Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome, everybody, to Big City Catholics. I'm Monsignor Jim Vlaughan, joined by the Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, Bishop Robert Brennan. Bishop Brennan, good to be with you.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: It's good to be with you. Usually you would be saying at this point, thanks for being with us, but I have to say to you, thank you for being with us in Brooklyn.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: I'm so happy to be with you, and thank you so much. I want to start with a little prayer, please. All right. Let us pray. Loving God, fill us with your peace and love and help us to live your gospel. Bless all the people of Brooklyn, especially those most in need this time, and help us to know that you're with us in good times and bad and sickness and health. And we ask your blessing always through Christ our Lord.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Amen. If you're just joining us now and say, who am I? I know, that's weird, right? The President and CEO of the Catholic Faith Network. We're producing this special edition of Big City Catholics while we're at the USCCB meeting in. In Baltimore. So we should mention that because that's an important yearly meeting, right?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: It is, it is. And it's an important history that you and I share, because I was with you. I was one of the co anchors very first year. Sister Mary Alice Peel. The very first year when you were actually providing the live feed to the whole. To the whole country.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: And since then, they've kind of built up the resources that they have and use here in Baltimore, which is a great thing.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: But CFN always has the place of honor here at the USCCB meeting, in which I love.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: And believe it or not, that was 17 years ago. I believe it that we were together.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: That was my first USCCB meeting. Isn't that interesting? You know, and we were together.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it was wonderful.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: It was exciting. We were sitting there watching it on screens, and you probably never in a.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Million years thought you'd ever actually be.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: In the room participating.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Right? That's another crazy no.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Right, exactly.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: It's an amazing thing. You know, I heard again and again and again this week as we're. We've been here about the fraternity of bishops, the camaraderie, and how, like, there's a certain joy in seeing one another. It's not just a business meeting where we go to a meeting and leave. There's a lot more to it than that, right?
[00:02:04] Speaker B: That is absolutely the case. So on the one hand, it's kind of baked in now to the whole meeting schedule. We've changed the Format of things. You've noticed that, right? So we begin with prayer, which is really very good. And then the tables are set up differently, just round tables. I'm not sure I love that, but it's fine.
But we break into small groups so that we're building fraternity. We have these fraternal dialogues connecting with bishops we don't otherwise know. Plus we have our regional meetings, which are with bishops we know pretty well. So some of those conversations take place not at the big level, but at those little levels, and they feed up. The other thing, though, is natural thing. I look at my own experience and think of some of the guys I know who, you know, I've worked with at one point or another. But we're all spread out through the country. Sure. And you know what? It's this and a Christmas card.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're busy. That's, you know, it's not like you have the time to.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: We get to connect. And there is an element of building friendships and fraternity that certainly is very important to me. Very enjoyable.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: And even for me, as like an outsider to that, it's still nice to see my friends who are bishops, you know, and then to connect again. It just feels good because, again, we don't have the time to all be together, even as friends. But it's great to see you all together. And Bishop Brennan and I actually attended the same high school together, so we know each other from back in high school that long.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: We know each other. We were in the same guitar class.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Exactly right.
Thank God neither one of us excelled at that. So it was.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: But, you know, I'm going to give a shout out to our high schools. You know, you and I both noticed St. St. John the Baptist has been really working hard during Vocation Awareness Month and featuring a different priest each month, including yours truly and yours truly.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Somebody sent it to me.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: And I was utterly shocked. And then I looked and I saw you. I was like, okay, good. He changed a lot, too. Then Father John Soreau came after us. It was good.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: It is good. And, you know, I can't help but think of one of our alumni priests, Monsignor Jim Kasane.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah, of course.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: And I think of him often because he's buried in the same section as my own family in St. Charles. In fact, I bumped into his parents a couple of times, really visiting the grave. And I often think of Jim, wonderful guy, who's a wonderful, wonderful priest and.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Has a street named after him in Central Islip, New York.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: He was the pastor there when he died. He died of cancer. And very quickly. Very quickly. It started around the time of the Baltimore meeting. He was joking about watching us on tv.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Right. Waiting for us to mess up. I remember.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: That's right.
