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Episode Description
With a date now set for the beatification of the Venerable Fulton Sheen, Monsignor Roger Landry discusses the amazing impact Sheen had on so many, and his extraordinary influence as a preacher, missionary, media pioneer, and champion of Eucharistic devotion. Msgr. Landry also explains the deep symbolic connection between Sheen, the missions, and the city of St. Louis, once known as the “Rome of the West,” and why Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is a fitting choice to preside over the celebration.
Fr. Leo Patalinghug joins us to share the inspiration behind his remarkable new evangelization initiative, Plating Grace. Known for his ministry that connects food, family, and faith, Fr. Leo explains how he invited a group of “Catholic-curious” social media influencers on a pilgrimage through Baltimore, introducing them to cathedrals, relics, Eucharistic adoration, and the beauty of Catholic life. Fr. Leo also talks about the broader mission of feeding people’s “body, mind, and spirit,” and how hospitality paired with authentic witness can open hearts in surprising ways.
Filmmaker Adriana Gonzalez talks about the new movie That They May Be One, coming to theaters in May. The film focuses on the call to Christian unity, and traces the work of figures like St. Elena Guerra and Pope Leo XIII, while exploring the ongoing relevance of Christ’s prayer for unity in John’s Gospel. Gonzalez explains why the pursuit of unity is not reserved only for popes, bishops, or theologians, but is a mission for all Christians through prayer, friendship, and deeper openness to the Holy Spirit.
Catch the show every Saturday at 7amET/5pmET on EWTN radio!
And don’t forget to subscribe to TCA’s daily media roundup for smart Catholic news and commentary delivered straight to your inbox.
Bios
Monsignor Roger Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. 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. In 2024, he was appointed National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the USA by Pope Francis. He writes for numerous publications, speaks on radio and TV, and served as executive editor for the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River. He is the author of the book, Plan of Life: Habits to Help You Grow Closer to God, and leads pilgrimages to Rome, the Holy Land, and other sacred destinations. He was an on-site commentator for EWTN’s coverage of the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis. He is national chaplain for Catholic Voices USA and New York Chaplain for the Leonine Forum. Father Landry traversed the 1500-mile Eucharist Pilgrimage in 2024, which coincided with his 25th year in the priesthood.
Fr. Leo Patalinghug is a Catholic priest, award winning chef, author, speaker, and founder of Plating Grace, a ministry aimed to strengthen families and communities by sharing faith through the gift of meals and hospitality. A third degree black belt in martial arts and former award winning breakdancer, Father Leo has appeared on major networks including the Food Network (Throw Down! with Bobby Flay), EWTN (hosting Savoring Our Faith), and Sirius XM Radio. He’s a best selling author of numerous books on food and faith, and the driving force behind The Table Foundation, the charitable arm of Plating Grace. Born in the Philippines and raised in Baltimore, he studied philosophy at Theological College at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and earned his advanced theological degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University and Pontifical Marianum Institute in Rome. He was ordained a Catholic Priest in 1999. He also pursued culinary courses at Le Cordon Bleu in Perugia, Italy, inspiring his food ministry that shares God’s love “one meal at a time.”
Adriana Gonzalez is a Catholic lay leader, speaker, and filmmaker, and the Executive Producer of the upcoming film, That They May Be One—a docudrama that explores the Holy Spirit’s work in fostering Christian unity across the Church throughout history and today. She and her husband Dr. Manual Gonzalez founded Flourish Your Faith Ministries, a non-profit dedicated to igniting faith through the Holy Spirit, evangelization, and family formation. She previously served as Florida State Coordinator for the Parental Rights Organization. She holds a B.S. in Dietetics and Nutrition, and is pursuing a Master’s in Theology from the Augustine Institute. She and her husband also founded Flourish Your Faith Films to produce faith-inspired media. They have been married for over 30 years and share seven children and a growing number of grandchildren.
The following transcript is machine generated.
Episode 364 Transcript
| Betsy | Welcome back to conversations with consequences here on EWTN radio. I'm your host, Betsy Fentress, and we have a great Catholic priest with a great ministry with us today. Many know him from his grace before meals. He has played in grace ministry, his show, The Father Leo Show, not to mention his great videos about issues facing Catholics. You can find on YouTube or Instagram. The amazing Father Leo Patalinghug. Thank you for joining us. |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you. |
| Betsy | Father, we really want to get into some of the great work you're doing in Evangelii evangelization. Especially for those teetering toward Catholicism by taking them on pilgrimage. Can you tell us about this new initiative and how it got started? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Yes, we were doing some work online and discovered that there are many non-Catholics who were going on to the internet and just asking questions about Catholicism. There was just a tug in their heart, and we found a ton of young adults asking this question. So we wanted to do something about it because our job is to feed people body, mind and spirit. And we know that the internet can bring about many destructive challenges. But if you put it in God's hands, it could do a lot of good. So we actually, I don't know how we did it because we're not a huge or a big organization, but we decided to just simply invest a lot of money in order to invite 12 non-Catholic content creators on a pilgrimage to Baltimore, the first archdiocese in the United States. And, you know, I had done I've been leading pilgrimages for over 30 years now. So if this is not hard for me to do, but this would be unique because I'm going to be operating off of a bases of people who know nothing or perhaps are even slightly hostile to church teaching. And so to take them through Baltimore, which is, again, one of the most historical dioceses in the United States, having them go to cathedrals and basilicas, the first two seminaries in the United States, and even going to the first American born saint's tomb, Elizabeth Ann Seton. I have been showing them relics and praying before the Eucharist and then doing a teaching mass. We had no idea how they would take it. But even when they saw that, you know, a 20ft statue of the Blessed Mother on Mount Saint Mary's Grotto campus, they were all asking questions, but they had a chance to connect with each other and to connect with Catholics, including a Catholic priest myself, and just patiently walking them through their issues, having them share their stories and and I think four of them are becoming Catholic in part because of this experience. |
| Betsy | That is amazing. Do you and did you do any of this online where you shared, we're doing this, we're doing that. Yeah. Can you tell us any of the names of the people you can of keeping that private until then? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Oh no no, no, they they were very, we didn't ask them to do anything. And again, our objective was not to convert anyone, but just to evangelize. And that's what we do as Catholics. We don't proselytize, we evangelize, just share the good news. So we didn't even have any expectations of them. We just wanted them to have a great time because, you know, we are responsible for feasting. That's us. That's us Catholics. So just gave them a feast for body, mind and soul, even bringing them to my restaurant for a few of the meals, which gave them a lot of freedom to kind of talk with each other. And they were the ones documenting their journey, not me. Because my my community on social media already knows that I love being a Catholic priest, but it was shocking to see these non-Catholics recording Catholic things on there, primarily to their primarily Protestant audience. And it got the attention of a ton of people. And so we're going to be doing it again. So this is going to be round two. It'll be happening from June 10th through the 14th. I'll be inviting 12 non-Catholics to come on this pilgrimage. But it all begins with an online meeting. First of all, to let them know I'm not a weirdo or a creepy priest or whatever, you know, but just just to really share with them what this is about. But in this second round, I'm going to bring our formal pilgrims, and they're going to share their story as well. And then the whole thing is the people who join us online for this, what we call the online meet and seek, they are going to then submit, like a two minute video letting us know why we should select them to come on this all expense paid pilgrimage. I mean, this is unbelievable because again, I don't have a lot of money here, but but the money that we do have, is generally used to feed hungry people. Also to keep my staff, some of whom are coming out of incarceration or disadvantaged communities. And if there is even any small savings, we we committed all of that to making sure that we're also feeding people spiritually, because I can't always evangelize while I'm cooking. I do at my restaurant. But but this was a unique thing or a very unique opportunity. So now we're kind of looking for sponsors to grow it, because some of the people that have expressed interest in coming are people who have millions of followers. These are huge names in the Protestant world, and they're kind of nervous. And so some of them kind of want to be kept anonymous to a degree. But there are many others who are incredibly happy to talk about their journey. I'll give you an example of two of them, please. The two of them are a group of two young men called Tracing the Cross during the month of October. They prayed the rosary every day and wanted to just document how they felt and their experiences. They are not necessarily going to become Catholic, but they now have a profound appreciation for the Blessed Mother, another young woman whose name is Hannah. She she grew up as a pagan. As a witch. Truly. Her family raised her in In Black, a cultist kind of religion, and she became fascinated by the Rosary because of its beauty. And she likes to make bead rose bead jewelry. And she just decided to make a rosary one day. And I think that brought her to expressing her interest in the rosary. We found her online, invited her. She joined the conversation. She's going to become Catholic. |
| Betsy | That's amazing. That's beautiful. |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | It makes no sense to me, but like. But look, I mean, me having a cooking show doesn't make sense to me, but God will use anything and everything to glorify him, not for him sake has his sake, because he doesn't need our. He doesn't need anything from us. But whenever more people come to know him, it gives God glory because he's sharing his glory with a flock who is hungry, desperately hungry for the truth. |
| Betsy | I saw an interview with you and I wrote down this quote because it encapsulates what you're talking about in you wrote. You said, when I came back to America, I realized that it really was an apostolate to try and make connections from the Universal church's dinner table, which is the altar, and making sure we can connect it to the domestic church's altar, which is their dinner table at that is just fantastic. And so can you talk about the how you you go from the physical hunger to the spiritual hunger? How do you bridge that gap, which you clearly have done in this pilgrimage? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Yes. The organization is called plating Grace, and you can understand what plating is. It's presentation. Right. And we need to make grace more digestible, more beautiful. I even say Instagrammable and TikTok able because if we don't present a good a good presentation of what we believe, then people are going to think that we're just miserable all the time. So this is all part of what is called a theology of food. And I know people don't know what that is, but I've been writing about it for over 20 years now, and it's just an understanding of what you just said. How do you make a bridge of spiritual hunger from the physical hunger? And our cue that we take is Jesus. You know, before he started performing Ministry of Healing People sins, he made wine. He multiplied bread and fish because he knows that in order to touch people's hearts and minds, we have to go through the stomach because we are still human. We are not angels that are beings without a body. We are God's temple and this is all very much connected to the agrarian feast days of our Jewish brothers and sisters. Like all of the Jewish feast days are caught up because of agriculture. And when can we, you know, when can we eat? And God will sometimes use the fasting to make them hungry for the land flowing with milk and honey, or he will send locust on crops just to show we need to depend on God and not our own machinations. So this idea of food and faith, they are inextricably connected. If you even just pay an ounce of attention to the Eucharist. So a lot of people might think that, oh, this is cute. Little priest likes to cook. Nah, nah, I can care about the cooking. I can cook, certainly, but it's all about why Jesus would feed us. If we answer that question, then we start taking food more seriously, the Eucharist more seriously, and communion of persons more seriously. |
| Betsy | You know, I read somewhere that Mother Teresa said that before you can evangelize, the first thing she does when she brings people in is she feeds them. She satisfies their basic needs. Has that been your experience with your ministry there in Baltimore? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Mother Teresa is my inspiration for all of this. I used to work with the sisters at San Gregorio. That's where I actually learned how to cut vegetables very quickly, because I was in the kitchen and I remember complaining, saying, well, what does this have to do with faith and all that stuff? And then when I was featured on the Food Network, Bobby Flay, Chef Bobby Flay said, father Lee, you have some mad cutting skills. That's what he said. Because like, you got some mad knife skills. Where'd you get that? And I it just blew my mind. I said, Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa of Calcutta is missionaries of Charity. It was because of my spending hours cutting vegetables that I can do this quickly so that I can feed hungry people. And, you know, it would just be ridiculous if we just simply wanted to categorize people while they are sitting in their own filth, starving for food and thirsting for water. Jesus is very clear. Feed my flock. Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it for me. I'm going to separate the sheep from the goats. It's very clear. Food is a sacramental. And he turns it into a sacrament. |
| Betsy | You know, you flow so easily between these two worlds. And I was just wondering, I saw a video where you end up talking about the pill and compare it to, you know, the Eucharist. I mean, you bring in theology of the body. So, how did you learn to do this? So seamlessly? And was any of this just sitting around your table with your own family growing up? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | It all started actually, when I studied in Rome, I and you know, Italians, they for food. For them, food is a contact sport, right. So they take very, very seriously. But I paid attention to the culture, because you have to eat. And the way they eat is fascinating because it is agriculturally tied to schedules. But it's simply, you know, Italian food these days can be very expensive, but traditionally it's very poor. But they eat together and they take a ton of time with each other. Other, you know, Latin influenced Roman influence. Cultures do the same. Filipinos are very similar to them. But what happened for me was a retreat where the retreat director asked us to meditate on food, and we all thought that it was silly and it was kind of silly, but for whatever reason, God put it in my heart to actually take it seriously. Which led to me eating in silence, savoring the faith, and then going to the chapel and praying in front of the Eucharist. And the monstrance was just bread and and there was just a real I don't know what it was. I think this just might be divine appointment, because before all of this even started, I was ordained on June 5th, 1999, my first mass that I celebrated by myself was the Feast of Corpus Christi. And the Holy card quote for me was from John 23, and it was simply, feed. Excuse me, do you love me? It was Jesus's question. And all of this was before having a TV show with faith and food. So part of it is, yeah, my theological studies, my deep dive in, dive into food, but a lot of it has just been God's inspiration. And like, I don't understand how I can cook and talk at the same time, which is what I do whenever I'm giving talks. But honestly, it's not like I went to school for this stuff. So it's all God. It is all God and all glory be to God. |
| Betsy | So there's a lot of people with understandably concerned about too much time on Instagram or Twitter and scrolling, but then I talk to you and I realize how many people you were reaching. How do you balance your life with I want to create content that that evangelize is. And yet I need people to put down their phones and go and share a meal with somebody else. |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | I can't tell people what to do. I can only advise them on how to use things to glorify God. I mean, there are many times when I struggle with doomscrolling or just looking at stuff online and I'm like, wait, where did this come from? You know, I mean, so we're all trying to maneuver by applying theology to technology, but I can also say that not all people in the church are called to internet ministry. They are not. And so I don't think every priest needs to have a social media account. He doesn't. Every nun certainly doesn't. But if you are called to it and there I have discovered that there are truly some young clergy and faithful Catholics who have a real calling to social media. We don't have spiritual directors for it. So I'm just kind of kind of I'm I'm old enough to be one of the first priests on social media. And so I've had my experience and God's grace with formation of the seminary and with regular spiritual direction and support from community, family and friends. That's what keeps you on track. Not perfectly, but on track. Because this is mission territory and the church better catch up to this reality. We are failing very badly in evangelization of this mission territory, and if we who are called to this ministry aren't on it, then the devil will fill that void. And that happens quite a bit. I know many bishops are very cautious. Oh, my priests shouldn't be on the internet. Well, not all of them, but some of them for sure. And if we don't get this in our heads, we are going to be missing out on one of the greatest pulpits that the church has to offer. |
| Betsy | So what would you say to people that say, I'm not really comfortable having people over? How would you tell them how being around the table is is different than taking a walk or talking on the phone? That what is it about sharing food that can have engender a conversation that that no other activity can? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Well, I believe that it might be rooted in three things. First of all, it's very Christian. It's a very Christian concept of food. You know, again, the Eucharist is food. The altar is primary. But secondly, it puts you in a perspective of servant. You know, when we think of servant, we just don't think of a butler or, you know, or someone to kind of like clean the table. No. We think of people who bring food and who are actually preparing it. So the very fact of being a servant to which we are called, you know, become servants if you want to be a person of authority, put on an apron and serve. And then the third thing is that it touches all of our senses, all of our senses, when people are online and they're just talking about Jesus, it's only affecting, particularly just the auricular sense and maybe the visual sense, but you're not tasting and smelling the goodness of the Lord. And so I think the meal creates opportunities for Jesus to affect every sense of our humanity. |
| Betsy | That is really, really beautiful. Now, I believe I read that you took this show, so to speak, on the road. Were you on a ship? And can you tell us about what happened when you're kind of all contained, you know, water? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Well, I was well, I lead a lot of pilgrimages anyway, and I do a lot of, food, cultural references. Whenever I'm leading tours and people can find all about it at select international tours or just go to my website plaiting Grace. In this case, I was invited to be a speaker and presenter for what is known as the Good News Cruise, a great group of people who chartered an entire ocean liner and you could fit 2000 people on it. And they had incredible guests including Jonathan Roomy, father Mike Schmitz, Theresa Tom, yo, doctor Ray Granby, Deacon Burke, survivors, and also headliners like Matt Moore, as well as UN Andre Bocelli. And so there was, there was just like a star studded, oh, it was pretty star studded. I felt incredibly out of place, but I was giving the keynote presentation on Friday, the last full night of the event and, for like seven days, they were just getting talks and lectures and also exploring the ship and all they have to offer. But then I gave a cooking demonstration, and I just wanted to talk about a theology of food and how to get your family to heaven, which is to make them hungry for it, you know. And so I was cooking two, two meals while explaining a theology of food. It becomes a bit entertaining because there's a lot of humor that I think we can enjoy when we're when we're around the table, it breaks down any kind of stigma of discipline, and, and stoicism, and it just becomes familiar. So I was cooking and talking, which I do anyway. I you know, that's kind of what I do when I travel and give keynote talks as well as, you know, lectures, not always with food, but oftentimes with this approach. And I think people enjoyed it. And because they started to hear theology while smelling and tasting and, and not just simply seeing me, but seeing food sizzle, hearing onions saute and then smelling garlic and olive oil, it was just a great experience. |
| Betsy | Well, I know that you beat Bobby Flay in a really famous, showdown over steak fajitas. So you clearly have you know, what it takes to be, a celebrity chef. But how can we think about feasting during the Easter season? Hopefully we've done some fasting and explain how to really make that that feasting Easter and the Octave of Easter super meaningful for people. |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | Be intentional with what you eat, because I oftentimes recognize people returning to foods that they gave up for lent, and it doesn't taste as good as they thought, right? Simply because man does not live by bread alone now. But I want them to enjoy it, but also to eat intentionally, more modestly, and with family, and make sure that Christ is a part of that. As hunger became the vehicle for compassion, feasting becomes the vehicle for celebration. And that means we not only have to practice our faith, we have to celebrate our faith and that food can transform you to therefore maybe feed other people. So go ahead and celebrate, but intentionally and ask yourself who is not celebrating? Well, let me be maybe an instrument for someone else's celebration, but then I also want to invite people to think about Palm Sunday. I'm going to be having a dinner at my restaurant and it'll be a palm themed meal. Parts of palm, you know, date palm, palm oil. And we're just going to have a lot of fun. But we're going to talk about why palm becomes the symbol of faith. And it's a it's a beautiful reflection on how Jesus died on a tree. And it wasn't a palm tree necessarily, but a palm tree is a symbol of the cross. And a symbol of life giving in the middle of the desert that bears great fruit and provides not only food, but shelter and hope for people who are in the desert. |
