May 20, 2025 • 20 mins
SPONSOR: Briefcase Marketing
Pope Leo XIV emerges as a potential unifier for a polarized Church, with Catholics across the spectrum expressing excitement about his election. His deliberate use of different papal symbols and outreach to diverse groups demonstrates his commitment to continuity with tradition while moving the Church forward.
• Both traditional and progressive Catholics showing enthusiasm for Pope Leo
• The Pope's background as both a mathematician and canon lawyer suggests precision and clarity
• His use of symbols and vestments from different papal predecessors indicates continuity
• Early meetings with the Orthodox Church signal commitment to ecumenical dialogue
• His academic connections to Villanova, the Angelicum, and Catholic Theological Union
• The newly ordained priests in Cleveland all grew up in local parishes
• Summer ministry events including Wednesday evening gatherings at St. John Cathedral
• Young adult softball league beginning June 1st at St. John Bosco Parish
• Procession to the diocesan shrine planned for July 19th
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At Briefcase Marketing, we create marketing that inspires action and delivers results. We will:
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Womankind
Theology of the Body CLE
St. John Cantius Parish
Join us at St. John Cathedral every Wednesday night starting May 28th. We'll gather at 5:30 PM for Vespers, followed by food, drinks and live music in the courtyard from 6:15 to 7:50 PM, ending with Night Prayer.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's Question of Faith.
Is Pope Leo a unifier?
Hey everybody, this is Questionof Faith.
I'm Deacon Mike Hayes.
I am the Director of YoungAdult Ministry here in the
Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Father Damian Ferentz, the Vicar for
Evangelization Long week forPope Leo huh.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I mean he met with everybody under the sun, saw him
meeting with the Vice Presidentthe other day and getting an
invitation from the president tocome to the United States.
So we'll see how quickly hetakes that invitation and where
he goes Chicago, philly, I thinkhe would have to go, but who
knows?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, yeah, maybe, and then probably in Pope
Francis' style some strangeplace that you wouldn't expect
him to go, and by strange I meanmaybe not a major city, but who
knows, we'll see, maybeCleveland, who knows?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Or Akron, or Lorain or Painesville yeah, that's true
.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Enough infrastructure to support the visit.
You know you need that.
So the question is he the greatunifier?
And we were talking before theshow about how it seems that
most people are very excitedabout the new Holy Father.
And we live, as you know, as weknow, in a country that's
polarized, in a world that'spolarized and, unfortunately,
(01:17):
many times, in a church that'spolarized Just a touch yeah, in
a church that's polarized yeah,just a touch yeah.
And so it seems like whereverpeople are finding themselves on
the spectrum you know I likeBishop Molesek says it this way
that you got to color within thelines.
So maybe you have a more socialjustice feel for the church,
(01:42):
Maybe you have a morecharismatic feel.
Maybe you have a more socialjustice feel for the church,
Maybe you have a morecharismatic feel, Maybe you have
a more traditional liturgicalfeel.
Wherever you find yourself,that's where you are Color
within the lines of the church.
You still have to follow whatthe church asks us to do and the
teachings of the churchdoctrine, dogma, all that but
there are going to be certainthings you accentuate more than
the others.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Everybody's a little different that way, yeah, but
you still have to follow thePope and the councils are still
the councils and all thosethings Right.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So it seems like that everybody's pretty happy about
Pope Leo the 14th and that's sorefreshing to me and I know it's
early, it's only been a week orso but, yeah, even the
generation born after 2013,.
So the kids who are currently ingrade school and high school or
(02:31):
early years of high school, Isuppose, because Gen Z was born
between 97 and 2012.
Next generation they're callingthem Generation A or Alpha, but
they're also, according to GeneTwenge are also being referred
to as the Polars, because theworld that they're born into is
(02:52):
so polarized.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And, of course, jesus didn't come to divide and
destroy.
He came to gather the nationsto himself and he came to unite,
father, that they may all beone.
And so I mean I mentioned thislast time that Cardinal Burke
and Father James Martin wereboth thrilled with the pick.
I just I found that refreshing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, exactly, it's like, it's funny.
Someone said and one of thesites, I forget which one, they
said that it seems likeeverybody's trying to make the
Pope like on their side.
You know, it's like, oh, youknow, look, he said this over
here.
Someone said yeah, but he saidthis over here.
He said this over here and Iwas like oh, yeah, I think Emily
said this last week that forpeople who didn't like Pope
Francis, he'll be a moretolerable Pope Francis for them
(03:38):
you know, and I think I added tothat.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I said, you know, I said for those who maybe Pope
Benedict or John Paul II wasn'ttheir favorite, he'll be a more
tolerable version of them too.