He was dead by Christmas.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Imagine that.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: It's hard.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it's hard. Still miss him and the people still know him, which is still great, too, you know. Now this meeting, too, you know. Is there some business to this meeting? I mean, there's a little. Little bit of housekeeping that the bitches have to do.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: It's a regular business.
You have to do a lot. A lot of business.
We had a great discussion. Not really a discussion. Report just at the end of today's session from Cardinal Dolan about the pontifical missions. Sure. And he made a point of talking about the hundredth anniversary of the Pontifical Mission Society next year. So we're going to have to give some real attention to that.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: It's a good idea.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: And, you know, he spoke about, like, the decline in the amount of money given, but he also recognized that we're doing a lot of other missionary projects. And so it was a word of encouragement, but realization of how important the missions are. And we're going to talk about this at the Malta Mass next week. But he said Pope Leo is the first missionary pope since a guy named Peter.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Exactly. Right, right. Yeah. I hosted his show with him yesterday, Cardinal Dolan, and he said that on the show, which I couldn't believe it. We had Monsignor Landry on, who has that up. And he said that, too. He said, you know, and for Pope Leo to, as a bishop, to uproot his life, go to Peru.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: I mean, it's incredible.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: It is. Yeah.
I say I like to think of myself as having a missionary heart. I think of a lot of bishops, a lot of popes that have had missionary hearts. He's got missionary feet.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah. That's the truth.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: He walked the walk. And. And so he brings a certain credibility to that. And so when he published his first apostolic exhortation on the poor boy. He's got a lot of street creds.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: I love that, too, because I think that's the other thing that he has been. I mean, even when he's meeting with bishops, because Archbishop Broglio said it today, he's the president, outgoing president. We'll talk about that in a second. The outgoing president of the USCCB said, like, the Holy Father expressed that kind of missionary outreach to the poor to him and to, I guess, Archbishop Laurie, who was with him for the meeting. Right.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: That's important.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Yes, it is. And you know, the other gift that he brings is that understanding of the American church. He knows us.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: He was.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: He's a product of the American church.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: I'm not used to a Pope with no accent.
I'm so used to hearing a German accent.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: I had the chance to meet him during the Jubilee, and it is funny. He puts you right at ease. Like, I just went up and said, yeah, hi, I'm Bob Brennan from Brooklyn.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: And he's like, how you doing?
[00:07:21] Speaker B: He said, brooklyn. That's right, Brooklyn.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Isn't that funny? Yeah, that's very different things.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: It's like an instant connection. I love that. So it is good. And then, of course, you know, I remember when we were doing conversations about these meetings, we talked about how much is done at the committee level.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Yes, a lot of work behind the scenes.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Behind the scenes, yeah. And so we had meetings before. I've been here since Friday, which is.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Talk about your committee, though.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: I'm the chair of the Cultural Diversity Committee. I'm also on Pro Life and on the Basilica Shrine Basilica Committee, but I'm the chair of Cultural Diversity. We have all these subcommittees doing all kinds of great work. We spent a lot of time on Sunday talking about outreach to youth and young adults and, you know, using the Cultural Diversity Committee. That experience and how do we help speak or listen to our young adults? That's really what it was coming down to. But one of the big things right now is we're starting to look forward. The Mexican bishops reached out to us. We're starting to look forward to the 500th anniversary of the apparition of Our lady of Guadalupe.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: That's incredible.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's in 2031.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: And that's reasonable.
Oh, yeah. It'll be here in a minute.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: It's a message for today. Yeah. Mary spoke to a commoner from Juan Diego to a man, you know, not to a poor man. So it's like, again, it's something reminded to us to listen to one another, to be in solidarity with one another.
Mary spoke a word of ecclesiology, you know, to build the church, to build that community. And of course, she brought Christ to a nation that was somewhat of crisis at a tough time.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: And the devotion to Our lady of Guadeloupe has never let up. Right.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: We had to break our diocese of mass into two, really, because we get about 4,000 people, and you know what they do? They go running. They go to the Mass.
