The True History of Catholicism In America | The Catholic Talk Show

hey everybody welcome back to another special episode of the Catholic talk show it's the July 4th edition yeah we're gonna talk about the history of Catholicism in America we're gonna talk about the secret Catholics in the 13 colonies and the anti-catholic laws there we're gonna talk about the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence and we're going to talk about how Catholics got the words under God added to the Pledge of Allegiance America let freedom reign [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right really excited to have you guys here for this awesome episode I'm really looking forward to it I love America I'm wearing my America shirt y'all like it I'm wearing my 2-time undefeated back-to-back World War champion shirt and I am wearing my let freedom reign clerical outfit right God has a part in every and yes he does he's got a huge part in the founding of America yeah but the fact that our founding fathers and what we're about to learn about the Catholic Church's role in relationship to the new world is a really exciting history so we're not talking to Christopher Columbus here we're talking about Jesus baby and so guys we are so excited that you join us every single week for the Catholic talk show that you're going to our website Catholic talk show calm that you're participating in all of our comment sections and social media and Twitter Facebook and Instagram and most importantly that you're supporting the show with patreon.com forward slash Catholic talk show and by doing that you're helping us continue to provide this service to you and as we grow together in the unity that Christ provides to us we truly enter into that freedom and that's what this whole episode is about entering into the greater freedom that Christ provides to us and how that freedom was established right when we started right here in the New World in the United States of America so let's get started so the the relationship between Catholicism in the United States has always been a difficult and pretty winding continuous that be continuous yeah there's been a long history of anti-catholicism but also massive contributions to the American project by Catholics right and then there was also like the colonization efforts to because yes you have you have the Spanish colonization you have the yeah you have the natives and they're their respective religious practices yes so you've got a lot of stuff going on do you know who America is named after mm-hmm America this beauty clothes is it's it's an America this America Vespucci huger Greedo you know all the Italians were the ones that sailed over here man I'm telling you like they just they went after it Columbus was Italian hmm so Mirchi yeah Amerigo good she was an Italian explorer and a Catholic and that's who our country's in left so even the very country named America founded like South America right well he was all of the United America for the first time you can't just like claim the whole that's who it's named South America yeah even our very country is named after a Catholic right now in our not only our country but the entire hemisphere right in he's Italian hey praise the Lord how about those Guido's huh yeah you guys are doing pretty good but after that initial colonization really America is very much founded by Protestant English and then the French the French and the Spanish those are the three kind of colonial powers and and in to some extent the Dutch - right the Dutch did have an important role in New Amsterdam and what became New York right yeah yeah but I think the first real permanent English settlement was Jamestown Virginia hmm now Jamestown Virginia was a colony started by Protestants from England coming over for religious freedom because they thought even the Church of England was too religiously right yeah but excavators finding you know finding the burial sites there have found in the last couple years secret graves where people were secretly holding rosaries awesome so even in the very first colony of the English settlement of the Americas Catholics were there secretly there because they weren't allowed to openly practice their faith in that settlement really so there's like it was no was announced religion and from the beginning before they even begin the college lutely now it's in Europe yeah so yeah I mean even there they found their way in but the oldest permanent settlement in the United States is your home your home diocese theosis is this an Augustine you know the Diocese of st. Augustine or in the Italian so that you know the whole idea of like what locals just you know articulate st. Augustine comes from the Spanish San Augustine so people always ask you know that question academically we always say st. Agustin and but the but the proper pronunciation on a local level is San Augustine st. Augustine and so yeah that was the true first mission that established a city in the in the New World in the United States of America yeah and it was the successful mission there were previous ones but it was actually the first one that was successful and it began on September 8th the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and it started with the erection of a cross and the celebration of mass and what city do you know was founded by the celebration of a mass in the erection of the cross and what I love too is that it was founded by diocese and priests father Lopez which is really cool from Spain and it's there's a sense of diocesan secular priesthood where it's like living in the world but not being of the world and that new beginning in the new world for us that we have that in our backyard in st. Augustine an altar that commemorates that reality we have the largest cross in this hemisphere remember wow I didn't know that yeah remembering what when the cross was elevated here in the new world so it's a pretty special place so if you've never been to st. Augustine make sure that's you that you come have you ever been to st. Augustine I have oh I have historically speaking that's a derivative from Columbus's exploration and then the ones that follow because it was all Spain right yes and Ponce de Leon was was st. Augustine yeah yeah but so then after moving on from these initial settlements and the Age of Exploration into where it really becomes a colonial situation so you know the Spain the the Spanish had you know Mexico at some points they had Louisiana and then it would be back and forth between the French and they had California but the history that we learned in the history books written does focus on thirteen colonies so that's kind of where we're gonna focus and those counties were very much founded by the English and very specifically very anti-catholic English well not even so much like no Massachusetts was