-Hey, everybody!
It's a beautiful day,
and the air is clean
because we're not in Los Angeles.
We're in Fillmore.
And we're gonna be meeting Blythe, who is a Catholic,
who's 31 and has five children.
I'm 29, and I have...an XBox.
So, let's go learn about Catholicism!
Hi, you look really young for a 31-year-old.
This is incredible.
Oh, she's 2. Okay.
-Hi, Zach!
-Hello, nice to meet you.
-So glad you're here. -So good to be here.
-Thanks for trekking, like, all the way.
-No, this is awesome. -Do you want to come in?
-Yeah, I'd love to come in.
-Come on in. -Hi.
Nice to meet you. I'm Zach.
-Do you guys have names?
-Hiro.
-Hiro! What's your name?
-Mary. -Mary.
Awesome. -This is Peter.
-Hi, Peter. I'm sorry.
I'll get out of your hair. I know you're very busy.
My first question for you is may I have your family?
-[ Laughs ]
-Are you really attached to them,
or can we just at least set up
something where I could have them?
-Yeah, let's do that. Like, you pick them up
on a Thursday, and then I'll come get them, like,
the following third Monday.
-Glad that we got that out of the way
before I got to know you at all.
So, what's it like to be a Catholic these days?
-It's weird to be a Catholic these days,
but I can't say that I know a ton
because we've only been a Catholic
for eight years coming up this Easter.
-What were you raised? Were you religious growing up?
-Yeah, I was. I was a Baptist minister's daughter.
When I was 13, my dad converted to Catholicism,
but I stayed an Evangelical Christian,
and then when I was closing in on my 20s,
I started to search and read and have some questions
about the Protestant faith.
And that led me to a conversion to Catholicism when I was 22.
-Did you have a period where you're like,
"I don't know about Christianity at all"?
Or was it always a steadfast thing?
-Yeah, I think I had doubts.
I mean, I think throughout life,
I have doubts, but never a doubt
of the core teachings of Christianity.
I think when I started to doubt,
that's what led us into Catholicism, really.
-I was wondering what the main differences
were between Baptists and Catholics.
-The real clincher is just the authority of the Church.
The Protestant denominations
don't accept any authority outside of the Bible.
The Catholic Church accepts the authority
of the magisterium, which is the pope,
the teaching authority of the Church, sacred tradition,
the tradition that's been handed down through the years,
and also the authority of the Bible.
-'Cause there are so many denominations.
-Yeah.
-Why do you think it has to split up so much?
-I don't, and that's why I'm a Catholic.
I mean, historically, it's what always was
until the Protestant reformation, for the most part.
There were other fractures and splits.
But that's actually why Kirby, my husband,
and I started to search.
To us, it didn't seem to speak
of the nature of God that is one and unified.
I think there's over 40,000 denominations
since the Protestant --
-40,000?! -Yeah.
-So, it's good to just have the one
that you're pretty confident in.
-Yeah, so we just went back.
We started looking back through history,
and what we found was Catholicism,
and so we made that leap.
-You have 5 kids. You're 31.
I have zero children. I'm 29.
-You got time, dude. You got time.
-So, did you always know that you wanted to have a big family?
-I always knew I wanted to be a mom, for sure,
but I don't think I had a specific idea or a plan
as to what my family would look like.
-Can you go through your kids' names?
-Yeah, Hiro is our oldest.
-Hiro. -She just turned 7.
Mary is almost 6.
Johnny is almost 4.
Clementine just turned 2.
And Peter is 3 months old.
-How did you come to have five kids?
My parents never had this talk with me.
-[ Laughing ]
-No, I'm just wondering, like --
Is it something that's, like,
"We're gonna stop at five?"
-No.
I mean, it's 'cause we're Catholic.
Part of the fundamental teaching of the Church
is that God is love, right,
and that love is generous, and it sacrifices.
And so, as practicing Catholics, we believe that our love
and our marriage should mimic
that generosity and that sacrifice.
So, we're open. We're open to what God wants to do.
We're trusting Him that it'll work out.
And so far, it has,
and so I don't feel afraid of what the future holds for us.
I mean, life is certainly crazy,
and it's loud, but it's so good,
and it's really nourished our marriage
in a really intense and powerful way.
And I would never, ever trade that sort
of bonding, intense love.
Hey, you guys, you know what would be fun?
Why don't you guys go get a chicken out of the coop
and come bring the chickens to meet Zach?
-Wait, there's a real chicken?
Are you ready to see me terrified?
-Are you gonna be terrified? -Yeah, it'll be great.
-Really? -How many chickens do you have?
-We have six. Come here closer, Hiro.
-Yeah, come here closer.
-Let's terrify him. Let's terrify him.
-No, no, no. Oh, gosh.
So, you're completely comfortable
holding that chicken.
-Touch it, Zach. Come on.
-I can't! I can't touch it! I can't touch it!
-Come on, just rest your hand on its back.
Did it. Look at you.
-Aah! -Look at you.
-Look at it. It's just pure terror.
This is television magic.
You don't believe in birth control,
so basically, whatever happens, happens, right?
-Yeah, I mean, we believe that God
gives us life and will take care of us
and every new child is a gift from Him.
