Latest / The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison / Pilgrimage, purpose, and ministering to a generation on screens | Fr. Dave Pivonka

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Pilgrimage, purpose, and ministering to a generation on screens | Fr. Dave Pivonka · The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: What we're seeing today is loneliness is moving to isolation.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_03: And it begins to create a world apart from other people.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: A world without authentic friendships, without authentic relationships, without this self-gift relationship with another person.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: I tell this silly story, but I think it represents it as horrible Spanish.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: I had to go to a couple of my classmates that were good at it.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: They tutored me.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: I ended up passing the class and we celebrated.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_05: Right?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: What do kids do now as they go to AI?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: And that's one of the things that we're seeing that's just so subtle, but ultimately.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was gonna say destructive.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: That may be too strong a word, but I don't think it is.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: The average university president in the United States isn't president for more than five years.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's just a lot of stress and anxieties to it.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I couldn't imagine doing what I'd do anywhere else.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: My sister always jokes now.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: I can't believe you've written a book because you never read one, right?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I would, I mean, clearly when I was little, I'd say, I'm not gonna be a priest because I have to go to school for so long.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: I um I have to say, I am a big fan in a very interesting way.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you who wanted to follow the thing.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um I have a 23-year-old son, and he went to Franciscan for a little bit.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: He actually um worked um with Vagabond, ministry for them.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know you know Bagondo.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and so that was a life-changing thing.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: He was actually at the time their youngest missionary they uh they had had, he was 18.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: He went straight out of high school.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_04: Beautiful.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yum.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then he, you know, and stumble his time to Franciscan, and you know, he joined um all the things and all of that.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: And what came out of it, he he hasn't graduated from there yet.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's actually finishing online um at home.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: But what came out of it is that he has a huge calling to go to the Camino.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I went online and I started buying books of that mom where like my kid says one thing, like I'm into whatever, and then I have like every book.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: And your book shipped in.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even realize it was your book on the Camino, and I was like, this guy looks really familiar.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen this before.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's right.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Where is this guy from?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, but it really connected to him.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, wait, Father Dave?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, what?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: He has a book on the Camino?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, so it's like a different angle than what most people are.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: What you probably see out there is that there's a lot out there on the Camino, and the reality is it's honestly one of the greatest experiences of my life.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's not a joke, but there's just some really strange stuff out there as well.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Is there?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: The Camino is an interesting, yeah, kind of an interesting, everybody's got an opinion.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: What was the gal's name?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: She believes in reincarnation, she was an actress.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, um Sherlin McLean?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, she did a book out of mine's quite different than Trillian McLean's.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: I just put it out there that we're not exactly telling the same story.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but other than that.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: No, that was fantastic.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: So has he done it or is he going to No, he wants to, and I'm kind of pushing him to do it because it's the Jubilee of the Camino, or they're doing a Jubilee of the Camino.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we do a Jubilee for this water glass kind of jubilee.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: Well, maybe for those who don't know, is the Camino is obviously the the burial place of St.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: James.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna ask you, could you explain what the Camino is?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because I don't really have, but it's kind of one of those buzzwords in the Catholic world that you hear, like I'm gonna walk the Camino, and I'm like, oh great, I don't know what that is.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: No, so it's a burial place of St.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: James, um, and for about 1,300 years, it's been a pilgrimage site.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: There's in the Middle Ages, there are really maybe three basic pilgrimage sites: Rome, Santiago, Burial Pills of St.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: James, and the Holy Land.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: Holy Land was a little bit more difficult to get to, uh, but Santiago was the most visited over the Middle Ages.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: There were some estimates would say up to 20% of the entire European population in the Middle Ages were either going to Santiago or coming back from Santiago.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it's just been a place, uh, again, for uh over a thousand years of people uh walking, obviously walking um and being able for all kinds of reasons, some for intercession, some for penance, uh, some for Thanksgiving.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: I actually walked to Camino.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: It was my 10th anniversary of a priest, so I wanted to do something.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: I just said, you know, I just like to do something to thank the Lord for letting me be a priest.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought walking 500 miles would be a good idea.