LIVE With CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt

And we're live. Welcome back to LOOPcast, coming to you from a top-secret location. I'm joined by CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhart. Kelsey, welcome. Erika, of course. No Josh. He's on Polish TV right now, so he's taking over Poland as we speak, but so happy to be joined by you, Kelsey. We are at a top-secret location. You're going to be leading us on a retreat here.

How are you doing today? Doing great. Yeah, the weather here is lovely. That doesn't give much indication of where we are, but... Is there any other vague weather tips you could give? No, no. Area 51, maybe? Well, awesome. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us live here in the chat. If you want to help us out, go ahead and subscribe, leave us reviews.

But one thing that I noticed when signing up for this episode was, Kelsey, you're the new president. Brian's off eating gelato and hanging out with Pope Leo, and you've got a lot of work ahead of you. And there's not... There is some stuff out there. You've done some stuff now, but I really wanted this to be your first introduction to this kind of, I almost feel like, friendly audience of the LOOPcast we've had for a long time. They've been asking for you, and we just really would like to introduce you fully, get into your full story, and maybe leave us with some fun tidbits of what's ahead.

But before we get into that, Erika. Yeah, we have a sponsor for today's show. Fitting. Sourcing their ingredients from Israel to Italy to the ancient Sechstein seabed, Nazareth Organics handcrafts facial moisturizers, sunscreens, diaper creams, and more using pure and natural ingredients. Many of their balms are tallow-based, thank you, RFK, coming from a local Catholic farm rich in fat-soluble vitamins.

One of their best sellers is a magnesium tallow blend that relaxes muscles for peaceful sleep. I actually gave this to my daughter for Easter. She loves it. From website to packaging, every sustainably sourced product points back to the faith and the ultimate source of creation, God. Visit NazarethOrganics.com and use code LUCAS for a 10% discount at checkout. Don't let dry and irritated skin keep you from finding peace. NazEarthOrganics.com. Awesome. Thank you, Erika. So, the first thing that really stuck out to me about you, Kelsey, is you're now the president of CatholicVote.

You are not the daughter of diplomats or groomed in an elite prep school in the East Coast. I believe your dad, no shade, no shade, no shade on the East Coast, but I believe your dad was a house painter, and you're from Wyoming. I am from the greatest state in the contiguous 48, as I like to say, the great state of Wyoming. A small town, Gillette. As I joke with my husband often, it's the best a man can get.

And so, no, it was a lovely place to grow up. I just remember my last bike ride in my country home, out on a dirt road before leaving to Notre Dame, seeing horses, cattle, smelling a skunk, listening to the Western Meadowlark singing its song, and thinking... Gosh, it was such an idyllic place to grow up, and I'm so grateful for everything it gave me. Harsh winters, but beautiful scenery. Yeah, and I mean, you mentioned Notre Dame there. You're the tallest person at this table.

By far, as a matter of fact. So, you played basketball at Notre Dame. And how do you find your way from Wyoming all the way to Notre Dame? Well, as the article in the Gillette News Record went, Wyoming, Coach McGraw lassos Wyoming recruit Kelsey Wicks. So, she lassoed me. I actually, I sent in a tape. I was being recruited by over 100 Division I schools. And not Notre Dame, and that was my dream school. I watched them play in the Final Four in eighth grade, and I wanted to, I was a, you know, push-up-the-glasses church nerd.

I was a church nerd. In eighth grade, I was like, I want to study theology at a Catholic school, and I want to play basketball there, and so then they went to the Final Four that year, and I thought, that's it. That's perfect. I'll study theology. I will play basketball at Notre Dame. They weren't recruiting me. And my junior year, I scored 41 points in the state championship.

And we lost, unfortunately. Too bad. But I sent in the tape, and as a result, they offered me a scholarship the next year. And so you made this tape. Did you put Gregorian chant over as the music for the hype, or what was it? No, but there was, like, we were the Campbell County Camels, and you... Okay, come on. People are going to accuse you of making things up at this point. You were the Camels? We were the Camels. We are very fierce.

