WEBVTT - It's a Numbers Game: Why Scripture, Sacraments, and Community Matter in Catholic Life 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.000 Welcome to a Numbers game with Ryan Gurdusky. Thank you 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:08.160 guys for being here. We are one week away from Christmas, 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.400 and if you were like me, you are not ready 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:13.240 at all. This weekend is going to be a marathon 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:15.320 in the life of Ryan Gurdusky to try to get 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:17.840 everything ready in the last few days and make it 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:22.040 all seem pretty effortless. And so if you're by any 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.080 stretch of the imagination seeing me running through a mall 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.600 or store and a complete panic, just look, just know 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:29.720 I don't always look like that. Before I get to 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.159 my topic, I have some pretty funny gossip that I 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.400 think you guys would like. I was invited to a 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:37.640 cool Christmas party that I wanted to tell you about it. 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.560 I was invited to the Mediaite Christmas party. Media I 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.720 is kind of a lefty center left website that covers 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.080 all things media. So I got the invitation last week 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.120 and I immediately thought, Okay, this is either a mistake, 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:51.600 which they follow up and said it was a mistake, 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:53.479 or that it was going to be a very d 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.120 list event, because you know, I know I was invited, 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.520 so I couldn't have possibly been like a very cool thing. 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.680 But I expectations Bernhei going in, I went thinking, Okay, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:04.920 it's gonna be a bunch of bloggers or whatnot. And 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.000 I walk in the door and the first person, first 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.640 two people I see is Joe and Mika from Morning Joe, 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.400 and I'm like, uh, okay, and then Brian Stelter from 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:18.920 CNN walks in right behind me, and I just all 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:20.840 of a sudden it dinged on me like it's not 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.200 going to be a Dalist party. It's going to be 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.880 a liberal party. And I am the token conservative that 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.080 was invited. That's why I thought walking in, and I 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.319 was immediate scrambling with like, okay, who on earth is 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.800 going to talk to me for the next hour while 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:37.960 I just have a glass of wine circle try to 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:39.520 find the host of the party and thank them for 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.440 inviting me, because I'm never really invited to a lot 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.520 of events, so I wanted to at least thank them 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.360 for inviting me with the hope that, you know, I 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.040 would be invited to something else in the future. So 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.760 I see Joe and Mika, who I saw actually at 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.640 a party in twenty twelve. It was a Fox News 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:59.560 MSNBC mixer in twenty twelve ahead of the New Hampshire 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.720 Republic in primary and this is when Joe Meeka were 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.680 just colleagues, even though that they very clearly in front 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.160 of everybody else didn't seem to be colleagues anyway. So 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.160 I'm circling the room and I'm trying to find somebody 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.480 who will like maybe one other conservative or center right person, 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.880 and I see Scott Jennings from CNN sitting down in 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.720 the corner and he's talking to somebody. And I'm always 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.480 under the assumption that no one knows who I am. 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:26.679 I just feel like, you know, because I work so 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:28.840 much by myself, and I don't you know, I'm not 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.600 always like stopped or whatever. Once in a while happens. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.080 But I walk up to Scott Jennings and I just 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.000 put up my hand. I go, hi, I'm Ryan gar Dusky. 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.800 He just goes, yeah, I know, I know you are. 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.560 You're kind of very well known on senn among scenen 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.920 circles anyway. Could have been nicer, a little more subdued 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:49.200 in real life than I thought he was, because some 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.959 of these people who are very like show business y, 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:54.880 even in the political media world, they're like, you know, 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.040 they are very performative even in private, and he's not 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.440 like that. He was very real, kind of just hung out, 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:02.480 really real guy. And there was a guy saying next 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.920 to him, and I was like, who is this person? 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.360 Like why is this guy chatting his ear up? So 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.080 when the guy got up, I go, who is that? 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.679 He goes, Oh, it's you know, it's an agent and 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:13.720 you know I was throwing his card at me or whatever. 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.040 And I realized that almost all of the talent, or 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:19.760 not all of them, I would say at least half 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.680 of the talent was there with their agents, and the 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.600 agents were like walking them around to meet certain people. 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.840 And I was like, this is like extremely this is 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.680 like watching an owner of a prize horse, like showing 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.120 them to different people is very weird. Anyway, I see 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.120 Megan Kelly and she couldn't have been nicer. I was 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:37.760 a complete horre and just asked her to come back 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.160 on her show. I was like, ha, me back and 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.200 people from the podcast where there to Vicky Ward. I 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.560 had her on about Epstein. She was great. She's working 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.920 on a new book about Luigi Menas, Scott Mangioni, Luvisy 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.720 Mangioni The Killer, So we were talking about that for 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:54.880 a little while and I saw Alex Thompson from Axios 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.200 and we're talking about the Bidens and he's working on 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.760 all these stories about the twenty twenty eight Democrat primary. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.760 So we're talking about Gavin Newsom, you know, sharing funny 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.200 stories about what he's like. And then I run into 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.360 a girl and she must have been like twenty five 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.240 years old something like that, twenty five to thirty that range, 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.680 and she just goes to me, you know, New York's 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:17.479 not the scene that it used to be. And I 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.440 was like, who are you like Frand label with so 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.480 he used to hang out Andy Warhol in the seventies 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.440 and now you're not. I'm like, when was the scene? 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.560 And she's like twenty fifteen, and I'm like, I these 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.560 people are just young people who think they've been through 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.760 more than they have. Just exhausted me anyway, and then 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.480 this is the kind of crazy thing. So I as 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.120 I'm leaving, I see someone else who a journalist who 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:39.320 I know I'm not gonna name his name because I 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.960 don't want to give him, you know, publicity, but he 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.280 was His company that he had worked for at the time, 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.760 was ruthless to me when the whole scene in episode 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.080 happened last year. So I just say hello briefly because 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:51.920 I'm like, you know, I'm not gonna be rude. And 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.240 he was talking to Ari Mulber, who was just being 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.400 He's just being someone very very interested in himself. And 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.080 I said to him, I said, tom, oh, I've been 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.000 on your I was on your show like ten years ago. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.480 And he was like, my show wasn't existed for ten years. 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.320 I'm like, okay, it was twenty seventeen, whatever that math is, 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:13.159 that's when I was on your show. Very very smart guy. Anyway, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.800 the reporter who has been not very kind to me 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.600 throughout the last year, his company has not been very 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.760 kind to me. He ends the conversation by saying, if 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.640 you have any scoops, please pass them my way. And 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.760 I was like, I would never give you a scoop. 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.560 Your outlet is left wing trash, and you've did nothing 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:32.560 besides trash me. 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.000 Why would I give you scoops? 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:39.559 Which is just it is so commonplace for journalists who 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.080 are so under the belief that yeah, I could trash you, 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:44.760 but we're all friends, we're all kind of in the 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.400 business together, or whatever whatever they believe. I was like, 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.440 this is the worst kinds of people. So that was 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.080 the really cool scoop of the entire story, and you know, 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.000 the media and just the people who still work there. 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:58.479 I thought it was really funny and my audience would 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.479 enjoy it. But I wanted to so I want to 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:03.360 tell you guys about that, and I wanted to take 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.920 a second to talk to you about what is upcoming, 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.000 which is Christmas. And you know, it's not just about 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.960 Christmas parties and shopping and wrapping gifts and trying to 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.400 take the season as much as possible. So I want 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.600 to talk about the faith and about faith in particular. 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:18.560 I know it's not a religious podcast, but it is 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:22.039 I think appropriate given this season. I am Catholic. I 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.200 put it in my bio in part because I got 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.320 so tired of people calling me a fat Geo on Twitter. 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.400 I thought that maybe they'll mix it up and call 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:30.880 me a fat Italian, but it hasn't really worked out anyway. 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.320 I am Catholic. I was born and raised in the faith. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.840 I briefly kind of walked away from it during college 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:38.280 and the end of high school. I guess there's a 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.359 lot of people do, and came back to on my 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.560 own accord. And as I've continue to age and as 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.280 I break down data a lot, I noticed how important 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.800 matters of faith and religion are and how much they 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.920 are Like religion is like a muscle, right, So if 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.000 you only go to the gym two or three times 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.560 a year and you quit every few months, this is 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.680 someone like me. If you're not super diligent and you're 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.600 not going to see gains. You may be able to 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.039 put off some weight, but you're not going to see 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:07.640 gains like you are. And if you're somebody who only 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.440 typidly or randomly attends church and only praise really when 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:13.600 the aeroplane is about to take off and the doors closed, 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.400 you're probably not educating yourself that much on faith. You're 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.160 probably not developing a deep relationship. You're probably not and 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.720 I say this as a Catholic who both has done 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.920 a lot of work on faith and still has a 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:29.880 lot to do, so no judgment on it, but you're 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:34.760 probably not getting to a place where you feel very 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.720 strongly about it. And you can't get to a place 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.360 of deep devotion, let alone exploring the really interesting things 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.120 like mysticism or miracles or other stuff. If you don't 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.560 put the work in and I know religion, it's a 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.280 very bad rap. People make a lot of false claims 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.280 about religion, that they're all the same, or that their 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:55.480 response for all the history of all the wars in 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.120 the world, and that you know, they've only been negative. 