53: Put your faith and trust in God. No matter what.

Episode 53: Speaking from his home in Canada, Francisco shares how daily Eucharistic Adoration helped him to find his faith as an adult, 'It was a wonderful feeling.' And it is his faith, he says, which 'helps me to hang in there when everything seems lost.'

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Article in The Guardian

Online Divine Mercy Chaplet at St John Paul II Shrine

Radio Maria England

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Transcript

 You're listening to All Kinds of Catholic with me, Theresa Alessandro. My conversations with different Catholics will give you glimpses into some of the ways we're living our faith today. I'm grateful for Pope Francis, who used the image of a caravan. A diverse group of people, travelling together, on a sometimes chaotic journey together. And that image that Pope Francis gave us has helped to shape this podcast. I hope you'll feel encouraged and affirmed, and maybe challenged at times. I am too in these conversations. And if you're enjoying these conversations, it helps if you rate and review them on the platform where you're listening. Thank you. 

Listeners, just before we get into this week's episode, if you listen very regularly, you'll know that the last two guests were people who talked about their experience of being gay or queer and Catholic. I just wanted to thank those listeners who took the trouble to send some really good feedback about those episodes - thanks so much, And some of those warm positive responses I did forward to my guests, so they received your thoughtful words themselves in some cases. Thanks so much. 

Listeners, thanks for joining the podcast today. I'm being joined by a guest from Canada. We had a guest from Canada previously, you might remember. He lived in Vancouver, but today's guest is from the other side of Canada from just outside Toronto. So welcome, Francisco. 

Thank you for welcoming to your programme, All Kinds of Catholic. It's a real pleasure for me to be here. And it's even a bigger pleasure because today is the feast day of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, considered an apostle for the English. So we can maybe dedicate the show to him. 

Absolutely. That's great. Thank you, Francisco. And, actually, there's another little anniversary today because last week's episode was the fifty second episode, and so I am now starting a second year of podcasting with today's episode. 

Congratulations. 

Thank you. This is an auspicious day for that reason too. So, it's very nice to have you kicking off our second year of podcasting on All Kinds of Catholic, Francisco. So maybe you would tell us a bit about, have you always been a Catholic? Did you become a Catholic later in life? 

I was baptised in Argentina where I was born, and I've been a Catholic, although I haven’t been practicing a lot. Once I did my confirmation, like a lot of young people, you stop going to church, you go maybe on Christmas and on Easter, and that's about it. And I did that for about twenty years. I didn't go to confession or anything. And then I had a massive nervous breakdown in 1986. I had been a radio announcer up until then and I had a massive nervous breakdown. And I went back to church. After about four or five years, I thought God wasn't present in my life in those days. I didn't know what happened. I was the right hand man to the owner of a radio station, and I lost everything when I quit my job completely. Then I went to see a priest at Saint Benedict's Parish. He advised me to go to adoration. So I started going to church every day and I went to Eucharistic adoration every day. I went for an hour each day. It was a turning point in my life. 

Yes. I can hear that. 

But the biggest turning point, I have to admit, was when I met Mother Teresa. I was a reporter for CHIN Multicultural Radio in Toronto, and I didn't get sent to cover her story. I just went on my own. Even though I didn't know much about her, I followed her around like a lost puppy that day, and I went to every event she had. I even taped her press conference. And at one point she was opening up one of her homes of charity, the Missionaries of Charity in Toronto. Everybody was trying to touch her except for me. I had my microphone and everything. I was just watching everything. And out of nowhere, she - I don't know how her arm reached me because I was behind three or four levels of people - And she reached out to me. I was the very first person, and she put something in my hand. And as it turned out, it was a miraculous medal that she gave me. Yeah. I think that was a turning point in my life as well as going to Eucharistic Adoration. 

Can we just rewind a little bit? This is really interesting that you worked hard and things were going well in your professional life, and then you had a nervous breakdown, and then somehow found your way back to your faith. I'm saying somehow, but I can see, you know, that in a way you instigated that by going and speaking to a priest. 

Yes. 

And what was it do you think that made you feel like maybe I'll start with that? 

