Forte Catholic Podcast: Making Catholicism Fun Again

Fr. Anthony is back to discuss the lost years of Jesus with Taylor. There is ONE verse that covers the majority of Jesus' life from when He is a teen until His public ministry. We talk about what this verse means for our own spiritual growth & some Father gives some practical tips. They also discuss one of Taylor's leadership heroes, Zig Ziglar. He played a large role in Taylor's formation in college so they discuss some of his most famous quotes. Then finally, the moment you've all been waiting for...Fr. Anthony does the hot ones challenge. While he eats progressively hotter hot sauces, Taylor asks him questions about fire in the Bible & gets his thoughts on some Catholic hot takes. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Con

This episode was recorded on the Eve of the Nativity of the Taylor. He & Liv reflect on the ups & downs of his "Jesus year" as his birthday drew near. The celebrations continue as Taylor shares the excitement of his sister's wedding this past weekend, the joy of family gatherings & reflecting on the past. They also discuss some breakthroughs they have both made in their personal and spiritual lives, including a bizzarre realization Taylor had about Zechariah & Mary where he argues that either God likes his favorite girls more than his favorite boys OR the Archangel Gabriel learned a valuable lesson! We hope you enjoy this off the rails final segment! :) Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Taylor was put in a couple scenarios that we so awkward and we wasn't sure if he was the jerk or if it was the people who put him in those situations. So he turns to Kathryn for wisdom and guidance after sharing the stories. They also discuss how Taylor is currently in a never-ending Mass, Taylor calls Kathryn out on one of her beloved Aggie traditions & they work through some feedback they received from a priest who listens to the show. Kathryn closes the show by sharing about the importance of being good stewards of the gifts God has given us. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Taylor explains that he's an idiot that keeps making the wrong choice with cohost Shaun McAfee. They discuss how getting old and pride aren't mixing well & the lessons he still needs to learn. This episode also has the RARE occasion where the Catechism is quoted. Taylor has been talking about his struggles in prayer over the past few weeks and found that the Catechism actually has a section for people struggling with prayer. Who knew!?!? Shaun shares his sage advice throughout the episode. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Allison joins Taylor as he shares about something most people keep pretty close to their chest: money. He shares that money has been a constant stressor for over a decade and Allison thinks he's not alone. They discuss financial stressors, the pit of comparison & what role money plays in on spiritual lives. In the second segment, Allison helps Taylor prep for two new talks on the Vine & Branches and Martha & Mary. They discuss the Scriptural texts, their thoughts on what they would preach about and how to adapt it for a younger audience. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Liv Harrison is back in studio to talk with Taylor about Main Character Energy. We all think from our own point of view, so how do we break out of thinking we're the main character in the story. Taylor shares a strange tactic he uses to try and not make everything about him. Liv shares about her new tattoos & alliterative faith advice. Taylor is incredibly proud of one of his jokes & they discuss a possible solution to dryness in prayer. We hope you enjoy this episode! Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Taylor & his kids were on their own this last weekend and it was a glimpse into how much things have changed over the years. We often don't notice gradual change until something special happens(like a rare weekend where Taylor's wife gets a break). Kathryn also shares how she has been in a season of change and the importance of continual change in the spiritual life. Next, Taylor shares a story about how he saw a grown man shaming some teenagers and it enraged him. He & Kathryn talk about battling shame and how it has no proper place in the lives of Christians. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Shaun is back! One of the OG cohosts returns for a fun conversation. How to live your faith in the workplace has been a frequently requested topic for us to tackle so we finally found someone who doesn't work for the Church lol. Shaun talks about how he is able to live his faith in his fancy government job. They also talk about Sacramentals which is one of Shaun's favorite topics & Taylor doesn't understand all the hubbub. Shaun does his best to convince Taylor of their importance in the lives of Catholics. It's almost like he wrote a book about them or something...(https://tanbooks.com/products/books/compendium-of-sacramentals-encyclopedia-of-the-churchs-blessings-signs-and-devotions/) Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic

Taylor & Allison both share about their vastly different summers. Allison took on a new mission while Taylor dealt with something he never thought he would have to. They also discuss what we can still learn from Moses 4000 years later about choosing the right thing even if it's not the easy thing. They also chat about a moving story about how positive reinforcements can truly work wonders. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

When Taylor visited Fr. Anthony in Pittsburgh, Father made him watch wrestling for the first time and it was an...interesting experience to say the least. They talk about how it was going well for a while until...well...then it wasn't lol. The guys introduce a new game: Catholic Word Association. They have some ho-hum answers but some that get them all riled up that they discuss for a while. A wide gamut of topics! Finally, Taylor shares some wild claims about himself & Jesus. Comparing yourself to Jesus ALWAYS goes well. He also makes claims about Jesus' liturgical preferences, His views on lights in Church, healing ministry & Catholic conferences. It's a blast! Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

The Johnny Manziel documentary just came out. Kathryn is a fan of Johnny. Taylor can't stand him! They discuss a plethora of topics surrounding this Texas A&M College Football star, his rise, fall & how we are left to sort through the wreckage. While Johnny is the impetus for our conversation, we discuss topics from a Catholic point of view like tribalism, sports, consequences for our actions, forgiveness & how all of those things together make life a bit more complicated than we might like. This is a rare ONE SEGMENT episode because there was just so much to dive in to on this topic. We hope you enjoy this rare episode :) Check out Kathyrn's viral open letter to Johnny here: https://kathrynwhitaker.net/2013/02/an-open-letter-to-johnny-football/ Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on