We will spit at you, and we can travel long distances. Without water. Oh, man. It is a large animal. The camels we ride. So, you know, the funny thing is, there's also a Campbell County in Kentucky, and their mascot is also the camels. And so, you know, Americans have this deep love for alliteration. It just runs through the bones of everything that we do. So, Campbell County camels. So, there was a giant camel falling from a building. It was animated that my mom put on the front of the tape.

I just remember that. My brothers, when I, I don't mean to preempt you here a little bit, Tom, but when I entered the convent. My brothers missed me on my birthday. They used to watch this tape every year on my birthday.

This tape isn't out on YouTube or Huddle, is it? No, no. I'm going to try to dig up some archive footage. That would be like a good gift. I'll be in touch. Well, your brother is a basketball coach, right? Yes, both of my brothers played basketball.

In college, and then came back, started coaching careers. Juan is now the head coach at the University of Wyoming, men's basketball. Nice. Yeah. That is awesome. So, you get out to Notre Dame, and I mean, you are the president of Catholic Growth now, but you choose to study theology. Yes, theology and African and African American studies. I really wanted to be an African missionary, and so, yeah, I was such an interesting little kid growing up in Wyoming, deciding that that was my calling.

I don't know how that happened. Yeah, so I studied theology. It was a lovely place. I think about that time a lot right now because of everything that is happening with women's athletics. I have so many heroes right now who are defending that space, and I think of these women who are standing down in order to stand up for women's athletics, and girls refusing to participate in their track events, and really losing out on that experience, or refusing to play in these basketball games so they don't get injured.

And they're really doing something very heroic, and it's costing them a lot, because I remember how much I loved my time. Oh. Did you ever think that that would be the issue that it is now, when you were playing in college? No, and the shocking lack of common sense is what baffles me, because I know that every sophomore 5, 10, and above who is a man basically spends his entire summer learning how to dunk, you know? So, I think that it is pretty obvious that given how many can do that.

The difference between men and women, because there have been less than 10 in the history of the women's game who have been able to dunk in a game. I was going to say, you've got to be pretty close, right? No. I did dunk tennis balls for track practice in college, but no.

Gripping the basketball, you have to have a very, very good... Okay, so all this alluding to your obvious ability. You're dropping 41, you're playing for Notre Dame, you have a great career. And I remember, actually, someone emailed in right after you became the president and said, I remember I was at this basketball tournament, and the best girl on the court said to me after, I want to become a nun. Like, none of this matters, basically. And I was like... There can't, like, that has to be Kelsey.

Like, she didn't know who it was. It's like, that has to be Kelsey. So, you got ahead of me a little bit, but you ended up joining Nashville Dominicans. Yes. So, what was the thought process of you, like...

It seems so countercultural. What was going through your mind when you made that decision? Yeah, well, when I was 14, I really experienced a call to religious life that I ran away from at some point, but then came back to after college.

You know, I think that really ties into actually to some time that I spent as a missionary in Africa. I went to Nigeria, and it was just at the start of Boko Haram, just at the start of the terrorist events. If any of you are following what is happening in Nigeria, it is a real crisis. Over 40,000 Christians have been murdered in the last several years. Every day, there are kidnappings of priests and nuns.

It is a really precarious situation. Well, I was there at the start, and I wanted, I had worked for the U.S. Bishops Conference, I had worked for a voluntary public health agency, and I thought, I cannot decide here, you know, what is most important, but I think I am going to go to law school, and I think I am going to become a humanitarian lawyer. And so, I am in Nigeria, and I realized that... That the corruption is deeper. It's in the human heart, and there's no law that's going to fix that.

Only the real encounter with Jesus Christ will, and I said to myself, Well, if that's the case, what's the most radical thing I could do to be a part of the solution? And I said, I know, I'll give up my life for Jesus, I'll enter a convent. So, probably the wildest email that the Dean of Notre Dame Law School has ever received is, hello, I know I have a scholarship to your law school, and I should be packing up my apartment and moving back there, but would you defer my acceptance and my scholarship?

