# "how I became Catholic" - conversation with CatholicSam

An episode of [AfterMass](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1823710125), 27 Feb 2026, 59 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO4468789135.mp3

today i’m sitting down with Sam AKA CatholicSam, a catholic convert and content creator and his journey into the Church is both thoughtful and bold. We talk about conversion, Protestant objections and what ultimately drew him to Catholicism.we also continue the conversation with an exclusive q&a on patreon, where we answer questions submitted directly by the community.join us on patreon for the exclusive q&a herewww.patreon.com/anamunleyconnect with saminstagram: @catholicsamyoutube: www.youtube.com/@CatholicSamm

## Transcript

[0:00] Hi, guys, and welcome back to After Mass, the podcast for
[0:03] Catholics who want more than just faith on Sundays.
[0:05] Today's guest is Sam, AKA Catholic Sam.
[0:09] So I'm really excited to have him here.
[0:11] I've been really wanting to have this conversation for a while.
[0:14] And so Sam is someone that I really trust when it comes to
[0:17] formation and the faith and just navigating the big questions the
[0:21] Catholics are facing right now. So I'm really excited to have
[0:25] you on. So welcome.
[0:26] Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
[0:29] Hello and hello to everybody watching as well and honored to
[0:32] be here. Much, much undeserving of me to
[0:35] be here. An honor.
[0:37] No, thank you so much. I'm seriously so excited.
[0:39] So I want to kind of get into just like the general who you
[0:43] are, what kind of, I know that you are not a cradle Catholic.
[0:47] You're a convert, correct. OK.
[0:49] So tell us your story. Tell us your story from the
[0:51] beginning and don't skip any details.
[0:54] Yeah. Awesome.
[0:55] So yeah, my name is Sam is on I just said and yeah, I was not
[0:58] born Catholics. So I was born into an agnostic
[1:02] family. I'm not born into one of the
[1:04] families who hates Christianity or hates God or anything of that
[1:07] sort. But I just never knew about the
[1:10] Christian faith. I was never introduced to it.
[1:12] I never knew it right. So growing up in just a normal
[1:15] household and yeah, pretty average life growing up, I would
[1:19] say until around I was 13. So when I was 13, I got
[1:23] introduced to a bunch of basketball guys.
[1:26] We played on a club team together.
[1:27] And these guys were all Catholic.
[1:29] I didn't know what Catholic meant.
[1:30] So I was like, oh, it's probably, it's cool, whatever,
[1:32] Christianity cool. And then they were like, hey,
[1:34] man, we're all going to this Catholic High School.
[1:37] And I was like, all right, why are you telling me about this?
[1:39] And they were like, well, if you come with us, we will have the
[1:43] best basketball team in the whole country.
[1:47] And I was like, all right, sounds cool.
[1:49] So I'd somehow convinced my parents to spend a boatload of
[1:52] money to get me to this Catholic school.
[1:54] Because I don't know if you guys know this.
[1:55] If you are not Catholic and you go to a Catholic school, you
[1:57] actually have to pay a lot to get in versus if you are
[2:00] baptized and in a practicing Catholic so.
[2:03] It's like out of state tuition versus in state tuition.
[2:06] If you're out of state and you go to, you know, an out of
[2:09] state, you have to pay more if you're not actually from that
[2:11] state, like a resident from that state.
[2:12] So interesting, but go ahead. Makes sense.
[2:15] Makes sense. I agree with it.
[2:16] So somehow my parents didn't really have much pushback to it.
[2:20] They knew that I was, you know, basketball was my life back
[2:23] then, and they saw potentially a future in it.
[2:25] So I was like, you know what, let's do it, right?
[2:26] Parents didn't get much pushback.
[2:28] So give the Catholic school of basketball going as planned, all
[2:31] that stuff. And at this Catholic school, me
[2:33] and school don't really get along.
[2:34] We'll say that, right? So I'm not listening to anything
[2:36] pretty much. I don't know what religion class
[2:38] is saying. I'm hearing about Moses
[2:39] splitting the Red Sea. And I'm just like, oh, this is
[2:41] kind of cool. But throughout my time at this
[2:44] Catholic High School, we have to go to mass mandatory every
[2:47] month. So I'm learning the Mass,
[2:48] there's morning prayers on the announcements.
[2:50] So I'm just memorizing the Our Father and the Hail Mary, all of
[2:53] these things, right? And I never had anything against
[2:55] it, but I was like, I like I was, I kind of liked it, but I
[2:58] never understood the Catholic, Catholic faith.
[3:00] I was never taught the Catholic faith.
[3:02] And I'll call out some Catholic schools right now.
[3:04] We need to do a better job at catechizing the the high
[3:06] schoolers. We need to do a much better job.
[3:08] I'll just be honest. So at this Catholic school, I am
[3:10] not living a Catholic life. I'm not Catholic.
[3:13] I'm just going through the motions, living with how I want
[3:15] to do whatever it is. Right towards the end of my
[3:18] Catholic High School career, I get into a relationship with a
[3:22] girl, and I've never told this story in depth.
[3:25] I told on. I'm going to tell the story in
[3:27] depth. I'll answer any questions today.
[3:28] It's exclusive. Exclusive.
[3:30] Yeah, first time ever. So I get into this relationship,
[3:32] and this relationship goes on right towards the end of summer,
[3:38] right? So I'm graduating from this
[3:39] Catholic High School. A couple weeks after I graduate.
[3:42] I pretty much I got cheated on in the relationship and during
[3:45] this relationship it also led to me being in the hospital for
[3:48] around a week in and out due to a sickness that I caught and it
[3:53] was really bad. So there's a bunch of messy
[3:54] situation. And then after I go to the
[3:55] hospital, this whole stuff goes down with with with my ex and a
[3:59] bunch of my friends who were involved as well.
[4:01] So more of the story here. I was at a very low point in my
[4:04] life, probably the lowest I've ever felt up until that point.
[4:06] And I remember I didn't really have anyone to reach out to
[4:08] except for one person. I'll shout him out.
[4:10] His name's Nico. He's my brother, not
[4:13] biologically, but he's my brother, like genuinely my best
[4:16] friend. His parents are now my
[4:17] godparents, right? So I remember reaching out to
[4:19] Nico, Nico's a cradle Catholic, wasn't practicing as well as he
[4:23] could have been at the time as many of us, but so asked him.
[4:26] I said, Hey, man, like I, I don't know what to do.
[4:29] I feel empty inside. I feel like I've never felt love
[4:31] before in my life. What do I like?
[4:33] What do I do? And he was like, have you ever
[4:35] tried praying about it? And I was like praying about it.
[4:38] Like, do you mean saying to your Father, like, what is that going
[4:40] to do from you? I'm like just reciting a prayer.
[4:42] And he was like, no, like, like opening your heart to God.
[4:44] And I was like, you know what, like I, I, I love Jesus.
[4:47] Jesus is awesome. If anyone doesn't like Jesus,
[4:49] you have something wrong with you.
[4:50] So I was just like, and I was in a Catholic.
[4:51] So I was like, you know what, I'll ask Jesus.
[4:53] And keep in mind, my whole life I believed in God, right?
[4:57] I was never able to concept, naturalize anything other than
[4:59] God being the immovable mover that caused everything.
[5:04] I was never able to get around that.
[5:05] I always knew that there was a God, I just didn't know who it
[5:07] was. And Jesus was the first God that
[5:09] I was introduced to. So it's like, that's the God,
[5:11] right? So glory to God that Jesus is
[5:14] the first God that I was introduced to.
[5:15] Anyways. So I asked Nico, I go, hey, what
[5:17] do I do? Like, I don't know what to do.
[5:18] He's like, yeah, pray. So at my lowest point, at my
[5:22] lowest, lowest point, I decided to open my heart fully to Jesus
[5:27] Christ. I remember the prayer so vividly
[5:31] in my shower, just on my knees crying to God, asking God to
[5:35] fill the void that I feel is empty in my heart and to give me
[5:39] love. After that prayer, I was
[5:42] completely OK, but it took me a year to realize what had
[5:45] actually happened, right? So after that prayer for the
[5:48] next weeks and months and months, I was like, well, I'm
[5:50] like really not stressed at all. I'm over the situation.
[5:54] I feel great like I'm everything is good.
[5:57] And it took me a year to understand that that was Christ
[5:59] who filled that void in my heart.
[6:01] And once I realized that, I was like, OK, you're kind of like
[6:04] threw me a bone there. I should probably do something
[6:06] back, you know? So I started going to Mass,
[6:08] right? Me and Nico, the guy who I just
[6:10] brought up, we would have a lot of sleepovers back in the day.