founded by Puritans yeah and Puritans thought that the the Church of England again far to Pope ish right today we're really trying to get to a very primitive religion right and they weren't even Pope ish they were just they divided from the Pope but of the liturgy and everything else yeah so and I've just realized most recently I was having a conversation that the Puritans and even the Quakers are still in active devotion and they and they do have a certain congregational you know president still saw some of the United States yeah were they wearing like the Hat we just used the buckles and everything awesome no not the shoes in the Bible I know Quakers just arrived is to know about Puritans yeah they were definitely from Pennsylvania mm-hmm that might be like the Pennsylvania Dutch or whatever yeah so anyway I mean these colonies I mean if you look at the laws of the colonies they had specifically anti-catholic laws very like the colony of Virginia Catholics were not allowed to settle in Virginia really 1642 they passed an act so no 13 colonies were very antique extraordinarily anti-catholic Massachusetts the Massachusetts Bay Colony it was illegal to be a Catholic there no one would think of Catholicism America we think Boston that's like kind of like one of those really hot beds are one of those deep Catholic rooted place because of the Irish right mm-hmm but there because that was founded by the Puritans it was illegal to be Catholic mm-hmm and even the conflicts that happened in st. Augustine in the state of Florida that's why you have the Florida martyrs and the cause that was opened up a few years back in Tallahassee there was a lot of bloodshed in relationship to that anti cut that anti-catholic sent some their religion to the natives once the Florida was no longer in Spanish control but in control the US federal government there was a massive clash because there was Catholicism yeah it was and there's a phenomenal history of that anti-catholic sentiment that then ended in bloodshed with Native converts Antonio quita is the lead proto martyr that is being pushed forward as the one who was likened until st. Joseph and had an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary while he was dying on the cross in the state of Florida but even father Agustin was a martyr in st. Augustine and he was killed and his blood hit the ground right where mission nombre de Dios is so what practicing Catholicism right now in America nobody's hunting us down this is a good story that's unfolding powerful yeah so all these counties had very very aunt life for Rhode Island they allowed Catholics but they weren't allowed to vote I mean it was very very oppressive yeah but now but one of the colonies was actually founded as a Catholic settlement and that was Maryland Maryland Maryland Maryland yeah so Maryland the first settlement the first colonists arrived in Maryland arrived at st. Clements Island and they founded the settlement of st. Mary's now this was considered kind of a safe haven for Catholics coming from England because there's still a lot of Catholics in England at the time under really heavy oppression but George Calvert he you know he was a Catholic and he made this safe haven and he so this was the place where Catholics in the New World in the 13 counties welcomed like were they welcomed now yeah yeah but it didn't last really No so in 18 in 1692 the the population kind of shifted because the colony was doing well so more and more English were coming over and more and more English were COV right and they overthrew the Maryland government and officially a stall installed the Church of England by law as the official colony government of state religion and they forced Catholics to pay incredibly high taxes so much they really couldn't afford to live hmm so they tax Catholics just because they were Catholic higher they outlawed in Maryland the mass and sacraments and Catholic schools and Baltimore was like the eventually became the seed of Catholicism in the United States another story we're unfolding it really is and what I loved just in my own personal life I'm still a young priest I've only been a priest into my seventh year and where I'm from I'm from the first mission mission nobody the diosa successful mentioned and then I studied for my MBA in film producing and and telecommunications out in San Diego where the first mission of the state of California was sainthood a pair of Seraphim of that church and there's martyrs blood there as well as st. Augustine father Haim a father Louis Hyman was killed in that evangelization effort and now you know I look at how God has led me into preaching missions in different parishes and different settings the first real true mission that I preached was in Baltimore Maryland and and I went out to Germantown and preached at st. Elizabeth Ann Seton which was my first parish yeah well Dominique Seraphim is there big shout out to her and her brother father Pierre Toussaint with the CFR is one of my best friends her brother yeah her brother and so we're actually going to preach a mission together yeah like let me know whether it's gonna be legit oh my god to be able to connect with that mission territory as well and then the mission in San Antonio and the missions in Texas and being able to visit all the missions of the state of California tapping into our roots is so important because it is the foundation of our faith in the United States of America and there's been a lot of persecution a lot of martyrs blood as well as that struggle of being to proclaim truth to proclaim the good news it should be met by that type of confrontation and persecution always because it purifies a lot of blood has been lat to enable you we here in 2019 to practice your ministry and I'd so freely yeah yeah that's yeah so Maryland really is that was the place for Catholics but that is essentially the primate primate you'll see of the United States yeah that was the first Bishop no before that during and just be just before and just after the civil I'm sorry the Revolutionary War Catholics in America were under the jurisdiction of the bishop the Catholic bishop of London now there was no Catholic bishop in London at the time but that was the the suffrage in Bishop right that woodlot that would they be under their ordinance now after the Civil War they petitioned Rome because they said look we're here now there's enough of us let's get some real infrastructure here so they petitioned Pope Pius Pais the seventh and said can we have a can we have a bishop isn't that the Pope pious clock up there it is so we have a clock that pi there's 12 Pope Pius is you get the 12th this is 12 then you get the one in the two [Laughter] doing a different job madam president forget about it so so the first bishop of in the United States was Bishop John Carroll yes yeah