Ep 213 - Good News Friday: The World's Tallest Church Is Finally Completed and USA is Consecrated

James Caldwell: This is the Manly Catholic, the podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ, husbands, fathers, and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle crowd, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. Of the Manly Catholic, and it's Friday, so we know what that means. It is time for our good news Friday. Again, this is a newer segment that we started ⁓ a few weeks ago now. ⁓ five stories about good news as happening in the Catholic Church. First story, it was my birthday on June 13th. So that is story number one. I'm just kidding. We're not gonna go into that. But story number one, the Pope blesses the world's tallest church, which took 144 years to make. On June 10th, 2026, the exact 100th anniversary of the death of its architect, Pope Leo XIV stood inside the Sogreta Familia Basilica in Barcelona, Spain, and blessed the Tower of Jesus Christ, the central spire that now makes it the tallest Catholic church in the world, rising five hundred and sixty-six feet into the Barcelona sky, crowned with a five-story ceramic cross. Construction on this basilica began in eighteen eighty two, and Tony Gaudi took over the project the following year at age thirty one and devoted the final forty three years of his life to it. He died in nineteen twenty six after he was hit by a tram on his way to daily mass in confession, when barely fifteen percent of the church was complete. He was so poorly dressed at the time of the accident that bystanders initially mistook him for a beggar and delayed calling for help. He died three years I'm sorry, three days later. And here is what he left behind, a vision so complete, so meticulous, so spiritually intentional that five generations of architects, engineers, and craftsmen have been building it for building from it ever since. Gaudi envisioned the church as a Bible in stone, eighteen towers representing the twelve apostles, the four evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and of course Jesus Christ. Every facade depicts a chapter of salvation history. The stained glass was designed so that morning light pours gold and orange from the east. An afternoon light filters blue and green from the west, so that every mass, depending on when it is celebrated, is bathed in a different kind of light. At the Mass on June tenth, nine thousand people packed inside this basilica. Another one hundred and twenty thousand filled the streets outside. Drones formed the image of Gaudi himself in the sky beside the towers, and the Pope in his homily said, It is faith that shapes the stones. He called Gowdy an architect inspired by faith. And said the building can be likened to a spiritual pilgrimage. And then he said something that stopped me. He said, We cannot believe in Jesus and promote war. We cannot believe in Jesus and kill the innocent. Very strong words from our Pope. Now man, think about where he was standing when he said that inside a church that survived the Spanish Civil War, when anarchists broke in in 1936 and burned Gaudi's workshop, destroying many of his original plans. The church that was built on the prayers of five generations through poverty, war, and political upheaval. And it stands five hundred and sixty-six feet of stone, completed. Now the tallest Catholic church in the world. Story number two Human Dignity has no passport. The Pope at the Dock of Shame. On june eleventh, ⁓ this past week, Pope Leo the Fourteenth traveled to the Canary Islands, the final leg of his apostolic journey to Spain. And he went straight to the port of Arguinaguin on the southern coast of Gran Canaria. Again, I am sorry if I am butchering these names. I am doing my best here. Ye may not know this port by name, but in 2020 it became known around the world as the Dock of Shame. After more than two thousand and six hundred migrants, men, women, and children who had crossed the Atlantic in fragile, overcrowded boats from West Africa, were stranded there for weeks in horrible outdoor conditions. People were sleeping on concrete, they were without food or sanitation. People who had survived one of the most dangerous sea crossings in the world, only to be left in the open air. In 2025, more than forty six thousand migrants reached the Canary Islands. A new record. At least three thousand people died in two thousand twenty-five trying to make this crossing. Entire boats that simply would disappear. Pope Leo XIV stood at the port. He listened to the testimonies of migrants and aid workers. He stood before rescue ships docked at the harbor, and he said, We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead. Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border. He called the trafficking of human beings a form of modern slavery. He called on politicians and international organizations to act. He asked the conscience of Europe and of Christians especially to respond to the question, What kind of world have we created if so many brothers and sisters must risk death to seek life? And then he threw a bouquet of flowers into the sea in silence for the dead. He also blessed a cross fashioned from the wood of a shipwrecked boat at the nearby shrine of our lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of seafarers. Men, there are people outside the church who want to reduce the Pope to a political progressive. He is a man standing at the edge of a sea full of the dead and saying what every human heart already knows, that this, of course, is wrong. These are our brothers and our sisters. Human dignity has no passport. Again, say what you want about immigration and and borders and open borders and and and things like that. Men, we have to remember that these are all our brothers and sisters. And we need to still pray for them. No one deserves to die. No one deserves to be left out in the open. It's time that we pray and to help our brothers and sisters in any way that we can. Story number three American bishops kneel in Orlando and consecrate the nation to the sacred heart. June eleventh. At 4 p.m. Eastern Time from the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe in Orlando, Florida, the bishops of the United States concelebrated Mass and formally consecrated the United States to the most sacred heart of Jesus. For the first time in 250 years. Two hundred and fifty fifteen bishops voted in favor of this act. The live stream on the USCCB YouTube channel drew hundreds of thousands of viewers. Parishes across the country gathered to watch together. To kneel together and to make the act of consecration together. The relics of Saint Margaret Mary Alcoque were present in the room. Saint Margaret Mary was the French Visitation sister to whom Jesus appeared in the seventeenth century and revealed devotion to his sacred heart, showing her in a series of visions, a heart of flesh crowned with thorns and surrounded by flames, and asking that that the church make reparation for the indifferences of the world. Her relics were flown from Paris to New York on June second. Escorted by the Knights of Columbus and brought to Orlando specifically for this moment. So the bones