Pro Life Running ARMY？ ＂Life Runners＂ SAVES SOULS
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
152.98305
Summary
Dr. Pat Castle is the founder and CEO of Life Runners, the largest pro-life relay race in the world, and he is also a runner. In this episode, Dr. Castle talks about his background in the Air Force, how he got into running, and the importance of being on a winning team.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
People want to be on a winning team. The body of Christ is the winning team, by definition.
00:00:08.280
Hello, my friends, and welcome to the John Henry Weston Show. Do you want to be part of
00:00:12.440
the largest pro-life relay race on the planet? Well, you don't have to go far. It's right in
00:00:20.080
America. Imagine this. Imagine a relay race that is going to start from four different parts of
00:00:25.940
America and converge into the center, forming a cross. And that could only happen from one place,
00:00:34.140
from a man I know many of you know and love, as I do. His name is Dr. Pat Castle. He is the founder
00:00:40.780
and runs Life Runners, and he himself is a runner. I am not. Joining me today, Pat Castle. Welcome,
00:00:49.380
my good friend. Hey, thank you, John Henry. Well, we begin with an all in Christ for pro-life.
00:00:54.940
For life. Amen. And let's begin, as we always do here, with the side of the cross. In the name of
00:01:00.140
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. This gentleman over here introduced me to
00:01:07.940
his story. And you have to realize, you should give him some background about your military service as
00:01:14.780
well. Because you're Dr. Pat Castle. So you've got quite the little background there. But it was the
00:01:19.980
military that gave me, oh, this is where the guy learned to run. Because running for you is
00:01:25.440
something very real, unlike for me. But tell us a little bit about your background that way.
00:01:31.040
Yeah. So my background is, I grew up with three big brothers that, of course, chased me up the stairs
00:01:37.920
and out of the house and around the house. So they take credit for any running ministry.
00:01:44.320
They say it was formed with faith and family. And that's true. So in a very Catholic way. So yeah,
00:01:55.080
it's, you know, when it comes to running, and when I think about the very early days of me running
00:02:00.160
as a child or a young adult or in the Air Force, always really tied to God. You know, when you're out
00:02:07.460
there, whether you imagine Eric Little from Chariots of Fire, his famous line, I paraphrase,
00:02:14.560
when I run, I feel God's pleasure. And so just the fact that you're uniting yourself with God
00:02:22.580
as the creator, creator of us, the creator of all things. And the fact that it's, by nature, running
00:02:30.460
is pretty sacrificial. You know, it's hard for most people, including me. But it also,
00:02:37.640
it's very Catholic that you take something sacrificial and you make it redemptive. You
00:02:42.800
align it with your prayers. My most potent prayers are when I'm out there running, doing a hard mile,
00:02:51.360
difficult conditions, whether running up a mountain with St. Padre Pio, which was a conversation you and
00:02:57.280
I have had that people can reference on one of your past shows, that encounter with St. Pio.
00:03:03.860
And then it just gives you that quiet time to just listen to God, because, you know, it's hard to talk
00:03:10.740
when you're running, and it's easier to listen. And so God has really given me lots of encouragement.
00:03:18.600
You know, when you think about Jeremiah 1.5, which is the verse that's on the Life Runner shirt,
00:03:23.180
where we have the Trinity, that classic Life Runner shirt, which I'll hold up in the form
00:03:27.680
of a onesie. So this is that classic Life Runner's jersey. And then that message on the back with
00:03:34.580
Jeremiah 1.5, that was when young Jeremiah was visiting with God and saying to God,
00:03:40.880
hey, like, I'm too young for this, God. Like, I'm not equipped. And then, of course, God said,
00:03:47.220
Jeremiah, I know what you're capable of. I knew you before you were even in your mother's womb.
00:03:52.760
So I have a lot of conversations like that with God when I'm running. And so in that,
00:04:00.080
I've invited other people to join in the early days of Life Runners that did begin as a running team
00:04:08.180
that had a pro-life witness with that shirt I showed that Remember the Unborn Message. And now,
00:04:15.780
really, it's when I look at the numbers of the team, we're now nearly 25,000.
00:04:22.760
people in 3,885 cities across 50 nations. And we are all in Christ for pro-life. And the thing
00:04:33.140
that we all have in common, including you, John Henry, as one of my good teammates and brothers in
00:04:39.140
Christ, is we're all willing to put on a shirt that says Remember the Unborn on the back and has the
00:04:46.860
Trinity. Like, quite literally, picking up our cross, a four-ounce t-shirt cross, and wearing
00:04:53.500
our witness, carrying our cross, and following Christ, doing the things he asked us to do, which
00:04:58.900
were proclaim the kingdom of God, heal the wounded, and help deliver people from evil. And there's no
00:05:05.900
greater evil imaginable than dismembering, ending the life of a precious, innocent child made in the image of
00:05:15.020
God that's destroyed within that child's mother's womb. And so we stand with the body of Christ, many
00:05:24.140
parts of one body, as Life Runners apostolate, to encourage mothers and fathers to choose life
00:05:31.160
for their children. And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful, simple ministry. And so, you know,
00:05:38.000
there's all that running integration, but I always like to do the little drum roll. Here comes the best
00:05:43.240
news of our discussion today and our visit today. Drum roll. Running's optional for Life Runners.
00:05:49.640
So everyone can just kind of sit back and enjoy the rest of our visit and learn about Life Runners.
00:05:56.900
But really and truly, it's a witness. It's a messaging ministry. It's an encouragement ministry.
00:06:04.460
People see those messages. They see your shirt. They see you walking around the block. They see you in
00:06:09.400
grocery stores. They see what you're wearing. And it encourages them to do exactly what the shirt says,
00:06:15.320
to remember the unborn. And they see you carrying your cross and that beautiful trinity on the front
00:06:22.500
with the Holy Spirit power. And Jeremiah 1.5's words of God speaking to us, it bolsters people like,
00:06:31.680
yeah, like, you know, if we're wearing our witness, it inspires people to also say, hey, I can do that.
00:06:39.720
I want to do that. And that's how the team has grown. It's grown from one or two people in a
00:06:46.120
neighborhood, in a town that have boldly, faithfully, joyfully, peacefully worn this
00:06:52.700
beautiful witness. And someone says, I like your shirt. Where can I get one? And they get one.
00:06:59.280
They were, that's how now we are 25,000 people wearing that witness. And the demographics,
00:07:05.760
it breaks out to ages 0.1. That's that little onesie I keep showing. So there's babies, you know,
00:07:12.240
what cool parents that go, oh yeah, you're, you're going to be wearing your witness as a
00:07:18.440
one week old or a two month old. And they put them in, and that's a great witness. You can imagine
00:07:23.280
in a stroller or in a park, a little baby saying, look at me. Like I'm, I'm wearing this witness,
00:07:29.960
imagining all their peers, you know, one in, one in four ish pregnancies in America and in abortion.
00:07:37.640
So, I mean, these little babies are survivors in our own modern day Holocaust. So everywhere from
00:07:44.640
0.1 to, we have a life runner that's 101 and a nursing home in a wheelchair that puts her witness
00:07:53.360
on and dialogues with her friends and family that are at that nursing home. So everyone's qualified
00:08:01.020
to be a life runner. If you're able and willing and your faith is strong enough and you want to do
00:08:06.640
exactly what God has asked us to do. And that is to defend the least of the least, uh, to defend him,
00:08:14.920
to speak up for them. And that's scriptural and that's us. And we're part of that body of Christ.
00:08:21.420
And so we're just doing what Christ has asked us to do. And it's, um, it's a team effort. I like to
00:08:28.960
say that heaven's a team effort. And I like that. I like that. I've got teammates in the body of
00:08:34.080
Christ. We're not alone. Yeah. So there you go. There's the running stuff that is optional,
00:08:39.980
but if you'd like to, and Oh, by the way, John Henry, you and I always kind of joke that the walking
00:08:45.820
life runners in a lot of ways, they're better life runners because you can read their shirt easier.
00:08:51.420
Yeah. Yep. I fall into that category. It is a challenge though, to go out and witness. I am
00:08:58.560
a t-shirt guy. I love going out there with a t-shirt that, that says a message on it that people
00:09:04.160
need to hear. I'll always remember one of the first ones I ever did. No gosh, it's a long time
00:09:09.820
ago now. I was in Toronto still. And, um, I wore a t-shirt. It said life is short, pray hard. Um,
00:09:18.280
and it had the little Nike logo. So it looked like, you know, people would see it at first and go,
00:09:23.620
life is short. But if they caught it, they would often look at me kind of strange. Um, but it,
00:09:29.500
it was good because it, it, it says something, but a lot of people are kind of shy or embarrassed or,
00:09:36.360
or, or, um, scared or uncomfortable. They might say doing something like that. How,
00:09:42.780
what would you say to them to encourage them that way?
00:09:44.660
I think I read a stat and people can Google this, but it was something like 40% of the,
00:09:52.300
the, the young generation. You can look at the demographics is tattooed 40%. I'm like, wow.
00:10:00.220
And so people, they, they, they like to stand up for something. They like to be part of something.
00:10:07.660
And of course, the greatest thing to be part of is the body of Christ because it's beautiful.
00:10:13.640
It's true. It's, it's, it's holy. It's eternal. I mean, it is the best thing imaginable to be part
00:10:23.100
of. It's, it is the winning team. People want to be on a winning team. The body of Christ is the
00:10:28.840
winning team by definition. It's God's team. And we want to be with God and be on God's team,
00:10:35.940
the church. And so people want to belong. And so they're always trying to group up in these
00:10:42.220
different ways and trying so hard to stand out. And, you know, and so they'll tattoo themselves
00:10:48.100
to stand out, but I like to say, okay, people want to mark themselves. How about mark yourself
00:10:55.440
with a shirt like this? The, like the, the, the markings of Christ. How about a, a holy ring
00:11:02.760
or a crucifix or, or a St. Benedict medal, or, you know, mark yourself in the faith, mark
00:11:10.920
what you belong to, mark that you are all in Christ. You know, St. Paul, that he no longer
00:11:18.380
belongs to himself, but you know, he is, he, he stands for Christ. He's all in Christ.
00:11:24.160
And that's the journey. You know, we, we talk about being prayerful. We talk about praying
00:11:29.860
unceasingly. Well, when we're being Christ, when we're in Christ, with Christ, all in Christ,
00:11:36.820
guess what? We're in prayer with, we're praying unceasingly. We're just formalizing it when we
00:11:42.440
take a moment, like to pray out loud. But the Life Runners Creed, if you look at that creed on
00:11:47.920
the website, liferunners.org forward slash creed, you'll see these, these beautiful lines. But one
00:11:54.300
of the first lines of the creed is it says, we run as a prayer, defend children in the womb,
00:12:02.420
so they may be born and united with our Christian community. I mean, think about that. We run as a
00:12:10.500
prayer. We do everything as a prayer. We be the prayer. And so when you're marked or wearing your
00:12:18.320
witness, I don't know about you, John Henry, but in a very tangible way, when I'm wearing it,
00:12:24.540
it really reminds me, reminds others who we belong to, who we are, whether like my daughter,
00:12:33.980
Grace, that recently graduated from the United States Air Force Academy. And in a week,
00:12:38.060
she reports to pilot training. She wears a uniform. And when you see her in her Air Force uniform or
00:12:46.300
her flight suit, guess what? You go, there's a member of the United States Air Force. There's a
00:12:52.320
pilot. She's marked. She's wearing her marking. She has emblems and decals about who she is,
00:13:00.320
what she stands for, for God and country. She stands for that to defend the innocent,
00:13:06.400
to stand up for those that can't stand for themselves. She unites that service of God
00:13:12.480
through her service to country and the defense of the innocent. So this is not foreign to us. I
00:13:18.780
start out with tattoos, marking yourself. I leave with someone who's in the military with good-heartedness,
00:13:26.300
be there to defend the weak and the innocent. So this is not foreign. So those that struggle with
00:13:33.460
it, John Henry, I guess my response is what I gave you, to give perspective. Like, you can do this.
00:13:40.480
Put this on. Step out your front door and know that your witness matters. We know from great studies,
00:13:51.980
social science studies, that upwards of 82% of post-abortion women reported that if one person
00:14:01.220
or if one sign had encouraged them to choose life, they would not have chosen abortion, death for
00:14:10.360
their child. So that is, let's get out there and imagine that somebody, quite literally, could have
00:14:17.040
a birthday today. Their life could be saved today because of what you wore to the grocery store.
00:14:23.960
You wore something encouraging and anything that is of God is encouraging. Evil's discouraging.
00:14:31.220
Evil is despair. God is encouraging. Hope-filled. Merciful. Compassionate. Loving. Joyful. Peaceful.
00:14:39.360
Those are the attributes of the winning team, God's team.
00:14:44.240
For U.S. residents, creating a will has never been easier. Thanks to My Legacy Will, an online platform
00:14:51.440
free of charge, you can now create your own will and choose to include LifeSite News in it. Specify
00:14:57.620
where your funeral will take place, the number of masses to be offered for your soul, and how your
00:15:02.500
estate would be distributed. We would be deeply grateful if you remembered LifeSite News in your will.
00:15:08.140
Visit MyLegacyWill.com slash LifeSiteNews. Thank you for your support, and may God bless you.
00:15:15.380
Pat, I started with a encouragement for people to join the largest pro-life race rally anywhere on
00:15:27.960
earth. Tell us when that is. Tell us how they can join, where they have to go. It's sort of a
00:15:33.880
pilgrimage of sorts. And yes, it's a running pilgrimage, but as you say, you can also walk.
00:15:38.940
But tell us about it. Well, first of all, I want to thank you and LifeSite News for your bold,
00:15:48.380
beautiful, truly pro-life, by definition pro-life, pro-God, pro-life witness that you do every day
00:15:57.220
through the media as a loudspeaker to the world, reminding them of who God is, who we are,
00:16:05.660
and that we should stand up for the Lisa Lisa. Thank you. And oh, by the way, not tattooed,
00:16:13.100
but marked on the right sleeve of the Across the 2025 Across America Relay shirt is LifeSite News.
00:16:23.120
And I love having your logo on my right shoulder. And so thank you. And so this is, we do a unique
00:16:33.820
relay shirt every year, you know, our standard jersey that you have, the blue one, you know,
00:16:39.620
that's what all 25,000 life runners around the world of all those ages we talked about, they have
00:16:44.380
one of those blue ones. But the people that participate in the Across America Relay, they're
00:16:49.640
also invited to get this unique witness shirt to wear. And you can see the front, but the back is
00:16:57.420
also really powerful. Here is the back of it, the top that says all in Christ, and then as a really
00:17:05.560
big white cross over the remember the unborn message, and then Jeremiah 1 5. So this is a great,
00:17:13.560
strong witness that you can get for during this relay time, which is between now and the finish,
00:17:20.720
which is October 25. So if someone's watching going, oh, I want one of those. Yeah. And then you see the
00:17:26.140
front with the beautiful image of Christ with the cross, carrying that cross for us across America,
00:17:34.540
making the cross with the course. So here comes the exciting stuff of the relay. Some people probably
00:17:41.220
heard of it before, you know, this is, we started it in 2013. It's been an annual event. And we're able
00:17:48.100
to call it the largest spanning pro-life event because it's over 5,000 miles. It covers 51 days.
00:17:56.140
People participate all around the world on the course, or they adopt segments of it and participate
00:18:03.820
anywhere around the world. So like we have a group that does legs on the Island of Fiji.
00:18:10.400
You know, we've got people that do legs in Africa, in Europe, you get it. And including America,
00:18:15.920
I mean, some people are just like, Ooh, I wish it was, you know, down here, closer to Florida.
00:18:20.380
You can adopt segments anywhere along the course and do them in Florida. So it's, it's open to
00:18:29.340
everyone to participate wherever you are. And you can do it anytime on your own schedule in those dates,
00:18:36.140
September 5th, October 25th. Let's talk about the spots where it kicks off. And these are powerful,
00:18:44.560
cultural, cultural, piercing, uh, the darkness locations, very significant symbolically, uh, in
00:18:56.320
the realities of our culture, as you will hear. So first off San Francisco, the emphasis in many
00:19:03.700
respects of our time, um, you know, a seaport and you can imagine the book of the Ephesians and the
00:19:11.060
things that St. Paul encountered in his messaging, pretty similar to San Francisco. And so you've got
00:19:19.160
the kickoff in San Francisco in front of a very holy, a light, if you will, in the darkness of that
00:19:27.500
culture, star of the sea parish. It is John Henry. They are a beautiful witness, you know, during COVID,
00:19:34.760
this is a parish that kept going, remain sacramental in a very bold way. When California can about
00:19:41.780
imagine California, remember trying to block out any light during that time and continues to try to
00:19:48.420
block out any light, uh, with their politics, but started to see with father Ilo and the support of
00:19:55.940
Archbishop Corleone, all life runners. They kept that light going. And so it will kick off on September
00:20:01.860
5th in front of star of the sea parish. And this is exciting with 90 students from their parish school
00:20:10.760
are going to do the 2.7 mile. Um, some of the older students, the whole thing, the younger ones,
00:20:17.700
a portion of it, but 2.7 miles with the big, remember the unborn banner that you see at the
00:20:24.060
March for life and the walk for life and different state marches. They're going to walk that through San
00:20:28.680
Francisco from the school to the San Francisco Planned Parenthood on Bush street on September 5th.
00:20:35.640
And that event is that is after the noon mass and it begins at 1 PM. So if you're hearing this and
00:20:42.300
you're like, Oh, you're in range, join us. I'll be there. Bernadette Costello, the director of
00:20:47.800
operations for life runners will be there. We'll be there to walk with the students and staff and
00:20:53.580
anyone that wants to join us in that first leg of the West arm, September 6th, the East arm kicks off
00:21:02.840
in the times square of New York city. Wow. Picture this contrast with the limelight and the messages
00:21:12.160
that they have up on those giant screens. And we're going to roll in there with a couple of big
00:21:17.700
eight foot. Remember the unborn banners. And we're going to, um, be at the father Duffy who knew that
00:21:23.660
there's a statue of a priest in the middle of times square. Maybe that's the first time you're
00:21:27.960
hearing that the father Duffy statue. So that is the first leg from an abortion facility about a mile
00:21:35.120
away to times square. And then on September 13th, the South, the South arm kicks off at the big UT
00:21:43.880
University of Texas, Austin tower. This tower is known in Texas and maybe people listening have,
00:21:51.520
you know, people that went to school there, but this is an icon in Austin and Texas, this tower.
00:21:56.920
And we're going to kick off the South arm at that tower. And we're going to walk the,
00:22:01.400
remember the unborn banner across the campus. And then lastly, the North arm is September 20th.
00:22:08.520
And it kicks off in front of the cathedral of St. Mary in Fargo, North Dakota. And Bishop
00:22:16.060
Fulda was there last year. This year, he's going to have his vicar that's going to join us,
00:22:21.120
but it's a journey from that cathedral across state lines, about two and a half miles to the Red
00:22:28.860
River, Minnesota abortion facility. And so that journey we did last year and it was a powerful
00:22:36.000
public witness. So if you're in range, join us at 9 a.m. after the 8 a.m. mass and walk with us
00:22:44.400
that morning, Saturday morning, September 20th. The finish line after moving for over 5,000 miles,
00:22:52.240
making that cross over America is Benedictine College during their homecoming weekend events.
00:22:59.920
So exactly right reaction, big smile. And so you could imagine the beautiful pro-God, pro-life
00:23:09.840
group of students and parents and grandparents and friends. They're going to be there to give a
00:23:16.080
heavenly finish, sharing those four arms. All four arms will combine on Benedictine College on October
00:23:25.040
25th at 9 30 a.m. on the campus. President Menace will give a few words. Archbishop Nauman will bless
00:23:34.480
the finish line. And then Archbishop Menace again at 1 30 p.m. after the first quarter of the homecoming
00:23:40.980
football game will give a share out about the great work that the people of God, the body of Christ,
00:23:47.580
had done with the Across America Relay for Pro-Life. Boom. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. So people
00:23:56.740
should make their way to the nearest of these locations on those dates that can be found all
00:24:02.460
at your website, liferunners.org. And closing words for us, Pat, you are yourself given, as you say,
00:24:11.700
when you run. But most of the time, whenever I meet you, given to the Holy Spirit, he inspires you,
00:24:17.860
obviously. And you're a man of God, a man who has given himself to this work, this work of Christ,
00:24:27.460
with everything you've got. And it's beautiful. Give us a final word.