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so for my 20th anniversary, I just send him a card, you know, you put it on the refrigerator and it's a lot easier.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have to walk 500 miles.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, that's intense.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: It really was.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: I hope you sink into it.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you did, okay, so here's the other thing that I need to know.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: I hear all sorts of stuff.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I've had friends that have done the whole, or they say, or they'll say, I started in France, but I did the Spain, or I did the Spain, and then I ended in the Portugal.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm probably saying all the wrong places.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some people are like, I only did five miles, and we had a guy that picked up our pack.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, no, that's what I want to know.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it seems like there's a lot of ways to do it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: But what is the real, real I did it would be the real way.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that's easy to see.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what is that?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: But it's interesting.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: So if you take a look at a map, literally, if you take a look at communos in Santiago, take a look at the map of Europe, you're gonna see all different kinds of routes.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: So it's called the northern route, the southern route, the actually the route from Fatima.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: So what's called the traditional route is the one that I did.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: And it starts in Saint Jean-Pierre pour France in the UK France, yeah.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's it's on the border.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: You're in Spain by the end of the first day.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: But it's called the traditional route, it's the one that's most uh walked.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's also the one that's um facilitates the pilgrims the best.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Because you stay in what's called an albergue, it's like a cheap hostel.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: But there's they're all along the way.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: There's there's these albergues that you can stay.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, some policies you can only stay one night.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: Generally, I again I did it a while ago.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them were like two or three euros, so it's very inexpensive.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: So you'd be in a group, there may be 30 people in a room, you know.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: So it's just a bunch of bent bunk beds and everybody just kind of it's like camp.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: Now, some people who choose to do it differently will have other people carry their luggage for them.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: Who would those people think?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's like now if I could have afforded it.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: If I could have afforded it, I probably would have done that too.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: If you had a benefactor who said, I'm gonna underwrite your gee, we want to pay for you to go on the Camino.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I would like to stay at the Ritz.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's really, it's honestly it's just a wonderful, wonderful experience.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: You meet people, one one of the evenings we had a dinner where we just made a bunch of pasta from 21 different countries.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you're and you're gathering around and really very fascinating because a lot of people are doing it for different purposes.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um I stated I went because I want to thank the Lord for letting me be a priest.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: Some of the individuals are doing it, uh it's kind of in some ways in Europe, it's like the Appalachian Trail.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: You kind of walk it, yeah, you just kind of walk it, but there's not a lot of religious significance to them.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: But if I were to say a common denominator of the Camino would be searching, is people are looking for something.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: There's something there's something missing, there's something lacking.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: They think maybe they can find it there.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was just it was a phenomenal experience.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you have the certificate.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's like a thing.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's like a big deal.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's in the bathroom, you can look at it every day.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: What I do have is is my um the staff that I use in the shell.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: So what is the shell?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, your shell, you're given a shell.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's kind of the sign of the pilgrim.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: So if you travel in Europe and you kind of begin to pay attention to it, you'll see people with backpacks and a shell on it.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's really an image that you're the pilgrim.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's all kinds of reasons on why um in the historical significance of it.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them really, really practical.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: You can actually do a lot with the shell.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: You can use it as a spoon, you can or as a something to drink, you can put food in it, you can actually dig with it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: So there are a lot of practical things with it.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: But today it's just really the sign of the pilgrim.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's a sign of it.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: No, I hope he does it.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: I really do.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's fantastic, yeah.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think anybody, especially at that young age, you know, when you're still in formation.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I had known about it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I probably would have made a mile, but I'm just saying I would.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's uh it's funny.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: I tell my students at the university, I'm now at Francis University, and I will invite them.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: I say, you know, graduate, go walk the Camino, and then get on with life.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: And the reality is a lot of the guys will say, Well, I, you know, I'll do it later.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: I gotta go get a job again.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: The reality is is you won't.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: You won't.