Battling Wokeism in Higher Education w/ Franciscan University President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR

we're live you can find these old uh uh type not typewriters like they have little screens yeah but I think they came up before the internet and they're now selling them as uh distraction free that's been the first typewriter I had when I came in the University was it attacked one line at a time and that was cutting edge right and what was that on a typewriter no it was a typewriter but did it have a little screen yeah yeah very little screen that you could see a line at a time you type it down and yeah yeah that's what I'm talking about but now it's going to remarketing yeah yeah how crazy is that you I mean that's that's one things about this so if you go to the ads it's like it's just you and so for those paper father Dave has something called remarkable remarkable right when did this come out um this is the second version so maybe three years would be my guess tell the people about it while I play with it yeah yeah so it's just little things one of the I take notes all the time in meetings and homilies and somebody said oh you should look at the remarkable and I said never even heard of it but one of the selling points is it's Simplicity you can't go online with it um you can upload documents and you can write on the documents but it has a feel you feel it has a feel like a paper it actually has even the sound almost the sound of it yeah I think it's made in maybe Norway where's the Eraser uh that box right here down that there that that that thing yeah that and then you can just whatever you want no ceramic connected they'll cut it all out or the thing above it this is going to be the most boring this is fantastic people are gonna love this they're gonna love it it's like we should have father Dave come back more often see but I forget that you're a podcast Pro because you and uh doctor Deacon yeah yeah yeah have your own podcast what's it called David hope they that hold up yeah it was funny we just got back from uh leading a pilgrimage and somebody that never been a part of the University but they went to David hope and I said I'm not sure that's the best place to try to find out but it worked out all right actually I think it's more fun for us than it may be for anyone else but that's always that's what makes podcast fun yeah it really is it really is if people we started it in the middle of covid when there wasn't a lot of Hope and that was really so we need to just bring some hope into this so it's us just talking life and sports apparently we start with sports yeah we say saving marriages one marriage at a time because a woman came up to me she was you know I know nothing about sports but now it allows me to have some kind of a conversation with my husband so they've got this deal that she has to listen to the sports part and he has to listen to the part that's more it's really in some ways a commentary on culture and try to bring Faith and Hope in the midst of kind of a craziness right now now but this this is really great because I was telling you before we went on air that I like to write but it's who's that comedian Louis CK was recently on Joe Rogan's show and said that he has a computer that doesn't have the internet so he can do his work yeah because yeah you have these illusions of multitasking but then you try to get on and you're distracted by videos and then you're screwed well for me honestly when I go to the chapel in the morning and and I'm praying sometimes I want something that I can write down on or some notes that I have or a homily book but if I have my phone there's just too many distractions so this allows me it doesn't it doesn't provide me any access to any of that but allows me to write and pray and think that you were saying because I was trying to think like why would I want to get this and you take notes you can as you say upload PDFs and then kind of write on the PDFs that's also that doesn't sound like enough for me to want to get this yeah so what's the selling point not that you're here to sell it but yeah I can't answer that question for you what is it going to take for I think if uh if you could translate it if it would translate to they translate it to text it will translate to text right right but how neat does your handwriting have to be my handwriting is more like holographics I mean you can't you cannot understand it so yeah you push translate it comes up and says are you kidding me so yeah very cool very cool you were just in Germany yeah I did actually it was really awesome I took a group um we did pilgrimage to the passion play in overamigo which was just really really beautiful it says and I'm sure you're aware of it yeah yeah that's I know nothing about it yeah it's been going on for 450 years it started in the middle of the plague yeah and they had this camera nice job they had uh they middle of the plague they made this deal that if the Lord would free them from the plague that would offer this Passion Play so it's a small community they've been doing it every 10 years for 450 years it's really cool it's about maybe 500 people in this little Community they gather together you have to have lived in the community for 10 years to be a part of it wow the cast is about 350 people uh two and a half hours and then you break for dinner and you go to dinner in this little village some of the people in the cast are actually serving you it's really quite beautiful and then you've got the second two and a half hours just a really beautiful thing I must say it was something ironic we were supposed to go in 2020 but they canceled it because of the plague so we're thinking uh the reason the sole reason they did this was try to free them from the plague so we're in the middle of pandemic and they say we're not going to do this which is another story but yeah it was great and then we went from there we went to Prague uh visited Prague who's we a group about 45 pilgrims that traveled with me I went to Prague a beautiful beautiful city I'm not sure if you've been in this beautiful the infinite Prague had devotion there then we went from there to Bratislava and then Bratislava to Budapest and then I got home okay before yesterday I got a good info Prague joke all right let's hear it I don't believe I know any infinite prod jokes there's not many this might be anyone so the Infant of Prague walks into Saint Joseph's workshop and Saint Joseph says I don't care what your mother says you're not going out dressed like that I like that I like that that's one thing I I jokingly said to the people it's you know we can look at that actually there was someone of a I don't know the the first religious article one of the first religious articles I remember getting was from my Parish priest and it was of a little medal of the infinite Prague and honestly had I had that for 30 years it just kind of showed up every move I made so there was kind of a devotion that I have to the infinite Prague but I shared with my group that that we can look at this and we could say as Catholics we can look at this say this is a little weird right that we dress this up every couple days and change its outfit and we can admit that if somebody else like a Protestant brother sister says that we're going to be offended what are you talking about but we can we're okay with it well I think it shows the universality of the church I don't have to get every devotion not every day you don't have to be every part of it absolutely right absolutely right yeah and people ought not be offended by that so where'd you grow up uh Southwest Colorado yeah how did you how did you end up in Steubenville go the long route how did you became a friendship yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah well yeah it's so often so many things in my life I blame it on my parents um Mom and Dad uh prayed every day of their married life that one of their kids would become a religious a priest or a sister and their five boys in the family five boys and one girl in my family so I joke that said we pulled straws it's like somebody's got to take one for the team and we pulled straws and I got the short or the long one depending on how my nieces and nephews are behaving but the reality is honestly there was never a time in my life that I didn't consider being a priest it was always kind of in the back of my mind wrestled with it tried to figure out what it is that the Lord wants me to do remember we were up in the I'm from the small town in the middle of the mountains we were up in a cabin and a priest was had joined my family which was very common very commonplace to have a priest around the dinner table or on vacation with us but uh he says to me what do you want to do when I grow up and I said well I want to be a priest now my parents would say if he would have been a doctor I'd have said I won't be a doctor if you wanted me so that's why I was studying law for a while okay so as a poli SCI pre-law major at the local College in my hometown but always really wrestling and struggling with maybe the Lord was calling me to be a priest and felt like I needed to just kind of get away from my small town get away from yeah girlfriend I've been dating for a while get away from school so I spent a year on net of which I think I forgot about yeah yeah yeah yeah that USA what year 85-86 okay yeah I was two keep going I don't think anyone asked anyone else no I don't think so Bueller anyone no so uh you know but you know in just to that end uh net was one of the greatest experience of my life yeah I mean it was it was difficult and it was but I you my guess is maybe it's fair to say you wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for net I would not be singing here if it wasn't for that just the the role that it played in my life so I will be forever grateful for that uh but it was wonderful it was wonderful opportunity to um just get away from everything and discern that Lord what do you want me to do because I was really at a place where I think that the Lord breaks into that I was actually going to do it I was really a place that whatever he wanted me to do I wanted to do now Faith was always important in my life there was never a time that I was like this let's not say it wasn't perfect but uh but when I'm where I fell I went to confession so there was never a time that the Lord was totally absent from my life or it didn't matter I mean I'd go on vacation with my buddies and I would go to mass they wouldn't but I would go to mass yeah so Mass was just or liturgy uh prayer was always a very important part in my life uh what what the really one of The Graces from net was really the baptism of the holy spirit for me you know I was raised mom and dad were involved in cursive I don't know if really in many ways the again my mom were always faithful Catholics but Curcio really made the sacraments more personal Christ more personal their faith came alive with that and so when I went on net again was active in the church but this experience of the Holy Spirit becoming more more present in my life the Pentecost wasn't merely something that happened two thousand years ago but the holy spirit is to envelop us and to continue to be present to us and that was just a very transformative experience in my life and it was actually I was going down it was at the cycu the cyc was long gone when did you on that I was on net in Canada and then in Ireland so I never did it that's up north of us that's just above us yeah yeah the communist republic of Canada so so they say yeah um yeah and I'd never heard of Francis University in my life and then it was the College of Steubenville and I went in this little meeting and they talked about Princess University and I thought yeah maybe then I would transfer and go to school there and I jokingly say that uh I haven't gone very far because I'm still in Steubenville Ohio what is the baptism of the holy spirit for those who are unfamiliar with the term well which is really really great that you say that because I was unfamiliar with the term I remember being around these people that they were singing and they were raising their hands and they were praying in the spirit and this was all very new to me yeah and I remember I found someone that I thought was somewhat normal right and I said what is going on here yeah yeah seriously I literally wrote my letter my dad a letter you if you're familiar with the letter you're right on a piece of paper yeah yeah yeah right um but uh I said Dad these people are so strange but there was something about them that was alive you know um I was kind of a loner in the sense that there were not a lot of people of faith in my I went to a public we didn't have a Catholic High School went to a public high school uh there just weren't a lot of people in my faith in faith and to be around a group of people that actually seemed alive you know there's something really cool about it so I asked this person what's going on with them and she said well it's just Pentecost did you ask this question yeah yeah it showed up and you didn't know what you were getting into no I didn't know what I was getting at now net would only been around for two years so as long as the third I'm sure it was Uber charismatic back then for Uber Uber Uber wow like No Holds Barred and just real quick when my mum came and visited net Canada from Australia she flew in for the decommissioning mass or whatever they call it yeah that's not yeah that's not what they call it we called it deep brainwashing but well my mum's like yeah because she was a bit worried about me going she went yeah no it was good I still think it's a bit of a cold but you know a bit of a cold what yeah yeah no it's funny when my mom dropped me off my mom was from the Twin Cities so she came with me and spent some time with family and she dropped me off she says you know Dave these these people might be charismatic and and again I was very active in my faith I said well what is that what does that mean I said in my charismatic and she goes well you are but maybe not like them and never has a true word been said right but honestly again there was something really really attractive about it and and I spoke to this woman I I was the eighth grade catechism B Champion I don't know have you ever had an