| Betsy | Well, this has been a great feast of ideas and I cannot thank you enough for joining us. Father Leo, where can people find you online? |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | They can just simply Google Father Leo. It will lead them to plaiting grace.com, the website that has the resources, information on the TV show as well as the pilgrimages. So I hope people, have a feast for their soul. |
| Betsy | Thank you so much, father. |
| Father Leo Patalinghug | God bless. |
| Betsy | Follow all of our work here at the Catholic Association and at Catholic association.org. Hi, this is Betty Fentress from conversations with consequences on EWTN radio. We're in the throes of the Easter octave, and one of my favorite passages happens on the Wednesday after Easter in Luke's Gospel. The road to Emmaus. What a stunning story this is of two men who unknowingly encounter the risen Christ on the road. The passage closes with he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Here are two takeaways. First is the delight in taking a walk with a family member or friend, and the way a conversation can unfold is you're passing through space and time. The second is the delight in sharing a meal with someone. Is there a person in your life that you would like to get to know better? Add to your Easter season joy by building a relationship out, breaking bread, or taking a walk with the person you love and care for, or perhaps a hurting person who needs that grace. You never know what might unfold. We like to take a moment to thank all of our loyal listeners, who tune in each week to conversations with consequences. As you all know, the Catholic Association is everywhere. We were on TV to cover the conclave and the election of the new pope. We're in print. We're online and we're on social media. We've just launched a new Substack to expand our media presence and offer more great content from a Catholic perspective. We're on X, and now we're on Substack for Catholic Conversations with TCA, where we're featuring exciting new interviews, commentaries, videos, and more featuring our four fellows Ashley McGuire, Mary Fiorito, Lee Sneed, and Betty Fentress. And we'll be having guest columnists each week as well. Just recently, Ashley shared some little known facts about soon to be Saint Carlo A. Lee Sneed writes about her forthcoming book on infertility titled Infertile But Fruitful, and explains why she decided to write the book. So many people had responded to her columns and podcasts on her journey toward becoming an adoptive mother that she felt called to write a full length book about it in lessons from the Turn Away Study. Mary Fiorito writes about mothers who wanted to abort their children initially, but were turned away for various reasons and had a very different take on their initial decision. As years passed, and Betsy Fentress writes on hospitality and the will to live, about a friend's father and a family friend with no relatives who were brought back to life by food, attention and love. We hope you'll subscribe to our Substack. It's free. You'll find it at Catholic association.substack.com, and we'd love for you to join us in our continuing Catholic conversations. Welcome back to conversations with consequences, where I am joined by Monsignor Roger Landry, our TCA chaplain, and we are here to talk about a very exciting beatification happening in the United States in September. Monsignor Landry, take it away. |
| Msgr Landry | Well, first, happy Easter. Betsy, I hope your Easter celebration went well over the course of the last weekend. But yeah, we paused because two weeks ago, on the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, we, as we were pondering the Archangel Gabriel's great words to Mary, we were able to apply them to another context. Rejoice! You have been filled with grace. The Lord is with you. As the Vatican published the date that we would be able to lift my predecessor, Fulton J. Sheen, the former National director of the Metaphysical Mission Society for 16 years, to these two altars. And so that will take place September 24th, which is the day in which the church prays for China, because it's the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, who was the title of the image of Our Lady that the Chinese have been most devout to over the course of the centuries. And so Archbishop Sheen had an extraordinary love for that. For the Christians in China wrote about them a lot, and was very concerned about the persecution that they, began to endure during his tenure as the national director, not to mention historically. And so it's going to be, a chance for all of us to think about the evangelization of China and pray for it, just as I'm sure soon to be blessed Fulton J. Sheen will be interceding from heaven. It's also on a Thursday, which is a little strange rather than a Saturday. But that came, frankly, because the Diocese of Peoria had submitted various dates that would work, and the first priorities were all Saturdays. But then they had included some other days in which the dome in Saint Louis would be available. And any time you do that, I tell that to every listener. Consecration with consequences. They say that this would be a good day, and so they chose a Thursday, which might make it a little bit more challenging for Catholic families with students in schools to attend if they're beyond the sort of geographical region of Saint Louis. But there's a fitting this likewise to a Thursday in which, we Catholics always ponder the Holy Eucharist on Thursday because we had the Last Supper on a Thursday and Fulton J. Sheen is the greatest preacher in the history of the church. On the importance of a Eucharistic holy hour. If it is really Jesus in our tabernacles, in and our monstrance is. And of course it is, why wouldn't we want to make time for him? And so Sheen always was urging everybody who would ever come with him on retreat bishops, priests, deacons, religious Catholic laymen, Catholic lay women, young people, everybody. He would urge them to do what he himself began to do with a promise on the day of his priestly ordination, September 20th, 1919, he said every day of his life he would make a Eucharistic holy hour. He would spend 60 minutes in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and he was so proud as he got to the end of his life that he had been able to keep that promise. And he said, lots of people wonder where the fire comes in the pulpit. It comes from that holy hour with Jesus. He said. Lots of people have wondered where the eloquence comes from. It's by my sitting or kneeling in front of the word. Everybody asks, like the fruit of the missions and everything else, he says. It's a consequence of the intercession before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. So there's great fitting us likewise, that it's going to happen on a Thursday. They are September 24th in Saint Louis. When John Paul the Second came there in 1999, they jammed 103,000. |
