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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
B
Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on Demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing. It makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy modern world.
- [00:21]
C
How about something about a comedic tone?
- [00:26]
B
We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong and Getty on Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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D
Welcome to Niche World podcast on the iHeart podcast network. You know, the Ukraine war is now longer than World War I. Think about that. All of World War I occurred in a shorter time than the fight between Ukraine and Russia. And I have to say, Putin has become more and more evil, more and more destructive. The recent deliberate attacks on churches and basilicas and places like that, it's just incomprehensible why Putin is behaving in such a barbaric way. But we've now had over 1569 days, more than four years and three months of this war, and it is now longer than World War I. I hope it will end soon, but Putin seems willing to have as many young Russians die as necessary to sustain the fight. So we will see what happens. We were very fortunate to welcome the President who came to the G7 meeting. And we are going to have a signing ceremony between Iran and the United States in Switzerland on Friday. It's going to be complicated. You're going to have to police it all the time. This is not like World War II, where we defeated Nazi Germany and Japan decisively. This is a negotiation and everybody will be marginally unhappy. But I think that Iran is much weaker in its ability to get to nuclear weapons, and I think that they are going to, in fact, be more controlled. No one is going to back off. And I think that you're going to find that we're willing to do what it takes to police it. Current reports are that they will be signed at the Burgenstock resort near the city of Luzerne, which is an extraordinarily beautiful resort, and that the vice President will be here for that purpose. And the President indicated that the text agreement will be made public after the American and Iranian leaders formally signed the agreement. Coming up, Grady Connolly will be joining me, and we're going to discuss his remarkable journey visiting all 94 minor basilicas in the United States and the story behind his new book, A Pilgrim's Guide to America's Most Remarkable Catholic Churches. That's next.
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A
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- [03:33]
B
Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on Demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Arms. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy
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C
modern world about something about a comedic tone.
- [03:55]
B
We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong and Yeti on Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [04:09]
D
I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, Grady Connelly. He's the founder and president of Social Thomas, a Catholic social media company focused on helping creators and organizations share meaningful content online. And he's the author of a new book, A Pilgrim's Guide to America's Most Remarkable Catholic Churches, where he chronicles his journey visiting all 94 minor basilicas across the country. Grady, welcome and thank you for joining me on Newts World.
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C
Mr. Speaker, it's great to be with you and appreciate you having me on.
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D
You grew up in Southern Maine and you describe as always being drawn to work and purpose. What was there about growing up in Southern Maine, do you think helped shape you in that direction?
- [04:57]
C
Absolutely. So my parents are both very hard working people. They grew up in the Boston area and they went through a bit of a conversion after their marriage and moved to Maine. And my dad's a house cleaner. My mom works in customer service. They've always been very hardworking people people. And you know, we had a nice piece of land, a garden. My dad has a green thumb. So he really taught us the importance of hard work and dedication and he always taught us that, you know, if you're going to do something, do it well and do it right. And that's kind of what led me through. Everything I've tried to do is really follow his lead and follow his model. And you know, Maine is a beautiful place. The faith in Maine isn't as vibrant as other parts of the country, but it's a really incredible state that has so much to offer great people, a lot of natural beauty. And I think it really raised me in kind of those formative years that I just fell in love with our country and just what it means to be an American.
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D
What town were you in in Southern Maine?
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C
It's a town called Shapleey, which is on the southern tip of Maine, kind of around the New Hampshire border.
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D
And what's the population of Shapley?
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C
I don't even know if I could tell you. It's small. You know, we have a blinking light in the middle of the town. That's pretty much the excitement of the town.
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D
Your parents really focused on having a good life, working hard, and giving you the kind of values that I think have made you who you are now. You earned the Archdiocesan Scholarship to the Catholic University of America, which is one of a handful of full tuition awards, plus enough additional scholarships to cover room and board. How did it occur to you to apply for that? And what did it mean to you when they said yes?