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:03.960 It's only been a negative institute that has worked to 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:07.480 divide people and break down people and use for powerful 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:11.520 men to just kind of, you know, control everything. And 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:15.240 I remember this a long time ago, and I've never 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.840 told the story before. A long long time ago. I 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.880 was campaigning for a candidate running for office, and as 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.960 most of my life story has been, and there was 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.200 a woman there and she had run in the Democratic 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.760 primary and for I think city council or something like 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.360 that lost and she was getting into it with like 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.280 and this is a long time ago, so like one 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.640 of the first purple haired you know, they thems I've 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.760 ever seen before, and they were the they them, the 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:47.000 super liberal was going aftim about religion. This woman, this 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.600 Democrat who had run for office like owned and a 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.440 very like in a very substantial way, owned this like, 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:59.480 very progressive person who clearly hated religion. And she said 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.520 she was just giving a brief history on the Catholic 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:04.880 Church in New York City in the last thirty years, 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.240 things that I did not know, things that people kind 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.240 of bypass. She was specifically talking, and this was a 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:14.400 gay person. She was talking about the AIDS epidemic, and 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.360 she's like, the only places that would take AIDS patients 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.440 was the Catholic Church, Catholic hospitals. She's like, it was 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:21.840 the nuns who were doing the work that the government 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.880 refused to do. And I don't remember every detail she 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.280 laid because she laid it on one after the other. Failder. 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.640 And this was, you know, over ten years ago. But 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:34.280 I was, I was, I was very taken aback about 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.480 how this woman, who is probably you know, central life, 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.560 she was clearly a Democrat, was able to stand up 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.880 for her faith and not interfere with her politics, and was 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:46.400 able to sit there and stand up for it in 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:48.160 the face of somebody where it would have been so 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.520 convenient to join them and say no, this is a 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.520 force for good. And I wanted to present my audience 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.480 with some numbers that she want thinking about that. So 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.320 here are some some numbers on why religion in your life, 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.120 in your society is a force for good. Students who 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.120 attend church as a high school senior more often are 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.360 the most likely students to have as. This has been 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:16.040 true since nineteen seventy six. Forty two percent of millennials 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.000 who attend church weekly are reported to be very happy, 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.920 compared to just twenty two percent who never attend church. 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.560 The most likely to a person to attend church, by 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.280 the way, is a college degree holder. According to the 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:31.440 Manhattan Institute, they found that church attendance by Republicans is 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.559 linked to lower levels a feeling of racism, anti semitism, 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.000 and conspiracy theories. In other words, to attend church is 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.560 to have a greater level of social trust than those 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.640 who do not attend. Christians who attend mass cricuently are 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.320 more likely to say it's good to be alive, that 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.240 they are a person of worth, and the future doesn't 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:51.200 seem like it's hopeless. Compared to zele At, atheists are 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:52.880 not people who just fall away from religion. These are 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.280 people who actively hate religion. Those people have significantly more 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.280 likely to say that life is hopeless and that they 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.400 aren't very youthful. You even see this in conversations with 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:06.600 like zoomers and millennials about children, those who want to 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.920 have children, and those who, you know, maybe they can't 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:10.679 find a partner, maybe they put it off, but they 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.320 want to have children, and they think that having children 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.079 is important and good versus those who say the world's 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.120 so bad, or that you know, it's it's a plague 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.600 on the world and the environment and the earth or whatnot, 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.480 it's you could That's a very clear dividing line. And 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:28.440 while religion is often correlated with poverty, it's and that's 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.479 true on a global scale for sure, But in America 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.560 in twenty twenty five, those who earn one hundred thousand 