Deacons Discussions Drinks

#35 - Father David Wheeler

• Deacon Tim Stout, Deacon Dallas Kelley, Father Linh Nguyen • Season 2 • Episode 7

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The Deacons sat down with Father David Wheeler to discuss his faith journey that has taken him from Clay County to Rome to Lexington.  We talk about his education in Rome and the impact the COOVID Pandemic had, plus his current assignment at the Cathedral.  It was a great discussion and we think you will enjoy it.

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Musician:

Did you ever stop and think why spend too much time getting ready? I don't know a single thing that I haven't noticed.

Unknown:

Then

Musician:

when I see my heart starts racing

Tim Stout:

live from the car dome studio in Georgetown, Kentucky. Today is May 7 2021. Friday, the fifth week in Easter. And this is deacons discussions, drinks. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to triple D live from the cardones studio in Georgetown, for what we know will be another exciting discussion. I'm Deacon Tim Stout.

Dallas Kelley:

I'm taking Dallas Kelly, by the way.

Tim Stout:

And if you're joining us on lab lab on Facebook or watching later on YouTube, the most important thing you can do is hit the like button subscribe and the little bell. It depends on what you're watching on is what you get. So help us help us know who's watching and let us know. And if you're listening on the podcast app of choice, your choice, hit the Like or Subscribe button And better yet, leave a review. So now that I've got the social media stuff out of the way, tonight's guest with us is father David Wheeler. Welcome to the show.

Unknown:

David Haye.

Tim Stout:

So let's do let's do a little intro just so we can get that out of the way and then we'll talk about current events. Is that okay with everybody? Okay. All right. So Father, David Wheeler was ordained to the priesthood in June of 2019. Do I have that? Correct, right. So you're getting ready to go for two years to your anniversaries coming up here in the dassies election. Father Wheeler grew up in Clay County. We'll talk about famous people maybe from Clay County a little bit later on. I can only think of one Richie farmer. And you were a parishioner at St. Anne mission, which is a part of St. Louis in London. And you have six siblings and you were homeschooled through through high school, which we can talk about that as well. That should be good session. And after working for a few years in construction and farming, you entered the seminary for the Diocese of Lexington, you received a BA in philosophy and humanities. I didn't get catchword. That was from though

Unknown:

the josephinum.

Tim Stout:

Gotcha. Okay. And then you got to go to Rome, to the Pontifical North American college in Rome, where you received a Bachelor of sacred theology from the typical Gregorian University and a sacred theological license in moral theology from the angelicum. After ordination, you serve three months at St. Andrews in Harrisburg, and you are now assigned to the cathedral, which is everybody's favorite place to go as parochial Vicar. That's right. How's that for introductions that

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

suits me? Just be prepared father David, you know why they called the cathedral detail. They known as the priests killer.

Fr. David Wheeler:

You're supposed to put your hand up and be like the priests.

Tim Stout:

Well, we want him to do that anyway, because he has. So, hey, a lot going on in the world today. You know, we want everybody to bring a current event. And my current event is the bit that you're not the bishop. We were talking about that before when the governor has told us we could go to 75% at the end of May. And how does that affect us at St. John's

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Deacon Dallas have an answer for that.

Unknown:

Not at all don't know.

Dallas Kelley:

Yeah, there's the answer. And I don't know a whole lot.

Tim Stout:

So I was kind of bummed out about that. I was I was hoping that and I think a lot of people were putting pressure on on the governor, which he obviously repelled, to open up the state because places like Colorado and Florida, where Florida's Texas have been open. But New York City has announced an open date and we were just hoping we were going to get an open date, but we didn't get one.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

He wants 2.5 million vaccinate dammit. What 1.8

Tim Stout:

Yeah, we're never going to get the two point that we're it's not gonna happen. I mean,

Fr. David Wheeler:

and I mean, that was double vaccinated. You know, you

Dallas Kelley:

have people do it again.

Tim Stout:

What what happens if you get double vaccinated? I wonder. I mean,

Fr. David Wheeler:

if it keeps getting worse and worse from the first shot to the second shot to the third to the fourth people will probably die. By reputation.

Tim Stout:

That's true. So I that's a good answer. Good thought I hadn't thought of that. But you know, he's a smart guy. He's got a lot of smart people working For him, and I'm pretty sure that when they came up with 2.5 million, they all sat around table kind of about this size. And they said, How long is it going to take us to get to 2.5. And one guy, the guy telling the truth at the end of the table, prize it we didn't get to the point. So that's the go, we call that stretch goal and manufacturing. You'll see if we can stretch people beyond what the capabilities are. So that's my current event. Anybody got a Dallas? You got a carnival? You got a good Catholic? My

Dallas Kelley:

No, this ain't Catholic, got nothing to do with it. But I will get to something about it. But let's say commodity watchers took note of a milestone when 1000 board feet of lumber past 15 $100 in April, for the first time in history, the price was around $200. For that same amount in May, will that affect our building prices when we build? I mean, cuz it's like, I mean, we're, that's like four or 567 times more, you know.

Fr. David Wheeler:

And unfortunately, steel is doing exactly the same thing.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, we just we supply product, the steel mills, limestone, and we were talking about that today. And we actually, we believe what what are economists that we work with are telling us is that the steel price is actually come down before the lumber price. And the reason, the reason being, it's the difference between supply chain, and supply and demand. So lumber is is so expensive, because everybody was at home, doing projects, they were building decks, they were doing add ons, they were doing redo and all kinds of stuff, and the supply went down. But same time, there's a pandemic going on, with a steel mill, steel mills, they shut down back when the pandemic started, because all that like the car plants and stuff, they said, Hey, we're not gonna make any cars, because we don't know what's going to happen. They shut everything down. And then the demand for cars and stuff went up, appliances went up, everything that uses steel went up, and you just don't turn a steel mill back on it start up and start producing. So that's, that's why and I'm gonna say it's not gonna affect our price.

Dallas Kelley:

What do you got to pitch in? You're gonna take out a second morning.

Tim Stout:

I'm just saying. I don't think the steel, I think the steel prices are gonna correct relatively quickly. So there's not going to be a whole lot of wood in that structure. That's my two cents.

Fr. David Wheeler:

I bet with the inflation as well, though. How much money we're pumping into the economy?

Dallas Kelley:

With nothing to back it up.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah, here's some money, like, just like the the nominal price is going to keep going up.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, the the government keeps telling us that they're not worried about inflation.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah. But then then you have comments like from the Treasury Secretary about like, we need to raise interest rates to quote cool down the economy. It's not inflation. It's it's overheating, whatever that means.

