Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Being Catholic #376: Unveiling the Beauty of Catholicism: A Deep Dive

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Being Catholic #376: Unveiling the Beauty of Catholicism: A Deep Dive · Catholic Spirit Radio

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This is Being Catholic with Bob Johnston on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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Hi, this is Bob Johnston, and you're listening to Being Catholic,
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right here on Catholic Spirit Radio,
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We're going to have a great show for you today.
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I'm here with my wife, Lynn.
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I'm here with my wife Lynn today. We're going to have a great show for you.
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And before we start, I'll turn this over to my wife Lynn.
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I do want to mention I was going to do a little bit of humor today and still
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will, but there was an article I saw in the register about the beauty of the
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Catholic Church. And it was such a nice article, I thought that I'd read from
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that article before we start that.
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So for now, I'll turn it over to Lynn.
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Hey, hello out there. I think spring has really blossomed, hasn't it?
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Fine, like really, I don't know.
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We didn't have a really bad winter, but it's always so dark and so happy when the birds are chirping.
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And by the way, we have some birds that have a nest in one of the birdhouses in our backyard.
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And the little chicks are in there, and they are making a racket.
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So they must be very healthy and coming along just fine, keeping the parents
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busy, trying to feed them.
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And talking about faith and the spreading of the gospel and so forth, this is our ministry.
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Spirit, Catholic Spirit Radio, we are following what we were taught to do and given to do.
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If you look at Romans chapter 10, verse 17, at the end of that verse, it says,
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So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.
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Keep that in mind this week, and we thank you for all your help and support
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that has helped us to build more of the station. We really do appreciate it, and God does too.
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And we ask for blessing from Christ to help spread His ministry.
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It's a beautiful thing when you think about it. Okay, Bob, we're going to roll on.
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Okay, and I do want to say that I hope everyone has had a happy Memorial Day last weekend.
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That's the reason we were gone.
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We did some things with the family, and it was very nice.
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And, of course, John was very busy doing some things for the station,
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and so we didn't have our show last week, and we missed a few times.
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John was up in Whitewater, Wisconsin, trying to get that all straightened out.
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He's got to go back again next week.
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He's a busy man. Exactly.
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But we're spreading the word of Christ, and that's what we're here for.
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Exactly. It's always something with the station. There's always something to
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be attended to and maintenance to be done and so forth. And it's a lot of work.
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But again, all of your donations are extremely precious and extremely not only
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helpful, but absolutely needed and necessary.
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So make sure you keep those donations coming in.
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And, of course, we do have a new pope, you know, mentioned before,
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but it's still pretty new, Leo XIV, and we wish him extremely well in his new papacy.
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And he is a very splendid-looking pope, and I really enjoyed it.
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And the fact that he's an American, again, it's hard to get over that surprise.
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I never expected anything like that to happen, and I don't think anybody in
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the American church expected it to happen. but I don't think any of the bishops expected it to happen.
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But it has happened, so man proposes and God disposes.
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You got that right.
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Who would have ever thought, from the south side of Chicago, we have a pope?
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Yeah, the south side of Chicago makes me think of the song on the south side
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of Chicago, that Bad LeBron Brown or whatever song. Oh, Big Bad LeBron Brown. Yeah.
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At any rate, on the south side of Chicago, now we have a pope.
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But today I'm going to, like I say, I was going to do some humorous little vignettes
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or little paragraphs from the New Oxford Review that talk about the various
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odd things that go around the world, and they are funny.
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But I happened to come across this article in the Catholic Register on papal
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pageantry's allure, and it's talking about the beauty of the Catholic Church.
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And it was such a good article. I think I'll read it here or some of it at least because it.
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It lays out the real beauty of the papacy and the beauty of the church,
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you know, itself and the beauty of Catholicism, the beauty of the religion and so forth.
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And I think it's something we all need to be reminded of every once in a while.
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So I'm going to read from that.
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And then when we finish that, we'll maybe get a little bit of some of these
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little stories about the odd happenings around the world.
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So stay with us. The headline in the Catholic Register, and if you want to read
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it for yourself, it's the June 1st, 2025 edition, National Catholic Register.
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A good paper tells you what's going on in a Catholic church.
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It's Papal Pageantry's Allure. Ascetics draw sojourners to the Catholic faith.
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There are images that do not fade. The chant of the traditional antiphon in
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Paradissim floated above St.
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Peter's Square as the Church entrusted the soul of Pope Francis to the heavenly Jerusalem on April 26.
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The long cortege of crimson-clad cardinals followed in silence,
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the weight of centuries upon their shoulders.
