Forte Catholic Podcast: Making Catholicism Fun Again

Shaun McAfee cohosts as we discuss how there is sooo much more in store for us than we often think in our relationship with God. We also talk about the joys of fatherhood, including conversations about Pokemon, Ariana Grande and what this all has to do with our faith. The guys are joined this week by the founder of "Stay Close to Christ."(StayclosetoChrist.com). We talk about how he was inspired to start a company to help people live their faith, and how it all started in his classroom. We also discuss tips for new dads(from two semi-decent Catholic parents). Use the code "forte" on your next Stay Close to Christ order for 20% off. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe so you don't miss another episode AND give the show a rating. It really helps others find the show so that they too can #MakeCatholicismFunAgain.

Just might be the funniest show yet! Fr. Anthony Sciarappa co-hosts as we talk follow up to the #Exodus90 convo on Ep 117 & how the audience trapped Taylor into becoming a better person. In the second segment, Taylor is joined by youth ministry guru Chris Wesley. They shoot the breeze(literally?), talk about riding other people's coattails, youth ministry stories and how to get out of the ruts we find ourselves in. Check out everything he's doing at Marathon Youth Ministry. And the final segment may be the most ridiculous thing we've ever done. Fr. Anthony wants to blow up the moon!?!?! Taylor shares some spiritual insights in the moon and tries to back Padre into a corner. Was he successful? Tune in and find out! BONUS: If you want another 17 minutes of Fr. Anthony & Taylor arguing about the moon(and it only got more and more insane as we dove deeper), head on over to Patreon.com/ForteCatholic for exclusive content just like this! Catholic Balm Co. Offer Code ForteCatholic.com/Beard Sock Religious Offer Cod

Allison Sullivan co-hosts as we talk about intercessory prayer...and how bad Taylor is at it. Allison essentially preaches up a storm and looks at him with scorn so he will be better. In the second segment, we're joined by Mary Bielski. She travels the nation to speak and has run into Taylor a few times. She leads the convo on authenticity. (If you like this convo, there is a 30min bonus podcast that flows straight from this conversation on Patreon.com/ForteCatholic.) In the final segment, everyone's favorite character on the show, Rocco, joins us to talk about his Eagles losing and the importance of finding healing in order to move forward in the spiritual life. We're doing a giveaway for subscribing to and rating the show! Head to ForteCatholic.com/giveway to find out how you can win!

We had to give the people what they want, so Bearded Blevins rejoins the show! We talk about the recent #Seek2019 conference Taylor attended, how Catholics are awesome and super weird, how we go about New Year's Resolutions and more! This week's guest is the founder of Swole Catholic. It's perfect for this time of year as we all focus on improving spiritually, professionally and physically. Hear all the great things they're doing to help people meet their goals and find wholeness.

To kick off 2019, we did something a bit different with this episode. Shaun McAfee co-hosts and we looked back at the highlights from 2018 to both reminisce and also catch up our newest listeners. In the second segment, Brandon “Be The Symbol” Morel rejoins the show to discuss what the universality of the Church really means practically for him in inner city New York. He’s the man behind most of the music you hear on Forte Catholic. Be sure to check out his art! And finally, we give the people what they’ve been waiting for. We reveal the Top Ten Most Popular podcast episodes of 2018. Tune in to see which shows came out on top! I am so grateful that the podcast grew so much this year, especially in the last few months! Thank y’all so much for your support this year and for sharing the show with your friends. I truly appreciate it.

Merry Christmas from the Forte Catholic crew! We start the show off with a prank on Fr. Anthony! We continue by discussing how to keep Christmas going with a new understanding of peace and what the baby King means to us today. This episode, we are joined by comedian Aaron Weber! Taylor got to see him perform live on his tour with John Crist, thought he was hilarious and invited him on the show. Now that it's not just Taylor & his friends making jokes, this is one you don't want to miss! In the final segment, we are joined by local youth minister Daniel Loch as he shares a heartwarming story about how his church did something extremely special for a young family. The story is inspirational and challenges all of us on what it means to be church. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating in iTunes and subscribe. It's a free Christmas present to us! For bonus content from this episode, check out our Patreon community at Patreon.com/fortecatholic. Special Guest: Aaron Weber.