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the reality is it's really, it's once your life gets going after college, it gets busy, it gets complicated, you get married, all those kinds of things.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: So um but the the whole idea of pilgrimage is really actually really beautiful.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_03: I love what John Paul said is that all of the pil all of the spiritual life is a pilgrimage to the heart of the father.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: So everybody's moving somewhere.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: We're all going in one direction.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: And the question we have to ask ourselves and what pilgrimage allows us to do is what's the path I'm following?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_03: And ultimately is it leading me where I want to be.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: And the reality is I think a lot of people they just kind of go, in fact, this is one of the stories I tell on on in the book that I did, is you just kind of go along with everybody else and where everybody else is going.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: And and I made a decision walking the Camino that I would always walk it was what they call the beautiful route.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: And it was often longer and it was often more difficult because you weren't going along the roads and and so one morning I was just walking with everybody else, and I realized they're not going where I want to go.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we as Catholics need to ask that question is the people we're spending time with, the people everybody's on a path.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: Are they actually going the same direction?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: Are they going in a direction of the place you want to leave?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and it's I think it's just a good reminder for us.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: Where are we headed?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: And ultimately are we are we on a path that's gonna take us there?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and are the people around us going the way that we want to go.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm sure there's like so many profounds.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Did you keep um is it common for pilgrims to keep a journal?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: And it's always a joke because everybody everybody says at the end, I'm gonna write a book about this.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: So this one guy he wrote me, uh actually he was a priest from New Zealand, and he wrote me and read the book, and he said, You finally did what everybody said they were gonna do.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: But what one of the reasons I did it was because, as I stated earlier, is there's a real void.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of the materials out there, they don't they don't really talk about the spiritual life.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's a how-to, it's what to do, it's where to go, it's what to carry, and all those kinds of things.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: But uh if you're going to it with a really a religious perspective, I I found that there was a void in that area, so that's why I decided to do it.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's fantastic.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the book, I haven't read it yet.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but does it prepare the pilgrims spiritually?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like other things.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's exactly right.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: So there's not a lot.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's called hiking the Camino.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, it's just gonna be republished and it'll be uh published again in kind of a different format in September.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it's basically I I spend maybe one chapter of some of the really practical things.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: But the rest of it is right, it's just reflections and encountering Jesus.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: And and that's the thing.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_03: My one of my hopes and desires is that uh what what pilgrimage in general does, what this pilgrimage does is I invite you to be able to encounter.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: I like what you said about the humanness of the gospel, is that um to be able to find God who's present in our everyday life.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's the reality is we're we're so busy, we're so consumed with so many things, we actually often will miss it.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: And that's kind of my goal is just be able to tell people that God is in the midst, he's close to you.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: The question we have to ask is do we recognize that?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I and pigging back on that, he's in the human being that's across from you.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if we take the time to look at them, which we don't anymore, that's right.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're so busy behind those screens or you know, all the other things, and so we don't see that person, and there's God right there residing waiting for you in that soul.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I I think the Camino is just so cool that it's kind of I feel like there's kind of a um there's a whole renaissance going on, everybody's saying, you know, within the church, which is great, you know.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that's also happening with some of the traditional things like the Camino.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I grew up, I never heard of it.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and now I'm hearing about it a lot.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, apparently it's a Jubilee next year, so which we'll have to look into that.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you know, I guess it's it's more it's uh shiny, they give glitter, as you would.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, that's probably it.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe somebody carries you instead of your luggage.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: That would be fantastic.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's kind of Camino effect.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't know.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: I I know that Martin Sheen did a movie on it, and he's gonna do a release, maybe a part two or something like that.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: I have no idea what that's all about.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: Did he walk the Camino?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh well actually that's not fair to say.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh perhaps he did.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps he did.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you kind of follow Martin Sheen's trajectory, there was always he was always wrestling with these spiritual realities in life.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: He did a thing on Magigory and then he did the book called a movie called The Way.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: Which is about yeah, a young guy whose No, a father whose son died, and he walks the Camino just to try to kind of reconcile someone figure it out.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, so I apparently he's doing a new movie.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: Oh well, you know, Martin doesn't call very often.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: I rarely, but rarely.