Bad Catholic Signals:

We're talking about signaling today. We're talking about that also in addition to just the message itself, signaling of tradition the so called traditional Catholicism versus modern Catholicism. It's really why there are so many people going to the TLM. I'm gonna share a post with you that I wrote that, unless you're following me, you might have missed, but it really sets the stage. We're talking about some weirdness going on in Germany.

There was a Catholic conference there that had a BDSM group, with a booth at a Catholic event. What's going on with that? Man, the story is deeper than what you've probably heard. Okay? I'm gonna show you I'm going to explain to you an angle that nobody else is covering. And I just wanna say to, a new friend that we have here at the show from Kingston, Jamaica, Geo Arrow. He says, brother. Catholicism is the way to following Jesus fully. Blessings. Yeah, man.

Blessings to you, brother. Man, I know so many Jamaicans. You have no idea. I know mad Jamaicans. I used to forget about it, man. I used to work with a lot of Jamaicans too in the Marine Corps, civilian workers, you know, but they were all from Jamaica. Yeah, man. I love me some Jamaicans, bro. I love love love Jamaicans. So I'm very happy to see you in the chat room there.

He also says, your takes on Catholicism are refreshing and passionate without the dense overwhelming theological takes. Wow. Listen. You, my friend, my brother, have nailed exactly what I try to do with this show. Let me read that again.

Your takes on Catholicism are refreshing and passionate without the dense overwhelming theological takes. That is exactly what I try to do with Fire Branded. That's exactly what I try to do with Fire Branded. To give you the whole dense Catholicism, rich in its being and substance, but to do it in a way that anybody can understand it without watering down the message. That's exactly what I tried to do.

It makes me so happy that somebody picked up on that man. Thank you for telling me that brother. And he also says Catholicism or nothing. Okay. So a lot to cover.

The first thing I wanna cover is a message to Protestants. I have to show you something on Facebook. This is gonna take me a second because I had to restart my browser, so I might have to restart the browser again actually. Facebook seems to be locking up my browser today. But I have to show this to you.

This was something that I posted. I I posted it to Substack notes over there at Substack, aka The Forge. But I also posted it to Facebook, I also wrote an article building on it a little bit more, okay? Let me show you this real quick, man. See, now you're gonna get me on a patois roll over here. Okay. So this is my Facebook. By the way, face Fire Branded's Facebook has really gone lit. Okay? It is on fire.

If you're not following Fire Branded on Facebook, you're missing a lot because the life has really, come to life there, and I'm going to really lean in on that and start providing more content to Facebook. Stuff that will just live on Facebook, you know, of course, I'm still gonna have links to the content where it lives, firebranded.fm, and stuff like that, links to the podcast, full episodes. But I'm also gonna start posting stuff, kind of miniaturized versions of my content that just live on Facebook. You don't have to click out of the app to get to it. Okay?

So Fire Branded FM is the show on De Fiestebook. Alright. Look at this post. This is basically I'll read it to you for those of you who are just catching the audio. Alright? Protestants. So this is like a quote, okay, from Protestants. Sorry. Protestants, the early this is so this would be the Protestant speaking. The early church never prayed to dead saints.

Then we get something from the early church. Saints Peter and Paul pray for us. So the substance here is there is evidence from the early church that Catholics, early Christians, did in fact invoke the saints. The evidence, among other things, apart from the theological evidence, this is the archaeological evidence. Inscriptions in catacombs, not just in Rome, but throughout the early Christian world.

Inscriptions that invoke the saints, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Agnes, and various other saints. This is impossible to argue against because these inscriptions span the early Christian world. It's not just in Rome, it's not just one catacomb, it's all over the Christian world in various catacombs, various cultures, not just Roman, various languages. It's not just written in Latin. Some of these inscriptions are written in Syriac, in Greek, and so forth.

So what does that prove to us, to anyone with a rational mind? That proves that this spans cultures, various religious cultures where the people became Christian, and they are all doing the same thing. Okay? So it's not like they brought it into Christianity with them. They didn't have it before.

So that they're invoking saints means they got this practice from somewhere. Where did they get it? From apostolic teaching. That's the unifier. That's what unified all of these various cultures and from the various regions. It's really, really hard to argue against that evidence. But wouldn't you know it? There are Protestants doing it anyway. If you're if you go to Facebook, alright, if you go to Fire Branded FM, there's no dot in this one. The website is firebranded.fm.

The Facebook is just Fire Branded FM. If you go there, you scroll down the wall there, the feed, you'll find this post, and I want you to look at some of the comments. Okay? This really went thermonuclear. Okay?

There are 2,000 comments or 2,000 likes and many thousands of comments, okay? Some of the comments from the Protestants include, well, that just means that the early Christians got it wrong. Really? So the early Christians applying apostolic tradition got it wrong. They received this teaching from from the apostles or at least in the in the apostolic lineage.

The apostles were dead by the time these were inscribed, but it's clear it comes from apostolic tradition, the teaching of the apostles as the early church fathers would say it, the teaching of the apostles. So the early Christians, Catholics, applying apostolic teaching got it wrong, but you applying the teaching of a heretical monk, Martin Luther, you got it right. They lived within a hundred to two hundred years of the apostolic age. That's really close to the apostolic era. And let me be very clear.

When you're talking about ancient history, which this is, fifty years is not a lot of time. It's not like for us today where fifty years is like a lifetime. Right? It's like a like another world. Fifty years in the study of the ancient world is not a lot of time.

It's like a week. A hundred years is not a lot of time. So for these Christians within a hundred to a hundred and fifty years of the apostolic age, that is not a lot of time at all. So you're telling me within a hundred, a hundred and fifty years of apostolic teaching, they got it wrong. But fifteen hundred years later, you got it right, Protestants? Does that sound rational to you? No. It doesn't sound rational to me either. Protestants and I'm not angry as I say this. Okay?

As I always say, I do not see you as the enemy, but I see you as wrong. And more evidence of how wrong you are is in your

But but now I've heard it three times from three different Protestants. It goes like this. Well, I know Saint Jerome probably said that, whatever Catholic thing Saint Jerome said, something Saint Jerome said that affirmed Catholic teaching. But the thing is, we understand the ancient languages today better than Saint Jerome did. Oh, you understand the ancient Greek and Syriac and Hebrew better than Saint Jerome did.

Okay. Well, I understand. Okay. Maybe early Christians did involve the saints, but they got it wrong. Oh, They got it wrong, but you got it right fifteen hundred years later. Okay. Or they say things like, well, that's not evidence that that's Christianity. If they write wrote these inscriptions, that means they got it wrong early on. You Catholics got it wrong early on. Really?

You think this is evidence that Catholics got it wrong early on, close proximity to the apostolic teaching. Fifteen hundred years later, Protestants magically got it right. Okay. You also think that Catholics who don't fit into your reductionist understanding of Christianity, you think that because we don't fit into that we have explaining to do? We have nothing to explain or defend.

You have to explain, Protestants, why your understanding of Christianity is too slim, narrow, thin, and frail to fit within the parameters of apostolic teaching demonstrated in the early church fathers writings, demonstrated in the rhetoric and teaching of the apostles, demonstrated in Didache, and demonstrated in what we see from the secular historical record. Your understanding of Christianity is too small to fit into those parameters. It's too small. It's too thin. It doesn't work.

You're the one with the explaining to do, my friends. Not us. We don't have to explain why Catholicism doesn't fit into Lutheranism. You Protestants have to explain why your theology is so thin, that it doesn't hold up within the parameters of apostolic teaching and Catholic history. You have the explaining to do.

So my friends, I'll end that segment with this: When your arguments essentially amount to desperation, a lack of logic, and a lack of basic, very basic reason, you have to start asking yourself, am I the one who has it wrong? Because these arguments are looking pretty stupid. These arguments are looking pretty stupid. Is it possible that I have

My friends, if you're interested in following Jesus Christ, in the way that Jesus Christ set the model for, you really have to start asking yourselves those difficult questions. But at the very least, don't make Protestantism or non Catholic Christianity look even worse than it does by making those frail and faulty arguments you are now making. Because as time goes by and the truth that's out there and has been out there is easy to find

So in that way he didn't lie to you, but but he didn't have the fullness of the truth to give to you. And the other side of that coin is that he lied to you about what Catholics believe. Let me call your attention to this as well. Look at that handsome face. Oh my goodness. Who is that? Gotta get him on the show. Okay. Let me point your attention to this.

Sola Scriptura is not a truth. It's a deception. And for again, for those who are not seeing the video, this guy is a picture of a United Methodist church pastor who announced he's transitioning to a woman. He announced this to his church during a homily or during a sermon.

