CatholicVote photo
The CatholicVote team headed to Nashville, Tennessee, last week, where they joined 1,300 fellow Catholics for the second annual Courage Under Fire gala to benefit Regina Caeli Academy.
LOOPcast co-hosts Tom Pogasic, Josh Mercer, and Erika Ahern held four back-to-back live interviews with special guests Father Mike Schmitz, Harrison Butker, Michael Knowles, and event emcee Matt Walsh.
Attendees gathered to watch the team go live from the Presidential Ballroom at the Gaylord Opryland resort. Fr. Schmitz, host of the blockbuster “Bible in a Year” podcast, kicked things off with memories of growing up in Minnesota and insights into why young men are returning to religion across America and Europe. About the return of men to the faith, he said he could speak anecdotally.
“One of the things that seems to be is, locally, there is a great desire and longing for brotherhood,” Fr. Schmitz said.
He added that “there is a more robust Christianity being proclaimed” and that in his ministry there has always been slightly more young men than women, which differs from the typical parish makeup of 70% women and 30% men.
“It’s not as if we have any kind of corner on any kind of masculine market,” he continued. “I think it’s just the sense of you have normal men pursuing Jesus with their whole heart, and that’s something that’s very very attractive.”
Hope for the future of America and the Church were recurring themes throughout the interviews, with both Michael Knowles and Matt Walsh pointing to various signs of a cultural shift toward sanity in recent years.
Three-time Super Bowl champion and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker also emphasized a hopeful trend he sees firsthand of athletes turning to God.
“They’re asking questions about marriage and children, and thinking about what type of fathers they want to be,” he said.
Butker spoke movingly about his own goals in life, saying that he is “constantly pushing to become like Christ.”
“I’ve always prioritized my family and children because I don’t want to have regrets at the end of my life,” he said.
>> WATCH THE WHOLE INTERVIEW HERE <<
The CatholicVote team was joined by other influential Catholics and Christians for an evening reception and gala dinner. Actor Kirk Cameron joined the all-star cast of speakers, offering several self-deprecating jokes about being the only non-Catholic on stage.
LOOPcast’s Tom Pogasic was invited to give a reflection on his time at Regina Caeli Academy (RCA). Pogasic noted that he joined RCA’s Detroit chapter for his junior year of high school. He said the classical education he received during those two years changed his life.
“I went from reading Holes in my sophomore year in public school to being handed Beowulf at RCA,” Pogasic said.
Last year’s inaugural gala hosted well-known Catholic speakers such as Walsh and Butker as well as Abby Johnson and Father Donald Calloway. Regina Caeli Academy is the nation’s largest hybrid classical academy in the Catholic tradition. Students in grades PK3 through 12 attend classes two days per week and are homeschooled the remaining days.
For more from hosts Ahern, Mercer, and Pogasic, join LOOPcast live on YouTube every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 a.m. EST.
