The Michael Knowles Show - August 10, 2025


"What's Hidden In The Vatican?" FACE-Off Bishop Barron Vs Michael Knowles


Episode Stats

Length

37 minutes

Words per Minute

186.1914

Word Count

7,043

Sentence Count

842

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary

In preparation for the new documentary, The Pope and the Fuhrer: The Secret Vatican Files of World War II, streaming exclusively on Daily Wire Plus on August 13th, we re stepping inside the smallest country in the world with some of the biggest secrets, Vatican City. In one corner, Michael Knowles is here to uncover the real third secret of Fatima, and promote his new documentary. And in the other corner, Bishop Robert Barron is a man who knows the Vatican and its secret archives so well, he might just break news and reveal lost secrets.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 These are questions that take cultures thousands of years to answer.
00:00:04.740 During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you
00:00:07.920 about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or when they simply need advice.
00:00:12.700 How do I balance all of this grief, responsibility?
00:00:15.800 How do you repair this kind of damage?
00:00:18.080 My daughter, Michaela, guides the conversations
00:00:20.540 as we hopefully help people navigate their lives.
00:00:24.080 Everyone has their own destiny. Everyone.
00:00:30.000 Which of the following is a popular but unproven conspiracy theory
00:00:36.320 about the Vatican Archive?
00:00:37.540 That they house a time machine,
00:00:38.880 they contain proof that aliens existed on Earth,
00:00:41.200 they hold the lost gospel of Jesus,
00:00:43.140 they house the Ark of the Covenant.
00:00:44.640 I've never heard the alien. That's kind of funny.
00:00:47.020 There's the Area 51.
00:00:48.760 The best is the Ark of the Covenant.
00:00:49.940 If they really have the Ark of the Covenant,
00:00:51.360 which is some plausibility.
00:00:53.580 The Vatican does not have aliens, correct?
00:00:55.700 Not that I know of, yeah.
00:00:58.180 In preparation for the Pope and the Fuhrer,
00:01:00.360 the secret Vatican files of World War II,
00:01:02.960 streaming exclusively on Daily Wire Plus,
00:01:04.820 August 13th,
00:01:05.800 we're stepping inside the smallest country in the world
00:01:08.140 with some of the biggest secrets,
00:01:09.800 Vatican City.
00:01:10.920 Our competitors?
00:01:12.100 In one corner, Michael Knowles,
00:01:13.440 who's here to uncover the real third secret of Fatima
00:01:15.900 and promote his new documentary.
00:01:17.640 And he's all out of promo scripts.
00:01:19.620 And in the other corner, Bishop Robert Barron,
00:01:21.300 a man who knows the Vatican and its secret archives so well,
00:01:24.300 he might just break news and reveal lost secrets
00:01:26.520 right here on this very show.
00:01:28.400 Hopefully.
00:01:29.240 Maybe.
00:01:30.040 Please.
00:01:30.520 I hope so.
00:01:31.140 Let's get into it.
00:01:31.920 This is Face Off, Vatican Mysteries.
00:01:37.840 Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here.
00:01:39.520 Ben, thanks for having me on my own show.
00:01:41.580 How does a Protestant know about the third secret of Fatima?
00:01:44.080 I didn't know you knew what that was.
00:01:45.880 Google.
00:01:46.540 You know, there's some wild, wild theories about it.
00:01:48.700 And hopefully, Bishop Barron can fill us in on how that's going.
00:01:51.800 Before we get started,
00:01:52.740 I have to ask about the premise here.
00:01:54.020 The premise was you were going to bring me on for Vatican trivia,
00:01:57.820 and I have to play against His Excellency Bishop Robert Barron,
00:02:01.980 not only a member of the Episcopate,
00:02:03.920 one of the most knowledgeable and scholarly men of the church today.
00:02:08.860 Is that right?
00:02:09.700 Yeah, but not about Vatican City.
00:02:11.660 So I've been to Vatican City, but all the details of it,
00:02:14.840 I don't know how good I'll be.
00:02:16.060 Which subway line goes to, I don't know, actually.
00:02:18.360 You may have an event.
00:02:19.000 I don't think Michael's been there.
00:02:19.920 Michael, have you actually been to Vatican City?
00:02:21.260 Yes, I have.
00:02:22.080 Thank you very much.
00:02:22.760 Of course.
00:02:24.320 Not recently.
00:02:25.300 Not recently.
00:02:26.000 All right, so the rules.
00:02:26.920 I'll read a question.
00:02:27.700 You'll have 30 seconds to write down your response.
00:02:30.100 At the end, whoever loses will do a commercial for the other person.
00:02:34.700 All right.
00:02:35.060 Okay.
00:02:36.600 Are you ready?
00:02:37.240 What is the commercial for a bishop?
00:02:38.760 I'm ready.
00:02:39.040 I don't know.
00:02:39.440 Like, I'm going to promote the succession from the apostles?
00:02:43.720 Well, the various books, the fantastic books that Bishop Barron has written.
00:02:46.860 We're on fire.
00:02:47.220 Yeah, we're on fire.
00:02:48.080 Okay, fair enough.
00:02:49.360 You'll figure it out.
00:02:50.140 All right, here we go.
00:02:54.260 All right.
00:02:54.740 Question one.
00:02:55.440 How many of the 95 theses can you write?
00:02:58.820 Go.
00:03:00.040 No, just kidding.
00:03:00.520 How many do I choose to write?
00:03:02.400 How about that?
00:03:03.100 You have to write them down.
00:03:05.120 I don't know any of them.
00:03:06.220 So anyway.
00:03:06.400 How many do I choose to burn?
00:03:07.720 Okay.
00:03:08.140 Yeah.
00:03:08.400 Here's the real one.
00:03:09.100 Okay.
00:03:10.000 Question one.
00:03:10.600 If you walked around the full border of Vatican City, how long would it take you to walk at
00:03:15.660 a brisk pace?
00:03:17.140 A.
00:03:18.440 Go ahead.
00:03:18.960 I rode my bike around Vatican City at the end of a trip from Paris to Rome with this friend
00:03:23.820 of mine, and we did a victory lap around Vatican City.
00:03:26.860 So I can answer by, so this is by foot though, huh?
00:03:29.160 At a brisk pace, by foot.
00:03:30.660 And we have multiple choice.
00:03:31.700 I'm going to go ahead.
00:03:32.100 A.
00:03:32.740 10 minutes.
00:03:33.660 B.
00:03:34.140 40 minutes.
00:03:35.180 C.
00:03:35.740 90 minutes.
00:03:36.720 D.
00:03:37.020 2 hours.
00:03:39.060 All right.
00:03:40.280 And you know, I'm a New Yorker, so you got to shave off.
00:03:42.680 I'm doing it in New York time.
00:03:44.400 That shaves off 10%.
00:03:45.840 You ready?
00:03:47.320 I'm ready.
00:03:47.860 I'm still riding.
00:03:48.380 All right, Mike, what do you have?
00:03:49.280 I would say 90 minutes around.
00:03:52.040 Mr. Barrett?
00:03:53.420 I said B.
00:03:55.640 B is correct.
00:03:57.560 All right.
00:03:58.240 Yeah.
00:03:58.640 This is not a good start.
00:03:59.880 Well, I did ride my bike around.
00:04:01.140 I can tell you that.
00:04:01.780 It took about 10 minutes, maybe.
00:04:04.880 Yeah.
00:04:05.380 Actually, Vatican City is only about 0.6 miles around.
00:04:08.200 Smaller than most miles.
00:04:09.040 Is it really?
00:04:10.340 All right.
00:04:11.080 Huh.
00:04:11.420 Okay.
00:04:11.940 That's bad.
00:04:13.100 All right.
00:04:13.240 Number two.
00:04:14.140 How long did it take to build the current St. Peter's Basilica?
00:04:17.840 A.
00:04:18.600 151 years.
00:04:19.500 B.
00:04:20.040 59 years.
00:04:20.920 C.
00:04:21.340 88.
00:04:22.240 D.
00:04:23.060 120.
00:04:26.680 What did you write, Michael?
00:04:29.060 Well, it's the letters.
00:04:30.360 No, I didn't do a number.
00:04:31.560 You gave letters.
00:04:32.680 What is it?
00:04:33.280 I said A.
00:04:34.660 I said D.
00:04:36.060 120.
00:04:37.020 Bishop Barrett is running away with this.
00:04:38.520 It is D.
00:04:39.020 120.
00:04:40.880 All right.
00:04:41.600 That was my second choice.
00:04:42.660 Do I get partial credit?
00:04:44.220 No.
00:04:45.340 This is bad.
00:04:46.260 Construction began in 1506 under Pope Julius II.
00:04:50.260 Yeah.
00:04:50.540 And then early, what?
00:04:53.320 1600s.
00:04:53.880 They finished it.
00:04:54.640 Yeah.
00:04:55.160 1626.
00:04:55.740 Yeah.
00:04:56.280 I'm going to be demoted to whatever is below laity.
00:04:59.460 I don't know if there's anything, but I might, I don't know.
00:05:02.420 I don't know.
00:05:02.640 Alter boy.
00:05:03.560 Alter boy.
00:05:05.720 All right.
00:05:06.940 All right.
00:05:07.480 Go ahead.
00:05:07.760 Roughly how many printed books and manuscripts are housed in the Vatican Library?
00:05:13.240 Oh, my gosh.
00:05:14.300 This is roughly.
00:05:15.300 A, 40,000.
00:05:17.320 B, 250,000.
00:05:19.680 C, 800,000.
00:05:21.540 D, 1.1 million.
00:05:24.480 Hmm.
00:05:25.380 Well.
00:05:27.320 Bishop Barrett, what do you have?
00:05:28.860 I had D.
00:05:30.000 I chose the highest one.
00:05:31.220 Oh, thank goodness.
00:05:32.140 Yeah.
00:05:32.540 All right.
00:05:32.800 So, we rise or fall together on this one.
00:05:35.180 I said, dude.
00:05:36.140 That was smart, Michael, because you're both correct.
00:05:37.800 Oh, good.
00:05:38.420 All right.
00:05:39.720 I figured the highest number, yeah.
00:05:41.160 Yeah.
00:05:41.780 Yeah.
00:05:42.940 Michael, I don't know why you're doing so.
00:05:44.080 I think you should have really, like, prayed before we started doing this.
00:05:47.060 I do.
00:05:47.420 I pray a lot.
00:05:48.480 Not enough.
00:05:49.080 Not enough, certainly.
00:05:50.620 You know what would help you pray more?
00:05:52.440 Oh.
00:05:53.540 That was a good segue that I totally missed.
00:05:55.940 Go check out Hallow.
00:05:57.500 Right now, you got to go to hallow.com slash Knowles.
00:06:00.360 This August, I want you to join me for the St. Michael's Lent Challenge on Hallow.
00:06:05.740 That doesn't refer to me.
00:06:06.660 It refers to the archangel, actually, who boots the devil down to hell.
00:06:10.500 It's a 40-day journey of prayer, fasting, and real spiritual growth,
00:06:14.280 inspired by St. Francis of Assisi's devotion to St. Michael the Archangel.
00:06:17.540 Now, this is not a typical self-help program.
00:06:20.940 St. Michael's Lent is an ancient tradition that calls us to virtue, sacrifice, and sanctity.
00:06:25.260 You will tackle the seven deadly sins head-on, pride, anger, lust, envy, sloth, gluttony, and avarice,
00:06:31.460 with insights from Fulton Sheen's Victory Over Vice, read by Chris Stefanik and Father Isaiah.
00:06:37.660 You will hear honest, sometimes hilarious stories from people like comedian Shane Smith about battling vice in real life.
00:06:43.460 Plus, you will journey with the real St. Francis, not the sanitized hippie version with little birds, you know, chirping in his ear.
00:06:50.560 We're talking about the bold, radical saint who was completely in love with God.
00:06:54.780 The challenge includes the litany of St. Michael, gospel reflections, and a powerful closing novena.
00:06:59.560 As we approach Michaelmas on September 29th, this is your chance to armor up spiritually.
00:07:04.780 If you're tired of soft, secular, squishy approaches, and ready to grow in grace through real spiritual discipline,
00:07:11.120 join St. Michael's Lent.
00:07:12.560 It starts August 13th on the Hallow app.
00:07:14.900 Get three months free at hallow.com slash Knowles.
00:07:17.360 All right, number four.
00:07:19.040 In miles.
00:07:19.660 All right.
00:07:20.600 In miles, okay.
00:07:21.940 How long is the shelving space inside the Vatican Library and Apostolic Archive combined?
00:07:28.160 That's going to be the closest without going over.
00:07:30.520 In miles.
00:07:31.660 In miles.
00:07:32.260 Closest without going over.
00:07:33.840 There's no multiple choice.
00:07:35.060 It's just...
00:07:35.420 Almost.
00:07:36.240 Oh, I see.
00:07:36.820 Okay.
00:07:37.880 And the Apostolic Archive is what we used to call the secret.
00:07:40.320 The secret archive.
00:07:42.400 That's correct.
00:07:44.640 Well.
00:07:45.680 Have you seen it?
00:07:47.880 Me?
00:07:49.220 Oh, Bishop Barron.
00:07:50.000 Yeah, no.
00:07:50.500 They don't let me into it.
00:07:51.360 I've been into the parts of it, yeah.
00:07:53.560 Oh.
00:07:54.100 So he'll probably have a better guess on this than you.
00:07:56.360 No, but that's a total guess.
00:07:57.700 How many miles?
00:07:59.200 You weren't like counting off the shelves.
00:08:00.860 Like, all right.
00:08:01.380 How many miles is the entire Vatican Library and Apostolic Archive combined?
00:08:07.700 How many times around Vatican City does it go?
00:08:11.080 I guess is the question.
00:08:13.080 All right.
00:08:13.620 Ten seconds.
00:08:14.440 Ten seconds.
00:08:14.800 I don't...
00:08:15.580 Either way, DW's budget has to be pretty weak.
00:08:17.740 You didn't even get me a marker with ink in it.
00:08:20.640 Yeah, my marker's very good here at Word on Fire.
00:08:23.040 Yeah.
00:08:24.240 I think we need to hire some of the producers from Word on Fire.
00:08:26.880 I know.
00:08:28.400 3.1.
00:08:29.900 He said 3.1.
00:08:31.420 Oh, I said 5.
00:08:32.680 Total guess.
00:08:33.900 The correct answer is over 50 miles.
00:08:36.580 So Bishop Barron takes it again.
00:08:38.900 I win.
00:08:39.440 Okay.
00:08:40.280 50 miles?
00:08:41.260 Seriously?
00:08:41.760 Yeah.
00:08:43.580 Okay.
00:08:44.260 How high are they stacking them?
00:08:45.640 You said all the way around is 0.6 miles.
00:08:48.340 So how high are those walls?
00:08:49.680 There must be so many shelves running through there in the archive.
00:08:52.280 All that matters is that I won.
00:08:53.700 That's the only thing that anyone's going to remember.
00:08:56.040 That's all that matters.
00:08:57.360 I'm glad I got one point that Bishop Barron also got.
00:09:01.060 That's good.
00:09:01.640 That's good.
00:09:01.960 Yeah.
00:09:02.540 What's the current score?
00:09:04.320 A billion to one.
00:09:05.540 Is it 5-1?
00:09:05.960 No, it's 3-1, isn't it?
00:09:08.640 4-1, Bishop.
00:09:09.420 Okay.
00:09:09.920 4-1.
00:09:11.020 Who's counting?
00:09:12.160 Here we go.
00:09:13.580 Which of the following is a popular but unproven conspiracy theory about the Vatican archives?
00:09:19.580 A, that they house a time machine.
00:09:21.980 B, they contain proof that aliens existed on Earth.
00:09:25.580 C, they hold the lost gospel of Jesus.
00:09:28.400 D, they house the Ark of the Covenant.
00:09:30.580 Or E, all of the above.
00:09:33.740 So, a popular but unproven conspiracy theory.
00:09:36.680 Yes, popular but unproven.
00:09:37.640 Okay.
00:09:38.060 It has to be popular, though.
00:09:39.700 Okay, well, I think I'll...
00:09:41.440 Say D, the Ark of the Covenant.
00:09:42.840 I'm going to say all of the above.
00:09:46.500 Don't do this to me, Ben.
00:09:47.720 Don't do this to me.
00:09:48.860 It is E, all of the above.
00:09:49.740 No, it's not.
00:09:50.740 What are you talking about?
00:09:52.220 No, because I've heard at least a couple of those.
00:09:54.240 That's why the Ark of the Covenant, for sure, and the alien life and all that.
00:09:58.180 So, I figured, why not all of the above?
00:10:00.080 Oh, I've never heard the alien.
00:10:02.140 That's kind of funny.
00:10:02.860 That there's the Area 51 of Italy.
00:10:07.500 Okay.
00:10:07.960 Bishop Barron, can you spill some tea on the time machine?
00:10:10.460 Because this one actually has some legs and some stories behind it.
00:10:12.980 Have you looked into this at all?
00:10:14.040 Does it?
00:10:14.480 Yeah.
00:10:14.840 No, I must say that one I don't really know.
00:10:16.500 The time machine.
00:10:17.540 Yeah, there was like a Cardinal Smith had left, and then he drew what it looked like
00:10:20.860 and claims that they had this time machine down in the base.
00:10:22.780 It was wild.
00:10:23.300 This is a wild story.
00:10:24.780 And the Vatican hasn't.
00:10:25.560 Yeah, that the Vatican has, and there's a drawing of it.
00:10:27.980 The best is the Ark of the Covenant.
00:10:29.540 If they really have the Ark of the Covenant, which is some plausibility.
00:10:33.380 Yeah.
00:10:34.240 Yes.
00:10:34.600 If it was still around at the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, that's the question.
00:10:40.040 Don't they say if the Ark of the Covenant still exists anywhere, it's either in the Vatican
00:10:44.080 or—doesn't Ethiopia claim to have it?
00:10:46.380 Or Ethiopia.
00:10:46.660 Yeah.
00:10:47.180 Yeah.
00:10:47.460 In fact, I was—not long ago, I was with an Ethiopian priest, and we talked about that.
00:10:51.380 And he said, oh, of course, we have it in Ethiopia.
00:10:53.580 Did you—I wouldn't want you to call your friend a liar.
00:10:58.000 Do you find—do you have any credence to these theories, or?
00:11:02.520 I think it was lost around the time of Jeremiah, and we don't know where it is.
00:11:05.720 I think either he hid it someplace and it remains hidden, or it was destroyed at the time of the captivity.
00:11:13.360 That's our best guess.
00:11:14.480 There's the Tannis theory, because, of course, Jeremiah goes to Egypt and likely died there, was killed there.
00:11:21.080 Did he take it with him?
00:11:22.600 Was it taken with exiles?
00:11:25.740 Who knows?
00:11:26.640 Interesting.
00:11:27.120 We have the new Ark of the Covenant anyway, so it's not—it's just a historical curiosity as far as I'm concerned.
00:11:32.740 You mean we have the true Ark?
00:11:33.900 The true Ark.
00:11:34.460 The true Ark, yeah.
00:11:35.180 Yeah.
00:11:35.800 Right.
00:11:36.860 Do you know where Ben Shapiro thinks it is?
00:11:39.560 No.
00:11:40.160 Where does he think?
00:11:41.080 He thinks you guys have it.
00:11:42.060 He thinks it's in the Vatican.
00:11:43.020 Oh, he—I kind of remember.
00:11:44.620 I think he said that on a yes or no once.
00:11:46.040 He did, yeah.
00:11:47.160 Well, it's a theory, and it's—if it were still around Jerusalem when the Romans came and, you know, destroyed Jerusalem,
00:11:54.940 they certainly would have taken it, and they'd taken it back to Rome,
00:11:58.040 and then the church, you know, plausibly might have gotten a hold of it, but who knows?
00:12:03.180 Yeah, okay.
00:12:03.880 But Mary's the true Ark of the Covenant.
00:12:06.060 That's right.
00:12:06.520 That's the most important thing.
00:12:08.280 It's all that matters.
00:12:09.620 It's all that matters.
00:12:10.700 It's really all I care about with regard to this question, though I do have to ask.
00:12:15.800 The Vatican does not have aliens, correct?
00:12:17.940 That is no—
00:12:19.280 Not that I know of, yeah.
00:12:20.460 I met some weird people in the Vatican.
00:12:23.000 I don't know about aliens, though.
00:12:24.320 And what we also know is that Michael's still currently getting destroyed as we go into number six.
00:12:29.660 Yeah, okay, good.
00:12:30.120 That's all that matters.
00:12:30.880 You don't need to update.
00:12:32.220 I remember.
00:12:32.980 I remember.