They start off very early in the morning or the Night before, they come in the Mass and then they call them corradores. They're runners. They take a torch lit at the church and they bring it back to their parish. And then there are the evening celebrations.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Really? Walk, Walking or running. I love parishes.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: That's a beautiful. Yeah, it's a great. That's beautiful.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: It really is great.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: So, Bishop, you know, one of the interesting things. Well, my life has changed dramatically because I live at Saint Bridges and Westbury now. We have a giant Hispanic.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: It's like a little Brooklyn queen.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: It really is, in a way.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: You're right.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: You know, I never lived in a place that had such a vibrant Hispanic community. The first weekend I was there, I was walking in to celebrate Mass in English. The Spanish mass was letting out. Little kids were running up to me and hugging me. Nobody who knew who I was. Families were hugging me. This love that is just so very real is such an incredible gift that the Hispanic people have brought.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: That was my experience at St. Agnes, and that's where I learned Spanish.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Really?
[00:10:07] Speaker B: It was because of that experience. Being loved. Yeah. Like you say. And you come to a point where you want to say, hey, I want to be part of this. Yep, I really want to be part of this. And then good old Berlitz.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: You. I mean, you're unbelievable.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: You taught yourself how to credible. Well, actually, I.
Rosetta Stone, a little bit Pimsleur. Pimsle was helping with pronunciation, but the big one was Berlitz.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: You know who I live with? Father John Cerro, the pastor. Same thing. Taught himself and took less. Still takes lessons. Goes over his homily all the time. And he has. I'm telling you, he's a great speaker now. It's amazing.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Oh, I bet that's good to see. But that theme, you know, we're talking about the experience here in Baltimore at the USCCB meeting. And while there were certain segments of this on the agenda, it's certainly the undercurrent to all of the conversations at the committee level, in our smaller groups and at the meeting. So at the public session, we saw a report by Bishop Seitz. We're recording this on Tuesday.
And so there'll be some more conversation. Sure, I'm sure. As the meeting goes on, Bishop Syz.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Told an interesting story. They met the Holy. He met the Holy Father.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: And they had created what, a four minute video.
And the Pope seemed to be in a hurry. Right. And he asked if he could show it.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: He said, yeah, would you have four minutes? And the Pope said, again, very American.
Yeah, I have some time.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: So then he showed all of you.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: The video, and he showed us the video.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: And I tell you, I watched the video. I found it rather emotional to watch it. And then, you know, it's interesting, you know, Bishop Luis Romero, who I know, you know, one of our Spanish bishops, he came by and he said, you know, the one thing that video missed, the joy of the people in the midst of all of this, because they were joyful people.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: You know, he's right.
I agree.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I did miss that, because that's our experience. Yeah.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: You know, so interesting.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Right. And they bring us so much joy. Other people, you know, we enter into that solidarity with one another.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: People. He missed the joy of the people. I love that he said that. You know, one of the things that's going to come out of this company program called you are Not Alone. You heard Bishop Seitz talking.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: I didn't know whether that was not alone a document. You Are Not Alone.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: It's more than that. It's. I think I would call it more of a pastoral initiative and a toolbox that we can use on the diocesan level. So you remember the Pro Life Committee came out with Walking with Moms in Need. It's a way of taking the pro life message, hey, abortions are a good thing, and we're here to support you in coming up with concrete ways to give support. Walking with Moms in Need, that would be a similar initiative here for the migration. So, yes, we make statements. Different conferences make statements. We're doing things. We're going. We'll talk a little bit about the New York State statement.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that just came out this week. Yeah, but, you know, but it's taking it and saying, here's a toolbox that you can use for accompaniment.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: And these are some of the needs, and these are some of the things you can use. And so I'm looking forward to really working with a group in Brooklyn and seeing how can we put some of this into practice.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: And that'll bunk into, like, your committee. But then, of course, the Diocese of Brooklyn.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Which is the ultimate.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Well, I always say, you know, I have two qualifications for cultural diversity, and it's this, isn't it?
It's Brooklyn and Queens.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: That's the truth of the matter. You're absolutely right.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: You know, so I think we'll have some solid tools that we can use. And, of course, you adapt it to the local need. That's another thing. You know, we can talk about the experiences that we've been having. Across the way, we're not seeing in New York yet now. Boy, New York is about to change.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah. But we're not seeing in New York the experiences that their experience seeing in Los Angeles, Chicago and other places.