Guest Cohost Chris Bartlett joins Taylor to discuss the frustration of not being given parameters within which to work, how that works when they're invited to speak somewhere & topics they typically don't share about. For example, Taylor doesn't usually speak about Mary because it isn't his strongest topic, but he tests out some new material on Chris to see if he should expand his horizons or stick with the status quo (que High School Musical) Then, Taylor finally has a worthy challenger for Freestyle Preaching. The guys take turns giving 60 second sermons on the spot where they have to include three random words given to them by their challenger. Can these two guys who have been giving random youth ministry talks for decades rise to the occasion? Finally, Chris bring up a situation that got brought up in his family in regards to nostalgia. This leads to a conversation about the Care Bears & Taylor has to hold back the tears. Because of the Care Bears? You'll have to listen to the end to find out ;) Listen t

Our 350th Episode Live from Fr. Anthony's Rectory! They discuss a fancy candlelit Mass that Taylor attended & Fr. Anthony's parish. They have a conversation about fancy Churches, prayer entrapment & the grace of ordination. They also have a long awaited conversation about the morality of the zombie apocalypse! What would you do!?!? Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Liv Harrison makes her triumphant return after taking a break from the show for a year! She & Taylor share about the best things that have happened in her life over the past year in our Chicken Soup for the Schroll segment. Next, Taylor shares his newest obsession in an app that allows you to text with Jesus, Mary & other biblical characters through the magic of Chat GPT. He & Liv ask their favorite biblical characters questions live on the show. It's incredible how well it works! It may have forever changed how Taylor prays & does show prep, for better or worse. To close out the show, they discuss one half of the summer blockbuster sensation weekend in Oppenheimer. They have differing opinions on how good the movie is & discuss the themes of the movie through a Catholic lens. It's mostly spoiler-free until the last couple minutes where we give a warning if you haven't seen the movie yet. Enjoy! Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help othe

Taylor kicks off the show by asking Kathryn about her history with sports. They discuss how to break a slump in sports and what that teaches us about breaking slumps in our faith. Kathryn also gives the best sports team name of all time! Next, they play the faith based version of the alphabet game. They attempt to have discussions about faith topics with every alternating sentences that have to start with the next letter in the alphabet. It's silly and leads to some outrageous statements. Finally, Taylor realizes that he doesn't know much about Kathryn's childhood so they share stories about how they're very similar now to as they were as kids and some other ways where they are very different. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/forteca

Fr. Anthony is back from a well-deserved family vacation and joins Taylor to share about the important of rejuvenation, especially for priests. He talks about how changing up the normal routine, spending time with family and simplifying life is good. Taylor shares about a recent Sunday gospel that he struggled with. Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden light, but it often feels heavy. He shares a hilarious experience he had with the homily that day and Fr. Anthony shares his insight into how Jesus can lighten our burdens. Finally, Taylor has two questions about when a priest is In Persona Christi & when he isn't particularly during the Mass. What if a priest says something crazy during a homily? Is the priest as Jesus eating Jesus' body in the Eucharist. New and strange questions that we enjoyed exploring the answers to. We hope you enjoy this episode :) Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a

Allison did her homework from a few episodes ago & took the spiritual gifts assement. Taylor guesses what her results were before she reveals her top 6 gifts that God has given her. It leads to a good conversation about using our gifts to build the kingdom, dusting off some unused gifts and finding our place in the Church community. In the second segment, Taylor talks with Nick Senz who compares some of our Church's greatest saints with NBA legends. It was a fun segment for Taylor because he knows more about NBA stars than saints so we got to hear some great saint stories. Whether you're a fan of the NBA, stories of the saints of both, you'll love this fun conversation. Allison is back for the final segment to ask some of her favorite "21 questions" to keep him on his toes. The questions range from fun to hitting Taylor like a freight train. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave

In this episode, we learn that regular Kathryn, lake Kathryn & summer Kathryn are VERY different people. She & Taylor discuss attempting to slow down during the summer months, bingeing on every aspect of life in an attempt to find some semblance of balance & share their very different workout routines (who's surprised?) Kathryn shares about getting ready to send 3 kids off to college this Fall, the difference between setting up boys & girls dorms & her outlook on parenting kids through college. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Fr. Will Rooney rejoins Taylor in the studio to discuss his new assignment as a first time pastor. Fr. Will has been the associate pastor at Taylor's parish for a year. They talk about his going away party that was thrown for him by the pastor that was really special. It was an evening where everyone was invited to share how Fr. Will had been a father to them during his time at the parish. Taylor shares how Fr. Will has both been a father & a brother to him & Fr. Will shares some of his favorite moments as a priest here and what lessons he is taking with him to his new parish. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect

Allison led a group of Pilgrims through the steps of St. Paul on a river cruise through Greece. She shares how they visited a ton of sites you've heard about in the Scriptures and reveals whether her thoughts on St. Paul have changed or not. She also shares one of the most wild and random takes we've ever heard on the show that simply floors Taylor. Taylor recounts a story of him hosting trivia and how one group of people ruined it for everyone else. He somehow blames Allison and they discuss how Christians have to be better representatives in public spaces. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect