In this episode of the Jonathan Weston Show, I introduce you to Doug and Adele Darnowski, a family of 15 children. They share their story of how they have grown their family and what it takes to do so.
00:00:00.000I got rid of some bad books out of the library I thought were spiritually dangerous, including Harry Potter, but a number of others, including one which was, frankly, pornographic.
00:00:07.120And I told the parents at a meeting about this on the 17th of July, and they basically said, well, it's not as bad as some of the stuff in public school.
00:00:15.700We're going to see it eventually anyway. And I said, but, you know, they're going to offer them contraceptives. We're not going to do that either.
00:00:20.340Hey, my friends, I wanted to introduce you to a lovely family, 15 children.
00:00:32.980But this is a story of a family that's struggling. They're struggling, trying to do what's right.
00:00:41.580And I think a lot of us find ourselves sometimes in such a situation where you try to do the right thing, but you're in struggle nonetheless.
00:00:48.620It's a struggle that's mixed with happiness, knowing that you're doing what God wants, but a lot of consternation sometimes.
00:00:55.760Hardship and a kind of worry, but it's, you know, grace filled so that you're not really, really worrying too bad.
00:01:04.400But sometimes we're called, the Catholic community is called to help our brothers and sisters.
00:01:10.320And I know a lot of us do that for different charities and things like that.
00:01:12.880And that's why we have LifeFunder to point you to good people in need and therefore enable you to find someone that you can give to who's really worthy and that you know you're not giving to something that has a hidden agenda on the other side.
00:01:31.120So stay tuned for this episode of the Jonathan Weston Show to meet Doug and Adele Darnowski.
00:01:38.080When I was in seminary, I was reading a book by Henry Nowen.
00:01:46.080He talked about a nuclear man, you know, and people who grew up in the 1980s were kind of formed by that immediate and constant threat of nuclear annihilation.
00:01:56.080My generation has grown up, you know, under the specter of priestly sexual abuse.
00:02:04.940What say you, Mr. Foreperson, is the defendant guilty or not guilty?
00:02:09.260I think that for many of us that has also been all-encompassing, you know.
00:02:13.960I mean, I entered the seminary in January of 2004, and it's basically been there for me from the beginning.
00:02:26.080Doug and Adele Darnowski, welcome to the program.
00:03:17.940And we both want to have a big family.
00:03:20.440And God blessed us with nine children, including two sets of twins born to us.
00:03:24.720And along the way, we adopted a little girl from China who's handicapped.
00:03:28.960And then after we'd had all our biological children that we have, we were blessed to be able to adopt five from Ukraine, all with Down syndrome, in 2020 and 2021.
00:04:34.500Our youngest biological wouldn't let her older brothers learn to tie their shoes because she wanted somebody to help take care of, like, her sisters.
00:05:08.000So, the short version is that I got a job in southern Tennessee as the principal of a small Catholic school.
00:05:14.560We packed up the house, worked like mad to get it all fixed up, put it on the market, sent most 90 plus percent of what we own to storage down there.
00:05:23.760I went down, started working for free for about three weeks at the school to get ready for the school year ahead of time.
00:05:29.300And then I was terminated, quote unquote, for no cause on the 19th of July.
00:05:35.200And basically, I found that there was the school, which I had not been told about at all before I got down there, was in chaos.
00:05:45.120I heard about one child who went through the six classrooms in the school, pre-K through eighth grade, and had 14 different teachers.
00:05:52.320So, this is a long-term ongoing problem, and they didn't like the fact they wanted to bring the Baltimore Catechism gradually over a few years.
00:06:01.520I got rid of some bad books out of the library I felt were spiritually dangerous, including Harry Potter, but a number of others, including one which was, frankly, pornographic.
00:06:08.800And I told the parents at a meeting about this on the 17th of July, and they basically said, well, it's not as bad as some of the stuff in public school.
00:06:17.440They're going to see it eventually anyway.
00:06:18.640And I said, but, you know, they're going to offer them contraceptives.
00:06:22.900And they also weren't happy that I was the first male principal, that I hired a male teacher.
00:06:26.880And there were a whole bunch of things you couldn't solve.
00:06:28.640They accused me of planning to get rid of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, too, which I had already approved the fundraisers that involved them, but I don't know.
00:06:47.340And I was hired to help bring it into the Catholic classical model, which is really beautiful because it weaves the faith through all the subjects.
00:06:53.780That was another thing I was objected to.
00:06:55.060And they said, you're going to shove religion down the kids' throats 24-7.
00:06:58.620And I said, no, no, that's not the way it works.
00:07:01.060And, you know, I did a lot of those things with the express support of the pastor, who was very good.
00:07:05.100And when I got the termination on the 19th, he said, I haven't slept all night.
00:07:12.940But there's this group of hardcore families that have been around for a long time, and they were not happy.
00:07:17.460And the previous principal had been put through a lot from what I found out for a year.
00:07:22.640And they've actually now advertised, a week after they got rid of me, for somebody to do the exact same thing, make the school Catholic classical, which I had said would take like three years.
00:07:32.920And I don't know how that's going to possibly succeed.
00:07:35.260And also that, you know, the diocese were not innocent in this.
00:07:38.880They said that it was the priests that had the final decision, but they were there with their hand in it, too.
00:08:25.040Yes, there was some curricular material.
00:08:26.540So basically, I was going through some materials.
00:08:29.340And I found on a website that they were supposed to subscribe to, you know, coloring sheets for like second graders promoting LGBTQ materials.
00:08:37.840And I thought, you know, if I can find this in two minutes, it's a big website.
00:08:41.720I found something which was one third the price, gave twice as many people access, and which I knew from personal experience to be very wholesome.
00:09:06.020And that went over like a lead balloon with this group of parents, which shocked me.
00:09:09.680I had Baptists coming into the school who were excited because we were bringing in the Baltimore Catechism because their church used the Apostles' Creed and that we were getting rid of some of these other books and that we were keeping this stuff out.
00:09:22.340In fact, one woman a few hours before the meeting enrolled her kids within five minutes of hearing this stuff.
00:09:43.440And said nothing else about the books.
00:09:45.420And after I said, we're going to have to remove a number of serious books.
00:09:48.840But what I heard afterwards from the same person was a rather different story.
00:09:52.820It certainly seems like, you know, the pastor, it seems, wanted a good school and the parents who were there seemed not to want a good school.
00:10:07.140The diocese seems to be caving, if not worse.
00:12:46.560It's one thing to believe the faith yourself, but then to be firm in it when it can cost you is very scary indeed.
00:12:56.000I think a lot of the pastors have, well, prelates even, have actually chosen to go along to get along and refuse to admonish when that's necessary.
00:13:13.240It's funny because the pastors on the other side in the new church, if you will, they admonish all the time.
00:13:18.580You know, the leftist, if you will, pastors or dissonant, as they probably are properly called.
00:13:25.660They are very ready and willing to admonish the faithful as we get, you know, called rigid and all sorts of names from certain prelates.
00:13:41.180They are very vocally against pro-life activism and everything else.
00:13:44.420Yet, the same, you know, their counterparts on the right, if you will, or being faithful to Christ, they're often not ready to exert, you know, the kind of authority they have to do the right thing.
00:14:00.980And it's, I've seen it so many times, very sad to see.
00:14:05.380So, how can, how can we help right now?
00:14:08.180Well, that we have a, our problem is we, we got stuck.
00:14:15.020So, we're in a pretty well empty house now because we were about to sell our home and we have it on the market still.
00:14:19.500If anyone liked to buy it, that would be delightful.
00:14:21.300It'd make a wonderful Catholic retreat or refuge or just family home.
00:16:23.640But, you know, to take care of this little family.
00:16:25.740And again, the big thing is try to help save souls.
00:16:30.220You know, when I was working at a secular university, I used to try to sneak as much good stuff in, solid stuff in, as I could through the back door, if you will.
00:16:38.280You know, talks about all kinds of issues.
00:16:40.640Pro-life issues, really, but I couldn't call them that.
00:16:43.020And people actually listen because they've been so starved for good information.
00:16:54.100I used to sneak in stuff in the end of the last day of my classes about him.
00:16:57.760And so the people here would realize just what came out of this otherwise really friendly Midwestern American state, the heart of darkness that that guy was.
00:17:05.900You know, it's amazing you say that because I was teaching many years ago now, about 30 years ago.
00:17:13.060And my background's all in psychology, actually.
00:17:16.580So I was teaching a psychology course only for – it was only seven students in the class.
00:17:24.060And this was adult education, of course.
00:17:28.100And so the textbook was full of Kinsey.
00:17:31.840And I happened to be teaching in the very year that they dug up the remains of his assistant, which showed that, of course, they had – you know, they were pedophiles.
00:17:42.200And they abused children for that table 34, which was just so horrible.
00:17:45.540And, yeah, I was – I, too, was sort of canceled out of that class.
00:17:52.580I would literally go into the class on the last day of class and say, blessed mother guardian angel, please block the sound coming out of my door because if my colleagues find out what I'm talking about, I'm at Kinsey's – branch campus at Kinsey's University.
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00:19:20.120But I understand you wanted to pursue higher education, if you could say it that way.
00:19:24.820Yeah, basically what happened is the place where I was started out as a really – when I was first there, it was really wonderful in that we – the students really just wanted to learn.
00:19:36.500It was very – what people oftentimes think of stereotypically as American Midwest in terms of, you know, you could – it was open to people of faith and things like that.
00:19:45.580And it changed radically over the years.
00:19:48.400And at one point towards the end of my time, I stood up and said some things as a biologist who's, you know, worked in all kinds of different areas, has, you know, good credentials.
00:19:57.580And I talked about the origins of the COVID virus and the fact that our students, after the state had dropped the mask mandate, ought to have a right to take the things off because it robs them of their humanity.
00:20:07.680And I said, in the end, the only solution for the chaos in the world is Jesus Christ.
00:20:13.920Now, I expected some – that wouldn't be a super popular opinion among my peers, but I didn't expect to have been brought up on formal charges, including religious harassment for saying Jesus Christ.
00:20:24.320That was dropped, but I said – I taught – we prayed a lot before the breast attackment.
00:20:29.040We talked a lot together, talked to five different priests to get advice.
00:20:32.760And I had a clear plan for what I wanted to do, and I said, okay, and I resigned.
00:20:38.840You know, you're praying the whole time, but I said it felt like I was jumping off the Empire State Building with, you know, my wife and 15 kids on my back.
00:20:45.780But we did it in faith, and I tried a bunch of other things.
00:20:48.780I said we founded that online college.
00:20:50.960And so, you know, I want to keep teaching things because it's – I think I've got a talent for it, and I've got a lot of good things I know I can share with people.
00:21:01.200And so that – yeah, that's where we are.
00:21:13.000A lot of wives who would see their husband do something like that and then get into a situation like you're in would be very bitter and, you know, sort of take it out on him.
00:21:27.700What's your attitude in all this, and where are you at?
00:21:29.660Well, I hope I've been the model wife.
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00:23:50.540Thanks for watching and may God bless you.