Ep. 383 Father Thomas Petri on Challenging Today's Culture & Mike Romano on Laughter, Love & Loss

Conversations with Consequences

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Episode Description

Father Thomas Petri joins us to share the story of his vocation to the Dominican Order of Preachers, and why the Dominican charism of study, contemplation, and preaching is uniquely suited to a culture filled with confusion about God and the human person. Father Petri weighs in on the severe abortion legislation recently signed in Massachusetts, and the need for Catholics to speak truth with conviction to bring the light of Christ into the public square.

We also talk with Mike Romano, the voice behind EWTN’s beloved children’s program, Tomkin. He shares his journey from stand-up comedy to voice-over production, and reflects on what he’s learning as a widowed father raising his three children following his wife’s tragic passing from cancer. He shares the wisdom his children offer him in grief, the joy they continue to find, and the extraordinary gift of a recording he once made with Jen of the Divine Mercy Chaplet – allowing their children to still hear their mother’s voice in prayer.

Plus, TCA Chaplain Msgr. Roger Landry shares fascinating insights into the life of Pope St. Pius X ahead of his feast day this week. Msgr. Landry highlights some of the remarkable reforms of his pontificate – from confronting modernism and reforming Church law and liturgy, to lowering the age for First Holy Communion so children could encounter Christ in the Eucharist earlier in life.

Catch the show every Saturday at 7amET/5pmET on EWTN radio!

Bios

Father Thomas Petri, O.P. is a Dominican priest, theologian, preacher, and Missionary of Mercy who currently serves at St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church in Louisville. A familiar voice and face on EWTN, he was ordained a priest in 2009. His love for the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas ultimately led him to the Order of Preachers. He has a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from The Catholic University of America. Fr. Petri served as Assistant Professor of Theology at Providence College in Rhode Island and as President of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies. He is a member of the Society of Christian Ethics and the secretary/treasurer of the Academy of Catholic Theology. He has published articles in Nova et Vetera and The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly and is author of Aquinas and the Theology of the Body. He was named a clergy-Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. In 2016, Pope Francis commissioned him a Papal Missionary of Mercy. Today his ministry continues to engage with the Church and culture to bring clarity to the most pressing moral questions of our time.

Mike Romano is a voice actor, radio producer, comedian, and Catholic father best known as the voice behind EWTN’s animated children’s program, Tomkin. He currently works with Archangel Radio where he serves as a producer for LA Catholic Morning. He is an audiobook narrator whose voiceover work includes projects for Catholic publishers. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Romano studied theater before moving to Chicago and later Los Angeles to pursue acting, animation, and stand-up comedy. His early voice-over work included MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch. He has performed at LA’s legendary Comedy Store, where his talent for celebrity impressions became part of his comedy repertoire. His career later took him to EWTN where he combines his entertainment background with his Catholic faith. Romano is the widowed father of three children. Today he speaks candidly about grief and the lessons his children teach him as they navigate life without their mother. One treasured legacy is a recording Romano and his wife, Jen, made together of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, which continues to air on Catholic radio.

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 Diocese of Fall River weekly paper. He is the author of Plan of Life: Habits to Help You Grow Closer to God, and was an on-site commentator for EWTN during the last two papal conclaves. He serves as the New York Chaplain for the Leonine Forum. Msgr. Landry traversed the 1500-mile Eucharist Pilgrimage in 2024, coinciding with his 25th year in the priesthood. In June 2026, he was appointed by Pope Leo XIV to the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Evangelization.

The following transcript is machine generated.

Episode 383 Transcript

Ashley	Welcome to conversations with consequences on EWTN radio. I'm your host, Ashley McGuire.
Betsy	And I'm Betsy Fentress.
Ashley	And we are so excited to have Father Thomas Petri back with us today, one of the many Dominican friars we've turned to when our culture seems to really go awry, which seems like always. Father Petrie spent years at the Dominican House in Washington, D.C., and he is a familiar face and voice on EWTN and is currently back in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, serving at Saint Louis Bertrand Church. He's also a missionary of Mercy. Father, thank you for taking the time to join us today.
Father Thomas Petri	It's always good to be with you, Betsy. Ashley. Thanks for having.
