Chatting with Fr Mitch

Well, that was pleasant; just like my own personal edition of EWTN Live. The Catholic Forum has been running a series of talks entitled “The Fullness of Truth Australian Tour” by apologists from the other side of the Big Puddle, including Steve Ray, Alex Jones and none other than the front star of EWTN, Fr Mitch Pacwa.

Fr Mitch was here in Melbourne last Tuesday, speaking at Freedom Books in Balwyn and Our Lady Star of the Sea West Melbourne, but obviously there was something wrong with the Catholic Forum’s PR, because I didn’t know anything about it until afterwards (and if I don’t know something is happening…). By then, when I proposed to the head of Catholic Communications that I do an interview for The Kairos, Fr Mitch had, as they say, “left the building” – in fact, he was in Sydney again. Not to be put off, we explored the possibility of an email interview, which then morphed into a phone interview this afternoon. The tricky bit was setting up the phone and the computer at home so I could record the conversation.

Nevertheless, I triumphed over trickiness and had a good half hour chat with Fr Mitch on a range of topics, including Islam and Christians in the Middle East, Yoga and New Age stuff, Catechesis and his project Ignatius Productions, how he got into EWTN, and what big issues in the Church could be addressed by “Joe and Mary Catholic” in the pews.

For the full interview, you will have to wait until the next Kairos is published, but I can tell you now what he thought the two big issues were: 1) Rising Secularity, 2) Breakdown in Valuing the Family. In the first instance, he said Catholic families must not be intimidated by secularists. Pray grace before meals in restaurants, take your family to Church, teach your children the Catechism. etc. In the second instance, he said that we need to build our families up by working, playing and praying together, and to pass on to our children a real sense of valuing family and not just the individual.

As I said, more anon – it will take me a while to do the transcript. But I will make it available eventually.

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5 Responses to Chatting with Fr Mitch

  1. Paul G says:

    Hi David, this is completely unrelated, but I’d like to share it if I may. Did you see the interview with Christopher Hitchens on ABC a few days ago? The video is available on the net for the next 11 days at
    http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/s2898631.htm
    and will be repeated on Sunday at 6.30pm on ABC2.
    No matter how much I might disagree with some of the things he says, I can’t help loving his honesty, humour and charm.
    This interview ends hilariously when Christopher deeply offends Jennifer Byrne’s dogma about women. Typically for Hitchens, he refuses to take a backward step.
    I thought it was a joyful and wonderful thing to watch, and all the more poignant because a few weeks after the interview, the doctors gave him a diagnosis of cancer.

  2. Matthias says:

    Schutz talking about things catholic on Mr muehelenberg’s CULTUREWATCH he makes reference to a Catholic blogwriter ,involved in the interfaith movement,commenting about halal aspects in Australia,and would appear to me taking aim i think at your comments on this subject in an earlier blog.
    Lo and behold it is you .He has damned you with the Marcionites with the comment
    “he is wrong in everything he says here. Allah is not Yahweh. The God of Islam is not the God of the Bible. I argue that case elsewhere………And his assertion that the God of the Old Testament is not the same as the God of the New is simple heresy.”
    Perhaps David you can talk to him and I hope Bill has the courtesy to have contacted you .

    • Schütz says:

      How interesting. I had noticed on my stats that the highest hits for the last week have been on my post about Cadbury’s Chocolate – I just thought it evidence of how widespread this urban myth was!

      I will have to take a look at what Bill has actually said…

  3. Peter Golding says:

    David you must not be moving in the right circles.
    I received a number of emails and flyers about this visit.Unfortunately I was not able to attend any of the sessions.

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