I was pretty precocious, you know, and the money, too. And give me a year to discern whether I'm supposed to enter religious life. And they agreed. And, of course, what ended up happening was that I met the Nashville Dominicans and became a Dominican sister of St. Cecilia. Did you discern with the great sister, Catherine Marie? Was it Catherine Marie Hopkins?

Yes, Catherine Marie Hopkins was there, and Sister Catherine Marie. Unforgettable for anyone who discerned Dominican life in the early 2000s. Is that from personal experience for you? Yeah, that is from personal experience. And maybe you have similar answers to this, but what drew you specifically to the Nashville Dominicans?

Well, two things. One, I had heard about them from the time that I was 16. Someone had mentioned that they were playing streetball on the courts of Memphis. Kelsey's like, bingo, that was me. I'm taking the camel, I'm going out to Nashville. Yeah, you're a teenager talking about religious life. Have you met these sisters? And I said, no, so that was the first time I'd ever heard of them. And then when I visited, the really kinesthetic part of their prayer, it is a very incarnational prayer.

You bow, you genuflect, you turn, you make movements. Dominic has the nine ways of prayer, which are all very bodily. So, it felt very athletic to me. I was very at home with the way in which their spirituality both fed the mind. Also the soul, also the body. And then when I was there, we played Ultimate Frisbee on the front 40, as they call it, the front 40 acres. And I imagine you are a nightmare for just like a fade route.

I imagine, like, there can't be many nuns touching you. Actually, at a certain point, I was banned from athletics. For athletics. You're the coach now. For my novice feast day, they do something special for you when you're a novice. And for my novice feast day, they actually allowed me to play No Mercy basketball. Where it was just me against four of them. And they said, play as hard as you want. Because, you know, you're diplomatic, you're learning virtue, you're in your formation.

So, I would, you know, play very kindly against the sisters. Oh, here's a pass. And, you know, you shoot now, you know. And so, they were like, we know that you really want to get, you know, get out there.

Cut the governor off. Let's see what happens. And also, I know that you're very inspired by St. Joan of Arc. I believe that. You took that as your name. Yes, my religious name was Sister Joan of Arc, and I consider St. Joan of Arc to be a best friend.

From the time that I read her biography by Mark Twain when I was 15, I was won over immediately to her cause. And I think she says something important to us about the political sphere. You know, God cares about the fate of nations, and Ross Douthat just wrote an interesting article. Interesting, yep. On St. Joan of Arc recently, and I have studied a lot of her life and a lot of the history, and when you look at when she died in 1431, what would happen almost a century later, if France had been an English duchy, what would have happened to the faith of the French?

After Henry VIII, right? After Henry VIII, yes. And so, France sort of becomes the dividing line between the Catholic nations in the South, Spain, and the Protestant nations in the North, and the Anglicans in England. And so, really, you know, France, her mission was to crown the rightful king. Her mission was to free the French. ...from the English, and she accomplished that, and I think, you know, why does God care about France existing as France? Well, maybe because so many souls were bound up in that, and I think, you know, we're each born into a nation and a place and a time, and she really teaches us that God does care about what happens in that nation, in that place, in that time.

That's amazing. That's like the perfect thing. That segues into you getting involved with us, which I'm so happy you're here. But before we get to that, I think we have one more ad. Oh, yes, we do have one more ad. I will pull that up. It might take me a second here, but we have home title lock. Are you glad we have this kind of security? Did you know?

Did you know that American homeowners have over $32 trillion in equity, and criminals are targeting it with a growing scam the FBI calls house stealing? Scammers can transfer your title out of your name using a one-page document they file at the county, and then they can take out loans against it or even sell it behind your back. And the scariest part? You won't find out about it until it is too late and the collection or foreclosure notices start arriving in your mailbox.

Leaving you with a financial and legal nightmare. The best way to protect your equity is with Home Title Lock's exclusive million-dollar triple lock protection. This service offers 24-7 monitoring, urgent alerts, and if fraud should occur, their U.S.-based restoration team will spend up to $1 million to fix the fraud and restore your title. So, when was the last time you checked on your title? If you are like me, the answer is never. Until Home Title Lock started advertising with us, and then I sure did.

