainly will. And I will continue to talk about that as an example of the kind of project that particular institutions or communities I think are really called to be taking on in our ongoing post jobs moment. And as we think about what does the pro-life movement call to we want to be protecting the unborn in law, welcoming them in life, and also to supporting supporting their moms so that women can be choosing life regardless of whether the laws in their states are really permissive and allow abortions. This, that or the other thing. What we're trying to do is move individual pregnant women that feel supported to choose life. And that can happen regardless of what the law is. That's really our greatest super power and our way forward, I think, in the pro-life movement. |
| Ashley | Well, and probably the biggest point of common ground as you experience with your your micro experience experiment today on one college campus, you know, we see every year the polling come out. I know that the Knights of Columbus is about to issue or maybe they already have their poll that consistently finds overwhelming bipartisan support for support of pregnancy resource centers and programs that help women. And and we've seen that in every state that's enacted, strong protections for women and babies. That's come hand in hand with tens to hundreds of millions of dollars for the types of resources that actually help moms. And, you know, I think one of my favorite march for life themes was love them both and tell us what's this year's theme and who are going to be some of the what are some of the highlights and people to look forward to seeing on the stage? |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | This year's theme is Life Why We March, and my predecessor, Janie Mancini, the outgoing president, describes it really well as back to pro-life basics or pro-life 1 to 1. It's really meant to be an invitation to shine a spotlight on our marchers, who has always says are the true pro-life heroes that in many cases, anonymous, really dedicated pro-life prayer warriors and activists and moms and grandmas and school principals who have been bringing people to the March for Life or in some cases 50 years. At this point, why do we march? Every person who shows up on the National Mall, on what's typically the coldest day of the year in January, you know, it always seems has a story about why they march. And sometimes it's a very personal story about their own personal experience, and sometimes it's just an unshakable dedication to the dignity of human life. So that's what this year's theme is about, that every life is precious and that's why we march. And we've been doing kind of a fun social media campaign, highlighting a lot of submissions from across the country from marchers about why they're marching. So that's our theme. We have some great speakers this year. The keynote speaker of the rally is Bethany Hamilton, who's a professional surfer best known for surviving a shark attack when she was a teenager. I think there was a movie made about her. I can't remember the name of it, but she's a mom, a faithful Christian, a pro-life activist. So she's going to come in to share her perspective as a real pro-life warrior. And we'll have several people speaking from the political realm, including Governor DeSantis, who we're really excited to welcome, because, again, I think he set an example that I hope more governors will feel empowered to follow after seeing the courage of Governor DeSantis in Casey to see this and how it really made a difference in that vote in Florida. We'll have a few other pro-life leaders. I will be, you know, have the opportunity to greet the marchers, as you said, Ashley, And kind of my day, my debut as the incoming president of the march, there should be a really great day. |
| Ashley | Tell us a little bit about some of the state marches. I know that, you know, with so much of the momentum shifting to the states that those have really taken off in the last ten years, do you do you attend those? And what are the ones that are big and what are the ones that are growing and what's your take on all that? |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | Yeah, so this was just a great providential brainstorm that Jeanie and our board had before the Dobbs case was even a twinkle in the eye of the Missouri solicitor general and Attorney General. The state March program launched in 2017 with the Virginia State March, and it has grown and grown from there. And yes, after Dobbs, it's a lot of political and legal activity has returned to the states. Grassroots activism in the states and at the state level has become even more important. So I'm really thrilled that our organization, the March for Life Organization, already has this growing state march program in place that we will be focusing on growing at a faster and faster clip over time. We have 17 coming up in 20, 25, 17 different state marches around the country. And again, I think that number, that number will continue to grow. I went to my first one, I went to the Ohio March for Life before I was even on board here this fall. But I wanted to just get myself to a state march and start meeting the grass roots that didn't have that experience. And it was so much fun. Honestly, I have