Ashley	Me. So, father, we recently celebrated the feast of Saint Dominic. It's a feast that's dear to my heart as I have a Dominic. And he was known as the hound of our Lord. And we'd love to talk to you about your vocation story. So tell us about how it is that you came to choose the Dominican Order and your love and affection for Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Father Thomas Petri	I always sort of knew or had a sense, even as a child in Catholic school, that I wanted to be a priest, and it seems that God was calling me to be a priest. I entered, actually, diocesan formation to be a diocesan priest. You know, there are two ways to be a priest in the church, either a diocesan priest where you're normally just a parish priest connected to a bishop, or a religious priest in some religious order. Frankly, the religious order is when I was 17 years old, seemed too complicated to discern or figure out. So I entered formation to be a diocesan parish priest when I was only 17. So right out of high school and I was very close to ordination, I was with a very small diocese here in Kentucky, the Diocese of Owensboro, and I was very close to ordination, maybe two years from being ordained a priest. And it was during that time I started to realize many things about myself and also my desires before God. So there were negative reasons. I chose what I would say negative reasons I chose the order and of preachers, the Dominicans, and posit very positive reasons. Although the negatives, I say they're negatives because they were more or less reasons why I knew that I wasn't called to be a diocesan priest. And those reasons were things like, you know, most diocesan priests do live alone, especially in a diocese in Kentucky. And I think as I was starting to grow older, I realized I wouldn't do well in that kind of life. I needed to be in a community of other priests. And also, I really did value the intellectual life or the academic life. The study and diocesan priest. While they are, they receive wonderful formation, more or less depending on which seminary they go to. Study for them is not the principal aspect of their priesthood or their ministry. And for me, I just I had fallen in love with the thought and theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas in my seminary studies, and I couldn't imagine being a priest where studying the mysteries of God just wasn't a part of my life consistently, or a foundational principle. And then I found the Dominicans through that. That's how I sort of knew I wasn't called to be a diocesan priest, but I was called to religious life, and particularly as a Dominican, because for Dominicans, study is not something that we engage in simply to have something to do or even as a penance for us, the study of the mysteries of God are, in fact, for us, the worship of God. God wants to be known, and he wants his mysteries to be known. And and that's part of the beautiful thing of being a Dominican and being someone who just enjoys theology and studying is like you. You get to learn so many wonderful connections because God is infinite. And not everything that we learn in the Catechism or even the basic theology courses satisfy is enough. There's always more to be learned, more connections to be made. You know, for the Dominican, our motto is contemplate. I always try to delay, right, to contemplate which study is part of contemplation and to hand on the fruits of that. And that for me was always when I first entered seminary was always something I looked forward to doing, sharing some of the insights that I was getting in my studies and figuring out how to translate them, for lack of a better word, into language that the average layperson in the pews or in the parish, or in a college class, or in a graduate class, can understand and really receive spiritual nourishment from. And so that's really what drew me to the Dominican Order. And of course, the fact that we live in community, you know, even here at Saint Louis Bertrand, it's a very active parish. We have six weekend masses, two weekday masses. Every, every day we hear confessions every day for an hour. There's always at least two priest hearing confessions. Sometimes it goes longer than an hour. We often have lines, and it's just wonderful to be able to minister and to exercise my priesthood outside in the world and in the parish, but also to have that strong community of like minded called priests. So there's seven of us who live here in this priory, and four of us work exclusively with the parish. And we have one friar who is semi-retired. We have one who is the Catholic chaplain at the University of Louisville, and another who teaches at a Catholic school here in the city of Louisville. So it's a very full life and very content life for me. I'm very I'm very happy that the Lord called me. I don't think I know that I would not have been as happy and as fulfilled as a priest had I remained in the diocesan priesthood. For some men, that's the life that God calls him to. But it wasn't the life he was calling me to.
Betsy	So before you came to Louisville or came back to Louisville, I should say you spent many years at Providence College, and which seems to fit with what you just said about wanting to intellectual life and studying Saint Thomas Aquinas. Talk about those years that you were there and what it was like to be a campus minister, because it seems like the Dominicans were more and more I mean, in Indiana, they're just on fire at Purdue. And are you?
Father Thomas Petri	Yes.
Betsy	Thank you most about being there.
Mike Romano	Well, you know, part of that.
Father Thomas Petri	I mean, Providence College, it was also Providence in my own life, my divine, divine providence, because I had been in diocesan formation for so long. I had pretty much all the degrees that a priest needs to have to be ordained. But just because you are two years away doesn't mean you can join an order and get ordained in two years. Because when you join an order, you have to be a no novice first. You have to be in simple vows first. You have to then be in solemn vows. So I was in formation, but they didn't quite know what to do with me academically. So while I was at the Dominican House of studies, which is our seminary in Washington, D.C., which is its own fat pontifical faculty, its own school, but it's also right across the street from the Catholic University of America. They had me pursue a doctorate in theology while I was still being formed to be a priest. And so when I grad, when I was ordained, I already had then a doctorate in moral theology. So my first assignment was as a professor of theology at Providence College. And because I entered seminary at 17, I had never had the sort of college experience most young people have. I I certainly never on a cold campus. I went to a college seminary, the just the Pontifical College Josephine, in Columbus, and then graduate seminary at Mundelein in Chicago. And I loved it. I was only there for four years, and it was a great first assignment for me. I love I love being part of young people's lives because, you know, in colleges, when you're figuring out who you are and what you're going to be in life. And it was wonderful as a young priest to be around young people, teaching them the faith. You know, I have several students who went on to become religious friars and American sisters. And in fact, this weekend I'm actually celebrating the wedding of one of my students way back then. You know, he's getting married. And so that's that's absolutely wonderful. And it was, you know, I, I hate to use the word intoxicating because of the baggage it has, but there is something vibrant and life giving about living as an adult and as a professor on a university or college campus, especially in New England, with those dark, cold winters. And I always looked forward to the first beautiful day of spring, because there's a lot of green at Providence College in Rhode Island, and it'd be the first day, like all the students would be on the green, you know, studying, having picnics, playing Frisbee. And it was sort of we had all gone through this New England winter together, you know, with feet of snow and fall and and here was this beautiful day. And I think it was the first time I ever in my life experienced spring as really the burst of something fresh and new. And of course, the wonderful thing about being a professor and this is true whether whether you're a priest or as a elementary school teacher is you still get to live as an adult. That wonderful feeling on the last day of school that summer is finally here at the academics are really spoiled. We get to live that summer freedom, you know, every every May. Just like, just like schoolchildren do.