It is a lie. It is an error, which is why there are 30,000 Protestant denominations and only one holy Catholic church. You have to start asking yourselves if your understanding of Christianity is proving itself to be flawed, broken, fractured, faulty, you have

It doesn't. Bottom line. Alright, man. Let's see. Anybody joining me over there on Substack? Sean Gardner chatting up a storm over at the forge. He foolish things because they have to convince themselves that anyone who had reason would hold to those false, foolish ideas. It's a long comment. That's the only bit I'm gonna read. Hello to Armstrong Armstrong Joe joining me over at the forge.

And, I don't know if anyone's catching me on Facebook, probably not, but I I'll tell you now. If you're catching me on Facebook, I can see the messages you drop, but Facebook won't let messages back in. So if you drop a message, I'll see it here, but I'm gonna have to respond over the microphone. Okay? So if you drop a message, I'm gonna see it.

So if you have any questions or anything, go ahead and drop those in a comment. And hello to Fred X FIAT, I think it is, joining me on YouTube. Was the Catholic church the true church when Luther was part of the church? Yes. It was. He says, was the Catholic church the true church when Luther was still part of it? Yes. It was. And it's still the true church now, and it was the true church in thirty four AD. Sorry, Protestants.

That's just true. You know, and Protestants, I wanna say again, do you know why this all started? I've become I wouldn't say famous, maybe infamous, but I've become, let's just say popular, a little bit popular on Facebook because of the and even to to some extent on YouTube, because of my correction of Protestants. Do you know how that started? I didn't start out correcting Protestants.

I have no interest in converting Protestants. I hope that they are converted. That's not what I'm here for. I am here for my brothers and sisters who are Catholic. Okay? Those are the people I'm trying to serve, to educate, to inform, to supercharge. I said something corrective about Protestantism to Catholics. I posted that reel on, I think, Instagram, and it exploded. And then there were a lot of Protestants, of course, who responded. Their responses were ridiculous.

And then that spun this into a whole thing, and then I did another response over YouTube. That's what started all of this. Usually, I I mean, I've been doing the podcast at least two, three years. I never mention Protestants because I'm not here for that. So Protestants, I'm not here to attack you. I'm really not. I cross follow a lot of protestants. We're friends. There are some protestants that I cross follow that I like very, very, very, very much. I consider them friends of mine.

They consider me a friend of theirs. Not just brethren in Jesus Christ, but also friends. I'm not here to attack you. But at the same time, I can't pretend that we don't have differences in theology. And the other thing is this, and then I'll move on.

The other thing is this. I have very painfully low tolerance for stupidity. Super low tolerance for stupidity. I have always been that way, it's always been triggering for me since I was a little boy. So when I hear Protestants making stupid comments or stupid arguments, I can't not say something about it.

And I'm sorry, my brothers and sister Protestants, your arguments are really, really very dumb. Forget the fact that it's Catholic versus Protestant. Forget about that. I'm talking about this as a thinker. Your arguments are really, really dumb.

So please tighten up your game and be honest thinkers and allow yourself to be challenged and ask yourself that question. Could it be that the Catholics have it right about this or about this or about all of this? Alright. Now I'm gonna tell you talk to you a little bit about some really weird things in Germany, in Catholic so called Catholic Germany, and then we're gonna talk about clear signaling from the church. Okay?

First, gonna talk about Germany because it helps me to build the argument later when we talk about signaling in the church.

This was in a news brief that I recently published. Okay? And news briefs are basically three or four news headlines, and I tell you about the headline and I also break off of script and I give you additional thoughts, what I think about that, my reaction to it.

So basically here's what happened. There's this Catholic Congress event in Wurzburg, Germany. It has been going on for a while. This is not the first one. They happen every year. It's technically a lay organization. It's run by laypeople. It is not run by the church. Some people, some Catholics in Germany have been commenting, asserting that. Hey, this is not

At this particular year's Catholic Congress, there's a number of booths set up along what's called, I think it's called the Catholic Mile. There are a number of booths, some of those booths have panels, you know, like signs or imagery or something extending from the booth and within the booth. The BDSM group had a booth. The pro life group had a booth, okay? So they were both there.

They weren't next to each other, but they were both there. But the pro life organization, and it's it's it's the main number one pro life organization in Germany. It's not some little fringe group of a couple of lay people. Okay? It's a big organization.

So they had a booth, but they wanted to have three or four panels put up at their booth, and the organizers of the event said no. Now, you're going to think, well my goodness, so they allowed the BDSM group there, but though they allowed the pro life group there, they wouldn't let them have panels. Well here's the thing with that, they had limited space, the organizers, limited space and only a certain number of booths were able to have panels. The pro life group was one of many groups who were denied the request to mount panels. You understand?

So they weren't being singled out. According to the organizers, this is according to the organizers, two thirds of the group who applied for panels got declined or got denied. My take, my guess about that, and I'm gonna again, I'm gonna take the story in a different direction, so don't tune me out yet. My take on that is probably they have, let's just say a 100 applications for panels, and it's first come first serve. This is only my guess, it's first come first serve.

They had room for 25 booths to mount panels, and so the other 75 got a no, they got declined to mount panels. They still had a booth along the the Catholic mile, but they couldn't mount panels.

When pressed for clarification, why did you allow the BDSM group to be there at all? The organizers ultimately said, well, BDSM does which is like, it's a sexual thing. That's all I'll say about it. BDSM in with BDSM, there is no contradiction with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Therefore, we allowed it.

We allowed it because it isn't in conflict with anything we find in the Catechism. In other words, it's not by itself anti Catholic, it's not in itself heretical. We know that because it doesn't contradict anything in the catechism, so we allowed it. Now, I wanna see if the people chatting have put together where that problem is. And if you can't put together where that problem is, I can't help well, I can help you, but you need more help than what I can give you.

What's the problem with that statement? Well, it doesn't contradict anything in the catechism. What's the problem with that statement? Chime in, chatters. If you're chatting on Facebook, if you're chatting on YouTube, if you're chatting at the forge aka Substack, tell me what problem with that statement is.

And while you're thinking, I'll fill in a little bit more of the story. The BDSM group says that this is an appropriate booth for this Catholic Congress event because it involves things like humility, submission, and being on your knees. And those are very Christian ideas. Those are very Christian disciplines, practices, whatever. Really, you this whole damn time, I'm looking at the wrong camera.

Really, you think that that makes it appropriate for a Catholic event that it involves kneeling, submission, humility, perhaps even punishment? Give me a freaking break. And the organizers allowed it? Why? Because there's nothing in it that contradicts Catholic teaching through the catechism. Nothing in there contradicts the catechism. Okay. I'm actually surprised. Nobody, has chimed in yet why that's a strange comment to make. Sean Gardner is saying all over the place how perverted that is.

Yes. I agree with you, Sean Gardner. Nobody on YouTube. I'm kind of surprised. I'm gonna tell you what's wrong with that statement. Okay. Nothing contradicts what's nothing in BDSM culture and with the BDSM group contradicts the catechism. Well, here's the problem with that. Fundamentally, you know something must contradict Catholicism. Forget about the catechism.

Something there in the BDSM thing contradicts Catholicism. Intuitively, you know that. Right? But the catechism doesn't mention BDSM. Nothing in the Catechism covers those things explicitly.

But intuitively, know this can't possibly jibe with Catholic teaching, even though it doesn't contradict the catechism of the Catholic church. Yes. That's because the catechism of the Catholic church is not an exhaustive library of church thought. It's not even an exhaustive library of church teaching. Yes, the catechism is a complete, let's call it a dictionary of what the church teaches.

But the church teaching and the church and Catholic theology is a lot more voluminous than what you could ever possibly fit in one book called the Catechism of the Catholic Church. There's a lot more to Catholic teaching than what you can fit in the Catechism. So the catechism is not an exhaustive listing of everything the church teaches. It's an exhaustive listing, you could say, of the categories of everything the church teaches. There's a lot in there, but the church teaches it's not a complete listing of everything the church teaches, why it teaches that, church thought, church theology.

It couldn't possibly fit that. It's also not intended to do that. It's supposed to be a quick reference. It's basically a Summa of Catholic teaching. It's a summary.

So YouTube doesn't shoot me in the face. The nature of the marital act, the nature of relationships of the, you know, involved in the marital act, the nature of man and woman, the nature of marriage, and so on. It comes in conflict with theology of the body, which is magisterial teaching. Okay? It comes in conflict with a lot of things in Catholic teaching and church thought.

But in order to see that in the Catechism, you have to go to the related subjects in the Catechism, like marriage, family, stuff like that, and the marital act. You'd have to go to those things in the catechism, sometimes you'd have to read between the lines a little bit, and most importantly you would also have to follow the footnotes. Because the footnotes in the catechism point you to the complete theology. The catechism by itself wouldn't be enough. So point number one, and point number one isn't even the point.