remember this name because we're gonna get to this in a second right but on June 6 1784 Pope Pius the sixth confirmed that he was going to be the bishop there now Baltimore does not have it is not the primate of America now most countries or most regions the first bishop of the area is the primate of that area there's like the primate of Italy or the primate of Ireland or the primate of Germany but Baltimore does not get that right but they are granted special I guess faculties faculties they have a prerogative of place as the official term right now so when there is maybe like a plenary meeting they don't have the primate right but they do get that honorific deference mm-hmm so first Catholic bishop John Carroll the Declaration of Independence was only signed by one Catholic out of all the people signed it only one because they weren't trusted they weren't integrated into society and the people who signed the Declaration of Independence were pretty influential they were the people who can make society swing right yeah who was the Catholic that's Sonny I don't know his cousin Charles Carroll yeah he had such a huge influential family the Carroll family Carroll family really you Catholic Americans look up the Carroll family because we owe so much family absolutely Wow Carroll family the Gibbons family recall in different families that I studied in in seminary was a while back but Haley's family families the della cross yeah he's kind of shining you up right now we started with a Guido that came over Amos signature on the Declaration of Independence is John Hancock right that's the one knows what that signatures in the middle it's really big it was a real thumb in the eye to the king right so you could tell his kind of mindset when he was signing the Declaration of Independence now Charles Carroll was a few steps in line behind John Hancock and he was Hancock was watch the other people who came after him sign and he saw Charles Carroll signed the Declaration of Independence now everyone else who signs it just wrote their name while there is big or whatever yeah but Hancock T's Carroll and said well there's so many people named Charles Carroll that the King won't even know which one of it was and you're not risking anything so John Carroll actually signed the independence the Declaration of Independence twice he went back up and added of Carrollton so that the king was damn sure that he knew that he was the one signing it Wow and Carrollton I lived in Maryland for six years that's a town there mm-hmm and I think that's where you know that is this John that's Charlton yeah how neat yeah so before this in the counties there's a lot of anti-catholicism but now everyone has to kind of band together a little bit now we're America the counties are in a war with our overlords that Britain the British and George Washington was actually a pretty fair minded individual especially towards Catholics and a lot of the tide of Catholicism in those early 13 counties changed with the Continental Army cuz George Washington is like look you're not gonna kick a good soldier out of my army just because he's Catholic and if they're fighting and dying for this country they are one of us for the nation that is beat was beautiful and it was unifying yeah and that's the best part about it and though we all suffered through that in our own respective lineage you know most of us our lineage was still in Italy most likely because it was my grandfather yeah we were still in Italy but it opened up the door and opened up the door for what you know the United States still is and has been yeah in respects to all nations finding a sense of identity and unity and that's that's the beauty and freedom to me yeah America America USA that's that's that's when you say that I'm so proud of me I'm proud to be an American yeah it's part of my national least I know I'm free but no that's very true I mean in all honesty I'm extremely proud of being an Italian I'm extremely proud of my Irish heritage as well because that's where a lot of my faith traditions come from and respect to my Irish family very strong faith lineage survivors you know the fact that I'm very proud to be an American I have multiple generations that served in the military and served our great country and I'm so happy to be here with you guys and really uncovering this history yeah still uncovering it because now we have Carol sighs okay well thanks George Washington he's a letter he did you write to Catholics oh really so after America won the war because that's what we do you know let our troops to victory he wrote oh he wrote a letter after the war to Catholics in America on March 15 1790 mmm and this was specifically addressed to all Americans but to Catholics and there's a really great thing that he wrote in here that I think is really telling of of his mindset as the father of our nation and his attitude towards Catholics so excited to hear this right now I hope to ever I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality and I assume that your fellow citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their Revolution and the establishment of their government or the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Catholic faith is professed well yeah that's bizarre it's not that way from like anti-catholic to like okay he's like look I want all Americans to remember the service that you gave to this country right and identifying what they did yeah yeah yeah your what your we're with us and you it's a huge diplomatic and pastoral action the fact that George Washington yeah speaks volumes with Russian opposition yeah the church well and and and talk about that sentiment that was so strong in that age yeah you know the fact that he was going to speak to that boldly that was that Washington I mean talk about oh man yeah and and not pulling any punches no he was on the battlefield who's on the battlefield was a warrior yeah he wasn't he wasn't like a true diplomat in the sense of politician that we know today he was a real he was an archetype of the American man that gonna come for the next five years he had vision he did he had vision for this country mm-hmm and he fought for it and and won it and and integrated it you know it can't be overstated how important that was oh yeah that's huge I should be wearing a George why no I want a g-dub on my Washington's pet eagle for those of you who are only listening to the podcast Eagle with an American flag bandana and sweet aviator glasses in a mullet it's it's yeah so it's true I want to find out more about what happened post Revolutionary War and that anti-catholic sentiment continued into that into that next phase of history yeah you know I would say that it went from being like an institutional hatred to almost an irrational fear in a hatred and it gave rise to some of the ugliest moments in American history so even though Catholics kind of really were integrated in society after the Revolutionary War and and you know Washington wrote this great letter it wasn't smooth sailing there was after this what happened with after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and a lot of famines and a lot of change in Europe the the make of the immigrants come in the United States changed from being Scottish and English and you know things that were acceptable to society yeah to all of our stars my name della cross della Croce there's no such name yeah you can look it up anywhere its della Croce mm-hmm and my grandfather came over and they're like look I can't see you this neighborhood because you're gonna you know be persecuted we're gonna change your name and I always thought like we should change our name back you know but I don't you know I didn't it wasn't a fighter or I'm gonna take it on well not even paperwork but it like I I'm a della Croce like the of the cross you know and that's beautiful too but the the reality is a lot of Polish people a lot of Slavic people they came here they changed their name no you know it was it was it really was yeah it was fitting fit into like what our projection of where it is instead of just welcoming people so I mean even like you look at immigrants and it's like you know welcoming immigrants this that's no way to welcome an immigrant come in you're like you need to change your name John so I had a little bit of V trawl for that for a little while so I mean there that really was the case that the complexion of immigrants changed and I think we're drastically and we're seeing this in our own society today that people don't want people other than themselves right they just don't that's something that's a thing that people do and it's pretty it's pretty ugly but that was happening to Catholics from Germany from Ireland from Italy from Austria for more southern European nations and it really gave rise to a very very strong anti-catholic and xenophobic reaction to all these swarthy Polish immigrants coming over and taking over their prim and proper Protestant country and it became very wild and there was a political party that gave rise that came that came to power during this called the know-nothings but the know-nothings now was Lisette this is in 1840s so this is you know everyone knows now that we have Democrats and Republicans but when the country is first founded we had Democrats and Whigs right George Washington was a wig that was the political party when that party kind of collapsed in the 1840s there's a power vacuum and that know-nothings filled that right but one of the very core things was that the know-nothings believe there is a Romanist conspiracy to subvert civil and religious liberty in the United States and they really sought to organize that only native-born Protestants would be allowed to be in positions of power and Trivette defend these beliefs that they had of how the country should be what do you mean Romanist you like this post dude Pape Oh guys just so that they made him into a cult yeah yeah so so sometimes they were called the native the nativist other times they were called the know-nothings have you ever seen the movie kings of New York oh yeah great Leonardo DiCaprio movie of oh dude so it's about the Irish immigrants coming to New York and and that is the know-nothings that is that party that's that whole piece about fascinating a historical perspective of this and and if you haven't seen it it's it's worth it's amazing it's a little violence so you know so I think della cross you might need to get your watch permission yeah so the guy still out of permission for them okay I'm just I get goosebumps right now thinking about it are they Dolly Parton you gotta cut that sorry cut the dolly pardon leave it yeah okay we're still in the show Howard archival order producer and editor leave it alright wait a second so yeah this is this is very tense right like and there was riots that broke out in New York because during the the draft for the Civil War they were drafting the Irish but the Irish weren't allowed to vote or they were treated horribly the they would hang signs in the windows no Irish need apply dude this is what I'm thinking right now no I'm serious man like the United States was founded a small group of people come over they start you know they start projecting all the things that that they're not mm-hmm and and we trying to weed them out right and then it runs right into slavery right I'm not even like it really does right because then you have like I mean you go to the 1950s 1930s emu slavery it's like it's the same thing it's like these people are coming over there lesser than us it's just like this fear that we have of like the other okay attitude against the immigrant the attitude against the Irish the attitude against the Italian the attitude against the Polish the attitude against all the Catholics all these different attitudes because when you think about it our nation's governed back then back then it was look we have a one single creed and one single system and that was the way it was manageable for these small unorganized and unmodern governments to keep a people together yeah and we talk about a battle I mean it was I mean there they were battling for leadership in this new world in this new country so the Spaniards the French the British you know but that that speaks to just the national tensions of where the greater Europe was in that place at that time yeah so you know of course it's going to be that and we still have those attitudes even still today and they may not be so specific within our lineage where we're from right like I'm an Italian or um you know socioeconomic yes the color of your skin but but even attitudes that certain people have toward people from the Middle East or people or from you know just attitudes that can develop because you're a foreigner and you're an immigrant and there's an attitude there yeah you know and that's that is not yeah that's not what America was founded upon and I think George Washington has the voice here that we need to listen to once again I'll make sure that I post that letter in full so that people can read it so now these Know Nothings they did a lot of anti-catholic campaigning they put out pamphlets very popular pamphlets like accusing the Catholic Church of bizarre satanic rituals that the church was kidnapping women and forcing them to become nuns there is this one really a absurdly outlandish book called the awful disclosures of Maria monk totally fictional proven to be fictional where they said this woman was kidnapped and forced to be a monk I'm sorry forced to be a nun the backlash against this book was so bad that there was a Ursuline college and nunnery up in Massachusetts and a mob came and burned it down