Ashley	So, father, when I think of the Dominicans, I think of three things. I think of devotion to Our Lady. You're known for wearing the rosary and for really inculcating a devotion to the Rosary. I think of teaching and studying and as we've discussed. But then I also think of taking heretics to task. I feel like Saint Dominic was known for being a very forceful voice against heresy in his time. Can you talk about how are Dominicans today? I mean, our culture is just so adrift, and even even Catholics are in many respects poorly categorized or don't have so many misunderstandings about the faith. And and maybe we can, you know, talk also in the context of this terrible situation out of Massachusetts, where you have a self-professed Catholic governor, signing a horrific late term abortion bill surrounded by people smiling and clapping. So what are the Dominicans doing today in the modern world with technology and things like that, to confront confusions about the faith and and then maybe you can help us think about how Catholics are supposed to process something like what we just saw.
Father Thomas Petri	No, that's that's a good question. It's really kind of two questions. But as you know, Ashley really connected at the root. Yeah. Saint Dominic was, you know, very and he started the order because there was a widespread heresy at the time. The Alba Gen scientist and, and that sort of thought of the Alba Jensen I'm still kind of is in a lot of Christians, even a lot of Catholics. But it basically was the idea that the only that Christ was not really God, that our world is so evil that God could not, in fact become incarnate, could not touch it, and so, you know, the legacy of that is and all of these thoughts that come periodically, even into the Catholic faithful, that the body is evil, that everything that goes on around us is evil, and we just need to escape this evil, evil world. And as you know it, actually, there's a lot of reasons that that is an attractive thought, you know, in today's world. But it's not the Christian thought, right? God is was incarnate. Is incarnate in Jesus Christ, and his creation is good. It's sin and evil that pollutes it. What the Dominican. So we still the Dominican tourism really still is about preaching with conviction the truth of Jesus Christ, the truth of the mysteries that God has revealed about himself. And in revealing the mysteries about himself, revealing mysteries about us. Right, Gaudium? It spares 24, which was Saint John Paul the second favorite line that Christ not only reveals God to to man, he reveals man to himself. Right? So he's saint erroneous of Leone. I always that that wonderful line that the glory of God is a man fully alive. We heresies are still rampant, you know, not just heresies about God, but I think more in today's world heresies about the human person and what the human person is and what were made for. The word heresy, of course, has a lot of baggage. And so I think rather than use the word heresy, I tend to use the word confusion. There's a lot of confusion in the world about the nature of the human person, the nature of men and women, the nature of God. And we might not be, thankfully, doing inquisitions anymore. But the Dominican charism is still to bring clarity, clarity to Catholics as you rightly note, who aren't well categorized. And there's obviously we could have a whole discussion on why that happened and how that happened. But to bring clarity and we do that in a number of ways. I'm a member of the Eastern province of the Dominicans here in the United States, where the oldest province of the Dominicans in the United States. And we do that, of course. I mean, Providence College is one of our flagship. We we run that college at university. We have about 45 Dominicans on that campus. As far as priest active on a college campus, I am willing to say we have the most priests active on any Catholic college campus in the United States. Everyone thinks of Georgetown, and Georgetown does have a significant community of Jesuits, but most of them are retired and are not active actually in the lives of the students. We do that obviously through our teaching. We have parishes. I mean, when you go to a Dominican parish and I know our parishioners here at Saint Louis version, you're getting a very different experience of parish life than when you go to a diocesan parish, not just in the preaching at mass, but in the extracurriculars, you know, adult education. In fact, I'm starting an adult education lecture series in a couple weeks here, and we usually get 60 to 70 people participating from all over the city. I'm calling it The Secret Life of Grace. You know how grace works in us when we don't even know it. But one of the big initiatives we have in the province of is our course, our to mystic Institute, which is Bill, which is an institute of the Dominican House of studies. We have chapters on various campuses throughout the country and internationally, and these are student run and it's well endowed. Our fundraising is really good, and we basically bring in Catholics from all sorts of professions and fields, not just theologians and philosophers, but scientists to and to give lectures to young Catholics who may who want something more intense and more fulfilling intellectually than they usually get at a parish, or even in sometimes even in the Catholic campus ministry. I think this has been one of the problems of catechesis is, the church treats young people and parishioners as when it comes to matters of the faith and matters of of ethics and morality, as though they're grade schoolers. When adults are running complicated lives outside of the parish, you know, it's complicated to be an adult. And that's even apart from whatever career you're you're living and engaging in. You know, I used to even when I was a young seminarian, I would say to pastors in dreams, you know, that, you know, our students are in high school, they're learning calculus and physics. And when they come to CCD or they come to youth group, you're treating them like they're fourth graders or third graders. They can handle complicated intellectual theological conversations and, and and what we know now and what polling shows and what we're experiencing. And I know you all have talked about this. What we know is that that's what young people want, and that's why they drift away, is because they're not getting fed intellectually. And I think that's one of the great things that the Dominicans do. And I mean, if I obviously I'm biased on this matter, but I do think that this is a Dominican moment, you know, in the sense that this is a moment when the lay faithful because they're not getting it necessarily from their parishes, from the priest, from the bishops, not, you know, not always even from the bishops, which is was exactly the same situation in the 13th century, when the Dominicans were founded, exactly the same situation. And Saint Dominic wanted his band of brothers to be university, university educated, stick in their preaching and contemplation. And we were the first priests to study at the university. Universities, of course, were new. They didn't come around until the 10th 11th century. We were the first priest of the church among the first priests to go to university and study like the fields of knowledge. And I think that's where we are. You know this, and I think when you see politicians like, Governor Healey and Massachusetts self-identified politicians, one