[6:12] And it would normally be on a Saturday because of work and the
[6:14] weekend or whatever, right? So every time we'd have a
[6:16] sleepover, waking up on Sunday, he would go to Mass and he'd be,
[6:19] and a lot of times he's like, hey, do you want to come with
[6:21] me? A couple of the times at first I
[6:23] would say, no, not because I don't want to go to Mass, but I
[6:25] was just tired. I was like, no, honestly, it's
[6:27] Sunday. It's like 9:00 AM now.
[6:28] But I remember one of the times I was like, you know what, let's
[6:31] go like, like, like why? Why not?
[6:33] I enjoy enjoyed the mass at Catholic High School and I love
[6:36] Jesus, right. So I was like, you know what
[6:37] let's go started going one thing led to another.
[6:39] Now I'm going every Sunday, even on holy days of obligation and
[6:42] I'm like, I kind of like this. This is awesome.
[6:44] And I remember aftermath maybe five months later, I was like,
[6:49] hey, man, like, I want to get baptized.
[6:50] Like, why? Why am I not baptized?
[6:52] Like, I'm doing everything a Catholic does and I'm not
[6:53] baptized. What's the point?
[6:55] And he was like, what? Like, are you serious?
[6:57] I was like, yeah, like, what's the big deal?
[6:58] Like, I just want to get baptized.
[7:00] I want to be a Christian. And he was like, oh, my
[7:02] goodness, this is incredible. So he introduces me to the
[7:04] priest. We have a meeting with the
[7:06] priest. I have a meeting with a
[7:08] spiritual advisor as well who's going to teach me catechesis,
[7:11] and they gave me a little bit of leeway.
[7:13] Keep in mind, I had gone to Catholic school for five years.
[7:15] I had been discarding with the Mass Catholicism for it's been
[7:20] years at this point, right? So I got a private catechesis.
[7:23] It took four to five months of private lessons multiple times a
[7:26] week. And because they had determined
[7:28] that with the knowledge that I had possessed, I don't need a
[7:30] full year of catechesis because I already knew how to pray.
[7:33] I already knew who God is. I already know what the Mass is.
[7:35] I know what it means to be Catholic, right?
[7:37] So I got private catechesis. And then I was baptized in
[7:40] September of 2023. So I was baptized and confirmed
[7:46] on the same day, September 9th, 7th, one of those days in 2023.
[7:52] And then, yeah, that that would be my conversion story, that
[7:55] there's a lot more that comes after that.
[7:57] If you want to want me to get into that now, I absolutely can.
[8:01] Yeah, no, I just, I just had a question.
[8:02] So with Nico, you know, like what A God bless them #1 and his
[8:07] and his family. But had he never spoken to you
[8:10] before, like about maybe converting or maybe anything
[8:14] like that? Was he just like truly like in
[8:17] total shock that you were like, hey man, I think I want to
[8:19] convert. Yeah, so he was.
[8:21] Yeah. So, and Nico, Nico will tell you
[8:23] this himself, he was not living like a Catholic.
[8:25] Well, this guy, discipline, he would always, he would never
[8:28] miss a Mass, right. But he's not living like a
[8:31] Catholic. So I don't think it was in his
[8:32] mind that like with all this is in this front and center thing
[8:34] in his life. It was more just Mass on Sunday.
[8:36] Then when you leave, you do whatever you want, right?
[8:38] So now it was same for me at the time.
[8:40] So. So yeah, when he heard that, he
[8:41] was just like, like, awesome, That's great.
[8:44] Like, of course that's great. So yeah, he was a little bit
[8:46] shocked, but I think at the same time he was like, yeah, like,
[8:49] makes sense. Like we're going to mass every
[8:51] Sunday. Right, right.
[8:52] His mom was so happy. His mother's my godmother.
[8:56] May God bless her beautiful soul.
[8:58] I absolutely love her. And Nico's dad as well, my
[9:01] godfather. They are incredible people from
[9:03] Colombia, the most beautiful faith ever.
[9:06] And their prayers, man, they, they really changed my life.
[9:08] So, so yeah, that's. No, that's, I mean, that's
[9:11] amazing. I wanted to ask if your
[9:14] understanding of Jesus changed during your private kind of
[9:19] one-on-one OCIARCIA catechesis that you had done.
[9:22] Yeah, I would say it did, because I started to understand
[9:25] who Jesus is, right? Like we hear in terms like the
[9:29] Son of God, Lord, just Jesus Christ, right?
[9:32] And we take them at face value at first when we're not deep in
[9:34] the faith. But then when I truly understand
[9:37] or understood that Jesus Christ is the God who created
[9:41] everything, who took on flesh to save me, right?
[9:45] Let alone the sins of the world. But to save me.
[9:47] When I understood that, I was like, you know, I should love
[9:50] him as well because he loves me more than anything, right?
[9:53] So. So when I understood who Jesus
[9:55] is and what he did, that's what changed in my catechesis.
[9:58] And during that time, was there anything that was there ever a
[10:01] moment where you doubted whether or not you actually wanted to
[10:04] continue with converting to Catholicism, or were you pretty
[10:07] much yes, from the beginning to the moment you got baptized and
[10:10] confirmed? Yeah, I didn't have much doubt.
[10:13] I feel like I superseded the doubt when I was a kid because
[10:16] the doubt was never in God's existence.
[10:18] It wasn't even in Jesus. There was really no doubt.
[10:21] I was just like, yeah, there is a God.
[10:22] Like I came to this conclusion by myself because my parents
[10:24] weren't telling me nothing. And I just remember, like, as a
[10:25] kid, I would sit in my room and I'd be like, how am I here?
[10:28] Like, what is this doesn't make any sense.
[10:29] And I was just like, oh, God, how am I alive?
[10:31] This is a God. Makes sense.
[10:33] So I never had any doubt that God existed and I never had any
[10:36] doubt in Christ. Right.
[10:38] So through my catechesis, of course there's doubts.
[10:40] Like we every time we sin, we doubt.
[10:41] Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But so like just mainstream
[10:45] doubts. Not really.
[10:46] To be honest, I was kind of just excited to get baptized.
[10:48] Although I didn't fully understand the Catholic faith
[10:50] and what it means to be a true practice and Catholic, I never
[10:54] had doubts that Christ is real, that Christ was Lord, or any of
[10:57] that. And what about your family?
[10:59] Like what was their reaction? Did you just tell them from the
[11:02] beginning or was there a sit down conversation or?
[11:05] Yeah, with me, you know, I'm pretty sporadic, right?
[11:07] So I was like, hey, Dad, I'm becoming Catholic.
[11:11] He was like, what? I was like, yeah, I'm a
[11:13] Catholic. That's it.
[11:14] And then he was like, all right, my, my dad's side is much more
[11:18] in disagreement with the things that I believe.
[11:20] But at first it was a lot of backlash.
[11:23] But then come to understand, I'm like that there's nothing you
[11:27] can do that's going to change my mind about this.
[11:29] And of course, our blessed Lord says he who loves father and
[11:32] mother more than me is not worthy of me.
[11:34] I trust what Jesus says. So I'm like, you know, what?
[11:37] If my parents don't want me to get baptized, I don't care.
[11:40] So like, that's the biblical response.
[11:42] I don't care. Of course there can be some hurt
[11:44] in your heart, but in terms of changing my mind, nothing was
[11:46] going to change my mind. So yeah.
[11:49] That's awesome. OK, so then what happened after
[11:51] then? I mean, you have a huge social
[11:53] media presence. So how did that come about?
[11:56] From this basketball playing pseudo Catholic to then
[11:59] converting and now they're like this big loud voice?
[12:03] How did that happen? Yeah and thanks be to God for
[12:05] that it's it's truly is incredible So what happened was
[12:08] after I got baptized still not living out my faith is is best
[12:12] that I should not all at all as many of us I.
[12:15] Feel like it's sadly like a rite of passage for a lot of us.
[12:18] And I hate to even say that. I hate that that's a reality.
[12:22] But every Catholic that I have met who has fallen in love with
[12:26] their faith and is practicing it as we should have from the very
[12:30] beginning was a Catholic not living as one gets it.
[12:35] I don't. It's almost like that saying,
[12:37] like you don't know what you have to live.
[12:38] No, that's not the saying. I forgot the saying.
[12:41] But I feel like everybody kind of goes through that.
[12:45] And I don't know why it's such a common theme.
[12:46] But yeah, once you get to this side of things where you find
[12:50] like true peace, true solace, so much joy in doing, living your
[12:56] day-to-day life really and serving Christ and trying to
[12:58] Orient every single thing about your life towards Christ and
[13:01] failing and then trying and then failing and trying.
[13:03] But once you get to the side of things, all you want to do is
[13:05] tell other people about it all you want all all I wonder is
[13:08] wow, if I will only would have done this 10 years ago, like
[13:11] where would I be at now, you know?
[13:13] So anyways, back to you. So absolutely, yeah.
[13:17] So after my conversion, after my baptism, my confirmation, I was
[13:20] not taking my faith serious, I would say for about 5 months.