been to the D.C. March a couple dozen times or close to it, as we discussed, the state marches, in part because they're smaller and they're more local. They just have just this incredible kind of off the charts, grassroots energy with high school students and a lot of moms with little kids and a lot of homemade signs and college students singing hymns and anthem. Low state political leaders always show up. And I had the best time at the Ohio March for Life, and I'm going to be on the road quite a bit this year, going to state marches around the country to speak and again, to meet people there and just help folks know our attention is often focused on the federal government, but engaging with your state legislators and encouraging them, pushing them to enact like protected legislation is just more important than ever. So I hope people will join us at the state march. As you could look at our website, March for Life, that word to see a list of where there are state marches for life. There's a lot in the spring, during the spring state legislative sessions and then there's another kind of big batch in the fall are the two sort of biggest batches. |
| Betsy | So, Jenny, we know that a lot has been accomplished and a lot of good things have happened for us as pro-lifers, But now we're facing a real challenge in the uptake of medical abortions. So what what what does the March deal like? What's that? What can you guys do to help with, you know, the protection of women and the unborn with these people working around legal guidelines and shipping them out of state and posing these great dangers to women, getting these services without any medical care at the time. So to tell us more about that. |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | Yeah. Yeah. This is a really tough issue. I think it is one of the biggest challenges for the pro-life movement right now and one of the biggest threats to women and their babies. Right. Because the truth is that the chemical abortion pill is so dangerous. And, you know, we've seen that with some of the high profile stories in recent months about women who have taken the chemical abortion pill with no medical supervision and have had serious complications or even died. And it's so it just drives me crazy that these pills are framed as a good thing and women are told this is safe, It's easy. Take it on your own. It's no big deal. I think in some places it's not going to be able to be dispensed just by a pharmacist without even an online mail order doctor being involved at all. And that is so super dangerous and it's not good for women. So in my mind, it's just it's a real challenge to us to figure out how to speak to that. And in terms of what my organization is going to do, we you know, we will continue to educate the grassroots through our social media and other ways about the dangers of the chemical abortion pill and encourage people to be advocating with their elected officials about it. I think one of the very best things the incoming presidential administration could do would be to revisit either pulling it off the market entirely or if they are not comfortable doing that, putting some safeguards back in place around its use. Right. Because as you said, at this point, access to the chemical abortion pill is essentially unfettered. And I think it'll be really important and we will be sort of making the case and trying to educate the incoming administration about, you know, this is really dangerous. This isn't even really this isn't about choice. This is just about women deserving better than being subjected to these dangerous drugs with no medical supervision, basically just for political reasons, because the medical establishment and the abortion lobby want to be getting it into their hands. |
| Ashley | Well, we have so much work still cut out for us, but these are exciting times. And I truly and I agree with you that we're really at a cultural turning point. And we're so fortunate to have someone like you taking over the March for Life. And we celebrate in all the successes. And we'll keep marching with you until every last life is is protected and celebrated. So thank you for joining us today. And to find out more about their work, visit the March for Life, dawg. And thanks for joining us. |
| Jennie Bradley Lichter | Thank you. |
| Ashley | What an exciting time to be a part of the pro-life movement. So many so many changes. But for the good, it's it's wonderful to see a new face. Jenni, who we just finished speaking with, taking over the March for Life. But I think the thing that's the most striking about the March for Life is how many new and young faces are there every year. It's it's truly a young event. And I think that that characterizes the youthful nature of our movement that, you know, in many respects we're an old movement. We've been around for more than half of a century. But the movement itself, the face of the movement, is young and and Jenni is young. But I'm joined today by someone who's even younger, and that is my own daughter, Stella McGuire. And she is really the face of the the future of the pro-life movement. She's going to be joining me at the March next year. She's gone for several years now. And last year, actually, you may have read her brief piece in the National Catholic Register about a tweens perspective on marching for life. And she appeared on EWTN News to talk about what it's like to attend the march as a tween. So I'm here with her now. And we're just going to briefly talk about this week and how exciting it is to be marching for life. So, Stella, thanks for joining me. |