Yeah, well, he seems certainlyto be a man of continuity,
history, tradition, yeah, that'sfor sure.
And he's giving nods toeverybody.
Obviously, pope Francisvisiting his tomb just this
weekend, he had what a lot ofpeople will say is John Paul
II's Crozier has the crucifix.
It's kind of modern art silver,but he actually got that from,
not john paul ii.
John paul ii got that from paulvi, right, yeah, but he didn't
(04:13):
live long enough to for him tobe known by it, the way that jp2
was.
So I think he's he's.
He's acknowledging this verylong lineage of Holy Fathers,
almost 270 of them, all the wayback to Peter, and sees himself
as one who needs to unify,challenge, comfort all at the
same time, and so far so good,and he seems to be switching
(04:36):
accoutrement around a little bittoo, like he had Francis'
Crozier one day.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
He had John Paul II's Crozier one day and the
different pectoral crosses thathe's worn his different styles
of garb.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So, yeah, I think he's certainly a man of what do
we say like continuation, butalso he's adding to the
tradition as he moves forward.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, that's right, it's the.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Catholic both, and it's the ressourcement and the
aggiornamento, the two movementsof going back to the sources
and then moving forward andbeing what we need to be in the
world today.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And I think, as a canon lawyer, you know there's
always something along thoselines too I think that we could
look at.
Is that, you know, I think, agood criticism of Pope Francis,
who I adored, right, you know, Ithink a good criticism of him
would be that, you know he'stalked off the cuff so often,
and then the canon lawyers wouldhave to go back through the
books and figure out, well,where is he pulling that from?
(05:39):
What did he?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
really mean by what he said and what was the context
all that?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, all that stuff and they said well, this guy
will be a little different thathe'll lead with that.
Here's where this comes from inthe tradition.
Here's what the last pope said.
Here's where this comes from incanon law, and every I will be
dotted, every T will be crossed,and then he'll put out a
statement as opposed to, youknow, sort of having more
off-the-cuff things on the papalplane maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, and still with a very pastoral touch and a love
for the poor and a love forthose on the peripheries and the
margins.
So I think you've got that.
I think some people are veryexcited that he's both a math
major and a canon lawyer,because there will be a
precision and a clarity thatwasn't present in Pope Francis.
But again, I said this before,I really think the Lord allows
(06:30):
the popes to be, and Iunderstand we've had bad popes
in the past.
I don't think Pope Francis wasa bad pope.
I think that we had the pope atthe time in church history when
we needed that particular holyfather, and so, too, with Pope
Leo XIV.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
That's probably fair.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, and it also takes time to pass to see what
you actually had.
Yeah, like the piece that Iwrote for Word on Fire that was
published the day after the holyfather died.
It's actually, I just noticedit's in the new Northeast Ohio
Catholic Magazine.
They reprinted it in the lastarticle.
But I say that when it comes toa prophet, when you have a
(07:08):
prophet in your midst, youusually don't recognize it at
the time.
It's after time passed.
You're like oh yeah, it was onto something there that was
helpful.
You know, it's like your parentsdiscipline you.
You're like my mom hates me,and then you realize later on oh
, that was actually my momloving me, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That kind of stuff.
I think that way about pastorsand bishops.
Sometimes, too, it's you know,when they were there and you
were working with them, youcursed them when they were there
, and then years later you go.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
oh that's what Father Chuck was doing.
Yeah, yeah, you know, like nowI get it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You know it's the kind of thing we all have
hindsight to.
Here's a funny for you.
Maybe not so funny, butinteresting.
So I'm walking around the otherday in my neighborhood and I
get a text message from myfriend, John, whose son is
graduating from Villanova.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
And he says sort of angrily he said now wouldn't you
think they could get the Popeto do a video message for the
graduates today?
I mean, wouldn't you think thatwould be an easy get, since
he's a grad of Villanova andeverything else?
And so I said well, I said youknow, the president was talking
the other day and he asked abouthow they could engage him.
And he said you know, I'd liketo.
(08:17):
You know, I'd love to have youas the commencement speaker one
day.
And he said you know, I'd liketo.
You know, I'd love to have youas the commencement speaker one
day.
And he said sorry, I think I'mbusy that weekend, jokingly, and
two seconds later I get asecond text because, never mind,
he sent one.
So they did engage him.
He did give a very brief videomessage to the graduates of
Villanova.
So congrats to Jack McDermott,my friend's son, who graduated
(08:40):
from Villanova Father.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Ryan Kubera, who's the pastor of St Mary of the
Falls in Olmstead Township, isactually a former teen of mine,
at my first parish.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yes, I remember, yeah .