of the woman who first received the revelation of the sacred heart were in the room where the bishops of the United States placed this entire nation under that same sacred heart. That is not coincidence, ladies and gentlemen, but providence. Biblical scholar Scott Hahn, who spoke about the theology of the act, said Consecration is something that is first and foremost a sacred act. It relates our whole life to our Lord and to the communion of saints. We have got to recover the notion of covenant in terms of the sacred kinship bonds that unites us to God, not just as our Creator, but as our Father. That came as part of the America two hundred and fifty celebration, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and was paired with a nationwide call to two hundred and fifty hours of Eucharistic adoration and two hundred and fifty works of mercy. Men, the bishops of this country placed America in the heart of Jesus. That prayer was made. That covenant was sealed. What happens next is up to us, to how we live, how we lead our families, how we vote, how we serve, and how we love. The bishops did their part. Now we must do ours. Story number four, Corpus Christi Sunday. Sunday of this past week was the solemnity of the most holy blood and blood body and blood of Christ, Corpus Christi. So that would be June sixth here in the United States. And all over the world Catholics did what Catholics have done for eight hundred years. They took Jesus out of the church and carried him through the streets. In Rome, Pope Leo XIV, who was already in Spain, but the tradition continued throughout Italy with Corpus Christi processions winding through piazzas, past fountains, through neighborhoods where the residents hang hung tapestries and flower petals from their windows and balconies to honor the passing of the Eucharist. In Barcelona, a traditional Corpus Christi procession wound through the Gothic court of the city. With the famous I'm gonna butcher this Lug Kombola or the Dancing Egg balance on top of a fountain jet, a centuries old Catalan tradition tied to the feast. In the diocese of Nottingham in England, the feast was tied to the launch of a new initiative called Called by Name. This was a program designed to personally invite people by name to explore whether God might be calling them to the priesthood or religious life. The parish event was described by organizers as one of their most well attended in years. And of course, in Washington T DC, as we mentioned last week, a thousand people were still processing through the streets when the Eucharist with the Eucharist, excuse me, as part of the national Eucharistic pilgrimage now making its way northward through Maryland and into Delaware. This feast exists because in the thirteenth century, a numb named Juliana of Liege had a vision. She saw a full moon with a dark spot on it, and understood that the dark spot represented the absence of a feast honoring the body of Christ. In the liturgical calendar. She asked the church to create one, and for decades she was ignored. After her death, the feast was finally established, and now eight hundred years later, every June, the body of Christ is carried to the streets of every city and village on earth where Catholics live. And finally, story number five. Because it was my birthday, we have to talk about Saint Anthony of Padua. Saint Anthony of Padua is one of the most beloved saints in the entire Catholic world. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal in eleven ninety-five. He entered the Augustinian order as a young man and spent years in study, prayer, and obscurity. Then one day, almost by accident, he was called upon to preach at an ordination mass when the expected preacher didn't show up. What poured out of him shocked everyone in the room. Within weeks, Fran Saint Francis of Assisi had made him the first lecture in theology for the entire Franciscan order. He was the greatest pe preacher of his age. drawing crowds of tens of thousands to open fields because no building could hold the people who came to hear him. He died in twelve thirty one at the age of thirty-five, and he was canonized the following year, less than twelve months after his death, one of the fastest canonizations in history. And within three years of his death he was declared a doctor of the church. But here's what most people do not know about Anthony. He is famous as the patron saint of lost things, and millions of people prayed to him to find their keys, their walls, their phones. That's very real and beautiful. But do you know why he became associated with those? Because the novice stole his Psalter, his personal prayer book, filled with his own handwritten notes and commentary, and left the Franciscan Order, taking the book with him. Saint Anthony prayed for its return, and the novice, by his own account, experienced such terrifying visions that he came back, returned the book, and rejoined the order. Saint Anthony didn't just find lost objects, he also finds lost people. The church has him pray for lost things because the greatest lost so thing is a soul. And Saint Anthony spent his entire life in prayer going after lost souls. There's a beautiful prayer attributed to his intercession. Saint Anthony, please come around. Something is lost and cannot be found. It is simple, it's almost childlike, and has been prayed by Catholics for 800 years. Men on this feast day, or past this feast day, but still today is very relevant. I want to leave you with this. You know someone who is lost, maybe it's a son or a daughter. A brother, maybe it's a friend who walked away from the faith. Pray to St. Anthony for them. He is the patron of the lost, not just lost items, but lost people. And he has been finding them for 800 years, and he is not done. Thank you all so much for tuning in for Good News Friday. I really hope you guys are finding enjoyment with this segment. Please let me know in the comments. Make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube wherever you get your podcast channels. If you feel so inclined, please support the podcast at ⁓ buymeacoffee.com. You can find the link. In the show notes, get free coffee, ⁓ get a rosary, ⁓ lots of great content coming out as well. And if you are in the Grand Rapids area on July 18th, ⁓ we are putting on a men's retreat, a silent retreat. Although Father Dom and me are giving ⁓ two talks ⁓ on AI and the importance of men in this day and age, especially with St. Anthony, as we just spoke about. ⁓ a lot of people are feeling lost right now, especially the age of technology. ⁓ AIs are gonna take over jobs, things like that. It's so important to have the human aspect in our world and we can help bring it to you. So make sure you take a look at the link in the show notes as well to check that out. If you're in the area, we'd love to have you join us. And until next time, gentlemen, go out there and be a saint. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the show has added value to your life, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Share with a brother who needs it, leave us a review, and finally support the show so we can keep fighting. Links are in the show notes. We'll see you next week.