| Betsy | I was there. |
| Msgr Landry | Yeah, yeah, I was in Rome. I would have been there had I not been in Rome studying to be a priest. But I remember following in some of the great photos of Saint John Paul, the Second coming from 1999 there, in the dome in Saint Louis. And, and so 103,000 were able to be fit there. We'll see how many tickets we're able to give out. But I'm very grateful. I think we're going to start by distributing about 70,000 tickets. But if there's greater need, we're happy to know that the dome had the largest indoor crowd of all time at that mass in January in 1999, with Saint John Paul the second. And there's another fitting sort of aspect to Saint Louis. I know that that's where you live and you're really proud of Saint Louis. I think our whole country needs to be proud. Saint Louis was the launching point for the mission to the entire western half of the United States of America. It was called the Rome of the West because it was the launching pad for the church's entire evangelization efforts, all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. It's associated with so many of the greatest missionaries in the early church, including Father De Smet, Saint Rose Philippine to Shane and it was one of the, focal points of the then nascent society, the propagation of the faith, one of the four societies that Jason ran in me because, the bishop at the time, who was based in New Orleans, but then came and, stationed himself in Saint Louis because he was responsible for almost the entire Louisiana Territory, the Louisiana Purchase. He asked Pauline Jericho for some money, the new founders of the mission societies, and she sent the money that allowed him to build the old cathedral there in Saint Louis, and then in all the other properties westward. The society, the propagation of the faith was so instrumental. And so when we have this beatification of the former national director, the Mission Society is the most important assignment that Cian had. The one to whom he left 40% of his will, the one for which he raised $200 million during his lifetime, which is the equivalent of $2.1 billion today to build up the church all across the world. The place to which he left his copyrights. I mean, I, I now direct all the copyrights for his books as well as his tremendous audios, because he wanted us to receive the royalties so that we would be able to share it with the missions. He gave 10 million of his own earnings, which a huge amount like wow, that he made when he was on television and winning Emmys and the rest came to the missions. And so if you are going to be looking at places in the United States that really symbolize the church's mission, Saint Louis is one of the most important places of all. And so for all of those reasons, super excited that Blessed Fulton will unite with Saint Louis this September 24th. |
| Betsy | Well, we're very excited. One final question about that. Who will the Vatican be sending for this beatification? |
| Msgr Landry | So my boss, actually Cardinal Luis Antonio Cheeto, is his nickname, Togliatti. Who is that pro prefect for new churches of the DeCastro for evangelization. And so Cardinal Toggle has the reputation of being one of the best English speaking preachers in the world. He's sought after everywhere and well before he was a cardinal, he was a headliner for things like the international. He was the congresses for the synods that would take place in Rome. He has always been somebody worth listening to. And so I'm personally grateful that he was chosen and I was praying for him. If Pope Leo couldn't beatified his fellow Illinois in in the Midwest, this year, I was praying for Cardinal toggling because they'll be able to do two things. First, he'll be able to do justice to the eloquence of Sheen. One great preacher is always appreciative of the God given talents that God has given to another, and he'll be able to appreciate that and channel it better than most. And then second, of course, like Sheen, whose heart was very much missionary, he's going to be able to come and I think put in bold letters Sheen's ongoing care for the missions and everything he's doing posthumously, by the way, he designed as well. But also, I think by his intercession that we need to be praying for the success of the missions to blessed Fulton J. Sheen. And I think Cardinal Togliatti is going to summon us all to pick up the torch that Sheen lit ablaze. |
| Betsy | Well, we are all very excited about this and we look forward to lots more information from you. And I hope you're going to, reissue any books that maybe might not be in print. |
| Msgr Landry | Well, we've got so many publishers are contacting me asking for permission, and that's pretty easy. And then lots of them are asking me to write books over the course of these next months, or put together things. That's going to be much harder as I'm doing the other parts of my job. But if there are other listeners on conversations with consequences who love Sheen as much as we do, there's a huge opportunity of interest for us to be talking about Sheen and his continual relevance to the growth of the faith in the United States and across the globe. |
| Betsy | Thank you so much, Monsignor Landry. |
| Msgr Landry | Happy Easter. |
| Ashley | Welcome back to conversations with consequences now on EWTN radio. I'm your host, Ashley McGuire. And with a new movie coming to theaters this spring, we are really excited to have Adriana Gonzalez here to tell us all about this new film that really focuses in on something that I think we can all agree is is so deeply needed, and that is Christian unity. The name of the movie is that they may be one, and it comes to theaters for a limited release in May. Welcome to the show, Adriana. |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Thank you so much for having me, Ashley. |