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And I help out on weekends over there.
I had the 11 o'clock thisweekend and then I saw him later
on down in Hudson for FatherAnthony Donatelli, his first
Mass.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Anthony.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
As we were vesting I said, hey, you and the Holy
Father are both graduates ofVillanova.
Because he got his, it's amaster's in parish
administration administration orsomething which is pretty cool
and business administration.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, business administration yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And I said and I said I also am an alumni with him
from the Angelicum, so we bothwent to schools that the Holy
Father went to, which is prettycool.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
That is pretty cool.
My friend Lori went to theCatholic Theological Union and
so she was excited about thatbecause he has a master's from.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
There.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
She was interested and she said he even had some of
the same professors that he had.
So she thought that was kind ofcool.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I saw one of his nuns .
She's not a nun, she's a sister.
A scripture professorinterviewed and she remembered
him.
I mean everyone says he was agreat student.
They also say he was reallyhelpful and he got his work done
, but then helped other peopleget their work done which is
really great.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
That's good to know.
Congrats to the newly ordained,by the way.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Boy, have you ever seen the cathedral that fall in
your life?
Maybe yours.
My ordination we had 10 and itwas a year after the abuse
scandal, so it was a party, butit's been a while since it was
like that.
It was so joyful.
The other thing is that alleight of those men grew up in
our parishes, in our diocese andthat's not true of every
diocese, and a lot of dioceseshave transplants because people
move there for work.
But these guys all grew up here, which is really cool, and so
(10:30):
they know the diocese, they knowthe seminary and just very
exciting, and I taught all ofthem too.
So it was really cool to see.
And Father John Hawkins, whoI've known since he was in high
school, asked me to vest him, soI had the honor of doing that
Very nice.
Because his youth minister wasin my youth group and then her
husband took over and was hisyouth minister after a while too
(10:52):
.
So there's pretty coolspiritual lineage there.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and your ordination anniversary
should be coming up.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It was, it was the 17th, it's been 22 years, yeah,
exactly.
It's a weird number the doubledeuce and you're on one year of
being a deacon One.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yes, exactly, that's the six of us.
We've been trying to gettogether to celebrate, and we
just can't find an agreeabledate at this point.
So we're looking at August atthis point.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
That's kind of how it goes.
We try one a year.
We used to try two.
It's harder the older you gettoo.
Yeah, exactly, the busier youget it was nice.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I went to Father Jeff Lindholm's Mass at Thanksgiving
.
He was thunderous in his homily.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I bet and I mean in a good way.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Passionate young man yeah he was really great and he
said he kept trying to pawn thehomily off on Bishop Wust.
Bishop Wust wasn't having it,so he said no, no, you preach.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well, Father Ryan Kubera was Lindholm's priest
when he was in high school.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Right At Rayfield.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yes, and he was there because I took his 11 am at St
Mary of the.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Falls.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
That's why I took it so he could go to that first
Mass.
We all help each other out.
That's nice yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, it was fun, All right.
So hopefully Pope Leo will bethe great unifier and continue
to unify our church, our worldmaybe.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Well, you know what too Like even with the Orthodox.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh sure, yeah, he met with them the other day.
He met with the patriarch.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, if we could do that and unite church.
Holy cow and he spent a lot oftime, maybe day two.
Obviously our Byzantinebrothers and sisters are under
the Holy Father, but evenreaching out to them early on
and saying we're all togetherhere, that's very important
stuff, and that's a continuationof Francis' work too.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
He had been talking about that since Easter was both
Orthodox and Catholic and RomanEaster this year, so it was
matched up.
So he said you know, maybe weshould think about just making
that a.
Thing.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And I don't remember.
I'm sure Benedict wanted thattoo, and I remember Pope John
Paul II because he was fromPoland.
Certainly it's a long path, butmaybe it'll happen under Pope
Leo, who knows?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Exactly.
I'll keep it on my radar as thedelegate for ecumenical
interfaith stuff, you too aswell.
So the Eastern Church Dialoguewhich meets out at John Carroll,
that's something we have on ourradar for a while.
So, it'll be good.
All right, you know who elsehas a good radar.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
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Speaker 1 (13:23):
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Hey, you know one of yourfriends, ted and Rita Stitzel.
Oh yeah, from St Mary's Hudson.
Yep, they're good friends ofyours.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
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Speaker 2 (14:04):
If you need proof, Briefcase Marketing gets great
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Speaker 1 (14:46):
Amen, he's the man I was going to ask you something.
So you've got summer concertscoming up.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, so now that I'm the parochial vicar at St John
Cathedral, bishop, ask that moreyoung people be present down
there.