And that's exactly what scammers are counting on. The good news is, we have partnered with Home Title Lock to offer you all 60 days for just $1. So, click the link in the description in the show notes below, and use our promo code LOOP60 to get 60 days for just $1, and you will also get a free title history report to ensure you are not already a victim. And make sure you check out the million-dollar triple lock. When you get there, click the link below and promo code LOOP60.

Can I ask her one more question before we leave Nashville? Please go. Not at all. All right. So, you mentioned St. Joan of Arc, obviously, but the formation of the Nashville Dominicans is top tier. I mean, it has a phenomenal reputation. You study philosophy, theology. Who were some of the thinkers that you encountered, the formation that you received there, that you have taken with you into this new role? Great question. Well, I think that Thomas Aquinas forever marks the soul of the Dominican.

Angelic doctor. Got to get that out of the way. I have slightly controversial opinions about the way in which he is being taught, which Sister Anna Ray was the one who opened my eyes on this, just really looking at the disputatio as more of a fluid method. I think sometimes we can go to Thomas as like, The answer key. The answer key, as opposed to, let us think through this, let us do the exercise, let us actually contend with anything else that could be an explanation for this reality.

Yes, strongman the opposition, always. Yes, and so, St. Thomas Aquinas, definitely. I think that some of the spiritual thinkers in the Dominicans, their spiritual theology is phenomenal. Father Jordan Amon, Garigou Lagrange. We read Tanqueray. I mean, just the virtue ethics there.

Phenomenal surveys, Pinkares. I mean, everyone has sort of popularized already his freedom for instead of freedom from, and that really came from him, and I do think we are on the cusp of seeing the Beatitudes connected to the virtues and a lot more of a Holy Spirit-led kind of virtue ethic and Christian life. And then lastly, I would add in Catherine of Siena, speaking of spirit-led. You know, nobody was bolder than her. Nobody was an example of spiritual motherhood more than she was in that time period that she existed in, bringing back the Pope from Avignon.

Yeah, talk about political involvement. She was like the princes, the Florentine, like she was definitely. Bringing Christ into politics. If I have one dream, it is to be as impactful as St. Catherine of Siena, that you have to travel with five confessors, because you are actually converting so many people along the way that they know that they have to go to confession. We have five here with us, right? At our Area 51 retreat, there are at least five confessors. It is going to be sweet.

That is right. So, you are obviously not a nun right now. That is correct. But you were there for a little while. Eight years, I understand? Nine years, yep. Nine years, okay. I left just before making Final Vows. You were there nine years, and that, so, okay, what is going through your head? You were there so long, and then you decided to leave, and then you leave into, I believe you were at CNA, and you were doing international journalism at that point, or take me through you deciding to leave, and then where that legend ends.

Sure, sure. Well, people often ask, why do you leave? And I say, for the same reason that you enter. You are in a process of discernment of God's will. And the single most important thing is that you follow His will as it's revealed. And so, in a bit of a mysterious movement, I was like, wow, this is God. Really, this is what you're asking of me right now? And, you know, I think that it was a difficult transition, but certainly now I'm beginning to realize why He would want someone who had prayed for three and a half hours a day for nine years and studied moral theology and philosophy.

Well, yeah, you have to work with Josh. So, I discerned out, and it takes a little while to get on your feet, but then shortly after that, I began working actually as an operations person for Catholic News Agency and five international news agencies, and shortly after I began that, the executive director stepped down and...

I was promoted up. Actually, it was kind of an interesting weekend, because it happened the same weekend that my apartment got set on fire. It was Good Friday, actually, as well, and so Easter Tuesday, I get this call, you know, will you become the interim executive director of Catholic News Agency and these six international news agencies? At that time, we had founded another one in Iraq. And I said, yes, this is great. I just cannot help but think in headlines, you know, homeless former nun gets top job at Catholic News Agency.

He giveth and he taketh away. That was fun, but it actually ended up leading to my meeting my husband in this roundabout way through St. Rose of Lima, another Dominican, and so I am really grateful that my apartment caught on fire on Good Friday. Yeah, and also, your husband played tight end for Oregon, right? That is correct. So, I mean, you guys. Oh, my gosh. How tall is he?

He is a big gentleman, right? Yeah, he is about 6'5", yeah. He giveth and he taketh away. That is awesome. Okay, so something I am really interested in, it is so international, and so now... Not to say we get lost in the domestic. Like, I am American. I have only ever lived in America. We work for Catholic Will. We focus on a lot of domestic stuff. I am so happy that you have that international experience to kind of bring back, to give us perspective into that world.

How did that form you before eventually coming over here? What was that like? That is a fantastic question, and I say to everyone, you know, when you travel abroad, you really begin to understand the beauty of America. And really, I mean this, too, with diocese and things. I consider the Archdiocese of Denver to be one of the best in the entire world.

And having seen, you know, the beauty of new churches springing up and the decline of other churches, you know, pouring out numbers in places in the world, the struggling and martyred church in the Middle East, you really begin to realize that we have something so special and so deep here in American Catholicism. There's an element of catechesis that's really robust. There's an element of evangelization, I think, of the great ministries like Focus and others who are going outward, who they're not content just with keeping the faith.

Inside, they're moving the needle and re-evangelizing other parts of the United States and the world, and that's what you see when you travel internationally. It's American Catholicism and America, you know, the economics, the freedom, everything. It's unique. No, it's good. I think I wanted to ask, too, as you were coming on with CatholicVote, and again, so glad you're here. It seems like such an amazing time. We had the election last fall, just incredible, like, covering that and thinking, like, this is, I almost feel like we, with the election, the way that it went with Trump.

We got kind of a reprieve, and at the time, if it had gone the other way, we'd be having a very different conversation, right? Well, I mean, you wouldn't be here. Brian would maybe be here, maybe be in jail. I don't know.

We were prepared for that, but where do you see America and the American church now? As you've come into CatholicVote, we've had this momentous election. We see these... You know, different changes being enacted in politics, real world decisions being made. Where do you see CatholicVote now at this moment in American history, with you coming on the helm? Well, this is the Catholic moment, and it is a real moment for CatholicVote, too, because I do think we participated in this pause and in this realignment, and it was so necessary for the health and future of our country that we can walk back some of these things that are so antithetical to common sense and to Christian values.

And, you know, we see, I was thinking recently of how many victories have been accumulated. For Catholics in the public square, you know, the historic defunding of Planned Parenthood, 41 closures across the country now at this point. When we look at, you know, new provisions for school choice, latest estimates indicate that $35 billion could go towards Catholic and private schools in order to assist their missions. When we look at... The gender question. You can't escape it. It is a tenant of the faith.

We are born male and female, and the surrender that comes with the abuse of language, the surrender of reality, and we know this because we know how important language is in the abortion fight, but we have seen now that language has its own descriptive force.

In the transgender… Questions. And so, looking at just these basic revelations that we as Catholics hold dear, that life should be preserved, that we are born male and female, that we have certain dignity, that, you know, and that dignity extends into the economic realm. I am sure you are going to mention Rerum Novarum here. Yes, I am revving up. I had the staff read that. There is a really exciting line in there when it talks about Pope Leo talks about the church, the previous Pope Leo, talks about the church having care for the body, soul, and property of man, and so, you know, we look at assaults on property, we look at the importance of being able to have affordable housing for a true civilization of love.

If you want people to have babies, I think they have to be able to have houses. It helps to house the babies, for sure. Yeah, and I was a little bit more, you mentioned some very specific wins there in terms of... And resetting and drawing America back to her original greatness. One of the other, the lines in Rerum Novarum that struck me as I was reading it on the plane over to our secret location was how important it is for states and governments to constantly recall themselves to their original goals, their original constitutions, their original founding.

And I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about that. How do you see sort of the Catholic mission to recall America to her greatness? We had Larry Arnn, you know, digging in last week a little bit about there's no such thing as a Christian nation, and people would certainly argue, I think, in the mainstream that America is not a Catholic nation. And so they might feel a little bit like, oh, wait, the Catholics are going to come in and save us, like, oh, you know, imposing their morality and their religion.