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The solemn procession of the 133 cardinal electors, filing slowly from the Pauline
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Chapel to the Sistine Chapel, accompanied by the ancient hymn.
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Veni, Creator Spiritus, calling down the Holy Spirit as the conclave was about to start May 7th.
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Then, following the Latin command, extra omne, everyone out,
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the large brown doors of the iconic Sistine Chapel close with gravity, shutting out the world.
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All these moments have captivated both believers and non-believers,
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worldwide, sparkling a renewed admiration for the beauty inherent in Catholicism.
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Posts and comments proliferated on X and Instagram, paying tribute to the spectacle
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generated by the Catholic Church's ages-old traditions.
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A growing number of voices were making a bolder claim.
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Catholic ascetics are beautiful because the religion is true, an X account claimed.
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And let me turn over here to the back page. Yeah, that's a big spread,
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as the Catholic Registry is quite big.
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In an online ecosystem saturated with immediate gratifications and passing fashions,
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the idea that beauty could signify immutable truths feels not only refreshing,
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but quietly revolutionary.
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At the heart of this renewed fascination is the instinct that the Catholic beauty
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is not merely incidental or decorative, but objectively revelatory.
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This recent online movement is not driven by ecclesiastical authorities,
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but by grassroots figures such as Julia James Davis,
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creator of War on Beauty, whose presence on YouTube, X, and Instagram has become
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a rallying point for this sensibility.
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Davis contends that modern culture's abandonment of beauty in architecture,
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in art, in dress, and even in manners reflects a deeper rejection of truth itself.
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In contrast, Catholicism safeguards a form of beauty still ordered,
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transcendent, and unapologetically aimed at the soul.
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Davis' critique resonates with younger generations navigating a cultural landscape
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of sterile minimalism and aggressive utilitarianism.
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For them, the sight of candlelit altars, Gregorian chant, and sophisticated
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iconography are synonymous with transcendence and offer a privileged pathway to God.
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And I think stopping here and reflecting on this, Lynn, isn't this also why
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probably so many people are, especially young people, maybe are attracted to the Latin mass?
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Not simply because it's an older form and maybe they consider it a more pure form of the mass.
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The beauty that it offers? Oh, definitely. That mystique, too,
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the mystery within the Latin Mass, it touches the soul.
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I think so. It's one of the most beautiful things, and it's choreographed,
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you know, entirely different than the Novus Ordo Mass, and it's just the Latin language itself,
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at least to us English speakers, is far more mysterious and seems more regal and so forth.
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And I think there's a lot of attraction there, and it might be that people can't
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explain this, and sometimes they're criticized for the wrong thing.
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I mean, they're criticized because like, well, why don't you consider the Novus
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Ordo just as good and so forth and more modern and up to date?
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It's because I think the beauty and the beauty lifts us up and changes our thinking
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and our belief and so forth and goes a long way to being a religious thing itself.
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I want to ask you a question. Okay.
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When we were first married and we were married in the Latin Rite,
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I mean, with the traditional mass, the old traditional mass and so forth in Latin.
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Not just the miracle, you know, being married, but the daily mass and so forth
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and Latin. Did you understand what was going on?
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No, I really didn't understand it, you know, deeply in the sense of, you know, or in detail.
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I understood basically what was going on, you know, I understood the gist of it and so forth.
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I learned that in catechism, you know, when I went to catechism classes, the nuns taught us.
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So we did learn, you know, what the basics and so forth were.
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And then the priest took us around the church and explained it.
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But no, I mean, because you learn that at a young age when we were catechized,
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and you don't understand a lot of that stuff in depth when it's explained to
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you at that age. You don't grasp it.
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But I'll tell you, after it's gone, you miss it.
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And what I didn't understand back then was just to simply let the mass flow over me and enjoy it.
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True. And sit there, you know, you try too much to understand what's going on
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or to read the English on the side of the missile, you know,
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from the Latin and so forth. And I think...
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The best thing to do in the Latin Mass is simply to let it flow over you and
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pray as it goes along and then offer up, you know, your suffering or your,
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you know, life, whatever it is.
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When the gifts are offered up and the, you know, the Eucharist and so forth,
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when all of that is offered up, that's the high point, you know,
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at that point of the Mass, and you offer up your your suffering or whatever
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with it, you know, offer it up to God.
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And you can pray, you can even do the rosary and so forth while the Mass is
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going on and just let the Mass flow over you.
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And I think when you're younger, you're trying to participate too much or understand
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or read. Stand still even? Yeah.
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Or you're in a hurry to get out or whatever, you know how you are when you're that young.