But then also, we have to use wisdom
and prudence
in making those decisions to continue our family.
So, natural family planning is a method
that the Church encourages.
-What's natural family planning?
-It's learning about what your body does
and when it's time to get pregnant.
And if you're not ready to get pregnant,
you abstain during those times.
The good part of it is that it's a constant reminder
that the possibility of having a child
is always a part of sex,
which is really the key teaching of the Church,
and that's why we don't believe in birth control 'cause
we don't think those two things are mutually exclusive.
-You homeschool your kids. -Yeah.
-What made you decide to homeschool your children?
-I really had sort of, like, an epiphany
when my oldest was 2 or 3.
It just hit me one day that I would only have her
for another two years and then her life
would be mostly dictated by whatever sort of institution
she belonged to until she was gone out of our lives.
But also, I love the idea
that my kids can all learn at their varying levels, you know,
and I can really understand
what their strengths and weaknesses are and sort
of customize their learning experience for them.
-For me, a lot of what was great about school
was the socializing and getting the outside stimulus
from other kids and other points of view.
Is there a way that you can expose your children to that
and still homeschool them?
-Yeah. We have a homeschool community,
so we have a park day once a week
where we all kind of get together,
and the kids all run around.
It's pretty intense. I mean, these are,
for the most part, fairly large Catholic families.
-We're not getting into a "Lord of the Flies" situation, are we?
-The possibilities are endless.
-Did you catch all the bad guys? -No.
-No? Who's left?
-Hey, Johnny! -100 bad guys.
-100 bad guys?
Dude, we better get to it.
What made you guys want to, like,
all come together as homeschool parents?
-You get a lot of support --
mutual support from hanging out together.
-We're all leading similar lives in a way, you know?
So it's good to not feel like you're the only weirdo
with a million kids.
-Hi, I'm Amy.
This is Claire and Josephine,
Mimi, Annie, Zaylee,
and my oldest is at home.
-I'm Hope,
and we have six children.
Elijah is the oldest, then Henry and Trina,
Indigo, Maury, and Baby Jude.
-Hi, I'm Anne Marie, and I have seven.
Six are here. Andrew, Samuel,
Francesca, Isabella, and Nathaniel.
Actually, sorry, five are here.
-Do you confess your sins? Do you go to confession?
-Yeah, I love confession.
-What is that like?
-It's like spiritual therapy.
-What would you say the role of confession is?
'Cause I think I would be in there
for about three days straight.
-A good priest in the confessional will stop you,
will, like, look at what you're struggling with,
will give you advice, and really talk you through.
It's not just --
-Oh, I never -- I never knew that.
I thought you just give them the list,
and then they tell you how many Hail Marys to do.
-I mean, sometimes you do. That still does the job.
Like, you still walk out of there a clean slate.
You're still forgiven. You know, when a priest
really wants to engage with you and talk about your life
and give you constructive advice
for getting back out in the world
and trying to avoid those same mistakes,
then I appreciate that on a whole different level.
-How many Hail Marys would I have to say
for all the "Games of Thrones" that I've downloaded?
-Oh, wait, for illegally downloading?
-Yeah.
-My priest is pretty soft on me. He's pretty easy on me.
I'm sure he'd just give you a couple.
-Can I ask you --
It might be a tough hypothetical question.
-Okay. -What would you do if,
when one of your kids gets older,
they do their own searching and they say,
"Mom, I kind of want to leave the Church"?
-Yeah.
I totally think that would be hard.
I mean, that is so hypothetical.
I don't even know what it's like to have an adult child,
let alone one that,
you know, blatantly disagrees with our faith
and leaves it, but I would really hope
that I would be the kind of parent
that my response would be, "Let's talk about it.
You know, tell me what you're thinking and tell me why."
And I would love them and I would pray for them,
but I would want to still be really
engaged in their life on every level.
-You wouldn't excommunicate them because they were --
-No, gosh. -Okay.
-And I think that goes back to the fundamental belief
of who God is, right? That we're all His children.
He's always kind of after us.
He's always wanting to love us and wanting to receive our love.
My kids are really His, you know?
I have -- I've been given the job
of raising them in this world and in this life,
but at the end of the day,
I have to give them back to Him and trust
that He's really got it handled, you know?
-I've had a great time today,
so I just -- Thank you so much for,
like, being so open and,
like, being so cool with your kids
and then terrifying me with a chicken.
You know, it was just so wonderful
to share your faith with you.
-Thank you. I'm so grateful that you came
and loved --
I loved you being here. It was so great.
-I always thought of Catholicism as this ornate --
Hi, Spider-Man.
I always thought of Catholicism
as this ornate, very sort of dark,
maybe slightly somber religion,
but seeing all the joy
that it brings Blythe and her family
is really, really cool.
And seeing all the kids
it brings her family is also pretty awesome.
I'm not sure if I could have that many
because I just --
I can't play superheroes for more than five hours a day,
or I'd get tired out.
So, I've got to go fight some bad guys.
But remember, always have a little faith in --
Hi, how's it going?
This is Iceman and this is Mary
and this is Hiro. Can you say goodbye?
'Cause this the end of the episode.
-Bye. -Bye. -Bye.