oh my gosh yeah I mean and like so out of this know nothing movement and this xenophobic anti-catholic movement that's where the distillation of a lot of the ideas of the Ku Klux Klan and I'm from Baker yeah and the KKK are founded there are three things the african-americans Jews and Catholics yep mm-hmm so I get a story the the Spanish priests at Immaculate Conception yeah father Lyon God rest his soul guy cooked a horrible lunch so do made you eat with him every time a chicken freakin freezer that was like two years old I'm gonna tell you something I'm gonna tell you something I respect that guy me sir than anybody that I've ever met in my life now this guy stood up to all of the Ku Klux Klan I mean he was from Spain and so he had no idea he's just like no man love everybody right so he came from a completely different you know you know demographic you know completely different area comes over he's like why are you guys whipping these dudes you know what are you doing you know stood up to him Klan like burn the parish rectory down like threatened to kill him and he did not back down did not back down and out of all the bad food that I ate at his table I still remember that day that I came over and I met you and we had dinner with him it was terrible it was horrible it was terrible food the conversations that I would the the the the grace from that was like an 86 year old priest who was still active an 80 year old prison telling me about all these stories and I did not want to leave his side I was just like I will eat considerable chicken and listen to your stories listen no it was all over his chest like he just yeah he spilled it everywhere but he was all I mean he was a very old at that point that guy's a tremendous priest so now roses salon priest that wasn't so lucky was father James Coyle now he was an Irish priest from Ireland working in Birmingham Alabama and this is in the 1920s so the KKK has really become very powerful right oh yeah and father Coyle as an Irish priest would married one couple and it happened to be that the woman was the daughter of a Klansmen and a very powerful Klansmen at that and the husband was a black guy a Puerto Rican guy a Puerto Rican Catholic just a little bit yeah yeah it's still the wrong color right right so this the father of that bride walked to the church confronted father Coyle and shot him in the chest on the steps of the round my gosh and killed him murdered him well dude that's that's terrible and the thing that strikes me is there's so much history of the Catholic Church where there's actually in a sense martyrs blood I mean in the sense of what father Lyon experienced in Jacksonville and another coil in the state of Florida and father Coyle where he was literally killed the persecution is very very evident and and the more that we're uncovering history in the state of Florida right now we're over a hundred martyrs in the state of Florida yeah that died for their faith but the interesting thing too is like you hear stories about father Coyle you you see these tensions and and what gave rise and it's and it's not this kind of you know we're not trying to present like this kind of pro-catholic like we're better than everybody else get a sample ISM know it what what America presents is in a sense very Catholic as well in relationship to all nations you know but all that back to father Coyle so one of the real and justices of that case was that the person who actually shot him was Reverend er Stephenson a reverend Southern Methodist Episcopal minister right how you met that as an Episcopal at the same time that don't know how these things work I'm sorry I just don't work it on us together so anyway so what happened was he was defended by a man a lawyer William fort right and this lawyer got the jury stacked with Klansmen and this the person who killed father Coyle this Minister was acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity because he was so mad that his daughter married a Puerto Rican Catholic I mean this was during my grandfather's lifetime yeah you know I mean injustice people it's everywhere it's all the time it's been a class regeneration for quits it's every generation and that's what we have to be sensitive to but we always have to keep our eyes fixed on the horizon of greater virtue and development and progress as a people and as a society and America yeah because we agree this is a phenomenon there's no country like America it's evolved and changed and adapted there's always growing pains with that kind of chance and we're seeing that now but I have less hope for this current culture to be able to overcome these challenges because of the lack of depth and the lack of ability to have a a real open debate intercession and seeing another person for who they are not just as a avatar for some political stance or some reductivist view of a person as only a sexuality or only as an immigrant and the papacy so much more than that the pervasion of that into our culture like through school education like you know we've talked about universities and truth fight finding truth like gosh I mean like seriously it just bugs me oh yes we had part of me fears that we're getting into idiocracy and we've just been dumbed down so much by the amount of media that we consume that we're not able to have a proper debate to really hash these problems out and to be able to treat all the people fairly and equitably but also allow people to maintain their beliefs in a way that America's found itself right which makes us grow and it's so much softer now right like we're not dealing with like people showing up and killing people for Miriam Puerto Ricans hmm you know we've come far not on a large scale that stuff does happen so there's something minimized of the individual cases that that happens but it's not the same as at these times and you could even you could even look at you know people dying in the Orlando shooting at the nightclub yeah for example so you know they clearly died because they were homosexual yeah so but the the issue that she'll brings up is such a good point because it's it's superficial realities right we're talking about someone's sexual attraction right we have to agree with that to be able to love you as a person the point that I'm that I'm driving at right now the point that I'm driving out is human freedom and progress as a people and charity to the poor and living equitably as a people of many nations of a community of immigrants you know the fact that we have come this far as America we can't let superficiality break the back of something so strong that was rooted at the the suffering of our forefathers what the impoverished people from all nations throughout Europe and the Middle East and Africa and Asia and all of the rest of the world they're seeking refuge and freedom in this great country