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Rarely these days.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: I will say that he did apparently did use my book when he did the movie, though.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: No way Yeah, there was a presser about the movie, and somebody said, you know, a friend of mine's a priest who wrote a book, and Martin Sheen said, Father Dave.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: We just stopped there, yeah.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: You're so famous.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's a presser, presser, presser.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: So but it's it's it's really actually yeah, it's a great experience.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm glad to hear that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And as a mom, you know, it's a little scary to be like, yeah, kid, go walk the country.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: No, and that's the other thing about it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's really, it's it's it's safe.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's just such a unique experience.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's cool.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's something my husband and I, our 30th anniversary is coming up in four years, which will probably take me uh that long to get ready to do one mile.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe we could do that for I like I said for Thanksgiving.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a really cool thing to do.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay, so yeah, so that's my fangirl moment.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you survived it.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: Well, right now.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have much surviving.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for coming.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh but your personal journey in becoming a uh a priest, was that something when you were a little kid, were you playing mass?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Was that something, you know, because I have friends and their kids are playing mass and they're convinced they're like, oh, little Tommy, he's gonna be a priest.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, poor Tommy, that's a lot of pressure.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, that's right.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: He just wants to play priest.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Were you one of those kids that was already thinking about it when you were young?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Or were you you were you were a little Tommy?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, I I don't know Tommy, but yeah.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh he'd be No, I mean it was something that was always in in my mind, something I thought about.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I I begin by mom and dad would pray every day of their married life that one of their kids would have a religious vocation.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the reality is that that probably doesn't happen a lot anymore.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: My suspicion is that the parents praying specifically for that intent is not something that necessarily happens to be a good thing.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: No one ever told me to do that, actually.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's new information.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, again, that was what the Lord was leading them to.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: So I I I always joke there are five boys in my family who have a sister as well, but the five boys we figure, you know, somebody's got to take take one for the team.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we pulled straws and I won.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, or you lost.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: We always say it depends on how the kids are behaving and whether or not I won or lost.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: No, but honestly, the the thought of being a priest was always in my mind.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: There was never a time that it wasn't.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: There was always a sense that the Lord has his hand on me no matter what.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it was really you know it's funny because I'm actually the smallest personality type of people who become priests.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: So everyone's like, are you sure?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: You sure you maybe you should think this through.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um whereas my brother was much more quiet, more contemplative, more yeah, and so I'm the one.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: You're the one.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Where'd you grow up?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: Colorado, Southwest Colorado.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: So in the is that is it mountainous there?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: I just think of Colorado as just I mean, I've been there, but I just think everything in Colorado is a mountain.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, we're right in the Durango's right in the middle of the mountains, it's about 6,500 feet at the elevation.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Is that hard now living in Steubenville?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they are a little different.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: They're now that you mentioned that, I feel better about it already.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: But you are on a hill.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a little bit more.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's right.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I love actually the actually Swunville, Ohio is it's the area is just really, really beautiful.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's one of the things when you you know the green is so so profoundly different than Colorado, but yeah.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And Franciscan University, so for anybody who doesn't know, uh Studentville.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I know, what are you doing?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Are you even Catholic?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: But um, Franciscan University in Stuminville, you're the president, which sounds very I should I bow or say your excellent excellency.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, sure.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Kiss the ring.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: Let me think that I didn't realize this was even gonna be an option, so I should probably read through the You need to prepare for that.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Next year in Napa, you need to have your majesty or your you know your graciousness written on your that's right.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: You guys come to me.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: But how long have you been in that position?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh since 2019.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I graduated from Franciscan and then um you know went to seminary, was ordained, and and worked there from 95 until 2008, and then was transferred into some other things in the past.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow and then came back in 2019.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: So you were there during COVID?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: Just in time.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: They brought me in my first semester was the fall of 19, so the spring was COVID.