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And so you don't appreciate it. But as you grow older, you certainly do.
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Well, I think that not being able to appreciate it as a child for most children,
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it's just, you know, it's like anything else.
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How long can you sit and pay attention? That's true.
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But as you get even, you know, to the preteens and teens, they can know what's
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going on without speaking Latin.
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From what I understand, Vatican II never took all of the Latin out of the Mass.
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They wanted it to remain in parts of the Mass, but certain things like the reading
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of the Gospel and the Epistles and so forth, that was to stay.
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That was to be in English or whatever. But the sacred part of the mass,
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the consecration, the holy, holy and everything was supposed to stay that way.
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You certainly knew what Anya's day meant.
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Yeah, that's one thing. If it's not over explained to you when you're a kid,
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you do when you're younger.
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Kids just accept. Kids don't try to translate. They just accept things as they
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are and they learn to understand the meaning directly. Yeah.
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And that's why they learn language faster, too. So, that's a criticism of,
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one of the criticisms was to get it in the vernacular.
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Yeah. I, that to me is not a legitimate argument.
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That's my take. Exactly. You could spend hours talking about this. So.
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At any rate, we're going to have to stop here and come back and finish this
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article on Catholic aesthetics, and then we'll do a little bit of fun things.
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So stay with us. We'll be right back.
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Music.
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Hi, this is Bob Johnston. You're listening to Being Catholic right here on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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And we're talking about an article from the Catholic Register describing the
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Catholic ascetics and the beauty of the Catholic Church, the beauty of the religion,
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the beauty of the Mass and the Church itself and how it attracts people.
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And we're talking here about this one lady, Julia James Davis,
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who writes about the fact that our modern society has sort of made a war on
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beauty and beauty and a lot of things and a lot of the pomp and circumstances
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and so forth that used to be incorporated in our daily society more than it is today.
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And so we'll go ahead and finish this article. And it says here,
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this recent online movement is not driven by ecclesiastical authorities,
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but by grassroots figures such as Julia James Davis, creator of War on Beauty.
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Davis contends that modern culture's abandonment of beauty, and I think I mentioned
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this already, and architecture and living itself and so forth,
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is something that people miss.
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And Davis's critique resonates with younger generations navigating a cultural
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landscape of sterile minimalism and so on.
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It says, other recent trends have confirmed the societal phenomenon,
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starting with the extraordinary success of the traditional pilgrimage from Paris
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to Char, which has to turn down thousands of registrations every year.
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And this is, you know, this is a pilgrimage and a march and so forth that is
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very beautiful in and of itself.
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In France, more than 10,000 adults, a record-breaking figure were baptized at
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Easter 2025, a 45% increase from the previous year.
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In the UK and Belgium, similar upswings are being reported.
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And in all three countries, as in the United States, the most common new converts
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are not middle-aged or elderly, but young adults in their 20s.
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In their testimonies again and again, beauty is mentioned, the beauty of the
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liturgy, of the sacred music, and of the old rites.
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This initiation, that beauty speaks of truth, is not new, or this intuition,
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rather, that beauty speaks of truth is not new.
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In the aftermath of the French Revolution two centuries ago,
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French writer François René de Chateaubriand, in his 18-2 masterpiece,
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The Genius of Christianity,
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formulated what many online are now rediscovering instinctively.
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At a time when the Enlightenment had reduced religion to ethical principles.
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Chateaubriand saw beauty as the most accomplished form of apologetics for reaffirming
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the reality of the Incarnation.
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The veracity of a religion, he argues, is judged by the beauty it disseminates
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and the sophistication of its dogmas, areas in which Christianity has excelled
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like no other over the centuries.
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One should look, he insisted, not only to the saints and theologians,
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but also to the material heritage the faith has produced.
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For Chateaubriand, beauty was not optional, but essential.
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Music, for example, was not merely to give pleasure, but to purify the soul
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and elevate it toward virtue.
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But nowhere is this more striking than in architecture.
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For Chateaubriand, the Christian temple, especially in the Gothic form,
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was an embodiment of the divine presence.
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This is why there is nothing more religious than the vaults of our ancient Gothic churches, he wrote.
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One could not enter such a church without feeling a shiver of devotion and a
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vague sense of the divine.
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And people should understand that the Gothic arch was invented after Rome.
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It was invented actually in the Christian era.
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It was invented actually in what was the so-called dark ages,
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which were not dark at all, which was the rediscovery of many things.
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It is hard to imagine a more perfect parallel to the Sistine Chapel,
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where the recent conclave unfolded, leading to the election of Pope Leo XIV.