Wait till you see where I take this. Point number one is, while there's nothing in the BDSM thing that contradicts the catechism, we're not talking about the catechism, my friend. We're talking about church teaching and church thought. And the catechism is only the tip of the iceberg. Most definitely a BDSM group does not belong at a Catholic event.

Glad you can catch me for a live show today by the way. I'm talking to somebody in the chat room. So that's number one. But here's number two. Every conservative in the audience, every conservative Catholic listening to this, watching this, hearing this, you're all nodding your heads. Yep, that's right Tee, you

And I'm not gonna get into that subject, but no, he did not. Pope Francis is applying what has always been church teaching on capital punishment, going back at least to Saint Augustine. Give me a second because I wrote an article about a very lengthy article about this, and I just wanna see where I posted it, and then I'll point you to it. Yeah. I'm going to post so I wrote an article over at the forge titled the death let me put this over here. Just give me a sec so I

And you can either go there right now or whenever, theforge.fm, look for an article called the church did not change teaching on the death penalty or just put death penalty in the search bar, you'll get there too. Or if you're catching this on demand, I'll place a link to it in this episode's description. Okay? Though, whenever I put place links to to outside stuff, those links are always at the bottom of the description. Okay?

So I'm always telling people, no, the pope did not change teaching on the death penalty. He revised the catechism, which is the catechism is a limitation because you can't fit everything catechism. So things that don't apply are left out to leave room for things that do apply. So the church, the catechism of the church today says that the death penalty is inadmissible. Inadmissible. That was

I always tell conservatives or whoever makes this pope changed the death penalty teaching argument, I always tell them this: The catechism is not an exhaustive library of everything the church teaches, and it isn't, and it's not an exhaustive library of all of the theology behind of behind what the church teaches. So here

The the other thing too is I almost hate to take a baseball bat to the German church, you know, verbally verbally, I mean, because there are bishops in Germany who oppose things like the Sonotel way, who oppose things like this crazy Catholic Congress in Wurzburg, Germany. And from what I understand, so this BDSM group, by the way, I don't know if I mentioned this at the top, This BDSM group, this is not their first time at the Catholic Congress in Wurzburg, Germany, and I've never heard of it before. Have you? Why is it only making news now? They they've been there, I think it I think from my research, I think it was like seven years they've been there.

They've been there a number of times. I don't know why it's only make now making the news, but there are German bishops who oppose this, and there are German bishops who oppose the synodal way. So the German church, the sit the situation in the German church isn't hopeless, but I'd say it's dire. Is that the same thing? It might be the same thing.

I feel like dire isn't quite as bad as hopeless. Oh, man. So much crazy going on. Let's just check-in real quick. Anybody saying anything in the chat room that's interesting to know about?

Marikaios, I'm there's no way I'm gonna pronounce that right, so that's gonna be my best swing, says, again, great topic to visit. Thank you very much for saying that. I must admit that I myself am confused about the death penalty issue. A lot of Catholics are. Some Catholics are honestly confused, and other Catholics, they just don't wanna know the truth.

They just wanna believe that that Pope Francis changed church teaching. For those of you who haven't heard me say this before, when this came out about Pope Francis so called changing church teaching, when he revised the catechism, lots of people were in an uproar over that. At the time, I was very, very shocked by that and confused because what he he modified into the catechism, as far as I knew, was always church teaching. Always church teaching. I couldn't remember where I knew this from.

Had I read it in Augustine? Had I read it in an older catechism? I couldn't remember. I still can't remember why I know this. But I have always known that to be the teaching of the church. So when the pope updated the catechism, that didn't shock me at all. Not at all, not even a tiny bit. What shocked me was that people were shocked by it. I guess not a lot of people knew that that was always that that what the pope added really was always church teaching. I guess not a lot of people knew that.

But I'll I'm gonna tell you what bothered me a lot, though. There were Catholic, so called Catholic commentators, who were for sure as familiar with the church's theology on that as I am. And even they were pretending to be shocked. Oh my god. The church chain the the pope changed church teaching.

Oh, you knew. Oh, these folks knew he didn't change change church teaching. They just wanted you to believe that he changed church teaching. Folks, and I I've said this in the past, be very careful of the friends you choose in Catholic media because you'd be disturbed at the deception that goes on. Pretend pretending that this and that that the pope did, whether it's Francis or Leo, pretending that this is confusing, that this contradicts church teaching, that this is a break from sacred tradition, it's all nonsense.

They know better. Oh, boy, do they know better. But it helps their bottom line to sow seeds of outrage, to water them, and to help them grow. It helps their bottom line, and so that's what they're gonna do. If you don't know, ladies and gentlemen, I don't get paid for this.

I don't get paid to make you happy. I don't get paid to tell you the truth. I don't get paid to lie to you. I don't get paid for sitting here gabbing in front of a microphone. I do have paid subscription plans on either the forge.fm or firebranded.fm.

If you are a I have a free plan at firebranded.fm as well. If you're a paid subscriber on either of those sites, the content is gonna be exactly the same. Okay? So I do that because why not? I'm entitled to $5 a month from somebody who wants to support my work.

Why not? I have bills to pay for this stuff, believe it or not. It's not it's free to you, but it's not it it costs me money to produce the content. And I'm producing it anyway, but some people wanna pitch in and help. If you would like to do that, you can go to firebranded.fm and sign up for a $5 a month subscription.

The reason why I'm sending you there instead of The Forge is because at firebranded.fm, a 100% of that goes to me. At theforge.fm, I have to give 10% of that to Substack. So if you do wanna support my work with a couple of bucks, it helps me to pay some of these bills. They're small bills, but they are bills that come out of my pocket, unless people are helping me to pay them. Okay?

So it helps pay the bills of the apostolate, it puts a few dollars in my pocket, and you know what I do with that money in my pocket? I feed my family. It's not like I'm going to Maui. Okay? So if you'd like to help a hardworking evangelizer, that would be great.

But that's not why I'm saying this. Some of you are less familiar with me than others, so I want you to understand this. I don't monetize my videos, I don't monetize my podcast, I don't have ads on my websites. Yes, I have paid subscription plans, but you and you can see it yourself. On firebranded.fm, I have one paid subscriber.

One. Only one. I have a number of free subscribers, but only one paid one. On the for and this is public, you can dig around and you can see this. At the forge.fm, I think

Now I can I would be a great radical traditionalist commentator? I would be great. I would be so rich. Cause I can make better arguments than they can. They will be flawed arguments. They would be false. They wouldn't be true. But they would sound damn good. I can make better arguments than they make. I'm damn good at stirring a crowd into outrage, which is what they all do.

I'm damn I could spin a really great illusion about this is the authentic Catholic faith and that is not. I'm I could spin a damn good illusion. I could get very rich off of this, but I don't. Because that would be lying and a misuse of my talents. So when I tell you something on here, I want you to understand I get nothing out of it.

I'm telling you the truth because it's the truth. I'm not telling you the truth because there's something in it for me. And I'm not going to lie to you because even lying to you and stirring a crowd and getting people really excited about the things that I'm saying because they're dishonest, but they stir the emotions, they stir outrage. Well, I could do that, but it wouldn't be true. And and plus there's nothing in it for me. What am

It's lucrative to stir a crowd into a frenzy. It can put a lot of dollars in your pocket because people will pay for anything that makes them feel empowered over their fears. So if you sow fear, and then you say, here's the solution to that fear, oh they'll pay you anything you ask for. I don't do that. I'm not getting anything out of this.

I'm telling you the truth because it's the truth. But other players, not all, but many other players in this game, they get something out of the deception they feed you. So you better stay alert and stay aware. Okay. Give me a second. Alright. So now that I've got. Hey, hello to Anthony g joining me over there at the forge. He says, not everybody online is feeding deception intentionally. Some are genuinely mistaken.

That's true, and thank you for saying that because that's really worth noting. And I wanna repeat what Anthony said because it's true, and I believe it. I agree with it, and I want you to know it. Not he says, not everyone online is feeding deception intentionally. Some are genuinely mistaken. That is true. But in and it's true. This is not to diminish what you're saying, Anthony. But I will say this. A lot of the bigger players and the bigger names that people know about, I would

As long, you know, if they're doing good work, who cares? And they are mistaken. There are some of the bigger players, a couple of them are mistaken, but I'm convinced many of them are knowingly deceiving the folks. Because the things that they say are incongruous to the level of education that they possess. And I'm sorry, I'm just not believing it.

