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we've just been passing through clearly
the darkest period in American Catholic
Church history the sex abuse scandal was
the perfect storm it undermined the work
of the church in almost every way so I
think we're a pivotal moment what do we
do we could go into a defensive crouch
or we could do what I think the great
Saints have done over the centuries when
the church is found itself in crisis
they've come forward to claim the great
power and truth of the church to
announce it confidently and I think
that's the call of our time i I do
believe that if we don't get this
project underway we've missed an
opportunity
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a lot of other people in the culture are
telling the Catholic story many in a
very negative way a very critical way
characterizing who we are some in a more
neutral way kind of detached objective
way you'll see we need to tell our story
so that people know what the Catholic
Church is on our own terms it all begins
really with a joke the essence of humor
is the coming together of opposites the
meeting of incongruous things the
central claim of Christianity is that
God became human and to make the humor
even more acute it happened there in
that little town of Bethlehem and we've
not stopped laughing with delight at
this jest for the past 2,000 years what
I want to do in this series is to
explore Catholicism thematically is that
so much an historical survey it's a
thematic exposition the great spiritual
lesson of the story is this I like to
begin this discussion of Jesus the
warrior in a perhaps surprising unusual
place Jesus on the cross makes the
perfect sacrifice Jesus on the soul I'll
be talking about God about Jesus Christ
about the teaching of Jesus about the
church about the liturgy about
sacraments about the saints about the
last things so the essential features of
Catholic belief but I then want to
illustrate that as richly as I can by
going to all these beautiful artistic
places and and to show the visual power
room I'm standing in the Judean Desert
in the blazing hot Sun I'm looking out
over st. George monastery it's one of
the most spectacular amazing things I've
ever seen I want to take you all over
the world to show you the glory and the
beauty and to reveal the truth of
Catholicism that's why we're doing this
project
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we've already been to Israel we filmed
episode 1 there and we went all through
Jerusalem and Bethlehem Galilee and so
on we're hoping to go all over the world
because Catholicism is a global religion
it's this universal community stretching
all over the planet we're also a very
visual artistic beautiful religion so I
want to show that richness of the
Catholic thing both intellectually and
artistically and I think that is I say
unprecedented I think it's ever been
done quite this way before and as part
of the excitement of this project but
also the challenge
you
this is a bold project and it's bold I
think at the theoretical level it's bold
at the visual level it's also bold I'd
say at the technological level as I've
been describing it we talked about going
around the world about going to the
finest places about using
high-definition photography the best
technology well oh that's great but all
that cost money which is why I've relied
on the great generosity of a lot of
people so far and still require further
generosity from folks to make this
project a reality
roughly 75% of Catholics in our country
don't come to Mass on a regular basis
well that's a tragedy
what I want to do with this series is to
draw people into the power of
Catholicism to teach people about the
faith and more than that to show them
the faith
I think the Catholic faith has a
compelling power to everybody Jesus had
preached to all the nation so that's
what we're doing we're trying with this
project to follow the command of the
Lord and those who help us are
contributing to it are also responding
to Christ's own command to evangelize
the world I think we're at a pivotal
moment and that we can really accomplish
something very powerful with this
project
you