because we have the foundation that provides that freedom yes and that expression let's just not waste all that we can't waste it we've got to move it forward we can't stop in this moment and base all of our argumentation on superficiality right you're going to be held back yeah let me let me be clear like where I was going with this was not you know degenerating what is currently no idea like I was never doing that I'm almost developing an anthropology of this right and and to your credit you're bringing up the the current state and I'm there with you guys but but this this this country was a it was a social entrepreneurial project as an experiment everything from the West everything from the West we're talking thousands of years and it collided with people that cross the Bering Strait 20,000 years prior and that didn't go well either yeah right so colonization yeah you know it's still it's still at a point where it's just like this you know this little you know side piece you know like you got your Indian Reservation we'll put some casinos on there we got some alcohol problems right so you know you know honestly let me just respond to that as well my heart a I don't know how you guys feel but looking at the history books and and looking how the native populations you know it was a it was a barbaric time no doubt yeah I don't think anybody can see that with a with a straight mind and clear conscience said that there wasn't some real atrocities and some incredibly unjust behavior on door sighs on both sides both sides it was not it was not one-sided no but no it was very much a colonization and and it can't be denied but that also can't change where we are now we have to be able to do that historically yeah I think I was speaking more to my instability with with like the the Anthropology of America where we are today I haven't even like come there my mind and all the things that you're sharing the depth of this really is like bringing this whole thing in my mind right now and I'm like whoa you know yeah I'm trying to like track it but the generation itself in truth because the greater majority of the entire world we could look at and say yes the Native American population suffered yes the african-american population suffered oh yes the the agreement the poets Irish your father you know whatever but we can Islamic Muslim immigrants or today yes is it was a suffering world it's still a suffering world generation of what was is becoming and what we have right now we could revert back into a extremely violent world we could and we could and we could fight each other over sexuality nationality we could fight each other over what our skin color is or what it's not but we're not now but but just warring with words right now we're worrying with words but we're not even speaking philosophically or intelligently about any type of dialogue that would actually benefit an entire people there's nothing productive there's nothing productive about where we are on a dialogical level right now I agree it's not happening you need to turn this podcast into something more celebratory can we do that I think it would be revisionist if we didn't address some of these this is this is this is America and it's Independence Day wasn't an easy thing to accomplish that's independence is like a birth it's giving birth to a nation and it's a nice way of saying shut up Ryan there's no pain so after this no nothing movement and the Ku Klux Klan this there was really a pretty hard anti-catholicism now the first person to ever be nominated for a the presidential election was a Catholic man a governor of New York Al Smith Al Smith liked the name now Smith it's easy to remember now you probably still hear al Smith's name that every year but in a presidential election year there's the Al Smith dinner where you typically the Archbishop of New York will preside over it a lot of two candidates to get together and they make fun of each other and they roast each rose this is a really cool thing now Trump didn't do it I think the last time around I don't know maybe couldn't take a joke yeah probably not yeah whatever but it's a really great and venerable tradition and still named after Al Smith now Al Smith cool was wildly you think politics are bad now and they are disgusting now really are but the things they said about Al Smith are were absurd they said that Al Smith if he was elected would immediately begin taking all of his orders from the Pope and that emeritus is not a roast no no this is what the know-nothings and that vestiges of the know-nothings and the nativist and the KKK spread about that they said that if Al Smith was elected that America would be taken over by the Pope and that all the orders of the president would really be directly be coming from Rome hmm yeah pretty crazy that is that reminds me of JFK too because almost the same exact thing happened to Jeff that was 40 years later yeah and yeah that's like yeah and you think that we would have made a lot more progress in this kind of uniform of a church but no it was very substantial well for sure you know yeah and they said he was they said he was a drunkard because he's an Irish Catholic and they're all drunks and that he was gonna open the door to all kinds of immigrants and immigrants we're gonna flood the country and there's gonna be Catholics everywhere and that's you that's not unlike what we see in the politics in the news of today yeah crazy accusations that have no bearing no basis that because people will sell newspapers most don't even like I don't watch nice honestly like my wife and I we look at the news and we try to discern like what reality is from listening to him or or looking at it you know we do that well you know that I've always considered in modern day politics is the logistical system of Aristotle and how a argument is completely dismissed when it bases its argumentation on emotion and the appeal to emotion and that is precisely where we are in politics today yeah I'm a good person because I believe that we should treat this person nicely and it's like let's arouse the emotions on this side yeah and then it's going to push yeah you know public opinion on this candidates down and then you need to you know return it with this and and there is yeah you're going back I mean we're saying the same thing but it's it's an appeal and it makes the argument fallacious and and you know you see it makes the argument Felicia Felicia Kennedy this is 40 years later and Kennedy was the first elected president ya know a lot of Catholics at the time and even still to this day say that Kennedy has really set a pretty dangerous precedent for the way that a Catholic can be behaved in politics I mean he gave a speech I believe it I think I want to say that it was in Dallas and it's called like the Dallas speech or whatever and that he says I was killed no no this is why he hadn't been elected yet okay he famously was trying to dispel from a lot of people they say that Kennedy himself wasn't very devout and that you know his brother Bobby was very devout but Kennedy himself JFK himself not terribly devout but the Catholic right allow me to say this hooked in before he was assassinated he visited mission nombre de Dios Agustin yeah well he was from Palm Beach so he was at st. Ann's in his parish they had a home or something they had a home down there I mean that's where he was prior to going to st. Augustine de st. Augustine there and he went to the fishing grounds and then said the mission of nombre de Dios in st. Augustine Florida is the holiest grounds in America and he had a phenomenal devotion to mission nombre de Dios and had a very powerful encounter and this was just before he went on that next trip to DC where he was ultimately a soured Dallas excuse me to Dallas where he was ultimately assassinated see you know I'm sorry and it wasn't in Dallas and that's that's crazy but that speech was actually given in Houston where we're recording right now oh wow so it was given to a group of Methodist Baptist and Pentecostal ministers who were trying to oppose Kennedy right because he was Catholic as he was Catholic years ago this speech really still has reverberations in our politics today he said I am NOT the Catholic candidate for president I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be Catholic I do not speak for my church on public matters and the church does not speak for me that precedent has been really I don't like that exact sound right and the church sure sillier said dude you're copping out you were saying whatever it takes to get elected and you'll still cpa really stood up to him because they did they don't stand up to anybody anymore yeah they did then but now you still see politics oh I'm personally opposed to abortion but I think it's like the song and dance you know exactly which party that's coming by brain distributing information but you see it on both sides where well I'm personally my religion mothers of that and this kind of mindset where you can divorce yourself your Porsche your person in your service to your country as a representative from who you are is schizophrenic and saying I will do whatever I would be I'm sorry for the term but I will be more to just get whatever things in vote for me we'll get across if I if I could I've received a few people past early that are in public office and they are Democrat right I've been listed from early on as Democrat I you know and and when it comes to specific things like they're representing an ideology and they will feel in a certain direction very very strongly as Catholics believe pro-life mm-hmm but they also the reason why they are democratic is because of the economical system and because but that's precisely why I would be a proper preference for the poor absolutely so these are neither of the parties in our country come even close to being said yeah exactly so so that's why it's this kind of it's this wrestling match and I could I can appreciate the challenge I wouldn't I wouldn't jump to say it schizophrenic but I would I would say I appreciate the the difficulty of that but I do I would ask Catholic politicians to be able to take a stand for life right and be able to profess that very clearly because you're representing an ideology as a Democrat yeah but pro-life and it's obvious it's not like you know it's not like where do we send money to certain people and need and there is this dynamic there it's like killing kids there's a lot of passion there's a lot of coloration and bro it's even in it's even in the Gospels it's like if you're not working you don't eat you don't get paid Yeah right yeah so the person who's there who's hungry you feed you feed him that's it so it's it's this it's this balance and we've got to measure that in a way but at the same time when we when we look at the the political situation that we're currently in where we're in a dire need for real conversations yeah III agree with everything you're saying and the amount of division in this country it's heartbreaking and there is no real Catholic party and in this kind of division and the political parties is tearing us apart and I just a lot of times I think if there's somebody who really ran for political office who encompassed everything the Catholic Church Church teaches you know against abortion against the death penalty for immigrants and taking care of people but also a just war like the both end of Catholicism I think would be a very very healing thing for the political and party nature running but there's one thing that I think that we can all agree on every American should be able to say the Pledge of Allegiance and that should be able to bring us together yes our flag our symbol of our national unity is something that no matter who you are is something that is unitive and you got a good story about my and my favorite part of the Pledge of Allegiance is the humility of the words under God under God under God mmm that's how every life should be lived yeah now do you know how it got there those words Knights of Columbus that's it I got it from the shownotes ladies Reidel across read the show notes I cheated so the Knights of Columbus one of the things that the Knights of Columbus did and this is one of their pillars of the fourth order was to really integrate Catholics into civil society and into America as patriotic American and understand that Catholics could be they wanted society to understand the Catholics we're just as patriotic and just as devoted to their country integration as anybody else integration and so what they did is they did a lot of things to help politicians understand the Catholics where their constituents and that they were very patriotic good taxpaying law-abiding citizens who would fight to the death to defend this country so one of the things that they did as part of this program was to petition multiple politicians to get the words under God added to the Pledge of Allegiance and they were a powerful they are there's still a group in the United States we are right no no a fourth degree Knight you are are you I got knighted I'm uh I'm one of their online members they're new things yeah listen no listen uh when they started it was all about taking care of you know families that lost the fathers in families right and and it grew I mean in the beautiful thing about that is like that's such a need right you know like if I were to die like having my wife being taken care of with all of our kids beautiful right it developed into this massive thing and as it's growing it develops power not not in a sense of wielding it for you know their own use so officially it's like hey you look we're here you know so in 1951 the KFC had their national meeting and they you know how they have their young men and knows everything in their national meeting they passed the they passed the resolution that at their meetings they would now say under God after the word one nation mm-hm and that was an internal thing that they would be doing at their internal medicine colitis meetings so a year later all the Knights of Columbus says we're doing this when they said the Pledge of Allegiance the beginning their meetings to yes so at the next year's meeting they said well let's get this on a national level this is great so they sent letters to the president vice president Speaker of the House and they didn't get any response so the next year at the meeting what they did they sent a letter to every single member of Congress saying we would like to word add the words under God to the Pledge of Allegiance that year seventeen different legislators in the House of Representatives put a bill for to be passed to add the words under God through passages God Wow and in 1954 one of the bills out of the 17 was passed by a joint resolution of Congress and Eisenhower signed it on Flag Day June 14th 1950 said and into that letter he said for this day forward the millions of our schoolchildren will proclaim in every city and town every village in every rural score schoolhouse the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty oh my gosh I just want to hug somebody in this way we shall be absolutely strong into spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace or in war that's all that's phenomenal now no I've like we were talking about before very very proud of being Italian very proud to be Irish very very very proud to be an American and on top of that now I'm proud to be a knight of Columbus no that's that's just so wonderful to be a part of that history man the Knights of Columbus are absolutely awesome they do so much good yeah honestly even on the localized level in the parish I've leaned on the Knights of Columbus from the time I was a seminarian all the way into the priesthood yeah because it's just a reliable community that have been so supportive and anything you want to do they're right there to be proactive and involved now I don't know if you guys went to Catholic school one of the things that you'd always say your morning prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and I don't know if you've ever done this but you've been to a baseball game and you know this started playing the national anthem or anything and it's I'm sure our listeners have done this you start saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the end you say Amen I've done that it's probably because of my liturgical experience of just celebrating Mass and liturgy hours every day under guy and I you know I have to say this when I was a youth director and in Flagler Beach Florida I am you know I was involved in Knights of Columbus I became a fourth degree in honor of one of my substitute teachers who used to send me to the principal all the time because we're getting to be came the closest of friends when I went through my conversion and I started getting involved and I became a knight in honor of him Carlo tempesta God rest his soul he's since passed away and when he passed away it was like two months later I was at a dinner dance that the Knights of Columbus put on and me and his wife wit Mary we won the the dance contest that I danced with her all night we had it was beautiful dude and but that we always finished every single dinner dance at the Knights of Columbus and the in the hall with the star-spangled banner and we all sang it together and that's the thing that kills me this fall you know it kills me because in that moment where we're all crying and tearing up from a beautiful experience in the parish yeah a lot a couple of hankies oh it's shocking he pulled out his American flag my American flag but um you know the the thing that strikes me when we all sing the national anthem together is that we are one nation under God but so often in modern expressions and and song of the national anthem it's like one artist who comes out and plays and it's just so singular no I want to be like other countries that sing proudly collectively together you know and and we need to sing out our national heritage that's a great idea you go into a stadium you're like nobody's seen you nobody see it we're all sitting in it we are all singing this that's what we need to get back to America America baby I love this country and I still have hope for this country how did - I know there's no visions I know there's people that I disagree with yeah but I I do fundamentally believe that they have the right to hold those positions that I disagree absolutely love them I will love them let's talk about it even through the talk talk is the biggest hurdle but through that disagreement even let's have her new awesome country and let's never forget we are one nation under God and man and we are one nation indivisible divisible I think we should I think we should say the Pledge of Allegiance honestly know for all you guys out there party and today and enjoying your hotdogs and your hamburgers and your beer and whatever you do like we hope this podcast has brought some tears where you could appreciate our country more because it's brought a lot to me and we do this from the Catholic perspective but there's been so many people that have built this nation so many people have lost their lives so many people have dedicated their lives so many silent heroes so many valley valiant heroes and so many regular people who just day-to-day went to work and became the fabric of this nation that yeah you really got to take some time today to reflect on that and all the all the all of the people that came to make this nation great and the place that we live yeah it's amazing man so we want to just say be safe out there for the 4th of July remember why we're celebrating it and let's have a vision for the future together and how about we how about we finish with the Pledge of Allegiance all right the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation for all amen happy 4th of July everyone peace thank you thank you troops Thank You veterans yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Catholic Talk Show

Views: 35,276

Keywords: Catholic, Catholic Podcast, Catholic Talk Show, Ryan Scheel, Ryan DellaCrosse, Father Rich Pagano, Catholic Radio, Catholic TV, Catholic Show, American Catholic, Anti-Catholic, Under God Pledge, Pledge of Allegiance, First Catholic President, Know Nothings, Catholic American Revolution, Catholic Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll, Charles Carroll of Carollton, George Washington Letter To Catholics

Id: JoeMJRUssR4

Length: 62min 53sec (3773 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019