is just a very poor understanding of the faith, not just intellectually what we understand about the human person, but also a very poor formation of conscience and morality. That and this is this is across the board, whether you're Catholic or not, in American politics, that we've gotten away over the last 100 years or so from politics being about us voting for persons of character who have values that they will hold to and that we then we accept the values that they hold to and vote for them because of those values. Even if there are values or opinions that they hold that we may not agree with, we've moved into this situation where politicians often are simply adjusting their stated positions in favor of what they perceive to be the loudest constituency that will keep them in elected office, or keep moving them higher in elected office. And the problem with that is that democracy works best. Our republic works best when people are having civil, intelligent conversations of trying to find the truth of things, trying to find the right way to go. And I think we can all agree that in our contemporary society, having intellectual conversations like what you and I are having right now has become practically impossible. I mean, it's one reason I'm grateful for the increasingly death of legacy media and the rise of new media and podcast and longform journalism, where we can have these detailed conversations. But then you have Catholics who are in positions like, Governor Healey and yes, I'm, you know, some I'm not attempting to excuse that. She signed. Right. This horrific bill that takes away the 24 week, limitation allows for late term abortions. It's not even politically smart, because we know that while, you know, maybe half of the American population supports abortion, that number starts to fall off precipitously once you get into the second trimester of pregnancy. I mean, the vast majority of Americans do not support late term abortion. And we also know that, abortion has become the sacred idol of, the political left as the as the marker of women's so-called rights and certain other political values that you can't be against it in certainly in the Democrat Party, Democratic Party and still move up in the political echelon, move up in the political, in the political sphere. That being said, though, it doesn't excuse Governor Healey herself, regardless of how she was categorized, regardless of how she was formed morally, we believe that the dignity of the human person, the dignity of life, abortion is a matter not just of faith and of religion, but as a matter of human right and natural law, which means we believe in. I could make an argument that everybody, no matter what they're telling pollsters, knows they have the hard wiring to know it's wrong. It's gravely evil, regardless of psychologically why they may think this is why. I mean, the people who are for abortion I admire the most are the ones who say people like Camille Paglia, who says, yes, I know it's taking a life. I just think a woman's right is more important. Okay, I can have a discussion with you on that. Let's discuss that. But the lies that people tell themselves about what's going on in abortion is all is just that it's playing mental hopscotch to allow for something that, deep down, they know is, is evil and they just don't want to admit it. But we also believe because it is natural law that does lead to effects, not just in one spiritual life, but also in one's psychological life and eventually in one's physical health, too. I mean, and it leads to effects, as we are seeing in a culture or a society that turns a blind eye to what naturally is evil, what naturally is an evil, just as surely as the Holocaust, just as surely as slavery leads to evils in society, her soul is certainly in jeopardy. You know, she knows better as a Catholic. She knows better as a baptized Christian, she knows better. Yet, for political reasons, I'm being charitable here for political reasons. She she signs this law. It has effects. I think, on not just her soul. It puts her. It is a grave, mortal sin. And it's publicly so, you know, and while there have always there are in our current church discussions about Holy Communion to these kinds of politicians, it it really does seem like there is a double standard. If Mrs. McGillicuddy in a parish went on the local news and said she was for abortion, her pastor would be having a discussion with her. And I do know the bishops do try to meet. I know that there are bishops in Massachusetts who I've been trying to reach out to Governor Healey, whether or not she's receptive or even takes their phone calls is a different question. Right. But she shouldn't be receiving Holy Communion. Now, whether a priest denies her is is tricky because nothing has been canonically declared by, by a bishop, by her bishop or, you know, but to receive communion in a state of mortal sin for all of us further compounds the jeopardy to one's salvation. But to do so publicly also risk raise a scandal for the faithful, which is why the Code of Canon Law says they should not be admitted to Holy Communion. But once again, there's there you know how priests are formed, how bishops handle this, how priests handle this is going to vary depending on the person we're talking about or what what their bishop does or says.
Betsy	Well, we just have a couple of minutes left. So we want to at the Catholic Association, we try to bring the light of faith to our listeners in the public square. What advice do you have for us, father, in discussing the truth in a way that can lead others to the truth that is found within our Catholic faith?
Father Thomas Petri	I think one of the best ways is certainly by how we live. And, you know, I know the, the, the, the hallmark card phrase from Saint Francis. Everyone quotes, you know, preach to the gospel and when necessary, use words. But I do think as Catholics, when we're living in grace, we're meant to go through life not agitated by everything that's happening in the world or even in the church. We're meant to go through life with a certain disposition of delight. That doesn't mean we're not. We don't get angry. We don't get upset. We don't get sad. We don't suffer. But it does mean that we understand that God has won the victory, that God is truth, that God is mercy and love. And that means we should be going through life ourselves with a certain delight that can't be taken away by these horrific events, no matter how horrific any events happen or how much we personally in our lives and our families, our friends suffer. And I think when people witness that, when they see that and we all know people like this because we're all even as good Catholics are trying to work on that. But we all know people that seem to go through life and nothing seems to like disturb them. And sometimes we get, you know, sometimes we get a little jealous of that and angry. I mean, how can they not be so upset by this? And I think when people see that in us, eventually they're going to ask the question why? And I think when they ask the question, you know, it's Saint Peter, right? Who says it's in the first or second line? Be prepared. Always give a reason for your hope. Right? Always be prepared. And I think that's we want to cultivate curiosity about how we can sort of how we live this life as we do with everything going on. And it doesn't seem to crush us. And when they ask, we have a reason. And that reason, of course, is Jesus Christ.