| Betsy | You're welcome. Here. Excited for this interview. |
| Ashley | So, Stella, tell me, what are you most looking forward to in attending the March for Life? |
| Betsy | I like the rally part with all of that. I like seeing that it was Jesus in the chosen talk and people from all over the world giving speeches. And yeah, I enjoy seeing so many people I know from everywhere. And like, I didn't know you came here. |
| Ashley | That's right. Last year we bumped into babysitters, friends, and it really does feel like being among friends. And I know you and and so many of your friends are pro-life. Why do you think that it's important for young people to hear the pro-life message? |
| Betsy | I mean, Well, we're young now, but in ten or 20 years, we're going to be the generation who makes the decisions when it comes to voting. And so we should be able to hear these things now. So we're not confused later when it's our turn to vote. |
| Ashley | What do you think are some of the things that are confusing for young people about this issue? |
| Betsy | People like to manipulate your brains by tricking you, by saying things in, well, phrase sentences, I guess like, well, my body, my choice. But yeah, it's your choice. But yes, it's your body. But there's more than one person in the discussion. And and murder and killing should never be a solution. No matter what happens, killing won't make anything right. |
| Ashley | Well, I think that you're absolutely right. And as we as we like to point out, there's two bodies involved. But, you know, I think that the real task for your generation is going to be, as you point out, you are going to be the policy makers in in just, you know, a decade or two. Your challenge is to create a culture where abortion is not just illegal, but unthinkable. So are you feeling optimistic about the pro-life movement? |
| Betsy | Yes. In fact, now that Roe v Wade is gone and it's just in the States, it's more everyone's decision. And so, I mean, I'd say probably around 50% of the population is pro-life. And now that it's the choice of every parish and then the population, you'll probably see about 50% of the country choosing no to abortion. And so then that's definitely less of abortion being legal. |
| Ashley | You're right. And, you know, we've seen a lot of states that have made strong laws to protect moms and babies. And one of the things that I love seeing when those states pass those laws is they they do that also by passing measures to send lots of money and aid to organizations that help moms who are choosing life. And I know you've gone with me to deliver things like diapers and wipes and grocery gift cards and cribs to moms that are getting help from the Gabriel Project, which is an organization that I volunteer with. And so you see, first, you've seen firsthand the way that the pro-life movement doesn't just want to protect vulnerable babies and moms, but also to really help them to thrive. And so I'm so excited to see you and your friends who are truly the future of the pro-life movement. I can't wait to see what you do. And I look forward to marching with all of you this week. So thank you. |
| Betsy | Yeah, of course. |
| Ashley | Welcome back to Conversations of Consequences here on EWTN Radio. I'm your hostess, Ashley McGuire. And I'm joined by my colleague and friend, Betsy Fentress. And today, we have two women joining us here to talk about their experiences with these horrible wildfires that have been ravaging California. We've all been seeing it in the news, but these women have been living it at the frontlines and they're fighting back not just with water, but with prayer. |
| Ashley | And they're here to talk about an arena, something that we're all invited to join them and others from all around the country to pray this an arena starting January 24th going through to Candlemas. And so we are so grateful to have with us today Kendra Tierney Norton and Mikayla Dar. Welcome to the show, ladies. |
| Mikayla Dar | Thank you. |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | Yeah. Thanks so much. It's a pleasure to be here. |
| Ashley | Well, it's truly a pleasure and an honor for us to have you here. And I know that these stories about the wildfires have been so devastating, 150,000 plus people have been displaced. People have lost their their families, their homes, their their lives in some tragic situations. And I know that both of you have been directly impacted by these wildfires. And so maybe, Kendra, can you start by telling us what has happened to your home and your community and and what has this experience been like for you these last few weeks? |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | My family lives in Altadena, which is where the heart of the Eden Fire. So on that Tuesday night, I looked out of our second story window and just saw the mountains, you know, across the street from us, just on fire and just this wall of fire coming down the