Looking for an anti-woke adventure novel for your Catholic young adults？ Try Catholic Joe Superhero
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
186.62704
Summary
Stephen Thomas is a former seminarian, pro-life activist, and father of 8. He is also the author of Catholic Joe's Superhero, a new book about a Catholic man who is a superhero and who fights for what's good and wins.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
If you save a marriage, if another child is brought into this world, the world is changed forever.
00:00:06.840
So hopefully, if that can happen, then, praise God, you know, we've been successful.
00:00:20.120
So if you're anything like me, you like superhero books or movies.
00:00:24.680
Um, and why? Well, it's a lot today when you have, it seems like the whole culture is crushing you and you can't win at anything.
00:00:34.880
Well, there's a new book out called Catholic Joe's Superhero.
00:00:39.200
And, um, it's about a Catholic man who is a superhero and who fights for what's good and wins.
00:00:48.340
Um, that's something very rare. The author is Stephen Thomas, a great guy.
00:00:52.140
He has been a, he was a former seminarian, pro-life activist.
00:00:56.020
He's father of eight, just a really great Catholic man.
00:01:01.860
And I just want to introduce you to Stephen Thomas.
00:01:04.240
And he's going to introduce us to his book, Catholic Joe's Superhero.
00:01:08.220
Stay tuned to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.
00:01:17.140
Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.
00:01:18.920
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
00:01:26.280
So, Stephen, tell us, of all the different cultural issues going on in our world today,
00:01:36.500
So, so, you know, the reason I focused on marriage is because I, I mean, I really believe that God has prepared me for this moment at this time on this, you know, planet Earth.
00:01:49.360
So, so I came from a divorced family, came from just a really broken situation.
00:01:58.100
So, so I, I call it, I was raised in the crucible of divorce.
00:02:02.000
And it was from that, from that pain, that suffering, the woundedness that brought me to really a need and a want and a desire and a love for marriage.
00:02:15.220
I wanted, you know, and God has blessed me with a family.
00:02:22.740
Somebody gave me this little white booklet, Mother of Christ Crusade.
00:02:25.620
And, and again, I was, I wasn't living a good life.
00:02:30.280
I, you know, used to party and was with the rough crowd.
00:02:33.860
And so, I read this little booklet and it changed my life.
00:02:41.620
Read this book about these little children to Fatima that, you know, saving souls from flowing like snowflakes into hell.
00:02:49.260
And, you know, wearing little ropes, these little kids.
00:02:52.140
And I thought, oh, my goodness, you know, and the whole idea of hell.
00:02:56.080
And, you know, so, so that was the thing that really started my, we'll call it reversion.
00:03:00.320
And so, from there, again, this whole just desire, this hunger for family and for marriage.
00:03:07.680
So, you know, and again, at Fatima, our blessed mother, she said the final battle would be over marriage.
00:03:12.540
And so, I feel like, not, not just me, and I'm not this, you know, you know, I'm Catholic Joe.
00:03:17.680
We'll talk about him as, as being the, you know, the superhero.
00:03:21.520
I am just, you know, a broken vessel that, you know, God pours his grace into and hopefully some of it comes out the right way.
00:03:28.420
So, so anyways, so just really that the whole desire for marriage is, is a white hot fire in my soul.
00:03:39.760
I, you know, even growing up with my wife, when I did marry, we, you know, we taught natural family planning.
00:03:46.080
You know, we were really involved in the, I did chastity education for youth, things like that, prayed at the abortion clinic.
00:03:53.080
So, very involved in life, very involved in marriage from, you know, from an early age.
00:03:58.620
So, so that's my white hot passion, John Henry.
00:04:03.580
Yeah, and your, your dedication in the book was, says, yes, to the blessed mother in St. Joseph, but also the millions of victims of divorce.
00:04:18.160
There's, there's lots in the whole marriage fight right now, but why divorce?