- [06:39]
C
Well, first and foremost, it was nothing of my own doing. This is entirely God's work and God's grace. I visited D.C. when I was a sophomore in high school, actually, for the March for Life, and I visited the Basilica. I came to Catholic University and thought, wow, this is where I want to go to school. I want to come here so bad. And at the time, I didn't really know about the Archdiocesan Scholarship, but in my research and just kind of digging, I found it and thought, that's my one shot. And my parents could never pay for me to go to a school like that. So they just said, pray about it, work hard, and we'll see what happens. My senior year in 2017, I came back to D.C. for the March for Life, and I had one of the most honest prayers in my life in the Upper church of the Basilica. I said, God, I want to come here so bad. But at that point, I still hadn't gotten the scholarship. I still wasn't able to afford it. And I said, but if it's your will, I know it'll work out. And if you allow me to come here, I promise to come visit you here in the basilica every day. So I went back home, and a few weeks later, I get a letter in the mail saying that we would like to interview you for the Archdiocesan Scholarship, which I was just Shocked. You don't apply for it. You just get a letter. So I went back down to D.C. interviewed for the scholarship, and was awarded the scholarship. And then, you know, over the months, I had been applying to a lot of different foundations, awards, things like that. And within those few weeks of needing to make a decision, all the Ducks were lined up. Everything came together, and I was able to get that remaining balance to cover room and board. So it really is God's grace. You can work hard, and I did. But God's in control.
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D
They only give six of them away. I mean, so you were really in a very small, very fortunate position. Talk a little bit about what it was like to be at Catholic University in the middle of Washington. It's next to the basilica. It's not as well known as, say, Notre Dame or Georgetown, but it's an extraordinarily important university in the context of the Catholic Church. What was it like to be there and to be on the campus and to be part of that community?
- [08:44]
C
You know, I went to public school my whole life, and I never really had a Catholic school experience, but I knew I wanted that for college. I wanted to go to a place. You know, I'm a business guy. I've always loved business. I've always loved entrepreneurship. And I wanted to go to a place that really saw business as a force for good and as a vocation. And Catholic University really spoke about business in a way that I had never heard any other university talk about it. So it's really an important place. You know, whether it's nursing, business, music, engineering, the real focus on faith and human dignity is the main driver of all of the programs. Being a university that's backed by the United States bishops, it's really important that the bishops are really supporting the laity. And this was really a call of Vatican II was to empower the laity. And I think. I think Catholic University has done that so, so well. And especially being in Washington, D.C. you know, you have access to the business world, but also politics. You know, you're right near Capitol Hill and kind of the center of power, and it's really training young people on how to make an impact and actually build a culture that lifts people up and that puts God first. So it's an incredibly important place. I didn't know about it when I was in high school, and then as I learned more and especially when I visited, I thought, wow, this is a very unique institution, and I think it's going to continue to grow. People seek out education that's really rooted in values, not just hard skills.
- [10:07]
D
Did you keep your word? Did you actually go to the basilica every day?
- [10:11]
C
Every day. Starting my first day of classes, I went, you know, some mornings I went first thing in the morning. Every morning, the lights weren't even on yet. And some mornings I would pray a rosary, you know, read scripture. But some days I would just close my eyes and kind of rest in the pews. But that was really kind of my transformational year of really entering into relationship with God. And obviously, it's such a beautiful church that I was so grateful to be there. I thought, how can I not come and visit this beautiful place every single day?
- [10:36]
D
People have to be there to experience it, to understand what a magnificent church it is. I think it's the largest Catholic church in the United States.
- [10:45]
C
Yeah. And, you know, it's one of those places that you said it yourself, you have to kind of go to experience it. You have to hear the rumbling of the organ, you have to hear the beautiful choir, smell the incense. It's really an immersive experience. And, yeah, like you said, largest Catholic church in North America. And for so many Catholics that are in kind of rural America, they may not be exposed to the grandeur of Catholicism. You know, they're used to being in their small parishes. So to go to a place like this, it really does change you and it makes you view the church in a whole new light.
- [11:15]
D
When you get done with college, you actually go out and you start at a creator tech company working on brand partnerships for TikTok campaigns. Now, I want to confess, I have not got a clue how that works. Talk about what's it like to think in the world of TikTok and to think about how you're going to develop brand partnerships in that world.
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C
Yeah, absolutely. So this was kind of right at the tail end of the COVID pandemic, and TikTok was all the craze. Everyone was using it, and brands and music labels and films were just flooding to try to get some attention on the platform. So I started doing brand partnerships for a tech company. We would basically work with brands or music labels, take a product or song they wanted to promote, and then we would basically activate large amounts of content creators to create content with the product or using the song to try to kind of manufacture virality and kind of get that attention. And it was very effective. You know, TikTok obviously now is one of the largest platforms. It has some of the most eyeballs of any platform. And it's really been amazing to see how it's developed. But to go from the secular world of promoting brands to then using it in faith and Catholicism to really spread the gospel, it's been pretty powerful. This is where young people are. This is where people are really getting their news and consuming their content. So to bring good to it is really an important call for all of us.