mountain. And it was pretty clear that we were going to need to evacuate. So we had 12 kids, 12 of our kids and two adults at the house. So everybody's running around, packing up, you know, the essentials and some clothes. So that we could evacuate to my parents house. I've seen pictures of the Palisades evacuations where it was gridlock, traffic. It wasn't like that. Here we're sort of we just headed right out. But then it was this waiting game of of just waiting to find out. And nobody knew what had happened to their houses. It's this really cute old, you know, neighborhood with old construction homes. My house is built in 1920 and, you know, it's where we hosts Mikayla and I host this conference together every year on our on our what is usually our basketball court. And, you know, inside our house, I have we got a home chapel that I spent 600 hours painting the inside of with our Bible verses and our family's patron saints. And so to just be sitting in San Diego wondering if that still existed was pretty surreal. We eventually found in a very dramatic video that a neighbor sent us that our house had survived. But but the house just to the south of us was still burning, so it was just engulfed in flames. But, yeah, our house has survived. And there I'm here at the house right now. The insurance adjuster is going through with my husband. So we're now now we're in the paperwork part process. |
| Ashley | Well, I'm so glad to hear that your home survived. Mikayla, what about you? What's been your lived experience of this tragedy? |
| Mikayla Dar | So I live in Arcadia, which is sort of southeast of Altadena. My husband grew up in Altadena, and so he has, like, good family friends up there. We know several families, many families actually, that lost their homes. And actually one of the families was here that evening. So that evening, that Tuesday evening, it was very windy here. So we had we have something in Southern California called Santa Ana winds. And where they come in January, it's always a up, it's always a fire risk. And so everybody's kind of on high alert. But this year it was like nothing I've ever seen. I mean, the palm tree in our neighbor's yard was blowing sideways. And I think like our we have a pool. Our pool was full of leaves. My son was clearing, clearing leaves out hourly. And we can't keep we couldn't keep leaves out. It was just like the hardest wind you've ever seen. So power was going out because of that around the area. And my friend, we have some good family, friends and eighties who my in-laws were at their house. Their power went out in Altadena so they went to my in-laws house, their power went out in Arcadia. So then they came to our house and as we're sitting there, I get an alert on my phone that says A fire in Eaton Canyon. And I and I said, guys. And immediately the phones, phone calls, phone call, phone call. And we look out the window. We're a few miles away, and I can see it from my house. And it is like there's nothing quite as apocalyptic as a fire on a mountain at night, Like we have one of these in 2020 that you just cannot even imagine. Absolutely. Just like moving into something like the hand of God. But also you're just like, what is going to happen here? So the friends that were here that night did end up losing their house is a 100 year old Craftsman home. I mean, I don't even know what can you do? How many thousands of homes were burnt that night? |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | But I think it was I think 8000 was the last I heard. |
| Mikayla Dar | 8000 just this community that's just been totally devastated. And as we're hearing this, we're hearing about miracles like Kendra's and another friend of ours had saved their house was saved even though all the other houses burned. And then seven families from our community lost their homes entirely. So burned to the ground. Some, like one of our friends, is a widow with four kids. She lost her home. Another friend who is a single mom lost her rental home. And so as we started seeing this kind of like devastation come, I start seeing, okay, we've got to do things for people. We're praying for them. Obviously, we've got to do things for people. Let's get let's get all this stuff together. So I collected all the GoFundMe is and I put them on my website and then the offers started pouring in and people were just so generous, so incredibly generous. We want to bring we want to bring you clothes, we want to do all these things. And it quick actually very quickly got very overwhelming because we can't take all this stuff. And all these people actually now are homeless. They cannot take belongings for months. Right. Anyways, Kendra and I started talking last week about what can we do to sort of sustain this and to make to organize it, and then also to turn it back to God. And she had the idea of Our Lady of Champion because she has an experience with our Lady of Champion. My personal experience with that, can you tell us about that? And also, can you please comment on how your parishes are doing? Did their your churches survive and what has been your parish response to the devastation that you've both described, which is really just hard to even fathom unless you were there? |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | Yeah. So