He was a Salesian priest. I just needed to speak to somebody at the time, and I figured I'd go to him. I heard about him, that he was wonderful with people. So I went to see him, and he advised me to go to Eucharistic adoration. And I started going to Eucharistic Adoration every day and to church every day. The amazing thing about it, one time, the night before Pope John Paul II died, I ended up going to Eucharistic Adoration, and it was at Saint Benedict's Church. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. Rays of light started going down the centre of the Eucharistic Chapel, and I started counting them. So I figured there was about 16, and I didn't know what’s the meaning of it. An old friend of mine was there with me, and I said to her, Did you see the rays of light? And she said, No. And I was trying to figure out what did this mean. As it turns out, the next pope was Pope Benedict XVIth. God was trying to tell me who the next pope was going to be. 

I guess we do try to make sense of what things mean, what God might be trying to tell us, don't we? When you were there at adoration, having not been at church for some years, did you feel a connection back to when you were a child, or was this a new adult faith that you were feeling? 

I think it was a new adult thing because I never went to church every week before that. It was a new feeling. It was a wonderful feeling. 

And then you had the great privilege of being in vicinity, at least, of Mother Teresa. 

Yeah. That was an amazing experience.

It's amazing to hear that when you're trying to find your way into faith as an adult, the Lord is reaching out to you in different ways and meeting you where you are. But at the same time, I can hear that you were also seeking, weren't you? By going and finding Mother Teresa and, as you say, following her around even though that wasn't part of your job at the time? 

Yeah. I was looking for answers. And I've had a couple of experiences, when I was a baby. When I was two years old, my mother told me about it. I didn't know about it. But when I was six years old, my father used to work in a factory. I had asthma when I was really young, and my eyes would stick together in the morning. He would clean them with hot water so that he would open them up before he went to work. So one morning, I was hearing somebody calling out my name, Franco, because that's what my parents used to call me, Franco. And I looked around the room, and I didn't see anybody. And I got scared, so I went downstairs, and I went to meet one of my neighbours. And I told her there's a man calling me, but I don't see him. And she wouldn't let me go back upstairs. But I don't think - it was a gentle voice. And then I told my mother this after I had the breakdown. I said, Ma, I had this happen to me when I was six years old. She goes, That's funny, Frank. Because when you were two years old, you came running out of the bedroom and you said, That man on the wall is yelling at me. And that man on the wall was Jesus. We have a statue of Jesus at the crucifixion with the crown of thorns around him. And I have it to this day above my bedboard. And my mother didn't get angry with me. She said, Why did he yell at you? And I showed her what I was doing. I was playing with electric light bulbs, and he yelled at me to leave it alone. So God has been watching me from an early age. Only it took me all my life, my mother wouldn't have never told me that story had I not told her the first story. So I've had some interesting experiences. 

Before we started recording, you mentioned that, you know, you've had some ill health.

Well, I have a number of health issues. I'm gonna be 71 in another week. 

Do you feel that the Lord is with you in your health struggles? 

Yeah. I still think He's with me. He's always there with us. You know? What do they say? Put your faith and trust in God no matter what. 

Yeah. Exactly. No matter what. Francisco, we talked about your career a little bit before we started recording, and you were telling me that you worked in Catholic radio on a voluntary basis. So tell us a bit about how you got into that. 

I was a volunteer, but I was the main voice of Radio Maria Canada from 2006 to 2008. That brought me to my closer to my faith as well because I got to talk about the Catholic faith. I interviewed bishops. I interviewed priests, all kinds of Catholic apostolates from around the world because I like to expand. I don't just wanna feature the local church. I wanna feature the international church. And I had a technician with me, and I'm not very good with technology. So the technician did everything. He would get in contact with the people and everything. I just had to sit down and do the show, and that's where I feel most comfortable. 

Now that is really interesting. We have Radio Maria England here in the UK. 

Yeah. I got in touch with them. 

I have spoken on Radio Maria England. They're great. Radio Maria Canada is still going, I presume? 

Yeah. They're in Woodbridge, Ontario now. They broadcast over the internet just like Radio Maria England does. 

It's a great initiative, isn't it, for sharing the faith?  Tell us about some of the people you interviewed then along the way. Is there anyone that's stuck in your mind? 