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D
You launched social Thomas in 2022, and it's, you know, named obviously after St. Thomas Aquinas, who's arguably the greatest Catholic articulator. First of all, what led you to pick Thomas Aquinas? What did you mean by social Thomas?
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C
So St. Thomas Aquinas is arguably one of the best evangelists of the world, really. I mean, he had a way of articulating truths in a way that was very approachable to people. His Summa Theologica is an incredible text that really outlines what we believe as Catholics. And I chose him because I really believe that every content creator has a duty to share the truth, but to do it in a way that reaches the masses. So in choosing him as the patron of the company, I really wanted to have this focus on how do we articulate the faith well, how do we spread it widely and how do we create movements that are long standing. You know, Thomas Aquinas is still just as relevant today as he was, you know, 500 years ago. So I think it's really important that we kind of create this next generation of evangelists of theologians. And he's become a big intercessor for me in my own life. And, you know, the whole mission with Social Thomas was to find speakers, to find priests, people who had experiences to share and to share it with the world. I think so much of our faith is storytelling and experiential. And that's my goal with this company, is to find these people and to share their stories that ultimately will help people in their own faith journey.
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D
I had no idea. Some of the things you've done, you have to talk a little bit about how you build a six figure audience for exorcist priests. For an awful lot of people, the whole concept of an exorcism seems strange, but in fact, it has a very deep theological history and is in fact, a very powerful part of the church tradition.
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C
Yeah, when I started doing social media in the Catholic space, it's very apparent that people are suffering out there. There's a lot of brokenness, there's a lot of oppression. And I found that there weren't a lot of exorcists really speaking about the reality of the spiritual Battle. So I started working with two exorcists, primarily one senior, Stephen Rossetti and Father Dan Rehill. And they just articulated the faith in such a way that not only focused on the demonic. I think people think of, you know, when I say that I do social media for exorcist, they think that it's all about the devil, but it's actually not. It's a ministry of Christ. And this was a call of Jesus to his apostles to cast out demons. So the real hope with these exorcists online is to share the reality of evil with people so they can avoid evil, but ultimately turn to Christ. When you live a good life, root in the truths of the faith, you're freed from a lot of this oppression and a lot of the evil of the world. You know, people always kind of do a double take when I tell them that these priests have hundreds of thousands of followers. But it just goes to show that people are really searching for this type of content. And we found that people from all around the world follow these people. You know, Monsignor Rossetti, who's a good friend, and he was one of my first clients, he does an online deliverance session every month where he gets tens of thousands of people who tune in and just pray with him, you know, go through prayers. And that's really what this ministry is. It's asking God for his healing grace. It's been pretty life changing for me to support these priests but also be involved with the ministry. You know, I think it's been kind of a taboo topic, but now it's become mainstream. You know, we're getting calls from TMZ and USA Today to talk about these types of things, because even secular audiences are intrigued by the reality of the spiritual life. So it's been pretty amazing to see how the Lord has used it.
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D
And it strikes me that a great deal of the anguish of our age comes from the vacuum of people who can't commit themselves to believe anything. And yet leading a life with no belief is impossible. We're not strong enough to sustain ourselves in isolation. But I have to ask you about something else that came up that I said I did a double take. You've had morning tea with the Dalai Lama twice. It's a long way from Southern Maine through Catholic University to the Dalai Lama. So walk us through your journey here for a minute.
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C
Yeah. So it's really crazy being in the content creation, social media world. It really opens you up to very unique opportunities. When I first started doing Catholic social media, a lot of My clients did pilgrimages, did a lot of travel, and being the social media and content guy, I would be brought along on these experiences to really capture what they were experiencing, to share it with the world. So over the past four years, I've been to about 24 countries. Croatia, Italy, the Holy Land, Egypt, all over the place. And one of those experiences was going to India with Arthur Brooks and Harvard University to meet with the Dalai Lama. He's a good friend of Arthur's. And it was one of the most unique experiences of my life. It's in the, you know, Himalayan foothills. In Dharamshala is the little town. And it was pretty striking. You know, as a Catholic, you go to a place that's not Catholic at all, you know, and you see these monks praying, and it's just amazing to see just other faiths, but also to pray for them and to really understand what they believe. So we had morning tea with the Dalai Lama for two sessions, for several hours, talking about happiness and meaning and the dignity of the human person. And Arthur Brooks is one of my heroes. So it's really a unique experience. So I tell people, if you want to see the world, get into social media, because you'll get to not only experience it yourself, but actually share the beauty of the world and in this case, our faith with the masses.