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When the cardinals filed under Michelangelo's last judgment,
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they were not standing in a neutral meeting hall, but in a space alive with theological claims.
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Its frescoed walls and celestial ceiling are indeed mere proclamations of faith.
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With Chateau-Brayon, named with the lyricism of Romantic literature,
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a new generation is rediscovering through algorithms, reels, and screenshots.
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The platforms have changed, but the message remains unchanged.
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The beauty of Catholicism is the outer form of a living reality.
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It is the visible echo of a truth too large to grasp all at once.
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Yet many thinkers of our time believe that the postmodern world,
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the one that emerged from the Second World War, is facing an unprecedented beauty
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crisis, and that this does not spare the Catholic Church.
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Catholic artists and writers feel isolated and alienated from both their society and the Church.
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The Catholic Church had lost its traditional connection with beauty,
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poet Dana Goya claimed in 2019.
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Post-conciliar apologetics, which focused on reason, ethics,
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and social justice, tended, according to observers,
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to marginalize beauty as, at best, a peripheral tool in the church's evangelizing
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mission, and at worst, a vehicle for pride and greed.
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And so, I'll go on and skip a little bit of this to get through here.
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It says, we no longer dare to believe in beauty, as some people have written,
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considering that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision
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as do truth and goodness.
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And she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters
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without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance.
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And I think that refers to, let's see, well, let me skip.
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For beauty is not a luxury, but a necessity, the radiance of truth made visible.
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Philosopher Simone Weil, drawn to the mystery of the Catholic Church without
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ever formally entering it, came to a similar conclusion. The beautiful is the
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experimental proof that the Incarnation is possible.
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Beauty for her was not sentiment, but metaphysics.
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It was the moment when the soul is pierced by something that goes beyond it
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and recognizes a presence.
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The spontaneous revival of Catholic ascetics online, at a time when new conversions
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are unexpectedly abounding,
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is therefore particularly significant, A spence especially since it does not
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emerge from ecclesiastical strategy, but from popular cultural hunger.
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These passionate young people in search of meaning are finding,
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as Chautabian did in his time, that Catholicism does not merely possess beauty,
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it reveals it because it is true.
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And I think that article says it very well, that beauty is very,
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very important in religion.
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And I think the Catholic Church, of course, has one of the most beautiful,
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especially, I think, the Latin Mass.
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One of the most beautiful forms of worship in the world. So,
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any comments you want to make on that, Lynn?
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It is. It lifts your heart. Like I say, it lifts your heart up to God.
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It helps that ceremony that you repeat over and over and over again through a lifetime.
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It brings you closer to the soul, which is seeking beauty. What is God?
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The questions are answered. What is God? God is beautiful.
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His grace is beautiful. Everything about God and His mercy. What could be more beautiful than mercy?
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This is what we're reaching for, and the ascetics are the things that bring us to that.
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I remember not too long ago, we went into a Baptist church for a funeral.
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And there was just, you know, a shock to me. It was barren.
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It was a stage. It was a piano and a set of drums.
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How sad. There wasn't even a cross in there.
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And it has been since they've been trying to re-energize or whatever they say
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they are doing in the church. which that has been the way of doing things to make it more and more.
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You know, the Puritans tried doing that, too. Didn't work, did it?
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Good question. It's the beauty that attracts us.
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Again, I think, you know, that's the reason that the Latin Mass,
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some people say one of the most beautiful things this side of heaven,
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you know, is the Latin Mass. Mm-hmm.
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Very, very beautiful. And, of course, you know, the Orthodox Church has a lot of the beauty as well.
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They haven't abandoned it. Right. And, you know, the Anglican Church and so
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forth has not abandoned it. But I think we need to restore it even more.
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And some of the pomp that goes along with it, the processions,
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you know, the procession is an important thing.
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And the beauty of the clerical clothing and so forth.
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And I think this is what impressed me about our new pope, you know,
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Leo XIV, was he appeared in all the papal regalia.
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And he looked very, very, you know.
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Papal. Yeah, it looked very, very papal, and I hope people really that came
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across, the beauty of the church came across there. I think it did.
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So at any rate, I'll go on here, and we'll have a little bit of enjoyment.
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I'm going to read some. This is in the New Oxford Review, a magazine that I subscribe to.
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There's a section in it that is entitled The News That You May Have Missed,
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and they take various oddities from around the world that a lot of them pertain to religion,
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some very indirectly, but they're very interesting and some of them are sort of hilarious really.
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And it's sort of different. So I'll read from some of those.
