Transcript

0:00
I would love to encourage Catholic men that we can do
0:04
marriage better because we have the benefit of Sacramento Grace.
0:08
So we have just a wonderful opportunity to be a good witness
0:13
to friends and neighbors and others out there that our faith
0:17
can make a difference. And it can make a difference not
0:20
only in our own conversion, but in our marriage, and hopefully
0:24
just do a little bit better than the norm by the grace of God.
0:33
So you're the CFO of the Diocese of Columbus, on the board of our
0:37
Sunday Visitor, treasurer of the Coming Home Network, president
0:41
of St. Gabriel Catholic Radio, past
0:43
president of Columbus Chapter of Lagatas, yet eight children, 9
0:46
grandchildren. How do you find time for all
0:49
that? I don't do everything at the
0:51
same time. Well, and and you left out a
0:54
part which is married to my super cute wife now for almost
0:57
36 years. So we're still the honeymoon
1:01
phase. That's the best part of all.
1:03
Now you're blessed. Yeah.
1:05
OK, well, there's a lot to go. There's a lot to cover here.
1:08
I'll be here. What does the FO of a diocese
1:12
entail? Well, I've only been there for a
1:15
couple months, so I'm still learning the answer to that
1:17
question. But the Columbus Diocese is a
1:20
very vibrant diocese. We have a wonderful Bishop,
1:24
Bishop Girl Fernandez, who is providing tremendous leadership.
1:28
And I, I just love the guy. He's a, he's a faithful,
1:32
competent, super smart Bishop. And you know, it's, it's really
1:36
carrying out his vision and making sure that we're, you
1:40
know, essentially achieving his goals.
1:43
And his goals include things like evangelization and
1:46
vocations and service to the poor, education, things like
1:51
that. It's, it's so it's been a
1:52
learning process, but so far it's going very well.
1:56
And there are a lot of good people working for this diocese.
1:59
You were the CFO of a marketing company.
2:02
How do those two roles compare? It's different.
2:05
It's very different because in, in the, the marketing, the
2:08
digital marketing company, I was the EVP and CFO and, and so I
2:12
had lots of different responsibilities, including
2:15
operations and, and, you know, finance and HR and other areas
2:19
like that. And, but in many ways, Giannis,
2:23
it's, it's the same. It's all about people more than
2:26
anything else. Of course, it's about financial
2:28
stewardship and, and lots of things like that.
2:31
But with the digital marketing company, it was, you know,
2:35
building something in an entrepreneurial environment.
2:39
We had a little under 400 employees and we sold it last
2:42
year and jumping into the diocese.
2:45
In some ways, you know, this is an organization that that pre
2:49
existed me for a long time and is going to, you know, certainly
2:53
exist for a long time after I'm gone.
2:55
So there's a stewardship responsibility that's just very
2:59
different. But a lot of the people dynamics
3:02
and the the fiscal stewardship and you know, a lot of the
3:06
principles are the same. I have a vague concern that
3:10
dioceses and the Church in general may not be run well
3:13
financially. I can't.
3:15
Again, it's vague. I don't have details on it, but
3:17
can you speak to that at all and what it takes to make it run
3:20
financially successfully? Sure.
3:23
You know, I spoke to a guy who had been the CFO of the
3:27
Archdiocese of Chicago for quite some time and he, he told me
3:33
before, you know, before I sort of got up and running that
3:36
dioceses are always resource challenge.
3:39
And that's just kind of the, the way that they always are.
3:42
And if you think about it, they're one of the challenges is
3:46
that they have to have a certain amount of facilities,
3:50
infrastructure, and of course those things need to be
3:54
refreshed or rebuilt or, you know, and certainly kept in good
3:58
repair and everything over the course of time.
4:00
So there's sort of a built in, you know, amount that you need
4:04
to, to always be able to keep the lights on.
4:08
And it's, I think it's just an ongoing challenge and different
4:11
dioceses, as I understand it, approach it in different ways.
4:15
But ultimately it's about stewardship and it's about
4:18
trying to make sure that that people are being faithful, you
4:23
know, to, to not only where the church is headed, but, you know,
4:26
being good stewards of the, the money that the faithful donate
4:31
so generously. Do you have a sense for why
4:34
commentators are saying hope Leo has a challenge ahead of them
4:36
for organizing the Vatican finances?