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D
You've also, so far, if I understand it, produce content in more than 20 countries. How do you do that? Is it mostly electronic or what do you do?
- [18:53]
C
I have a couple clients who would do pilgrimages. So we'll bring people to different parts of the world to really share the beauty of the faith and culture. And, you know, I'm the photographer. We film content. I have another client who has a TV show in ewtn, so we travel with him and produce the show. So there's a lot of really amazing ways that content creators can see the world and do this for work. I've really fallen in love with travel because being from a small town in Maine, I never went anywhere. So to do this is really a dream come true. And I don't take it for granted. You know, I'm not someone who can just sit in a cubicle and work in an office all day. I love to be out and about. So to do this is really a fulfillment of my vocation, and I feel that it's really made me appreciate the beauty and just to meet people from different walks of life, it's pretty inspiring.
- [19:44]
D
When we come back, we'll discuss how Grady began to see social media, not just as a career, but as a tool for evangelization. And what his experience has been with faith in the digital space.
- [19:57]
A
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- [20:26]
B
Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy
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C
modern world about something, about a comedic tone.
- [20:48]
B
We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong. You get it on Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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D
You built your career in social media working with creators, brands, organizations. At what point did you start thinking about it not just as a job, but as a tool for evangelization?
- [21:16]
C
You know, they call social media the digital continent, and with that comes the responsibility of bringing Christ to that new continent. There are so many eyeballs online. You know, people are living on their devices. There was a study that came out recently that most people spend up to four hours a day on a screen on their mobile devices, and that's a pretty striking number. People are primarily focused on the digital space. There's a real need that comes with that because there's so much anguish, and a lot of these algorithms are focused on anger and untruths, and if it bleeds, it leads. And that's kind of a dangerous thing for the soul. So the whole focus that I have with my career is how do we actually bring goodness and truth to the digital world and impact people. I'm also a firm believer that there's so many sectors of the digital world that have yet to hear about Christ. You know, there's so many kind of pools of content. There's cooking, there's travel, there's comedy stuff. There's just so many different sects of content. So my idea is, how do we empower Catholics to go into all these areas and to live out their passions, live out their interests. But. But Lead with dignity and lead with faith. And that's really the goal. I'm amazed. You know, over the past four years, even when I first started, there weren't nearly as many content creators in the faith space as there are now. There's really been this revival, and it's great for me to see it and it inspires me more because we need this. And I think my generation is really leading the charge and a lot of them are supporting the older generation actually get online. You know, that's what I do. I support a lot of priests who are, you know, in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, but, but they are able to share their wisdom. So for me, it's really a vocation. It's a call to evangelize this digital continent and to help people that are suffering to see the truth, to find goodness, and to ultimately find their own purpose and whatever God has placed on their life.
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D
Do you see part of your vocation being particularly focused on younger people?
- [23:24]
C
You know, that's how it started. But what I'm finding more and more is that older people are becoming digital first just as much as younger people. And this has been a shift, I think, in the last few years, especially the shift away from kind of the mainstream traditional media to more new media and content. More people are spending time on YouTube, listening to podcasts. These are the new mediums that folks are getting their information. So there's a real need for that support. I always tell people there's no shortage of work right now. There's more demand than there is supply. And that's been my focus is kind of this new media. And even my parents, they've started listening to podcasts and that's where they're getting a lot of their information. So there's really a shift happening here that's going to be long lasting.
- [24:10]
D
Do you see younger audiences engaging differently?
- [24:16]
C
I think the behaviors are actually quite similar, but where they get that information differs. So the older generation tends to use more of like Facebook, while younger is more TikTok. But what I'm finding is that across all these platforms, platforms, the algorithms have the same incentive, which is to keep you on the platform, which can be very dangerous because ultimately what's going to keep you on is anger and clickbait. So this is, I think, what we're finding a lot. You know, especially in politics, no one knows what to believe anymore because everything is so focused on just getting you to stay, getting you to watch. So I think everyone has kind of become victim to this. But. But what I always tell people is kind of being behind the scenes of this. I've become more aware of how this works and it's made me a smarter consumer. I try to be very careful with who I follow, who I actually put on my feed. I want it to feed me, I want it to give me nuggets of truth. Because if you don't, ultimately these algorithms are going to consume you. There's a huge push right now and something I'm very concerned about is folks that are faith based or more conservative. This is a space that I work in. A lot of is a lot of them are leaving social media because their mental health is just. It's a mess and they're struggling. And I tell them we have to take care of these people, we have to give them formation and opportunities for retreat. Because if we have people who seek the truth that are not on those platforms because it's too much, the truth isn't going to get out there. So we really need to take care of content creators and people who are really bringing truth to the digital world so that it can be sustainable, that they can actually continue to do their good work while also prioritizing their own soul and their own needs.