But what Anthony says is true, fair, very worthy of mention. Not everybody is feeding deception intentionally, some are genuinely mistaken. Totally agree. And thank you again Anthony over there at the forge. Thank you for saying that because I wouldn't have even thought to include that, but that's very important to include.

So thank you for holding my feet to the fire on that. So someone on YouTube is saying, where do I donate? Again, I was busy typing when you when you mentioned it. Hang on a second. Okay.

Just thought I heard something in the house. So I don't really take donations, but I have subscriptions. Okay? If you go to firebranded.fm let me show you real quick. Hang on. Works every time. Once I start talking, I have to clear my throat a lot. Think that's the right one. Okay. Firebranded,damn,.fm.

Okay. You go there, firebranded.fm. Isn't this a beautiful website? I really agonized over this website, let me tell you, to give you a really good experience. Now I'm logged in, so my thing says account here. You can't see it. It's being cut off a little bit. My thing's my button says account. Yours, if you're not logged in, when you're not logged in, will say sign up, I think. When you sign up, you can sign up as a free member, right, which I call my inner circle.

Free member, and that's a real thing. Okay? My inner circle, it's here. This is stuff now it's stuff that I make available just for free members, right, to make it a little bit of a nicer experience, but it's also stuff that I only want to share with people who are really down with what I'm doing, it's stuff that I want walled off from the public, I only wanna share it with you because you get me, you know, and I get you. So it's an inner circle.

So it's stuff that I only provide to you, and it's free. It's stuff that I don't necessarily think it's worth paying for, but it's stuff that I don't want available to the general public, okay? That's my inner circle. Okay, so all the stuff here is Here's basically how it works folks, okay? This is all of the content.

Some of this is for Inner Circle members only. Okay? In addition to that, there are a couple of things that I call plus, right, which are a little so it's basically an expansion of what you get, okay. So for example, let me see if I can find an example. This post was for members only, okay.

But in addition to the content, to the article, there's something here that I call afterthoughts. Afterthoughts is like additional writing, an additional segment that I pulled, or it's a mini podcast where I explain something more deeply. Okay? So there's the public content, and then the the free subscribers get a little bit more content, and then the plus subscribers, that would be you at $5 a month, get a little bit more than that. Okay?

So you're not real it's not like Disney plus where you're buying programming or you're buying content. It's really not that. The plus plan is just a little bit more content than what the ordinary members get. It's my way of thanking you for supporting my work. So you're not really buying something.

Effectively, you're paying $5 a month for a donation, and as a thank you, I give you a little bit more, a little bit broader experience than what the public, than what the members get, and a much broader experience than what the unsubscribed public audience gets. Okay? So again, you go to firebranded.fm, and the reason I'm sending you there is because again, I keep I get a 100% of that revenue. I don't have to share it with Substack or anybody else. But you'll be given the option to either become a free member, which is great.

You'll get the newsletter and and you'll get extra content and stuff, or you can choose to be a $5 a month subscriber. So I'm sorry for the silence. Someone is asking, would you be so kind as to give specifics on these deceptions? I want to make sure we are on the same channel. Sure.

And one of these deceptions I'm going to talk about in a minute in this third segment on clear signaling in the Catholic experience, but one of them is the idea that the traditional mass is a superior mass. Another one is all things quote unquote traditional are better than the so called Novus Ordo Vatican two Church. Another thing, Pope Leo is a liberal. Now, sometimes they don't say these sometimes they don't say these things with words. Sometimes they say them with rhetoric, but you have to be attentive to it.

I guess that's I mean, those are the ones that come to mind immediately. Pope Francis changed teaching on the death penalty. Pope Francis is undermining sacred tradition. Folks, and I hate to say this, but I I I just have to. That line, Pope Francis is undermining sacred tradition,

Okay? I don't wanna get in the way of that possibility. So I don't name names unless I have to, absolutely have to. That having been said, there are several key players, mostly lay people, some bishops, who are complicit in these deceptions. Like, they know that what they are saying is not true.

They know what they are saying is not true. If you wanna know what the real church is, you have to go to the the old encyclicals, you have to read the old Bible, you have to I'm sorry, Bishop. You know that's bullshit. You know, and there you are saying it anyway, and that really, really concerns me. So you have to be really, really attentive.

Now you said something else that I wanted to cover. I'm all ears. I attend both masses, something like that. Yeah. And I have to tell you, if you attend the TLM, God bless you. Attend the heck out of it. Attend it, love it, that's fine. As long as you're doing it for the right reasons. Some people need to attend the TLM because it's the only mass available to them that isn't really bonkers. A normal celebrated Novus Ordo is not bonkers.

I'm sorry. Nothing you say to me is going to convince me that it is. There is the rare church where things are really, really crazy at that mass. It is very, very rare, but that might be you. So in other words, there are people who really need to attend a TLM. Go. There are people who don't need to, they just enjoy it. Go. Then go to a TLM. But then there are people who are attending a TLM out of rejection of the Novus Ordo to reject or undermine the Second Vatican Council.

That is wrong. There are people who attended TLM because they think that is the real mass. That is wrong. Or that is the superior mass. That is wrong. So I'm not saying never go to a TLM, but just make sure you're going for the right reasons. Even if your right reason is I just like it better,

ShellbackBoe, a tremendous fan, says YouTube is your forward operating base. Same with Substack. Yeah. That's kind of turned out that way. That's exactly right. Which is funny because I resisted YouTube for so long. I was like, that's a crazy house. It's a mad house. They don't wanna do it, but I've really grown to like it. I'm not like explosively popular here, but I love the people.

It makes it very easy to stream, which whereas streaming on like TikTok is like a nightmare and forget it. I'm all ears. It's worth mentioning, Marekhaos, Marekhaos, can't pronounce that word that name, says it's worth mentioning that to a lot of those traditional folks, traditional just means old. Yeah. That's and I'm gonna talk about that in a minute too.

So for a lot of traditionalists, traditional just means old. Goes on to say dressing up in nineteen hundreds prairie clothes, which a lot of them do, is not traditional. Same for forbidding women to wear pants. Can I tell you, this is one of the things that annoys me about traditionalism is that it could be traditionalism could be very healthy for the church if it

One might say it's traditional to try to place schism between yourself and Rome. And that is a 500 year old tradition. You nailed it. You nailed it there. Let me just see who else is saying what? Absolute t j. It's the extreme yeah. It's the extremism that discredits a lot of them. That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

And that's really unfortunate because if it wasn't like that, there's a lot they could offer the church. Let's go over to the forge on Substack. Anthony g says not everyone online oh, sorry. I already read that. All religions are willed by God? Question mark? Ah. Pope Francis so thank you, Anthony g for pointing that out. Pope Francis said all religions are willed by God. I had so much trouble with that statement.

First of all, anything that happens is by God's permissive will, and sometimes it's by, I forget, I think it's called his active will, he actively, through providence, makes it happen. And some things

In a setting like that, it it doesn't matter what the pope says, it's not magisterial. The pope can say Jesus was a Martian, and it's still not magisterial. The pope can say condoms are okay, it's still not magisterial because it's not in the magisterial setting. His teaching is not official. These are his personal comments.

That personal comment, All religions are willed by God, by the letter of the law, is technically correct. But I'm gonna be very blunt. It was such a fantastically stupid thing to say. My mouth was hanging open for a week. Does Pope Francis think God willed for Islam to happen?

Did he think that? I'm very confident that he did not. But that see, this is what this is a good comment to talk about into the third segment that we're getting into right now. That comment, all religions are willed by God, is exactly my problem with the signaling we get from the modern church. Phase three, let's get into it.

Okay. This is a post that I wrote on, if you're not if you're not subscribed to me on YouTube, you suck. Please tap like, tap subscribe, get in on this truth train. So I posted the you know, the the YouTube channels have communities. I'm still kinda finding my legs with that.

I'm kind of I'm a little bit YouTube stupid, but anyway, this is something that I posted to my YouTube channel. Okay? I'm gonna read it to you for the benefit of those or for those who are catching the audio only. It goes like this, and I'm gonna tell you right now, this absolutely comes from my heart. Nothing I say is sensationalism, nothing that I say is to whatever, flim flam you into becoming a fan.

This is from my heart, I mean every word that I say here. Please God I hope the grammar is correct. Because now I'm really getting married to it. The church needs to speak with a lot more clarity and confidence. If the church expects to compete with the draw of secularism, modernism, and especially radical traditionalism. That was accompanied by this graphic here. Where are the shepherds? The people need clarity. Alright. Let me continue with the comment.