[13:23] And then I remember in 2024 when the year changed, I started to
[13:26] understand my sin a little bit better.
[13:29] I started to read the Bible, I started to look in truly into
[13:34] our faith. So I understood the validity of
[13:36] my sin and I looked at Christ and I said, OK, he has never
[13:40] betrayed me ever. He's blessed me with everything
[13:43] good that's ever happened to me in my life.
[13:44] He's brought me out of everything bad that's ever
[13:46] happened to me in my life. Why am I treating him like this?
[13:49] I don't love him that that's what I I came to the clues.
[13:51] I don't really love him, right? Because if you do really love
[13:54] someone, you're not going to continuously betrayed him and to
[13:56] commit mortal sin against them, right?
[13:58] So I came to that realization. I said I I need to change.
[14:02] OK, so I started reading my Bible.
[14:03] I started getting super into my faith, but I did it in the wrong
[14:06] way. I developed arrogance and pride.
[14:09] So what I would do is I would read the Bible for myself and
[14:12] try to come to my own conclusions.
[14:13] And then I started going on TikTok and Instagram and I get
[14:18] introduced to guys like clip connectly guys like need god.net
[14:22] people like that, right? And I'm sitting here watching
[14:25] videos and they're going, Oh, Catholicism is false.
[14:28] Oh, the Catholic Church teaches this and it goes completely
[14:30] against the Bible. And instead of being a humble
[14:33] servant of God, I was an arrogant, prideful human being.
[14:37] So I decided to go, oh, they're right.
[14:38] I don't even want to listen to the church.
[14:40] I don't want to listen to authority.
[14:41] All I need is me, my Bible and Jesus because at face value,
[14:44] that sounds great. You don't have to do anything.
[14:47] You can just read your Bible. You have Jesus whenever you want
[14:49] as if Jesus is like your little buddy you can just call upon
[14:52] pretty disgusting. So I started coming to my own
[14:54] conclusions and I would say for about 5 or 6 months I'm living
[14:58] with with non denominational Protestant ideologies.
[15:01] Things of the sort of don't call your priest father, things of
[15:04] the sort of the Marian dogmas are false, saintly intercession
[15:07] is false and that the Catholic Church is maybe not true, right.
[15:11] So thanks be to God that I did not leave the Catholic Church.
[15:14] Thanks be to God that I still went to Mass and that I still of
[15:17] course, I still believe in the Eucharist being Jesus.
[15:20] That was a non negotiable for me.
[15:21] I was like Protestant, believe me or not, on this.
[15:23] So I was still going to Mass. I was still a Catholic, but I
[15:27] was not acting or believing or submitting like a Catholic.
[15:31] So I take a trip to Thailand, right?
[15:35] My friends, at the last minute, we're like, hey, we're going to
[15:36] Thailand. Do you want to come?
[15:38] I was like, yeah, sure. So we go to Thailand for two
[15:42] months. When I'm in Thailand, I'm diving
[15:44] into my faith. I'm trying to change my whole
[15:46] lifestyle. I'm and then I start making
[15:49] videos. This is where Catholics say I
[15:51] made a horrible mistake, OK, And I want everybody listening to
[15:54] this. If you are not, if you don't
[15:56] have a foundation in your faith and you don't know what you're
[15:59] talking about, please don't teach.
[16:01] Please, for your own good, do not teach.
[16:04] So I started making videos, right?
[16:06] And the videos I was making are very lukewarm.
[16:08] It's not anything like complex, but I would do things like Bible
[16:11] verse of the day. I would go on live streaming and
[16:13] talk about how much I love Jesus and what I think Bible verse has
[16:16] said and stuff. And I would even say horrible
[16:18] things. And May God forgive me of things
[16:21] like, you know, I'm Catholic, but, you know, I don't really
[16:22] believe in everything. The Catholic Church teachers, I
[16:24] don't believe in that. You know, you don't have to if
[16:26] you're if you're Catholic. So May God forgive me for the
[16:28] things that I was saying there. And I remember in Thailand, I
[16:32] join someone stream by the name of Sam Shimon.
[16:35] Yeah, I'm sure none of you guys know that, as I'm sure.
[16:38] Never heard of them. So May God bless Sam Shimon if
[16:42] someone sends this to him. I I just want to thank him
[16:45] specifically because he changed the course of my life and his
[16:49] knowledge is so inspiring to me. And I pray to God one day that I
[16:53] may be as smart and intelligent as he is because he changed my
[16:56] life and he doesn't even know who I am.
[16:58] So, so a special thank you to Sam.
[17:00] So I joined Sam's stream. I asked him one question.
[17:03] I said, hey, Sam Catholic here, recent convert.
[17:07] What's more, what's more authoritative or what's I think
[17:10] I said, what's on a higher level of authority, the Bible or the
[17:13] church? Sam started ripping me apart.
[17:16] If you've ever watched the Sam Shamone stream, you'll know if
[17:19] you ask, if you ask him a question off topic, when he's
[17:23] teaching, he's going to you're going to hear from him.
[17:26] OK, So he starts screaming at me.
[17:30] And I was like, whoa. And by the way, I'm not even on
[17:32] his panel. I asked in the chat.
[17:34] So we start screaming, calling me an idiot.
[17:35] Like he was like, you're an idiot.
[17:37] Like you have no idea what you're talking about.
[17:39] What gave you the Bible? All this up?
[17:40] And I was sitting there. I'm like, whoa.
[17:43] And I have thick skin. I like being taught like that
[17:46] because I need to be woken up out of my arrogance.
[17:48] So when Sam got done ripping me a new one for 10 minutes
[17:52] straight, by the way, stopped his dream to just start
[17:54] attacking me. Thank you.
[17:56] Thank him for that. So I'm sitting here.
[17:58] Thank you, Sam. And I wish more people were like
[18:02] that because people need to humble themselves.
[18:04] So I was listening to him speak and he destroyed all of the
[18:08] arguments that I was thinking of in the span of 10 minutes.
[18:11] And I was sitting there. I was like, OK, everything that
[18:13] I think that I've learned over the past four months from guys
[18:16] like Need, god.net, Cliff Connectly, Johnny Chang, Sam
[18:20] Shamone, just completely dismantled in the span of 10
[18:23] minutes. So I had a big reality check and
[18:25] I was like, you know what? Maybe I am, Maybe I'm not as
[18:28] smart as I think I am. Maybe I should stop posting.
[18:30] Maybe I am just an arrogant little kid, right?
[18:34] So after that Sam Shamone live stream, I start watching all of
[18:38] his videos. Every single.
[18:40] One just binge watching. Sorry, just binge watching his
[18:44] stuff. Literally everything.
[18:46] So at the start I started getting really into Muslim
[18:49] apologetics, Muslim prescription, because you know,
[18:51] Sam is the best debater against Islam that there probably ever
[18:54] has been. I'll be honest, he's absolutely
[18:56] incredible. And so I started getting really
[18:58] into that side of apologetics. And what that led to is because
[19:01] at the time, Sam was actually converting to Catholicism, and
[19:04] now he is a Catholic. So I kind of tried to see if I
[19:08] can go on that journey with him with all of his knowledge that
[19:10] he possesses about the church, about the Apostolic churches.
[19:13] And then I started understanding that I need to submit to an
[19:16] authority, right? And that LED with me reading the
[19:20] catechism, that LED with me asking questions to my priest.
[19:23] That LED with me diving into church history, into the fathers
[19:27] and understanding that the Catholic Church is the peddler
[19:30] in the foundation of truth. And then when I really
[19:32] understood that, boom, Catholic Sam.
[19:35] And the reason that I am so passionate in the way that I
[19:38] speak or sorry, and why I speak the way that I speak is because
[19:42] you have to understand, if it wasn't for another Catholic, if
[19:45] it wasn't for the Catholic Church, for the glory of God the
[19:47] Father, I could have gone to hell because of what these
[19:50] Protestant apologists were telling me, that I don't need
[19:53] the Catholic Church, that I don't need the Eucharist, that I
[19:55] don't need confession, but I don't need to ask for this for
[19:58] the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, things like this.
[20:01] So if it wasn't for Sam Shimon and if it was for those
[20:05] Protestant preachers, I have no idea where I would have been.
[20:08] And I want to do everything in my power to make sure that the
[20:12] lies that these non denominational Protestant
[20:15] preachers like to say about Catholicism, I need to make sure
[20:17] all of those get dismantled and all of those are proven false so
[20:21] that new babes in the faith don't get deceived by their
[20:25] deception and their lies. So that is why I started
[20:28] Catholic Sam, to make sure that nobody made the mistakes that I
[20:31] do and that nobody, because maybe someone doesn't have a Sam
[20:35] shamone, maybe someone doesn't have that person they can reach
[20:38] out to that will tell them the truth.
[20:40] I want to be that person for someone else because someone was
[20:42] that person for me. Yeah.