Allison Sullivan co-hosts our final Advent 2018 show! We discuss final Advent ideas & recap the latest live recording event of her podcast Sinner Saint Sister on the topic of Christian Unity. In the second segment, Sandi Pino joins us to talk about a great opportunity we all have to give back and spread joy this season. Taylor also thinks he finally has the parable of the lost sheep figured out.(maybe?) In the final segment, Taylor shares a song he used to despise and now loves and how it defines his(and probably your) struggle with suffering. For bonus content from this episode, check out Patreon.com/ForteCatholic. From all of us here at Forte Catholic, we hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Taylor has returned from the National Catholic Conference of Youth Ministry with stories & insights, including a Mass Text segment(without the intro...whoops). We decide which homily is better between Taylor's, a 6'8" Bishop's & co-host Fr. Jared's. In the second segment, we are joined by Leila Miller, co-author of "Made This Way: How To Prepare Kids To Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues." In this book, she and Trent Horn team up to cover how to guide our children to Heaven in today's culture, especially how to answer tough questions about sex outside of marriage, modesty, homosexuality and more. To close out the show, Taylor and Fr. Jared discuss finding a home in a broken Church through the lyrics of Hillsong's latest hit "Who You Say I Am." Bonus content for this episode can be found in our Patreon community at Patreon.com/fortecatholic.

Taylor is joined by Shaun McAfee to kick off the Advent season with ample reminders to slow down and find rest in God. Taylor shares from one of the weirdest weeks he's had in a while that led into Advent. From travel, to being pulled over, to tech difficulties, to being a guest on an atheist's podcast, it was an interesting one for sure. And there's an Advent connection to all of it! In the second segment, seminarian Travis Crotty joins the show to share what "A Day in the life of a Seminarian" is like to give us a behind the scenes look into preparation for the priesthood. He shares particularly about the media fast he took and its implications for us this Advent season. In the final segment, we chat about what we are doing for Advent & how it is one of our favorite seasons to draw us back into the life of Christ. Thanks for listening! If you like the show, you can subscribe to make it easier to listen every week as the episode downloads automatically when posted. Also, we would truly appreciate you rating

Fr. Anthony Sciarappa cohosts as we start the show talking about not only using half your brain but instead using all God(and yo mama) gave you! Padre's quote at the end of the segment is worth more than gold lol. In the second segment, we're joined by Michael Foley to discuss the connection between preparing for Christmas and drinking a lot.....in a Catholic way! It's perfect! And in the final segment, Taylor rants about his "free speech booth" encounter and the guys discuss encouragement and end the show by being nice to each other. Twas' quite odd. We've been nominated as Podcast of the Year by the Fisher's Net Awards! Head over to ForteCatholic.com/vote to cast your ballot for the show today!

Taylor returns from a trip to St. Louis for the National Youth Workers Convention with content for daeaaaays & a HUGE guest in Chris Stefanick! Chris, the internationally acclaimed author and speaker, shares about his new book "I Am ___; Rewrite Your Name, Reroute Your Life." This book is all about seeing yourself as God sees you, infusing our inner monologues with Scripture & understanding how our words and identity are extremely powerful in how we interact with the Lord and others. Shaun McAfee co-hosts and guest producer Thaddeus Romansky provide witty banter and insightful feedback(they're much smarter than Taylor) throughout the first and third segments. We talk pride, humility, the reason Satan fell and what it means for our mission in life. We also chat about Taylor's visit to the BEAUTIFUL Cathedral in St. Louis, his experience there & how it compared/contrasted with the worship experience at the conference. It got into some pretty insane back and forth where all three seem to just roast each other

Fr. Anthony Sciarappa co-hosts(WHAT!?!?!) as we talk about what Taylor learned about keeping things simple from the high school students he was on retreat with this weekend. (The students may or may not have been a little comically confused) In the second segment, we are joined by a listener favorite Fr. Augustine Wetta. He rejoins the show(from his high school classroom with actual students in it) to talk about his new novel "The Eighth Arrow" which explores what it would be like if Odysseus from the Odyssey was in Dante's Inferno. The book is a thoroughly entertaining jailbreak story, full of allusions to great works of old and the lessons contained. A segment with the monk who breaks all monk stereotypes is always entertaining. In the final segment, Taylor and Fr. Anthony bring back the "Mass Text" segment to revisit this past Sunday's readings, see how Father's homily went, discuss being bad at humility & why truths survive the test of time. Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed it, please subscribe, leav

All in 24 hours Taylor gets hurt, has a strange dining experience, is confused by the elections, is frustrated by a doctor's visit and stumped by a Gospel passage. In the second segment, Theresa Zoe Williams makes her triumphant podcast debut as we explore finding connections to faith in secular songs. She's a tremendous blogger and Tweeter(is that a word?). Check her out at PrincipessaMeetsWorld.com & @TheresaZoe on Twitter. In the final segment, we answer more listener questions and make an announcement about changes coming to the show. Thanks for listening! As always, if you enjoyed today's show, please like, rate and subscribe. Also, if you want exclusive content, check out our Patreon at Patreon.com/ForteCatholic.

She's here!!!!!!! Finally back from her trip to the Holy Land and the sickness that ensued, Sam returns and we update each other on what's happened in the last month. She weighs in on all the shenanigans we pulled while she was gone AND she shares her experience of traveling to the Holy Land for the first time. We finish the show off talking about the effects of Confirmation and how the Sacrament is(and isn't...) affecting us today. For a bonus track from this episode involving Taylor forgetting how to speak(it was reallllly bad), check out our community over on Patreon.