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: It was fantastic.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, good timing.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, Lord, what are we doing?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: Do you even like me?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know something that's funny?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's um it was a crazy, it was just a crazy time.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: It really was.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but there was something really beautiful about it.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things that I was firmly convicted of is that the students should be there.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know, a lot of schools a lot of schools were closing, and and ultimately you're responsible to you know, yourself and the people you work with and the from the Catholic perspective of the Lord.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um but I just felt that the young people should be together.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so we obviously the university stayed open.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: We weren't sure about how new students were gonna come, so we actually made this kind of crazy idea about letting the new students come without paying for the first semester.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: It was what we called it was a stop step in faith.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: In the middle of a global pandemic, they were gonna make a step in faith to come, we would make a step in faith to be able to take care of that.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it was just there were so many things about it during that time that were there were grace, the Lord was present.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was difficult.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: It was unbelievably difficult.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: Trying to run a college campus in the midst of that was just stressful.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: But uh the Lord was present, he was close, he was good.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, one of the things I appreciate about it was everything was much more spontaneous.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's you're shooting from the hip.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there aren't these rules about what you're supposed to do, so it's like, all right, today we're gonna have mess outside because we don't have a choice.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Or in your cars, remember when people were like driving up, going through mass.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: We had lots of outdoor movies, which was actually a blast.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's fun.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I feel like we got really creative.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's absolutely right.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: It kind of brought some of the best out of us.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's absolutely right.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it really was uh in some ways a beautiful time.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it what's so cool is it was a unifying thread for the entire world in the beginning, it was.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was like we were all in this, nobody could escape it.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it wasn't just something Americans were going through or something happening far away, like in Africa.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, nope, this is all of us.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that must have been really interesting to be with young people, especially during that.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because it's already I can't imagine the challenges of already running a campus of young people.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: No, no.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was just again, and in in everybody nobody knew.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there wasn't this playbook that says, all right, here's what you do on a college campus if you have a global pandemic, right?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: So there was a sense of working together and figuring it out and making the best, making the best out of it.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Have you sold you the outside movies?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, it's funny.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was just talking about the other day.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: We haven't done it for probably a year or two.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we gotta bring that back.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's right.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I like that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good idea.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is what is one of your favorite things about working with young people, especially that age of they're definitely still in their formation, their frontal lobes are still developing.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: What is what is a really positive thing, giving hope to the people, especially of this new generation coming up?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think I first off I appreciate the question because they they often get dumped on.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody's like, oh, this generation.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_03: And and I I suggest that what they're having to deal with, what literally what we've left them to deal with, is just a dumpster fire in so many ways.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: And and they're trying to navigate things that nobody's had to navigate before.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think I mean unfortunately at times we're too hard on that.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: So what do I love about them?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love the fact that they are authentic, they desire to be authentic, that they can detect ideas very quickly, and uh they want to be in a relationship, uh they love to dream, they love the fact that they don't know what we did in the past, and they're persuaded as like, well, this is what we've always done.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, they don't know what we've always done, so they're open to different things and different ways of thinking and saying I think they're generous.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: I think young people are generous, you know, they really do want to give themselves to something and give themselves to somebody else.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um there's just so many really, really beautiful things.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um I love the fact that they do stupid things sometimes.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just I I try to remind people, you know, we're dealing with 18-year-olds, yeah, you know, and uh and they they need to have some series to make mistakes, and and uh I remember one time somebody a Dominican priest wrote me and he said, Why don't you say you think Franciscan does well it is for humanity and yeah, so do I, and that and the uh we provide uh you know there's enough freedom for them to be able to make really, really good choices and and wonderful things, but then also the freedom to make bad choices and and and that's the nature of the grace, right?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: That God gives us that freedom.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: But they're able to do it within a community, within an environment, and it's ultimately safe.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's true, yeah.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's a really good point.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: And that um I love that you know that what it sounds like there isn't gonna be a cloud of judgment that holds on to them for the rest.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Of their life that they did XYZ when they were 18.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: So hard, so hard, especially in the world of social media that it lives forever.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_03: Forever.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't that be horrifying.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't be sitting here right now to do that right now.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think Jesus for two things that I wasn't born on the prairie back in the day because I would have died on day one.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I would have been like, I'm out, I don't know how to forge or you know, which plants to eat.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: That seems hard.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Number two is uh growing up with the digital age of somebody can post everything that you're doing in real time that you're doing it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: If you think about it, and it's just I mean, I I realize and recognize that it's difficult for moms and dads to navigate this, but it is.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they're the kids are taking to their room a door, you know, something that opens up a doorway to anything.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh on one on one hand, both good and bad.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it's just yeah, they're it's really tough to navigate that.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: It is but what I think it's imperative is that mom and dads do the best that they can to navigate it with the children, that they don't abdicate that responsibility.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and it that's kind of I would think as educators, you have to do the same thing.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: You've had to evolve with, I mean, from 2019 to now.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can't imagine, you know, hearing the you know, not to harp on anybody, I don't mean this in a negative way, but I know that there's a problem with a lot of kids using AI to write their papers or you know, and and uh my brother's a high school teacher and he's a history teacher.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so he like has to run all their papers through things.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's absolutely right.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, I didn't have to do this a couple of years ago.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: No, the k the helping the students to navigate that and what does that look like?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: How do how do we use AI as a tool rather than letting it exist us?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know yes, I love that.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: But but one of the things that AI does, and I think it's really deceptive, is that it it tries to create a world and an environment where you need it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_03: Once you begin to use it, it it it it draws you in and you need it more and you need to check it more and you need to and that's I mean that's one of the real difficulties that we're experiencing is that they some of them, depending on what their experience was when they're younger, can't imagine a world without that.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: It becomes a friend.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a yeah, that is getting kind of interesting for sure, which shows, I mean, I'm sure you experience this and especially with all of the work that you've done, but we have a loneliness epidemic that is huge, you know, and especially after COVID and now that we're just getting more and more digital.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah do you see that even on campuses?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: I yeah, I one thing I would give a little talk this morning here, and um I one of the things the distinctions I made, because I think it's important to make it, is the distinction between loneliness and isolation.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think loneliness is part of the human condition.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah that that everybody at one time or one time or another a lot, right, becomes lonely.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: And loneliness is this recognizing that there's a void, that there's something missing, that you're longing, you know.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: An analogy that I always use is a young couple, they have their first baby, the mother and the baby are in the hospital, and he goes home that night to an empty house.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: He's alone.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: There's a sense of that's a really good thing, actually.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: And and loneliness is always an invitation to the Lord, it's always an invitation to relationship.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: What we're seeing today is this uh loneliness is moving to isolation, and it begins to create a world apart from other people, create a world without authentic friendships, without authentic relationships, without people actually this self-gift and coming into relationship with another person.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's what's what what we're seeing now is not just a loneliness.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: Loneliness, in one sense, gets a bad rap.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but an isolation.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that's just isolationism is ultimately very destructive.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Are you seeing that in young people today?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, absolutely, sure.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: More more than that.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: Again, that's what social media tries to do, is it tries to create this world that you live in that is largely isolated.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: I I tell this, it's kind of a silly story, but I think it it it represents it.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: That when I was going through college, when I graduated from college, I was horrible at Spanish.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: I was just it's it's not something that came to me naturally.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: So what I had to do is I had to go to a couple of the students that my classmates that were good at it.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they tutored me, they give me flashcards, they go all this.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: I ended up passing the class and we celebrated.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: What do kids do now is they go to AI.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, right.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: They don't go to another person, they go to AI, and AI coaches them and an AI tutors them.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: And they may or may not do better, but then there's nobody to celebrate with.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's just this, and and that's what I think one of the things that we're seeing that's just so so subtle, um, but ultimately destructive, but that may be too strong a word, but I don't think it is.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's it's ultimately destructive to absolutely so how do you combat that on a you know collegiate level?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: What are you guys how are you pivoting to help the students?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean on on one level you can't you can't deny that it's there.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: So it it it can't be this restriction, you can't use anything because that's just not a real reality, it's not the world.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's here.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: So what we try to do is is what does it look like to be able to navigate it in a way that respects the academic endeavor from a university perspective, but then also the human person.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I I love what the Holy Father's new encyclical that he wrote.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's getting AI is getting all the attention, it's about AI.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's the name of the document is Magnificent Humanity, right?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what's getting lost, is that is that what we're trying to do is create the human person, not create, trying to form the human person.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: And and that's what we'll continue to do.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: Is is does this aid to that formation?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_03: Is it an advantage?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: Does it help it, or is it actually inhibit it?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that's I think that's the the challenge for anybody who's involved in academic endeavor right now.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, that makes sense.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: I was just thinking um when my son was at Franciscan, he uh had us come up for Easter because he was um sponsoring sponsoring, he was a well, yeah, confirmation sponsor.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for uh one of his teens that he met in Vagabond.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so he wanted us to come up for that.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then he was like, oh, but then there's a big party on campus.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the resurrection party.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't think that's true.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, no, it's oh it's true.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's a thing.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's a thing.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Have you been?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: There was a day that I would stay for, I think it goes all night.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_03: So there was a day it does too.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_03: The balloons, there's the big thing is it all leads up to this balloon drop, which I believe happens at 3 a.m.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think you're right.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: And the day that I saw that was a long time ago.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: But it's honestly, it's just it's it's the way it ought to be, right?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: There's just this great one of the things I love with young people is when they can be young people.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: When they can laugh and be silly and dance and celebrate and celebrate.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's just it's a really fun time.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what made me think when you say that you celebrated with your friends who helped you, how you guys do that, you know, that for Jesus, which I'm like, if we're when is a better time to celebrate than the resurrectors?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: This is not a bad time.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's a pretty good one.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: What are some other traditions that you love that are unique to Franciscan, the university itself?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, one of the things is that we have what's called a household programming system, and and what it is, is it's basically just small faith groups.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, cool.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_03: So a particular wing of a residence hall might make up a faith group.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: The there's been studies that have been done.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: The most, if we go back to your the loneliest time is a college freshman walking walking into a new environment, uh making all these decisions for themselves, uh, don't know anybody.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: So what we want to try to do is create an environment where they feel connected.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: So we have our core charisms in the university are uh encounter, conversion, and community.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: And and all of our life is to be lived in community.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: The human person is by her very nature, she is a communal.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: So we try to create small faith groups, the students create them.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's up to them on who they want to be a part of and who they spend time with.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it allows them, you know, they go to mass together, they pray the rosary together, they play intermarrials together, they go to meals together, uh, provides an opportunity for them to really kind of form a family.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Which is great because that is what's missing.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you have a lot of, I'm guessing a lot of people that come from all over to be in Steubenville.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's not just Ohio.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, right from every state in the country.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, from everywhere.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: I think Texas is the fifth or sixth most.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we're a big state.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me about it.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: We've got a lot of people.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: Everything's bigger in Texas.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Everything's bigger in Texas, especially the heat.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: That is the worst thing.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and growing up in Southwest Colorado, I was had a bitterness towards Texans because I didn't talk about this.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Because they would come to our state and they would act like it was just a playground.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, actually, people live here, okay?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: There's an arrogance the equipment.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_03: They had no idea what they're doing.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: No, they go 12 miles an hour in the mountain.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you can actually speed up to 20 years.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: No, there's an arrogance with Texans.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you said that, but I'm not gonna argue with Texas.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, it's real.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's they they it's it's so funny.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like being American when you go over to Europe and everyone's like, oh, Americans are so arrogant, you know, and I'm like, well, you shouldn't be Texans.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, that's right.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, but I spent time with a group called Net.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: And when I was in Net, I was in San Antonio for about a month and my heart changed.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, well, that's good.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Hopefully it was our Texans that won you over urgently.