[20:43] On that note, do you feel, I know that some of the comments
[20:49] have been, I've seen them about you or you know, I've seen them
[20:53] on, on your page that your approach is a little too harsh
[20:56] that that you don't really leave room for that kind of truth in
[20:59] charity or truth in love and charity aspect of it?
[21:02] Like what would you say about that?
[21:04] Yeah, I would say that a lot of those people who say that don't
[21:07] understand what love is, right. I would say that love is truth
[21:11] in communication, especially on a topic like heaven in hell.
[21:15] I think a lot of people forget what hell actually is, right?
[21:19] And also when people say that I've never condemned someone to
[21:22] hell, I've never said that I'm guaranteed to go to heaven.
[21:25] I've never said that I'm a good Catholic.
[21:26] I've never even said that I'm a good apologist.
[21:28] So when people say these things because they hear that I'm
[21:30] speaking with a bold tone because I'm extremely passionate
[21:33] about leading people to the church that Christ founded.
[21:37] I mean, what can be more loving than someone wanting you to be
[21:39] united to the body of Christ in the fullness of the truth?
[21:42] If I believe some something is the fullness of the truth and I
[21:45] don't speak boldly about it, conviction and I don't speak
[21:48] convictingly about it, do I love you?
[21:50] You know what I mean? I would say I'm very loving
[21:54] because I want people, you know, And if I just speak with a bold
[21:57] tone and that effect, it is a very Western thing of people
[22:01] getting offended by tones or people getting offended by how
[22:04] loud someone speaks. I mean, it really only exists
[22:07] over here, like, like if we're being honest.
[22:09] And so I would say I get it right at face value.
[22:12] You see someone speaking with a bold tone, you might be a little
[22:14] bit intimidated. People need to hear that, right?
[22:17] We have our apologists that go, you know what, it's okay if
[22:20] you're not Catholic, you know, you can take your time.
[22:22] I'm not one of them, right? Yeah.
[22:25] Kind of to that, I feel like it's also, you know, if, if, if
[22:29] Sam is not your cup of tea and maybe his approach or you're
[22:32] finding him hard, you know, he's a hard pill to swallow.
[22:35] That's OK. That doesn't mean that Sam is
[22:37] doing it wrong. That just means that maybe
[22:39] that's not the approach that works with you.
[22:41] So, you know, we have a plethora of people, especially hello,
[22:45] we're in 2026. There is a Catholic content
[22:48] creator, a Catholic YouTube, a Catholic.
[22:51] There is someone for everyone. So, you know, it does, it does
[22:55] make me laugh a little bit when I see those comments because, I
[22:58] mean, you speak very, very confidently, not in confidence
[23:03] in yourself, but confidence in your beliefs and your morals and
[23:06] the teachings of the Catholic Church.
[23:08] And I mean, what more do you really want than that?
[23:11] So. Yeah, and I would say for for
[23:12] anybody who feels offended by my videos, you don't have to watch
[23:17] them. You know what I mean?
[23:18] A lot worse than you. You know, I, I, I make videos.
[23:21] Guys. Yeah, optional.
[23:23] You know, we, we have I'm not the only Catholic creator, you
[23:26] know that, right? Like.
[23:27] You know what I will have to say here, Maybe you might, I hate to
[23:31] use the word offend, but maybe some of the things that you say
[23:33] or maybe the tone that you say might not sit well with
[23:35] everyone, and that's OK. Same thing happens with me and
[23:38] the way that I say things and my tone.
[23:40] But if you get to know Sam, he's one of the most solid
[23:43] individuals that I've ever met. So really nothing but good
[23:47] things to say about him. So yeah, I just wanted to make
[23:49] sure I added that was there. OK.
[23:52] So with this like, back and forth where, you know, you
[23:54] converted, you felt convicted, you were kind of LED astray, and
[23:58] then you came back full force. Was there one teaching of the
[24:01] church that you struggled with the most before you it all kind
[24:04] of clicked again for you. Yeah, it.
[24:06] Was the IT was the Marian dogmas, so the.
[24:07] All of them. So like a maximum conception.
[24:09] Yeah, I would say, well, I'd never struggle with the Mother
[24:12] of God because that's just common sense.
[24:14] I never struggle with the perpetual virginity either,
[24:17] because that's also just common sense.
[24:19] And like, so like, people really get hung up.
[24:22] OK. Now Jesus is Mary's only son
[24:24] like that. That's what you're worried
[24:25] about, right? And it's obvious through church
[24:27] tradition, through the Bible, it's obvious.
[24:30] So yeah, the Immaculate Conception I struggle with a
[24:32] lot, and the Assumption I struggled with a lot.
[24:34] OK, OK, OK. No, it's, I mean, I think that's
[24:37] fair too. OK, so after you had that, I
[24:41] don't want to call it encounter experience with Sam and you
[24:44] started posting, you know, I guess it's fair to say that that
[24:48] is what made you decide to be as bold as you are.
[24:52] What do you think Catholics get wrong about evangelization?
[24:56] Like on social media, would you say that they're too offended?
[24:59] Do you like what? What do you think Catholics get
[25:02] wrong about it? Yeah, I would say, and this is
[25:05] myself included, I would say that Catholics put too much
[25:07] emphasis on apologists, right? We are not priests, we are not
[25:12] spiritual directors, and we are so fallible it is not even
[25:16] funny, right? If Catholic Sam loses a debate,
[25:19] or if Catholic Sam makes a video where he makes an error, it
[25:22] should make no difference in your faith whatsoever, right?
[25:26] No one should be a Catholic because Catholic Sam's a
[25:28] Catholic. No one, right?
[25:30] You should be a Catholic because of the Church.
[25:32] You should be a Catholic because of Jesus Christ.
[25:35] That is why you should be Catholic, not because of a
[25:37] video. Catholic, Sammy.
[25:39] OK, But I also think that there are approaches that are
[25:42] dangerous, right? If someone watches one of my
[25:45] videos, they are going to know absolutely that the Catholicism
[25:49] is the fullness of the truth and that I want you to be nothing
[25:52] other than Catholic, right? They will get.
[25:55] It what they will understand that.
[25:57] Why is it that sometimes I watch a video from a Catholic
[26:01] apologist and I don't even know if they want their people to be
[26:04] Catholic that that's where I get confused about because I'm like
[26:07] why are we preaching and making it seem like it's okay to deny
[26:12] the Catholic Church if you don't want to be a part of it?
[26:15] Do we know what we teach on? There is no salvation outside of
[26:18] the Catholic Church with the visible and invisible members.
[26:20] I'm sure we'll get into that more later, but you need to be
[26:23] Catholic here, especially when and the knowledge of truth is
[26:26] brought to you and you receive it and you willingly reject it.
[26:29] Guys, that is how you go to hell, right?
[26:32] So I think that Catholic apologists need to make sure,
[26:35] and you can still do this in in a less bold way, in a more
[26:38] loving approach, if that's what people want to want to call it.
[26:42] But if you're a Catholic apologist, people need to
[26:45] absolutely understand when they watch your videos you were
[26:48] trying to teach them about the Catholic Church and that you are
[26:51] for sure that you want them to become Catholic.
[26:54] That should be the basis. Underlying like point of every
[26:58] single video should be that like hey, I'm a Catholic.
[27:01] I wholeheartedly believe that the Catholic Church is the right
[27:05] way to go and that you should be Catholic too.
[27:06] I feel like that should be like really the point of every single
[27:09] type of evangelist apologist, whatever informational video
[27:14] that Catholics make online, like the whole point is to draw
[27:17] people in, whether it's through clarity, through debates,
[27:20] through clearing things up, the misconceptions, whatever.
[27:22] At the end of the day, all I want to do is show the fullness
[27:25] of Catholicism so that people know that it's the true fullness
[27:29] of Christianity. It's the complete, it's
[27:31] Christianity and it's completed original form.
[27:34] And so they join the Catholic Church, you know, and people
[27:36] also have to remember, like we don't get like, if you join the
[27:39] Catholic Church because maybe Catholic Sam explains some
[27:42] things, some misconceptions that you had, like Catholic Sam
[27:44] doesn't get like a cookie. He doesn't get a point.
[27:47] Jesus is not up in heaven. Like you got another one.
[27:50] People act like it's this like personal, you know, like, why
[27:53] are we doing this if we don't fully believe?
[27:54] Like people die for this. So why would we do this if we
[27:59] didn't actually believe it? So anyways, those are just my
[28:02] two cents. So I guess it's safe to say that
[28:03] you've never felt the pressure to soften the faith to make it a
[28:06] little more palatable to other people.
[28:09] I feel like you wouldn't give in to those pressures.
[28:11] No, I, I will say though, there, there have been times where I've
[28:15] made a video and then I looked at it and I'm like, OK, I'm, I'm
[28:18] being a bit too harsh. I don't need to.
[28:20] I can get my point across without being this harsh, right?
[28:23] But in terms of the things that I'm saying, I have never
[28:27] personally attacked someone in a video.
[28:29] I speak about the things that they're saying, never about them
[28:32] as a person. So people tend to conflate the
[28:34] two. They think that that means I'm
[28:36] attacking them as a person. No, I would never judge someone
[28:39] else's heart, right? So I would say, I would say no.
[28:41] I would say the approach will stay the same.
[28:44] But sometimes I like to, you know, make a little joke.
[28:46] I like to have a little bit of fun in my videos.
[28:48] I don't only make videos responding to people, right?
[28:51] Like I still make some fun videos, you know?
[28:53] You know what I'm? Saying he's a funny guy, guys,
[28:55] Catholic Sam is funny, he has a sense of humor, whatever.
[28:59] OK, switching gears a bit, I want to talk about prayer and
[29:04] interior life. So I want to know, what does
[29:07] prayer life actually look like for you?
[29:09] Yeah, prayer life looks like for me, waking up and praying a
[29:13] daily rosary, mental prayer and just trying to be in prayer as
[29:18] much as I can. You know what I mean?
[29:21] I will say, as of lately, my prayer life has felt maybe
[29:25] rather dry. Maybe it's a season of God maybe
[29:28] giving me certain things or testing me in certain areas.
[29:31] It's a for a certain reason that only he knows.
[29:33] But yeah, I would just say prayer to me is is a discipline
[29:37] out of love because I love our Lord and I want to speak to them
[29:41] as much as I can. So I would say yeah, non
[29:44] negotiable to be morning prayer, night prayer, rosary every
[29:47] single day. And then when I get the chance
[29:49] throughout the day. A lot of times when I'm at the
[29:51] gym, I go to the sauna after every workout.
[29:53] And in the sauna I like to pray as well.
[29:55] I like to just pray when I have a second because for people
[29:57] don't know, Catholic Sam isn't my job.
[29:59] I could do this for free. I do it completely for free.
[30:03] It is not my job, right? I have a full time job,
[30:07] completely remote. So I'm always on my phone, I'm
[30:09] always at home working. And so yeah, I try to get in
[30:11] prayers as much as I can. Of course, Mass every single
[30:14] week and pretty much every feast day that there's a high Mass,
[30:17] I'll go and then go pray before. Except so my prayer life is,
[30:21] yeah, it's obviously daily. Like that's non negotiable
[30:25] multiple times a day. But then I would say the pillar
[30:27] is my rosary every day. OK.
[30:28] And do you like my husband does his, he calls it his like cardio
[30:34] rosary walk. So he will go for like an hour
[30:37] and just, you know, pray the rosary and then also hit up his
[30:40] cardio at the same time. Do you pray the rosary?
[30:43] Like do you? This is a weird question, but I
[30:46] have actually found that a lot of people don't pray the rosary
[30:48] with an actual rosary. And I love to hold the rosary
[30:51] while I'm praying the rosary. So do you.
[30:53] Are you a rosary holder or no? Yeah, big time.
[30:56] Yeah. Yeah, I have 5 rosaries right
[30:58] next to me right now actually. I know I'm like surrounded.
[31:01] Yeah, I said yeah, Rosary holder, I actually do pray it
[31:05] pretty often on the treadmill, but I just have a little walk in
[31:07] the treadmill. I've been praying a lot in Latin
[31:09] with Cardinal Burke because he has YouTube series on it so.
[31:12] Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah.
[31:14] It's awesome and what about scripture?
[31:17] Do you count that as like prayer, like a is it is it daily
[31:21] for you? Do you listen?
[31:23] Is it, you know, some people do Bible in a year.
[31:25] Some people just read scripture on their own.
[31:27] Some people do Bible study, some do all three.
[31:29] So like, what's your preferred way of getting into the?
[31:31] Actually, actually, I do Bible in a year too.
[31:33] Whoa, Epic Sam does Bible in a year?
[31:35] Yeah, I do so have. You done it already.
[31:37] No, no, this is my first year doing it.
[31:39] So you just started? Just started, yeah.
[31:42] OK, well you have to keep us posted.
[31:44] I loved, I loved Bible in a year I have nothing but good things
[31:47] to say about. But there you go.
[31:48] Great to write your Bible. Thank you.
[31:49] Let me know, I love you guys. Attention sponsor Catholic Sam.
[31:53] So yeah, so I like to pray the Psalms with Father Mike on
[31:56] there. You know how he does after every
[31:58] reading. Funny, a big part of my prayer
[32:00] life is chanting hymns. He's very good at chanting
[32:03] hymns. You have to wish you'd give the
[32:05] people a preview, but you're actually, you're very good.
[32:08] You're very, very good. I.
[32:10] Appreciate it. Yeah, chanting is actually a big
[32:12] part of my prayer, which I feel like it's pretty rare.
[32:14] I feel like not a lot of people would be like, yeah, I was just
[32:16] chanting for 20 minutes. I just chanted the epistles.
[32:18] Like what? So I do love chanting.
[32:21] As you can see, I have a very big prayer corner, so I do like
[32:23] to almost treat it like it's like a mass simulation.
[32:26] Of course. Yeah, no, I'm not sacrilegious.
[32:28] I'm not offering up a sacrifice. I'm.
[32:30] I'm just chanting the epistle, Right?
[32:32] Because the Gospel or something. Is there a prayer or devotion
[32:36] that you feel like changed your spiritual life the most?
[32:38] Was it the rosary? Would you say, yeah, the rosary
[32:40] changed everything for me, The intercession of our of our Holy
[32:43] Mother. Yeah.
[32:44] Because again, in the beginning stage of my Catholicism, man, I
[32:47] was, I can't believe the way that I would speak about, about
[32:50] our Blessed Mother saying that, you know, I used to say things
[32:53] like, oh, she's just like us or she can't hear our prayers.
[32:56] Disgusting words that have came out of my mouth.
[32:57] And God forgive me, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[32:59] I'm so sorry once again. And yeah, the rosary, you know,
[33:02] I had to put my pride aside to start bringing the rosary.
[33:06] I was like, oh, I really don't want to do it.
[33:08] And then I started doing it and I absolutely fell in love with
[33:11] it. The intercession of her Holy
[33:12] Mother is so beautiful. It is so wonderful that she can
[33:14] walk us through those mysteries of the life of her son and the
[33:19] Rosary. No, it's life changing.
[33:20] The rosary will change your life and I actually went through.
[33:25] It's funny that you mentioned that you were kind of like
[33:27] spiritual spiritually dry. Maybe lately, like I went
[33:30] through this period of desolation from like
[33:32] Thanksgiving to about New Year's.
[33:34] It was just, I just was unmotivated.
[33:37] I was just down in the dumps. I don't know what came over me.
[33:41] And of course during Advent, during Christmas season, like
[33:44] this is the most. This is like, you know, aside
[33:47] from Easter, I'm like, it's like our Super Bowl.
[33:49] And here I am like I can't get myself to pray.
[33:51] I feel so disconnected from God. I just always, like I've talked
[33:55] about this before, when you're going through desolation and you
[33:57] don't feel like praying, you got to double down and pray more.
[33:59] And I just remember this one day where I prayed, I, when I first
[34:02] started praying the rosary, a technically a full rosary is 150
[34:06] Hail Mary. So that's actually three of
[34:08] three rosaries, the ones that you and I are used to praying.
[34:11] And when I first started praying the rosary, I would pray 3
[34:14] rosaries. And I just remember I was like,
[34:16] I was talk about God's armor. I was, you know, nothing could
[34:20] get through to me. And then, you know, slowly it
[34:23] dropped down to 2 and then one, you know, but my one is non
[34:25] negotiable. And I remember there was a day
[34:28] over Christmas season where I was like, forget this.
[34:30] I don't want to pray the rosary. So I'm going to pray 3 today.
[34:33] And I prayed 3. And when I tell you like it
[34:35] finally just kind of started to come back, I was so relieved.
[34:39] So praise be to God. But but yeah, it's just the
[34:42] rosaries. Just I can't say enough good
[34:43] things about the Rosary. So what would you say to
[34:47] someone, because I get this question a lot, maybe you do
[34:49] too. Somebody who says that they're
[34:50] bad at prayer or they get distracted during prayer, what
[34:54] was your piece of advice be for them?
[34:55] Hey, same here man. Me too, soccer player.
[34:59] We all do. We all do.
[35:00] We're not again. It's normal, right?
[35:03] When I'm praying sometimes I'll it's like a big like mirror next
[35:07] to me. If I fall sometimes look at the
[35:08] mirror, looking at myself, looking at the walls and like
[35:11] I'm praying, like what? What am I doing?
[35:13] Stop. Or I'm meditating on the
[35:14] mysteries And then I'm starting to think more about the person
[35:17] I'm praying the rosary for then the mystery.
[35:19] And I'm sitting there like, Oh my goodness.
[35:21] I would say find a system. What helps me a lot actually
[35:24] with focusing on the mysteries of the rosary is praying it with
[35:27] someone else, right? Is going on that Father Mike or
[35:30] that Father David David Michael Moses when they have their
[35:34] videos and they're praying it for you, having someone guide
[35:36] you right. If you're struggling praying by
[35:38] yourself, find a guide, find someone to help you with that.
[35:42] That's what we're called to do We have priests.
[35:44] We have so many people that are willing to help you whether
[35:47] that's even like your mom. If your mom's a Catholic who
[35:49] prays the rosary 10 times a day, you really think she's not going
[35:52] to guide you in that she will right.
[35:53] So surrounding yourself with other people who are praying the
[35:56] rosary will just put you in an automatic state of focus on what
[35:59] you're doing because you have witnesses that can help you.
[36:01] So I'll say, if you're struggling by yourself, as I do
[36:04] a lot, find a guide, find someone to help you, and you'll
[36:07] be OK. Yeah, no, no, that's great
[36:09] advice. Switching gears a little bit, I
[36:11] am a woman and my audience is, I feel like half and half.
[36:15] So I wanted to speak a little bit about kind of like
[36:17] masculinity, you know, culture, modern challenges and stuff like
[36:21] that. So what do you think is the
[36:24] biggest threat to young Catholic men today?
[36:27] A lust. And that's how it's been since
[36:29] the beginning of time. Lust is, is, is the, the biggest
[36:32] struggle for Catholic men today. I, I can't stress it enough
[36:36] guys, you need to master your piece by yourself, right?
[36:40] You need to make sure that you have a solid foundation by
[36:43] yourself. Make sure you're off all of
[36:46] those websites that you know what I'm talking about, all of
[36:49] those apps that you know that I'm what I'm talking about that
[36:51] lead you to lust. Get rid of them now, non
[36:54] negotiable, get off them. They're going to literally kill
[36:57] your spirit. When we talk about sins that
[36:59] lead to death and sins that don't, all of those fall into
[37:02] the category sins that lead to death get off.
[37:04] Especially if you can't even control yourself with your
[37:07] phone. How do you expect to control
[37:09] yourself when you meet the love of your life?
[37:11] How do you expect to do that? Make sure that that phone is not
[37:15] leading you into mortal sin. Get rid of all of that.
[37:18] Master your piece by yourself. Run away from that lust and
[37:21] control your desires. Once you've done that, and I
[37:25] don't mean oh, you didn't watch one of those videos for a week.
[37:28] No, I mean you haven't even been inclined to for like 6 months
[37:33] and you deny all the temptations for that time, right?
[37:36] You need to master that. Then after that, then you can
[37:39] start thinking about oh, maybe maybe God is calling me to
[37:41] marriage, etcetera. I can meet a girl because you
[37:43] know you're not going to fall into of that temptation, right?
[37:46] Lust it is going to be it is the destroyer of men.
[37:49] The longest man in the Bible fell to lust to King Solomon.
[37:53] The wisest man in the Bible. 700 wives or whatever it was. 300
[37:58] punchy vines. Yeah, no one is immune to to
[38:02] those those temptations and those sins.
[38:04] Speaking of that, how would you say that men can lead, whether
[38:08] in friendship, you know, dating, relationship, you know, whatever
[38:12] you're not married, so, you know, not maybe husband wise,
[38:16] but how do you kind of envision that men can because men should
[38:19] be leading whether you're in a relationship or not.
[38:21] I'm a firm believer that we should be able to look to the
[38:25] men in our society, the men in our lives to, you know, not only
[38:28] protect us but also lead us as women.
[38:31] So how would you say that men can lead spiritually without
[38:34] becoming like passive or predominating?
[38:37] Like is there, you know, a balance between the two?
[38:41] What would you say what What would be your advice?
[38:43] Yeah, so my advice and, and again, this isn't marital
[38:47] advice. I'm not married, so this is a
[38:50] grain of salt. But if you are speaking to a, a,
[38:53] a woman, right, the first thing, the first thing you need to set
[38:56] the foundation as is, hey, God is first in my life.
[38:59] That is final, right? God is first.
[39:02] OK, So when it comes to things like lust, when it comes to
[39:05] things like whatever it may be, you set that foundation first so
[39:09] that they know what to expect, right?
[39:11] So now they're not blindsided by, oh, he doesn't want to come
[39:13] sleep over. He doesn't want to to, you know,
[39:17] do this sexual act with me. What is this?
[39:19] No, I don't like them. I hate them, all that stuff.
[39:21] No, set the foundation first. Everything follows after that.
[39:24] If you are talking to a girl and she can't accept the boundaries
[39:27] of, hey, we are not going to be sleeping in the same house
[39:30] before we're married. We are not going to be engaging
[39:32] in any simple sexual activity. If she can't accept that next
[39:36] it's done because there was nothing worth losing your soul
[39:40] over. Nothing and there never will be
[39:42] anything worth it. Especially even a girl you're
[39:44] not even married to, right? So set a foundation and if that
[39:48] person can't accept it, then it's done.
[39:51] That's great. That's great advice.
[39:52] And and it kind of goes back to knowing your, not your worth, as
[39:56] in like know your worth, blah, blah, blah.
[39:59] But like your worth as a child of God, your, you know, dignity,
[40:03] human dignity, it kind of goes back to that too.
[40:06] So yeah, I, I, I completely agree.
[40:08] And I am married, but I didn't date or, you know, like, I
[40:13] wouldn't have any advice. I have advice now that I'm in
[40:16] marriage and it's, you know, with a godly, wonderful husband.
[40:19] But yeah, I don't know whether the dating scene is hard out
[40:22] there. So, you know, I just wanted to
[40:24] kind of pick your brain a little bit, kind of going back to, I
[40:27] assume I know your answer to this one, but I'm still
[40:29] interested to see what you'll say.
[40:31] How do you see spiritual warfare playing out in men today?
[40:34] Or how do you think that maybe the enemy targets men with the
[40:37] most right now? Yeah, and of course less would
[40:40] be the forefront, but I want to pick a different approach with
[40:42] this right now actually. So less is the obvious 1.
[40:44] You guys all know that that is what is destroying your
[40:47] spiritual life. I would actually, I want to say
[40:49] comparison, something I've been really discerning lately.
[40:52] Of course, compare. Comparison is the thief of Troy.
[40:54] But we don't understand what that really means, right?
[40:58] Yeah. You know, the other day, a
[40:59] friend of mine, a really good friend of mine, May God bless.
[41:01] I'm not going to bring up his name, brought to me some issues
[41:03] that he's dealing with, Right? And he was talking about how he
[41:06] sees these people who he grew up with, you know, here.
[41:09] And he sees this person there, and he's had some things that
[41:11] are holding him back, and he wishes he was there.
[41:13] And it was like, hey man, your joy is gone because of the
[41:17] comparison that you're doing. And this happens with social
[41:20] media as well, right? Let's say maybe you're starting
[41:22] after social media and you go and look at someone like Jesus
[41:25] and whatnot. This guy's the smartest guy
[41:28] ever, good looking guy doing millions of views and you're
[41:31] like, Oh my goodness, like why can't I be him?
[41:33] Like I wish I was stuff like that, right?
[41:35] Or just lifestyles, right? If I am going on Instagram and
[41:39] I'm looking at the posts of anyone, the only thing you're
[41:43] going to see is the best version of themselves that would they
[41:46] want to give you. These photos are edited.
[41:48] These photos are taken 100 times.
[41:49] They pick out the best one. These photos are taken when
[41:52] they're at an expensive vacation that they spent their whole
[41:54] paycheck on. It is not real life.
[41:57] So people compare their real life to other people's fake
[42:01] online personas and fake online lives and they start to be like,
[42:05] oh, my life sucks. Look at them, Look at their
[42:07] lives and 90% of the time their life is worse than yours, right?
[42:10] But the thing that people do, and this is, this is very
[42:14] important, the thing that people do is they don't compare
[42:16] themselves to another person necessarily.
[42:19] They're comparing themselves to the best version of themselves
[42:23] in the best case scenario that they could possibly be in in
[42:26] their life. And that's taking away from
[42:28] their joy because what they're looking at is not necessarily
[42:31] the person they're comparing themselves with.
[42:33] They're looking at, again, the best version that they could
[42:35] possibly be if they had everything going for themselves
[42:38] and comparing it to them at their current state.
[42:41] And that's destroying the mentals of so many men.
[42:43] Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Yeah.
[42:45] And it's, you know, this doesn't discriminate.
[42:48] It's men and women and young people and old people and
[42:51] preteens and married people and single people.
[42:54] And it's, yeah, I think it's social media is so important and
[42:57] it's such a great tool, but it's so misused and can be so it can
[43:00] really bring out the worst in people.
[43:02] So, yeah, I think that's excellent advice that, Yeah, you
[43:05] know, you're comparing maybe your worst case scenario to
[43:08] someone's highlight reel. That's maybe not, you know, not
[43:12] as honest as we take, you know, take these things at face value.
[43:15] OK, let me see. I can't like read my questions.
[43:18] I have to zoom in a little. I can zoom in.
[43:21] Jeez, wish I would have known that.
[43:22] OK, OK, this is a good question. I think.
[43:26] How do you think prayer, discipline and sacrifice shapes
[43:29] authentic Catholic masculinity? And then a follow up.
[43:33] Do you think there is such a thing as toxic masculinity?
[43:36] Boom, go. Good questions.
[43:37] How does prayer life and sacrifice lead to masculinity?
[43:43] Yeah, I would say when you build a foundation off of your prayer
[43:47] life, your discipline, the sacrifice that you make for your
[43:52] family, I think that is the best way to be, of course, a man of
[43:55] God. If you are living your life on
[43:57] the foundation of simply yourself, you're going to
[44:00] collapse. You are not a foundation, right?
[44:02] The Church, first Timothy 3:15 is the pillar and the foundation
[44:06] of truth, all right? So your life should be lived on
[44:09] the lens of our blessed Lord, right?
[44:11] So with what He wants you to do. So through your discernment and
[44:15] your prayer, that is how you should be living your life.
[44:17] And also with the sacrifice. It's always lived through the
[44:20] lens of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[44:24] I really recommend people to pray the sorrowful Mysteries as
[44:26] much as they can, right? I think the easiest way for me
[44:30] to live sacrificially for the people around me is to not do it
[44:34] for them alone, but to do it for Christ, right?
[44:37] Because you can look at the people around you, you've
[44:39] probably done them wrong. They've probably done you wrong.
[44:41] Maybe sometimes you're like, oh, I don't really want to do that
[44:43] for them because they did this to me.
[44:44] Whatever. Christ has never betrayed you
[44:47] and Christ sacrifices life for you undeservingly.
[44:50] You don't deserve it at all. I don't deserve it at all.
[44:53] Christ did everything for us, right?
[44:54] So living through the lens of that, I think every time maybe
[44:57] you don't want to do something, whether it's, you know, my, my
[45:01] wife, she doesn't want to go get the groceries today or
[45:04] something, or my wife doesn't want to walk the dog.
[45:07] I can't stand no right. Christ died for you, Go walk the
[45:11] dog, right? Christ died for you.
[45:14] Go do the district. Christ died for us.
[45:16] It's so I think we say it so often and we think about that so
[45:19] often that do we actually realize the weight behind it?
[45:23] He didn't just simply peacefully pass away, you know, like all of
[45:28] that pain and suffering, that excruciating.
[45:31] The the sorrowful mysteries are a perfect encapsulation of
[45:34] everything that Christ did for you and then some.
[45:37] So I think that's excellent advice.
[45:38] I really, I really like that switching.
[45:41] Oh wait, do you think there is such thing as toxic toxic
[45:43] masculinity? Yeah, yeah, I do.
[45:47] I think people, I think people take it too far.
[45:49] People, people will take this to the extent where it's too far.
[45:52] What? Men and women are different.
[45:54] Men and women are not equal in role.
[45:56] Men and women are equal in being.
[45:59] People tend to conflate the two. They say oh since I'm a man I
[46:02] have the authority. I leave my family, I leave my
[46:05] wife. Yet you're not better than her
[46:06] though right? You have things that are in a
[46:11] more strenuous role then she will have because she's a woman.
[46:16] You're a man, you're different, but there is no human on this
[46:20] planet who is lesser than you, especially is your man.
[46:25] We are all made in the image of God.
[46:26] So people take it too far in the sense they see that we're
[46:29] different in role, but don't turn that into we're actually
[46:34] not only are we not equal in role, we're actually not even
[46:37] equal in being as if you are some morally superior person to
[46:42] a woman. Right.
[46:43] Yeah, yeah, yeah. They conflate, they they confuse
[46:48] maybe strengths or roles or whatever with value and those
[46:52] two things, these don't have anything to do.
[46:55] You know, 1 is not higher than the other because the roles are
[46:57] different than the other. Yeah, Yeah, I agree.
[46:59] Sorry, I kind of interrupted you.
[47:01] Were you done with your answer? Oh.
[47:03] No, no, I was just saying like that.
[47:04] I think people just take it too far.
[47:05] People take it too far. Of course masculinity is great.
[47:11] The feminist movement is not so great.
[47:14] Women take it too far as well. Women take it way too far with
[47:15] that stuff because then they start thinking we're equal in a
[47:17] role and we're like, hold on a second, no, we're not.
[47:19] Right. Yeah.
[47:21] Know your place for both sides, right?
[47:24] We are called to sacrifice for our wife as Christ has
[47:27] sacrificed for the Church. And women wives are called to
[47:31] respect their husband, right? So we live through the lens
[47:34] biblically of how we are to treat each other.
[47:36] Yeah, And I think especially with, with, you know, just
[47:39] everything on social media makes everything so loud.
[47:41] So, you know, the wrong, wrong opinions really get shoved in
[47:45] our face. You know, you hear all this all
[47:47] the time, especially in like Christian circles of like, you
[47:49] know, women need to submit to men and submit to your husband,
[47:52] submit to your husband's. And it's like, that doesn't just
[47:55] mean that if your husband is an alcoholic who beats you or
[47:58] somebody who, you know, cheats on you or somebody who doesn't
[48:02] want to have a job because he's too lazy that you just have to
[48:04] do what he says. It's like men, in my, in my
[48:07] opinion, men are the protectors. They are the providers.
[48:10] They kind of like earn that submissive wife.
[48:14] Like I'm not going to submit to my husband unless I fully and
[48:17] really what it is is I trust and respect my husband.
[48:19] So my husband Joe, I trust and respect him to lead our family,
[48:23] to guide our family, to protect our family, to provide for our
[48:28] family. All of those things.
[48:29] If those things didn't happen, I want to submit to him because
[48:32] then I'd have to be doing I'd have to protect my family.
[48:34] I'd have to provide. Why am I going to provide for my
[48:36] family and then submit to you? It just makes no sense.
[48:38] So in like a true kind of, I'm not saying my husband and I are
[48:41] protecting like the role model for like a biblical, godly,
[48:44] Catholic perfect marriage. But when you are fulfilling your
[48:47] roles as man and wife, it is easier to then this is like my
[48:51] natural inclination is to follow my husband's lead, to let him
[48:56] lead, to let him protect and serve and, and all of these
[48:59] things. I don't, I don't want to provide
[49:00] for our family and protect us against whatever.
[49:03] And yeah, I want to lead my children to heaven and raise
[49:05] them correctly. But like, if I don't have my
[49:07] husband leading me. Switching gears a little bit,
[49:10] what do you think has been the hardest obedience that God has
[49:13] asked of you? The hardest obedience that God
[49:15] has asked of me, I'll say all of the obedience that has been
[49:19] asked of me is something that I should always be doing.
[49:23] And it is never something to where it's oh God, like, why is
[49:26] why you ask me this? It's like, no, like I'm, I'm an
[49:28] idiot. I need to be obedient to Christ.
[49:31] Oh man, that's that's a tough one.
[49:32] That's I'll say, come back to it.
[49:34] Yeah, I'm trying because I'm trying to think like what?
[49:37] What do I even do in my life? You know what I mean?
[49:40] I mean, has there been anything that's been difficult for you to
[49:43] give up, Stop doing, start doing, you know, like, even if
[49:47] you're good with doing it now, you know, like, I don't know.
[49:50] Oh, yeah, OK, yeah, my laying a side of, of my pride.
[49:55] We'll say that that that was, that was pretty hard for me to
[49:57] accept because that's what was going on with my conversion
[50:01] story. I would like, I'd like to think
[50:02] I'm not a very prideful person when it comes to, you know,
[50:05] human interaction, right? But I, I can be very prideful in
[50:09] myself. And, and what I mean by that is
[50:12] inwardly, right. So inward thoughts of, Oh, no,
[50:14] I'm more right than that person, that person talking about, you
[50:17] know, if someone says something to me in my mind, I'm like, no,
[50:19] what an idiot. You know, they think they're
[50:22] smarter than me outwardly, I'm not going to ever say that.
[50:25] But inwardly, that has been something that I've struggled
[50:28] with in my past, OK. And I do think that I'm much
[50:30] better at it now with understanding that, hey, I'm
[50:33] pretty stupid. I'm not as smart as people think
[50:37] that I am, definitely not as smart as I think I am, clearly.
[50:40] So I think, yeah, that has been tough for for me in the past.
[50:43] I think I've got it pretty down now, but yeah.
[50:46] OK, no, that's a great answer. OK, what is 1 misconception that
[50:50] people have about you due to your platform?
[50:52] I've blown my nose, it just starts bleeding so.
[50:55] No way. Maybe you need to have a
[50:57] cauterization done. Like my dad's had three runs in
[51:01] my family. Well, don't worry, we're almost
[51:04] done. I just have one more question
[51:06] here. We'll wrap up and then I have
[51:09] like the people's questions, which I think will be funny.
[51:13] Do you have like a time? We already want an hour.
[51:15] I didn't realize we already. Want an hour?
[51:16] You have my full day. Okay great.
[51:18] Okay so last question here is what has been the hardest
[51:21] obedience God has asked? Oh wait I already asked that.
[51:24] The last question here is what's 1 misconception people have
[51:27] about you because of your platform?
[51:29] Yeah, there's, there's quite a few.
[51:31] I would say the one thing that I've seen is people questioning
[51:35] why I do it. You know, I've heard some people
[51:37] say that maybe I have an ego or maybe I do it for numbers or
[51:44] whatever it is. Yeah guys, first of all, I live
[51:46] in Canada. Doc can't monetize it.
[51:49] Instagram isn't monetized at all.
[51:50] I've taken 1 brand deal in my entire Catholic Sam career and
[51:54] it's with a full Catholic app for helping people quit lust to
[51:57] which I accept very little payment for.
[51:59] Yeah. What is that name?
[52:01] It's St. Steps or something like that.
[52:02] Right shout out to Saint Steps, yes?
[52:04] There we go, shout out to Saint Steps.
[52:07] Signed up with the pre release and I have turned down so many
[52:10] companies because I don't want to work with what they're doing
[52:13] if it's not exclusively Catholic or if I don't get along great
[52:16] with the owners. I love the owners of Saint
[52:18] Sepps. We are very good friends and I
[52:20] see a very big future in them helping millions of people.
[52:23] That is why I'm working with them.
[52:24] So people who think that I do this for numbers or do this for
[52:28] money, yeah, you're completely wrong.
[52:30] If if Catholic sound was my job, I'd be homeless, right?
[52:33] That that's the truth. So the only reason I do this is
[52:37] because, like I was saying at the start, first and foremost,
[52:40] it's out of my love for Jesus Christ.
[52:42] That is why I do this, and I do this because I don't want people
[52:46] to make the mistakes that I've made.
[52:47] That is why I do this. So I'd say that would be the
[52:50] biggest misconception to people questioning why I do what I do.
[52:53] I wanted to ask if there's anything that you're praying or
[52:55] discerning right now and then what do you see for Catholic Sam
[52:59] in the future? Do you have any plans, anything
[53:01] upcoming? Are you just riding it out?
[53:03] So if you could answer those two and then I promise we'll wrap it
[53:06] up. Yeah.
[53:07] So discernment, for a while it's been either priesthood or
[53:11] marriage. You know, in today's day and
[53:13] age, you know, the dating pool is pretty tough.
[53:16] And I rarely speak about, you know, that side of my life.
[53:19] Pretty much never on social media, but I'm trying to find
[53:23] out what God wants for me, whether that's for me to become
[53:26] a priest, whether that's for me to marry a wonderful woman who
[53:30] he has in store for me and I don't know.
[53:32] I don't know. What I will say is I'm very good
[53:36] at being alone. I'm very good at being alone and
[53:39] I'm very secure with myself. Right when I start talking to a
[53:43] female, you know, there will be highs where I'm like, my life is
[53:47] amazing, I'm so happy. Then the next day I'll be like,
[53:50] yeah, I don't what happened to me yesterday.
[53:53] Now I kind of like, hate myself. Was that guy yesterday?
[53:56] So yeah, so I truly feel like I am most peaceful in terms of ups
[54:04] and downs when I'm alone. So I could see me being
[54:09] comfortable with being a priest. But my entire life, I've wanted
[54:13] to, of course, get married when I have a beautiful wife and
[54:16] beautiful kids. And a big contention for me
[54:18] would be I would want to raise a son Catholic because I never had
[54:21] that myself. So it is a very, I'll tell you
[54:23] the truth, It's it's the biggest battle in my life for sure.
[54:27] It is discernment between priesthood and marital life.
[54:29] And yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[54:30] And it's interesting because sometimes I'll get the question,
[54:33] you know, how did you know that you were being called or the
[54:36] vocation of motherhood and, you know, marriage?
[54:39] And how do you know that? And I get this question from
[54:41] single people. And it's like, I didn't know.
[54:44] It's by the grace of God that, you know, I have these beautiful
[54:48] children's wonderful husband. I've found my faith, but those I
[54:52] never discerned, I never prayed on it.
[54:54] So I think it's such a beautiful and unique, but also stressful
[54:59] season of life that you that you're in to see.
[55:01] You know, what is God calling me?
[55:03] It's not even like, you know, you've envisioned being married
[55:06] one day, being a Catholic father, raising Catholic
[55:09] children. That's beautiful and honorable
[55:11] and wonderful. And it's like, is that what
[55:13] God's calling you to do? Like only you will know, you
[55:16] know, So I'm just, you know, you should be very proud of
[55:18] yourself. I always tell this, I'm 37 guys.
[55:21] So Catholic Sam is like literally a child in my eyes,
[55:25] but I will say the younger generation gives me so much hope
[55:29] when I see devout when I was at Sikh just surrounded by from
[55:33] 191819202122 just seeing the their faith and their love for
[55:38] our Lord. Oh, it's so it sounds so cheesy,
[55:40] but it's so inspiring and it's so moving.
[55:42] So you should be very proud of yourself to be the kind of man
[55:45] that you are and you know to the platform you've built and what
[55:49] you're trying to do to serve Christ is just so 10 out of 10
[55:53] is there on that note, is there anything that you see?
[55:55] What do you see for Catholic Sam?
[55:57] I was just gonna answer that question if you forgot to bring
[55:59] it up, but yeah. So what do I see for Catholic
[56:01] Sam? Expect a lot more YouTube videos
[56:03] coming up very soon. I'm working on a few right now
[56:05] that I wanted to just record in a bunch so I could get them out.
[56:07] And guys, I like to live my life through, like I said earlier, a
[56:12] sacrificial lens. I go far and beyond.
[56:16] I like to thank for the people I love and I love all of you,
[56:20] right? So I will never stop Catholic
[56:21] Sam, as long as I have, you know, the only time I would stop
[56:25] is if I entered priesthood and that'd be for a much larger, you
[56:28] know, spell of things. So I will never stop posting
[56:31] unless I I am taking off the face of the earth or I am taking
[56:34] off the face of the earth into priesthood.
[56:36] I will be continuing to grow in my knowledge as I need to, very
[56:39] much so. And I will continue to make sure
[56:43] that you guys know the arguments and that you guys know not to be
[56:46] deceived by liars on the Internet.
[56:48] And yeah, I will never stop. There will be a content change
[56:51] in terms of my YouTube though. So for my YouTube I will be
[56:54] posting long form content explaining the arguments a lot
[56:58] more in depth than I'm able to do in a 3 minute video on an
[57:01] Instagram reel. Yeah right, because I can only
[57:03] say so much. I know I speak fast, but I I
[57:05] don't know how fast you expect me to speak.
[57:07] There will be long form content and better explanations on
[57:12] certain things. OK, wonderful.
[57:15] And where can people find you? You're are you Catholic Sam on
[57:18] YouTube and Instagram, Tiktok, all the things.
[57:20] Yeah, so Catholic Sam on everything.
[57:22] My YouTube is Catholic Sam with two M's.
[57:25] So Catholic Sam. Instagram is Catholic, Sam.
[57:30] OK. And we'll have all of that in
[57:31] the description box, by the way, I'll include all the links to
[57:33] all of your stuff and then. Tick clock at is Catholic Sam,
[57:37] but the AT is Sam is Catholic. I mean, if you search up
[57:40] Catholic Sam, I don't know if anybody else will come up to be
[57:42] honest, but. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how
[57:44] I find you on TikTok. It's just Catholic Sam and you
[57:46] pop up right away because it's just it might not be the app,
[57:48] but it's your name so should pop up.
[57:51] OK, so we are going to wrap up. There are some questions that I
[57:55] asked on my story yesterday. So we are going to be filming a
[57:59] little segment for that answering those questions.
[58:01] And you can find that video in the description box below or
[58:05] probably in the link. But thank you guys so much for
[58:07] watching. If you have any questions for
[58:09] Sam, leave them in the comments and please check out the
[58:12] description box. I will have all of his socials
[58:14] and go check out especially his YouTube because he's I.
[58:17] I have a feeling by this time next year Sam is going to be the
[58:20] Catholic. What's his name?
[58:22] Bryce. Bryce Crawford.
[58:24] Bryce Crawford, Sam is the next Bryce Crawford, mark my words.
[58:28] OK. So thank you guys so much for
[58:30] watching, and we'll see you guys later.
[58:32] Bye.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.