Tim Stout:

That's a that's an interesting way to put it. Yeah, I'm pretty sure inflation is happening. I mean, do you know anything that you got about today, that's the same price that it was a year ago.

Dallas Kelley:

And if it ain't happening, it'll eventually we'll it takes a while for it to catch up. So you just can't keep throwing money out there with nothing to back it up. And now they're talking about up to $4 trillion dollars with upcoming projects, infrastructure infrastructure, that's only 5% infrastructure.

Fr. David Wheeler:

That's why we put all the money at the cathedral into bitcoin.

Musician:

Bitcoin

Dallas Kelley:

and you never know when that'll take

Tim Stout:

another another CEO of a investment bank said just this week, all those people that have put all their money into cryptocurrency, be prepared for it to go to zero. He joins a long list of people that have been wrong so far.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So he also has invested interest in it continuing to rise.

Tim Stout:

Absolutely. Absolutely. I like Bitcoin

Fr. David Wheeler:

invested interest is pretty intense for investment banker isn't it? Absolutely.

Tim Stout:

You got to carnivale

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Oh, yes, I do something quite nice. Actually. A shout out for Jeanne Spark. See celebrate nine birthday today.

Dallas Kelley:

Happy Birthday Jean.

Tim Stout:

Longtime listener?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Yeah, she works lockdown for COVID and multiple sickness and today was perfect. I went to her place. drove her car, she in it. And we went to get some phone.

Tim Stout:

p h o p h o where do you go to get the pho

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

pho Saigon is on SoCal road was wonderful. So we have a day we Well now celebrate her birthday simple. And she was out have a great time. That's a perfect coding event.

Tim Stout:

That is a good, good, good curve, especially when someone's been locked down for a long time.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Oh, yeah. And she still made it to 1990

Tim Stout:

hung out will follow it still made it the 91 thing

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

is amazing. She's so appreciative not because I'm there of her life. You know, she got hit by a semi truck, and she got hit by a car. And all kinds of sickness he went through today, she was so alive. And she's so appraising God, and then see calm and how, how often we we as a society, just forget about how blessed we are. And that was beautiful conversation driving to and from a restaurant. It's a great, they have a great time. So,

Dallas Kelley:

you know, you must have never have anointed her before. No, it would not touch her at all. He had an ongoing, yeah, this was he was anointing you for any sickness or anything you done.

Tim Stout:

You were done. Make sure you have all your paperwork.

Fr. David Wheeler:

It was just that healing. So much at peace they were ready to.

Tim Stout:

You know, it is interesting to see the perspective from people that, you know, when we look at what the pandemics done to them, we've talked about my mom before and the same thing, you know, Gene talking about how blessed she is. My mom in a nursing home for 18 months now and other her only visitor and she just every time a doctor talks about how blessed he is. It's just sometimes hard to hard to grasp that. So Father, Wheeler, you have a current event, or would you like us to start the interrogation?

Dallas Kelley:

Let's be hooking up to the detector test. What's

Fr. David Wheeler:

the third door?

Tim Stout:

Well, what's going on at the cathedral? Well, we just start there. That's current event. So

Fr. David Wheeler:

Well, today we had our inaugural version of First Friday devotion. So Father, Father, Damien decided to start that he's getting ready to become the pastor at Sacred Heart. So first Friday, devotion to the Sacred Heart seemed both pretty appropriate. And I think it'll be a good thing for the cathedral. We had a we had a fair number of people stay after mass today for it. So that was that was very nice.

Unknown:

Well,

Tim Stout:

I did see some father mark, I think is was talking on Facebook about a first Friday devotion, somewhere close to him. So is that something that's popular? not popular? dassies to pretty stern about to priest here? What's your thoughts on that?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Um, I think I think we're kind of seeing a greater appreciation for the devotional life of the church, in general, kind of people realizing that it's not, it's not just enough to kind of believe a list of things we kind of need to live it, we need the common experience of praying together and sharing that faith in, in an environment like the church. So I think I think we are seeing kind of a resurgence of whether it's, you know, rosary devotions or Sacred Heart or adoration but just sort of maybe a greater appreciation for those things. I

Tim Stout:

think the year of St. Francis helps that a little bit from that perspective, too. Right. I

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

think so.

Fr. David Wheeler:

In St. Joseph is now I know, a lot of devotion to St. Joseph is kind of brought cropped up during this year, as well.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

That's a lot you don't I never thought about St. Francis prayer. Yeah, amazing. You know, we've got a you right, it kind of lost that tradition and through this. You know, we have to bring up that damn Coronavirus. It kind of put all of us into an awakening in our faith. I think there's a lot of devotional, the sacred of Jesus and one of them is so profound. Have for centuries died out. I think it's time to coming back. St. Joseph, of course, definitely sick Miko. What a loop a becomes so much novena. Yeah. You know, I hear more people talk about committing to a novena in pashya that ever Yeah, you know, it was very, very good with that.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Jan, I almost wonder if it's, if it's not like how mobile our culture was, to where like the stability within a parish within families to just like, have these devotions that really developed for people. It was hard because people were always you know, adjusting to a new town or a new job or whatever. But then whenever you're locked down for a year and don't really have anywhere to go, it gives you more time to kind of develop that. I guess that prayer life that sense of you know, what really respond, what does my resounds in my life as something that really is important

Tim Stout:

and fruitful. And I think that's, that can be said about Coronavirus and In general, not just from, from a Catholic perspective, religious perspective, but from, from a family perspective too, right? I think, you know, families were forced to look at their lives differently. And that's no different from a from a physical, you know, relational point of view with your family to also spiritual side of it. So, I know, I started saying, I hadn't done it, I started saying a daily rosary and and that's new for me. And it, it's good for me, I, I enjoyed I prayed in the car when I'm on the way to work. Don't listen to the radio anymore, which is, so I don't have to hear any news, which is, which is a double blessing. But it works out perfect. Whether I'm going to my office in Lexington, or whether I'm going up north to Verona is plenty of time to get it done. And I know you do.

Dallas Kelley:

Well, I'm going to fish in the retired my row rosary down.

Tim Stout:

So it's the this, this this devotion to the Sacred Heart. Is that something that's, you know, specifically because of where he's going? Is that why he picked that?

Fr. David Wheeler:

I think I think it was more he had been wanting to do it. And Father Damian just finished up the CPE program at UK Hospital. So it kind of that intensive, clinical pastoral experience that has it's kind of a intensive introduction to hospital chaplaincy. And so for the past two and a half months or so he's not really had any ability to put energy into any parish. So he's, he's certainly helped out with the sacramental life and on the weekends and everything, but just had a lot going on. Other than that, so I think part of it was, you know, wanting to do something like that before he left and part of it. You know, there was a nice connection there.

Tim Stout:

Yeah. I know when you came, the first, the first thing you did was put two pieces of artwork up in our, our church. Yeah. Sacred Heart. Art. chaplet. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, so they looked a lot better than what was up there, too. By the way. Can you remember what it was? Yeah, because it was the exact same thing that was up there.

Dallas Kelley:

It's been 30. So how long have you been here? 30 centimeters.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

That dog will be next. He couldn't take it over.

Tim Stout:

There you go. Hey, versus prediction.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Spirit is spoken.

Tim Stout:

So how many how many priests right now are signed at the cathedral? Father Paul's there right now but to get ready to retire right.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So Father Paul is the current Rector at the cathedral and, and father Damien enuma. He's one of the missionary priests. He's in the diocese with Father Lobo, Santosh Lobo, I believe isn't how its first name is pronounced. And, and so they they both came together. And they're going to both be assigned in Eastern Kentucky together and actually kind of have a house together and living community and then go out to their two parishes. They're kind of next door parish.

Tim Stout:

And where's that going to be? Again?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Williamsburg, and Corbin there's a connected mission with one of those. But I'm forgetting where?

Tim Stout:

And then Father, Father Mark was there too, right for the mark? Yeah, so that's a there, right. Boom, ba, ba ba ba boom. Ba nobi nobi oma,

Fr. David Wheeler:

yeah, so. So he actually left whenever I came. So he was, he was reassigned to Jenkins, St. George's. starting October 1 of last year. And that was whenever I moved to the cathedral. So here are three of us this past year, or most of the year, and that starting on July 1, there just going to be two of us. So it'll be father Moriarty and myself. And that's

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

all retired principal and stay with you. I think supposed to

Fr. David Wheeler:

there are still plans that are shifting around. Yeah. So

Tim Stout:

let's let's face it, it's a nice rectory.

Musician:

It is.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, there's certainly plenty to do sacramentally to, you know, the to daily masses. So in order to take a day off and not have a scheduled mass on it. It's nice to have a second priest there. And then, I mean, if you have funerals and weddings and all that stuff, you know, it just adds to that. So yeah, so it'll be it'll, it'll be a challenge to figure out all of that stuff and will probably mean a lot less supply work for the for the priests who are stationed there. But um, but but we also have extra retired priests then who, who can step in and fill some of those needs as well.

Tim Stout:

Well, we'll follow the Paul kammas retired priests in the States. Is he gonna stay there? Is he going to one of the retired houses he's

Fr. David Wheeler:

gonna retire, retirement houses.

Tim Stout:

Keep peeking keep a company with Father Bob. Father Bob and his prayers, right? Yes, whatever you've never been The size of the cathedral with you can't handle the cathedral or the cathedral can't handle you which one is it?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

mutual respect?

Tim Stout:

You got close Oh, what we were americlean for a little while.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

That's close may Queen actually it was well, on the list to go the cathedral was

Tim Stout:

must have been a long list.

Dallas Kelley:

There's a lot of stuff behind the scenes that we don't see, you know.

Unknown:

Please

Tim Stout:

don't send me to the shotgun. So Michael shot. You got it. So far, we'll let's talk a little bit just about your life. You grew up in Clay County and you know, as a Kentucky fan, the only thing I know about Clay County is Homer Ritchie farmer. But obviously, there's a lot more going on in Manchester is the county seat there. Is that right? Is that? Is that where you're from Manchester itself?

Fr. David Wheeler:

That's what our mailing address was. But I was actually from about 20 minutes outside of the city limits. If that's Yeah, so I grew up in Jared. I grew up at the end of a holler basically. So so we would always give people directions whenever the pavement turns to gravel where the first driveway on the right, you can't see the house. Just go up the

Tim Stout:

hill and you'll find it. Does everybody here know what a holler is? Steve, you know what a holler is? Can you define what a holler is? Sure.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So, a holler is the local pronunciation of a hollow. So it's this the space between two mountains that there's a creek bottom there, and a road goes up, but it only comes in from one direction. So there's an end to hauler. It's not a through color.

Tim Stout:

You knew that.

Dallas Kelley:

All fishermen, fishermen and hunters hunters that usually hunt and holler

Tim Stout:

because you can get the vantage point and holler right you can actually see

Dallas Kelley:

them it's also your phone use you holler when you grew up in the mountains.

Tim Stout:

So we were you. Were you a cradle Catholic? Was your family Catholic?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah, yeah. So, so obviously, I don't sound like I'm from the hills of Eastern Kentucky. That's not I don't really have the accent. But that's because my father is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And my mother is from Springfield, South Dakota. So obviously, I grew up in the hills, Eastern Kentucky, right.

Tim Stout:

That's a story.

Fr. David Wheeler:

It is a story. So so my father between college and graduate school decided you want to do some mission work. And at the time, St. Anne's was run by the Trinitarian missionaries. So they will put on like, young adult things and VBS programs and all that stuff for the community. And so I don't know how he got connected with that, but but he decided you want to do some mission work with them. And so he came down, I think he ended up spending. I think it was about I think it was about a year and that kind of made a connection with with that area. He knew people he liked it there. And then he went to a cradle Catholic, right. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, from a big family in, in Pittsburgh. And, and then he went to graduate school for art. So he so he was studying art. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon, in, in Pittsburgh, and then he went to Ohio University for graduate school, but he wanted to do art, not teach art. And so kind of halfway through the program was like, this isn't really focused on what I want to do. And so it's like, they can get my scholarship to someone else. And he dropped out of graduate school.

Tim Stout:

That doesn't have very often doesn't mean you're on scholarship.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah, but but, you know, he wasn't really interested in just having a degree he wanted to actually do something with it, and not not teach but actually produce art. And so he actually came back he went back to Clay County and and started working as like a handyman, he worked in a hardware store and still was very active in the in the church there. And my mother kind of coming from the opposite direction was not a Catholic, she had kind of found her faith, found a Christian faith in college and decided that she was she was also going to do some mission work. So she went to the Redbird Mission Hospital as a nurse. So one week, one of the nurses who worked down there who was a Catholic, her car broke down and she asked my mom if she'd be willing to drive her to church. And so that's kind of how my mom and dad first met and then the same I believe it was the same friend invited my dad down to do some stuff with the with the nurses down in red bird and I kind of formed a connection and throughout the rest seven weeks later, my dad

Tim Stout:

And the rest is history. But that

Fr. David Wheeler:

was the priests fault. He told my dad is like, when are you going to propose? He's like, I've only been dating for like, six weeks. He's like, but if I know you, you'll wait too long and she'll be like, he's never gonna propose and just find somebody else. And my dad's like, Well, I know she is the one. So who was surprised? I believe it was father. Whew. But I mean, he was one of the trinitarians. Right. But, but I might be wrong on that. The chronology of priests before my birth is a little shaky.