just speaking to, you know, trying to trying to help the people who need help in, you know, in a way that isn't overwhelming to them. And our parishes all survived our the small independent Catholic school that some of Michela and my kids go to, to survive. And there has been support from those places. But it was really poignant, I think maybe the most poignant thing I've experienced through this, you know, aftermath is this meeting up with one of the other family. It's one of the other moms who's who they had lost their home. And she walked into this room of these donations from other from other families at our school and just burst into tears because there's just it's so overwhelming to try to figure out what do I need and where am I going to put it, The rental market in Los Angeles was ridiculous before this even started. It's just it's really hard to find a place to rent here. So we were down in San Diego and in touch with our insurance at my parents house, in touch with our insurance company, we were able to find what I think was the only Airbnb with more than three bedrooms, you know, along the entire 210 between my husband worked on my kids go to school. So we were able to secure that. But there's and and it's and you know, all of our kids are there but there are families that haven't been able to secure long term housing, are staying on people's couches. And it's yeah, it's heartbreaking to see that. So and I was getting all of these offers from people, you know, people on social media, people in my email saying, you know, we we want to help. We want to, you know, find ways to help. And the one thing that Mikhaila and I, the problem that we want to solve is that there are people who have housing, there are people who are able to make donations and to try to like somebody reached out that she had two cars that they were planning to sell and now she's wanting to donate them. And we were able to put her in touch with people who needed cars because their cars had burned out. So this idea of connecting people who want to help because the Catholic community is so generous with people who need, you know, with Catholic families, who really do need need this assistance. And and we put it under the patronage of our Lady of Champion. |
| Mikayla Dar | Can you tell us about that? |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | Because it's continually shocking to me how unfamiliar Americans are with our apparition of of our lady, that our lady appeared in the 1800s in champion Wisconsin to an unnamed adulteress. And some years later there, there was an incredibly huge wildfire called the Peshtigo Fire. |
| Mikayla Dar | wow. |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | The the entire landscape. They burned right up to the chapel and then it just stopped. And the sisters had led people to the chapel. And everybody who had sheltered in this in this church were saved. And the church itself didn't burn. So as soon as we were reminded of our Lady of Champion and knew she had to be our patron. As for, you know, for me, as we were waiting to find out what happened to our home and then afterwards to put ourselves under her mantle as we ask for help for these for these families. And as we're we're going to start praying this be just for, you know, for strength, for the families and for a resolution to this upheaval. And, you know, all this this feeling of unknown and, you know, not knowing if insurance is going to come through, not knowing if you're going to find a place to stay. And, you know, in my experience, it's that intercessory prayer or with other people praying for these people can give you that peace and that strength that you need to face the challenges that that come from something like this. |
| Ashley | I've become a total know Vina junkie. I'm a convert and I didn't even know what an albino was, you know, when I became Catholic. And now I'm just like cycling through them, like it's like a Rolodex or something. So and my go to site has become pray more novenas. And I saw that you're somehow partnering with Pray More know Venus, maybe Mikayla, could you tell us how it is that that came to be about? Because that's become my go to now Venus. |
| Mikayla Dar | And I'm praying more know Venus. We reached out to her when we decided to do this prayer campaign and we reached out to her and she wrote a really beautiful novena. And I put it up on our website so you can sign up on her website and then get email, daily email reminders, just like all of their other know Venus. And so she she yeah. So that's that's our partnership with her. And she's just done a really beautiful job. And it's so nice to have somebody who knows that they're doing do this and, you know, assist us with this. But also Christian from Venus cards I think is helping us out. And we have a bunch of sponsors actually that have just kind of stepped up and and are helping to get the word out and to and to sponsor. We have people donating on Kendra's website and there is some merchandise that's listing on her website that every all the proceeds from that will go to families that have been displaced or lost their homes in our community. So if people want to support financially, that's also very welcome. |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | And I know so many people are worried about getting skin and which is absolutely a concern. So, you know, we actually know these people. We and and can vouch that, you know, that these are Catholic families that that are genuinely in distress. |