And there's a lot of youngpeople who live in downtown
Cleveland maybe who we haven'tseen yet or we don't see often.
So every Wednesday night,starting next Wednesday, may
28th, we'll gather in the churchat 530 for Vespers.
(15:17):
So get that iBrievery app onyour phone.
We're going to use that andthen we're going to come outside
into the courtyard and we'llhave food and drinks and live
music from 6 to 8 pm Well,actually 6 to 6, 15 to 7, 50.
And then we'll end with nightprayer.
But all summer long everyWednesday nights, wednesday
(15:37):
evenings, live.
You'll see the logo around town.
You'll see some billboards.
You'll see it on our digitalscreen.
You might see it in somesecular outlets, but I got a
bunch of great musicians comingin all summer long and it should
be a lot of fun.
Yeah, that would be really cool,isn't Matt Fradd's sister,
sister, yeah because I think shereached out to you as young
(15:59):
adult director and you put heron to me and I was just kind of
birthing the idea at that pointand I said just kind of birthing
the idea at that point and Isaid all right, let's go, that's
so, it'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Fun.
Softball season starts June 1st.
Come on out, watch us at StJohn Bosco Parish.
We'll be out there all day long.
Um, so it'll be great.
We're gonna do a little uh sortof controlled scrimmage uh,
week before.
So if you're, if you're headingaround that area, you might see
us out there as well.
Nice, but uh, every Sunday,from from like 12 to 5,
basically we'll be out there.
We'll have a couple of games onSaturday this year just to kind
(16:29):
of fill a schedule out.
A couple of new teams.
So that's fun.
171 young adults playingsoftball, wonderful, so it'll be
good.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I drove past St John Bosco this afternoon, I was
meeting with Sister MargaretTaylor and Sister Elizabeth.
No, was it Sister Carol?
Sister Carol was my principalfrom kindergarten to third grade
and Sister Margaret Taylor wasmy eighth-grade teacher.
That's great, and now they'rein leadership positions over
there, and on July 19th we'll beat Bosco for a 4 pm Mass and
(16:58):
then we'll do a procession downto the shrine, which is one of
the jubilee sites for thediocese.
So put that on your calendar.
Come on out.
We're just kind of buttoning upsome details on that today.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Nice.
I was out there last night forYCP had an event and the great
Bill Preble was their speaker.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Where At John Bosco or Incarnate.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Word Incarnate Word yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Really yeah it was Gabe Kessler.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
He works there, so he was good.
Bill did a nice job and Bill'sin formation for the diaconate
so he's a year away now.
Knock wood, god willing.
So we'll pray for Bill and forall the guys who are in
formation.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
His wife, millie, dropped off some vegan lasagna
last week.
Oh really, at the cathedral, itwas so good.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
She's a good cook.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Tasted like meat.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Did I ever tell you my restaurant idea?
This is when I was still doingthe food show.
We had a restaurant.
Now, remember, the host Iworked with was Jewish, and so
we said that we were going toopen a restaurant that would be
a glot kosher restaurant calledTreif, which is, you know, food
you're not supposed to eat, butall the food would actually be
(18:03):
glot kosher food, but on themenu it would say like tastes
like shrimp or something but itwould be glacosha.
That's funny.
And so we tested that idea witha rabbi.
He said no, no, no, even theidea of eating treif would be
sinful.
So we thought that was a littlemuch, but, needless to say, we
never ventured into the business.
But the sixth Sunday of Easterwill be our business this
(18:26):
weekend, and I'm preaching thisweekend actually.
So the gospel is from John.
Jesus said to his discipleswhoever loves me will keep my
word and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and
make our dwelling with him.
Whoever does not love me doesnot keep my words.
Yet the word you hear is notmine, but that of the Father who
sent me.
I love the middle part of thisgospel Peace.
(18:48):
I leave with you.
My peace I give it to you, notas the world gives, do I give it
to you.
Do not let your hearts betroubled or afraid.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yesterday we had that same gospel at daily mass and
the second graders from StMichael's Grade School in
Independence came to mass andthey did a little tour before in
the cathedral.
And I told the kids, I said youknow you're here visiting God's
house.
Obviously he has a house inIndependence, to your home
(19:16):
parish, but here you're at theMother Church and you know
you're dwelling here in hishouse.
But what he came to do for youlast week at your first
communion was to dwell in yourhouse, in your body.
You know so.
God wants to dwell in us, andthat indwelling happens first at
baptism.
But anytime we celebrate asacrament there's a deeper
(19:37):
indwelling that God makes withinus, and so that's why it's so
important to frequent thesacraments.