Ashley	Well, I know I always feel more hopeful after spending time with the Dominicans. So, Father Peter, thank you so much. There's about 50 topics we didn't get to, so we'll have to have you back on. But thank you so much for your time and for joining us today and sharing some of your coveted Dominican wisdom with us.
Father Thomas Petri	Well, thank you, Ashley. Thank you Betsy. It's always good to be with you. I appreciate the great work that you're doing. So keep the clarity to the masses.
Ashley	Welcome back to conversations with consequences. Now on EWTN radio. I'm your host, Ashley McGuire.
Betsy	And I'm Betsy Fentress.
Ashley	And today we're joined by a voice that many of your children and grandchildren know well, Mike Romano, the talent behind EWTN beloved animated character Tom King. But beyond his work as a voice actor and morning radio producer. Mike is a devoted father who has been navigating an extraordinarily powerful personal journey. After the loss of his wife, Jen, to cancer, Mike and his three kids have shown us what it truly looks like to lean on grace, find joy in everyday moments, and keep faith at the absolute center of family life. Mike, welcome to the show.
Mike Romano	Thank you so very much. Glad to be a part of the show. And, it's, it's a life is a blessing every single day that I found.
Ashley	It certainly is. And Mike, you EWTN viewers and listeners, as we mentioned, they know you as the voice of the narrator of Tompkins, the beloved little red headed guy who helps kids learn about the faith. Tell us about your journey from being a, having a background in stand up comedy to ending up as this voice of a popular children's show.
Mike Romano	I've done a ton of commercials. You know, local, nationally, and I was, I was approached by a friend of mine who, very small Catholic guy who said that there were there was an opening at EWTN at the time, and I was, I was praying for an opportunity to, to use my talents to, to glorify Christ. And the opportunity came to work with EWTN radio. I took it and, during my time at EWTN radio, I also got to do some some TV work as well with, you know, Teresa Tommy show, doctor Ray, I'll let them know that I think the, the creative department was, was wanted to do something for children. And I had, done some, some work for, from animation work for a hospital. And when I lived in LA as a, as a stand up comic and, I gave my, give my audition, which started out, was, since it was a cowboy. And the first thing that popped in my mind was, was the actor Sam Elliott. So I gave my, my best, Sam Elliott impression. No, here's the thing. And let me tell you some cowboy. There's a way we do things, and then there's not the way we do things, and we do things the Catholic way. And so they loved it. I loved it, but, I think it was a little too. It was a little too much. They wanted to dial it back and just use my regular, you know, speaking voice because they didn't want to they wanted to avoid kind of scaring kids because I can see how, you know, somebody like Sam Elliott, you hear him for the first time and you're like, whoa, you know, as a kid, that might be a little, little too much. So we kept it more kid friendly. We went with that approach, and it's certainly been a great, learning tool. I've shared it with, with my, my children, and they, they enjoy it. And it's just a great, creative, palatable way to, to kind of break down the faith for, for the younger, audience, and to teach them about the, the sacramental life of the church and the moral, life, of the church and, to, to get them to think about why we do it, explain why we do what we do as Catholics, because it's something that we want our children. I want my children to live and breathe the Catholic faith. So it just becomes. Yeah, it's just their Catholicism is just part of the air that they breathe. Right. So, and I was certainly blessed to have that opportunity and more at EWTN. And I enjoy working with Sam Zamorano and all those guys. At the network, we have a lot of fun sessions. The best sessions are really when we, when when we go off script and Sam allows me to to improvise. I'll do the, do the take the script as it's written. And, then he'll say, all right, go for it. And I'll do you know, I'll do Tom narrate as as Father Mitch Pacwa. See, here's one of the things in the movie. No, I know you don't understand what I'm saying, Tom, but it's just that they're so, And then, you know, like Father Anthony, like, I don't understand what you're doing, Tom. Okay. But you're definitely. It doesn't make sense. You know, we do things the Catholic way, right? So, we we have we have an absolute blast. And I just, enjoy, enjoy entertaining and making people laugh.
Betsy	Oh, that was really, really funny. So where did you grow up, mike? And how did you get into standup comedy?
Mike Romano	Yeah, I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and I, when I went to college, I spent two years at the University of Alabama. I got a theater, a scholarship there, and I decided to take my talents out to Chicago. My high school theater teacher recommended I check out Chicago first because it's a great city for working actors. And then when I graduated from Columbia College Chicago, I got into doing, voiceover work and one of the first gigs that I did as, as a voice actor was for was for MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch. I did the voice of this material. Yeah, yeah. Throwback, right. The voice of this, potato con who fights this Japanese, this Ginsu chef. Spoiler alert, my character wins. And anyway, so I got into that, and, an agent out in L.A., in Chicago told me, well, if you want to do more animation, you got to go out to LA. So I went out to LA and I was looking for a job, and I stumbled upon the Comedy Store and, where my name is, is on the wall there, still. So I'm blessed, to to be a part of that, you know, that culture that that tradition of great, great comics. I'm not associated myself with all the greats, like, you know, Seinfeld and Pryor and all those guys. But to be to have my name to have performed were great. To have performed. It's an honor and a blessing. And I, I started out just checking IDs, and then one of the guys asked me, well, hey, do you want to try stand up? I mean, you do different voices and celebrity impressions. So I did, and, Mitzi Shore, Pauly Shore's mom, asked so let me see what you got, kiddo. So I went up, did a bunch of impressions. Crowd loved it.