How do you respond to sort of... Those challenges to, well, Catholics have their first loyalty to Rome and the Pope, not to the Constitution of the United States. Yeah, well, I certainly think that Catholics have this secret weapon called natural law, and so when we recall that we're reminding the nation of its founding, its founding is for the common good, and this, you know, by the way, is an important point that's not lost on Aquinas. Why do you vote for leaders?

You don't actually have to vote for leaders because they're saintly, he says. You vote for leaders. Who will preserve and protect the common good? De Regno. And so, you know, what CatholicVote exists to do is to bring us into this era of common good, human flourishing, looking at all the policies that... That achieve those ends, and reminding the state, and reminding the people. Pope Leo talks about, you know, virtue being the common good of a society, so we have to, we have a lot of work to do in the formation of conscience, and in the inspiration of living the truths of the faith in the public square, but the state certainly can be recalled to its common good as the first founding.

Yeah, very much so. One more question, and then I will let you go. Go for it. So, you mentioned you do not have to vote for leaders who are saintly themselves, right? And I think one of the frustrations I had as a Catholic during the last election cycle was trying to convince other Catholics to get in the arena, because they would see how messy it can be to make a choice and to stand behind a candidate who is less than saintly, or they are frustrated because we do not agree with everything that...

A certain political party says, or the other, and we certainly can't go for the other, so their thought is, well, let's just be like the Ents, right, and we're just going to go into our forest, and how do you talk to Catholics who are maybe hesitant to get into the mud and get into the arena, to use the Teddy Roosevelt metaphor? Oh, boy. Well, there's a tension here between the preservation of conscience and then the duty of lay Catholics to... Participate in the political sphere.

I think that there can be a temptation to what I call political pietism. It's not just an indifference. It's an indifference that's covered with holiness, in the sense of, like, I'm holier if I absent myself from this dirty, messy, compromising thing called the political order. And I think that that temptation affects a lot of American Catholics. It's easier.

And with the veneer of holiness, right, it's even self-satisfying. It's always nice to feel holy, I mean. It is pretty sick. Feeling holy is awesome, yeah. We have to ask ourselves if it is so dirty and so messy and so complicated because we have absented ourselves. And, you know, I look at the state of Colorado, and I look at how much we've let go in society. I mean, almost, you know, I think seven Supreme Court cases have come from... Almost every bad policy, if it is not from California, comes from Colorado.

There has been an absence there of the Christian worldview. We have let things go too far, and you see this in where we are at right now. We have a small moment of reprieve, which we need to extend and make permanent, and that only happens when Catholics get engaged.

In the political sphere, and that does not mean that you have to run for office, and that does not mean that you have to... Although, school board, you should check it out. Yeah, for sure. But it does mean that you have to register, you have to vote, you have to be an informed citizen, and you have to participate. Sounds like our mission. Yeah. Sounds like CatholicVote. So, I am going to ask a selfish question here, because you set the table well philosophically, but...

Brian was the president of CatholicVote for like 18 years. He gets this amazing opportunity with Pope Leo. Even the fact that we have a pope from Chicago is crazy. A lot of people love CatholicVote. There has been a rabid following for a long time, and working here, I love working here. You could have gone a lot of different places. You have lived eight lives now, I think, at this point. Very impressive. Why did you choose here? What do you want to do here?

What opportunities do you see, and where do you want to go? Yeah, I think that there is a moment right now, I call it the Catholic moment, with an American Pope, obviously Brian Birch as ambassador to the U.S. Holy See, conversions rising, Gen Z reexamining the faith. Gen Z rocks. In an unprecedented level, and I think that there is a moment here of...

The true recovery of the soul of the nation, that reorientation toward the common good that is possible, it requires a spiritual impetus as well as a political impetus, and that is why CatholicVote. Billy Graham, his team used to pray, and they didn't pray to fill the stadiums. They prayed to change the heart of the city.