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They're really interesting. I've got a mark down here.
29:57
There's one here entitled Rain of Reptiles. It says here, when temperatures
30:04
drop in Florida, so do the reptiles.
30:09
Meteorologists preaching wintry weather in the southeast warned of falling iguanas,
30:15
which live in treetops in a sunshine state, but tend to pass out when it gets cold.
30:21
As a result, the hibernating lizards lose their grips on branches and fall to
30:26
the ground or on unfortunate passerby.
30:30
If it's in the fifties, they're slow, said Joe Wasilewski, a biologist and a guana expert.
30:37
If it's in the forties, they're on the brink of falling. And if it's in the
30:42
thirties, they're down.
30:44
Iguanas can grow up to five feet long and weigh as much as 25 pounds,
30:49
so there is potential for injury.
30:51
Can you imagine walking under whatever kind of trees they occupy,
30:56
palm trees or whatever, and having a 25-pound iguana fall on your head? God.
31:01
Oh, my God. What a shock.
31:04
Not only could it hurt or injure you, it would really scare you, that's for sure.
31:10
You wonder if a dragon's attacking you.
31:14
Oh, my. It says, if you do come across an unconscious iguana,
31:20
don't attempt to remove it yourself, advised Michael Ronquillo,
31:24
a professional iguana remover.
31:26
A professional iguana remover. As soon as it warms up, it will begin to move
31:32
normally again, he said.
31:34
Iguanas have very sharp teeth and nails, and if they are cornered,
31:38
they will defend themselves.
31:40
They might also try to tail whip you, and they can whip their tails at 30 miles per hour.
31:46
So, you go down to Florida and you get a cold snap, stay out from under the trees.
31:52
My word. I can't imagine. I can't either.
31:57
And then here is another one. It says here, your life for a legend.
32:03
Now, this is humorous in a way.
32:07
It's not humorous. I mean, what happened to these two men is not humorous. You hate to laugh.
32:12
But it says here, two Oregon men were reported missing by family members after
32:18
they failed to return from looking for the fabled Sasquatch, you know, the Bigfoot.
32:24
After a three-day search involving more than 60 people, the bodies of both men, ages 37 and 59,
32:32
were found in a heavily wooded area of one of the national forests there,
32:38
in southwestern Washington State.
32:40
Police said their cause of death
32:42
appeared to be exposure based on weather conditions and ill-preparedness.
32:48
The search took place amid difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions as
32:52
crews face freezing temperatures, snow, and high water levels.
32:57
Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, is thought to live in the Pacific Northwest.
33:01
A group called Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization claims that more than
33:06
700 reports of sightings have been submitted to them.
33:10
But with this tragic case here, if you go looking for Bigfoot in these areas,
33:13
you had better be prepared to do this.
33:16
I mean, you better be in good shape, and you better take along the proper gear,
33:22
clothing and so forth and maps and compasses and know, you know,
33:27
your area where you're going.
33:28
And in case you do get lost, have some extra items with you to keep you alive,
33:33
some extra food and so forth.
33:35
But be very good to be prepared and not have that happen to you as these poor men did.
33:41
But there is sort of a, you know, the idea that they're out after Bigfoot and
33:46
they themselves succumb to the forest.
33:49
In Skamania County, where the men's bodies were found,
33:53
harming Bigfoot is punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail,
33:58
a law meant to protect the mysterious creature and to prevent hunters with large
34:03
beards from accidentally getting shot.
34:07
So, in other words, that's a pretty good idea.
34:12
I mean, that's probably the most important part of that law is not so much to protect Bigfoot.
34:17
It seems like nobody ever finds Bigfoot if Bigfoot really exists.
34:21
But it would be easy enough if some hunters out there, and especially these
34:25
two poor gentlemen, can you imagine, you know, being pretty scraggly and wandering
34:29
around out there before they died?
34:32
Someone could easily mistake them for a Bigfoot and shoot them.
34:37
You'd hate to have that happen. So if you go after Bigfoot, if you take a gun
34:41
with you to protect yourself, don't do it to protect yourself from Bigfoot.
34:45
You might take one with you to protect yourself from a grizzly bear or something,
34:49
but don't go shooting at anybody that looks like Bigfoot because you might end up killing someone.
34:56
And unfortunately, these two gentlemen died from exposure.
35:01
Yeah, they obviously had no experience hunting or in the outdoors.
35:08
I mean, you look around here when the hunters will shoot and they hit a cow
35:14
or a person or something.
35:16
You know, you got to use your head. Exactly.
35:19
We'll stop here and take a break and come back and read a few more. So stay with us.
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Sheen Written by Monsignor Richard Sosman Heavenly Father, Source of all holiness,
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You have blessed Your Church through the life and ministry of Your faithful
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servant, Archbishop Fulton J.
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and the salvation of souls we ask you to move the church to proclaim him a saint
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we ask this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord.
38:14
Music.
38:20
Hi, this is Bob Johnston. We're back from our break, and we're reading from
38:26
some articles called The News You May Have Missed and the New Oxford Review.
38:32
And these are little vignettes, little stories about the odd things that happen
38:37
around the world, and I hope you're enjoying them.
38:39
There's one entitled Waffles and Weather Together. You'll enjoy this one, Lynn.
38:45
And this is something, I've never been to one of the Waffle House.
38:49
Sometime we'll have to go there. I don't know if there's one around here in
38:52
Bloomington Normal or not.
38:53
Maybe, does John know, is there a Waffle House here in town?
38:57
I don't think there is. Yeah.
39:00
Yeah, there used to be one down in Springfield, down there by Love's,
39:04
down there in Springfield. But I don't know.
39:07
Yeah. I don't know if it's there anymore. That was there a year ago. Yeah, okay.
39:15
It says here, waffles and weather together. During a weather emergency,
39:20
if a Waffle House restaurant stays open, nearby residents can rest assured that
39:26
a coming storm is unlikely to cause devastation.
39:28
A closed location signals impending disaster.
39:33
This metric is known as the Waffle House Index.
39:37
Even federal officials use it
39:39
to gauge a storm's severity and identify communities most in need of aid.
39:45
On its social media pages, Waffle House shares color-coded maps of its locations
39:51
in regions soon to be hit by, or recovering from, storm damage.
39:56
Green means the location is serving a full menu, indicating minimal damage in the area.
40:03
Yellow means a limited menu, indicating the location might have a low food supply.
40:09
Red means the location is closed, indicating unsafe operating conditions and
40:15
severe area destruction.
40:17
The chain's disaster readiness is no coincidence. Seven locations were destroyed
40:22
and 100 more shut down during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but business skyrocketed
40:30
at restaurants that reopened quickly.
40:32
Executives embraced a strategy to keep restaurants operable during and after
40:37
a disaster by investing in portable generators, buying a mobile command center,
40:43
and training employees on what they can and can't serve if they lose electricity.
40:47
It sounds almost like some kind of army ranger outfit or something like that. Yeah.
40:53
I didn't know this. So, if you're driving somewhere and you see the signs in the Waffle House,
41:01
you can judge whether or not you should take shelter in a place where you can
41:08
get food during a disaster. Right.
41:11
I think some states, you know, the...
41:15
Road workers and, you know, the clear of the snow and all that,
41:19
the centers kind of check with what the WAPA house is doing to predict what
41:26
they should be doing. Yeah.
41:29
Did you realize that the WAPA houses were some kind of an emergency weather indication? Right.
41:37
It's sort of like, you know, the different flags when we were out on Lake Superior years and years ago.
41:45
A group of us guys went up fishing up in the upper peninsula of Lake Michigan
41:50
and went out on Lake Superior to fish for lake trout out there.
41:55
And we received storm warnings, and these flags on all the boats go up,
41:59
and, I mean, you get off the lake immediately as soon as those storm warnings go out.
42:03
So those Waffle Hoses serve like an inland warning system. We didn't know that.
42:11
So at any rate, that was interesting. Here's another one, and this is more about
42:17
art than modern art, I guess.
42:20
It says here, one man's trash.
42:23
A work of art was rescued from the trash at a Dutch museum after it was mistaken
42:29
for what it depicts, a pair of abandoned beer cans.
42:35
It says here, all the good times we spent together,
42:39
that's the name of it, a 1988 piece by French artist Alexandre Lovette appears
42:46
at first glance to be a pair of empty beer cans abandoned on the floor.
42:51
However, a closer look reveals that these dented cans were meticulously hand-painted
42:57
with acrylics, with each detail painstakingly replicated.
43:02
Lisser Art Museum said in a news release. Lovett's piece was on display in the
43:07
glass elevator shaft, where it was mistaken for litter by an elevator technician.
43:13
The theme of our collection is food and consumption, said Sitsky Van Zanten, the museum director.
43:20
Our art encourages visitors to see everyday objects in a new sight, in a new light.
43:27
By displaying artworks in unexpected places, we amplify this experience and
43:32
keep visitors on their toes.
43:34
The technician who threw out the art was just doing his job in good faith.
43:38
In a way, it's a testament to the effectiveness of Alexandre Levet's art.
43:45
Well, I guess it would be. So he was so good that they looked like a pair of abandoned beer cans.
43:51
That's exactly what he was drawing, and the guy threw them out.
43:56
So I guess that's supposed to be art.
44:01
Oh, okay. It's hard to blame the person.
44:04
Anyhow, to me, it's funny. It's the idea that you would work that hard with
44:08
acrylics and everything else to make something look like a pair of abandoned beer cans.
44:13
Why not just go ahead and take the abandoned beer cans and stick them somewhere?
44:17
It would be a lot easier, wouldn't it? Well, yeah.
44:19
And then if somebody throws them out, you wouldn't worry. You just get a couple
44:22
more cans and replace them.
44:24
Crazy. It seems to me that it's sort of crazy that some of these things that they do.
44:31
So let's see what else we got here.
44:34
Let's see what I can find. I've got some of those marks. Okay.
44:42
Here's one. Falling into the pit, P-I-T-T.
44:46
This is a good one. Don't fall for something like this, you people out there.
44:51
It says here, a French woman revealed on a television program that she lost
44:57
her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt and believed she was in a romantic
45:03
relationship with a Hollywood star,
45:06
leading her to divorce her husband and transfer $850,000.
45:11
My gosh. The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts,
45:18
as well as artificial intelligence, to send Ann what appeared to be selfies
45:23
and messages from Brad Pitt.
45:25
They told her the 61-year-old actor needed money to pay for a kidney treatment
45:31
as his bank accounts were supposedly frozen due to divorce proceedings with
45:36
his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie.
45:39
Anne, 53, an interior decorator, realized she'd been scammed when news emerged
45:46
of Pitt's real-life relationship with girlfriend Ines de Ramon.
45:51
After Anne's interview went viral, resulting in a wave of mockery and harassment,
45:57
TV channel TFI withdrew the show from its platform.
46:02
Some critics accused TFI of failing to protect a vulnerable individual who might
46:07
have been unaware of the consequences of going public with her story. It's funny.
46:13
I mean, it's also sad that a woman would actually be built out of $850,000 in a scam like this.
46:21
So don't do these things, whatever you do.
46:26
And it reminds me of a lady that I knew who did the same thing.
46:31
She was warned by the police and everything else not to continue with this.
46:38
The Irish sweepstakes? This idea that she had won these Irish sweepstakes. This is for real.
46:43
I mean, this is a lady that I knew, and she was warned.
46:47
In fact, when she told the story of what was going on, I told her to call the
46:52
police, which she did, and they warned her to stay away from it,
46:56
but she couldn't resist.
46:57
She kept on thinking she was going to lose this big prize money,
47:00
and she ended up getting built out of $5,000 in spite of the fact that people
47:06
will do things. I mean, against all common sense.
47:10
And I felt sorry for her, but I mean, you know, don't do these things.
47:15
But at the same time, when you look at this whole thing, it's so ridiculous.
47:20
How could people fall for it?
47:22
Because it's so ridiculous. I guess.
47:26
I guess that's what happened. But at any rate, let's see. Here's another one.
47:37
Police in Saskatchewan, Canada, released a list of the top 10 most unusual emergency
47:44
calls they received in 2024.
47:47
One not-so-tech-savvy individual wanted help unlocking his cell phone,
47:52
while another didn't recognize someone on his social media friend list.
47:57
Can you imagine calling the police for these kind of things?
48:00
One person called because someone had thrown ice cream on the ground,
48:04
while another reported his cat was being mean and asked police to come and help with the situation.
48:11
One young caller reported his parents were forcing him to clean his room,
48:16
and another requested help with a math problem because he didn't want to fail a test in the morning.
48:22
Number one on the list was a resident who complained that someone had apparently
48:27
taken his tambourine during a party.
48:31
Whether you're frustrated with your washing machine, trying to unlock your phone,
48:36
or suspicious of a fox, Calling 9-11 must be reserved for emergencies and crimes
48:42
in progress, the police said.
48:45
Misuse of 9-11 in Saskatchewan carries a fine up to $1,400.
48:52
So if you're having any of these
48:55
kind of problems, please don't call the police on the emergency line.
49:01
Well, there was an incident in, oh, I'm sure there are many.
49:05
In Chicago, I believe it was, or New York, I can't remember, recall which one it was.
49:11
But this elderly lady, very elderly, on New Year's Eve called 911 because she
49:19
couldn't get her beer bottle open.
49:21
Oh, my God. So when one of the policemen that was in the area,
49:26
he stopped by and opened it for her because it was New Year's Eve.
49:30
I thought that was kind of touching. Yeah, it was sort of nice if you couldn't
49:35
get your beer bottle open.
49:37
Just wanted to celebrate. Well, I can understand. She's all alone. So what do you do?
49:43
You probably just, more than anything else, you probably just wanted somebody
49:46
to talk to. Well, I'm sure.
49:48
I'm sure. But I thought that was a very good story.
49:53
It was a good story. And the police went.
49:58
Here's another one here. This is entitled Health Nuts.
50:03
The mayor of an Italian village issued a proclamation banning residents from
50:08
getting sick amid problems with access to local health care.
50:13
Antonio Torca of Belcastro, Calabria, ordered residents not to contract any
50:20
illnesses that could lead to the need for emergency medical attention.
50:24
He also ordered residents not to engage in activities that could lead to injuries,
50:30
inviting them instead to spend their time resting.
50:34
Torca later said the proclamation was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek way to draw
50:38
attention to the shortcomings of the local health care infrastructure.
50:42
About half of the village's 1,200 residents are over the age of 65.
50:47
The nearest hospital is 30 miles away, and it is accessible only via a road
50:53
with an 18-mile-per-hour speed limit. 18?
50:58
The village has an on-call doctor, but he's not available during nights,
51:03
weekends, or holidays, and he is only available at certain times during the day.
51:10
That's in Italy? Yes. And this reminds you of that Catch-22,
51:16
you know, the book or the movie in which the psychiatrist or psychologist,
51:22
you know, he's never in when anybody needs to see him. Right, right.
51:26
Or rather, he'll only see people when he's out.
51:29
Yeah. But he won't see anybody when he's in.
51:32
It's like that. I can imagine knocking on the door, you know,
51:36
is the doctor in? You know, yes, he's in, but he won't see you, you know.
51:40
He'll see you when he's out, you know. At any rate, you don't want to get sick there.
51:47
And here's another one here. Here's a good one here. It says,
51:51
a Brazilian nun, and here's one I guess that's related to the church.
51:58
A Brazilian nun known for her love of soccer has been confirmed as the world's
52:03
oldest living person at nearly 117 years old.
52:08
Ina Canabarro grew up so frail that many doubted she would survive childhood.
52:16
After about her longevity, the wheelchair-bound nun who resides in the southern
52:21
city of Porto Alegre credited her Catholic faith and displayed her sense of humor.
52:27
I'm young, pretty, and friendly, all very good positive qualities, she said.
52:34
Sister Ina was born into a large
52:36
family and dedicated much of her life to education and religious service.
52:41
She eventually settled in Rio Grande de Sol, where she taught for decades and
52:48
even founded two schools, marching bands.
52:52
Among her students was General João Figueiredo, the last of the military dictators
53:01
who governed Brazil between 1964 and 1985.
53:05
Sister Ina remains a beloved figure in her community. The local soccer club
53:10
celebrates her birthday each year.
53:13
White or black, rich or poor, whoever you are, Inter is the team of the people, she proudly declared.
53:20
Ina became the oldest living person following the December death of Japan's
53:24
Tomiko Atuka and is the 20th oldest documented person in history.
53:30
Wow. Quite a figure. I don't know if that's, you know, because of her faith
53:37
or her devotion to soccer. It could be.
53:42
Maybe it's just, yeah, probably her simple faith. You gave her something to do, I guess.
53:48
Yeah. Something to be interested in. You just never know. You're going.
53:51
She knows your generation always. But there she was as a girl with people thinking
53:57
she would never make it your childhood. Right.
54:00
And you have to live that long. And there are people that way.
54:04
Well, at any rate, I hope everybody enjoyed some of those. We'll read some more sometime.
54:09
And I hope they enjoyed the article about the beauty of the Catholic faith.
54:13
So when you go to church next time, try to enjoy the beauty of the Catholic faith.
54:17
You might want to go to a Latin Mass. We'll see what the Pope's attitude is towards the Latin Mass.
54:23
But I hope more people realize that people may be attracted to it simply because
54:28
of its beauty, and it's something that is not to be...
54:33
Trifled with it. Right, trifled with or downplayed, because beauty is an important thing in religion.
54:39
So, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against
54:44
the wickedness and snares of the devil.
54:47
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the heavenly host,
54:52
by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all evil spirits who wander
54:58
through the world for the ruinous souls.
55:01
Amen. You've been listening to Being Catholic with Bob Johnston on Catholic
55:05
Spirit Radio. If you'd like to contact Bob, email bob at catholicspiritradio.com.
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