eighth grade catechism B champion at your table never here we go here we go on it we're gonna call this pints with the Vodka after this right yeah so uh but it was really I I never heard the baptism of the holy spirit because this one guy said comes up to me and he says have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit and I really it was really foreign to me in in in the light of that it's Matthew Mark Luke John actually the apostles there are a few things a few phrases that are in all the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and baptism the holy spirit is one of them really baptism of the holy spirit that phrase I had no idea yeah I thought it was an ax but no it's in all of them yeah yeah so so I asked this woman I said you know what's this all about and she said it's just Pentecost and then what you went on to say is that Pentecost isn't something that merely happened two thousand years ago but it's it's this continued outpouring of the Holy Spirit I mean John Paul Francis Benedict all called for this renewal of the baptism of the Holy Spirit uh and I remember it didn't make any sense to me the the raising of the hands the praying in tongues all that kind of stuff was really foreign to me um but I was by myself in in the chapel which was in the old Catholic Saint Paul Catholic cyc Catholic Youth Center um and I was just being honest with the Lord you know I said I don't understand all this it doesn't make sense to me I was a little frustrated because I was I I was going to say I was born and raised nobody was born Catholic everybody's born Pagan but we get baptized and we become Catholic and I said I don't understand this um but if you want this for me I want it and I see Matt I can look to that moment at literally at that moment the presence of God comes upon me and and um my life I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for that what does that mean because it's a girl Came Upon me what's that what does that mean the presence of God it's like just in a subjective yeah experience yeah um yeah so have you read Ralph Martin's article on baptism Holy Spirit he talks about this and he actually quotes I forget the name of the priest was actually quoting Aquinas and he speaks of uh and he speaks of this idea of Aquinas would say a resending or a second sending or a new sending of the Holy Spirit and he said that there would be two kind of elements or markers that would go with that one is a sense of inhabitation that God was in the outside and now he's present I'm being inhabited by him and that's what my experience was is that is that there was just this presence of God that I knew it was you know we'll take a look at Luke um overshadowed right what does that look like what does it mean to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit well this sense of God was just present to me and and so often when we speak of the lord it's ineffable we try to use words but there was this closeness there was this proximity there was this God wasn't out there he was present to me and I also began to pray in tongues and again I'd never nobody ever walked me through this talk about what is this and what does it look like it was just in Romans 8 it says in our weakness we don't know how to pray in the spirits praise through us and I I couldn't explain it at the time um but it was just it just prayed it just happened but then the other thing that Aquinas would go on to say is it said inhabitation and um and it's not an innovation it's Authority uses newness something becomes new it'll the word will come to me but that and that was the other part of it is that is that I had this experience and then there was new there was a newness to my spirituality the scriptures came alive I mean it wasn't just words on a page they came alive to me again Mass was always important to me but there was something that I saw differently it's the road to Emmaus my eyes were open I just saw the Eucharist I saw the sacraments differently than I did Innovation yeah it is an inhabitation innovation that that there was this newness uh from this experience that I had uh that changed me I mean it just changed me I don't know if it was chested but since he's the repository of all good quotations someone said let your faith be more of a well less of a syllogism more of a love affair something like that yeah yeah that's what it was like for me as well yeah I think was that new to you when you went on actually it's funny it's funny I say that I don't know if I mean that um I guess I mean there are times in my life in my life even now where I'll get really into apologetics because I'm very I it feeds my soul and I find it very helpful in my spiritual life but then I have to remember like this is about a living love affair with The God Who apparently likes me even if I don't like me yeah he does no no no no that's a that's absolutely right in a danger is to get that we kind of get lost in some of those things and we forget at the heart of this is about the relationship no absent to be vulnerable for the Living God absolutely absolutely yeah I've been reflecting on that that I've been doing some work on God is his father and what does that look like that he's our father and he reveals himself the Christian Revelation that's got his father and take a look at the catechism it speaks of that and it's easier to think of this God is a power because that doesn't necessarily demand a response but if God is a father then then that by its very nature is relational and it demands a response from us and that makes us uncomfortable sometimes yeah that's right like if God were Amelia slave driver there wouldn't be the level of intimacy that would require a sort of yeah response in the same way as if an affiliate way yeah yeah no I uh I had a conversion I was kind of agnostic I don't think I ever used word I didn't ever use the word atheist because that hadn't become a shorthand way of saying I'm more intelligent than you back in 2000 but I was agnostic and I liked that term because it sort of left me open to kind of explore spiritual things meditation and all these different religions without having to commit but I went to World Youth Day in 2000 in Rome and I came back happy Christian yeah yeah yeah what about it what was what happened there that changed you know what this is like when you've told your story a thousand times and then someone asks you again and you really you really want to say it as it happened you don't want to embellish it um I was first struck by The Joy openness and authenticity of the people on my flight from Sydney to that's cool Rome I was just like these people don't mess each other down they're not sarcastic I mean you've got a long time to talk if you fly from Sydney to Rome so we got into everything you know how they were saving sex to a marriage these people I was sitting with and you're Harold 17. okay and they were just normal well-rounded good-looking cool people and I just was like I do not get this because the only Christian I'd met in my hometown were Assemblies of God very very uh enthusiastic maybe like the net people and that kind of just turned me off um probably says more about me than them I'm sure they were very good people but it did so I was just I started to pray for the first time in my life Jesus if you're real and this isn't just some story that old women believe because they're about to die like covering their bases it would be the Ducks nuts if you'd tell me because I'd love to know that and please reveal yourself to me in a way that I'd understand you know and there was just several experiences where I don't at this point you run headlong into cliches and it's tough but it was like I've encountered someone who exists who knows me who who wants a relationship with me who loves me and life isn't meaningless and it was just like you were saying it was like this oh my gosh like he's present to me yeah yeah it's interesting and only Grace can do that because I think world youth day is a great example of somebody needed to tell Pope John Paul this may not be a great idea I mean think about this here's here's my pitch let's get two million people together let's put them all Outdoors they can all sleep together that night we'll just young people yeah yeah yeah with raging hormones what could go wrong and yet the Lord really works I I probably kind of maybe half a dozen World youth days did you get a run I did you didn't say hello yeah yeah I I looked for you but you just kind of walked off no I said I love everything about world youth day except World youth day yeah but it's great no it's so true like it is easy to get cynical about everything it's just it's an easy response hope is difficult cynicism's easy yeah yeah and I I can't imagine that a lot a lot of the kind of poo pooing of what you said just comes from the cynicism you know you get all these bloody kids they're just there for a trip they're not there for Jesus yeah I wasn't for any of it you're right that is exactly true and I would have hooked up with someone if I could have yeah but no I was interested so I encountered the Lord instead in my life changed when I when I first came to the university I was ordained I taught for a couple of years and one of the things I had them do is basically do a timeline of their faith just to think back and reflect on on these markers I think it's important for us to be able to have these markers of and this would have been in 96 I was amazed at the number of people that world Youth Day Denver was that marker for them and it was often as much as you stated it was the relationships it was the people that really stirred something in them so again I I've participated in many world youth days and where I was this far from an absolute disaster and people come about it and they're converted and they encountered the Lord yeah I mean I've been to Big theme parks and Metallica concerts and all sorts of things and maybe people were happy there but the kind of joy that radiated the selflessness all that it's unlike anything you know yeah it's the largest gathering of human beings in European history I'm told yeah we'll use their room 2000. it was terrific yeah I was was it just European history it was well I think Manila was the largest because that was seven minutes okay isn't that in science yeah like I remember walking home after that world youth in Rome and actually the best was Australia were you yesterday I was sitting in a freezing cold Irish office where I used to watching it on YouTube it was really fantastic it really was but yeah I think honestly because it was a little smaller honestly it's a long way to go yeah exactly and the weather was beautiful they had organized it very well yeah but I walking back from Rome everything was so crowded we ended up going into a McDonald's there was a group maybe I think we took I know we took we took over 500 people and it was crazy so but with me there was maybe 30 in that particular group we went to the basement the ground where all the kids played in a McDonald's and we stayed there for three hours we slept they fed asses phenomenal yeah and I remember well do you stay in Toronto I went there and I remember reading these articles in the newspaper there was this I wish I still had this article it was a journalist who was saying that up until now he's been a closet Catholic and everyone was expecting this to be a negative experience for the city but there just was all this positive feedback even from non-christians who are like the joy it's hard to remain exactly that's absolutely right just watching people on the streets and them watching us it's really it's a great yeah it's a great experience yeah right so you became a priest in what year yeah when did you join the franciscans and why was it the franciscans in particular I um I transferred to Francis University from net so I was a came in as a sophomore middle of sophomore year and um it was honestly when I came here I was pretty sure what that this was what the Lord wanted now forgive me what year I'm not trying to tell you how old you are again but what year did you what year was that yeah I came in in 80 86 86 and um so I never went to Franciscan so I'm probably going to ask some pretty ignorant questions here but the the prior who was who was the guy who got everything president forgive me yeah I heard that Franciscan was once on Playboy's top 10 party universities yeah yeah yeah yeah we're making different lists now but yeah thank God yeah yeah but now that I've thrown that out you've got to tell us what what happened yeah it was really crazy I mean that this was when early 70s when small across across the country small schools particularly small private schools were trying to find their way enrollment was low Tommy Moore which was the largest storm at the time was basically empty and um yeah there's this was crossboard across all not there's not fair lots of schools at the time uh Francis University was yeah party school small school I was probably one of the top 10 schools in Ohio to close and that kind of there just was not a lot uniqueness or anything different about it so when they hired father Mike uh father Mike had a couple pretty simple uh elements or plans about what he wanted to do Jesus was going to be the center of our life in the center of the life of the University was going to be Christ a Catholic school should be faithful to to Christ as our savior and so that academics were important obviously formation of the student their intellect was important essential but to do that apart from the formation of their life and the formation of creating men and women that were going to become holy and become Saints those two things had to come together so that there was not a separation between faith and reason the two actually can illuminate one another and then the other was that we were going to be faithful to the teachings of the church late 60s Catholic universities wanted to kind of create a separation sense of autonomy from from the church um and father Mike said no it seems to me at Catholic University should be close and and so the teaching of the church faithfulness to the magisterium was going to be key uh so those were the two principles I mean well father Mike would always say that there wasn't this great plan you know how did you do this father Mike