4:39
Oh, well, yeah, I can't even begin to, you know, to
4:42
appreciate the depth of some of the issues there.
4:45
I've I've, I've certainly heard that there are some big ones
4:48
that they face, you know, underfunded pensions and things
4:51
like that. Those are big issues.
4:53
So hopefully I I'm very hopeful that he can surround himself
4:57
with good competent people who are also faithful, who can be a
5:01
good stewards and and propose what may have to be very
5:04
difficult solutions to fix. OK, well, getting to a much
5:09
smaller circumscription, the domestic church.
5:12
You've been successfully married and you recently read a book on
5:14
marriage renewal. What can we learn from that?
5:17
Yeah, so the, it's called Honor Thy Wife.
5:19
And this is my third book. It, it's, I actually took a few
5:23
months off after we sold our company last year and finished
5:28
this book and was just, I was really happy about how it went
5:31
because my primary audience and the one that I always kept in
5:35
mind when I was writing it was that I have 5 boys and four of
5:40
them are married and one of them is engaged.
5:43
And it's just, I try to pack all of the, sort of the love and
5:47
the, and the, you know, the experience and the, the humility
5:52
that's required to have a, a successful marriage into this
5:56
book and share some of my experiences along the journey.
6:00
And, and frankly, a lot of it was mistakes that I've made
6:03
because over the course of 36 years, I've made a lot of
6:05
mistakes. So it was very fertile ground
6:08
for which to pull stories. And some of them are funny and
6:11
some of them are very difficult sorts of experiences that I went
6:15
through. Like, you know, the beginning of
6:17
the book, I tell a story about how I had gone to a Christmas
6:21
party with the CPA firm that I had started without a college
6:25
with my wife. And, you know, we were, we got
6:28
married when we were very young. And so I was immature and, and,
6:33
and sort of stupid in many ways. And I remember telling a couple
6:38
jokes at this Christmas party in a small group at my wife's
6:42
expense outs and and a friend, well, a friend who is also a a
6:48
senior manager in my CPA firm literally grabbed my arm, pulled
6:53
me aside and said, you know, what do you think you're doing
6:57
that this completely LAX class? You call yourself a Christian.
7:02
What are, you know, what's the matter with you?
7:05
And I've never, I, I've rarely felt so humiliated in my entire
7:10
life. But, you know, he was exactly
7:13
right. And I came away from that
7:16
experience really again, thoroughly humiliated, but also
7:20
with kind of this inner resolve that I needed to do better.
7:25
And so thankfully that happened early in our marriage.
7:29
But it's still one of those experiences that even when I
7:31
retell that story, it hurts, although, because I, I, you
7:35
know, I, I, I'm so crazy about my wife.
7:39
You know, IA good friend of mine tells me that I'm married up
7:42
and, and he's completely right. You know, my wife is just so
7:47
fabulous and so fantastic, but, and she didn't deserve that.
7:51
So I thought, you know what, this needs to be a book that I
7:55
write that's an encouragement and a challenge to men to just
8:00
try to be just a little bit better at being good husbands.
8:04
And what I am convinced about is that even with just very humble
8:10
and small efforts, that the Holy Spirit can sort of take that
8:15
and, and cause those seeds to grow.
8:18
And they can actually have generational ripple effects if
8:21
we do them properly. Because you just never know
8:24
what's going to make a difference, whether it's either
8:28
within our marriage to make it a little bit better or our kids as
8:31
they watch us striving to be better husbands.
8:34
Or maybe it's telling our wife that that we're sorry in front
8:38
of our kids. Oh, and, and having that
8:41
humility, maybe it's as simple as just smiling, you know, and
8:44
giving her a, a, you know, a, a bright greeting in the morning
8:49
instead of how we feel, which is maybe quite the opposite of
8:53
that. But it just these little things
8:55
that I think can really make a difference.
8:57
What's the most important thing that good husbands get wrong?
9:00
Wow, that's a, that's a great question.
9:03
I'm not sure that there's any one thing because I think we all
9:07
had different strengths and weaknesses, right?