| Ashley | So tell us what inspired you to make this movie? |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Okay. What inspired me so the Lord, I really believe, since I was very little put, just an understanding and a desire for unity in the body of Christ. And the way he did that was, was in prayer meetings that I was taken to when I was very young. They were in a Catholic setting, but they were very, spirit filled. And there was a lot of unity happening there. There were, Christians from denominations, across the spectrum attending that prayer meeting. So from a young age, I experienced what I would say as a combination of the Holy Spirit very manifest and also unity in the body of Christ. And so with that, I am the more immediate cause of the film, just carrying that inside of me, carrying that that desire for unity, that passion for unity, the more immediate cause of the film was a talk at Encounter Ministries conference in 2020 by Doctor Mary Healy, when she talked about Christian unity and, it was like, just water to a parched, you know, thirst that I had to hear this, this message. And she began her story with Blessed Elena Guerra, who is now Saint Elena Guerra, and her testimony and and so we, my husband and I, sitting in the audience, we just kind of looked at each other and we're like, oh, this should become a film somehow. So that's what launched us. Yeah. In 2020. |
| Ashley | Talk a little bit about that. Saint. She features prominently in the first part of the movie. I had never heard of her and I found it so fascinating, her, her letter to the Pope. But tell us a little bit more about her story and how the kind of tidal wave that she prompted with her letter to the Holy Father. |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Sure. Yeah. So Santillana, where, then Sister Lina Guerra, the late, late 1800s, she was, I personally believe this is my insertion, but I personally believe that she had received something very special from the Holy Spirit. So she just knew the importance of a life filled with the Holy Spirit. But she also looked out at the church and and saw that there was a lack of free, his freeing moving in the church and so she began to write letters. And it wasn't easy for her because she, you know, and just imagine, writing letters to the Pope and telling him, please do this. So, but she was encouraged to do that. And so she, she ultimately did. And she wrote him up actually, like 12 or 13 letters. And his responses to the letters were absolutely amazing. She asked him repeatedly, please open the doors in this way. And that way. She actually recommended practical things to him in this way and that way. Please open the doors to the Holy Spirit in the church and glory to God. He did respond. He did respond. |
| Ashley | So I've been doing I'm a part of a women's group of my church walking with purpose, and we've been going through a video series. It's actually old. That old, but you'll recognize the name of the priest because he makes a little cameo in your movie. Father Pavelka. And the series is actually on the Holy Spirit. And it's really. I'm a convert. It's the first time I've really spent a lot of time meditating on the Holy Spirit, so I just loved the way the Holy Spirit featured in your movie. But talk a little bit more about what is unique to the Holy Spirit when it comes to bringing about unity. |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Yeah, that's a great question because I think for many people there's not a connection, there's not an obvious connection with the work of the Holy Spirit and unity in the body of Christ from, by the way, I love that series. I think you're talking about the wild goose. Who the father. My God. Yeah, super, super. From my own experience, I would say this when I was 36, I received what I would call my Pentecost experience. It was just a tremendous, very radical, life changing, encounter with Jesus, with the love of a father by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that moment changed my life. That moment gave me an an understanding of the the love of the father and not so much academic or mental as experiential. And it also gave me a new found relationship, deep, intimate relationship with Jesus our Lord. It makes complete sense to me that when that happens, a few things just are natural consequences. One of them is that we look at other people in the body of Christ, even when they're outside of the Catholic Church, and we see them loving and following Jesus and we see them, as Francis Chan says in the movie, showing evidence of the spirit in their lives. And we have to say, oh, you are my brother and sister. We are part of the same body of Christ. Christ is our head. As it says in Ephesians, and we are one in Christ. And so I think that is just one revelation in this intimate relationship with Christ, that comes very naturally. I believe, after such an experience of of really just encountering him in that place. The other the other thing that I think happens is that we tend to now what I'll just say for me personally, I am so moved by Jesus's prayer on the night before he died, knowing that he was going to die, knowing what was going to happen to him. That's what it says in, in, John chapter 13. In John chapter 18, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come and knowing everything that was going to happen to him, and he has this prayer to his father that is so passionate and and he and he prays there for times, father, let them be one, as you and I are one. And an unimaginable unity. When when Jesus becomes like so intimate, think his passions become ours and clearly all of his passions. So that's not the only passion, but it is very central to his heart because ultimately, I just heard a Father, Chris Tremor, say that unity is a goal. It it is a goal because we are heading toward a unity in God the Father, a full communion in God the Father through the son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. So unity is so integral and essential to our faith. |