I worked with fun Mike because last year's as president and he said I didn't have this great plan what I knew is that we're going to be faithful to the Lord and we're going to be faithful to the church and and he said to the board he said if this doesn't work okay but at least we're going to give it a shot we're going to try did Father well did people around Father Mark just expect that he was going to see Franciscan into the night that it would be done shortly over the next few years some of them Father Mike would say some of the board members yeah he was going to kind of be the one who's going to close the doors turn out the lights wow um but but the other part of it and it was you know back to some of our conversation early father Mike was one of the first and most influential people in the renewal uh and and he he firmly believed that this was a work of the Holy Spirit and and God was going to bless this and and we're sitting here because of of Mike's faithfulness um but the other part that he thought was important he would always speak at the beginning of the year Studies have shown that the loneliest person in the world is a college freshman and and father Mike experienced through the renewal um and the other Friars of the community lived with the necessity for relationship and communion and accountability so he installed what was called household systems at the beginning it's it's like a wing of the residence would be a small Faith group so at the beginning everybody had to be a part of a household when father Mike initiated this you had to be a part of the household small Faith groups that would pray together intramural sports together go to mass together celebrate you know Faith together devotions together and that was really one of the I think the unique remarkable things that father Mike brought was this idea of households so now we have about 60 households on campus small Faith communities small Faith groups that support one another's Faith so the the kind of the peer pressure on campus is more towards the life of virtue rather than a life of Vice which is exactly what's not what it is at most college campuses yeah I actually asked a couple of University students about what it was like and they said like if you want to grow as a Christian it's it's easy yeah if you want to potty it's actually more difficult right right so the peer pressure as you say certainly in it that way it's not a Utopia I mean everything's not perfect but nah we've got it I would say we are there's no University across the board that's like Francis universities yeah so how did Franciscan turn around then I mean there were these things making Christ the center and things like that but I mean and well one of the things about Mike did is uh that he felt that the philosophy and theology needed to be centered if we're going to be an academic institution that's Catholic we need to focus on that so father Mike went after some really good theologians uh Dr Alan Shrek I don't know if you know yeah Alan I think Allen is is really um underappreciated I mean Alex's in my life he's been a great blessing but also to the to the uh the university and the theology Department a couple of the Friars got theology obviously father Mike was the one who hired Scott Hahn when was that I want to say 92 okay it was after I had left so I graduated in 89 and and was this short was he teaching at a Catholic School prior to being hired I don't think uh forgive me I'm not positive I think he was just finishing up at Marquette wow is my yeah well I'm not sure yeah so that was really a part of it is is that creation of of the Theology and philosophy departments that would be key and then also creating a culture it's interesting since I've been back at the University a lot of people have come to me I said you know what would it look like for us to do what you've done whether it be a high school or Another You College yourself and what they often do is is that they focus on the students which obviously is important but you also have to surround yourself you have to have a team of faculty and staff that want to be a part of this so that's what father Mike did is he surrounded himself with people that had the same desire the same vision the same goals the same desire to put the Lord in the center of their life and be faithful to the church and then the Lord just built on that wow you know even when I came I came in 96 or 86 Tommy Moore was still largely what is Tony Tommy St Thomas More is the largest residence hall sorry about that time anymore he's the largest residence hall that we have it was still largely empty today we have uh We've added two since then we've had two two new residence halls and we're this largest class we've ever had yeah this is the largest incoming freshman class ever in our history right why is that I don't know um I mean I I like to think that that we're trying to do the same thing that father Mike did and that's just be faithful to Jesus and faithful to what he's asking of us I think one of the things that had a really great impact right now where we are now was in the midst of covid we had what we call the step in faith and so this would have been obviously in March of 20 everybody everything closed down the whole world closed down and I was with my team and just wrestling like what are we going to do because already people you know Harvard was already laying people off and telling the students that they couldn't come back in the fall and that just didn't seem the path for me at a sense that that wasn't what we were supposed to do and I remember I would continually say I think the Lord says take a step in faith I don't know what that's going to look like so I got from a friend of mine who who's related to the university he sent me an email he said you know what if what if we just gave free tuition to everyone I'm thinking like that's the stupidest thing I've ever said that yeah yeah yeah yeah out of the blue now his thing was to give it to everybody and all that and I thought so I just ignored it's like right that's just funny but I couldn't shake it you know I'd go to prayer it's like you know step in faith what would that look like so we finally went to our finance person I said what if hear me out yeah I said what what I said is what if we just provided free tuition to all because the question was were are new students going to come are freshmen going to come with everything going on and I said what if we just said all right this first semester because they're so it's scary I mean you remember what that was it was just yes so what if we just said they didn't have to pay tuition we just let them come uh any look he goes well that could be a really good idea maybe that's maybe that's what we're supposed to do so I kept on finding somebody to tell me but I mean honestly Matt this speaks to the type of people that we've got in the University if your finance officer is a great idea let's not take one I took it to the board and one of our board members said uh he goes this is a no-brainer I think this is exactly why is it a no-brainer what would have happened if you hadn't what what was the benefit of it I mean otherwise yeah freshmen but and that's just well we didn't know we didn't know or were kids going to come were students going to come um and by students you mean freshmen or free tuition what we did is all new students got free tuition and for the semester okay yeah and all returning students got a free semester of graduate school if they choose to do that and and part of it was again a step in faith I remember because it was a fairly substantial investment from our Board of Trustees approving that right and saying okay but but honestly people were interested Fox News they ended up doing a piece on this and they were like what are you doing when when schools were literally doing exactly the opposite saying you can't come you can't come you're saying you can come right and for free it was funny we didn't know Kabuto was the guy who Fox News who was talking he goes he goes honestly father this is just a shot at the Jesuits isn't it I said no no but but what I ultimately said was that near near francis's death he said I have done what is mine to do may the Lord show you what is yours and I said this is what the Lord has for us to do right so honestly uh one of the markers yeah yeah there's just a lot there was a lot around this that one of the faculty members came and he got emotional and he said father Dave I've been here for 12 years um this is the first time I really felt like we bet on ourselves we're betting on ourselves that the thought was that we're going to do this and they're going to come and they're going to experience what we have at the University and they'll stay yeah what would have been a train wreck is if if everybody would have come and said okay I've got my semester and now we're going on and we're not going to come back that really would have been but that's not what happened that's not what happened so a couple things one my goal was if we invited to be people to be a part of it we said if you like what's going on you think this is cool help support us I was in my office one afternoon and and I hear my secretary she's going through the mail and she goes oh my oh no father Dave you need to see this well who's there this guy wrote a check out of his checkbook for a million dollars no way yeah he said I heard what you're doing he goes I've never seen anything like this but but what it spoke to me is when people see individuals or institutions operating in faith they want to be a part of that yeah so we got 3.4 million dollars of donations in a little over a year to this program people saw that and they said I want to be a part of that and I think part of what's going on now is still a Grace of that is and I would share with the faculty and staff that it's not this isn't a one and done that this is how we we as Christians are called to operate this this getting out of the boat and walking on water I mean I I imagine what Peter must have felt like the first step or two it's like dude this is crazy I'm literally walking on water it's not a bad place to be a bad place to be that says Lord if you don't come through I'm going to drown I mean I mean I pray this I said Lord if this doesn't work out this is gonna be the shortest presidency in the history because I'd only been there for seven months and uh um with the Lord wow yeah he's really blessing I mean that is what we said earlier let my faith be less of a syllogism more of a love affair I mean that's an active faith that really believes in a real Jesus Christ it really blesses people yeah and works yeah so it's cool so I think part of it is is the grace to that yeah um I wanna I wanna talk about uh the kind of encroaching wave of wokism upon universities and see what you guys are doing but I want to preface that by saying this um we live in a sexually broken confused Society we don't know what men are apparently we don't know what women are apparently we don't know what marriage is we're not even really sure what sex is and so the people coming out of this are people like me and Neil and you and others so obviously we want to minister to those who are confused or in sin we want to love them and welcome them but like so where's that balance between loving and welcoming people who are coming into your universities now and also putting the foot down and saying no men can't become women and I don't know I actually don't know what Franciscan has done about this I'm looking forward to learning yeah yeah I mean the balance so where is that balance and I think the balance is truth is that we're living in a world that is just I mean I mean the word truth is to some it's Oprah to the woke right well what do you mean by truth Your Truth they get nervous just about that word that I'm trying to put upon them truth and what is truth I mean pilate said what is truth right and the world is saying the same thing is is what is truth is that that ultimately we live in a world that has totally rejected any sense of objective truth even it's funny again this could be as a tangent but during covet it was all follow the silence follow the signs follow the science but let's not follow the science on this I mean the the whole idea of what is male and what is female I mean that's an objective reality that that one can determine that through science and yet we now are being invited to just ignore that to close your eyes towards that and and I think honestly that we as as a university particularly as a university have something to say to this that that we've got the different Sciences so we can ask the question of what is male what is female from a theological point of view we can ask it from a philosophical point of view we can ask it from a biological point of view and what we find when we find that is that it brings us to the same place right but we live in a world that wants to separate all that and separate the the truth and the reality from what an individual feels um yeah and and that's I think I think again as you University we have a particular voice that we can give to the chaos that we find ourselves in right now but you're absolutely right Matt is that we've got more and more young people that are I used to say that that they were questioning um you know who am I who Am I who am I now it's what am I and that's a fundamentally different question I mean one of the questions that we're we're dealing with in the university is one of the individuals kind of an older Professor was talking about you know the whole gay lesbian trans gay and lesbian issue and and that issue and how we wrestle with that but why is it that the transgendered it seems to be even so deeper and more difficult and one of our theology persons had because it's a philosophical question this is a metaphysical question it's what who am I it's not merely about sexual morality right or sexual attraction right right but this is this gets to the very fundamental identity of the human person and and the idea that the wokism the woke culture says is that I'm the determining I get to determine what that is where we as Catholic Christians no no no no that's that's been determinist it's very part of our DNA it's been determined by by creation from the very beginning so that's why I love this I love