- [25:55]
D
So in your experience, what actually makes faith based content resonate online?
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C
I think the key here is people are really desperately seeking the signal and the noise. There's so much noise online and people are just hungry for purpose and meaning. You know, Arthur Brooks just wrote a great book about this, the Meaning of youf Life and he talks a lot about this that it's almost like people are online trying to like grab onto something. They're trying to find a community, they're trying to find a purpose. And I think what faith based content has that's different is we actually have the truth. We have what your purpose is actually rooted in. It's just a matter of finding people and getting it in front of them. But when they find it, I think they know that it's different. I'm a firm believer that faith based content shouldn't be playing too much into clickbait or drama or anger. It should be a message of hope and truth and love. And when you do that, I think ultimately it's going to find the people that need it the most. You know, this is why things like spirituality and, you know, the new age and all these communities online have blossomed, unfortunately, because people are just desperate for a spiritual experience. So let's serve it to them. Let's give them something to actually chew on and let it feed them.
- [27:14]
D
When you deal with all this, is there anything about how people actually encounter faith online that has surprised you?
- [27:23]
C
I think what's really important is that consuming content online is great. And there's such a plethora of information online. You know, there's podcasts, there's social media, content creators. But what I think is really key here is you have to also spend time offline to actually find that purpose. I think people have this idea that, you know, if I just consume another podcast, if I just listen to another priest online, you know, somehow I'm going to, like, live out my holiness or live out my faith. But really it's you consume the information online and then go offline, go in the real world and live it. And that's, I think, really the key. And the people who thrive and really enter that new phase of relationship with God, that's the key. They set out on pilgrimage. There are pilgrim people. That's my goal, is go watch content, but then go live it.
- [28:15]
D
Coming up, we'll talk about Grady's journey visiting all 94 minor basilicas in the United States and what that experience meant for him personally.
- [28:24]
B
Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on Demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Get yeti. We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy
- [28:41]
C
modern world about something about a comedic tone.
- [28:46]
B
We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong. You get it on Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [29:00]
D
In your new book, Basilicas A Pilgrim's Guide to America's Most Remarkable Catholic Churches, which I think is a great project. It comes out in October, but it's available now for pre order. You visited all 94 minor basilicas and the four papal basilicas in Rome. When you first set out to do this, did that seem to be kind of an overwhelming project?
- [29:24]
C
Yeah, you know, when I had the original idea, it was when I was still in college, when I was spending those early mornings in the basilica, I thought that if there's so much grace here, if I've had this amazing encounter here, there must be amazing experiences at all these other basilicas. What I originally set out to do in my bucket list was I'll visit all of them over the course of my life. That's how it started. Over the course of my career, vacations, whatever, I'll always try to visit one. But I'm a very type a person, and I get very committed to something. So about a year in, I thought, you know what? Let's just do this. Let's just really commit and complete this. So it took me about four years, and I started kind of integrating these travels into work trips. Whenever I would go home, I would try to map out the basilicas, and it just became a real passion. Planes, trains, automobiles. I took all of them to visit these churches, everything from Hawaii to Maine to Florida, everywhere. And what I tell people is that what I loved most about it was it truly was a pilgrimage. You know, I would fly to a metropolitan city, rent a car, and then some of these places, I would drive six hours through the middle of Kansas with the rolling hills. And, I mean, it was a beautiful opportunity to not just enter these churches, but to kind of pray my way through this, to actually go on a journey, go on a quest. And I saw the entire country, the beauty of our nation, you know, not only falling in love with the church, but falling in love with our country and our American Catholic story. And, you know, I tell people, this goes back to the whole idea of get off your cell phone, actually go experience the faith. And this is what I wanted to do. The whole point with posting the content was to inspire people to, okay, watch the video and then go visit that church and actually pray. And people have already told me that they've done it, and it's been really transformational for them and their own faith.
- [31:16]
D
For people who don't know what actually makes a church. A basilica.