You know, indeed so cool, allright.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
So frequent sacraments this weekend and
we'll have this and a whole lotmore here next time on question.
On today's Question of Faith.
Is Pope Leo a unifier?
Hey everybody, this is Questionof Faith.
I'm Deacon Mike Hayes.
I am the Director of YoungAdult Ministry here in the
Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And I'm Father Damian Ferentz, the Vicar for
Evangelization Long week forPope Leo huh.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I mean he met with everybody under the sun, saw him
meeting with the Vice Presidentthe other day and getting an
invitation from the president tocome to the United States.
So we'll see how quickly hetakes that invitation and where
he goes Chicago, philly, I thinkhe would have to go, but who
knows?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, yeah, maybe, and then probably in Pope
Francis' style some strangeplace that you wouldn't expect
him to go, and by strange I meanmaybe not a major city, but who
knows, we'll see, maybeCleveland, who knows?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Or Akron, or Lorain or Painesville yeah, that's true
.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Enough infrastructure to support the visit.
You know you need that.
So the question is he the greatunifier?
And we were talking before theshow about how it seems that
most people are very excitedabout the new Holy Father.
And we live, as you know, as weknow, in a country that's
polarized, in a world that'spolarized and, unfortunately,
(01:17):
many times, in a church that'spolarized Just a touch yeah, in
a church that's polarized yeah,just a touch yeah.
And so it seems like whereverpeople are finding themselves on
the spectrum you know I likeBishop Molesek says it this way
that you got to color within thelines.
So maybe you have a more socialjustice feel for the church,
(01:42):
Maybe you have a morecharismatic feel.
Maybe you have a more socialjustice feel for the church,
Maybe you have a morecharismatic feel, Maybe you have
a more traditional liturgicalfeel.
Wherever you find yourself,that's where you are Color
within the lines of the church.
You still have to follow whatthe church asks us to do and the
teachings of the churchdoctrine, dogma, all that but
there are going to be certainthings you accentuate more than
the others.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Everybody's a little different that way, yeah, but
you still have to follow thePope and the councils are still
the councils and all thosethings Right.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So it seems like that everybody's pretty happy about
Pope Leo the 14th and that's sorefreshing to me and I know it's
early, it's only been a week orso but, yeah, even the
generation born after 2013,.
So the kids who are currently ingrade school and high school or
(02:31):
early years of high school, Isuppose, because Gen Z was born
between 97 and 2012.
Next generation they're callingthem Generation A or Alpha, but
they're also, according to GeneTwenge are also being referred
to as the Polars, because theworld that they're born into is
(02:52):
so polarized.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And, of course, jesus didn't come to divide and
destroy.
He came to gather the nationsto himself and he came to unite,
father, that they may all beone.
And so I mean I mentioned thislast time that Cardinal Burke
and Father James Martin wereboth thrilled with the pick.
I just I found that refreshing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, exactly, it's like, it's funny.
Someone said and one of thesites, I forget which one, they
said that it seems likeeverybody's trying to make the
Pope like on their side.
You know, it's like, oh, youknow, look, he said this over
here.
Someone said yeah, but he saidthis over here.
He said this over here and Iwas like oh, yeah, I think Emily
said this last week that forpeople who didn't like Pope
Francis, he'll be a moretolerable Pope Francis for them
(03:38):
you know, and I think I added tothat.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I said, you know, I said for those who maybe Pope
Benedict or John Paul II wasn'ttheir favorite, he'll be a more
tolerable version of them too.
Yeah, well, he seems certainlyto be a man of continuity,
history, tradition, yeah, that'sfor sure.
And he's giving nods toeverybody.
Obviously, pope Francisvisiting his tomb just this
weekend, he had what a lot ofpeople will say is John Paul
II's Crozier has the crucifix.
It's kind of modern art silver,but he actually got that from,
not john paul ii.
John paul ii got that from paulvi, right, yeah, but he didn't
(04:13):
live long enough to for him tobe known by it, the way that jp2
was.
So I think he's he's.
He's acknowledging this verylong lineage of Holy Fathers,
almost 270 of them, all the wayback to Peter, and sees himself
as one who needs to unify,challenge, comfort all at the
same time, and so far so good,and he seems to be switching
(04:36):
accoutrement around a little bittoo, like he had Francis'
Crozier one day.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
He had John Paul II's Crozier one day and the
different pectoral crosses thathe's worn his different styles
of garb.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So, yeah, I think he's certainly a man of what do
we say like continuation, butalso he's adding to the
tradition as he moves forward.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, that's right, it's the.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Catholic both, and it's the ressourcement and the
aggiornamento, the two movementsof going back to the sources
and then moving forward andbeing what we need to be in the
world today.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And I think, as a canon lawyer, you know there's
always something along thoselines too I think that we could
look at.