this discussion I love this conversation because I think Francis University stands in contrast to again other other schools other Catholic schools I pray that they're being faithful but what I know is that we're going to be faithful and and that the light of God the light of the church the light of the scriptures is going to help illuminate that discussion and with us yeah so how do you guide your professors in this is there any because I'm sure people are confused I don't know what it's like have you had people because I know it's obviously you probably have an influx of conservative kids or kids who are faithful Christians but are you also having people who are living lgbtq Lifestyles who are telling you I am actually a woman when they're a man is that happening yet and and what kind of advice do you give to your professors how do they deal with that yeah yeah we actually talked quite a bit about it is is that happening not a lot now part of that could be people are choosing not to come because they know what we represent um as you and I were talking later I wrote a piece for USA Today when this whole situation was taking place with a swimmer at Penn I'm you're familiar with it is it the Leah Thomas yeah yeah yeah so he wants to I mean he literally is swimming for the men's team because away and coven comes back and he's now swimming for the women's team and it's being applauded and celebrated him good for you for doing that we mean no disrespect but I think it's great that you're doing that because not at all yeah it really bothers me even the words biological mail session let me tell my story thank you very much so I you know I was I was just praying one morning and actually watching that morning um we had an athlete at the University she's about five foot nothing just tough as Nails she's All-American Runner and just I was just watching and thinking about her and very simply what's fair you know that if an individual quote identifies as a woman and now races against her she doesn't have a chance so I wrote a piece called The Body Matters I mean it wasn't I I didn't the first draft was more a little bit theological but we finally came to was just pretty simple The Body Matters you know the the human person is is flesh and Bone and and that matters right and I said that it simply I said I look at the president I look at one of my students who who trains hard and works hard it's not right it's not fair that she should have to compete against an individual that has a male body and in the male muscular in all of this I said scientifically there's a reason why we have categories and weights and men's and women's sports and all that and so I submitted it to USA Today which was I didn't honestly I didn't figure they would accept it I think so but they did with with a couple of stipulations and actually we went back and forth on whether or not we wanted to to go ahead and cop and let them print it one of them was the use of biological male or female they wouldn't allow you an individual their editorial board won't allow you to use that term so they said uh if if you're going to do this we're going to have to not use that language so honestly myself and my team we came back and we prayed about it we thought about it we said do we still want to go with this and obviously we chose to go with it to allow that change to be made partly because there was no sense of Reason anywhere in this conversation everything was was Pro what was going on and and I said at least it provides a voice that is that is the other side and then what was the other thing that they changed I I forget what was USA Today your first pick I would have thought well what we put it out in lots of various I I think that we as as Catholic Christians have a duty if we have a god platform have a duty and obligation to enter into that arena is is that we need I mean there are Catholic Publications that would have printed it exactly the way I wanted but I think we need to dialogue with the world the unbelieving world we need to dialogue with that we need to be a voice of reason a voice of sensibilities The Voice of Truth ultimately so have you got much pushback for that well it's interesting Catholics and because whenever I speak about this I'll have a good deal of Catholic sort of write to me even privately and say don't get into these issues just talk about the beauty of the Catholic faith no need to get into these sort of thornier things what do you did you get any of that and what was your response I mean you get the typical I mean Francis University just got voted in Ohio one of the worst places to go to school if you're LGBT and you want to you know live in that activism World which you need to make that okay I mean that does that doesn't bother me at all in fact it was interesting and we had this in another situation that yeah that we're just not going to buy into that we're not going to buy into that world we're not going to buy into the world Chasm world the whole cancer this is something that I think about the whole being canceled all that so I was praying about this one morning and and when I wrote that article and then we had a situation with an individual who who pulled out a pride flag I saw that yeah and on stage graduation right and and we we cut that out of the of the um right and we just got from one contingent of the population we got a lot of crap about that and how could you do this and blah blah blah well I mean again Francis University is going to be faithful to the teachings of the church we're going to be faithful to the gospel and that's just inconsistent and it's the other it's rude I mean it's just rude that's just civility in the middle of it we're awarding you right right in the middle of it and it was a graduate student she there's a whole thing went to it well so an individual um wrote me in with a check and said uh father Dave you continue to do things that make me proud and he said I want to support what you're doing yeah and I think yes we get pushed back and yes we get people but you know to that end somebody said to me aren't you afraid that you're going to be canceled that's a good question yeah because if this continues and it is when when does this become a civil rights issue yeah that's that's a big question but the whole Council I found myself thinking reflecting on that that um you can't cancel somebody who hasn't subscribed right so if you've got a subscription something you can cancel it I don't subscribe to that world I don't subscribe to the world view that that says there is no difference between men and women I don't subscribe to the world view the truth can't be known I don't subscribe to the world view that says human person determines what is the human percentage subscribe to the world view of What is marriage and so from that perspective uh what does it look like to be canceled I don't know now there are other legal issues that are going on in the culture in the world today that we need to be attentive to I mean there is a part of me that that gets a little anxious I don't want to draw undue attention at the University because there are there are organizations out there that are looking for institutions and people to sue you know that's just the world that we live in I'm aware of that I'm attentive that I'm not going to be stupid but I'm also not going to hide and I think that the the nature of the Incarnation is a God who in in becomes a part of the messiness of the world he doesn't hide from it he doesn't run away from it he doesn't build a wall around but he enters that and and we need to be able to do that and now I always say at the University what we're going to do is we're going to do that in Truth uh we're going to do that in charity and we're going to do that humility take any three of those away you've got a problem but continuing to engage the world the Brokenness of the world individuals in the world with truth charity and humility yeah we'll throw the dice on that so how does uh like what Freedom does somebody have if they come to franciscaners and then they identify as gay and you know can they be uh flying around a rainbow flag is that an acceptable thing or where do you draw the line I when I'm because you want to avoid being sensorial presumably right right right yeah well one of the things is that the reality is do we have students on campus that that struggle with that and absolutely one of the things I'm really proud of is um about two years ago uh some students came and they wanted to start a program called Ina gratis uh Integrity the integration okay and what they wanted was a place where uh young men and women who are struggling with these questions and with these issues can come together and be disciples and be Community together but be faithful to the teaching of the church and be faithful to the gospel and this was a student initiative and we worked with them and they worked with a couple of the people from the theology department and from the Student Life department and and I really would I hope we're just actually we just came in publicly I just came out that sounds like but publicly with this because I really wanted them to have a couple of years of of working through this and what is I wanted to clear I don't want a support group you know they are not it is not a support group for being gay it is a support group for being a disciple of Jesus that's what it is and it's men and women who are asking questions and wrestling with these issues and struggling with it but they want to be faithful to the gospel they want to be faithful to the teachings of the church so I'm really really proud of our students that are doing this and in a program that they're getting with with [Music] um direction from from the Friars and direction from some of the faculty and staff but it was it was student initiated and student-led and it's really an exciting program these are some of the top questions that parents ask when they're calling Franciscan today not honestly not a lot Matt because um I think people more and more people know who we are and that's that's the thing about it that that you know when I wrote this piece that the USA Today USAA picked another uh op-ed piece that I wrote on on the abortion issue um on the abortion issue or transgender issue well I've written USA today's picked up two pieces that I've written on op-ed pieces one was on the abortion issue and then one was on the transgender issue people expect that I mean that's a good problem to have right people expect us to be faithful so that's there's actually that's quite liberating that that when I did this it wasn't like oh I'm surprised Francis University did this I'm surprised it's like yeah we would expect Francis University would expect father Dave uh to speak on this to speak to this yeah but you know you said earlier people know who we are but sometimes we think we know who people are and they start changing because of pressure yeah I think that's that's where my questions are coming from like at what point does the pressure grow so much that Franciscan starts making small allowances here and there until they're Awash in wokism but sounds like it's not happening there's there's a I'm sure you know who Vince Lombardi is you do I know the name oh good good good so he was obviously I think they won two or three Super Bowls in a row and and then over a couple years their team was horrible and they asked him what happened and he said it was death by inches yeah he said it was a lot of smaller decisions that they made that individually didn't seem like such a big deal but when they look back on it so that's that's the thing is we we try to continue to ask the question we want to continue to to be faithful to the teachings of the church and yeah I mean we're continually doing the best that we can now with that being said your initial question is [Music] um we have more and more young people that are being deeply impacted by the culture today and and we've got really good students really smart kids that want to love God and want to be faithful to the church but there's no way depending on in some ways what their upbringing is that they can't be impacted by this you know so we have to recognize that and see that that we can't do ministry we can't treat them the same that we did 25 years ago because the world that they're coming out of is substantially different I mean honestly some of the things that quote unquote the culture finds normal today 25 years ago would have been I was just going to say that can you imagine going back in time and telling Father Michael Scanlon what sort of things you're going to have to resonate with in 2022 no I mean just I mean some of these what is a man I mean that's that's ridiculous the fact that we even have to have this conversation and discussion so so they're being impacted by that so we want to be really intentional about the formation one of the lines that maybe they get tired of me is saying is that what does a profit demand again in the world and lose his soul right so so that we've got a student who's been well quote unquote educated that's great formed for a career that's fantastic but if they're not being formed to be a saint as well then we're doing something wrong as Catholic University so that we want to see that the young people are being formed educated and and sent out right this is The Franciscan sent out on the mission whatever it is business person doctor lawyer teacher and that they want to love the Lord be faithful to the Lord I just had a friend Tony Foy did you meet him he just came in from Ireland couldn't imagine some faculty he's the head of Ireland actually okay and he was sitting across the table for me here and he just got back from noon mass at Franciscan and his mouth is a jar like this is incredible and it really is that is the experience people like me from Australia or these other countries they come to America to these faithful pockets and it's blown away yeah because you guys have packed to the gills yeah no it's really we have four masses a day that's really cool one of the times we had somebody was you know mother came out she was visiting with her daughter and she was crying and she said I've never seen anything like that yeah I mean there's something about being with a community that gets it that worships that loves the Lord that