00:24:32.860
I guess the final word is to remind us of that beautiful story, John Henry, of the little boy
00:24:39.440
on the beach, and thousands of starfish have washed up. And the little boy is grabbing one starfish at a
00:24:50.880
time, and he's throwing it back into the ocean, you know, saving the starfish, if you will. And an old
00:24:57.920
man saw him who was walking and came up to him in discouragement and said, it doesn't matter.
00:25:05.720
Like, look, there's thousands of them. It doesn't matter. And he reached down in his innocence and
00:25:15.340
his childlike, beautiful, holy, child of God way. And he picked up another starfish. And he said,
00:25:23.820
it matters to this one. And he threw that starfish into the ocean, saved it.
00:25:29.380
I think we need to relate to that in the way that if you're thinking right now, like, oh, does it really
00:25:34.960
matter? We gave the stats. We talked about that absolutely, from the standpoint of that encouragement
00:25:41.160
saves lives, reported by women that have experienced the lie of abortion. To put on that shirt, you are
00:25:52.040
light in your candle for the whole world to see. You know, you are a light. And it matters. You
00:26:00.000
encourage not just yourself and your own walk. It emboldens your own witness that you're really
00:26:05.720
living out what it means to be a Christian, as Christ directed us. And it helps others live out
00:26:15.040
their faith. And so this is an opportunity. This Across America Relay in your own neighborhood. You
00:26:22.400
can adopt a 5k segment, lap your neighborhood in your Remember the Unborn shirt and log your 5k
00:26:29.480
segment. So you can register for that at liferunners.org slash across and be that little witness that has a
00:26:38.800
huge impact. To save a life is to save the whole world. Every life has an infinite value. I mean,
00:26:44.200
for goodness sakes, we were created in God's image. And so we know that. And then when you see the big
00:26:49.520
witnesses, when you see the big witnesses, know that it was all those little witnesses that made
00:26:56.080
it possible for the big witness, like the last two months, John Henry and St. Louis and downtown St.
00:27:01.980
Louis, like right near their stadium, their, the Cardinals baseball stadium, St. Louis on the
00:27:08.020
interstate, giant Remember the Unborn banner with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe for two months with
00:27:16.300
450,000 views per week, you know, seeing this along the interstate. Other big witness, when you see like
00:27:25.980
here in about a week or so, uh, the, the, the kickoff of the Cornhuskers, uh, football season for
00:27:33.720
one hour, a plane is going to drag a giant Remember the Unborn banner over the stadium for an hour
00:27:41.660
before the kickoff of that game that has a hundred thousand people tailgating and getting ready to go
00:27:47.560
celebrate football. And they're going to be, they're going to see this encouraging witness
00:27:52.840
and know that it matters that they're going to think about it. They're going to remember the unborn
00:27:58.860
in that remembering that messaging, that marketing, that evangelization is an invitation into all
00:28:06.580
things good, true, and beautiful. So my final word would be our cheer. And you know, the cheer, I'm going
00:28:12.660
to give an all in Christ. And then you could give up for pro-life and we'll do it three times. So wherever
00:28:19.060
people are at, listen to this, whatever time of day, if you're in your car, if you're walking down the
00:28:25.100
sidewalk, if you're in your home, give a loud and thunderous for pro-life and reply to my all in
00:28:33.020
Christ to awaken a woke culture, to awaken us and encourage all of us to really live out, speak out
00:28:41.560
our faith. So here it goes. All in Christ. For pro-life. All in Christ. For pro-life. Awesome.
00:28:56.500
Awesome. God bless you, my friend. So good to be with you, Pat. Anytime, all the time. And God bless
00:29:03.060
all of you. And we'll see you next time. Aloha, everyone. This is Jason Jones for Lifeside News.
00:29:12.660
We hope you enjoyed this video. For more content like this, check the link in the description.
00:29:18.840
You can also connect with us on social media to stay up to date with the latest news on life,
00:29:24.800
faith, family, and freedom. Thanks for watching and may God bless you.