| Mikayla Dar | So that's great. How are your children processing this? I mean, the adults can do these efforts, and I know kids can join along, but how is their resilience or their overwhelmed ness with this whole tragedy? |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | Yeah, So that word resilience is exactly what what I was going to say. My my kids and I lost my my husband, their dad, in 2022. He passed away after a six year battle with cancer. So sorry. But he was thinking of it. But he was a marine Corps artillery officer. He was a faithful Catholic. And his his motivating principle in life was, was this was resilience, was being able to face challenges, you know, and not be not be disheartened. And so it was amazing to me as my I remarried in July. So it's my now husband and I and his kids and my kids are all trying to get packed up in this house and to just see everybody just be so stalwart and matter of fact about it. And the kids are going around, you know, they got his Marine Corps unit, my you know, my late husband's Marine Corps uniform. They got our first class relics that people have given us. And just honestly, no tears, no breakdowns. And my little my my youngest is five. And as we're getting into the car, she says, look, there are all these other cars and they're all getting away just fine. So I, I do think that when we see things through the lens of faith and through this with this long term view that even as we were driving away from a house that we love, that we have so many memories associated with, that we were the even my little kids were able to see that the important thing was that we were together as a family and that we weren't going to be broken by, you know, by by losing our home, by losing our possessions. And some of the other families have just had such a beautiful response. You know, another widow friend of mine that Michaela mentioned, who, you know, they also lost their home. They did lose their home and lose the home that their dad, their memories of their dad are are another family that, you know, that that lost a home that multiple generations had lived in. And and their response was to stand in the ashes of that home and you know, and sing a hymn to our lady that you've probably seen going around the retreat. |
| Mikayla Dar | Regina Cheli That was very well, it was amazing. |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | Yeah. And those are good friends of our family and, and who attend the same parish in the same mass as like Sheila and I. And so just to see the way the resilience that our faithful Catholic friends have in the face of this and the sort of security that comes knowing that that this life isn't the only one and also knowing that that we have that the community that we can rely on and we can know that that people all over the world are praying for us. And and I think that starting to knowing and people being able to see how many people are signed up for it is really going to make a big difference. And anybody who can give to today's Go Fund me, it would it would be so meaningful and appreciate it. And then also, please do check out our collection of really beautiful items that, you know, Mikayla said that that people were donating their time and talent. We've got artists who who created art featuring California Poppies, which is a state flower featuring our Lady champion featuring the Saint Florian Fire Department. Just super cute stuff. And all of the all the profits are going to go to support the these families. |
| Ashley | Well, we thank you both so much for your time for for speaking with us in this incredibly difficult period. And thank you for all that you're doing to help all those families. We invite all of our listeners to join in the novena starting on the 24th and also to visit the website Catholic all year. Am I correct? That's the website where they can find out more information about. Yes. So please visit that website and you can find out ways that you can help. Catholic families are part of this community directly impacted by these wildfires. So McKayla and Kendra, thank you so much for joining us today. And we'll be praying for you and for everyone impacted in your community. |
| Mikayla Dar | God bless you, Ashley. |
| Kendra Tierney Norton | Thank you so much. |
| Ashley | And now Father Roger Landry offers us a thought provoking homily to prepare us for this Sunday's gospel. |
| Father Landry | Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. It's a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation. Jesus wants to have with us in this Sunday's gospel, where we will encounter Jesus preaching in his hometown synagogue, he was handed the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, and he read from Isaiah 61. The passage describing the work of the eventual Messiah. The Messiah would be filled with the Spirit of the Lord, anointed to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to the oppressed, to help the blind see and to announce a jubilee year. After reading the passage, Jesus very dramatically handed the scroll back to the synagogue attendant and sat down as all the eyes in the room were locked on him, and he gave a shocking one sentence homily. Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing today. In other words, the Messiah has come and he's speaking to you now, today, the long awaited one whom you have eagerly been anticipating for more than a millennium is here. The words of Isaiah's prophecy were being unveiled before their eyes, the spirit of the Lord who had come down upon Jesus in a visible way at his baptism in the Jordan, as we celebrated two weeks ago, was very much still upon him. Jesus was proclaiming the gospel to the poor and lowly to those who were humble enough to receive it all throughout Galilee and making them lavishly rich with the Treasurer God's holy revelation. He was restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf vigor to cripple, help to the moribund, and would soon even be restoring life to the dead hears proclaiming liberty to those captive to send to his merciful forgiveness, because letting those oppressed by the devil go free through exorcism. In all of this, he was proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord, a Jubilee year, which was a reset button that God wanted the Jews to press every 50 years to reestablish their bonds with him, and particularly with each other through charity. All of the aspects of this messianic prophecy and all the other prophecy, Jesus was actualizing before their eyes and ears. Jesus wants continuously to fulfill sacred Scripture in our hearing, before our eyes, in our minds, hearts and lives. He wants to preach the good news to us and desirous that we be sufficiently poor in spirit to receive it, recognizing how much we need that gift. And he's come to set us free from captivity and oppression, especially to our slavery to addictions and sins. He's come to help us recognize our blind spots and recover a sight so that we might first see him in prayer, in the sacraments, and then learn how to see all things in his light. He wants to proclaim not just a year acceptable to the Lord, not just one year of Jubilee, like the Jubilee of Hope, on which you have just embarked, but a lifetime in eternity, pleasing to God and joyful to us. He wants to engage us in a daily consequential conversation of love in life that knows no end, planting the seed of the Word of God within us and helping us to be a great fruit, to let His Word take on our flesh and be fulfilled in and by us. This Sunday, we're celebrating for the sixth time in new and important annual feast The Sun, The Word of God, which Pope Francis established on September 30th, 2019 to accentuate the importance that sacred Scripture is meant to have in the faith, prayer in lives of believers. He announced it intentionally on September 30th, 2019. September 30th is the annual liturgical feast of Saint Jerome, the famous translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, then the common language of the people. And he did so in 2019, in anticipation of the 600th anniversary of Saint Jerome's death and birth into eternal life in 2020, as many of you will recall, Saint Jerome is famous for emphasizing ignorance of Scripture as ignorance of Christ. That unless we're familiar with what Jesus said and did in the Gospel, how He fulfilled all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament peoples hearing how the Apostles proclaimed him, we really do not know him. Saint Jerome learned that lesson the hard way. As a brilliant young student traveling to study from the great masters of his age, he got deathly ill with something that took the life of his companions. He had been, up until then a lukewarm Christian, far more passionate about Greco-Roman literature than the faith turned to sickness. He had a dream in which he appeared before Christ Judgment. CE When he professed he was a Christian, Jesus replied that he was rather a kick aronian because he knew far more about Cicero in his writings than he did about Christ in his teachings. It struck St Jerome to the core. He didn't know Christ because he didn't know the Scriptures. After he awoke and recovered, he resolved to pour his mind, heart and time into the study and diffusion of the Word of God establishing the feast. Pope Francis expressed the hope that Saint Jerome's example of converted zeal would be contagious, that each of us would grow, he said, in religious and intimate familiarity with the sacred scriptures, appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in the constant dialog between the Lord and His people. Experience anew how the risen Lord opens for us the Treasury of His Word enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world, in marked by this decisive relationship with the living word, grow and love and faithful witness to live the Jubilee of Hope. Well, we should turn over and again to sacred Scripture, where the word hope appears about 150 times because we draw hope from God's revelation and place our hope in the fulfillment of all His promises. So we approach Sunday. I'd like to underline two points. The first is about celebrating the word of God is the great treasure it is. Back in 2008, Pope Benedict hosted in the Vatican a synod of bishops on the Word of