loves the sacraments that recognizes Jesus presence yeah I'm I'm I I love it I just side note love living in Steubenville yeah yeah that's great I really do I think for a while in the beginning I kept telling myself that because I wanted to kind of like it's like when your intellect has to lead the emotions yeah come on yeah but the more I'm here I just love it um so last night was it last night yeah last night the Newtons had praise and worship at their house my kids like can we please go to praise them worship and I didn't want them yeah because it's been we've had several late nights so we need to go to bed look fine all right all right yeah and just when I was at so I I was ordained a graduate from the University I got ordained here um you'd asked why the franciscans yeah I I partly probably because five brothers you know Brotherhood was has been really really important to me um I knew that I couldn't do this by myself you know I think I again God bless the diocesean later the priests and that's really heroic and I just I I maybe I'm not strong enough I don't know but I knew that I needed accountability I knew that I needed Brothers I knew that I need guys to kick me in the butt but then also that I could Journey with but the other is the main charism of my communities met in Oya which is that that constant continual conversion the first time I heard that word was on net so that when I was looking at this particular Franciscan Community the tors and saw that their main charism was met noi there was something that just resonated in that so that's why I joined this community but so as ordained worked here for a number of years left or and then came okay where you left you said and I was at the University I left I was reassigned from from the University for yeah eight for about 11 years but I was driving through Steubenville in February of 2019. February in studentville is not the most beautiful place in the world not the most beautiful place in the world and I'm driving through I was invited to come and give a talk on campus and um February and the Lord was already speaking in just some sense of change and so I'm going through I'm looking at the town and I said to myself you know stoomfield's kind of charming and as soon as I said that I said oh oh crap something's going on in about maybe four weeks later there was a change at the University of the president and and my provincial called and asked if I would be open to being nominated to be the president it's like oh Lord you duped me and I let myself be duped but the rest is history so how did that go down oh yeah yeah yeah so um well it was funny because I was traveling full-time doing kind of itinerant preaching and mending and preaching and my provincial calls me and he said Dave you know the university is going to be looking for a new president and I'm wondering if you'd be open to allowing me to submit your name because that's how that works with obedience and all that yeah and honestly what I said to him I said uh I said father Malachi I've not been in a meeting for eight years and he said I do not intend to start now he said your life's about to change yeah so I mean it's interesting because I worked with father Mike for his last two years as president and um he was it was one of those things that that people had talked to over the year gee I wonder if Father David be president but they were almost there came to this paint well that maybe that wasn't mine to do I was involved in some Ministry that I'd been working on and with a wild goose and traveling and all that and uh but you know I remember just praying about it and ultimately Lord your will be done that's one of the things that I love about my life is that rarely does an individual discern something by themselves but that we've got my Province my community and then with this the Board of Trustees and the university that discern this I came to that place where yeah they felt that that's what God wanted me to do so I know we don't want to base our success on other people's opinions it's a really bad idea especially if you're on YouTube in the comment section I don't do that anymore but everybody is so thrilled who I talk to like everybody who works the university just oh I'll say how it was like a breath of fresh air when you came in it's been a great blessing yeah wow so did the tors I don't know much about this particular order when I was Discerning priest I was looking in the capuchins and I looked at the cfrs because they seemed super hardcore and I probably would have lasted there a week but but did the tors go through a sort of crazy period in the 70s or whatever or yeah well first off just to maybe shed some light on that that the Francis started three orders so I liked a joke that it took Francis three times to get it right so he did yeah what does that mean that's what I'm going to tell you okay Patience by the way so Francis Francis has a conversion and uh and then he he becomes a part of what's kind of like a rcia group the order of penitence so it was if you've had notorious Sinners they in the early churches who've been in the late 1100s uh is part of this group called The Order of penitence uh and it was a time of reparation and Penance and that kind of thing so then Francis since we all know the story he's a friend of the sun demand across rebuild my church so I begin to rebuild a church he sends the Lord sends him Brothers to begin to do that then he started the second order which is the poor Claires and then um the that what he was seeing is that the first door is largely mendicant moving all around and he wants to start a community that's going to stay kind of settled and and where they are and bring about transformation yeah so what he did is he went back to that those group of friends that he had that were the order of penitence and he started at Francisco third order regular of penance so our full name is Francisco no way but the thought was is and it's really one of those there's a couple of distinguishing things between the third order and the first order and that is one of them is actually the way we view poverty is that the first order is without property this the third order would be the right use of property because Franciscan third order were always involved in health care hospitals and education so it wasn't realistic of you being able to do your ministry without things without stuff without books I mean there's a huge debate in the early Franciscan should you have books well the third order if you're going to be Educators you've got to have books so that so what you see and again this is so simplistic but what you see in the first order over the centuries is one of splitting and it's largely not always but largely about poverty what does it look like to live poverty in the 1100s in the 1200s the 1400s the 1800s so you see these multiple splits so in the late part of the 18 around 1890 something seven maybe there was all kinds of first order franciscans just and they have what's now called the leonine union that all the Friars had to come about you have to be either ofm and ofm conventional or ofm Capuchin but even in that so the cfrs was a split from the ofm capuchins about what does it look like to live poverty and live be faithful to the gospel be Faith so whereas the first order do you see more of that you don't see a lot of that in the third order there's just kind of a difference of of the focus of the ministry and how we live our life now back to what honestly my community's always been I mean it's been pretty straight down the middle I mean it's not not extreme on necessarily the liberal side are not extreme lesser the conservative side and it's actually one of the reasons I I was drawn to the community was one of my concerns was was I able to be myself right um I visited some groups it was kind of cookie cutter they all look the same they all kind of the same and and that just that's just not uh Cindy Walker said if you've met one you've probably heard this if you've met one Franciscan toi you've met one friend yeah that's true but I I appreciate that that's good and my thought was um they were seeking to be holy but that doesn't always look exactly the same you know so I felt that I could live the life the Lord was calling me to and I could be faithful to that and it was it's been a good and has your order been influenced by the renewal or is it just this order in this part of the country around Franciscan or yeah I would say across the board the percentage-wise my community has been more impacted by the Renault partly because of Francis University I mean a lot of our vocations come through the university yeah yeah so I would say probably more than some I wanted to ask you about having Jordan Peterson on campus how that came about and yeah it was really it was really a wonderful experience how it came about was an individuals the support of the University said is this something you would be even be open to I said sure I would I would be open to that but I also knew that it would be difficult to get him to find a schedule that would work yeah um it's expensive a lot a lot that went into that so I said let's just begin to look and see what if it's possible and honestly Matt everything just kind of fell into place and and there was a the process of us being vetted like was he willing to come to us was fairly extensive really I had asked him about that because it basically doesn't visit college campuses anymore he says it's just it's just a Minefield in fact it's interesting he would state that when you take a look at the whole world of wokism and and what's going on in the culture he would lay that at the feet of a higher education he said it's just such a train wreck and and we're not about educating the higher education largely about creating activists and so but they've edited us and they looked at us and they say okay there seems to be something different about this school so obviously he ended up coming it was funny though because when we we we're told ahead of time that he was going to come to the university but as soon as he came to town we picked him up at around 8 30 in the morning he's going to go directly to his hotel he must have a private plane there's no way he's boarding yeah this was a private plan yeah yeah can you imagine yeah no I can't no I can't like you're the president of Franciscan I'm sure you get stopped at airports occasionally can you imagine yeah yeah yeah you know I don't know how he always flies but again we had a donor who who helped out with that which that was profoundly grateful but we picked him up and he said okay what's the plan I said well we were told you you want to go back to your hotel he goes he goes no he goes if I go back to my hotel I'm just gonna sleep the whole time so I said we'd love to show you around the university it was fantastic he walked around with us for about an hour and a half it was all it was just really beautiful and that like we walked by one of our residence hall is Colby Claire and he'd never heard the story of maximilating Colby so it was really really cool to tell I had this experience when I worked in China a number of times with the underground church and to be able to tell the story of Maximum Colby to somebody who's never heard the story maximum Colby was really cool and it was really very moved by that took him to the portion because it's a small town you're probably about to but please embe I really want you to focus on this point because this is one of the best responses to okay now now I feel like I'm gonna mess it up okay just don't okay don't yeah just don't mess it up all right correct yeah correct me oh I don't know okay I I already know because I heard you tell it yeah you know homily yeah no but um so we're going down and I was trying to explain to him what he was going to see and I said okay that we as Catholics believe that that we have adoration we you're gonna see a monster I try to put in his mind where he was going to see it so you're gonna see kids kneeling down and I said we believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist and it's not just a symbol and he said well what's wrong with this symbol and I said well I would rather have you with me here than just a symbol and he said ah that makes sense yeah what a great answer yeah and it was just it was just one you know how bug you know how angry I would be if I finally went to see Jordan Peterson and it was a hologram yeah yeah exactly exactly right right one video or something like that you're kidding me yeah so you said what's wrong with the symbol wouldn't be happy yeah yeah he and he said oh that makes sense so he he went in the blessings he went into the protein and um he said that he said there's a sense of peace there's a sense of calm there we invited him to liturgy I think were you at mass that day I wasn't but I my understanding is this was the very first Holy Mass he has ever attended to Franciscan University right right no ever period obviously and he attended at Francis University right he'd never been to mass before yeah and he's actually spoke of it several times people have have reached out to me he was at a he went up to Akron a couple days later probably three or four or five times over the last many months he's talked about his experience at Francis University but it was it was a while he sat in the front row I mean it was really as you know were you celebrating I was I was it was was everybody you're more interested in Jordan than the Blessed Eucharist or no no brother they were more interested in the Eucharist that's why we're there people were like they're Whispering the front row and he's like I guess this is what happens at Holy Mass people just whisper a lot and look at you you know though he he watched with an intensity and paid attention with intensity that was just really moving we're trying not to stare well I mean he was right in my face because he's trying not to direct your homily at him about converting maybe slipped in a word or two but let me just say a point to that point Matt it was really interesting because we talked about this ahead of time um he he shared with me I mean in essence he shared it's hard being me it's you know he said I said what's this like he said I want my life back you know and the other thing he shared is that he feels like a