The Patrick Coffin Show | Interviews with influencers | Commentary about culture | Tools for transformation

Support this channel with a one-time or recurring donation: patrickcoffin.media/donate Join our premium program: coffinnation.com ************************************************************** This episode debuted exactly two years ago, and I could think of no better show this year to honor my all-time favorite movie, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1947) through the eyes of two women with close ties to its creation. If Mr. Capra didn’t write it, why do I call it “Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life? It’s because that’s how the movie was marketed, which helps explain why the film got only a so-so reception when it was first released. Most of Mr. Capra’s pre-World War II movies were so sweet-hearted that they later earned the moniker “Capracorn,” not meant as a compliment. It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the most critically acclaimed films ever made. Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, and placed number 11 on its initial 1998 greatest movie list, it also ranked number one on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time. Think about that. In light of the fact that hundreds of thousands of movies have been made, this is a jaw-dropping achievement. By the end of the Second World War, though, the mood of the movie-going public had shifted, as I wrote about the making of the movie in National Review a few years ago HERE. The next day after it was published, an appreciative email from a woman named Mary Owen arrived in my inbox. Turns out, Mary is the daughter of actress Donna Reed, who played Mary Bailey, the wife of James Stewart’s George Bailey. I thanked her for the lovely email and we had a few back-and-forths. After my podcast was up on two feet and spreading around the world (110 countries and counting), I thought it would be fun to have her on the show to talk about her mother’s role in this now-international favorite Christmas movie and to learn some back story to her mother’s career and her commitment to writing back to the G.I’s who wrote to her from the trenches and the gun turrets of World War II. The interview segues nicely into the next one, a rich conversation with actress Karolyn Grimes who played Zuzu, one of the four Bailey kids. Remember Zuzu’s petals? This was a real treat for me who loves the movie so well, and I know it will be for you as well. I learned, among other things, how much Mrs. Grimes suffered as a teen when her mother died and then the next year her father was killed and she became a ward of the state—then “rescued” by an aunt and uncle in Missouri, which was an unhappy home situation. Karolyn also played Debbie, the daughter of David Niven and Loretta Young in another Christmas favorite, The Bishop’s Wife. For those of us who can’t gobble up enough trivia and true stories about It’s a Wonderful Life, Mrs. Grimes is a treasure trove of first-hand memories and insights! For the show notes: www.patrickcoffin.media

Our premium community is open to new members! Learn more: www.coffinnation.com ************************************************************** In this Christmas video, I cite a writer writing about Christmas.  Without Googling, can you guess who wrote it? The mystery writer starts according to John’s Gospel: “And the Word was made flesh, and came to dwell among us; and we had sight of His glory, glory such as belongs to the Father’s only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14 I’ll give you a major hint: the writer is a Christian. Leave your guess in the comment box below. A merry and blessed and peaceful Christmas to you and your family!   Tweet to Patrick HERE Follow Patrick on Facebook HERE

Doors to our premium platform are now open. Join hundreds of Catholics around the world. Come for the content and stay for the community: www.coffinnation.com ************************************************************** Do you find yourself distracted all day by the pings and dings of your smartphone, by the lure of that Amazon Prime movie, or hilarious kitten videos on YouTube, or your favorite news commentary, or the funny pages, or making a hot coffee before you “really get down to work”? Stop me if this sounds like you, because it certainly sounds like me. Fortunately for the distracted brethren of this world, a practical guide to distract-proofing your brain is now available. New York best-selling author Nir Eyal has put 5 years of research into one place.  It's called Indistractible: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Nir does not spout platitudes or make generalizations. He provides practical tools that build the kind of habits that enable you to stay on task and to use your time wisely and deliberately. Lots of objective data to back it all up as well.   Read the rest of the show notes at: www.patrickcoffin.media/show

Want to join a community of like-minded Catholics around the world? Learn more about our premium platform here: www.coffinnation.com ************************************************************** Resources Mentioned: My essay, "The Little Story That Did," about the making of It's a Wonderful Life in National Review. My Cinephile column in "Catholic World Report" on Meet John Doe:    In this video, I describe what these three classic Christmas movies are must-watches. (NB, Die Hard has some potty words, so it's not for kids.)