| Ashley | I thought it was so interesting, the story, going back to The Saint, that you feature, the story about her asking him to sing, at the beginning of the next century, the 20th century, the creator Spiritus. And how that also kind of helped to launch this movement of Christian unity, not just within, you know, within the world of Catholics, but other, other Christian denominations. And yet, when I think of the last century, I think of it as being so marked by horrific division, you know, two world wars, the advent of, of abortion and just a very the Holocaust, just a very difficult time. How do how do Christians square that? Both this revival of faith and, and Christian unity with so much, disunity and discord in that century. |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Yeah. That is so you know, that makes me think of Pope Leo the 13th, but seemingly where it was writing letters to Pope Leo the 13th and in his response and actually there is a pretty well grounded tradition that Pope Leo the 13th had received earlier before receiving the letters from, Saint Louis Nigro, he had received a revelation from the Lord after mass one day, and that was being able to see the 20th. The enemies move in the 20th century. And I can only imagine that that made him so aware of the need for the Holy Spirit in the 20th century, that that's where the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel comes from. That's why we pray that prayer after mass, because of Pope Leo's experience and I think that what we need to recognize as Christians is that by God's good grace, we and everyone else on the planet have been given free will. And because of that, we live in a tension that we see the move of God. And we also see that the the work of the enemy happening around us. And it you know, if we pay attention to, Pope Leo's revelation, then we see both of those things happening. We know the end of the story, though. We know and this is the glorious truth, that as Christians, we know we're on the right side of history. Right? And we want everybody to be on the right side of history. And knowing that Jesus has overcome that death has been defeated, that we that he reigns victorious and that we will be united with him in heaven. But in the meantime, we do see the enemy's work. And so we can't be, we can't be distracted to it. We can't obsess over it. But we we need to be aware of it. And the last thing I'll say on this point is that this also points to our unity, because we need to understand that we can't be separate fires happening here and there. We need to unite in the fire of the Body of Christ to be able to defeat the enemy together. It's not it's not isolated. God wants our unity also to stand firm on him. In a world that is pulled away in so many ways. |
| Ashley | Well, that leads me to my next question, which is, you know, Pope Francis really emphasized Christian unity and made great overtures towards some of the eastern traditions. And in fact, I think it was at his funeral that it was the first time that one of those prelates was, you know, received a special seating, at, at his funeral mass. And then this is also something that Pope Leo has stressed. But it's not something we can just leave to the popes and I, I've been learning more about the Battle of Lepanto, and so struck by the idea, that Christians all around the world were united in praying the rosary, ahead of that battle. So much so that, you know, there's a church in Rome where there's an extraordinary ceiling that's devoted just to, celebrating the victory at the Battle of Lepanto. So I think of the Rosary as one thing we can do to help bring about Christian unity. But what what else can ordinary laypeople do to help support the Holy Father in trying to bring about Christian unity, other than make an amazing documentary? |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Low hanging fruit. Right. You know, I think one thing that I take great comfort in is to know that there are these very high level works of unity happening. And when I think of his motto in the one meaning Christ, we are one that gives me, fuel, so to speak, to say, okay, how can I engage? I was recently reading Saint, which is, Saint John Paul, the second, encyclical on Christian unity. And he says very clearly, this is not a work for only the clergy or the hierarchy. This is a work for every Christian. And so I think that it's important for us first to understand that, that it isn't something that we can just relegate to others, that it is something that is something that we all need to pursue in one degree or another. I believe that pursuit of Christian unity begins with prayer. That's something else that at Saint John Paul the Second said, it begins with prayer, and it is grounded in prayer because it has to be a burden that the Holy Spirit gives to us. It isn't just something that we slap on. I mean, I suppose we can do things in our own initiative and it's all good. Like God, God is so good. And and he takes it all, you know? But but how much better to say, Lord, will you reveal your desire for unity in my heart and in my mind that I can now follow you in this pursuit of yours? And so I would also tag on to that, that this Cardinal title, the message says we are one it we are pursuing something that already exists that Christ in his, in, in, in, in our mystical, reality, we are already one in Christ. So now it's like, Lord, show me how to live there. And I think that there can be some very practical things that aren't, as you know, complicated as making a documentary. We can reach out to brothers and sisters that are from a different stream of Christianity than ours, in our workplace, in our, school settings, homeschool groups. Just whatever setting you find yourself in, surely we're going to all of us have access to people who are not in our particular, in our case, Catholic, and to make friendships with them to to find out what it is that they have received from the Lord that we can also receive. Perhaps we meet a Baptist brother and sister who has studied Scripture in a way that we never have, and to say, wow, that's something that I need to learn from you, and then I need to adopt into my own Catholic ness, right? Or, evangelization. We we meet, we meet a, a brother sister who evangelize is better than we do. And we can say, I need to learn from you. What is it that what is your foundation? How are you evangelizing so that we can approach them in a receptive way so that we're not approaching in? I'm going to teach you your way, but rather in a receptive way. And ultimately, we want to move toward that place of praying with one another. |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Because in the place of prayer, that's where the Holy Spirit is most at work to create the bonds of unity. |
| Ashley | Well, I Diana, we thank you so much for joining today to talk about your film. Where can our listeners find out about where it might be released or where they can stream it. |
| Adriana Gonzalez | For sure. So in on May 19th and 20th, it will be released in theaters across the nation in order to buy tickets, which we highly encourage people to buy tickets early on, they will be sold on the Fathom Entertainment website. Under that they may be one and that also the Fathom Entertainment can be accessed through our website, which is that they may be one film.com that will lead you right to be able to buy tickets and tell you a little bit more about the film itself as well. |
| Ashley | Great. Well, thank you so much for coming on today to talk to us about your incredibly important thank you. |
| Adriana Gonzalez | Thank you, Ashlyn. |