God in the life and mission of the church. Bishop Anton use from yoga. Latvia gave an intervention I've never been able to forget. He described a priest for the victors who in the first days of the communist occupation had been arrested for possessing the Bible and command did to step on it. Instead, he knelt and kissed the Bible for you, was condemned to ten years of hard labor in Siberia when he returned. A decade later is an emaciated witness to scriptures, inestimable value. He celebrated mass with his people. After proclaiming the gospel, he lifted the text pronounced Verbum Domini, and kissed once more the Word of God. He and his people cried profusely with gratitude to God for the victors wasn't alone in his testimony, Bishop use continued in Latvia during the Soviet era, no religious books, no holy Scripture, no catechism were allowed to be printed. Reasoning was, if there were no printed word of God, there would be no religion. So our Latvian people did what the first Christians did. They learn the passages of Holy Scriptures by heart, specifically with regard to celebration, he recounted. Still today in Latvia, there's an oral tradition alive. We stand on the shoulders of our martyrs to proclaim the Word of God. Our grandchildren remember their grandparents who died for their faith. They want to be in their own turn. Heroes of faith. In Latvia, we proclaim the living Word of God. We go in procession and on pilgrimage we sing songs and pray and say, This is the word of God for which our grandparents died. People learning sacred scripture by heart, taking the Bible on pilgrimage, proudly proclaiming the Word of God and seeking to be heroes and witness to it. This is what the Catholic Church is meant to be. This is a type of faith and celebration. Pope Francis. By establishing the sound of the Word of God, is trying to catalyze. This is one way by which the whole church can give hope to the world. The second point is about learning sacred scripture for us to embody that hope. But 15 years ago, I happened to meet a priest from Cleveland, a green airport in Providence, Rhode Island. I invited him to lunch. When the cashier asked if there would be one trick or two, I gave my credit card and said one please for the Bob immediately interjected. Chirac says we should go Dutch. I stared at him quizzically, but retorted, Jesus calls us to love one another as he has loved us in the whole. In the Last Supper wasn't Dutch paying. When we got to the table. However, immediately after Grace, I asked whether Father Bob had invented the quotation from, say, Iraq. Not at all. He enthusiastically and earnestly replied as he pulled a worn Bible from his backpack and amazingly opened it to the exact page in the book of See Iraq, where it says not to be ashamed, to, quote, share the expenses of a business or journey, unquote. Blown away and frankly filled with holy envy by his command of sacred scripture. I asked how he had come to know the word of God so well. He told me that he had made a promise on the day of his diaconate Lord Nation to read the entire Bible once a year, and that he had been faithful to that promise. After 24 years, he said with a smile. You get to know what Chirac says about restaurant bells. I asked him how long it took him to read the whole Bible in a year. He replied that it cumulatively takes about 75 hours or 12 to 15 minutes a day. Since that encounter in 2009, I've tried to emulate Father Bob's commitment to reading the Bible each year and have encouraged many others to join us. 12 to 15 minutes a day can change your life. There are so many books in smartphone applications to make reading the Bible in a year easier. Intelligently varying the passages tab one understand it better than if one just read from cover to cover. And Father Mike Schmitz has a very helpful and popular podcast entitled Bible in a Year, which has helped hundreds of thousands enter more deeply into the treasure of the Word of God. I'd encourage you to use one of these great means to enrich yourself each day more and more with the treasure. That is the Word of God. The same Jesus who entered his hometown synagogue on the Sabbath will enter our church this Sunday. He will speak to us live as the Gospel is read. It will come to teach us to heal us, to console it, to be with us, to strengthen us, and to send us out As father victors in the faithful. Latvians under communism heroically demonstrated the Bible is not a dead document, but a living word, since the Word of God is not principally a book or a series of books, but a person in Incarnate Word Jesus. When we encounter through the Bible sacred words. He's the one who continually fulfills sacred Scripture in our hearing. He's the one with the words of eternal life. He's the one who fills us with undying hope as we celebrate the Sunday of the Word of God. Let us respond to that word with love, enthusiasm, hope, and gratitude. Thanks be to God and prays to you, Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you. |
| Ashley | Thank you, Father Roger Landry. Make sure to catch all of his great work at Catholic Preacher Income, or you can follow his writings at the National Catholic Register. Go to NC, register dotcom. And until next time, we wish you all the very best. And you go with our prayers. |