Producer Sam and Fr. Jared Cooke were supppooooosed to be here this week to share about their trip to the Holy Land. But alas, they were both sick(I blame the Holy Land...) so AJ Barrows guest produced. Instead of talking the beauty of the Holy Land, we talked about what we would do if we won the 1.6 billion dollar lotto, finding happiness AND(of course) who would win in a fight: Taylor or a baby elephant. Our guest this week is the author of "Jesus Loves Movies," Phil Strangolagalli(yea, you try to pronounce it!). His book walks through 30 of our favorite films and draws out connections to our walk with Christ in them. I was fascinated by some of the brilliant connections he makes. I'm gonna go watch a movie now! Enjoy the episode!

Allison Sullivan rejoins the show to co-host this episode! We discuss the good, bad & ugly of our week's, including ANOTHER terrible travel experience for Taylor. In the second segment, Taylor releases an interview from last month with former Swiss Guard, Andreas Widmer. He is in the running for most interesting man in the world. He was a Swiss Guard for JPII, once had Christmas Eve Dinner with the Pope, made a fortune in the dot com era, was essential in the creation of the voice recognition tech we now now as Siri or Alexa. He's fascinating! He currently teaches Entrepreneurship and the Catholic University of America where he shares the essential business principles he has learned throughout the years, how it affects our faith & much more! In the final segment, Allison & Taylor pick up where we left off last week in answering questions from YOU, the listener. We spend most of our time discussing the qualities we look for in friends. I hope you enjoy the episode! If you do, please like/rate in your podcasti

Producer Sam is in the Holy Land so Taylor is all alone in the studio.....sooooo this week's show was crowd sourced! We got tons of questions and topics submitted by you the listeners. From CrossFit to Fortnite to chicken nuggets to Vatican III, we have something for everyone this week! I also throw absolute shade at my frenemies at the Roman Circus podcast with the help of Fr. Anthony Sciarappa and throw shade at said priest with the help of his brother, producer Nick Sciarappa. Producer Sam wasn't around to carry the show so creativity and assistance from everyone involved was needed. In the second segment, I am joined by my co-nemesis @TeaWithTolkien to talk about our "beef", her Catholic Twitter title & of course....tea & Tolkien. Tune in to this very different but super interesting(I'm biased) episode! Let me know what you think of today's format and content on social media. @TaylorSchroll on Twitter/Instagram @ForteCatholic on Facebook/Twitter

Celebrating two years of Taylor talking too much! This episode marks the two year mark from the first Forte Catholic episode airing on RED-C Radio. We start off with a mini-celebration, update on Producer Sam and talk about her upcoming trip to the Holy Land. In the second segment, Chris Mueller of EverydayCatholic.com joins the show. He's essentially the successful & better looking version of Taylor. We talk about what speaks to a regular Catholic and how to lead from the pews. In the final segment, we talk about how Beyoncé's "Halo" & Taylor's recent lunch choice apply to a few of this week's feast days. We also talk about #InternationalPodcastDay, give away a prize & Taylor's conversation with a Catholic Twitter bot. MakeCatholicismFunAgain If you enjoyed the show, please take a few seconds to subscribe to & rate the show in your podcasting app. Also, share the link to the episode on your social media. Extra time out of Purgatory for all who assist in this work of the Lord :)

Taylor had a crazy week. Producer Sam had a rough week. So what did we decide to do? Share stories and laugh through the pain with a conversation about a car wreck, the power going out in the middle of ministry and start a new segment where we answer questions from Curious Cat. In the second segment, we are joined by Bill Snyder, the host of the "Young Catholics Respond" podcast. This is another podcast crossover event as Taylor joins this week's episode of Bill's show this week as well. We get to know Bill and hear his story of how three open heart surgeries have impacted his faith. If you like the show and want time out of Purgatory, leave the show a rating and share it on your social media. Music by Taylor Schroll & Brandon Morel

We kick of this week's show(THE FIRST TRUE PALINDROME EPISODE IS SHOW HISTORY!!!) by talking about the Captain Marvel Trailer release and our reactions to it. We talk about how the Avengers post-Infinity War are stuck between a rock and a hard place. This is our theme for the day as we begin a conversation about the Israelites being stuck between a rock and a hard place at the Red Sea here and finish it in the 3rd segment. We talk about the "Red Sea Rules"; the lessons we learn from looking at how God worked in this story. Spoiler Alert for Infinity War...well....and the Old Testament In the second segment, we are rejoined by Tony Vasinda, this time to talk about the work of Project YM and what they are doing to support youth ministers around the world. Tony gives us a peek into the lives of a youth minister that most people don't see and how we can support them as well.