Do you enjoy this show? Want more premium content delivered to you weekly? Would you like to be part of a supportive community of catholics around the world? Learn about Coffin Nation here: www.coffinnation.com ************************************************************* Two months ago, Alexander Tschugguel (chu-goo-gle) was almost a complete unknown, apart from pro-life activism in his native Vienna, Austria. All that changed when he released the video his removal of five Pachamama idols that sat at the side altar of the church of Santa Maria of Transpontina in Rome marching them on the ancient Ponte Sant'Angelo over the Tiber River and knocked them, one by one, into the drink.   For rest of show notes go to: www.patrickcoffin.media/show Facebook: @patrickcoffin.media Twitter: @patrick_coffin

Enjoy premium content each week delivered to your inbox and join our supportive community of Catholics. Learn more here: www.coffinnation.com. Doors are now open. ************************************************************** In this video, I summarize the story so far of the sudden postponement of the Bishop Fulton Sheen beatification, which had been slated for December 21, 2019. I also provide some important context for the lead up to the "Sheen Cause Pause," and give you the lowdown on WHY it was halted, as well as give a short introduction to the great man himself. In his day Bishop Sheen was a household name. Every aspect of his very public life has undergone extraordinary scrutiny already. The miraculous raising of the dead of young James Fulton Engstrom is a certified bona fide miracle (see my interview with his mother Bonnie in the link below), and Pope Francis himself authorized Bishop Sheen as worthy of beatification. But...the Diocese of Rochester confirmed last Thursday that it had requested a delay of the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which had been scheduled for Dec. 21 until it was postponed indefinitely earlier this week. The Diocese of Peoria says the Rochester Diocese has left out key facts as to WHY. This is what this video addresses. The bottomline is, Fulton J Sheen is clean. The screeching halt to his Cause, was orchestrated by Bishop Salvatore Matano of Rochester (Rome sources say he was abetted by Cardinals Cupich of Chicago and Dolan of New York—no surprise there). It's a sham. Does Cardinal Dolan's silence in particular have something, maybe, possibly something to do with the fact that he lost in four different legal Appeals in a row—costing the faithful of New York hundreds of thousands of dollars for high-priced attorneys to keep Bishop Sheen’s body in Saint Pat’s Cathedral? Will no US bishops stand up in defense of their brother bishop and sainthood candidate? In the end, Catholics should be glad the Cause was halted. I explain why in this video. Venerable Fulton J Sheen, Ora Pro Nobis. SUBSCRIBE AND RATE THIS PODCAST. THANK YOU

To enjoy this and other shows, join our premium community. Doors are now open: www.coffinnation.com ************************************************************** If you think George Cardinal Pell is innocent, and you happen to be a Catholic, you’re open to the charge of protecting your a hero from your tribe or—worse—disbelieving victims. Andrew Bolt is a top TV journalist, and host of “The Bolt Report” on Sky News in Melbourne, Australia, and he is firmly convinced that the guilty verdict, when the facts of the case are closely analyzed, is dead wrong. Rest of show notes and resources mentioned: www.patrickcoffin.media/show Facebook:www.facebook.com/patrickcoffin.media Twitter:www.twitter.com/patrick_coffin

Coffin Nation is a platform that facilitates enriching discussions, personal development and spiritual growth. Doors to our program open December 1st. Get on the list and be the first to be notified the moment we open: www.coffinnation.com ************************************************************** Is there a more urgent, vital question than what happens to you after you die? Despite misunderstandings about what purgatory or limbo are, the Catholic Church, following Scripture and Tradition, teaches with highest authority that there are only two eternal destinies: heaven and hell. If you read the Gospels and pay attention to what Jesus says about hell, you’ll be surprised how often and how seriously He warns us about it. But are these merely “warnings”? Is Jesus bluffing to teach a lesson? Could hell, in fact, be empty? Facebook: www.facebook.com/patrickcoffin.media Twitter: www.twitter.com/patrick_coffin For rest of show notes go to the website.