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: So um, okay, so being the president of Franciscan, did you see that coming?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you had heard that when you were a kid, yeah, or when I was a kid, you know, when you're a young person yourself.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Is that something that you could have envisioned?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Was that on your bingo card?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, like as was mentioned, school was not exactly my uh my greatest passion.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: My sister always jokes now that she goes, I can't believe you've written a book because you never read one, right?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah, exactly.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: So so I would, I mean, clearly when I was little, I'd say, um, I'm not gonna be a priest because I have to go to school for so long.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: The academic part was something that I just I didn't find it yeah, engaging or anything like that.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_03: But then obviously ended up going on and ended up getting doctorate and all that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: But um, so when I was a kid, absolutely not.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, when I became a friar and it was working at the university and been at the university for a while, it was like, all right, maybe this is something that the Lord would ultimately have me have me do.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it's been a great blessing.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh yeah, as you alluded, uh being a university president is stressful.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot that goes into it.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: The average university president in the United States uh doesn't is isn't president for more than five years.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's just a lot of stress and anxieties to it.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: So I couldn't imagine doing what I'd do anywhere else.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, you know, we've got such a uh wonderful faith community at the university and wonderful people that we're working with.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_03: It it's a great, great blessing to be at the university as president.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: And again, I love I love the kids.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_03: I love yeah, I love their their excitement.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes they drive me crazy, but it's like parenting.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, try two thousand of them.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_03: No, it is, it is, it is.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_03: I only have two.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_03: That's great, that's great.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, a billion.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: 2,000 of them.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: I love that though.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I kind of love, I mean, I was thinking of St.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Frasati when you were talking about your journey with academics.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: I love, you know, look, we all have different gifting.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's absolutely right.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: We all have different talents, and it it's not always a passion for math or or Latin, you know, and that's okay, and you can still have an incredible life and make a difference.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's absolutely right.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's uh I'm kind of uh a big fan recently of uh Blessed Stanley Rother from the Bible.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna be they're doing a documentary of him that Martin Sheen back to Martin Sheen is?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: Archbishop and I have been talking about it from uh from Oklahoma City Archbishop.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_03: But one of the things that he really struggled with with academics.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so when he originally was in seminary, he basically failed out.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: And the bishop was just so good.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: He said, Well, we'll find something else for you.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_03: So they were able to, you know, work with him a little bit and and and find another seminary where he could go and complete it, and now uh he's a blessed soon to be canonized.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_03: So all of our stories are different.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um but it the Lord is present in that, right?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: That we have different gifts of talents.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like I I eventually did well in academics, but it's it was not my first love by any by any stretch of the imagination.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's fair.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm glad I think I think kids need to hear that.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think parents need to hear that.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, not every kid is gonna be a rock star, be you know, the football captain, like all the things, and that's okay.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: We need that's not what we need from everybody.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for sharing that part.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um sadly, we're at the end of this, which I can't believe because I could talk to you, I have a thousand more questions, and uh I mean you survived.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: All things yeah, all things come to an end, right?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_03: All things.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, but the last question that I always ask my guests is how can we be praying for you?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone that's listening, that's great.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: What is something that you need prayer?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I'm gonna say the same thing that I uh say to everybody ask.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I always appreciate that because people often ask what they can pray for.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I always say the same thing, and it's actually discernment.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: Is that uh the Lord has a plan for each one of us and He has a plan for our life, and He has a plan for the university's life, and uh everybody tells us what we should do.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like growing up, I had a lot of people, you should do this, you should, when I was a kid, you should do this.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but all I want to do is ultimately what Jesus wants me to do.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: So uh that's all I want to do in my personal life.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_03: That's all I want to do for the life of the university is ultimately, Lord, give us discernment, let us know what is your will so that we can be faithful to that.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_03: So that'd be great.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: You can do that.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: Easily done, sir.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, your highness.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_03: My blessings.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks so much.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.