And that is what our mission has to be. It's how do you affect the deepest political change? It's changing the hearts of the persons who are in that body politic, and we are called to change the city of man into the city of God. And so, looking at that spiritual renewal, that impetus, that return to the founding of America, as you know, Tom, next year is the semi-sequentennial, did I pronounce that right? Say that again, yeah.

I'm not going to try to say that. It's the Jubilee year for America. Okay. It's America 250. It is our Jubilee, and it's a moment of reclaiming those truths that we knew to be self-evident, you know? That God has endowed all men with these inalienable rights, that we do live in a free society, that we do want...

The common good to include, you know, the protection of lives of the unborn, the affordable housing, you know, something that we haven't touched on, you know, Maha. We do want health to be a component of the societal... Nazareth organics. Well, something on that point, I remember starting here, and I think there was advocacy organizations that were just really focused on one issue, say the pro-life issue, and what stuck out to me about CatholicVote was, I think Brian or Josh would always say...

Catholics deserve a seat at the table for every conversation. And so, Maha, I feel like adds into this in that there is such an intellectual treasure trove for people to tap into, and Catholics should not just shy away if it is not, say, about abortion. This actually comes to the table with the immigration question, with the housing question, with families, pro-family policies. So, I like to hear you say that, and that is something I feel like I really hold dear in, like, I think what Maha teaches us is that there has to be a cultural impetus for solutions.

You know, moms have tried for a long time to remove red dye from their foods. Okay, honey, no red Gatorades. Okay, honey, no Froot Loops. Okay, honey, no. You have to be very intentional to cut across the grain like that. And you don't think about all the things, like glyphosate or, you know, the chemicals whose names I can't pronounce, right?

And all of a sudden, when you have a culture-wide solution, like MAHA, like, you know, you have this directive that says, okay, we're going to make food standards X. Now, each individual mom doesn't have to go in and say, I have to sort through everything. I have to be the… The mom who's on top of everything, they can just go in and trust that health is the priority that the food industry is getting. Right, and I think, too, of food justice with that, too, because we think of the poor in our nation who, for so long, all they can afford is the junk food.

That's right. And they're being pumped with all of these, and I think not only health for our bodies, but justice for our society in terms of... Just for society, yeah, because this is a microcosm of the larger conversation of everything, because I've been thinking in terms of, like, the child tax credit. Like, yes, if you want to have kids in America, or we can design society for the common good to actually hit replacement rate, or just actually prioritize the lives of Americans trying to raise kids to be the future through tax policy, you know?

Like, there's a lot of different creative solutions you can get to, and it's not just a stupid little issue. Like, the food, I think, is a great example of this. Like, actually poisoning our... Children, not a stupid issue. We can all get behind that, right? Yeah, right. If we can get over our Trump derangement syndrome. When you say that it's a moment of opportunity now, I see part of the rise of Trump and the populist movement, it speaks to a deep dissatisfaction with the way things are, right, over the last Americans waking up to, wait, we don't have to live this way.

We could just do stuff, and that opens up a conversation where, like you said, I think Catholics are. Unique among all Christians that we have the rigorous intellectual traditions on all these issues, and we see the connections between them, and we can articulate that, and it's not just, you know, oh, well, you know, in the Bible, they ate grains, and, you know, so we're going to eat whole grains. It's like, well, but why, right? Back to natural law, right? Everything's cyclical.

It'll come back one day. But, yeah, that moment of opportunity. Not just the opening of political opportunity, but the opening of American consciences and hearts to a new way of thinking about things, a new solution, which is really not new at all, right? It's ever ancient, ever new. That's right.

Yeah, really exciting. I couldn't agree more with you, Erika. There's a real need to have... And this is why the solutions have to be not single-issue solutions. They have to be within a fabric of a culture, and you're creating a culture. A culture of what? A culture of the common good. And so, every one of these has to interplay with the other, so that it's not just, you know, I mean, and abortion isn't just tied to, the question of life isn't just tied to its own sake, you know.