We may start to see some of that. What we are seeing and what's a great, great concern to me are two things. People going to court for their regular appointments and then being picked up, picked up right after.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: Oh, before.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not seeing big roundups, but we're seeing things like that happen.
A big concern for me personally is the change of status. So there are people that you can argue about how things were done in the last administration, and I certainly would take issue with some of those things. One bishop described it as irresponsible, and I think there's some degree of that.
But, you know, a lot of the Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans were granted temporary protected status.
Not that this is a good term, but they're technically not illegal.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: But with changes in the status now, they fall into the category. So people, they hear in good faith, they have a legal status, but now that's at risk. And you know, what, what, what do you do? There's nothing to go back to in Haiti.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Haiti is, is a scary, tough situation.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: And you know, Nicaragua, Christians, Catholics, are being heavily persecuted. We have a bishop in exile in Miami from Nicaragua because his life was in danger. His life is in danger. And Pope Francis told him, get out. I don't want him. I don't want to model.
And yet we do have martyrs in a lot of these countries, Venezuela, a lot of the people who came from Venezuela came escaping the gangs, escaping the bad guys. Then you know what happens?
The bad guys follow them here. And now everybody gets painted with that same brush, unfortunately, you know, so, you.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Know, if we, yeah, we're finding most of our people anyway, where I live are not the bad guys at all. 90 something.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Exactly. And they're the people who are running from the bad guys. And now they're still on the run.
So, you know, what we're looking for is I, I understand the need to secure that boy. Sure. Of course. Law and order, human trafficking, all kinds.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: I think everybody would go with that.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I, I get that 100%.
And I'm just hoping that we can find a way to regularize, to accompany people who are here in good faith. Right. Who are contributing to our society. And that's what we've been calling for yesterday.
Well, last Thursday, depending when you see this.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: Was the feast of St. Francis Cabrini.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: One of my favorites. Always was.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Yep. And, you know, we have places that were founded by her. And now in Brooklyn and Queens, there's a mural along one of the walls of the bqe.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Dedicated.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Dedicated to her. Yeah. But we, the bishops of New York State, decided to issue a statement. We dated it for that day. Now, it coincides with our experience here.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: It does. It is perfect. Bishop Harris was the one who came up with the idea to say, let's use the mural that is at St. Patrick's Cathedral that Cardinal Dolan had commissioned, that tribute to the migration, the generations, including my own grandfather.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah. That make New York New York.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: That make New York New York. You got it.
And let's capitalize on that. Look. Look at Francis Cabrini. And really, this isn't a political statement. This is a gospel statement.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: It's really who we are, just proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, yeah, we make some practical suggestions. Practical race and practical concerns.
I'm really very proud of it.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: And so people know it's called for. You two were once aliens. So you can Google it and find it. You go to nyscatholic.org to find it. I also wanted to mention at the end of this, why talk about this pledge? Because I think this is a great idea. And this is. The USCCB came out with this pledge, which you've incorporated into this document.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Exactly. It's called the Cabrini Pledge, and it's a commitment. I give Bishop dimasi or my predecessor a lot of credit for making that connection because that gives practical things that we can do. You know, it's a pledge to. Just. To promote the dignity of every human person. So, you know, aside from all these other activities, aside from the political statements. But what can I do for the dignity of every human person? It's the same principle that we use in the pro life movement.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: You know, but then it takes it down into practical applications, things we can do to promote that dignity.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: I know that code is on the doors of our church, you know, and over 800 people downloaded it this weekend, which is a beautiful thing. Our pastor, too, Father John Soro, is having the rosary on Monday nights for people who live in fear.
350 people are coming every week now. That's incredible. Like, to think that many people are actually living in that level of anxiety that Bishop Seitz was talking about just a few minutes ago. Like, that's a lot of fear. Are you encountering that, too, in Brooklyn? Do you see people who are nervous, they're concerned and worried. Right? Exactly.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: Because of the uncertainty and because of the rhetoric.
And because of the rhetoric.
Fortunately, God bless people who overcome that fear, though, you know, so, you know, early on there was a little bit of a level of fear and people who stayed away, you would know it now, you know, they come, they're coming to Mass. Well, that's. We had the pilgrimage in Washington and we said, oh, nobody's going to be coming because of the fear. We had 4,000 people bigger than the last one. So you know what, they may be living in fear, but their faith and their hope is stronger than the fears.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Hope always wins, right? Hope will never disappoint. So locally in Brooklyn now, one of the things I know, CFN is going to be offering some programming to. That's right.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: A little bit of a partnership. And we'll see where that all takes us. And we're looking forward to it.
Ta da.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Here we are.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Right? Here's the premier.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: My thing is, I always say this, like, I don't know anything about Brooklyn. I always tease you about that. I don't know anything about Brooklyn. But, like, there is a lot going on. When we were developing video and stuff like this, all we had was like the Brooklyn Bridge. But there's so much going on in the life of the church and even like in your life in Brooklyn, there's a lot of things going on all the time. Right.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: That's part of what this podcast is about. You know, there are pretty famous podcasts out there, evangelical tools. My thing is it's sort of like the old fireside chats and talking about what's going on. What's going on. So actually, this weekend, yeah, last week we had funerals for two different priests, Cordero, and had Father Luke Way. He is so well remembered.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Oh, isn't that great?
[00:20:59] Speaker B: So well remembered.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: So funerals for those, too.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: But we also have on Saturday a funeral for one of our firefighters. We had a tragic, really, incident last weekend.
A firefighter fighting what was a routine fire in East New York, in Brooklyn. And he's from Rockaway, bell Harbor parish, St. Francis Desales. And he died on the scene. And you know, I was at that same parish three years ago for another firefighter, really, Timothy Klein. And that was the center of so many. 9, 11. And if you remember that plane crash.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Crash, yeah.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: Oh, so. And Sandy.
So we'll be praying. And I think Cardinal Dolan is coming to that funeral as well. So that's a great honor. But, you know, it's it's important to remember the bravery and the sacrifices that the men and women who protect our communities make every single day. So that's something kind of on the serious side, a little bit lighter. Saturday is our Brooklyn Catholic Youth Day. Last year, we were expecting somewhere around 500. We had about 1600 kids show up. Oh, my gosh. We moved it to Christ the King High School, and we're already at 1700. So I'm looking forward to being with our young people.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: Young people are coming back in. Drove Archbishop Perez from Philadelphia, stopped by here before, and he said, we got this youth thing coming up. And he had some unbelievable numbers, like 4,000 kids coming or something like that. It seems like there's an energy now, right?
[00:22:35] Speaker B: There's a great energy. And I give credit to a lot of the parish youth ministers who are really encouraging and bringing these kids along, you know, because, yes, there's a little bit of a revival, but also our youth ministers are connecting them to the diocesan church.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: And that's a good thing. They see each other. And of course, it's really all about that encounter with Jesus Christ. So the friendship with Christ. So we're looking forward to that this weekend. And then next week, I'm going to ask them to do a little bit of a plug. Next week's edition of Big City Catholics. I recorded a session with the usccb, with the Pro Life office, and we're going to be talking about end of life issues. And, you know, that's a big issue in New York. We are waiting to see what's the governor going to do.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Yeah, she's.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: And waiting, you know, and we've both seen the sorrow and the pain of accompanying someone who's died. In our own families.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: But we've also seen the extraordinary grace. Beauty of it.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: I always tell people, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: You know, we can both talk about our own father stepping up.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: And caring for our mothers. Yeah.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: And now, like, the ability to give back to my dad. My dad always says to me, this is. Memory's not great. He'll say, how's your mother? And I said, oh, dad, mom passed away nine years ago. And I always say, but you were so good to her. You loved her all the way to the very end. You lived your marriage vows, dad. I'm so proud of that. And, you know, you could tell in the midst of it all, that makes him feel good. But that's the reality of what it was. And to choose to give up your life, this makes no sense at all right.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: No. No. So please join us next week for another special edition of Big City Capital.
I usually conclude conclude by asking God's blessing on people who are joining us. The Lord be with you.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Your spirit.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with kindness, Grant you his peace. And may almighty God bless you and your families, all your loved ones. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Amen. Thanks for joining us, everybody. We'll see you in the next edition. Whenever I'm back. I don't know. On Big City Catholics. God bless you, Sam.