Well, my favourite interview - my goal was to interview Pope Benedict XVIth, actually. So I got as close to him as you can get. I interviewed Father Federico Lombardi, who was the spokesperson for Pope Benedict XVIth, and he was head of Vatican Radio and Television. Because my dream job always has been to be the English voice of Vatican Radio in Rome. So I figured if I can interview this guy and impress him, maybe I can interview the pope and impress him. Yeah. I interviewed him, and he was very impressed with my interview because he said to the priest that set it up, this guy knows everything that's going on in the church. Because in those days, I was really in the loop, and I would read everything I can get my hands on. I would read books written by saints because I think it's important to know what saints thought of different things and what they did so we can learn from saints.

Absolutely. And so you mentioned Saint, Mother, Teresa of Calcutta there. Are there some saints' writings that have really stood the test of time for you? 

Yeah. I have a list of them right here. I prepared them for you. My favourite saint, Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, who wrote the Divine Mercy diary. I recommend that diary to everybody that's listening. To me, other than the Bible, it's one of the most important books ever written. It's a conversation with Saint Faustina and Jesus. It's over 600 pages long. Saint Padre Pio, of course. And another book I recommend, because we're all called to be saints, is An Easy Way to Become a Saint by Father Paul O'Sullivan. And, of course, Saint John Paul II, Maximilian Kolbe, Saint Benedict of the Cross, Edith Stein, Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, Pier Giorgio Frassati, who's Blessed, but is gonna be canonised later this year, and Saint Teresa of Avila, I really love. I was in Avila, Spain. I went on a pilgrimage in 2017 for the hundredth anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima. And then I was in in Fatima. I was in Lourdes. I was in Avila. I was in Our Lady Of Pompeii in Naples. I was at The Vatican. I was in in four countries, and it was one of the most amazing pilgrimages I've ever been on. 

That sounds fantastic. So pilgrimage is important to you?

I love going to pilgrimage. I used to go with my mother when she went to pilgrimages around here. We went to Our Lady Of Fatima in Youngstown, New York in the United States. Her favourite saint was Saint Anne from Saint Anne de Beaupre. The Shrine of Saint Anne is just outside of Quebec City in Canada, and Quebec City is one of the most beautiful cities in all of Canada. And visiting the Shrine of Saint Anne, the mother of Mary, so Saint Anne of Beaupre is amazing. It was my mother's favourite saint. I hope I got all that right.

I'm sure you sound very well informed, Francisco. Tell us a bit about what your faith looks like then for people who are listening and wondering about it. Do you go to Mass every day? Are there prayers you say every day?

I don't go every day like I used to because when I got hit by the car, I became lame. And I don't drive anymore, so I have to be taken to Mass by a friend of mine. 

So you've a good friend who helps you?

But I go once a week, and I go to all the holy days of obligation. I go to confession at least every three weeks or once a month because I think going to confession is very important. It's like owning a car and doing an oil change, and confession is our oil change. 

That's good. I like that. Okay. And then are there prayers that you turn to? Are you somebody who says the rosary or the divine chaplet? 

I believe in in the rosary. I pray it every day. There was a time I prayed as much as a hundred decades a day. Now I do just, I do five decades of the rosary, and I do the Divine Mercy chaplet every day at 3pm. There's a wonderful online prayer group at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington. At 3pm every day, they do the Divine Mercy chaplet, and you can write in prayer requests. And we’ve become friends even though we don't know what we look like or anything. And the Sisters of Mercy do it, and they're related to Saint Maria Faustina's order. 

That sounds really great. I'll put a link to that in the episode notes, Francisco. There'll be a time difference for people to get the hang of. But still, people listening may be interested in opportunities to pray online with others. You mentioned before we began recording that, you know, I was saying I sometimes ask people if there's a favourite bit of scripture, and you came back straight away with your favourite bit of scripture. Share with listeners what bit of scripture means the most to you.

It's Romans 8:31 ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ It means everything to me because if we have God in our lives, it doesn't matter what trauma or danger we face. We have everything we need. 

Are the words there something that you've reminded yourself of when times are difficult, or do you find that you're actually quite serene in challenging times?

I have difficult times like everybody else because I'm just human, but that prayer helps me because it makes me understand that God is here no matter how difficult it might be. 

Right. So it gives you some kind of comfort and strength?

Yes. Everything we do, we should offer it up for the conversion of sinners and salvation of great sinners. No matter what suffering we are suffering. No matter what we face. No matter how hard our challenges are, offer it up. Don't waste anything. 

Francisco, I'm not sure whether we said this, but you mentioned being a child in Argentina. When did you come to Canada then? Was there somewhere else in between, or did you come straight from Argentina to Canada? 

I had a sister, Liliana. She died before she was one year old. I was basically raised as an only child when we left. We came to Canada in 1959. When they took me to kindergarten, they rejected me because I couldn't speak English. So I couldn't go to kindergarten. I was, I had to sit out for that year. In those days, you had to speak English, and I didn't. And I learned just hanging out with my neighbour’s kids downstairs over the following year. 

Nowadays, we'd know, of course, that if you were immersed in kindergarten, you would have learned English in no time. 

Yeah. 

So you've made Canada your home. It's perhaps the home you most remember. Do you have memories of Argentina? 

Yeah. I went to visit with my mother. I took my mother in, I think it was '88 or '89, and we met all her family there. And my mother, of course, passed away in 2013 along with my father. They died five months apart, so that was difficult.

 I'm wondering whether since you had your nervous breakdown, has your mental health been much better since coming back to your faith? Do you think that's helped? 

Been a bit better.  I still go through my depression. 

And is there anything about faith that helps with that, or do you think it's something different?

It helps me hang in there. I don't know if that makes sense, but it helps me to hang in there when it seems everything seems lost. So it's important to have faith. Put your faith and trust in God. 

You're very direct in your messaging. I think that's good. I think that will speak to people listening. As someone who's lived in Canada then for most of your life, I wonder if there's any differences in the church in Canada that people listening in other parts of the world, like here in the UK, might be surprised by. 

Well, I was just reading some stories on the Internet that the Catholic Church is starting to boom in England. Is that true?

Well, there have been reports. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. And that some of that boom is among young people actually who are finding faith or staying with the faith where previously they may have drifted away.

That's a good sign. 

Yeah. Yeah. And how are things in Canada? Are you feeling any boom in Canada? Listeners, I missed a chance here to tell Francisco about the article in The Guardian newspaper that I contributed to recently on this very topic. I'll put a link to that article in the episode notes. What I had to say in the article was informed by the conversations I've had on this podcast. Let's return to Francisco and hear what he has to say about the church in Canada. 

Well, the Archdiocese of Toronto is a very diverse Catholic community. I'm in, even though I don't live in Toronto, I'm in the Archdiocese of Toronto. They celebrate Mass for 36 ethnically - and linguistic - groups each week. Population of approximately 670,000 individuals representing about 25% of Toronto's population according to a 2021 census. The Archdiocese of Toronto is the largest diocese in Canada. In Canada alone, there is about 30% of the population is Catholic, which is the largest Christian denomination, and there's about, I think, 11,000,000 Catholics in Canada.

Wow. That sounds like a lot of people actually. I I'm surprised somehow I didn't know that. Very good. And were you surprised by Pope Leo being elected as the Pope?

I think he's a really good choice, Pope Leo XIVth, because he served in South America, in Peru for many years as a missionary. And he was the head of the Augustinians. So he's got a lot of experience with the poor, and I think that's a continuation of Pope Francis's with what he wanted to do for the poor in the world. So I think he's a very important choice. I figured it would be an English speaking pope. I had a feeling about it. I didn't know which one, though. 

Did you? 

But I had a funny feeling it would be from the English speaking world because they've never had one.

No. Indeed. Well, not in any time we can think of. Well, that's interesting. And now I'm guessing you'd really like to have the opportunity to interview Pope Leo if only.

He would be wonderful because he's English-speaking. 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that would make things easier for English-speaking people, wouldn't it? Of course. Although, like all the popes, he seems to have a real good command of many languages. 

He speaks about a half a dozen languages. 

Francisco, it's been really lovely talking to you all the way from Canada. The other side - I was gonna say the other side of the world - a different part of the world. So thanks for making the time to join me. It's been really interesting. You have a very direct way of putting across the gospel, and I think listeners will appreciate that and find lots to think about and reflect on there. So thanks so much for making time. 

Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.

Thanks so much for joining me on All Kinds of Catholic this time. I hope today's conversation has resonated with you. A new episode is released each Wednesday. Follow All Kinds of Catholic on the usual podcast platforms. Rate and review to help others find it. And follow our X/Twitter and Facebook accounts, @kindsofCatholic. You can comment on episodes and be part of the dialogue there. You can also text me if you're listening to the podcast on your phone, although I won't be able to reply to those texts. Until the next time.