People follow clear signals, and they're looking for anything that signals truth. Now that's the truth, folks. This is our nature as human beings, okay, we're built and wired to seek the truth, okay. People follow clear signals that guide them to the truth, okay. That's our human nature. People follow clear signals and they're looking for anything that signals the truth. The church has the truth, but it seems she is unsure of that by the way she signals it. What do

That is signaling. It's not intentional. I'm confident it's not intentional, and it wasn't intentional by the holy father. But that signals a lack of confidence in what the church teaches. Where the hell am I here?

Let's go back to the comment. Ecumenism and evangelizing a pagan world, and that's what we're living in, this is a pagan world, ecumenism and evangelizing a pagan world are important. But after fifty plus years folks, it stops looking like leaving the 99 sheep to find the one. That's biblical. Right?

The shepherd leaving the 99 sheep where they're at real quick, so that he can go and look for the one that that strayed. Well, after fifty plus years, you can't make that argument to me and make it believable. That while Jesus left 99 to go get the one, that's not what the church is I should say, that's not what many in the church are doing. Or at least that's not what they're signaling, that's what I should say. That's not what they're signaling.

That we're not abandoning the flock, we're just changing our signaling so that we can quote unquote go and get those lost sheep. Well after fifty plus years it stops looking like that, And it starts looking more like the shepherds abandoned the sheep, and the sheep are still waiting around for them. Waiting for a shepherd as the wolves surround them. Do we want those 99, like in other words, the the sheep that remain, do we want those 99 sheep to lose their way too? And I conclude, I believe in the church and the bishops, and I do, but the church has to start looking like it believes in itself again.

I can tell you, in evangelization, that's good strategy. Okay? You really have to do that. Because the truth has to be receivable. You can't just tell someone the truth and bingo, it's magic, now they're on board.

You have to make the truth receivable. As a Catholic evangelizer, whether you're a priest or a layperson or the pope, you making the truth receivable doesn't mean changing the truth. Okay. John Paul said that John Paul the second said that to to death. The new evangelization isn't a new gospel.

You don't change the truth, but sometimes you have to modify how you say it so that it's receivable instead of it, you know, saying the truth bluntly to where it just bounces off someone's head, or worse, repels them. You wanna say the same truth, but in a more crafty way. Okay? In evangelization, that's essential if you expect to to to have any success. Bishop Robert Barron has been pissing people off lately.

I I'm not really clear why, but doctor Taylor Marshall said something about, you know, the bishop is humiliating himself and he's failing or something like that. Traditionalists love using the word humiliation, I find. They say it all the time. They try to humiliate people. It's like a weapon and a tactic. I I don't understand why why humiliation keeps popping up in traditionalist circles, but maybe it's in the rubrics. I don't know.

Give credit where it's due. Okay? When the Olympics had that, I think it was the opening event or something where they mocked the Last Supper, Bishop Barron was the first bishop to come out and say something about it, and boy did he swing hard. So we know that he does that. That's not exceptional.

Sometimes he doesn't swing hard enough and sometimes he just bunts. I remember when he was on Dave Rubin's show, and Dave Rubin asked him about gay marriage. This was a couple of years a few years ago. I don't remember Bishop Barron's response, but I remember it was really, really, really weak. It was really so very weak.

Dave Rubin asked him about abortion rights. Now the bishop never said, I think abortion rights is okay, but still so the bishop told the Catholic Line, of course, but I still thought was really, his response to that was really, really impotent. His treatment of it was really, really just, like, weak. It disappointed me a little bit, I won't lie. So sometimes in cases like that, he disappoints conservatives or orthodox Catholics.

And sometimes he has many, many moments where he swings and hits a home run. Hits it into the stratosphere. Right? Why? Because Bishop Barron at his heart is an evangelizer.

He's not just a priest, but he's not just a priest, he's not just a he's an evangelizer. And he knows, depending on where you are, the setting, the context, you don't wanna change the truth, but sometimes you have to make the truth more receivable. Folks, when you're an active evangel I can tell you right now, if you were to plan out that strategy from behind a desk, it's already hard to do. With the time and space afforded to you, planning it out ahead of time, it's already hard to do. I I speak from experience.

When you're doing it in the moment, people are hurling questions or accusations at you, or you're in the middle of an interview, or you're under the gun in some other way, it is super hard to do that in the moment. And my friends, those of you who are taking a bat to father to bishop Barron, can tell you right now, none of you would do any better than he did. I can guaran damn to you, no matter how much you think you know the and maybe you know the faith very well. I can guaran damn to you, none of you would do it any better than thought than Bishop Barron does. Because I'm telling you from experience, it's very hard to do.

To tailor the not modify, not change, but tailor the message to make it receivable in the moment, in a situation that is literally changing second by second. Very, very hard to do. Do you come on hard? Do you come on soft? How do I tailor this difficult teaching?

It's not difficult for us because we're believers, but it's difficult for a pagan world. And now millions of people in the pagan world are watching me on this interview, whether it's on Ben Shapiro or wherever he shows up. How do I tailor this message to where it's receivable, not just to Ben Shapiro, but to 1,000,000 pagan viewers? I shouldn't say pagan, but you understand what I'm saying? How do I do that? In the moment, I've got one second to figure it out. I guarantee you none of

They're gonna be calling you to be crucified and crucified. That's just normal in Catholic evangelization if you're doing it right. Because evangelization is not as simple as a clear blunt message. Well, if you're giving a homily, maybe, maybe you can get away with that, but not as an evangelizer. You have to be much more crafty than that.

So I understand that sometimes in the modern age the church has had to again, shouldn't use the word modify, but tailor the message, tailor the truth, tailor the teaching to be receivable to a modern world. A world that doesn't even know what a man is, And you expect them to comprehend Catholic theology. It's hard. I get it. But sometimes it's a little too ridiculous even for me.

And I'm telling you flat out, all religions are willed by God. I am not anti Francis, and I never was. I've always said he's a bad he was a bad communicator. That's not a secret. But all religions are willed by God is ridiculous. I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it sounds. I'm confident, positive he did not mean it the way it sounds. But to say that? Oh my God, signaling. What do you signal with something like that?

What do you signal with something like for instance, the church could always bless individuals in irregular marriages. Right? Gay, straight, doesn't matter. The church could always do that. But what are we signaling when we make it a publicity stunt?

What are we signaling? Well, what we're trying to do is be more open to gay people, people who are divorced and remarried and say, you have to do that, but what are you signaling by doing it that way? Signaling. I'm gonna tell you a story that may surprise you. There was a time in my life where I almost left the church. I'm not gonna get into it. It was like a whole mess of drama. It was like my life was just so so crazy, and everything was going it was just I was really living

And I don't I don't remember why I was flipping and thumbing through the original one, this not this copy. But I was flipping and thumbing through it at a period in this darkness that I was going through. And I can't find it here, but I remember too at the time it was hard to find. It was a section on it was basically a summary of Catholic belief. Okay?

And I was trying to find it here and I can't find it, and then I just gave up looking. But even in the past, I remember that section in here was hard to find for some reason. Anyway, here's where it comes to bear with signaling. I was reading through this, a summary of of Catholic belief

And I started to love Catholicism again. And that was a whole other chapter in my life where I started to see things very, very clearly. I started to see things in front of me that had always been in front of

Smells and bells and everything in between. There were devotions and devotions and devotions and devotions and devotions to the holy face of Jesus and devotion to this. They were all over the neighborhood, were processions for this feast and for that feast. I remember one time, I was I was a little boy, I don't know, have been 13 or 14, and a friend of mine and I were walking around the neighborhood, and we accidentally came upon because I guess the Italians had a special feast, but the Irish parish and the and, you know, the Spanish people, it wasn't like a feast that they do, but the Italians do. So the Italian parish had this massive procession, and in walking the streets, we came upon that procession by accident.

And everybody who did that, who were they were crossing the street and here comes the procession, here's the holy Eucharist, everybody knelt down, including me, obviously, and my friend. Everybody, you you knelt down. Oh, here's the procession. Here comes the holy Eucharist. You knelt you knelt down. And you waited until the procession passed you. And then we got up and we continued wherever the hell we were going. This is how

I would in a heartbeat, I would go to if if they were like, the mass that I grew up with, if that mass were available somewhere, in a heartbeat, I would go there. And if I couldn't make it, I'd be okay with that too. Alright? The point I'm trying to make god. This whole time, I'm looking at the wrong camera.

That's alright. In post production, I'm gonna fix this up because I'm recording these feeds separately. So in the post production, it'll be looking at the right camera. But damn, that's gonna be pain in the ass to edit. Anyway, so the point is people follow signal.

And with the lack of signal, people get lost. And they follow noise that only looks like signal. The TLM is not noise, that's definitely signal. But secularism is noise, but it looks like signal. Because in the secular world, they signal truth all day long, but most of it isn't the truth.