Tim Stout:

Even the priests that I've had after my birth are a little shaky. Can you remember your original pastor Archer father Stucker

Dallas Kelley:

in St. Simon in June in Louisville. Nice.

Tim Stout:

Oh, he knows the st. Edward and j town. I think it was father Hamilton nor reason I can remember that. Because he got arrested one year for protesting I thought I had an abortion clinic or something I can't remember it was it was it was something social justice. It might have been death penalty related or whatever. But that's, that's how I remember that too. So it was your pastor growing up? was your first one you remember?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Well, the first one is father Lee, back in Vietnam.

Tim Stout:

And in here would have been a father

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

was in Covington Torrington? How can you not remember the guy lived there for two years?

Tim Stout:

So who was your first pastor and at the mission in there and say, Man,

Fr. David Wheeler:

I think the first pastor I remember is was father Jerome stern.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Oh, the gray stone. That's right. Oh, yeah.

Tim Stout:

Was he a Trinitarian? No, he was.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

He's as tall as him taller.

Fr. David Wheeler:

He was only six for a good try.

Unknown:

How tall are you? six, eight. How tall are you?

Dallas Kelley:

Well, I used to be six, five and I've shrunk through the years. So

Tim Stout:

six, eight. So some leads so that just everybody always asks you do you play basketball,

Fr. David Wheeler:

miniature golf sorta

Dallas Kelley:

high bar.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So being homeschooled, we never actually like participated in in organized sports I would do. I did some summer camps and that sort of thing. And I love playing basketball growing up and you know, practiced all the time convinced I was going to be an NBA player because I was so tall and that I realized, oh, you're supposed to be able to jump to be that's not really my jam.

Dallas Kelley:

You have the same disease I had.

Fr. David Wheeler:

I can get all the way off the ground. Well,

Tim Stout:

we have a clip here though. Dallas, please. If you haven't listened to the show before, just because we're talking about basketball. We'll turn this up. We'll see what happens here. Let's see if I can do this.

Unknown:

For a second but the play they drill by 183 82 Dallas Kelly right hand corner back outside of my club. Not a big deal on a baseline of time before Scott's gonna flip it over it.

Tim Stout:

That's the best part. Dallas Kelly.

Dallas Kelley:

I always say that was back when I could put my arms over my head.

Tim Stout:

So, you know, y'all got something in common. You You grew up in a town that produced one of the best basketball players in the state of Kentucky, Richie farmer, I still think so. And you played basketball so there you go. Y'all got something in common there and you're both tall six, eight, I still can't get over that six, eight. So, so his vestments won't fit you

Fr. David Wheeler:

depends on investments, you may want to bring your

Musician:

own.

Tim Stout:

Bring Your Own out for sure.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

He's not bad compared to follow Rambler might Rambler?

Unknown:

Yeah,

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

he's 6011 his license plate? Yes. 611 Yeah, I was helping 610 as opposed to notice I was with him but at my ordinary Shepherd, aka

Fr. David Wheeler:

at my ordination whenever it was like the fraternal kiss of peace whenever you're actually still allowed to like touch each other and stuff. He told me that he was passing on the mantle of high priest of the diocese

Dallas Kelley:

well when you are Dana Deacon I remember saying I am no longer the tallest Deacon in rd

Tim Stout:

right Wow. So So you got your own album that you'll bring in maybe our investments will look okay here cuz you're coming to

Dallas Kelley:

visit with us? Right? Right. 62 Sundays from now. Yeah.

Tim Stout:

So we've got a lot of stuff going on here. We got

Dallas Kelley:

and you're preaching right? We got it. Okay. Yes, yeah,

Fr. David Wheeler:

I haven't prepared it yet. But

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

yes, in Italian, Italian

Unknown:

Spanish. Oh, you got well.

Tim Stout:

You know, we've we've had lots of, we've had lots of languages in this parish. We even had French for a while because we had Father, Dad gone. He went he left the Derrick Derrick van dedeker. He was here for a while. Little French, Vietnamese Spanish.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Van Decker isn't particularly French. That sounds more like,

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

I don't know why he's German. But he was joining the religious community. Yeah, he's

Tim Stout:

pretty spoke French. fluent. And

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

that's my stream.

Tim Stout:

And I could speak how many languages are you fluent?

Fr. David Wheeler:

fluent? one?

Unknown:

Which ones?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Kentucky. But I understand Italian Well, well enough. I mean, like most of my education was in Italian, over in Rome, like four out of the five years. So you just

Tim Stout:

had to learn it. That was your immersion? Yeah,

Fr. David Wheeler:

I mean, I had six weeks of immersion. Well, more than that, I had six weeks of immersion, and then another four weeks of classes prior to going to school in Italian. But, but that's not the same as actually just like trying to follow a professor who's just talking in Italian. It was always great whenever we had an American professor who was speaking in Italian because it meant that he was speaking English and Italian. And so like the sentence structure made perfect sense to all the Americans and all the times. He speaks Italian really weird.

Tim Stout:

I guess that's something that as an American, we don't realize that when you go to school in Rome, all the classes are in Italian. Yeah, they're not in English. I

Fr. David Wheeler:

mean, they can't be right. Like, they're, they're kind of three universities that the Americans attend for the STB program, and two of them are in Italian, and one of them is in English. So at the angelicum, the degree is actually you can you can have an English track and a Italian track. So you can go and spend, you know, five years in Italy and never take a class in Italian. And some do.

Tim Stout:

But you're still gonna get the language though, right?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Depends on you. You can totally not. But it's kind of a shame to do it that way.

Tim Stout:

And then you're obviously gonna say mass in Spanish for us. So Sure. So did you. Did you have an immersion experience with Spanish as well?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah. So So part of the reason why Italian is so poor is because I did four years of schooling in Italian, and then did a two month immersion right after my ordination in Spanish, and then transferred universities to an English speaking University. So I never really got my Italian back to where I actually separated out my Spanish in school. I mean, Spanish is the language I'm actually going to be using.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, there's not a whole lot of matches going on in Italian here.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Not not many.

Tim Stout:

Are there any really had they're probably not.

Fr. David Wheeler:

basically have to bring your own missile? Like, I could do it, right. Like I could, I could celebrate mass in Italian. And understand every word I was reading, and I could probably I could Google Translate and homily and make it happen, but it wouldn't be great.

Tim Stout:

Google Translate. That's what we made the try.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So the key is, yes, you have to be good enough at the language

Tim Stout:

with you in order, you have to know something about the language. Okay, so we're screwed.

Fr. David Wheeler:

I use Google Translate for my Spanish families. But then I reread it and I'm like, yeah, that doesn't make sense. And then I fix it. Right? So it's kind of a it's kind of the first go through and then you have to, you have to know what makes you you have to know the words well, and the sentence structure well enough to make sense of it.

Tim Stout:

So I'm just curious, how does how does a kid get from Clay County? to Rome? I mean, well, how does the bishop make a decision that, you know, hey, we're gonna send this guy to Rome? Because obviously, not every priest goes to Rome, right one and maybe 10 or 20? what's the what's the ratio you think?

Fr. David Wheeler:

depends a lot on the diocese. Honestly, like some diocese really prioritize it and most of their seminarians, if not all of them, go to Rome. Others never send seminarians. Right and, and Lexington is on closer to the end of not ever. Yeah, so I think we've had three guys that were sent to Rome. Two of them have survived ordination go

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Rome always expecting diocese sent when I was after ordination, under Bishop, can anyone be sent to Rome? I say what the hell go to Rome for

Unknown:

actually what's I don't speak Italian. I speak Vietnamese.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

So he wanted me to study canon law. Right? And I say what to how to canon law you want to be sent me let me study liturgy. So he wanted me send to send Angelica And I say no, I have a program he in Chicago. I want to go to that one. But he didn't go to Rome. I don't want to go to Rome and I want to go to Rome. I say a ministry to people in America the United started liturgy in America. Yeah. So he full. So I that's why I went study liturgical study in Chicago.

Tim Stout:

Very good. So you studied sacred theology, which is? Explain that to us. What, how's that different from this? Yeah. So So is it just terminology or,

Fr. David Wheeler:

in part, right, so the part of it is the fact that you're studying in a different country. So the academic system is different. And so, so the the US CCB requires four years of graduate level theology prior to ordination. Because like an M div program, is a four year program, which is what you got, right? And then, but the problem is, in Italy, that's a three year program, but it's it does. And the reason it's a three year program is because the focus is on like, the theology side much more strictly. So it's a lot more dogmatic theology, church history, like very much academic courses. So you would never have a course like preaching, or how to celebrate the sacraments, like those kind of practical applications of it. So that's interesting. Well, it's because that's the it's it's an academic degree, right, rather than a practical degree. And so and that's not to say like MDF wouldn't have those those academic parts and right, but it's it, it's just kind of the focus is different. Sure. So so not everyone in my in my classes over there would be would be pre strike. A lot of them were religious sisters, or lay students who were kind of getting a theology degree, that would be much more focused on things like teaching, rather than kind of being able to preach and teach within a parish context.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, because if you're getting a theology degree, and you're not religious, you're teaching. Yeah, pretty much.

Fr. David Wheeler:

I mean, not always, like we had a we had a lawyer from Rome, who was just like, I want to know more about my faith. And so he enrolled as a student at the Gregorian and was there for all of our classes and just, you know, learning theology

Tim Stout:

was I had some spare time. He was

Fr. David Wheeler:

just just cut out the repos those in the gelada Jada.

Tim Stout:

So your your spent, how many years in Rome, then?

Fr. David Wheeler:

So almost spot it would have would have been five academic years if the COVID hadn't hit.

Tim Stout:

So that's right, that I'll happen right at the end for you. Because you had come back in 2019. We were talking about this before we went on online for ordination. We we were both there. Right. And that was really probably the last normal ordination. Yeah. To at the end of 2009 or June of 2019. And then COVID hits and you're in Rome finishing up. Yeah.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah. So. So I guess January, is whenever you know, people start talking about the Coronavirus and like, Oh, you know, it's, you know, have you heard about the Coronavirus? Yeah, whatever. And then then it kind of the, the major, I guess the first major European spot was in northern Italy. Right. Right. That became much more topic of conversation. So, so we got we got sick of talking about it before anyone else.

Tim Stout:

But then, it sounds like Ground Zero. I mean, outside of Wuhan, and yeah, in China. You know, Italy was in the news a lot.

Fr. David Wheeler:

It was it was right. And but it was mostly northern Italy, so outside of Turin was kind of the the hot spot there. And partially because they have it's a fairly industrial area, and they have a fair a fair number of factories that have a lot of Chinese immigrants working in them. So there was a lot of back and forth particularly from that area of China, which kind of brought

Tim Stout:

brought a lot of carriers. carriers. Yep.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah. And Italy also has a has a difficulty in the sense that it's a very old population. their birth rates are particularly high. So it's an age population. And it's much more of a smoking culture. So the you know, for lung diseases that's that's not good. And it's very much a public transportation culture as well. So

Tim Stout:

but they've got good food and good wine.

Fr. David Wheeler:

But but it made it that much harder for for the spread of the Coronavirus.

Tim Stout:

So you're scheduled, you're scheduled to finish up June of that year but so COVID is blowing up. Your your March rolls around and you're probably thinking Oh,

Fr. David Wheeler:

yeah, so well, it was more like February, February was whenever we kind of like, got all of the, you know, school can't be in person anymore. Like, try to figure this out. So then we so we had a week where basically just nothing happened. It's like, everybody go home, we're not having class. Maybe this will pass quick. And, and then they had to figure it out. So I probably it was probably two or three weeks of online classes. And it just kept getting worse and worse and more intense and more global and all of that. And so it would guess it was mid March. And so right at the beginning, it was basically, you know, don't avoid large gatherings. And then it was it got strict enough that it was like you can really only go out into the city if you're like, buying food or whatever. But you have to have a paper saying, This is why you're out and it has to be signed by you know, someone. So it was Yeah, it was pretty intense.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, it sounds sounds crazy. Yeah. I wrote. I was going back through some of my social media posts. And I actually remember saying something like, my over under on the weeks for the Coronavirus, was like six I thought six weeks, you know, we'll be back to somewhat normal. Wrong. 106. Yeah. So when does the decision get made that you got to get out of town?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Well, so there was one day, I think it was like the maybe the 19th of March or the 20th of March, where the US State Department basically sent out a recall order. And I had been in communication with Bishop Stowe prior to that basically saying, you know, I still feel pretty safe. Like, we haven't had any cases in the house rooms really not that hot of a spot right now. We're just sort of continuing on, and it seems pretty legitimate. But then the US State Department basically put out an advisory that people who are overseas should come home now or prepare to shelter in place.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, because getting back was was fixing to get very difficult. Yeah,

Fr. David Wheeler:

because they were they were starting to cancel a lot of international flights and put a lot more restrictions on those. And, and so I had had a few friends who before that had kind of been like, if we're doing virtual class, I'm going, I'm going back to the States until this blows over. I'd rather be there anyway. But there was a good core of us who were sort of like, I will say, you know, what, what's the what, what are we waiting for? What's the standard? By which we're going to try to judge this, like, this would have to be this number of cases? Is it this level of restrictions? You know, that kind of thing? Is it? We're going to finish this semester virtually? And so there's no point in staying here? Or is it? The only way I'm getting home is on a State Department flight? Yeah,

Tim Stout:

I mean, there's a big eventually. That's what what happened? I mean, maybe not for you, but for in general, in a lot of places. That's how people get home.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah. So I actually went to bed the night that the the night that that issue, or that that directive was sent out before I heard it. So I woke up the next morning, though, people in the hall talking about, you know, you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to look into fly since like, these were all the people who had been like, Nah, I'm gonna stay here, it's gonna be fine. You know?

Tim Stout:

So you knew it was getting real now?

Unknown:

Like, all right,

Fr. David Wheeler:

well, well, my and my standard was, if if the US government, because one of the things we followed as far as like terrorist, you know, terrorist levels for traveling internationally in Europe, like, you look to the State Department and say, you know, what, what is their advisory? Right? Like, if it's a Americans probably shouldn't go there, you probably should have a good reason to go. And if it's just to see the country and probably isn't a good reason. So I kind of decided, you know, if the State Department says, Go home, that's, that's good enough for me. And so that was that was my standard. And so, but the difficulty is, like, whenever I wake up, you know, at seven or eight o'clock, Italy time, that means it's like 2am us time. Right? I think it was 1am. Because we were in daylight savings in the US wasn't yet. So. So it's like, I can't make this decision. Just autonomous, I need to talk to the bishop. So looking at all the options and figuring that out. And so basically, as soon as I had some, probably about 6am, this time, which is about noon, over there, you know, sent and sent an email and said like, Hey, I really need to talk because of the State Department stuff. I think it's time to come home. And so we talked probably about maybe two in the afternoon. And, and bishopstone was like yeah, I think I think it's time that he

Tim Stout:

sent the corporate jet for you.

Unknown:

was in the shop. It was, it was in the crystal ball. Shop.

Fr. David Wheeler:

And so, so like 2pm I got the Go ahead. 6pm I ordered my tickets. And 9am my flight left the next morning. So you

Tim Stout:

packed everything up?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah, I got two hours of sleep that night.

Tim Stout:

And you haven't been back since?

Fr. David Wheeler:

No, no, yeah, it was pretty intense. Fortunately, I had been kind of working my travel to bring stuff home every time and bring back empty suitcases. So I had, so I came and visited my family for ordination, I brought back a fair amount of stuff. And then I came and visited around Christmas and brought back a fair amount of stuff. So I was basically gonna have an extra two suitcases to check whenever I came back, but I wasn't gonna have to ship anything. So I was able to leave a couple of boxes in the middle of my floor. I think I had three boxes maybe. And just everything was in a box and ready to be shipped out. But I was able to take everything else with me. And so it helped that I already kind of stripped down a lot of might

Tim Stout:

be kind of like I had to flee the country emergency evacuation. Yeah. sounds scary. You know,

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

don't you think? No, because his case is different than mine. There's no bomb shooting, that

Tim Stout:

we're talking about a global pandemic, not a not a communist revolution. There are some subtle differences between the two. Just just small. So you get back home, you finish up your schoolwork. You're still looking towards ordination. And I guess the realizations hitting you that this is not going to be a regular ordination.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Well, so it actually so I was already a priest at that time. Right. So, so 2019 Okay, what's my ordination? So? So I guess going back to the to the degrees, right? So part of the problem is, we're still bound by the CCB, even though the degrees don't match up. Right? So all of this stuff, it's not part of the degree I still need, right? Like, I still need to learn how to preach, I still need to learn how to celebrate the sacraments. So that takes so that kind of becomes what do you need that for? Some people say, but yeah,

Tim Stout:

some people would say that there's some deacons and priests out there that don't know how to preach still, right?

Unknown:

Some sob.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So some would say or some don't know.

Tim Stout:

Well, we hear that all the time. I should say we hear that people don't like what we preach about. So that happens.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So I get to enter into that group, absolutely.

Tim Stout:

Bring your A game.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

That's a different, different one. People opposed to what we preach, but those do not know how to pray. That's true.

Unknown:

That's very, very true. I agree with that.

Fr. David Wheeler:

And then it will always love the visiting priests because they're like, he can just say yes to whatever and it doesn't matter if I don't like him. Well, whatever. That's true. He's gone next week. If that's true,

Tim Stout:

until you come back as part of an assignment, apparently, so down the road, so so you had to learn how to you had to learn how to preach and how to do your what's the right word for that? Were

Unknown:

you practical? practicum

Tim Stout:

Yes. So

Fr. David Wheeler:

yeah, so that was all part of like the formation that happened at the seminary, then so rather than it being part of the classwork, it was sort of like our Thursday evenings, we always you know, maybe it could have been like pastoral counseling. So we basically had much like, much like st minor has like their j term, we had like a summer term so we would get back four weeks before school would start so basically on the same schedule as the people going to classes here because the because the European school year is shifted back so it starts like in October October 1 and goes through June as opposed to like September 1 through May which makes it really awkward because your your Christmas vacation is right before finals. Which is a pain. Bad idea. I don't know. I don't know who came up with

Tim Stout:

that's not a problem anymore for

Unknown:

you. Thankfully,

Tim Stout:

thankfully now we gain

Unknown:

questions on Facebook their doubts, no we do not

Tim Stout:

nothing about your you or your on your phone there to you getting

Dallas Kelley:

you get we do have one comment. We love your sermons. You all do a great job. I don't know if she was talking to banks.

Tim Stout:

Or banks. Wow, that's a good one. Thanks. Well, usually that would be Steve's mom that would comment about those kind of things. So she's, she's a longtime listener as well. So so you get you eventually get all that stuff. You go to Lawrenceburg, right. Harrisburg, Harrisburg.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah, so, so basically the timeline was then, so after ordination, I was halfway through it, too. Your degree, so I finished a three year degree and then I have to have an extra year of theology in order to fulfill what the expectation of the bishops is. So a lot of people will just do a license program because it's only one extra year. And then you have a degree that you can actually teach with. So like, I could teach at the university level, basically with STL. degree, the sacred theology licentiate. But it's, it's it's roughly the equivalent of a master's degree. It's somewhere in between a master's degree and a doctorate. It's not a terminal degree like a doctorate is, but it requires most of the classwork that a doctorate in the US would. So but not nearly as much writing and research.

Tim Stout:

I think it's enough. Right? I mean, don't you think it's enough?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Well, there enough weight to get the STD that's been even bigger. Oh, wait, one of the people that understand the Catholic

Fr. David Wheeler:

Church, all about we take Asian

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

education, we take it very seriously. None of these have asked stuff. And people just forget, like, this guy came out. He is like, full rank.

Fr. David Wheeler:

He's like, super educated. Yes.

Unknown:

From the holla.

Tim Stout:

I know, I'm from Louisville, but I, I lived in a rural part of Louisville.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

So why you pursue more theology? Yeah.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Good question. I didn't. So what happened was, what it was, was the so I started. So after finishing after finishing the general theology degree, right, I had to find another degree to do in two years, and at least for at least one year, but kind of depending on what the diocese needs were in the bishops desire, it could have been one, it could be actually finishing the degree, both both are fairly common, just sort of depending on the diocese, and the individual. So I talked with the bishop and basically he asked, you know, what are you interested in? Like, what do you want to study? Because it's hard to really pour yourself into higher studies if you don't care.

Unknown:

Yeah,

Fr. David Wheeler:

yeah. So So kind of my top, my top two were scripture, and marriage and family. And so and, and you kind of the one I really wanted to do was marriage and family. So I actually so I did my first year at the john paul, the second Institute for marriage and family, which was another Italian University and really kind of that emphasis on and incorporate a lot of moral theology, right, like it if you had to assign it to one of those degrees it probably would have been moral theology. But it had it was very broad program like instead of, I guess, instead of having a really deep knowledge of a of a particular area, like a lot of degrees were focused in it much more was trying to bring in everything that pertained and helps to understand so I had degrees in psychology, I had degrees. You know, in sacramental theology, I had to Earth sorry, not degrees classes, you know, the sacramental theology, pastoral theology, like a lot of a lot of philosophy, and, you know, both philosophy and theology, it was it was a pretty philosophy heavy program, right. And partially because that's kind of a reflection of john paul, the second thought, kind of bringing in a lot of those different areas to bear on on marriage and family. But it right after, so that was the year leading up to my ordination, then I was ordained and went down to Guatemala for a Spanish Immersion. While I was there, the there were some major changes to to the program, the faculty and the institution as a whole. Right. So it was something like three quarters of the faculty turned over at the john paul, the second Institute over the course of a summer. That's always

Tim Stout:

what a student wants to hear. Oh, your professors are gone. Yeah.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Hello. Yes. And, and just kind of what was required for the degree was rewritten to the point where it wasn't entirely clear whether or not like, the statement was, you can finish under the old program, but the requirements of the new program indicated that unless they made an exception. You couldn't actually fulfill those requirements, because of how many how many credits you needed, via seminars and how many seminars you were actually allowed that okay,

Tim Stout:

that would be horrible.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah. So, so I mean, all of the all of the universities in Rome kind of saw what was happening and a couple of them responded, they'd be willing to take basically all of our credits. So I had one classmate who was from the North American college. And both of us were kind of interested in, in switching over into different programs. And so, one of us went to Santa Croce and I went, so he went to Santa Croce, and I went to the angelicum. And both of both of those universities were great and basically just accepted all of our credits, and kind of set out a path for us to finish a degree in moral theology. So it's, it was slightly broader. But since most of our classes kind of pertained to moral theology in some way, they were able to count a lot of those more so than another discipline would have to do that.

Tim Stout:

To us, this father, Steve have more theology to has,

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

he is opposed to

Unknown:

it. Yeah. So

Fr. David Wheeler:

you actually did a lot of work on a bioethics degree from Regina apostolorum, I believe,

Tim Stout:

because of his medical background.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Right. And that's kind of a interesting degree in that. Normally, bioethics would fit under moral theology as well. But Regina apostolorum, actually developed a degree that was specifically bioethics so much more focused. Instead of just being an STL. In moral theology, it's I think it's a bi o l, or something like that. A bioethics licensure.

Tim Stout:

Well, the church has, has these degrees all have their own acronyms. Why do we have? We have good ones? I mean, seriously, you gotta you gotta have your game together. You gotta have your game together know what all these degrees are? Yeah. So you get to work with Mr. Mike Allen a lot then. Huh?

Fr. David Wheeler:

I've done some work with him. Yeah. So Father, Father, Steve was ready to, to let the his advisory capacity on the NFP board, go to somebody else. And he recommended me so I've done some work with them. And, and certainly with learning how to do marriage prep. And Mike is very, very involved with that stuff.

Tim Stout:

So he's Oh, Mike loves it. Yeah. That's his thing. For sure. Right.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Yeah. Well, you have a great addition to our diocese.

Unknown:

Absolutely.

Dallas Kelley:

We had a question come in. I heard father Wheeler did a great job on a talk about human sexuality at the cathedral. Is there any way I can listen to it again? It was it recorded or?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So that was on Tuesday. And and basically what we're doing with with that talk is I have, I have kind of the unedited version. So I'm going through and seeing if I put my foot in my mouth, and if I need to write retractions, or put in like a slide to explain what I was trying to say, and then try to put up some of the references to things I was I was doing. So I'm kind of going through it right now. And hopefully, that'll be posted by the beginning of next week. Kind of on the on the Christ the King.

Tim Stout:

We never we never had it like that, dude, we just, we just take it all. I mean, this guy never sticks his foot as well. However, we stuck

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

in it in it.

Tim Stout:

We have we do have a good time. Right? I mean, it's

Fr. David Wheeler:

Well, I mean, it is a it is a it's contentious enough and, and difficult enough, right? Like I don't want to, I don't want to leave. I'm okay with people realizing that I make a fool of myself at times, but I don't want to leave them with the wrong understand.

Tim Stout:

Right, what I was trying it's a it's an intense topic. And let's face it, if if all Catholics believe what the church taught about moral theology, natural family planning, very human sexual human sexuality, yeah, the world would be a lot better place. The Breakdown. I mean, I still contend that most of every issue that we're dealing with as a country right now, is the result of the breakdown of the family completely across the board.

Fr. David Wheeler:

That was honestly one of the biggest reasons for why I wanted to study marriage and family, right, because I see that as, as one of the central issues in society today, right is how to act and it's difficult to to not have seen a good functional loving family had tried to build one of your own.

Tim Stout:

And that's one of the reasons good segue cuz we were starting a marriage ministry here at St. Francis and john, just think we've got a meeting here in a week or so. The other one, so now it's notations. Yeah, no, okay. That's, that's good. That's great. You can come out and talk to her to our group that's just really starting up. The Conklin's, Barbara and Eric are kind of the chairpersons I guess we're like you appointed us like the chaplains or something of that group or something. So we may sub that out to you, Father, Wheeler, so you can come talk to us

Fr. David Wheeler:

what's kind of the, I guess the mission of the marriage ministry? Is it is it to get couples together to for mutual support and edification

Tim Stout:

it there's a social element to it, but there's also an Education element to it to absolutely, you know, to really kind of reinforce what the Church teaches and the importance of that, but also know that the, you know, the success of the family unit has to have some social element to it. Right. And I think it's a combination of the two of those.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

But I think the P stuff when I talked to the Conklin is the level of understanding of it, I think the level that you can contribute to a lot it understand what is marriage, you know, for us as priests, you know, like or not, we understand what his priesthood is, before we be in a priests Sure, marriage, you got six months, most of time six month plan for the wedding gown, instead of understand the whole theological behind it, you know, my Allah does a great job as a dicey. I think we give a lot of credence, but the the casting support as time goes on a couple needs, that that intellectual level, we've extremely intellectual culture right. Now.

Tim Stout:

I mean, you know, we, one of the things we talked about from the marriage perspective is that, you know, in today's in today's culture, you know, global culture, secular culture, there's this view of marriage, and there's this view of life that's kind of taken through the lens of social media, or an unrealistic view of really what's going on in people's marriages, even once that from the surface looks successful. Right? You only see the good things that are posted on facebook, facebook, so you think, hey, marriage has to be perfect. There's no, there's no friction in a marriage there. It's always just beautiful. Yeah. But that's, that's unrealistic.

Fr. David Wheeler:

Right. And honestly, I think that's a big part of how much mental health difficulties we have, right? Because there's that expectation that everyone else is doing great. Why is my life in shambles? Instead of realizing that if you actually got to know people, and and we had real community there, you would realize that other people share those struggles and there was support out there, right, like you could support each other in those struggles. Whereas if our lens for understanding people is just like, I want to, I want to make it look like my life is great, right. So here's, here's a picture of me smiling. And here's a picture of my family on vacation. And we're all laughing and having a good time because we thought the camera was out.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, but on the drive down to the beach, we were ready to kill each other. Exactly. Yeah. That never happens. Every day it happens every day. Hey, Father Willard. Thanks for for coming in. Can you believe we've been talking for an hour? Can you believe that? It's a gift. So we're gonna we're gonna take a small break here. We're gonna do save the day and then we're going to come back and and wrap things up. You ready? Steve? Over there.

Unknown:

Okay, here we go. This is Franciscan media saint of the day for May 7. Today we celebrate blessed Rose venturini. Our plans are not always God's plans. That certainly was the case for Rose venturini. Born in Italy in 1656. She saw her future in marriage. Following the unexpected death of her fiance she entered a convent. After only a few months, it became necessary for her to return home to care for her newly widowed mother. Meanwhile, Rose found a way to nourish herself and others spiritually at home. She invited women of the neighborhood to recite the rosary with her, a spiritual bond developed among them. Over time rose her the call to become a teacher in the world rather than returned to the convent. She proved to be a born teacher. The free school for girls she opened in 1685 was a success. As her reputation grew. She was called to help train teachers and to organize more schools in many parts of Italy, including Rome. Following her death in Rome in 1728. A number of miracles were attributed to her. Rose venturini was beatified in 1952. There's more about the saints along with inspiration and Catholic resources at our website, Saint of the day.org. From Franciscan media. This has been st at the de

Tim Stout:

St. Rose. While we were listening to that, apparently we were looking at the weather for Sunday. Yes.

Dallas Kelley:

Now they're talking Sunday gust I heard 3540 miles an hour but when exactly that's going to hear that won't happen

Tim Stout:

when you're here father, David Wheeler, we will make sure is the extended extended forecast. Sunny and 75 and no wind. Just keep your homily. Just have two versions of your homily. The great whether Holly can be you know, as long as you want it to be as long as it's less than 12 minutes, right? If it's a if it's if it's 12 degrees outside, raining, or

Dallas Kelley:

what's the what's the coldest we have masses? You may remember

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

three degrees.

Tim Stout:

Is it three degrees? Christmas Christmas Eve. Yeah, it was code. Short homily when it's code, not for us where the snow was going left to right. Steve was out there. How was it Steve? It was cold when it was very, very, very cold. But it was. It was very picturesque. Yeah, Christmassy, the snow blowing.

Unknown:

Like a snow globe.

Tim Stout:

Exactly. I can't wait to do it again this year. No. Hopefully we will be back in back in the church by then. So probably we're Thanks for coming. We're gonna have you back. You know, we're when we're gonna have you back for mass. But, you know, as part of this marriage ministry, I think it's a good idea to have him back. And, you know, I tell all these, you guys are still on the honeymoon, right? You've only been ordained a couple years. So you're still in the honeymoon. But we want to have you back. When you get off the honeymoon. safe. You're still smiling.

Fr. David Wheeler:

So that's good. Yeah. Anytime I can come and talk to about myself as a good.

Tim Stout:

Hey, folks. Next show is may 21. We may do some recorded shows here in the future. We're working on some things with Deacon Gary Ruta Miller from last last show. Just trying to get some guests and things. I think we should have father mark. On Mark Bentley. ordains. Same time you were right. Father otter will be good. My father Steve Roberts will be a good one, too. We haven't we haven't had him on the show. So if you have suggestions for potential spoilers, spoilers. We had him out here for a show somewhere. Oh, it was over at the Mexican restaurant. He came out did a talk. That's been a while ago. Oh, brother, Steve. Oh, Steve. Oh, yeah. That's probably when he was here. Right. He because he was excited here for a couple years. So he was your helper, because you only need help help sporadically. But if you've got suggestions for guest, we want to know same with you, Father Wheeler, if you have somebody that you think would be a good guest, whether it's person has an expertise in a topic or whether they're just a person we should know. Right? So for you, we should know you because you're one of the newest priests in the diocese. So let us know. Also, we asked you to go to ssF j.org ssfj.org that's how you can support our ministries here. You know, you can give to just about everything that we do online. And we need your support. That's how the Catholic Church works. So y'all got anything else?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

That's it for me.

Tim Stout:

Father, Wheeler, could you give us your blessing before to close the show?

Fr. David Wheeler:

Certainly. The Lord be with you and with your mighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Tim Stout:

A may Amen. Hey, until the next show in two weeks. I'm Deacon Tim.

Dallas Kelley:

I'm taking Dallas by the linguine for the David Wheeler. Go in peace.

Tim Stout:

Good night, everybody.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Night, everybody. Thank you.

Musician:

Did you ever stop and think why spend too much time getting ready? I don't know or saying the thing that I haven't noticed. When I see you my heart starts racing, but I don't know if the length is Jason brown