piece of meat like who's gonna win that's prize like we don't really care about the truth but just right that's exactly what I said to my team here I said our job is to welcome him to care for him to be hospitable to him and let the Lord work out the rest you know and he said the Muslim Community wants me the Evangelical Community wants me the Catholic Community wants me um but but now we also knew that that his wife that their lord is doing something his wife and she has a Devotion to the rosary and big thanks to shout out to Bishop Robert Barron yeah he's been open about that that it's his Bishop Robert Baron's videos that are kind of have inspired her to pray the day so it was interesting when he was on the phone talking with his wife and and said um you need to come and see this place he said that there's just something different about this place and it was really really beautiful and and I actually at man I must say I appreciate your tax at the end of the night you guys gotta bring that up yeah I really did appreciate that it was um it was funny because going into it everyone's saying are you nervous are you scared because he gave a talk for about an hour and then he and I taught for about an hour and they said you're never too scared it's like well I wasn't until everybody starts saying you know um but yeah I thought it went I thought it went quite beautifully yeah I'm gonna see if I can pull up that uh that text message that I sent you here goodness knows no I don't know if I have it it's because I keep changing phones but I'll tell you what I loved about it right now oh you have it I don't know if I do or not let's look it up yeah that interview is in my opinion way better than that did you go Neil no no I don't have it I've got here I've got Matt Fred too so you must have had several times in August no here's what I loved about it all right if I was in your shoes here's the mistake all the mistakes I would have made I think I would have tried to match his psycho Babble jargon I knew I couldn't do that I'm not saying it's John I'm not saying he's a win back he's terrific and insightful and intelligent and wonderful but I you know number one I could say that would be one flaw you just try to match him with that and impress him uh number two you just let him talk the whole time or you just you you talk too much or you just get too preachy and kind of it gets weird you did the perfect balance you just you you proclaim the gospel to him simply and beautifully thank you man and it never got weird it never got cringe at all yeah I was so proud of it thank you so much yeah I I enjoyed it I appreciate it it's but it does speak to like when I was hired at the University part of the interview process I said um you're hiring a priest you're hiring a Shepherd you're hiring a father you're hiring a pastor and I said if you want the best administrator that's probably not me but if you want to hire somebody who wants to Shepherd a community who wants to care for a community who wants to challenge it to me I said the very one of the first things I said is the father any father is going to say some things that the kids don't want to hear I said but I'm going to try to love you enough that I'm going to continue to do that so that's what I tried to do I just tried to have a conversation as somebody who cared for him and yeah so that's great thanks how to how did it wrap up because I mean he waves and people cheer and go off the stage did he head back that night or yeah he did he did yeah he actually spent the night and then he left the next morning and we're at we're having a little bit more dialogue to see if there's something more that we could do to work together and uh but again his world is why is he so popular right now that's a great question and it's interesting I need to Nuance this one of the things that I appreciated when I first started listening to him honestly and again I'll Nuance this was that it wasn't necessarily from a faith perspective it was uh from a psychological perspective that I thought was was good it was balanced it was common sense um it was reasoned it was articulate it was passionate um now obviously I want him to come to Faith I want that for him and for for the goodness of him but sometimes people will say well you believe that because you're Catholic you believe that but so I actually appreciate that um but I think he speaks common sense um I don't know the Christian World maybe why he's popular is he's saying a lot of the things that we believe that we've forgotten about yeah but he says him differently enough that you're like oh something new about it yeah like for example I did a video recently on what Jordan Peterson has to say about cohabitation and I was like kind of angry because we've been saying this forever yeah no one listens to us he's really down on her habitation and the way he explains it is just so fresh and beautiful I also heard somebody say that maybe what Christians are receiving today as a spiritual formation but not a human formation and so maybe they're kind of stunned by those two things that's a good answer Neil do we have do we have that video for a break and then we can come back and take some questions or is that um yeah okay but we have the music all right I'll do the ad reads right now is that okay yeah number one hallow is the best meditation and prayer app on the web today have you heard of hella aha it's really good yeah he's gonna be with us Alex I'll agree with us I had Alex in studio he's amazing yeah so he's a convert from I don't know about Buddhism but New Age stuff and he was listening to New Age apps on how to meditate and when he became Catholic I know you know this I'm telling them yeah I can tell you too but yeah he's like we need to have something I'll tell you right now hallow is way better than the other apps he referred me to like calm and these other ones so I want to recommend people go right now click the link in the description below hello.com Matt frad hallow.com you can have Scott Hahn read to you at night and then you'll see him in the morning and feel very awkward but uh yeah they'll lead you through the rosary they've got beautiful books system Miriam James do do you have anything on there we're actually we're recording next week are you our house is coming in yeah h-a-l-l-o-w.com versus one of corporate sponsors with them we I love what hell is doing and we part of that for a while yeah they're really faithful to the church in fact Jordan Peterson just interviewed Peter craft like I told you and about 15 minutes to go watch that you know 15 minutes in hallow starts getting advertised like I need to charge them more because that must not but then I do not have the reach he does but anyway hello.com go and down a bit here's the thing if you go to that URL instead of just downloading it from their website you'll get three months for free so you can try it out for three months if you really like it it's so funny like you go into the Adoration chapel today and you see people with earphones and you know what they're doing yeah they're listening to the Led Zeppelin all right second thing I want to tell people about is Exodus 90 Exodus 90 correct me neil.com Matt you did Exodus 90. it's brutal yeah yeah I hate it so much even on Advertising it probably won't do it again but they have a 21 day challenge which is a little bit doable yeah yeah and there's different things to it for example you have to fast until three o'clock every day on all weekdays so there's different different elements in it they've got a really sophisticated app that connects you with a Brotherhood so Exodus 90 is an assetical program for men check them out Exodus 90.com Matt is it it yeah Link in the description click the link in the description below and check it out if you wanna jump start your spiritual life if you're feeling sluggish if you want to you know you know that there's more and you've just been dragging your feet go look at their website and see the different programs they offer because uh it's bloody hard but people who've done it say it's really great cold showers yep you know uh you know I found I was doing I'd no nothing not the 21 days okay okay 21 days you're gonna have alcohol you can no no they never specify but I'm just joking but um that was a bad joke sorry uh you you but yeah you you could have warm showers alcohol but there's a lot of other things that make it difficult but doable um but I found the cold showers difficult when I did Exodus 90 and I would actually find them like it's been two days and I haven't had a shower yeah honey well I'd be in the shower just shouting out the names of people I was offering it up for yeah that's great that's awesome anyway cool terrific do you want to go on break no I let's be honest the only reason I ever have a break is I have a video that plays Those ads so okay I'd have to read them awkwardly in front of my guests okay let's keep going yeah so what's on the horizon for you uh what's on the horizon um well yeah you mentioned we talked a little bit about the wild goose but I'm really kind of excited about well yeah just what that is is um while Goose was I wrote a book on what I call Breath of God okay and my yeah what really motivated that again was back to the conversation we had about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit and baptism the holy spirit is that um if I believe that if we're going to grow in the spiritual life we need the presence of the holy spirit in our life it's just it's not it's not an option now one of the things that make this distinction is that is that we need the spirit of Jesus whether or not a person's involved in the charismatic renewal is a movement whatever fine if you want to be part of that great but well and this is interesting because one of the things that I see is that there are some people who dismiss relationship with the holy spirit because they say oh that's charismatic I don't want to have anything to do with that which is ludicrous I mean Jesus literally says that I have come to baptize you in the Holy Spirit I mean John says I've come baptize you in water one will come greater than I will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and Jesus says go to Jerusalem wait for the promise of the father you'll see the baptism of the holy spirit so we need that Holy Spirit but what I was Finding is I was traveling all the time is is looking around and is the same story that Aquinas Aquinas is looking out it is students he says how is it possible that that they've been baptized and confirmed in receive Eucharist but they don't seem to be living at Dynamic Faith Life and he talks about that the spirit is in one sense it's dormant it's asleep in Us and something needs to awaken that so yeah I I did a book called Breath of God but I also was highly cognizant of the reality that some people aren't going to read so I wanted to create something that would be more visual there'd be more artistic that would be beautiful and we did the Wild Goose The Wild Goose was a term for the Holy Spirit by the ancient Cults I love the image I love the image right it's not it's not a domesticated Dove that you put in a in a cage but there's a wildness to a goose that I thought was and if you pay attention when you hear that and you look at some of the art in various churches you'll see these images that you weren't even aware of it is that how does that relate to I want to be careful here but wild goose chase is that completely separate yeah the the is the website or there is a wild goose chase oh I I don't know that's a good question find out Google when did you uh do this uh program these videos yeah 2016 because I saw some of them was really impressed at the Quality yeah they're really really beautiful uh 4 P.M media yeah yeah um Dan Johnson graduate of the university and Mary he and his wife um but that's one things we wanted on to see is a couple things we wanted to do one we wanted to make it beautiful you know too often times we just kind of put up a camera and film something we wanted it to be beautiful the the beauty of the what you're seeing and experiencing we also want to make it available for free you know that we didn't we wanted to make it available to as many people as possible so that was our marketing plan people came to us and said oh you guys marketing plan was genius it's like we didn't have a marketing plan right um but yeah from that then we did a follow-up to that called metanoia and and what were was just really focusing on Jesus and what we're working on now is uh through that is the father um just you know over the last couple of years just really being convinced that that we've got a struggle in the church today with men and women really believing that they've got a father that loves them and a father that wants to Father them and be present to them and again I think it goes to some of the issues we have earlier that the the one of the tactics of the evil one is to break down the family breakdown fatherhood and and that needs to be highlighted and restored so on personal that's working on some of that and then the university we are celebrating our 75th Anniversary which has been fantastic one thing I've noticed and I want what you think about this is it seems like the charismatics are becoming more traditional over the years and maybe I'm wrong in that assessment but it would just seem to me let me just kind of play this I got a few thoughts on this right so it's like um I know that's kind of true of me I know that's true of many others and it's not as if they've left the charismatic thing behind but there just seems to be this new Love and appreciation of the Liturgy and of um yeah yeah kind of traditional prayer and in general and I don't know I maybe it's that the kind of charismatic era within the church was unfairly associated with some of the unfortunate innovations that took place so our Cigar Lounge that we're starting down here on 4th Street we had to rip through dumb dry uh drop ceiling and shag carpet and someone's like who would do this and I said I guess the same guy who came up with a liturgical abuse so they thought this would be fun and yeah it really really wasn't um so I guess that might be one question but I think I think there is some truth to that because is that there has been seeing that and seeing some of the individuals that I know that have moved towards that but one of the things that I would say I remember having this conversation that that I don't believe the two are mutually exclusive you know I don't think that there there's I think the evil one yeah how could how could they possibly be a beautiful liturgy and like worshiping in the Holy Spirit yeah yeah no in the evil one would desire to taste the Feast of the archangels and it talks about the evil one to the being the the liar in the divisive and obviously Michael comes in and kicks his butt um so so I think that's something that's important but one somebody said to me one time I was doing an interview and they said is it possible that Franciscan University could be a place where you can pray in Latin and pray in tongues is that is actually is it possible that those worlds could actually live together and I think it is it is possible for that and part of it is you're right I think uh allowing you for the the Transcendent for the beauty yeah I think in a time of kind of what they call like liquid modernity where we have no history and we don't belong to anything there's this desire to recover the beauty of Catholicism but no it is it is really cool like I I never went well I mean what's more traditional than Pentecost right right we celebrate the birthday of the church is Pentecost is it not yes and and I think that there needs to be an awareness of that and a recognition of that having not been from here I don't know the history of the place as I said earlier but one thing I found really interesting is yeah you have these beautiful praise and worship nights but then when I go to daily mass you also see these Sheilas and mantias and kneeling down to receive Eucharist and yeah it's beautiful it's beautiful it's it's a church again my my concern is that when the the evil one and we we unfortunately too often times participate with that we create these divisions that don't need to exist yeah amen amen so I've got some questions here which I haven't gone I haven't read through yet so we'll see come from our local supporters so okay people are watching this live right yeah we have 427 people watching right now all right it's unclear where the term comes from and uh the wild goose uh holy spirit is from the early church and also there was a sacking of Rome that was attempt I think it was Rome where the as the Gauls were coming in the geese were making a lot of noise so it woke all the soldiers up oh how cool like a vigilance thing too do you concur I do I do that's absolutely I think she Cults now some people confuse confuse it with Gray Goose uh graceful Catholic says what's the best way to encourage our children to discern religious life versus technical college versus mainstream College that's a good question [Music] um well I guess the just yeah the big question is it relates to discernment um authentic discernment is always between two goods and that's important that we recognize that that I don't have to discern between whether or not I should be a priest or I should be a drug dealer in Vegas right so it's always between two goods and to that end the Lord desires to fulfill the deepest desire of our hearts Psalm Psalms speak up interesting Champion he said the Lord Delights in doing the will of those who love him which seems to be opposite of what we would think but so part of that is what is the deepest desire of the the heart of of your son or daughter and really being able to help them walk through that and and discover that now for me that that takes a while like as I mentioned earlier I as a fairly young age I thought about maybe the Lord was calling me to be a priest but I also dated you know I added girlfriends and so the heart is fickle I remember being back at the University as a student writing in my journal you know Lord I'm so grateful that now I understand that I'm called to be a called to get married trade well I also had this huge crush on this girl right so the the discernment takes time because our heart is their secrets of our heart that we don't know so I think that's part of it is is what is the deepest desire the heart of the individual and that that needs to be with with spiritual Direction and with counsel because if we merely follow our hearts in this like whatever my heart says that's not what I'm saying it's it's that deepest desire because the deepest hour my heart is where the Lord dwells so to be able to discover that so that's the first point is that is that the Lord is inviting us to follow him and be faithful to him you know and again part of it is I'm gonna probably pay for this but I don't think necessarily everybody's called to University you know I don't think everybody's called to get a degree and and what is it that they ultimately are going to be about being the person that God created them to be be about participating in the kingdom in the building of the kingdom of God and something that that's life-giving you know so for some that's going to be University for others it's not going to be University now as it relates to reli and she didn't necessarily it's a she was a she yes she didn't necessarily say this but I think that one of the things that having dealt with young people for a lot when they're Discerning whether or not to be a religious or Discerning to be married it's interesting because I think sometimes they focus more on the ends rather than the process of getting there and so the one piece of advice I always give is is first off discern whether or not you're called to be celibate because if you're not called to be celibate you're not called to be a priest right so if you're if you sense that you're being called to be celibate okay Lord how am I supposed to live that celibacy out and that's a whole nother yes I was going to ask you that question wait I mean there's there's a lot of people today who are like why why would I send my kids to University not just because of the work influence but just because there are other things that they could be doing and it feels like America has it feels like in America people think if I don't go to university then there's something wrong with me which in Australia it's not like that people go get a trade they go do something useful with their lives yeah yeah no I think that's actually important well first off there's there's the education and the degree depending on what a person's called to as far as the work and the ministry that they're involved in there's also the which for me was so important was just the formation the human formation the spiritual formation the social formation that takes place in those four years from 18. it's interesting studies say that from these are kids that are actively going to church by the time when they're 18 by the time they're 23 70 are not going to church anymore those years are profoundly important um and I think that choosing no matter where you do but being very intentional about that choosing an area in a place in transition that's going to help support your faith you know I think it's it's really no you're exactly right I mean the formation that you get at a school like Franciscan is is huge we already talked about that the peer pressure to be a saint um Emma asks how can lay 21st century Americans better imitate Saint francis's example yeah that's a great question um well one of the things Francis would go on to say is that the Lord invited me to live Penance and to preach Penance so if you read francis's text he's often talking about Penance but for him what we think of penance is like a singular thing we go to confession we do our Penance for for Francis it was it was a way of life it was a way of living so what does that look like for the person today Francis would say there were five elements to it first off love God love him and give your heart to him put him in the center of your life next he said would love your neighbor love that individual love the leper the person that just drives you crazy and batty the next he would say is there needs to be hatred of sin we live in a world today that largely doesn't talk about Sin and and to our demise honestly so Francis said there needs to be hatred of sin the next he said frequent reception of the sacraments particularly Eucharist and confession and participating that and living that and then the last The Fifth Element of living Penance of Francis would say was living a life worthy of producing of penance of works of penance uh Works of Mercy Outreach to the poor evangelization catechesis those things so those five elements are in the life of the individual yeah that's great but the other thing that's really important again Francis if you've been to CZ I have okay so the Umbreon Valley you're standing up we're looking over the valley this was back in 2000 and I wasn't yet really a Christian and at least a practicing one so I don't remember it's beautiful so Caesar's kind of built up on a hill and he's overlooking the Umbreon Valley and this is for um religious life is fundamentally different after the time of Francis and he said the world is going to be my Cloister and he said I'm not gonna I'm not gonna build a wall around the Friars that separates us from the people um and and that's that's the nature of the Incarnation is that God enters the messiness and that's what that's key for Franciscan Francis University is that we we want to engage the world we want to graduate men and women that are going to go and they're going to become incarnational to the world so that was key for Francis as well is that you need to be able to engage the world to bring about transformation transformation is going to happen on from the inside yeah uh Jonah peace says what's the best way that young Catholic families can interact with Franciscan University and the student Bill Community from other parts of the country my husband and I are in Alaska raising young children we are not alumni but have watched father Dave's interviews and classes it's interesting I don't know what's going on in Alaska I think we have got five or six freshmen from Alaska this really it's crazy yeah well first off yeah we we do a lot that that's offered online but one of the great outreaches of the university is our conferences so every summer we've got for youth conferences we've got about 25 conferences around the country you've spoke for us obviously but how many people go to these 25 years BC before before covet about 60 000. yeah yeah so that's the other is that you know coming to it near you is but the other that we're doing that's really exciting this could actually be something that could be possible for someone in Alaska is we're providing Parish missions is that and you would appreciate this that there is there is a a really I think important Ministry it's called them event type Ministry where we come to a parish in a community and we put on a mission so if that's something you could interest in you could reach out to our Outreach office and we'd love to be able to do something like that for you with that being said Alaska is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been I've heard that it's just stunningly beautiful yeah uh interior castle one says we're in the UK do you know of any way my daughter can get a Catholic University education in the UK Europe without having to move to the US I went to maravail Institute in Birmingham England it's our graduate school is an undergraduate that's both is it yep that's both so I did a lot of my undergraduate there and that uh Cardinal John Henry Newman Cardinal Saint John Henry Newman um yeah his his room was right above the chapel that his kneeler is there and yeah honestly I'm not I'm not that familiar that that's certainly one I'm not familiar with a lot of others we do offer an online program in a couple of in a couple of areas theology philosophy business can someone get a theology degree undergrad you can distance yeah our preference is that um because education is formation so it's not the area that we necessarily want to go um as as a full board you know I think education especially 18 to 20 and 1825 being together being around each other is really really important but that's something that's available to the students in fact I think we've got 1100 online students this year so more and more people are taking an opportunity for that you tell when you get to go okay I don't want to keep it okay yeah Patrick Lord says fully embracing their Catholic identity has been beneficial for Franciscan so why don't more Catholic universities do the same I can't speak to that I don't know I mean I don't know I could make up some reasons but I don't know um we've touched this but if you want to take another swing at it feel free comes from Mary Beth hi Matt curious if the university has faced has been faced with any woke students who push transgender and critical race ideologies I realize the students there are primarily conservative but have they dealt with this what is their stand on these topics yeah I mean we do we we've got young people that are wrestling with that we've got yeah I mean it's it's foolish to say that that the kids aren't there but again and we honestly I don't think we necessarily answer the question well I mean my same desire for them for kids who are struggling with that is the same they have for anybody and that that's that they come to know Jesus and they come to know his love and come to know his healing and coming to know his mercy and his freedom so that's that's how I want to treat all of our kids um I would like to say that you know that if you're struggling with these that Francis University is the best place because there you're going to find a community that's going to love you but love you in truth you know not not just love isn't just one of the things that drives me crazy Matt is this this um Love Is Love all love is this it's not all of it is not the same I've had too many people come into my office that have been forced to do things in the Name of Love right all love is not the same and and I I've Been Loved by the Lord and I've Been Loved by other people and and I know it's not the same but my hope and my desire is that we can have an environment where young people can can wrestle with this and really ask honest questions I think the reality is is that maybe sometimes at the University it's the opposite is kids are afraid to admit that they're afraid to say you know I struggle with this it's you know kids will come to me and they said you know again because everything they've been told for 18 years is one thing to say father Dave I just don't understand what the church is saying I don't it doesn't make sense to me it doesn't seem nice is Jesus is loving what he really asks I remember somebody said to me actually this was a really beautiful encounter I had with a young man at the University who went to the movie um Lord of the Rings and I I'm you're gonna have to forgive me I'm not a huge student of Lord of the Rings um thank you he's the one with the ring correct tons of judgment coming here I felt it coming across right now as soon as I said this yeah yeah all right good um so the young guy was in my office and um he he struggled with with same-sex attractions and he said father Dave I watched this movie and I was just like weeping it's like what's going on and he said uh the ring he said I know what that's like he said I didn't ask for this I didn't want it yeah it was so good for I think for him to admit that and to talk about it but also for me to hear that because there's a way sometimes and it's because of the activism we had this idea of what somebody looks like that's right but this was this was a 19 year old kid that was so honest and so real and said I didn't ask for this I don't want this yes can't seem to get rid of it right but the reality is and honestly Matt amongst people with faith honest that they're they're not going to come because they've experienced judgment like you just judged me for the record that's right you don't want to watch The Lord of the Rings now seriously please but um yeah so my hope is and that's one things I'm really proud of the negratis program is that is that we we create an environment where where young people can ask the question and and without condemnation without judgment and saying I just need and that's what I hope we're doing here we we have Orlando I see that Super Chat there which I want to read but I got a story one of the most beautiful things that ever happened to me these Franciscan youth conferences if you don't mind I was giving a talk on pornography I guess that was one of the main themes of this particular conference a few years ago and I've made I've been speaking about this for so long and I always make a deal and make a point in saying that you know men struggle with pornography women struggle with pornography you know for women it's so difficult Audrey Assad once said that men strong struggle but at least they're all on the same prison cell together that's what it's like she said for us women it's like we're in solitary confinement and we don't believe anybody else has ever struggled with this so I give this talk right and it's Saturday night and it's the beautiful prayer it's beautiful and all I want to do is go back to the hotel and go to bed because I'm tired and I wasn't feeling any of the nice things you should feel or do not should feel but sometimes feel and so I was standing there wondering if I should just duck out for the night and this woman comes up to me in the dark you know and hey what's up and I could tell that something was up because she'd been crying so it's going to try to redirect her to one of the female team members but she wanted to speak to me and I knew what was up already right and she she said I've been coming to these youth conferences for years I think she was like 21 at this point and I've I've always struggled with something and I've never told anybody about it and of course I've been through all the safety training I'm terrified of this conversation so at this point I'm like well you don't have to tell me you can tell somebody else but I'll respect which is like such a weirdo um but then she said like I've been I've been looking at porn ever since I was I forget what she said eight or nine and I gave that girl the most affectionate side hug yeah yeah yeah yeah oh I bet I did I just said to her you beautiful thing I said I love you you're good you're good and you're beautiful and you're not a freak and you're not the ugly thing as you tell yourself that you are and that's the thing and just real quick and then I said to her but I need to go to confession yeah and then I need you to come and tell me what you've done yeah next morning she looked like a totally different person she was skipping up to me with the most beautiful smile on her face she said confession was so beautiful and I think there is a special place in heaven for priests who are kind in confession because you know he could have he could have you know I mean I'm sure your cognizant of this as a Confessor people come bring this stuff to you that if you're if you're harsh with them even maybe unintentional you're like you can really do some damage when people are in that vulnerable state so God bless that in fact I actually I mentioned when I'm at the conferences I always pull the priest aside the Friday night before we get started and said you know some of these kids it's going to take everything they have to come up and and um just to do our best to be his compassion but again I always go back to uh the woman caught in the active adultery you know is there no one here to condemn you and here we need to we need to speak in truth and charity and humility but there are kids that are really really suffering and and we can be dismissive about that and and again I've had enough you can get hot I remember it when you encounter the same thing again and again and again and again and you forget that this is the first time this person exactly another this was actually a friend of mine and and I honestly I kind of thought maybe he struggled with being gay and um we're just having a conversation and uh he said I need to talk to you I said okay and he said um it's about the worst thing you can imagine and this was a matricide this was a moment of Grace and I said you're dying he said and he said no I said oh that's the worst thing I could imagine and then he just shared with me that he was struggling with same-sex attractions and um but again there and I'm sure you've experienced it when you're walking and you see somebody in front of you it reminds us it's a person it's a person who's who's afraid who's struggling and and we just need to be able to be present and that's their their lives I think the balance I mean yeah I mean you can go to The Other Extreme and yeah and so well here's another story and I think it may have been the Holy Spirit who guided this conversation because what I'm about to say might sound really harsh to people and I wouldn't ever use this as like a blanket statement to anyone who came up to me but this fella comes up to me and he's really having a difficult time telling me that he has same-sex attraction and for whatever reason I'm like you know you're not special right yeah you don't think I struggle with crap all the time yeah like it's not US versus you from this together exactly exactly but he ended up writing a book for Life team on uh on uh same-sex attraction yeah and he mentions that encounter Franciscan conference yeah yeah anyway before I forget we have a question here from Orlando any chance that University grows and there are satellite campuses throughout the country Texas and when could that happen yeah that's a great question we're actually talking a lot about that and and what does that look like for us to grow and what is it for us to have a bigger tent one of the one of the things that I struggle with is that it times people say you should just do what you do at Steubenville here I firmly believe there's a particular anointing and there's a particular Grace and that can't necessarily be replicated it's you know the Friars are part of that you can't just go and create something so we're asking that question you know we're looking at perhaps having pods in you know some major cities where you can maybe connect to a large Parish or a community that we can have some of the Outreach there so stay tuned that's one of the things we're really questioning with right now what does it look like for us to be able to reach out to a broader population all right two things I want to hit before you leave I'll ask you Neil to put links in the description below one is if there's parents or like teenagers watching right now and they want to learn more about Franciscan because maybe they want to come here next year and do life with us yeah yeah EDU and what like what's the can they just what do they do I don't understand are they just writing do they send them a package or something yeah yeah if you're interested right if you go to the website and there's all kinds of information that tells our story and and first off yeah just tell us the story of the university and then if they're a student who wants information perspective information we make all that available tonight okay franciscan.edu and then the other question I have is we have these beautiful Steubenville isn't that funny they called Steubenville youth conferences in other cities well it started because we were doing conferences before they they changed the name to Francis University in the late 80s and we're already doing these studentville conferences so I didn't realize that yeah okay we kind of wish we would have done it differently but okay because there's such a name brand right now yeah yeah all right so if people wanted to attend a Steubenville youth conference or Franciscan what do they do the same thing went to Franciscan edu they can find the conferences I should know this yeah if you just find it yes we'll put the link in the description below Franciscan conference because they're everywhere now yeah yeah we're not everywhere but yeah all across country America at least just put a link in there see Bob and I don't do links in our podcast but you guys do links because we don't know we don't have a Neil yeah that's right who crushes it there you go he asks questions like that it's already in there and he's all and he's also like what's a wild goose chase feels like you should have known that judgment all around I just started reading the Lord of the Rings to my son last night yeah just last night can I just forgive me I just I don't know what I'm about to say maybe no you don't have to like it maybe heresy okay I'll tell you okay thanks um I okay this is I'm about to make a confession here here we go okay I never read Chronicles of Narnia yes who cares they're gorgeous okay my neat no they're beautiful my niece and I a number of years ago read them she lives in Cleveland I was in DC at the time I love I love them have you read the Lord of the Rings I just said this is confession no okay if you think Nani is good really Realms of pleasure it's like a cigarette versus a thick Cuban what are you doing you gotta do it you've got to invest I promise here's the thing so in the movies again none of the movies are beautiful but it just some of the fight scenes go on forever oh you know what goes on forever is tolkien's description of trees and forests oh my God can I can I go back to this did you okay I appreciate that you love tokens right did you like Lord um Chronicles of Narnia I didn't really like it I read The Lion The Witch in the wardrobe you ever read them all right again no I I read a couple of the other ones I read what was one with diggery uh Magician's Nephew I read and I also read the last battle but I didn't like either of them that much I just thought they were being I just thought the allegories he laid on too thick and I would like to read them to my I'm glad that you love them and maybe maybe you shouldn't read Lord of the Rings I don't know maybe I should but you sure you're not the first person to tell me that down the Bible father and pick up the Lord of the Rings yeah that's a good idea but I'm trying I'm wondering how to get how to get into it like how would because it's like there's other authors I love dostersky and he he's got some lovely short stories and novellas that I'd say to someone if you're not sure if you could like Dostoevsky or Tolstoy read this read The Death of Ivan iliot or something and if you like it then well some people have said to me that that yeah it was a gateway drug that Chronicles and hernia was a Gateway so maybe I just need to give it a shot talking's like Aquinas it's an it's Everest how do you come at it yeah yeah it's just yeah it's worth it though all right all right me and Mike Welker read the books last year I'm sure actually just as you said that when Mike and I and Cindy live together in in Austria and on Thanksgiving day they would show all three movies the same day the extended unbelievable some of the most beautiful people I've ever met I'm so glad we live Three Doors Down for them they are just delightful yeah good people I texted Cindy this is one of the beautiful things about living in Catholic Community it's walking distance yeah I texted Cindy last night and I said do you guys have any Kahlua hashtag not an alcoholic she's like I've left it on the table I'm heading out I'm headed out come get it and I know which door's always open I go into a house yeah no that's great I mean Catholic communities do other things that's free yeah free Kalua you're mixing it with cream what were you doing with it oh White Russians are the best what's your favorite drink uh probably a single malt I mean just straight up what's your favorite Scotch go-to is belvanny the belvanni Caribbean Cask you've not had the balcony being cast it's have you not had Balvenie at all no I don't think so oh balvenia's really really good that's my favorite villain's really really good it's it's uh I kind of feel about that that I do about ipas um it's it's really Smoky and I like to have it every now and then but like just kind of a day-to-day Balvenie 12 Balvenie Caribbean Cask is just really really nice good father Dave thank you so much for coming on the show God bless you my pleasure pleasure God bless you

Channel: Pints With Aquinas

Views: 45,571

Keywords: aquinas, catholicism, catholic, pints with aquinas, matt fradd, theology, debate, religion, st. thomas aquinas, thomas aquinas, philosophy

Id: 92NRqCXdo6g

Length: 106min 15sec (6375 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 29 2022