John Papola (@johnpapola) / Instagram
CV NEWS FEED // John Papola, TV producer and director, and founder of the studio Emergent Order and the podcast “Dad Saves America,” has become an outspoken advocate for the role of the Christian father in leading the family.
Papola recently spoke to CatholicVote in an interview about what inspired in him a conversion of faith and a new focus to his work, explaining the crises in America that prompted his efforts to address the cultural stigmas against men, the family, and Catholicism.
CV: What brought you to your conversion?
John Papola: I was born into a practicing, 100% Italian-Catholic family and attended Catholic school from kindergarten through high school. But if there’s a conversion that’s taken place, it is my conversion from a passive cradle-Catholic to an actively engaged participant in my faith.
I’ve always been proud of my family’s heritage and work for the Church, especially my grandfather Gino G. Papola’s important work in the pro-life movement. He was a warrior for life and his faith. He modeled what that kind of devotion could look like for all of us in the family.
But it’s only in the past several years that I’ve found myself drawn to engage and take my Catholicism seriously instead of as a mere inheritance. The seeds were planted for this renewal by Arthur Brooks in 2019 when we worked together on our documentary The Pursuit. My son’s birth and then coming of age brought faith back to the foreground in a big way.
But perhaps the most powerful force driving me toward the Church has been the cultural crisis in America. The very notion of truth has been under assault, and it has been devastating for our kids. I saw firsthand the impact of radical gender ideology in destabilizing some of my son’s peers. COVID and cancel culture made matters worse. The chaos these forces have unleashed found me reaching for a source of capital “T” Truth I could trust – one with a deep well of careful scholarship and rigor.
Catholicism offers that and so much more. It provides philosophical depth, a coherent foundation for universal human dignity unmatched in the secular world, and a physical experience of grace and relationship with God in the Eucharist. It feels like I’ve returned home with warmth and love.
CV: How can you use your tech and media talent for good?
Papola: I’ve been incorporating my new faith journey into our show “Dad Saves America” more and more. For me it’s an exciting adventure to explore these issues with an open heart and open mind. I’m a lay person, and I don’t have any background in “faith-based” media. I don’t know that I’m becoming a “faith-based” producer, nor do I necessarily want to. Instead, I feel called to integrate this journey as organically as I can into all of my creative work.
The thing that’s so interesting about Jesus as a spiritual teacher is that he put the whole of his humanity to work in it. He was a powerful storyteller, which is very inspiring for me.
But Christ also taught his most potent lessons through his actions, more than his words. He literally embodied the love that He is the embodiment of… if that makes sense. I’m not used to talking about these things in this way. I’m an East Coast guy and prefer to keep things simple. But the message that God is love is about as simple as it gets. So I feel even more called to being a Catholic in my actions more than just my words.
My work as a producer and creator is one place for that. How I treat the people in my life and in my work is another. I’m doing the best I can … imperfectly to be sure.
CV: What are your new fields of interest, especially now that you address so many men?
Papola: I’m very concerned that our anti-masculinity culture is producing a counter-reaction that is animated by resentment and anger for too many young men. I understand it. It’s not without justification. But this is not what Christ wants for us. He didn’t carry his cross so that we would let ours crush our spirits of love and charity … and women! Quite the opposite. We are the people who are mocked for “worshiping” the Blessed Mother, Mary. [Catholics do not worship her but honor her as the sinless Mother of God]. I’m proud of that (especially as a Mama’s boy). Great men have a healthy love for the women in their lives and our world.
So I am very interested in putting a vision of healthy, powerful, Christian masculinity out into the world that is creative and hopeful. A big part of that is embracing your agency and rejecting the cult of victimhood. A big part of that is having a vision for your life that puts family and fatherhood at the center of everything. Becoming a father is the closest we get to the love and creation that is God.
I also find myself called to simply celebrate the Catholic faith and tradition. Our church has taken a beating in American culture. Some of that is understandable due to the entirely man-made scandals everyone knows about. Most of it is not actually justified because ALL human institutions are riddled with the problems of being run by flawed, fallen human beings. Our Church is no different than any other human affair in that regard, and most are far worse than the Catholic Church if we’re honest and clear-eyed in our assessment of the world.
What makes it special is that, besides offering what I consider to be the actual truth for the nature of everything (that’s no small offering), it is one of the only institutions of its kind and size to actually survive for nearly 2000 years. That’s a big deal. It’s crazy. Countries come and go. Empires rise and fall. The Catholic Church still stands. And I’m not talking about the Vatican buildings or the Papacy. I’m talking about the 1.4 or so billion people worshiping and coming together in communion with God through the Holy Mass. If that’s not a miracle worthy of celebration, I don’t know what is.