Betsy	What's your famous most famous person impression, would you say?
Mike Romano	Oh, man. Probably. You know Stallone, you know Rocky Balboa. You know, I go do, give me five. I got to stay alive. You know, I got problems. I got to know. I mean, I got to do, Eddie Murphy, right? Come on, man, it's crazy, right? Hercules. Hercules. Hercules! Yeah. It's crazy. I love this thing of you. And you know, I mean, come on.
Msgr Landry	Come on, Shrek.
Mike Romano	Don't you? You're a Christian.
Ashley	My husband is a great impersonator, and he's so good. And now we're in the political world that I have met people that he's impersonated. And it's it's jarring because you think you feel like you've met them before, or you, you know, you don't hear their voice. But I remember him telling me once that he realized at a pretty young age it was a skill he had. He said he stood in front of a mirror and he was just like, name, you know? And then he would do it and do it. Was there a moment when you were younger? Were you were like, wow, I'm good at this in a way that other people aren't.
Mike Romano	Yeah. You know, I loved I'm sure your, your husband loved, got up every Saturday morning and watched Saturday morning cartoons and, that's that's the first thing, you know, get your you get your bowl of cereal and you sit in front of, you know, the TV and you watch, you know, Scooby Doo or Richie Rich. And so I remember I would listen to the voices and I would, I would try it out and, you know, I'd go to school and I'd be like. And I'd do, you know, okay. Oh, come on, school. What did you see? And so my friends would be like, oh, wow, it sounds just like him. So that kind of got me, you know, into, into doing, picking up even more voices. And it kept me from getting beat up and picked on. So, I would just, you know, make them laugh. Thank God for that skill. Right.
Betsy	Well, it's so nice that you've now married this talent with your faith, which was really tested with the news that your wife, Jen, had cancer. Can you tell us about how that really tough family moment brought her back to the faith? Oh.
Mike Romano	You know, she I remember her telling me because she she had fallen away from the faith for, for some time. And she, she was in the hospital, receiving, one of her what would be one of her many treatments, chemo treatments. A priest, a friend of mine came into the room and prayed over her, and he had the relic of. I want to say it was what was then blessed Francis Xavier. Close. Now he's a saint. Obviously prayed over her with it. And I remember her telling me something came over her. And it was at that moment, after the prayer, after he made the sign of the cross, she said, Mike, the Catholic faith really is the true faith of Christ. And from that moment on, she started watching more EWTN shows while she was, you know, laid up in the bed. My friend, good friend Dan Burke was one of the first shows that that she, that she saw and, I, I tell him to to this day, I said, man, I thank you for helping to bring, you know, your show on EWTN, helps to bring her back into the faith. And so, you know, she started praying she would, start, sleeping with the crucifix, which my middle child, Jordan, sleeps with, to this day. And I know he he finds that, comforting. So that's that's and and we start it. And praise be to God. You know, we started going back to, to church, as a family. And so that was a, that was a prayer that was answered through the, the many, you know, Saint Rita of Cassia is is my she's my go to girl. She's my, my go to saint because it turns out she's also the saint of not only difficult marriages, but of, you know, impossible cases, of course, but widowers and widows. She, after after many years of praying for Jen that to look over and see my wife and, and my kids, amass together as a family and, and wouldn't you know it that first day that we went back to mass, that Sunday mass, it was October 1st, 2023, which was happened to be it was a I think it was a feast day, of blessed Francis Xavier close and we attended, and still do. And my family, my kids and I, we attend our Saint Francis Xavier silos. So, what a what a what a, a full circle, right? And I, I'm I'm I'm so thankful, you know, for that, because honestly, the best part of my weekend or the best part of my week is that weekend when I look over and I see all of my kids with me, at mass, there's there's that. It doesn't get any better than that. It really doesn't.
Ashley	It's clearly affected your children in a beautiful way. You recounted a story in a recent interview with and at the National Catholic Register, where you talk about your son and visiting your wife's grave. Tell us the insight that he had when he saw you so sad about about your wife, his deeply spiritual insight.
Mike Romano	Well, my son will be the first to tell you, and my wife would too, that I had a tendency to be, you know, I guess maybe I was an actor too, you know, overdramatic and, you know, I let things affect me, and and I wanted it to be. My kids were clowning around, and and I thought, this should be more solemn, more respecting than, hey, we're I know we're in a wide open pasture here, but there's still a cemetery there, you know, and and he said, you know, you don't have to be so serious, dad. You know, mom would want you. Mom would want us to be laughing. She would be shaking her head right now saying, y'all are crazy. And so, you know what? He he's, he was right about that. I think that our our family, friends, the saints in heaven, that they want us to rejoice. Because you know what? They're rejoicing in heaven as well. And so, you know, I told my son Jordan last night, I said I was making some, some tacos, and, he was supervising me. And I said, well, you should just, you know, cook this instead of me. He says, no, I'm the manager. You're the employee. I said, God, you know your mama. See, here's what she had to deal with. And, you know, and that's how I know your mom is is a saint right now. She had to put up with me, buddy. You know, because, you know, I. You know, I'm not the greatest cook in the world. Like, like your mom was a phenomenal cook. He said that she's a saint because she's in heaven, you know, not because she had to put up with you, but because she's. She's in heaven. That's that's where All Saints are, you know? So don't don't be so hard on yourself. You know, you're doing fine. You know, I'm just I'm just helping you out. Helping you fine tune the tacos. Okay. So, it's and it's, you know, the whole cooking thing. It's been a learning curve. My, my oldest son, Donnie, is a phenomenal I mean, a phenomenal cook. He's been gosh, he's been cooking, you know, since he was about six, seven years old. I mean, he started out cooking ribs. And it's still to this day he'll he'll go out and cook ribs and make a casserole and you name it. And so I, I rely on, on them him to, to help me out because he'll say, dad, what are you doing? You know, you're you're supposed to, you know, let the water boil first before you put it in the pasta. I'm like, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. You're right. So, you know, I feel sometimes, you know, like like they're raising me. Who's the adult here? Right. So, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm super blessed, and I, you know, I, I lean on them every day. There really are some, some great kids. They they really are gendered. I give all listen, I give all the credit in the world to my late wife, Jen. You know, she did a phenomenal job with them.
Ashley	We have just a minute left. But tell us the story about the recording and the two of you have. I love that that you're in the voice world and and her voice is still is still.
Mike Romano	I, so I worked as a radio producer for Archangel Radio, and they had hired me to at the time I was freelance, and so they were looking for some prayers, specifically, the Divine Mercy Chaplet that they could air at 3 p.m.. And so, I was I was in the booth and I said, hey, babe, you know, could you just pray this with me? I think it would sound better, you know, with with two voices as opposed to them just listening to me. So, you know, she did and, and who would have known that ten years later? Mine and, and her voice would be praying this prayer in perpetuity. I was talking with a friend of mine, came to visit me, and, she had turned on the radio, and, it was on FM at the time or. No, no, it was, it was like, I think it was, like, serious and all of a sudden, like, I heard my voice, I was like, what was that on the radio? I heard my voice was like, if you are you listening to Archangel Radio? You're starting to listen to Archangel Radio. She said, no. I was like, how is it? How is it on 14:10 a.m.? Because we're are we're 14:10 a.m. and 94.5 FM. That's our call letters and and signal. And, I was like, how did it. We could she couldn't explain how she was listening to, Archangel Radio and how it was on the Am dial because she has to literally push Am on the radio as well as source. You know, it happened to be at three, 3 p.m., you know, I heard, you know, I heard voices, you know, praying it. And it was just it was just that gentle reminder. And it's a beautiful thing that every time I go pick up my kids at 3 p.m. from school, you know, they can hear mama. And to know that she, she's with them, that lets them know it's comforting that, that they can hear their mama's voice, knowing that she's in heaven now, watching over us and praying for us and so many other people who listen at 3 p.m. can hear, can hear Jen, you know, pray with me. And and if they have an intention or whatever. I know many prayers have been answered because of our Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet together. It is just, a lot like like Alyssa said, it's echoes of an angel.
Ashley	Beautiful and a foreshadowing of what's to come. Yeah. Yeah, right. It is.
Mike Romano	It really is. It really is.
Ashley	Well, Mike Kim, thank you so much for joining us, for sharing, for giving us some laughs, for giving us a few tears. Where can our listeners follow all your work?
Mike Romano	Yeah, they can, go to check out Archangel Radio.com. I'm on there as I'm their radio producer, and I also produce the morning show. We have a show called LA Catholic Morning airs seven from seven central to eight. And, get the app and follow me there. And, I'm also you can also follow me on, Mike Romano dot net, as well as adventure audio books.com. I've narrated tons of of audio books and still do to this day. I do a lot of work for, for ten publishing.
Ashley	Wonderful. Well, Mike, thank you so much for joining us today.
Mike Romano	Thank you so very much for the invite. Appreciate it. God bless you and all of your listeners.
Betsy	Welcome back to conversations with consequences, where I am joined by our TCA chaplain, man senior Roger Landry, to talk about Saint Pius the 10th, who was also a Pope in the early 20th century. And a lot of people have a confusion about maybe his role in the very controversial SSP. Can you give us a landscape for the importance of Saint Pius the 10th?