- [31:20]
C
Yeah, so a basilica is a ceremonial title that comes directly from the Pope. So it's a pretty special honor. The Pope can name any church of his choosing a basilica. Usually it comes through the bishop or a diocese that has a church that has a very important historical significance, architectural beauty, liturgical life, things that really make it special. And they petition the Pope. And once the Pope grants that title of a minor basilica, it has special ceremonial honors as well as special graces, so opportunities for plenary indulgences. It's supposed to really be a center of pilgrimage, of devotion, you know, regular confession, adoration, Masses. So a real pilgrim site. There are over 2,000 minor basilicas around the world, but there are 94 here in America. We're one of the countries with the most basilicas, which is pretty striking since we're such a new nation. But it's really a testament to the American entrepreneurial story. This is A place where people came to not just build a new life, but to really build up the church. And from the very founding of our nation, you know, the first settlement in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, it began with a Catholic Mass. And that's a site of one of the basilicas. You know, it's an honor. It's that recognition of that special Catholic devotion that was really grassroots in different parts of the country. They're really amazing honors. And I tell people too, that the four major basilicas of Rome are also something you really want to try to visit. You know, those four major basilicas, St. Peter's St. John Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore and St. Paul outside the walls, those are the original Basilic. And I made sure that I visited those as part of this pilgrimage to really go back to the roots of our faith and to have that encounter with the Pope himself.
- [33:04]
D
As you go around to the 94 in the United States, was there a basilica that really surprised you?
- [33:11]
C
There's so many. It's like trying to choose your favorite child. But I'll give two quick answers. The first, in terms of beauty, the cathedral Basilica in St. Louis, Missouri, I think, is one of the most striking examples of beauty I've ever seen. It's a Byzantine style church, unbelievable mosaics. And if you want a real experience of the grandeur of Catholicism, that's definitely a place to visit. I think one other example that's kind of a random one that a lot of people don't know about is the Basilica Saint Fidelis in Kansas. It's in the middle of nowhere. I had to drive six hours through the middle of Kansas to visit it. And as you approach it, you know, you have these amazing grasslands, and from miles and miles away, you just see the steeples of a church. That's all you can see. And it's pretty striking that this little town in Victoria, Kansas is centered around the church. You know, I went there for a Saturday vigil. The church was packed. And it's really amazing that, you know, a small town, hardworking, blue collar community, faith is the center of it.
- [34:17]
D
It.
- [34:18]
C
So that's a great example of kind of the American Catholic story. That church, by the way, was built off of the nickels and dimes and hard work of immigrants. When these immigrants came to this place, they wanted to have a place of worship. And all the boys in every family, you know, the husbands and sons, committed a certain amount of hours every month and also a certain amount of money every month to build this church. So as you Go through a lot of these churches, you find that when the first immigrants came to this country, they gave everything to make sure that they had a place to worship God. And not only were they entrepreneurial people, but they were real people of faith.
- [34:56]
D
In your own journey, was there a point where it began to be a pilgrimage where as you kept visiting more and more of these basilicas, you found yourself changing?
- [35:07]
C
Absolutely. I think for me, the actual hard work of travel, you know, people think it's all luxurious to just travel across the country, but it's actually a lot of work. But what I tried to do is as I was traveling in these long car rides, I would pray my rosary, I would be alone, so I would just talk to God. And I really made it a pilgrimage. And I think these, these conversations with God, just hours of dialogue with the Lord, that's what makes it a pilgrimage, not just a trip. You know, you're not listening to podcasts or chatting with friends, but it's just you. And it really gives you time to reflect on your purpose and what you're actually trying to do. You know, I think also when I would visit these churches, part of what makes a pilgrimage so special is the hard work leads to ultimate triumph. So after these long travels, long flights, late nights of driving, to then reach a church where there's just spectacular peace and beauty, you kind of get that little taste of heaven. And I think that's what made it what it was for me was those moments of peace and really experiencing God's love in these places. So, yeah, it's definitely. I always tell people it wasn't a trip, it was surely a pilgrimage.
- [36:26]
D
Grady, I want to thank you for joining me. Your new book, Basilicas A Pilgrim's Guide to America's Most Remarkable Catholic Churches, is available for pre order now on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com I wish you really well and I am confident you're going to have an amazing life just based on what you've already accomplished. So thank you so much for joining me.
- [36:48]
C
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really appreciate it.
- [36:51]
D
Thank you to my guest, Grady Connolly. Newts World is produced by Gingrich360 and iHeartMedia. Our executive producers, Garnesey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. Special thanks to the team at Gingrich 360. If you've been enjoying Newt's World, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcasts and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Join me on substack@gingrich360.net I'm Newt Gingrich. This is Newt's World.
- [37:29]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.