9:11
So, you know, I remember early in marriage trying to love my
9:16
wife the way that I wanted to be loved and recognizing, you know,
9:20
that's not the game. The game is really to try to
9:24
understand her well enough to know how she wants to be.
9:27
Loved and. Then do that for her and try to
9:31
become better. And and that's that's taken a
9:35
long time. I'm still working on it
9:37
everyday. But she's worth it.
9:39
And even though we've been through a lot of hard times over
9:43
36 years, it's, it's just, it's become richer and deeper and,
9:48
and more rewarding along the way.
9:51
And, and maybe not despite the hard times, maybe partly because
9:55
of them. Well said, that is, That is
9:58
sound advice. Hey, I've been curious about
10:00
Legatus. So you're the past president of
10:02
the local chapter. What's what's that all about?
10:04
South Legatus is an international organization that
10:08
is it deals with business executives who it was created by
10:12
Tom Monahan, who is the founder of Domino's, who did a really
10:16
nice job establishing this as a way that Catholic CE OS in
10:21
particular could have mutual support because it can be lonely
10:25
at the top of an organization. So there, there are a lot of
10:29
very good people in, in Laganas and I've certainly benefited
10:34
from some wonderful relationships over, you know,
10:37
the better part of 20 years that, that I've, I've been, you
10:40
know, sort of in and out over that over the course of time.
10:44
But it's just, it's a, it's a really good format where they
10:48
meet monthly with your spouse. So it's sort of an enforced date
10:52
night. There's a speaker.
10:54
But my favorite part of the Goddess has always been the
10:57
relationships and the other people who have been involved
11:01
because I, I've, I've really established wonderful long and
11:05
deep relationships with, with good people within that
11:08
organization. And in fact, the, the last
11:12
individual that I went to work with at my former company was a
11:17
fellow the Goddess member. So it's, it's been a tremendous
11:21
blessing for me and I highly recommend it.
11:25
OK. And on top of that, you're the
11:27
president of the St. Gabriel Catholic Radio.
11:29
Oh, yeah. So St.
11:31
Gabriel Radio is an EWTN affiliate that's based in
11:34
Columbus and it's, it's just a, a really terrific apostolate.
11:39
There are a lot of good people in the organization's orbit.
11:42
And it's really kind of a it's it's a, a very effective
11:46
communication tool of the diocese and the the local
11:50
church, but it covers most of Ohio.
11:53
So it's it's, yeah. Once again, it's been a real
11:56
privilege being associated with such an effective and a a well
12:00
run apostolate. What does the role of president
12:04
entail? So it's so I am the volunteer
12:07
president of the board of directors.
12:09
So we have an executive director who runs things day-to-day who's
12:13
a very capable individual guy named Bill Messerly.
12:16
And then we have a very small staff and we have a volunteer
12:21
board of nine people who who come to, you know, just make
12:25
sure that the organization is is well run from a governance
12:28
standpoint and oversight standpoint.
12:30
OK, gotcha. Yeah, I've always been curious
12:33
about what exactly on board of directors does.
12:37
That's a different podcast, but yeah, there's, there's a lot
12:40
there and, and you know, really good governance is a is a key to
12:45
a well run and successful organization.
12:48
Sure. Are there any?
12:49
Are there any last words you want to share with us kid?
12:51
Well, you know, I would just, I, I would love to in in line with
12:56
my latest book called Honor Thy Wife, I would love to encourage
12:59
Catholic men that we can do marriage better because we have
13:04
the benefit of Sacramento Grace. So we have just a wonderful
13:09
opportunity to be a good witness to friends and neighbors and,
13:14
and others out there that our faith can make a difference.
13:18
And it can make a difference not only in our own conversion, but
13:22
in our marriage, and hopefully just do a little bit better than
13:27
the norm. By the gross of God.
13:28
That was inspiring. Thank you.
13:30
Hey, we'll put the show, we'll put the link to that book in the
13:33
show notes here. And if y'all have any questions
13:35
for Kevin, feel free to comment on this episode and we can
13:38
forward them along. Keep up the good work Kevin, and
13:41
I hope, I hope many people will follow this message because
13:44
where the where the marriage, where the family goes, society
13:47
goes. Amen.
13:49
Thank you, Johan.