But they're signaling it with confidence and with clarity. So to someone who doesn't know, you know what that is? That's signal, not noise. In a world where, let's be honest, the church has lost its it's lost its mojo for strong signaling, I'm not saying you have to signal the way

Why are people flooding to well I wouldn't say they're flooding, but why are people interested in the TLM? Because it's loaded with signal. It's loaded with culture. And if the modern church wants to quote unquote because you can't compete with yourself, but if you want to quote unquote compete with the traditionalist subculture within the church, and there is one, if you want to compete with that, you have to step it up. You have to step up your game, and you have to signal truth with clarity.

It doesn't have to be barbaric. It doesn't have to be so blunt that you're that you might push people away, but that's kind of the nature of truth is sometimes it pushes people away. Right? I mean, do you think you can do it better than Jesus? Because that happened to Jesus too.

Okay. I understand you don't wanna be pre Vatican two signal, but you cannot be post Vatican two signal because this is just damn ridiculous. You can't do that. You can't strip people of Catholic culture and expect them to have Catholic identity. You cannot strip people of truth signaling, clear signaling of truth.

You cannot deny that from them and then expect them to know what the truth is. Or expect them to follow it when you failed to signal it. This is not me taking a lash to the church. Everyone who follows my work knows I love the church. That's not me.

That's not what I do. But I'm also honest. Right? And this is the honest truth. The modern church has a signaling problem. Maybe that's where the Holy Spirit is taking the church for reasons I cannot see. Absolutely possible. I'm only sharing my opinion. In my opinion, as a professional communicator, as a very experienced evangelizer,

You don't communicate the truth by saying, well, maybe, well, sort of, well, we believe as Catholic I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You are telling me you don't believe what you're saying. Well, you know what we believe as Catholics, can we please knock it off? Don't give me this what we believe as Catholics nonsense.

What we believe as Catholics is the truth, so just say it. Just say it. Unless what we're saying to people is divine revelation is one truth out of many possible truths. Well, we're not saying that, right? Then why do we have to put a corral wall around it, what we believe as Catholics, signaling?

Let me tell you my brothers and sisters, there was not one shred of false signaling here. Everything in this was bold, confident, clear, charitable. Nothing in here was mean. Signaling in the church, it really needs to come around because right now what we're signaling is that we don't know what we're talking about,

So what do we do with that? When we're looking for signaling and all we find is noise, what do we do with that? Sometimes you have to change the station? Sometimes you have to change the station. What do I

Because the Novus Ordo right now, it it it could use some more culture in it, I will say that. I don't need more signaling. Because right now, the Novus Ordo is my direct line to God, like, I perceive him at the mass. You understand? At the TLM, and I've been to a few TLMs, and I've been to a few Novus Ordo masses that looked like a TLM if you didn't know what you were looking at.

It was in Latin, it was the old prayers, it was ad orientum, but it was the Novus Ordo mass. I didn't like either one of them, because I felt the connection that I had to God in the Novus Ordo, in the ordinary Novus Ordo, was was of course, spiritually it was still there, Okay? Because it's still the same God, still the same sacrifice, still the same everything. But my focus was no longer there because there was too much stuff getting in

So you have to change the station. I don't need there to be signaling in the Novus Ordo. I have and I gotta tell you, I I almost never even open this anymore. Okay? But I still I still have it because I still treasure it. I have the scripture. I do have a Duerim Bible. You would think, well, that's a bunch of signaling. Not necessarily. Any good translation of the bible is gonna be loaded with signaling.

So I don't need it in the Novus Ordo. I have it in the scripture. I have lots of works of the saints. I have everything Fulton Sheen ever wrote. In other words, I live my life surrounded by signaling, and you can too.

You don't need the church to provide it in the lived in the lived Catholic experience. In your lived Catholic experience, the masses you attend, the devotions devotions and stuff, you don't need that. You can fill your life with signaling. The church is 2,000 years old. That's a 2,000 year treasury of signaling.

All you have to do is go out and get it. Right? Whether it's books or whatever, okay? Now we come to this question, What about the church's public facing signaling? Okay, because we've addressed what do you do as an individual Catholic or as a Catholic family, but what do I think the church should do to upgrade its signaling or to upgrade its signaling?

That I don't really have an answer for except for this. I feel the church needs to recognize that its signaling is weak. It starts at the parish level, it starts at catechesis, it progresses to things that we hear or don't hear in homilies, it progresses further to Catholic high school and college education. There's a signaling problem. It also happens that sometimes priests give good signaling, charitable in every way.

And there are priests who are not charitable and they're signaling but not charitably. Yes, I agree. But there are priests who are signaling and doing charitably. One person in the parish complains and the bishop corrects the priest. That has to stop. The church at the chancery level and higher has to set an environment where signaling can happen. Because no matter what the Pope says or what Cardinal so and so says, you know where

So that's what I think the church needs to do. Set the environment right, enable and empower good catechists, good Catholic school teachers, and pastors and parish priests, And then lead by example. Lead by example. But if we keep if we keep going with this weak signaling, we're going to continue to lose Catholics to subcultures in the church. Right now it's radical traditionalism, but you're going to see a a subculture of modernism and heterodoxy, which right now does not exist.

That's pretty much been aged out, but you're going to see a revival of it. Where there now will be two subcultures, one is radical traditionalism, the other subculture that will happen, you mark my words, it will I I said years ago there's gonna be a subculture of radical traditionalism and now there is. I call it right. Okay? There will be a subculture of modernism and heterodoxy. And you know who's gonna

Church needs to get back to that. I don't need that signaling, I already know what

Hello to Judah and Frank catching me at, the forge over there on Substack. Let's see. Is anybody saying anything? People have been chatting up a storm here. By the way, if you're catching me on YouTube, tap like, tap subscribe. I'm not asking you to donate a freaking kidney. I'm asking you to tap like and tap subscribe. And if you're not already doing so, pay me a visit at firebranded.fm. Okay? Consider becoming a paid mem a free member or consider becoming a paid member.

Either way, I'd love for you to sign up. So is anybody saying that I keep seeing the scroll I kept seeing the scroll going up and up and up at YouTube. So now I'm scrolling up to see who's saying what and is there anything so interesting that I should mention it on the AIA. If you hold it at arms reach, the squint really hard, sounds like Shellback Bow is making a joke. Haven't got time for that.

There's too many other there's too many comments to get to. I'm sorry, Shellback Bow. Being conciliatory, I e nice, can lead people to believe untruths when offhand comments are never clarified by the one who spoke. That's an important point. When you know and and this happens a lot.

This wasn't just Pope Francis. This happens a lot in the church, and sometimes you don't even know about it. If if someone makes an off off the cuff comment that they come to know is confusing, you absolutely have to clarify that. You can't just let that go and think people will get over it because they're not gonna get over it. It becomes part of the cultural mind.

That's absolutely true. Mother Mary is Christ's number one evangelist. She brought me to the Catholic church, Shellback Bo. You know how many people have said I've heard say that? I don't mean on the Internet. I mean people, like, in real life, you know, in my active work in communications and evangelization. The the blessed I know someone who just began Catholic, I guess, last year. Staunch atheist, today a Catholic. You know who she attributes that to? The blessed virgin Mary.

Isn't that crazy? Who else is saying what and worthy of being said again on the air? Well said. She is, Ave Maria. Amen. Willed is an overused word. I agree. I really ought to boy, Shellback Boats chatting up a storm in there. To be clear, Oblate twenty twenty two says, to be clear, it's important if you go to the TLM to attend the FSSP, Fraternal Society of Saint Peter, I think that is, who is in union with the pope. That's the confraternity we attend.

Yeah. The FSSP is not like the SSPX. They're still in union with the pope. They're very orthodox. I and and I support that, what you're saying, Oblai.

I would just say again, do not feel that you have to go to a TLM to get real Catholicism, because the Catholic faith is not the mass. The mass is the summit, right? It's it's the ultimate expression of the Catholic faith, but it is not the Catholic faith, okay? If you want a really rich Catholic experience, don't just lean on the TLM or even a really rich Novus Ordo to do that. A really rich Catholic experience should be seven days a week throughout your daily life.

Your prayer life, hang icons in in in your home. When I was single when I was single, I had total control and command over what I hung in my house. Right? So I had saints and icons everywhere. Not like a nut job, like if I don't hang these, the demons are gonna get me.

It wasn't like that. But my philosophy was in my how in my home, in my apartment, everywhere I look, I wanna see my friends. So no matter where I looked, no matter which room I was in, there was an icon, there was Jesus, there was Mary, there was Saint this, there was Saint that, there was another icon of Jesus, but like a different art, know. Everywhere in the except for the bathrooms. Everywhere I I I went, no matter where I turned, I could see my friends.

Even when I was doing dishes, I had a little I had a little icon of Jesus and one of Mary on the shelf in front of me over the sink, so that even when I was doing dishes, could see my friends. You know, that was my philosophy. So don't feel like you you need a TLM or a super rich novus ordo to have a rich Catholic experience. The mass is not supposed to be your Catholic experience. The mass is the most important part of your Catholic experience, but your Catholic experience really is up to you to build.

Please God, the churches of at the parish level supports that in some way materially, like the things that the parish does or otherwise, you know, moral support, whatever. Please God, that's supported to the par at your parish level, but really it's up to you to build the rich Catholic experience you want. It's not supposed to be all about the mass. The mass is just supposed to be one part of it. You understand?

Let's see. I know what the church teaches. I'm just not so sure what some in the hierarchy actually believe. AG, I gotta tell you, yeah, I'm I'm with you. I'm a 100% with you. My response to that, like if like I feel what you're saying, my response to that feeling is, who cares? Who cares? Okay? Because I mean, that that's all I'll say about that. Who who cares?

Because I know what the faith is, and the faith is unchanging. It's in the teaching of the church. It's in the patristic it's in patristic theology. It's in the writings of the saints. I mean, my ordinary is super solid, but let's just pretend. Who cares what even my ordinary believes? Who cares? Because I know what what the truth is. I know what the faith is. There are gonna be this for two thousand years, there have been people in the hierarchy who weren't true believers.

That's just normal. Okay. Judas turned in Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. That's just normal. Unfortunately, that's always gonna be normal in the church. Okay. Listen. Why does God allow the demons to exist and why does he allow temptations? To test the faithful to make them stronger. You ever think for a second maybe that's why God allows faithless hierarchy faithless members in the hierarchy to to to present something that you have to overcome to make you better?

Give it a think. I'm not saying it's it's the truth, but I think it's true, but give it a think. Oblade says it actually was my husband it actually was my husband, head of the family that said, this SSPX is off. He, according to God's will, led us to the correct outcome. Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God. That means you and your husband and any kids you do or may have are on a road to sainthood. And thank God because we need a lot of saints. I'll be in chat Shell Babosis. I'll be in Chattanooga next month, so I'm planning to attend the for the Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral TLM that weekend. Shellback Bo, after you do that, the next live show you come to, let us know what you thought of it. Okay? Because I I really wanna know what your experience was. Alright. Let's see.

Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. I'm gonna have to scroll. I'm sorry if I'm not mentioning some of the things that you're saying. I'm trying to get to everyone who said something. That recent Rubin interview was just as weak as the one several years ago. I think Barron leans on a pearls before swine intuition. That's possible. I think Barron leans on a pearls before in other words, saying this is gonna be pointless, so I just won't say it.

I think that's what you mean. He's deaf he's definitely conflict averse, which is often a matter of prudence. I agree 99% with what you're saying. I would not, I don't believe he's conflict averse. I think he can swat somebody's ass in front of a camera camera microphone.

But you got that word right, prudence. Prudence. He is super smart. His mind is super quick, and he is so so well informed, well educated, and he's he's just he's like AI. There's no there's no challenge you can throw at him that he won't be able to respond to and respond a lot to and very strongly.

So I don't think he's I understand what you're saying. You're not saying he's a coward. You're saying he avoids conflict out of prudence, but I don't know that to be true. It could be. You could be right. I I just don't see it that way. I think he's trying to be strategic. I don't think he's avoiding conflict. I think he's changing it. I think he's changing the face of it is what he's doing.

And he and when he and when that happens, he's not really I see what he's doing because I I I have experience in this. I'm I'm just not a master like he is. But let's say it's a Dave Rubin thing. I know that whatever he says to Dave Rubin, he's not really talking to Dave Rubin. He's talking to the audience and that's why he's saying the things that he says the way he says them.

He's talking to the audience and that's a million plus people and there is no one single message that's going to fit every one of those minds and persons and experiences and intellects. You have to really, you have to have a unique key to fit each and every one of those locks, like one key per lock. You can't possibly do that with a million locks. So I know what he's doing is he's doing the best key that will very likely fit all of those locks. That's really what he's doing.

He's not talking to Dave Rubin. He's talking to the audience. I'm in no position to dictate anything to anyone. I just love our church and want unity. I think we live in the times of Fatima. I agree. And that's all I'll say about that. There's a lot I could say about that, but I'm running long. But I agree with what you're saying. Alright.

Let's go over to Substack, which I don't think anyone's saying anything. Anthony g left and rejoined. Welcome back, Anthony g. And I think that's about all of the comments. Boy, people are really, really chatting up a storm, but it looks like there's only two people in there on you on on YouTube.

It's such a funny illusion because I keep seeing the scroll and the scroll and the scroll, but then when I go back to look at who's saying what, it's like two or three people. That's okay. I'm very grateful and happy to have you two or three with me. Listen, I'm gonna tell you again, tap like, tap subscribe, get in on this truth train. But if you really wanna get down with the nitty gritty, baby, what you really have to do is you have to visit me at at firebranded.fm.

That's where the product lives, man. The broadcast is only half of this Catholic commentary war machine. The other half is at the command center at firebranded.fm. And once once you get there, you can look at most of that stuff without signing up or anything. But I really hope you consider signing up at least for a free account because if you didn't hear me explain this at the top of the show, it overrules the algorithm.

I never have to worry about an algorithm change that suddenly takes my social media impressions from up here to way down in the basement, thus tanking the apostolate. I never have to worry about that when there's a direct link between me and you. That's what that mailing list is. So when you sign up for a free account, you get access to more content for free. If you sign up for a paid account, get access to a little bit more yet, but really, just signing up for a free account gives you access to more of the content that I have on there, and you also get the most important posts sent directly to your email.

Okay? Sometimes they're the whole post, sometimes it's a summary of things that you've missed, stuff that I've posted to the website that you might not know about, but you get the most important stuff right in your inbox. He says, TJ, I'm a silly person. I don't get upset when people skip over my jokes. Yeah, I get upset when I skip over your jokes, Shellback Bo, because you're a very clever and intelligent guy, and cleverness and intelligence makes for the best jokers.

They make the best jokes. That's why I'm not too funny because I'm too stupid. He and then Maricos says, would you be interested in doing an episode sometime about the Catholic Orthodox schism and possible reunification. No. I'm sorry.

I have, like, a negative interest in that. First, to be really honest, I don't know a hell of a lot about it. And I don't like to talk you when I open my mouth and say things, it's because I know the hell out of it. And so I'm confident what I'm telling you is the truth, and it's actionable, or it adds to to it adds to the building of you as a saint. I know too little.

I know some, but I know too little about that to speak with any intelligence on it. Even if I spent a week researching it, I wouldn't know it well enough to satisfy me that I might that I would be able to say I know it so well, I can share this with you. I even with a week of research, which I don't have time to do, I wouldn't feel confident about that. I'm so, so sorry. I hope and pray for a day of reunification.

As I said about radicals and the SSPX, when I said they could have something to offer the church that would really be, you know, remedial to what ails the church, if only they would just get their minds right. Stop being rebels, stop being extremists, just stop being crazy, stop being stupid. They have a lot to offer the church. They could have a lot to offer the church. Same thing with the, like, the Greek Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodoxy, the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

They have a lot to we could we could benefit so much from reunification, and so could they. So I hope and pray that that happens someday first because I know that it's God's will. God didn't will for, you know, the two lungs to be separated, so to speak, playing on something John Paul the second said. That's not God's will. God didn't design this that way.

And also because I think both sides are suffering because of that separation, And both sides can really be supercharged by reunification. Elsleepysheba, thank you for joining me. Welcome to the livestream. Says, do you have any advice for lukewarm Catholics or people who have trouble keeping that flame alive? I get these intense months of craving holy knowledge, then followed by feeling completely unworthy.

Okay. Yes, I have some advice for you. First, you have to dispense with this idea of unworthiness. First of all, I can tell you, I understand your experience, and I'm telling you the devil has a hand in all of it. The devil has a hand in all of it.

Okay? Let's start at the top. I get these intense months of craving holy knowledge, and followed by a feeling of complete unworthiness. You have to be careful because believe it or not, the devil will tempt you to diligence. The devil will tempt you to diligence, but excessively.

So he'll tempt you to pray more than what you're capable of doing. For instance, one rosary for me is very hard to do. For whatever reason, it's very hard to get through a rosary. I have to do it in segments. Benedict the sixteenth had the same issue.

It was very hard for him to get through a rosary, he had to break it up into segments. The devil might tempt me, he wouldn't these days, but he might tempt me to do three rosaries a day or even one rosary a day. Right? But I don't have the constitution for that. But let's say I'm really tempted and I want to do three mysteries every single day.

Well, I'm going to burn out. I don't have a natural capacity to pray three rosaries a day, and I'm not spiritually prepared to pray three rosaries a day. So I have a spiritual or spiritual, let's just say inability, and I have a natural incapacity. So now I'm pushing against my nature and my spirit because that's so that's why the devil tempts you to diligence. It's not really diligence, it's imprudence, but he makes it look like diligence.

Same thing with the acquisition of holy knowledge. He'll tempt you to an imprudent level of diligence. Really, it's it's not diligence, it's imprudence. And he'll tempt you to read and read and read and read and study and study and study and study. He'll make you believe that you don't know enough. All of these topics, you have to know those. That's the devil. Because he knows if he can push you further than what you can naturally and spiritually manage, he knows you'll crash

He doesn't care about that. He just doesn't want you to actually grow in holiness. Grow in a deeper awareness of God, a deeper awareness of the celestial, a deeper awareness of the transcendent. He doesn't care how much you study as long as you don't learn. He doesn't care how much you learn as long as it does not transform you.

That's what he really cares about. Okay? So you have to be careful. Don't be over diligent. The feeling of unworthiness I already touched on, that's always going to be the devil. Nobody is worthy of anything good that God has to offer us. Whether it's grace or divine revelation, which is a gift from God that he reveals himself to man through the church, through Jesus Christ, so on. That's a gift. We're not worthy of that. Grace, that's a gift.

We're not worthy of that. Well, Jesus Christ paid for it for us. Yeah, and we're still not worthy of it. The knowledge that's passed on through the saints for instance, we're not worthy of that. Because what are the saints passing on? Truth. And the truth is not truth is not some logical hypothetical idea. When you think of the word truth, think of a thing. Doesn't have to have form. Think of a thing.

Truth is a thing. And it comes from God because truth is his nature. Truth is who he is. So when the saints are passed when you're learning truth from a saint, that's something you're not worthy of. You're not worthy of something that ultimately is the nature of God. Of course you're not.

Qualified is something different. Am I worthy of receiving the holy Eucharist if I haven't been to mass in thirty years? No, you are not, and you are not qualified. Am I worthy to receive communion if I'm in a state of grace and I go to Mass? No, you are not. You are not worthy. But at least you're qualified. You're allowed. You understand? That's a different that's

Me too. He knows my worthiness and unworthiness better than I do. Am I going to tell God, no. No. No. No. No. I know my unworthiness better than you do. I cannot accept this gift. You see what I'm saying? Think of it that way. So unworthiness, worthiness, that's not that's not something you need to think about. That's something that the devil is going to use to manipulate you. So don't worry about it. You're never worthy of what God wants to give you.

But God wants you to have it anyway. Okay? With holy knowledge or with your prayer life, remember it's it's it's not a sprint. It's a journey. Okay?

Don't pray above and beyond where the Holy Spirit wants to take you. And the Holy Spirit usually moves you slowly. Don't pray above and beyond where the Holy Spirit wants to take you. The Holy Spirit does not want me to pray three rosaries a day. The Holy Spirit there may be people in the audience who the Holy Spirit wants to pray three rosaries a day, but

I'm gonna pray three rosaries a day. Then what the Holy Spirit wants to give me in that discipline of a well prayed, meditated, one decade rosary, what the Holy Spirit wants to give me there, I'm not going to receive. Because I'm praying above and beyond where the Holy Spirit wants to take me. And the Holy Spirit will always wanna take you where your nature is compatible. He will upgrade for instance, let's just say you're the type of person who can't pray one rosary.

It's just it makes you crazy, you just can't do it. Okay. Maybe the Holy Spirit will get you there to where you can say a whole rosary, and then two rosaries, and 20 rosaries a day. Maybe. But you are where you are now, and that is where the Holy Spirit wants to work with you.

Don't outpace the Holy Spirit. I don't think I'm someone who the Holy Spirit is going to move to pray three rosaries a day, but I pray one decade at a time throughout the day very, very well, and that's where the Holy Spirit is working with me. So the Holy Spirit is never going to work with you where you

You're not making yourself holier. Are you gonna holify yourself? Are you gonna sanctify yourself trying to outpace the Holy Spirit? That's impossible. The Holy Spirit is the sanctifier. Thank you for the advice. You make it sound more manageable. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. And Marico says, hope this channel explodes in popularity. You really put things in perspective.

I'm glad. Yeah. I don't think this channel will ever explode in popularity, man, because because I'm doing what's right, I think. And therefore, sometimes I tick off the left. Well, that's a given. And sometimes I tick off the right. And what people today in the digital age are looking for is candy. They're looking for extremes, right? They're looking for the hippies, they're looking for the radical traditionalists or that sort of signaling. That's what they're looking for, Right?

And then there are some in the center like me who who do well, thank God. I'm not gonna name some names because there's a couple of them who do good work, but they irritate me personally, so I don't wanna name name name their names. Plus we may become friends someday, so let me not burn that bridge. But they do good work, they're in the middle, you know, they're orthodox like I am, and they do good work, and they do pretty well because they have platforms outside of this. Okay?

They teach or they speak or whatever. So they're able to import people into their brand. I don't have that. You know? I wish that I did, but I don't.

So all I have is this platform and at the mercy of the social media algorithm. That's all I have, and the odds are against me because this is all I have and I'm competing with people who are selling candy. I'm trying to sell prime meat, they're selling candy. I'm gonna lose every time. But you can help you can help my channel and my brand because I'm more than just YouTube.

Go to fire brandedf.fm. You'll see what I mean. You can help spread my brand by sharing articles that you think can help people, sharing them to your socials, telling people about the podcast, maybe sharing podcast episodes or clips from podcasts from here on YouTube. That would help me. I would like for it to explode too.

I would like to be able to parlay this into something that I can do constantly and support my family with it somehow, but I just don't think that's gonna happen. The the the elements just aren't there. I wish that they were, but they're not. I'm competing with people who are selling candy. It it just is what it is.

But you could you can help push my success along by tapping like on everything that I post, subscribe, sign up at firebranded.fm, and, you know, you can help that along. You know? Marico says, I think that candy age is slowly passing. Yeah. I I I suspect that too, actually. That's that's very astute that you said that. Very, very astute. I think people more and more just want to hear the truth. I'll pray for you and for this media. It's badly needed.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And I think it's badly needed too. I think most people who need it don't recognize that they need it. But the Holy Spirit has done stranger things, man. God can make a tree out of nothing. You know how complex a tree is? God can make one of those out of nothing. Holy Spirit has done stranger things. But let me tell you, can you guess the most mind blowing thing the Holy Spirit is ever going to do?

Mind blowing. You'd you'd think it's impossible. It's the it as far as missions impossible go, this is the most impossible mission. But the Holy Spirit is gonna nail it. Do you know what that is? Anybody wanna guess? I'm gonna wait a few seconds, see if anybody guesses. And then I'm gonna get to Anthony's comment in a second. Anybody guess? The most mind blowing thing the Holy Spirit is ever going to accomplish, you you're just never gonna believe it.

The most mission impossible, most impossible thing the Holy Spirit could ever do. You know what it is? He's gonna turn you into a saint. I can't wait. Don't you dare think that the Holy Spirit who made all things out of nothing, who's responsible for the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and so on and so on and so on.

Don't you think for a second that he can't turn you into a great saint. Don't you dare believe that for a second. That's gonna be one of the holy spirit's most amazing tricks. He's gonna turn you into a saint. Damn, that's exciting as hell, man.

And I look forward to watching that unfold as I serve you through this brand. Trees don't resist. Anthony, you're smart, man. I hope you're following me or subscribe to me over there at the forge because you're the kind of person that I really wanna keep close. I love comments like that.

Trees don't resist. Bingo. Anthony also said, our unworthiness is constant, but so is God's love and mercy. Truly believing in God's love, mercy, and acceptance will overcome the knowledge of our unworthiness. Amen. This has been Fire Branded. I have been TJ Haynes. Follow me everywhere on socials at real TJ Haynes, and follow the show on Facebook at Fire Branded FM. God bless you ladies and gentlemen, and God be with you all. Lord have mercy.

This has been a really long show. Thank you for joining me. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Usually, I stick around after a show to answer questions and stuff, but I've been doing that throughout this episode, so I'm gonna pack it in. Listen. I really want you to check out the website firebranded.fm. I post something there a few times a week. Okay? So it's never gonna bore you. And sign up for a free subscription.

If you would like to support my work, you can sign up for a $5 a month subscription, and I'd really thank you for it. And check out the Facebook, Fire Branded FM on Facebook because it's really come to life and hopefully