00:12:33.580 You don't need to update.
00:12:34.440 All right.
00:12:34.780 Which pope commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?
00:12:38.960 Is it A, Pope Innocent III, B, Pope Leo X, C, Pope Julius II, D, Pope Clement VII?
00:12:47.360 All right.
00:12:49.200 Man, this is so embarrassing.
00:12:51.300 This is so embarrassing.
00:12:53.780 I'm a Philistine.
00:12:55.840 I am—
00:12:56.640 Wow.
00:12:58.720 Well, what do you have, Michael?
00:12:59.880 Let's let His Excellency go first.
00:13:01.200 Okay.
00:13:02.700 It's C.
00:13:05.060 Michael.
00:13:05.520 Was that Julius?
00:13:07.000 Yeah, Julius.
00:13:07.600 Oh, thank goodness.
00:13:08.360 Oh, yeah, okay.
00:13:09.360 All right.
00:13:10.020 I thought so, and I didn't want to be laughed out of the room.
00:13:13.020 Michael, you thought it was Julius?
00:13:14.460 I remember Julius.
00:13:15.760 Okay.
00:13:16.120 Yeah.
00:13:16.680 All right.
00:13:17.600 What's hidden beneath St. Peter's?
00:13:19.360 Oh, sorry.
00:13:19.860 We're on the next question?
00:13:20.780 Go ahead.
00:13:21.320 Sorry.
00:13:21.480 There's something else you want to add?
00:13:23.080 You want to give Michael another lesson?
00:13:25.400 No.
00:13:26.600 All right.
00:13:27.180 What is hidden beneath St. Peter's Basilica?
00:13:30.920 Ah.
00:13:31.440 You'll have to be more specific, I think.
00:13:33.300 Do we have options, or do we just have to say what it is?
00:13:35.700 No, it's whatever—
00:13:36.640 Okay.
00:13:37.680 —this answer.
00:13:38.380 Is this, like, however many things you can name you get at that many points?
00:13:41.820 Well, this is, like, the main thing.
00:13:42.960 If you Google what's underneath St. Peter's Basilica, this is what comes up.
00:13:46.260 There's two possible answers I'll take.
00:13:48.400 All right.
00:13:48.620 What do you have, Michael?
00:13:49.900 Oh, my God.
00:13:50.340 I said the relics of the first pope, St. Peter.
00:13:53.660 Bishop Barron?
00:13:54.840 Well, I say the scavi, which means the excavations under St. Peter's.
00:13:59.460 The correct answer that I have is first-century necropolis and the bones of St. Peter.
00:14:05.220 Hey, I mean, so Bishop Barron is literally correct, but can I get the point?
00:14:09.860 The scavi, that's what it uncovered, was that first-century cemetery.
00:14:14.360 So I think I deserve credit for that.
00:14:16.140 But Your Excellency, Mr. Davies is not cultured enough to have used that nice foreign word.
00:14:22.480 So can I get double points for that instead?
00:14:24.960 Yeah, because that word could mean whatever you tell me, because I know my Latin is so bad
00:14:28.580 in Italian.
00:14:30.260 I believe you that it's underneath there, so we can take that.
00:14:33.360 I deserve some credit for that answer.
00:14:35.560 I'm not going to rest until I get some credit for that answer.
00:14:38.060 You know, I was actually—
00:14:40.220 Have you been down there, Michael?
00:14:41.020 Have you been to the scavi tour?
00:14:42.640 I've never been.
00:14:44.380 It's spectacular.
00:14:45.540 I take you down there, and it does indeed reveal this first-century cemetery with little
00:14:50.920 roads and graves, and they lead you finally to where they are pretty sure they found the
00:14:55.340 tomb of St. Peter.
00:14:56.920 That's amazing.
00:14:57.500 Actually, just yesterday, I was having lunch with a friend of mine who, you know, in recent
00:15:01.540 decades, Catholics don't seem to care as much about relics as we used to for the first
00:15:05.640 roughly 2,000 years of church history.
00:15:08.140 And so priests and other people have given her relics.
00:15:11.680 And I actually saw what purports to be a relic of St. Peter.
00:15:16.980 And she has some certificates of authenticity and things like that.
00:15:19.620 But it struck me because modern Christians and even Catholics today, they look at relics
00:15:27.680 like it's kind of weird or idolatrous or superstitious or something.
00:15:31.500 But it seems to me Christians have always had a great reverence for relics.
00:15:36.580 Go back to the Acts of the Apostles.
00:15:38.200 You can see people going up to St. Paul and touching him with handkerchiefs and all that.
00:15:42.080 No, it's a very ancient practice.
00:15:44.320 It's all over the Church Fathers, the ancient Church.
00:15:47.160 It's an extension of the incarnational principle, right?
00:15:50.340 That God really became one of us.
00:15:52.140 And then the saints who are aligned to Christ is sort of a continuation of that incarnational
00:15:57.820 principle.
00:15:58.780 And so in reverencing the bones or the flesh or the remnants of saints, you know, we're
00:16:03.880 reverencing Christ ultimately.
00:16:05.820 I was just in France.
00:16:06.940 We're filming on this cathedral documentary I'm doing.
00:16:10.320 And in Amiens Cathedral is the relic of the skull of St. John the Baptist.
00:16:15.020 It's like the front part of the skull, which came to Amiens 1206 from Constantinople.
00:16:22.140 And then, you know, so they were very big in the Middle Ages.
00:16:25.860 People loved relics.
00:16:27.660 And still to this day, talk to a Catholic, they love collecting relics.
00:16:31.140 Yes, I was actually, my friend who I had lunch with, she was very kind and gave me two first
00:16:35.600 class relics.
00:16:36.460 One of St. Jerome and one of St. Thomas Aquinas.
00:16:43.200 And I was, you know, I said, all right, that's so kind of you.
00:16:46.980 And I found, I don't know, especially because I'm a revert, so I have to learn everything
00:16:51.300 that I should have learned when I was 10.
00:16:53.100 I find the veneration of relics is really helpful in my prayer life.
00:16:58.880 Can I tell you a story about the Thomas relics?
00:17:01.320 So this is a year ago, March.
00:17:02.940 I was in Rome for this conference on Aquinas.
00:17:05.620 And we went down to Fossanova, where he died.
00:17:08.900 And there was a great mass.
00:17:10.060 And Cardinal Perolin said the mass.
00:17:11.480 He was a papabile in the recent election.
00:17:13.540 And then right, I didn't even notice it until halfway through the mass, right in front of
00:17:18.060 the altar, they had the Fossanova skull.
00:17:21.500 So the people there claimed that when Thomas's bones were moved to Toulouse, that's where most
00:17:26.940 of them are now in the south of France, they kept the skull because that's where he died
00:17:31.600 in Fossanova.
00:17:32.880 So they have it to this day.
00:17:34.440 And it was brought by car through the city.
00:17:37.280 And there's this photograph of the driver.
00:17:39.260 And next to him is the skull of Aquinas.
00:17:41.900 And then it was up in front of the altar.
00:17:45.060 And it's very moving, you know.
00:17:46.400 So there are two skulls competing for authenticity of Aquinas.
00:17:50.920 And people say, well, he was so smart, he needed two hands.
00:17:54.000 One could not have possibly held it all.
00:17:55.900 Right.
00:17:56.840 Right.
00:17:57.220 So during the mass, I remember just sort of noticing the skull of my great spiritual
00:18:01.720 hero, Thomas Aquinas.
00:18:03.080 I had this thought, you know, in my office here, I have a Caravaggio St. Jerome writing as
00:18:07.760 a memento mori that I should do my work so that I don't waste all my life.
00:18:12.340 And then I found, I even put, when my friend gave me these relics, I thought, these are
00:18:16.460 two wonderful relics to have when you're trying to write.
00:18:21.200 Because St. Jerome and St. Thomas are, they're definitely a little more prolific than me.
00:18:26.460 I crank out three tweets.
00:18:27.840 I'm basically spent for the day.
00:18:30.540 No, they both were extraordinary.
00:18:32.100 You know, especially Aquinas.
00:18:33.240 In a short career, he dies at 49.
00:18:35.400 Yeah.
00:18:35.600 So his writing career is about 25 years.
00:18:38.680 And he wrote a library of books at the highest level of literary and philosophical achievement.
00:18:46.720 So, I mean, he's one of the great geniuses.
00:18:49.500 Dictated to three or four secretaries simultaneously.
00:18:52.200 Like a chess master, you know, moving from chessboard to chessboard.
00:18:55.940 He would dictate, you know, Aristotle commentary, a Bible commentary, part of the Summa, and then
00:19:02.380 a sermon or something.
00:19:03.260 And he would just go around like that, dictating.
00:19:05.660 And they say in the afternoon, he took a little nap and would dictate in his sleep.
00:19:10.680 That is actually, at the Daily Wire, that is how I do my tweets.
00:19:13.800 That happens a lot.
00:19:13.900 I'll say, okay, talk about the American Eagle jeans ad, you, and now you're going to talk.
00:19:17.180 Yes.
00:19:17.360 Right.
00:19:18.120 It's pretty impressive.
00:19:19.820 That's, I'm sorry that I even have to continue the game.
00:19:24.140 It was so fascinating.
00:19:25.240 Well, I'm just trying to distract from my losing.
00:19:26.840 Yeah, sorry.
00:19:27.140 I guess we're out of time.
00:19:27.900 Well, I'm sorry to butt in, yeah.
00:19:30.480 Well, I'm sure you just want to continue because you're winning by such a large margin, Bishop.
00:19:35.720 Of course.
00:19:36.360 Let's continue.
00:19:37.180 Yeah, we'll just knock this out.
00:19:38.200 Number eight, what year did the name Vatican Secret Archives change to the Vatican Apostolic Archive?
00:19:45.020 Closest without going over.
00:19:46.580 Without going over.
00:19:47.020 Or to name the exact year?
00:19:48.700 Yeah.
00:19:51.600 I'm going to say...
00:19:53.160 Without going over.
00:19:55.160 And the reasoning was citing the negative connotation of the word secret.
00:19:58.680 Yeah.
00:20:00.080 I don't think secrets are bad.
00:20:01.280 I think discretion is good and people don't have enough of it these days.
00:20:05.160 Bishop Barrett?
00:20:05.960 I'm guessing 1985 during John Paul II's time.
00:20:12.100 I think it's more recent.
00:20:13.040 I think it's 2013.
00:20:15.040 Correct answer is 2019.
00:20:17.040 Yes.
00:20:17.420 Really recent.
00:20:18.260 No way.
00:20:18.840 2019, that recently?
00:20:20.180 Yeah.
00:20:21.320 Oh, okay.
00:20:22.320 I thought it was in the Francis Puntin.
00:20:24.520 He did.
00:20:25.040 Well, I mean, it makes sense because he's done so much research in the Secret Vatican Archives,
00:20:29.820 especially during World War II, actually, Michael.
00:20:33.380 That's true.
00:20:34.060 And you can all watch that show.
00:20:35.400 The Pope and the Fuhrer, The Secret Vatican Files of World War II at Daily Wire Plus, August 13th.
00:20:41.740 I want to share something that I'm very proud to have led here at Daily Wire Plus.
00:20:44.660 That is a new docu-series that uncovers one of the most distorted historical narratives of the modern age.
00:20:50.700 It's called The Pope and the Fuhrer, The Secret Vatican Files of World War II.
00:20:53.800 For decades, Pope Pius XII, one of the most consequential men of the 20th century, one of the greatest men of the 20th century,
00:21:00.220 has been slandered and condemned for his supposed silence during Hitler's rise and during Nazi atrocities.
00:21:06.620 That narrative was always false.
00:21:08.460 Now, with unprecedented access to the Vatican's wartime archives, we uncover what really happened and why the truth was buried for so long.
00:21:15.500 Check out this teaser.
00:21:16.880 History is written by the victors.
00:21:21.040 But what if the victors got it wrong?
00:21:27.120 For 80 years, the world has condemned one man as the Pope of Silence, the man who stood by in the face of shocking evil.
00:21:35.200 But can we trust the popular narrative, even after all these years?
00:21:43.800 This is not just a story about Hitler and the Holocaust.
00:21:47.460 One of the worst lies ever told about the Catholic Church is what she did or did not do in one of modernity's darkest hours.
00:21:56.080 Now, for the first time, the Vatican's secret archive is open, and the truth is far more shocking than the fiction.
00:22:01.800 Propagandists have peddled one story for decades, but now we can definitively know better.
00:22:09.400 Join me in this four-part series, where we will discover the true story of Pope Pius XII, Hitler, and the Second World War.
00:22:20.260 The series premieres Wednesday, August 13th, exclusively on Daily Wire+.
00:22:25.000 Looks like a great show.
00:22:26.900 I'm glad you're doing that, because there's a great calumny against Pius XII,
00:22:30.440 and against a lot of Catholics at that time, so I'm glad you're doing that.
00:22:33.740 Yeah, I was thrilled when we could release this, because of all the maligned men of the 20th century,
00:22:42.460 you know, some people earned their reputation, but Pius XII has just really been slandered, in my view,
00:22:49.080 and so I hope that people can enjoy it when it comes out.
00:22:53.080 No, good.
00:22:53.720 I think that's important to rehabilitate him, because it was a great calumny against him.
00:22:58.040 I was just in Münster, Germany, you know, before Rome, I was in Münster, and I went to the cathedral there,
00:23:03.420 and there was the grave of Cardinal von Gallen, and his nickname, he was known as the Lion of Münster,
00:23:08.560 because he spoke out so strongly against Hitler.
00:23:11.720 So there were some very courageous figures, not to mention the great martyrs, like Edith Stein and people like that.
00:23:17.480 So no, it's important to round out that story, certainly.
00:23:22.100 Yes.
00:23:22.980 And you can round it out in your own estimation, everyone out there, if you just tune in, Daily Wire Plus.
00:23:28.380 How's that?
00:23:28.940 That's correct.
00:23:29.960 And speaking of popes who have passed, how many popes are buried underneath St. Peter's Basilica?
00:23:35.580 Would it be A, 5, B, 12, C, 45, D, over 90?
00:23:41.600 It's like, the way you said D makes me think it's D.
00:23:47.620 Oh, you know me too well.
00:23:50.240 It is D, gentlemen.
00:23:50.700 I say D as well, so we both got it, okay.
00:23:53.380 All right, that's good.
00:23:54.420 I maintain my lead.
00:23:56.220 You do.
00:23:56.940 I have a wine margin.
00:23:58.640 All right, number 10.
00:23:59.940 There's a sign there, they say, oh, here are the popes buried in St. Peter, this huge line.
00:24:05.320 So that's why I knew it was a big number.
00:24:06.740 You know, I was just, I was in Rome very briefly with my family about a month ago, and it was so brief, in fact, that we didn't really have time to get to the Vatican.
00:24:15.200 We were staying on the other side of the city, but we were near the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
00:24:19.800 So I said, okay, good.
00:24:20.780 We had to fly out for Sunday morning, so we went to a vigil mass on Saturday, and we're there.
00:24:26.320 And I said, man, this is a huge line to get into mass.
00:24:29.840 I'm so glad people are showing up to go to mass.
00:24:32.060 It's a jubilee year.
00:24:32.880 But then I remembered, oh, Pope Francis is entombed here.
00:24:38.320 And so there was a separate line just to go see the pope's grave.
00:24:42.660 Well, yesterday was the feast of the dedication of St. Mary Major.
00:24:45.840 That's right.
00:24:47.000 That's right.
00:24:48.440 And it was, you know, Our Lady of the Snows.
00:24:50.060 You know that story about August 5th?
00:24:51.880 No, a little bit, but not really.
00:24:54.020 August 5th, you're at the height of Roman, you know, tropical summer.
00:24:57.420 And so way back when, when they were designing that building, snow fell anomalously on August 5th at the outline of the basilica.
00:25:07.420 That's the story.
00:25:08.380 So she's known as Our Lady of the Snows.
00:25:10.560 And they do it in the liturgy, right?
00:25:12.260 Don't they drop rose petals?
00:25:14.040 Yes.
00:25:14.460 Yeah, yeah.
00:25:14.700 And that was built right after the Council of Ephesus when Mary was declared Theotokos, Mother of God.
00:25:20.940 So it's the first great church in the West dedicated to Mary.
00:25:24.440 But it's, that's an important kind of theological point that church is making.
00:25:28.280 And Francis loved it.
00:25:29.880 He visited there all the time and that's where he's buried.
00:25:32.520 That, there's also a point where sometimes when I'm chatting with my many Protestant friends, some of them are more pro-Mary than others.
00:25:39.540 Some are decidedly anti-Mary.
00:25:42.080 And, but sometimes you'll hear, say, well, don't you know, she's the mother of God.
00:25:45.100 I mean, don't you think you should, you should show respect to your, your degenerate friend, Billy Bob.
00:25:48.940 You're nice to his mother.
00:25:49.840 Shouldn't you be nice to the mother of our Lord?
00:25:51.620 And, and they say, well, she's, she's the mother of Jesus, not the mother of God.
00:25:56.260 That's the Nestorian heresy, though.
00:25:57.940 That was what they thought about at the Council of Ephesus.
00:25:59.920 Yeah.
00:26:00.140 Because the story has said just that.
00:26:01.500 Call her, if you want, Christotokos.
00:26:03.620 She's the mother of Christ.
00:26:04.860 Or Anthropotokos.
00:26:06.320 She's the mother of the human nature.
00:26:09.540 But the church said, no, she's properly called Theotokos, bearer of God.
00:26:14.400 So that, no, it's making an important Christological point.
00:26:16.780 If you believe in the divinity of Jesus, right?
00:26:19.040 Jesus is divine.
00:26:20.060 Mary's his mother.
00:26:20.840 Well, then she has to be called mother of God, as sort of surprising as that title might be.
00:26:25.800 But that's the ancient church.
00:26:27.200 We're not talking the Reformation.
00:26:28.480 That's the, that's in the early fifth century.
00:26:31.340 They're making that determination.
00:26:32.640 But also go out to the Bible.
00:26:34.180 I say to my Protestant friends, Mary says, you know, from this day, all generations will call me blessed.
00:26:40.000 Well, that's the biblical witness that she's predicting, encouraging.
00:26:44.760 All generations will call her blessed.
00:26:46.520 So, you know.
00:26:47.460 That's right.
00:26:48.080 And there's no way to resolve modern debate.
00:26:49.900 If we can't even resolve debates from the Council of Ephesus, for goodness sakes, how are we going to get to the modern stuff?
00:26:55.000 You know, we got to, all right, we figured that one out.
00:26:56.900 Now we move on.
00:26:58.300 Well, let's settle doctrine.
00:26:59.440 That's why you should look at the council.
00:27:00.620 Let's settle doctrine.
00:27:01.600 There's no more debate about that.
00:27:02.920 Like, you can't say, let's go back behind Chalcedon.
00:27:05.460 Maybe Jesus wasn't the hypostatic union of two natures and one person.
00:27:08.900 No, you have to say that.
00:27:10.260 You can further amplify it and deepen it, but you have to say that.
00:27:13.740 So, Mary, the mother of God, that's settled Christian doctrine.
00:27:18.000 That's right.
00:27:18.600 And Luther loved Mary.
00:27:19.920 Luther's got very strong things to say about Mary.
00:27:23.180 Absolutely.
00:27:23.860 No, I think I'm noticing even in this moment of the culture we're in where a lot of people are becoming Catholic, a little bit Eastern Orthodox too, but a lot of Catholic.
00:27:30.840 I've noticed even many of my pretty hardcore Protestant Reformed friends are coming to realize that there's something to venerating the mother of God.
00:27:42.160 Well, didn't Charlie Kirk just do that?
00:27:44.300 Didn't he just say something nice about, you know, the importance of venerating Mary?
00:27:48.000 But, again, that's a deeply ancient Christian practice, and it's grounded in people like Luther.
00:27:53.820 And I'm not sure about Calvin and Mary, but Luther certainly had strong things to say about Mary.
00:27:58.200 Yeah, that's the thing.
00:27:59.280 I don't point to the Protestant revolutionaries most of the time, but if they back up the point I'm trying to make, I do cite them.
00:28:06.160 I'm happy to do it in that case.
00:28:08.080 Another hotly debated topic is the Vatican's top 45 films.
00:28:13.080 That's the next question.
00:28:14.060 Which of these films was not officially screened or included on the Vatican's list of 45 important films?
00:28:21.260 Okay.
00:28:22.180 It was not.
00:28:23.040 A, The Godfather.
00:28:24.520 B, Flowers of St. Francis.
00:28:26.460 C, Schindler's List.
00:28:27.860 D, 2001, A Space Odyssey.
00:28:30.680 Which was not included on their list.
00:28:32.420 Which was not on the 45.
00:28:33.980 All right.
00:28:34.500 What was the second one?
00:28:36.820 The Flowers of St. Francis.
00:28:38.940 It'd be kind of weird if that were the only one they didn't include.
00:28:41.440 You know, they put the Godfather, they put a mob movie on there, but they don't, hmm.
00:28:46.680 Bishop Barron seems very confident.
00:28:48.660 Bishop Barron, yeah.
00:28:49.180 Not really, I'm just kidding.
00:28:51.080 I said C, Schindler's List.
00:28:53.340 I said A, The Godfather.
00:28:55.360 The correct answer is A, The Godfather.
00:28:58.580 All right.
00:29:00.920 It's not, it's just that Schindler's List is not, it's just, I'm not saying it's like a terrible movie.
00:29:05.720 It's just, to me, it doesn't rise to the level of greatness of A Godfather or, or.
00:29:11.720 I vaguely remember that list when it came out.
00:29:14.660 That's right.
00:29:15.000 And I, I think I remembered Schindler's List being on it.
00:29:18.340 Yeah.
00:29:18.820 Okay.
00:29:19.560 Ugh.
00:29:19.980 That's brutal.
00:29:20.500 I think Clavin hates that movie.
00:29:22.720 He says it totally misunderstands the whole, the entirety of the war.
00:29:26.080 I think, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I just did.
00:29:27.880 So too bad.
00:29:28.360 If Drew, if you disagree with that.
00:29:29.500 Schindler's List.
00:29:29.780 Correct me.
00:29:30.220 Yeah.
00:29:30.400 Schindler's List.
00:29:31.020 Yeah.
00:29:31.420 Okay.
00:29:32.500 I've never been to the Vatican either.
00:29:33.340 I have no idea of these questions.
00:29:34.780 Number 11.
00:29:36.260 You've never been to the Vatican, huh?
00:29:37.620 No.
00:29:37.860 Go ahead.
00:29:39.000 Which artist designed the grand colonnade that surrounds St. Peter's Square?
00:29:43.000 A.
00:29:43.340 Michelangelo.
00:29:44.380 B.
00:29:44.860 Dante Bramante.
00:29:46.720 My Italian's great.
00:29:47.840 C.
00:29:48.260 Raphael.
00:29:49.060 D.
00:29:49.840 Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
00:29:53.160 Please tell me it's Bernini.
00:29:54.660 Is it Bernini?
00:29:56.080 It's Bernini.
00:29:57.140 It is, in fact, Bernini.
00:30:00.460 When you stumbled over Bramante.
00:30:02.120 There's no ground on me.
00:30:03.300 Number 12.
00:30:05.140 Which of these does the Vatican have?
00:30:07.540 A.
00:30:07.900 Its own telescope and its astronomical observatory.
00:30:11.160 B.
00:30:11.520 Its own McDonald's.
00:30:12.800 C.
00:30:13.260 Its own spa.
00:30:14.540 D.
00:30:14.880 Its own Starbucks.
00:30:16.060 There's such good coffee in Italy.
00:30:18.040 Why would they need a Starbucks?
00:30:19.580 You know, I love Starbucks, but...
00:30:21.580 Only one of these things is in the Vatican.
00:30:23.940 What do you have, Michael?
00:30:24.700 I'd say it's the Golden Arches.
00:30:26.220 They don't have a McDonald's.
00:30:27.940 This is the one it does have.
00:30:29.620 Oh, that it does?
00:30:30.420 You said that it does have.
00:30:32.100 So it does have.
00:30:32.760 Oh, at the observatory.
00:30:35.920 That's what I had, the observatory, which is out of Castle Gandolfo.
00:30:39.540 It's not at the Vatican, but it's considered Vatican territory.
00:30:43.280 That makes more sense.
00:30:44.500 I was wondering where the Vatican started.
00:30:45.980 Isn't it in, like, Phoenix, like the actual telescopes in Phoenix?
00:30:48.040 Well, there's one in Phoenix, too, or outside of Tucson, but the big ones are Castle Gandolfo.
00:30:55.040 That makes so much.
00:30:56.540 I've said I've been to the Vatican, I don't know, three times.
00:30:59.040 Maybe I never got the Vatican quarter pounder, the Vatican, the big vet.
00:31:04.720 I thought the spa might throw you off, but, and you're such a big Starbucks fan.
00:31:07.800 I was like, maybe, maybe.
00:31:08.600 Yeah.
00:31:09.200 Okay, all right.
00:31:10.260 All right, number 13.
00:31:11.180 This is a true or false.
00:31:12.840 Can the Vatican's telescope see the Apollo mission equipment on the moon?
00:31:19.020 The Apollo, oh, like the remnants of the Apollo?
00:31:22.760 Yeah, the landing equipment.
00:31:23.760 Can the telescope see that?
00:31:25.340 Can the Vatican telescope see that?
00:31:27.120 Of our alleged trip to the moon?
00:31:29.860 Oh, yeah, right.
00:31:33.780 Yeah, Michael.
00:31:35.000 Yes?
00:31:36.160 Mr. Barron?
00:31:36.780 I'm going to say it was false, but I can't see that.
00:31:39.040 That's correct.
00:31:39.760 Oh, man, come on.
00:31:41.680 But it's not just y'all's telescope.
00:31:43.600 Even Earth's most powerful telescopes can't resolve that small amount.
00:31:46.660 I was trying to imagine a telescope being able to see to that degree.
00:31:49.300 Oh.
00:31:49.960 So, all right.
00:31:50.600 So, that backs up my first insinuation.
00:31:53.600 Yeah.
00:31:54.000 It was obviously totally fake, right?
00:31:56.040 We can't even see it in the telescope.
00:32:00.520 All right, what is the name of this building inside Vatican City?
00:32:04.140 What is the name of this building?
00:32:07.680 I hope that someday the name will be the former building that stood on this location when it's
00:32:12.540 renovated.
00:32:14.580 This is one of the more modern buildings, which is always Michael's favorite.
00:32:16.700 I know that building very well.
00:32:18.900 Yeah.
00:32:20.620 It's known for its modern design and massive seating capacity.
00:32:23.900 Yeah.
00:32:24.200 Over 6,000.
00:32:24.940 I don't think I'm at any risk of becoming Pope, but if I ever do, that will be known
00:32:30.500 as a ruin, actually, and will be rebuilt.
00:32:34.660 Technically, you could, right, Michael?
00:32:36.240 You could theoretically.
00:32:38.600 I would baptize Catholic male.
00:32:40.580 But I would then have to have holy orders, wouldn't I?
00:32:42.980 Once I was elected.
00:32:43.780 To ordain you.
00:32:44.520 Yeah.
00:32:44.800 Yeah.
00:32:45.700 My wife would not be thrilled.
00:32:46.900 She actually might be thrilled.
00:32:47.920 I don't know.
00:32:48.220 You're right.
00:32:48.840 That might be a good vacation plan for us.
00:32:51.840 I'd say, okay, you go to Rome, Mike, you'll see you.
00:32:54.620 What is the name, Michael?
00:32:55.720 What do you have?
00:32:55.900 Is that Paul VI Auditorium?
00:32:57.920 The Paul VI Audience Hall.
00:32:59.540 That is correct.
00:33:00.220 Yeah, okay.
00:33:00.740 All right.
00:33:02.260 All right.
00:33:03.040 I spent two months there, the Synod, the last two Octobers.
00:33:06.300 I spent six days a week, eight hours a day in that hall.
00:33:12.140 It's not my favorite place.
00:33:13.660 No.
00:33:14.280 I can't.
00:33:14.880 You know, I'm not asking you to tell tales out of school or anything, Your Excellency,
00:33:18.600 but there's a lot of great art and architecture in the history of the Catholic Church.
00:33:23.680 I don't think that the Paul VI Audience Hall makes the first 2,000 buildings list.
00:33:28.820 So what –
00:33:29.600 Yeah.
00:33:30.380 It was of its time, you know, like Paul VI himself was a devotee of modern art and thought,
00:33:36.360 you know, let's bring the modern sensibility.
00:33:38.360 And he knew people like Jacques Maritain who very much appreciated like, you know, George
00:33:43.040 Rual and people like that.
00:33:44.180 So he did have, I think, he had good taste in modern art, but that was so much of its
00:33:49.960 time where it looks like, you know, something from the space age.
00:33:52.700 And it's, to me, not a very warm space.
00:33:56.280 And I don't like the kind of metallic sculpture behind where the Pope sits.
00:34:00.960 So, no, I'm not the biggest fan of it.
00:34:03.040 Yeah.
00:34:03.780 To me, the good taste in modern art is kind of like being the best basketball player among
00:34:08.200 the Pygmies, you know.
00:34:09.120 But listen,
00:34:09.680 As far as I'm concerned.
00:34:12.880 No, I think some of – like go to the east wing of the National Gallery in Washington,
00:34:16.640 you'll see some of like the early Picassos like from the 1920s.
00:34:20.540 And some of them, I think, are very fine.
00:34:23.240 But, yeah, that hall to me does not speak the best of the Catholic artistic tradition.
00:34:29.380 The most diplomatic phrase I've ever heard in my life.
00:34:32.560 Well, speaking of art, it's the last question.
00:34:35.080 Roughly how many –
00:34:36.160 Oh, the last one.
00:34:36.520 Yeah.
00:34:37.600 Roughly how many works of art are housed in the Vatican Museum collection?
00:34:42.260 Closest without going over.
00:34:44.220 All right.
00:34:44.780 Oh, you have to just give the number?
00:34:46.400 How many works of art are in there?
00:34:49.240 And we know your least favorite.
00:34:51.080 What about these other ones?
00:34:52.560 All right, Mike, what do you have?
00:34:53.180 I said Aleph Nall, accountably infinite number of works of art.
00:34:57.920 Is that –
00:34:58.600 You get no credit for that.
00:34:59.960 I don't –
00:35:00.380 Is it highest without going over?
00:35:02.600 How did you know?
00:35:05.460 I said 1 million, simply as a guess.
00:35:08.180 What's the answer?
00:35:08.980 Around 70,000.
00:35:10.420 Only 20,000 are on public display.
00:35:12.820 So 70,000 is all there is?
00:35:14.860 I thought you were much more than that.
00:35:16.000 20,000 are on display.
00:35:17.080 There's other ones that are hidden away.
00:35:18.460 So if it's closest without going over, then both a million and countable infinity are –
00:35:23.820 so then we're even on that one.
00:35:25.220 You are even.
00:35:25.840 Yeah, we both went over.
00:35:27.200 Okay.
00:35:27.440 Which means Bishop Barron ran away with it.
00:35:29.760 So, Michael, would you please give us a 30-second commercial report?
00:35:32.740 Hold on.
00:35:33.000 You used to do a thing, Ben, where you'd say whoever won, you'd say you could double or
00:35:36.540 nothing on a bonus question.
00:35:38.180 What happened to that?
00:35:39.040 I don't think there's any chance that Bishop Barron would want to gamble away.
00:35:43.100 No.
00:35:43.360 Amazing victory.
00:35:44.160 Truly astonishing.
00:35:45.240 Even because he's an intelligent man?
00:35:46.660 Yeah.
00:35:46.860 This is the greatest victory we've ever had on Face Off.
00:35:49.520 Oh, is that right?
00:35:50.380 Yeah.
00:35:51.220 Yeah.
00:35:51.960 That's bad.
00:35:54.000 I think I may have automatically just –
00:35:56.140 I might have automatically become a Lutheran because of that.
00:35:59.680 That's bad.
00:36:00.340 I got to – oh, man, I got to put in a little work next time.
00:36:03.540 Well, in any case, I can very sincerely say that you should all – well, you should go
00:36:09.080 to church, and you should avail yourself of the sacraments, and that's Bishop Barron's
00:36:14.440 main job.
00:36:15.320 But his side hustles are really great, too.
00:36:18.040 Word on Fire is absolutely magnificent.
00:36:20.020 All of the lectures, all of the series, all of the books, the Word on Fire Bible is wonderful.
00:36:25.580 I have editions of it with the epistles and with the gospels in my home, and so you should
00:36:31.520 go check out all of that.
00:36:32.880 I don't – somehow – I'm not a bishop.
00:36:35.780 I'm not a priest.
00:36:37.180 I don't – all I do is this, and somehow Bishop Barron manages to produce more content,
00:36:42.260 marvelously compelling content, and also manages to do his day job as well, which is very
00:36:47.160 impressive.
00:36:47.460 Well, thank you for that.
00:36:51.400 That was very nice.
00:36:52.280 My pleasure.
00:36:52.980 It is great.
00:36:53.480 I do have – you know, I have a picture of it somewhere on my bookshelf.
00:36:56.560 I have a little statue of Dante.
00:36:58.240 I have certain little, you know, icons and relics and things, and I've got the Word on
00:37:03.300 Fire Bible, right?
00:37:04.380 Two books of it right there.
00:37:05.540 Beautiful.
00:37:06.900 Thank you for that.
00:37:07.980 Well, there you have it.
00:37:08.880 If you haven't already, go follow Bishop Robert Barron at Bishop Barron, and subscribe
00:37:12.980 to the Word on Fire show, and don't forget to grab a copy of What Christians Believe,
00:37:17.620 Understanding the Nicene Creed, available wherever books are sold.
00:37:20.880 Drop us a comment.
00:37:21.680 Let us know who you'd like to have on next, and what topic to cover in the next episode
00:37:25.620 of Faith Off.
00:37:26.360 See you then.
00:37:26.620 Bye.
00:37:31.360 See you then.
00:37:32.120 Thank you.
00:37:32.420 Bye.
00:37:32.460 Bye.
00:37:33.420 Bye.
00:37:34.620 Ciao.
00:37:34.920 Bye.
00:37:35.080 Bye.
00:37:36.160 Bye.
00:37:48.640 Bye.