Msgr Landry	Happy, happy to do so. Betsy Pope Saint Pius the 10th, who was pope from 1903 to 1914, has nothing to do with the Society of Saint Pius the 10th, which took its name from him, but it was founded 50 years after he had died. So, he's he's not formally associated with them. One of the reasons why Archbishop Sav and the Society of Saint Pius, the 10th chose him was because he fought against a heresy called modernism, which in a particular way was trying to interpret Sacred Scripture by some categories in which we no longer believed in miracles. We no longer really believed in Jesus's divinity. This was a school of thought originating in Germany and parts of Europe that Pope Saint Pius the 10th very clearly opposed. And so Archbishop LaFave liked that aspect of the pontificate of Saint Pius the 10th, and so named him as, the, saintly patron of what he was trying to do. Saint Pius the 10th was, canonized in the 1950s. And so he was a very fresh saint when the when, Archbishop Lefebvre was doing a lot of his work in Africa. But who was really Saint Pius the 10th, he was named Giuseppe Sarto. He was baptized, which in English means Joseph Taylor. And he was the son of a mailman. And he worked very hard in school. He had to walk a lot because he came from a relatively poor family, but eventually he was able to study to be a priest. He was super smart. Was ordained a priest, served in diseases before he was basically made seminary professor and rector, as well as a vice chancellor of his diocese. And because of all that he had done, he was made the bishop of Mantua, and he served in that diocese very effectively. Then he was named the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice. And then something happened after Pope Leo the 13th died in 1903, there was the conclave taking place, and everybody thought that it was going to go to Cardinal Ram Pola, and Cardinal Ram Pola was getting close to the, number of votes, two thirds plus one that was needed in the conclave. And that's when one of the cardinals put forward a veto from the Holy Roman Emperor saying, we didn't want ram Pola. And so there was a huge controversy about whether the Holy Roman Emperor or his successor, because there really wasn't much it was part of the Hapsburg crown, whether he should have a veto and others on the inside recognize that though Ram Paolo was close, he probably wasn't going to go over. So they needed a new candidate and they went for Joseph Taylor. They went for Giuseppe Sarto. The Cardinal, of of Venice. And he was elected and took the name Pius the 10th. And he was the first pope in centuries who had actually been a parish priest. And he brought that experience of the parish life to the papacy. And he made several reforms. First reform is he started the whole process for the putting together of the Code of Canon Law. Today, for example, Betsie priests are a little bit confused about certain liturgical things, because if you want to know what the rubric is about using incense, if you want to know what to do when a bishop comes, etc., there are at least three different books you've got to consult. And then there were various Vatican documents. There's no one place you can go to. And in 1903, when he became pope, for all the church's legal stuff, it was in all these decrees and everything else, and you needed to be a true expert to know where to go. And he said, going to be very important for priests and everybody in the church to just have one book, the Code of Canon Law. And so he started the process was finished three years after he died in 1917. That was the first go to canon law we ever had in the history of the church. It was reformed in 1983 after the Second Vatican Council by Saint John Paul the Second. That's what we still have. But he looked at it of what would have been needed when I was a priest and a bishop, and he started that process. Second thing that he did is he reformed the liturgy. Many people were coming to mass for the orchestral concert, especially in the big cities where you're playing Mozart Mass or Beethoven masses, etc.. And he said they're neglecting the word of God, and they're likewise not even prioritizing Holy Communion in the word made flesh. So he basically banned orchestral masses, except for the, most August, feast on the church's calendar so that people would be coming for Sacred Scripture and the Holy Eucharist much more. And so he very much promoted Gregorian chant, which people could learn to sing and polyphony. So without a lot of accompaniment, some of the beautiful stuff of Palestrina over these huge orchestral masses, you know, sometimes we have to ask the same question when we're sort of celebrating mass for our young people. Are they coming more for the rock band that plays at the Sunday night mass? Are they coming more for the praise and worship music that they love, or are they coming essentially for God? We're very happy for them to show up, but we need to make sure that we're helping them make a transition to what's way more important than excellent music. The third thing he did, which we should all be grateful for, is he lowered the age of First Holy Communion. Most people at that time were receiving Holy Communion sometime between 12 and 18. Saint Teresa for example, made her first Holy Communion. I think it was the day before her 11th birthday. And he said, as soon as we reached the stage in which we can distinguish between bread and wine and Jesus after the consecration, then we're capable of of receiving Holy Communion. We obviously, if we're going to have that type of discernment, going to be capable of examining our souls and going to confessions and things first. But he lowered the age down to the age of reason. When we talk about the age of reason, most of us think, well, that means when we're in second grade and when we're eight now, the kids can reach the age of reason well before eight, five and six year olds sometimes can reach the age of reason. That's what Saint Pius the 10th did. As soon as we're capable of examining our conscience and going to confession, and as soon as we're able to understand that there's a miracle, a double miracle that takes place at the altar, when the substance of the bread and wine turned totally into Jesus, and when the appearances of bread and wine remain so that we wouldn't be disgusted when we eat Jesus flesh and drink his blood. As soon as we have that capacity to understand the miracle, then we're able to receive Jesus. And so thanks be to God, because most of us have received Jesus when we were seven or when we were eight, and we were able to really begin to build our life on Jesus at that young age. And so as a great pastor as he was, that's what he sort of bequeathed to the church. He was a pope who led us to pray during World War one. And the destruction, that took place. His leadership at the beginning of World War One led to the election of Pope Benedict the 15th, his successor immediately after. And I like always to say about Saint Pius the 10th, that the first diocese he ever founded in the world was the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. My own diocese. And so during my first year as a priest, I was back in Rome to complete some academic studies. I had a chance to celebrate mass on the tomb of Pope Saint Pius the 10th, 105 times. And so each of that time I was praying for my bishop, for my brother priest, for all the faithful of the diocese, if I remember. And so it's a very special place for me whenever I return to Saint Peter's Basilica to go over to the tomb of Saint Pius the 10th and continue that prayer.
Betsy	What a great connection to a great saint. Thank you so much, Monsignor Landry.
Msgr Landry	God bless you, Betsy.