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.600 dollars a year are more likely to attend mass than 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.480 those who make less than fifty thousand years and fifty 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.880 thousand dollars a year, and people who attend church frequently 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.000 are more likely to give at least two percent of 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.360 their income to charity. They're more more likely to live longer, 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.319 and until the last decade, across the board, they were 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.720 more likely to have social trust. It's a little wonky 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.760 in some data on social trust recently, but certainly before then, 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.840 they were more likely to trust people who look differently 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.760 than them and look the same as that so if 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.880 religion has all these benefits, there's the benefits of society, 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.520 these benefits to yourself. Why don't people participate more? And 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.040 why are people doing it less and less? I think 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.520 because it's difficult. You know, It's one it's easier to 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:16.679 be lazy, which is why sloth is a sin. It's 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.240 easier to you know, sleep in on a Sunday, or 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.439 go to the park, or hang out with friends or 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.800 watch the football game. It's it's difficult, it's time consuming. 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.559 It's time to take out of yourself and put somewhere 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.000 at like and put into someone else where you're not 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.719 the center of attention, where you're not taking selfies, where 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.199 you're not scrolling or doom scrolling or commenting snightly on 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:42.760 Twitter like myself. You're placing your entire being in you know, 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.120 in a different in a different realm, when you're really 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.320 focused and you're really there and you're and you're you're 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.120 in that place. I can't describe it anyone else. In 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.959 that place, it's a special place where you're completely in 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.520 tune with the mass, with the music, with lighting the 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.280 candles and with deep, deep prayer. And you know, I 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.960 get why it's hard and I get why people who 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.560 have doubts say it's not for me, or I'll figure 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:09.360 it out once I get older and once I have children, 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:10.920 And a lot of people do, but some people don't. 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.320 But if you're interested in, if you're curious, it is 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.920 like going to the gym. You have to really put 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.560 the work in. I've always believed that faith is a journey. 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:20.240 It's not a guilt trip. Nothing that I'm going to 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:22.240 say is going to make you want to do it 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:26.080 if you don't. But society, we as a people and 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.120 us individually are better even if you have doubts, even 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.640 if you're sitting there and saying, I don't know if 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:36.880 everything that my church says is true, is important to 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.760 go because we as a community are better when we 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:45.240 go together. And those countries that don't have high levels 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.560 of social trust, like especially the non homogenous countries, not 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.080 like Denmark or Norway, which is no religious attendance, but 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.559 everyone is basically of the same cultural background that they're 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:58.600 able to sit there and continue levels of high social 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.560 capital if it's decreasing and create like incredibly incredibly fast 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.600 rate because of immigration. But those who sit there and 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.720 those people who have high levels of social trust is 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:14.559 often oftentimes correlated with religion. So I just would say 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.400 this to my listeners. If you're looking back at last 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:19.360 year and saying, you know, I had a great year, 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.440 but I could have done some things differently. I could 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.560 have read more. This is my biggest gripe. Is I 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.600 didn't read enough this year, Or you're saying to yourself, 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.360 I didn't go to the gym enough. I gain too 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.040 much weight, And look for a second in your spirituality, 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.720 Look for a second where you've put faith this year. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.640 Look for a second how you've practiced and how you've 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.520 shown yourself. Even if you say you're a Christian or 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.880 you say you're proudly Jewish or whatnot, how did you 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.480 display that to the world. How did you show that 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.320 you are a leader of some sort in your everyday life? 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.160 How did you push and promote that to other people? 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.600 That maybe being preachy, but I know in the last 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:58.840 couple of years about a lot of guys, young men 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.600 who said to me I'm really thinking about being Catholic. 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:02.960 And I've always said, like, I'm here, I want to 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:04.320 talk to you. If you want to talk to me, 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:06.680 I'll tell you the ups the downs, things out I'm 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.920 talking to one young guy right now who's twenty four 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.400 and he's evangelical, and he said to me, you know, 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.880 I'm thinking about becoming Catholic, and I say, let me, 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.160 let's talk about it. Let me show you by example 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.040 and let me talk to you about the bigger things 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.360 and help point you in that way. If that's your 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:24.720 place to be, So think about that and try to 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:26.960 prioritize it for twenty twenty six. I think that is. 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.480 I think that maybe if we're trying to move to 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.560 a healthier place, both as individuals and as a society, 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.520 I think religion plays a big part of that. So 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.000 not to sound preachy, not to sound like I got 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.880 it all figured out, because lord knows I don't. I 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.240 think it's worth passing that message on as we're getting 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.520 to the Christmas holiday and the Christmas season. So with that, 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.000 I am having on as my very special guest for 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.080 the first time I think he's ever done a podcast, 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.360 is my priest. It's going to be great, it'll be 0:15:54.440 --> 0:16:00.600 very interesting. That's coming up next with me on today's 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.880 episode is my priest father, Nick. Father Nick, thank you 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:05.360 for being here. I really appreciate it. 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.320 You're very welcome. Thank you for the invitation. 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.120 So, Father Nick, you are You're the first priest I 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.400 ever had who's actually younger than me. When did you 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:15.720 become a priest? When did you get decide that this 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:17.040 was your life's journey? 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:21.680 Well, I think had I sensed a vocation to the 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:27.040 priestood very very young. So I went to parochial school 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.960 and I began to serve Mass when right after I. 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.480 Received communion about seven years old. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.800 And I always felt very close to the church and 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.920 very interested in what the church was doing, especially at Mass. 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.640 And so after I graduated high school, I wanted to 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.480 see if the seminary was something that was for me, 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.560 and so I joined and it kind of went from there. 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.880 So I was ordained ten years ago in twenty fifteen. 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.760 And you studied for a long time in Rome. 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.760 Correct, So, so I finished my philosophy studies at Think Johns. 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.920 I went through the Pontifical North American College in Rome, 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.480 which is the US bishop's seminary next to the Vatican, 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.800 and I studied at the Gregorian University. I did another 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.480 bachelor in theology, and then after that I studied for 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:20.440 four more years at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. We seemed 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.479 a graduate degree from there, and then after that I 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:27.880 studied at Catholic University and I got another master's degree 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.880 in Biblical languages, so Semitic languages. 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.639 Yeah, when I met Fathernick, he said that, he spoke, 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.000 I get eight languages. But then he said, but seven 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:37.280 of them are dead or something like that. 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.520 Yes, yes, exactly, yes, most of them are dead. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.680 So that's not extremely useful, no, no, in my biblical 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:44.200 stuff yet. 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:46.320 Yeah, of course. And you know it's great because when 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.840 Father Nick does his homilies a lot of times he 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.320 will discuss the language used in the writings and how 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.679 the English translation doesn't always manifest as accurately as it 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.920 possibly should have or could have in the language. 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:06.199 Sure, right, So obviously the Bible was originally written in 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:08.920 various languages. So we know that the Old Testament was 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.360 written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and then the original language 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:16.240 of the New Testament was what we say coin a Greek, 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.440 which is a dialect of ancient Greek. And so studying 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.119 and being familiar with the ancient languages I think helps 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.520 us to really approximate the meaning better of the scriptures 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:32.399 than from just a translation, because there's an Italian saying 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.159 that every translator is also a traitor, because when you 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.840 translate something, you're sort of somewhat removed from the original text, 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.919 and so learning the original languages kind of allows you 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:48.480 to sort of get the original flavor of what the 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.920 author wanted to convey to the audience. And so that's 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.840 why it's helpful to know a little bit about the 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:56.720 original languages of the scripture. 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.639 And this not to be a Catholic supremacist for any 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.520 product and phantomime, but this is why a priest is 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.320 so much more important than private study groups with just 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.800 a circle of friends who are already in the English dialects. 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.719 Sure, so again, you know it's good I mean faith sharing. 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:16.000 I mean the Scripture is the word of God, so 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.680 it does have something to say to each and every 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.120 one of us by virtue of our faith. But it's 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.879 Bible study and really delving into the different meanings of 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:31.600 scripture through knowledge of the original text brings you to 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.840 a fuller knowledge. And so you know, there are only 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.840 a very few people that are capable of doing that, 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.760 and so I do feel somewhat privileged to be able 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.639 to read the scriptures in their original but you know, 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.720 that's the knowledge that I'm very happy to share with them. 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:53.880