00:04:21.780
Is it particularly because of your upbringing that way?
00:04:28.680
It was a Sikh conference, and it was really very intense.
00:04:32.120
22,000 young adults, missionaries on fire for Christ came home that night and had a, I don't know how to call it religious experience,
00:04:42.920
but I had an intense experience of prayer where God gave me this whole, basically talk of, you know, the thing is, is, and basically there, have you ever seen Lord of the Rings?
00:04:55.120
You remember how they raised the army of the dead to basically vanquish evil?
00:05:01.160
We've got to raise, there's this mass of wounded humanity that, that have been affected and afflicted by divorce.
00:05:08.460
And so, I feel called really to speak to them, to speak to, you know, whenever there's a divorce.
00:05:14.840
So, when I, when I went through divorce with my parents, you know, there's a little fissure or fracture in your, at the core of who you are.
00:05:24.920
And, you know, it's just like a wound where infection will, you know, same thing with, with divorce.
00:05:29.820
There's a wound that, that happens and darkness goes in.
00:05:33.000
And I feel called to bring those people to the, to Jesus Christ on the cross, to basically to say, give me that darkness, give it to me, right?
00:05:42.900
I mean, I've got, you know, I've got my little, this is, I've had this for, you know, for, for decades, but I, I sleep by it.
00:05:50.440
It's, but, you know, give me, give me that woundedness, give me that darkness.
00:05:55.320
I will just, you know, I will make it nothing, but here's, here's, you know, it's not just that, but it's about, and I want your woundedness.
00:06:04.060
Every time you feel that, that pain, that suffering, I want you to bring that to me.
00:06:10.100
I want you to bring it to me and we're going to take it to the father and you're going to see the father's eyes of gratitude.
00:06:19.100
When you offer that suffering up, that, that woundedness up with me on the cross, souls are going to be saved.
00:06:24.880
So there's this whole mass of people that have been wounded, that are scarred, that we need to reunite them with Christ.
00:06:36.960
Um, let's talk about your book, Catholic Joe Superhero.
00:06:45.460
So, well, I mean, obviously in this day and age, everybody, you know, people love superheroes.
00:06:52.400
And I'll be honest, you know, as a man, as a white man, um, you know, we've been getting our butts kicked.
00:07:04.520
This is, you know, I've got a very vivid imagination.
00:07:06.640
I have more thoughts in the morning in the shower than most people have in a month.
00:07:10.860
Um, so, you know, I thought, why not create somebody who is this Catholic figure, um, that
00:07:20.200
Again, he still has his flaws, but, um, you know, I wanted somebody that, again, could do
00:07:27.340
Could say all the things I wish I could say and, and just kick butt and win, you know what
00:07:33.180
It's, I feel like Donald Trump, we, you know, win, right.
00:07:38.780
Um, but obviously sometimes in our faith, winning doesn't look the same as it does in the world.
00:07:46.980
So there's a really deep theology that's woven throughout the book.
00:07:50.960
It's not just a, it's not just like a fun, happy-go-lucky book.
00:07:59.600
At the same time, the writing style is, is not alienating at all.
00:08:04.660
Young people can enjoy this, uh, without, you know, needing a theology degree.
00:08:11.060
It's not, no, it's not, it's by no means is it, is it that deep?
00:08:14.460
Um, but again, you know, with the catechesis over the last few decades, you know, it, yeah.
00:08:19.540
So it, it's, um, but it does, it does have enough, enough of the depth, especially in regards
00:08:24.700
to marriage and the church's teaching on marriage.
00:08:26.700
I mean, my mother-in-law, Mary Olson, um, she, she read it and she, you know, she couldn't
00:08:32.340
put it down and she goes, I wish I would have read this before I'd gotten married.
00:08:37.580
Um, yeah, that's, again, that's very holy woman, you know, she's a prayer warrior.
00:08:43.320
Um, but she said that, and it just, it made a real impact on me.
00:08:48.660
And so I would say anybody, anybody thinking about marriage, anybody that's married, this
00:08:54.220
book will, you know, it, it, it really will take it to a totally different level.
00:09:04.560
So Catholic Joe is an ex high-level military guy, Lieutenant General.
00:09:12.820
I don't know if you know of any other Lieutenant Generals that have been woke out of the military,
00:09:18.500
Um, I try not to use real names, um, but he was woke out of the military.
00:09:22.600
His, he finds out, and again, he was raised in a very solid traditional family.
00:09:26.860
His, his, his parents emigrated from Malta, right?
00:09:31.720
Um, I don't know, maybe the Philippines are not, but, but anyway, so he, you know, so
00:09:36.120
he comes from a very solid, staunch Catholic family and a vibrant Catholic family, not
00:09:40.320
just a, you know, not just staunch, but, you know, very vibrant, loving Catholic family
00:09:46.060
So, um, so they've got their own, their own spin on it.
00:09:49.380
So he finds out his youngest brother, Vinny is going to be divorced and he just, he couldn't,
00:09:56.220
It just was so foreign to him because marriage and family was just everything to them.
00:09:59.980
And so he, um, he decides to fly out to Las Vegas where Vinny and his wife and two children
00:10:06.320
And, um, of course with two Italian brothers, they, you know, they end up beating the heck
00:10:13.220
And, uh, and, uh, you know, Joe who's trained, he used to, he used to train spec ops.
00:10:18.680
So he's, he's like one of the most dangerous men on the planet gets his, it gets his brother
00:10:23.480
Vinny in a naked chokehold and says, Vinny, we, you know, we, we got to figure this out.
00:10:27.440
So anyway, that's how the book starts and, and really throughout the book, um, there's
00:10:36.180
Um, there's an, you know, it's a fiction, it's a, it's a fiction, but there's more truth
00:10:42.220
So I, you know, I borrowed a lot of different things from a lot of real incidences that have
00:10:47.480
Um, talk to a guy by the name of Philip Nielsen had the red cap report.
00:10:51.360
You know, he, he talked to me, you know, he used to research all of the, the cardinals
00:10:56.900
And so he gave me a lot of good, you know, good things to think about again, didn't want
00:11:02.260
Um, but I wanted to show that our church, um, and again, let me step back.
00:11:08.360
You know, I love the church with all my heart and, you know, and, and, you know, I just,
00:11:14.560
Um, but I just, I just can't go on with how the church is dealing with marriage.
00:11:20.860
Um, because if, you know, you've got a close to 60% failure rate in marriage, you know,
00:11:25.620
the sacrament of matrimony, if you had that type of a failure rate in the sacrament of
00:11:32.840
And so one of the things in the book, you know, kind of the, really the, I don't want
00:11:37.020
to give everything away, but, you know, kind of the, where the book reaches its apex is,
00:11:42.060
is Joe, you know, he looks to the bishops and he says, what are you going to do about
00:11:48.200
You know, and again, it's just the whole, the whole gist of the book revolves around marriage,
00:11:53.200
but also it reveals some corruption in the church, corruption in our government.
00:12:00.260
Um, again, you know, when you think about when you, you listen to the news, you get frustrated,
00:12:04.900
I mean, you're like, oh, you know, this, I can't believe the FBI raided this, this family's
00:12:09.860
And, you know, and, and the guy that, you know, the, all the kids are screaming, crying.
00:12:13.860
Well, Joe, you know, the FBI raid his house, but, you know, it's, it's not what, it's not
00:12:22.900
So, you know, chalk one up for, you know, there's a, there's a win for, for, for Joe.
00:12:29.300
So they, you know, they, they, they deceive him into coming into the FBI headquarters.
00:12:34.340
Um, and they, and they take him to prison and they're going to Epstein them.
00:12:40.000
I don't know if it's really a verb, but, um, and, and, uh, so, you know, so again, you know,
00:12:45.980
there's all kinds of things like that woven throughout the book.
00:12:48.820
And, you know, and I have to say, so one of the, probably the biggest, um, I encourage,
00:12:55.320
you know, source of encouragement for me was my sister.
00:13:07.660
And so I was like, oh, geez, what, you know, can't, can't wait to hear this.
00:13:12.820
And so she read it and she, in tears, she goes, I, I, I never really fully realized how
00:13:19.780
deep and how beautiful our church and our faith was.
00:13:25.560
And she came back to church and I'm like, praise God.
00:13:28.840
And again, I, you know, I'm not listening, you know, I, like I said, broken vessel, you
00:13:35.200
God usually chooses, you know, the bumbling idiots to, uh, to make things work.
00:13:40.320
Um, just to, so that people realize that it really is him.
00:13:43.280
So, so, you know, praise God for that, but just that type of, uh, depth and texture, um,
00:13:53.160
I mean, I actually, I wrote a lot of it in the blessed sacrament chapel.
00:13:56.740
So, um, I had, we, you know, there's some, there was like some, uh, there's some arm wrestling
00:14:02.360
with Jesus a few times where, you know, Vinny, you know, Vinny likes to swear.
00:14:06.400
And so it's like, well, Jesus, how do I, you know, he drops an F-bomb what, you know,
00:14:10.320
and so, um, yeah, so we, we, we both agreed that we're going to just put the first letter
00:14:15.540
and we're going to star, star, star, and, you know, keep it somewhat calm.
00:14:20.340
Um, but there was a lot of, um, you know, a lot of times when I was writing in the blessed
00:14:25.560
sacrament chapel, and again, I'm talking to Jesus, I'm writing the book.
00:14:29.520
And again, I've got this imagination that just goes crazy.
00:14:32.760
And so, you know, as I'm writing, I mean, I'm, you know, I'm crying, I'm tearing up.
00:14:37.100
I'm, you know, you're in the scene, you know, you're there when, when this, this thing is
00:14:41.320
happening, you know, and it's just, um, for me, it was such a, um, it was such an adventure
00:14:47.700
that I, you know, I, I can't wait to write the next one.
00:14:51.040
I mean, you know, as soon as God willing, you know, we financially, we can kind of make
00:14:57.060
Um, you know, I want to start, I've already been starting to compile what we're going to
00:15:02.720
So the, the book itself, I hope is, you know, is kind of in spirit with the Holy spirit that,
00:15:11.280
And especially marriages, I, I look at it this way.
00:15:14.300
If, if one marriage is saved, if one more child is born, then praise God, then, then,
00:15:21.420
then the world is, I would say the world has changed.
00:15:24.260
You know, if you, if you save a marriage, if you, you know, if another child is brought
00:15:29.020
into this world, the world has changed forever.
00:15:32.860
Um, so hopefully if, if that can happen, then praise God, you know, we've, you know, we've
00:15:39.680
Well, let me ask you, what, what do you make of it?
00:15:41.580
I mean, what's, what have you seen going on with regard to an elements, marriage, how
00:15:50.260
Well, it, it, they, they make it very, very easy.
00:16:01.180
So there's, again, it's a very difficult subject because you're dealing with people that aren't
00:16:09.960
Again, you know, when we got our marriage prep, you know, we got a little pamphlet that talked
00:16:14.400
about what the church, the beautiful teaching of the church teaching on, you know, on the
00:16:20.800
nuptial act and, you know, natural family planning.
00:16:23.260
And, you know, uh, you know, we got a little pamphlet.
00:16:26.120
That's why, you know, it just kind of fries my egg when, you know, we, we train men and thankfully
00:16:31.160
we've trained them for at least eight years to be priests, to live out their vocation.
00:16:35.460
Um, but married couples, you know, we give them a, maybe a day or two.
00:16:43.600
I can't, I can't go after the couples that want to get annulments because they weren't
00:16:48.620
I can look at the church and say, guys, fix marriage.
00:16:54.940
So I went through five years of seminary training and when I got out, I decided, you
00:17:01.020
Um, I've got eight beautiful, beautiful living children.
00:17:05.860
Um, but we've got eight beautiful living children.
00:17:09.180
Um, and when, when I first came, you know, when I first got married, um, a good friend
00:17:15.180
of mine, um, father at the time, father Kaffer, Bishop Kaffer, um, he said, you know what?
00:17:23.300
I want you to teach them, you know, natural family planning.
00:17:28.460
I mean, and again, I'm married already and I'm, you know, I had no idea and it wasn't
00:17:33.200
until it really wasn't until I, I really learned and studied that I just realized the beauty.
00:17:39.480
And, and again, that whole, the whole lifestyle, when you live, the church is teaching in marriage
00:17:47.460
And it, it, again, it just, you know, we used to teach engaged, you know, we, we, we
00:17:51.680
used to teach engaged couples and, you know, they'd ask, well, how many kids do you have?
00:17:55.760
And they're like, you know, like, wait, wait, you know, I don't think I want to use what
00:18:00.180
Well, you know, it's, we're not, you know, we're not using anything.
00:18:02.960
It's a lifestyle that will change and transform your life.
00:18:06.140
If you want to stay married, you know, it's very crucial to staying married, you know, not,
00:18:11.040
you know, introducing contraception, which will, again, the very, the most holy and beautiful
00:18:20.400
So the, so grace is meant to be imparted from the very beginning.
00:18:24.400
It's distorted and grace can't be, you know, depart, imparted like, like God wants it to
00:18:30.300
So, and again, we're, we're in an era of confusion, right?
00:18:34.780
Um, I mean, Satan is, is alive and well, you know, we are in a total era of confusion.
00:18:40.280
And when you get teachings like that, that come out that aren't clear, I mean, St.
00:18:44.340
John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, very specific, very clear when you get these documents that
00:18:53.240
It's, you know, it just, it causes confusion and that's the trademark of Satan, right?
00:19:00.500
So I, again, go back to, you know, 1968, Humanae Vitae.
00:19:05.080
Um, you know, we had the teaching, Paul VI, St. Paul VI went against what all of his advisors
00:19:11.660
were telling him to do, the Holy Spirit was alive and well, you know, and, and we didn't,
00:19:19.220
We never, you know, that, that it really is a linchpin.
00:19:22.560
When you, when you don't get that right, you get things like promiscuity, homosexuality,
00:19:28.200
all these things that come from not being able to get that right, which is the church's
00:19:33.260
teaching on sexuality and the sexual, the nuptial act.
00:19:38.820
Um, Catholic Joe, how would he react to a Pope who seems to be spouting all these things
00:19:52.180
You are setting me up for my second book, John Henry.
00:19:58.280
We're, yeah, no, it's, um, yeah, that's, that's going to be interesting because that'll
00:20:02.800
be a tough one because again, there's always a tension between, um, obedience and attention
00:20:08.520
between, uh, being prophetic and, and holding onto the truth of Christ's church.
00:20:17.100
Catholic Joe is going to have to wrestle with that one.
00:20:19.540
And, uh, but believe me, you know, um, he doesn't do anything half leap.
00:20:24.840
He's everything is like, you know, he's all in.
00:20:27.440
Um, so I think, um, yeah, that's a good question and, uh, something that you'll see in the next
00:20:33.680
So if you go to the website, www.catholicjoesuperhero.com, you can buy it there, or you can email me.
00:20:40.740
I, I'd like you to email me because I'd love to get your feedback, catholicjoesuperhero at
00:20:50.420
We'd love to hear from you and thank you for this opportunity, John Henry.
00:20:55.460
And, uh, hopefully, uh, we'll get, be back for the second book.