It's in the civilization. It's in the affordable housing. In education, it's in everything. It's all tied in. Even if you wanted to, you cannot affect the change that you desire by pursuing just one thing. You have to be at the greatest thing. Yeah, and we saw this after Dobbs, right, with the massive reaction against Dobbs from the pro-abortion movement. It was like, oh, you only care about babies until they're born. It's like, no, no, no. Let's check out all the pregnancy care centers.

Let's check out. Schools and free education. Let's stop firebombing them. Yeah, let's stop firebombing them would be a good baseline, like we all agree, but yeah, it's very exciting to be Catholic, right? It is. And Kelsey, I don't want to take too much of your time. I know we're running up at the end. So, two things. I think some people in the chat are asking, I don't want you to reveal any sensitive plans, but if there's maybe one thing to get people excited about for the future, and then the second, we're about to go into this retreat in which we all refresh, refocus, and come out locked in.

On a personal note, do you have any, like a quote, or a spirituality, or something that is really inspiring you now, or kind of always has, that you can maybe leave us with? Great. Well, I think as to the exciting thing that is coming, as I mentioned, the Semi-Susquintennial, the America 250 is going to be a big moment for CatholicVote. We are going to weigh in heavily and hard at this renewal of the soul of the nation through a couple of ways that I am not going to announce yet, but I will tease.

We will be very exciting. We will be spiritually enriching, educationally engaging, and... And even imaginative and delightful, so look forward to that. Isn't part of it, it's going to be at the Iowa State Fair, or that's a big part of... Well, that will be the culmination of a lot of events, but the whole year, it's very much like the Jubilee year that's going on in Rome right now. Every weekend, there's a new group that celebrates it and does their kind of journey through the holy doors.

Well, here in the United States, there's going to be lots of different things that we celebrate from the independence. The Declaration of Independence, I think, which will possibly travel, as it did in 1776. Oh, amazing. And, you know, to the Iowa Fair, to the National Mall, we'll be hosting a big event. And so, yeah, there's some big events that are coming on the horizon in 2026. I've cleared my homeschool calendar. Homeschooling this year is just... Sorry, kids, we're just traveling with the Declaration.

And, yeah, don't quote me on that one. All right, all right. That might not be traveling this time. It's a good idea, though. It did in 1776, though, to much fanfare and delight. So, and then, as to a quote, you know, I definitely am inspired by, there's a papal theologian by the name of Father Wojciech Giertek, Dominican, and he talks about the living of the theological virtues, and This sort of expansiveness of heart, you know, I listened to a talk where he said, you know, a mechanic can have, you know, as much spiritual growth as a priest or a king, you know, based upon how much room they are giving God in their soul.

And so, I just think, you know, making simple acts of faith, hope, and love throughout the day can be a transformative experience that... For busy persons, for people in vocations that require a lot of their time to be divided, it is a really beautiful spirituality to embrace and to live. So, I say, make acts of faith, hope, and love as often as you can with as much fervor as the Holy Spirit can give you. Awesome. Amen.

Thank you for your time, Kelsey. I'm inspired. Thank you. That's all we got. This is great. Go Camels. Shout out to Wyoming. But, if you want to help us out, go ahead and subscribe, YouTube. We have another episode of The Deep Coming, Erika. Yes, we do. Yeah, this one is a controversial one, right, Simon?

Yeah. But on a programming note, so we will be in this top secret Area 51 maybe retreat. So, Wednesday, we will not be having a live show. We will have the deep episode Thursday, and then we'll be back on track Friday. We'll all be back ready to rock, but do we have daily prayer today?

Kelsey, I am glad I had you here for this. Maybe we should make an act of faith. As someone who is much holier than I. Do you have an act of faith that you say that is specific? I just make it up every time, but let us do it. All right, you can lead us. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Amen.

Jesus, I make an act of faith in your presence in the Eucharist. I believe that you are truly present there, and I ask you to prepare me for my next Holy Communion. And I welcome you spiritually now into my heart, where you are already present through baptism. Amen. St. Thomas More, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. Pray for us. We'll catch you guys on the flip. Thank you for joining.