Is that, you know, I think, agood criticism of Pope Francis,
who I adored, right, you know, Ithink a good criticism of him
would be that, you know he'stalked off the cuff so often,
and then the canon lawyers wouldhave to go back through the
books and figure out, well,where is he pulling that from?
(05:39):
What did he?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
really mean by what he said and what was the context
all that?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, all that stuff and they said well, this guy
will be a little different thathe'll lead with that.
Here's where this comes from inthe tradition.
Here's what the last pope said.
Here's where this comes from incanon law, and every I will be
dotted, every T will be crossed,and then he'll put out a
statement as opposed to, youknow, sort of having more
off-the-cuff things on the papalplane maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, and still with a very pastoral touch and a love
for the poor and a love forthose on the peripheries and the
margins.
So I think you've got that.
I think some people are veryexcited that he's both a math
major and a canon lawyer,because there will be a
precision and a clarity thatwasn't present in Pope Francis.
But again, I said this before,I really think the Lord allows
(06:30):
the popes to be, and Iunderstand we've had bad popes
in the past.
I don't think Pope Francis wasa bad pope.
I think that we had the pope atthe time in church history when
we needed that particular holyfather, and so, too, with Pope
Leo XIV.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
That's probably fair.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, and it also takes time to pass to see what
you actually had.
Yeah, like the piece that Iwrote for Word on Fire that was
published the day after the holyfather died.
It's actually, I just noticedit's in the new Northeast Ohio
Catholic Magazine.
They reprinted it in the lastarticle.
But I say that when it comes toa prophet, when you have a
(07:08):
prophet in your midst, youusually don't recognize it at
the time.
It's after time passed.
You're like oh yeah, it was onto something there that was
helpful.
You know, it's like your parentsdiscipline you.
You're like my mom hates me,and then you realize later on oh
, that was actually my momloving me, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That kind of stuff.
I think that way about pastorsand bishops.
Sometimes, too, it's you know,when they were there and you
were working with them, youcursed them when they were there
, and then years later you go.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
oh that's what Father Chuck was doing.
Yeah, yeah, you know, like nowI get it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You know it's the kind of thing we all have
hindsight to.
Here's a funny for you.
Maybe not so funny, butinteresting.
So I'm walking around the otherday in my neighborhood and I
get a text message from myfriend, John, whose son is
graduating from Villanova.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
And he says sort of angrily he said now wouldn't you
think they could get the Popeto do a video message for the
graduates today?
I mean, wouldn't you think thatwould be an easy get, since
he's a grad of Villanova andeverything else?
And so I said well, I said youknow, the president was talking
the other day and he asked abouthow they could engage him.
And he said you know, I'd liketo.
(08:17):
You know, I'd love to have youas the commencement speaker one
day.
And he said you know, I'd liketo.
You know, I'd love to have youas the commencement speaker one
day.
And he said sorry, I think I'mbusy that weekend, jokingly, and
two seconds later I get asecond text because, never mind,
he sent one.
So they did engage him.
He did give a very brief videomessage to the graduates of
Villanova.
So congrats to Jack McDermott,my friend's son, who graduated
(08:40):
from Villanova Father.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Ryan Kubera, who's the pastor of St Mary of the
Falls in Olmstead Township, isactually a former teen of mine,
at my first parish.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yes, I remember, yeah .
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And I help out on weekends over there.
I had the 11 o'clock thisweekend and then I saw him later
on down in Hudson for FatherAnthony Donatelli, his first
Mass.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Anthony.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
As we were vesting I said, hey, you and the Holy
Father are both graduates ofVillanova.
Because he got his, it's amaster's in parish
administration administration orsomething which is pretty cool
and business administration.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, business administration yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And I said and I said I also am an alumni with him
from the Angelicum, so we bothwent to schools that the Holy
Father went to, which is prettycool.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
That is pretty cool.
My friend Lori went to theCatholic Theological Union and
so she was excited about thatbecause he has a master's from.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
There.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
She was interested and she said he even had some of
the same professors that he had.
So she thought that was kind ofcool.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I saw one of his nuns .
She's not a nun, she's a sister.
A scripture professorinterviewed and she remembered
him.
I mean everyone says he was agreat student.
They also say he was reallyhelpful and he got his work done
, but then helped other peopleget their work done which is
really great.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
That's good to know.
Congrats to the newly ordained,by the way.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Boy, have you ever seen the cathedral that fall in
your life?
Maybe yours.
My ordination we had 10 and itwas a year after the abuse
scandal, so it was a party, butit's been a while since it was
like that.
It was so joyful.
The other thing is that alleight of those men grew up in
our parishes, in our diocese andthat's not true of every
diocese, and a lot of dioceseshave transplants because people
move there for work.
But these guys all grew up here, which is really cool, and so
(10:30):
they know the diocese, they knowthe seminary and just very
exciting, and I taught all ofthem too.
So it was really cool to see.
And Father John Hawkins, whoI've known since he was in high
school, asked me to vest him, soI had the honor of doing that
Very nice.
Because his youth minister wasin my youth group and then her
husband took over and was hisyouth minister after a while too
(10:52):
.
So there's pretty coolspiritual lineage there.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and your ordination anniversary
should be coming up.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It was, it was the 17th, it's been 22 years, yeah,
exactly.
It's a weird number the doubledeuce and you're on one year of
being a deacon One.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yes, exactly, that's the six of us.
We've been trying to gettogether to celebrate, and we
just can't find an agreeabledate at this point.
So we're looking at August atthis point.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
That's kind of how it goes.
We try one a year.
We used to try two.
It's harder the older you gettoo.
Yeah, exactly, the busier youget it was nice.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I went to Father Jeff Lindholm's Mass at Thanksgiving
.
He was thunderous in his homily.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I bet and I mean in a good way.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Passionate young man yeah he was really great and he
said he kept trying to pawn thehomily off on Bishop Wust.
Bishop Wust wasn't having it,so he said no, no, you preach.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well, Father Ryan Kubera was Lindholm's priest
when he was in high school.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Right At Rayfield.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yes, and he was there because I took his 11 am at St
Mary of the.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Falls.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
That's why I took it so he could go to that first
Mass.
We all help each other out.
That's nice yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, it was fun, All right.
So hopefully Pope Leo will bethe great unifier and continue
to unify our church, our worldmaybe.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Well, you know what too Like even with the Orthodox.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh sure, yeah, he met with them the other day.
He met with the patriarch.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, if we could do that and unite church.
Holy cow and he spent a lot oftime, maybe day two.
Obviously our Byzantinebrothers and sisters are under
the Holy Father, but evenreaching out to them early on
and saying we're all togetherhere, that's very important
stuff, and that's a continuationof Francis' work too.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
He had been talking about that since Easter was both
Orthodox and Catholic and RomanEaster this year, so it was
matched up.
So he said you know, maybe weshould think about just making
that a.
Thing.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
And I don't remember.
I'm sure Benedict wanted thattoo, and I remember Pope John
Paul II because he was fromPoland.
Certainly it's a long path, butmaybe it'll happen under Pope
Leo, who knows?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Exactly.
I'll keep it on my radar as thedelegate for ecumenical
interfaith stuff, you too aswell.
So the Eastern Church Dialoguewhich meets out at John Carroll,
that's something we have on ourradar for a while.
So, it'll be good.
All right, you know who elsehas a good radar.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Dan First at Briefcase Marketing.
Yeah, oh, I got it right.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You know what they do they make sure your church
doesn't have scattered messagingor a bad website.
Hey, you know one of yourfriends, ted and Rita Stitzel.
Oh yeah, from St Mary's Hudson.
Yep, they're good friends ofyours.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
And so he just did their website, doilmedcom.
Oh wonderful.
So if you check that out, we'llput that on the show notes.
Yeah, titsles are great.
Well, they create marketing foryour church, your church-based
ministry, that inspires actionand delivers results.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Briefcase Marketing will clarify your message to
attract the right audience.
They'll streamline your websiteto convert mere visitors into
customers, donors, volunteers,parishioners.
They'll create consistency tobuild trust and to deepen
relationships across all of yourmarketing platforms emails, ads
, social media and the like.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
If you need proof, Briefcase Marketing gets great
Google reviews.
They've done superb work withour friends at Theology of the
Body, Cleveland, St John CanciusParish in Tremont, and we'll
put samples of that work in ourshow notes make it easier for
you to check them out yeah,along with Doyle Med and
Womankind too, which he's donerecently.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So, with a clear message and a compelling website
, Briefcase Marketing will helpyou get more donors given to
your mission, more volunteersready to serve, more people
sharing your message and beingtheir advocates for you.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So visit their website.
That's briefcasemarketing.
We've got their link in theshow notes or text 308-627-1262.
And our pal Dan Furst will takegood care of you at Briefcase
Marketing.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Amen, he's the man I was going to ask you something.
So you've got summer concertscoming up.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, so now that I'm the parochial vicar at St John
Cathedral, bishop, ask that moreyoung people be present down
there.
And there's a lot of youngpeople who live in downtown
Cleveland maybe who we haven'tseen yet or we don't see often.
So every Wednesday night,starting next Wednesday, may
28th, we'll gather in the churchat 530 for Vespers.
(15:17):
So get that iBrievery app onyour phone.
We're going to use that andthen we're going to come outside
into the courtyard and we'llhave food and drinks and live
music from 6 to 8 pm Well,actually 6 to 6, 15 to 7, 50.
And then we'll end with nightprayer.
But all summer long everyWednesday nights, wednesday
(15:37):
evenings, live.
You'll see the logo around town.
You'll see some billboards.
You'll see it on our digitalscreen.
You might see it in somesecular outlets, but I got a
bunch of great musicians comingin all summer long and it should
be a lot of fun.
Yeah, that would be really cool,isn't Matt Fradd's sister,
sister, yeah because I think shereached out to you as young
(15:59):
adult director and you put heron to me and I was just kind of
birthing the idea at that pointand I said just kind of birthing
the idea at that point and Isaid all right, let's go, that's
so, it'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Fun.
Softball season starts June 1st.
Come on out, watch us at StJohn Bosco Parish.
We'll be out there all day long.
Um, so it'll be great.
We're gonna do a little uh sortof controlled scrimmage uh,
week before.
So if you're, if you're headingaround that area, you might see
us out there as well.
Nice, but uh, every Sunday,from from like 12 to 5,
basically we'll be out there.
We'll have a couple of games onSaturday this year just to kind
(16:29):
of fill a schedule out.
A couple of new teams.
So that's fun.
171 young adults playingsoftball, wonderful, so it'll be
good.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I drove past St John Bosco this afternoon, I was
meeting with Sister MargaretTaylor and Sister Elizabeth.
No, was it Sister Carol?
Sister Carol was my principalfrom kindergarten to third grade
and Sister Margaret Taylor wasmy eighth-grade teacher.
That's great, and now they'rein leadership positions over
there, and on July 19th we'll beat Bosco for a 4 pm Mass and
(16:58):
then we'll do a procession downto the shrine, which is one of
the jubilee sites for thediocese.
So put that on your calendar.
Come on out.
We're just kind of buttoning upsome details on that today.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Nice.
I was out there last night forYCP had an event and the great
Bill Preble was their speaker.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Where At John Bosco or Incarnate.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Word Incarnate Word yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Really yeah it was Gabe Kessler.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
He works there, so he was good.
Bill did a nice job and Bill'sin formation for the diaconate
so he's a year away now.
Knock wood, god willing.
So we'll pray for Bill and forall the guys who are in
formation.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
His wife, millie, dropped off some vegan lasagna
last week.
Oh really, at the cathedral, itwas so good.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
She's a good cook.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Tasted like meat.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Did I ever tell you my restaurant idea?
This is when I was still doingthe food show.
We had a restaurant.
Now, remember, the host Iworked with was Jewish, and so
we said that we were going toopen a restaurant that would be
a glot kosher restaurant calledTreif, which is, you know, food
you're not supposed to eat, butall the food would actually be
(18:03):
glot kosher food, but on themenu it would say like tastes
like shrimp or something but itwould be glacosha.
That's funny.
And so we tested that idea witha rabbi.
He said no, no, no, even theidea of eating treif would be
sinful.
So we thought that was a littlemuch, but, needless to say, we
never ventured into the business.
But the sixth Sunday of Easterwill be our business this
(18:26):
weekend, and I'm preaching thisweekend actually.
So the gospel is from John.
Jesus said to his discipleswhoever loves me will keep my
word and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and
make our dwelling with him.
Whoever does not love me doesnot keep my words.
Yet the word you hear is notmine, but that of the Father who
sent me.
I love the middle part of thisgospel Peace.
(18:48):
I leave with you.
My peace I give it to you, notas the world gives, do I give it
to you.
Do not let your hearts betroubled or afraid.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yesterday we had that same gospel at daily mass and
the second graders from StMichael's Grade School in
Independence came to mass andthey did a little tour before in
the cathedral.
And I told the kids, I said youknow you're here visiting God's
house.
Obviously he has a house inIndependence, to your home
(19:16):
parish, but here you're at theMother Church and you know
you're dwelling here in hishouse.
But what he came to do for youlast week at your first
communion was to dwell in yourhouse, in your body.
You know so.
God wants to dwell in us, andthat indwelling happens first at
baptism.
But anytime we celebrate asacrament there's a deeper
(19:37):
indwelling that God makes withinus, and so that's why it's so
important to frequent thesacraments.
You know, indeed so cool, allright.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
So frequent sacraments this weekend and
we'll have this and a whole lotmore here next time on question.
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