Doors to our premium community open December 1st. Join the waiting list here: www.coffinnation.com ************************************************************* Suicide is a pandemic today. Most people are inclined to disbelieve how bad the problem is. Father Chris Alar, MIC, can relate. He didn’t give suicide too much thought. Until his beloved grandmother killed herself at home. That traumatic loss, after many years of confusion and grief, led by God’s providence, to his call to the priesthood. The author and preacher wrote a kind of handbook for friends and loved ones of those who have taken their own lives. It’s titled After Suicide: There’s Hope for Them and For You. Rest of show notes: www.patrickcoffin.media/show Follow me on: Facebook Twitter    

▶️ Support this podcast here. We are 100% listener supported. ▶️ For more shows, join our premium community: Coffin Nation Doors open December 1st. ▶️ YouTube: Click Subscribe and "Like" my videos. ************************************************************** The U.S. Bishops met this past week in Baltimore and it was two days of fairly procedural discussions and long speeches and talk of preparing documents that very few people outside that that ballroom will read. But a few things struck me watching the footage of the proceedings and from the transcript of what was said. The first thing I noticed was how many of the interventions expressed viewpoints that are not in fact the teachings of the Catholic Church. To take one example, the bishop of Venice Florida, Bishop Frank Dewane—apparently speaking to previous USCCB statements—supported the idea that civilians should have virtually no access to handguns. Erm, what? The Second Amendment should go? The question of violence in our society is an important one but taking guns away from EVERYONE is worse than putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg, because it ignores the root problems: …the breakdown of the family, the fallout of failed sexual revolution, the skyrocketing divorce rate, the epidemic of depression and suicide. …the exodus out of the Church and away from Jesus Christ. …the secularist media machine hell-bent on selling fear, relativism, and despair. But the real clash of happened on the second day between Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. Bishop McElroy does not like the idea of non-negotiables for Catholic voters, Including please sing abortion and euthanasia as more important than the urgent them things like the environment and care for the poor. Full stop. In his address to the Bishops, the Bishop of San Diego expressed displeasure with the phrase “preeminent concern given to the weakest members of society,” a reference to the killing of innocent unborn human beings through abortion. This line appears in a 2015 USCCB document that very few people read called “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” The Bishop’s at this week’s meeting are set to publish another letter that contained the line, “the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself.” Well, Bishop McElroy objected to the line as being “at least discordant” with the pope’s teachings. He didn’t say why this is, since Pope Francis has referred to abortionists as “hitmen.” Among other things, McElroy said: “It is not Catholic that abortion is the preeminent issue that we face as a world in Catholic social teaching. It is not. For us to say that, particularly when we omit the pope’s articulation of this question, I think is a grave disservice of our people…so either we shouldn’t have “preeminent” in there, or we should have the pope’s full paragraph where he lays out his vision of this same question, delicately balancing all of it in the words he does,” Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler Texas said that he thought preeminent should stay. Next up was Archbishop Chaput wasn’t having any of the reasoning proffered by is brother Bishop McElroy. Archbishop Chaput replied: “I am against anyone stating that our saying [abortion] is ‘preeminent’ is contrary to the teaching of the pope. Because that isn’t true. It sets an artificial battle between the bishops’ conference of the United States and the Holy Father which isn’t true. So I don’t like the argument Bishop McElroy used. It isn’t true. In an unusual break with protocol, the bishop’s broke into applause. This clash right here is a microcosm of the civil war going on right now inside the Catholic Church between those who go along with the word salad and the weaponized ambiguities of Pope Francis, and those who want continuity with the previous 265 popes and sacred Tradition especially in the area of moral theology. First, is this disagreement imaginable under John Paul II or really any previous Pope? Second, many people are beginning to ask why the bishops have to meet in lavish hotels in big cities? Wouldn’t any of the unused or abandoned retreat houses or monasteries across the country provide a more fitting setting? Third, then Cardinal Ratzinger has explained that National Bishops conferences do not have magisterial authority and their pronouncements per se—especially in matters political or prudential—are not binding on the faithful. Not including retirees, there are 433 Bishops in the United States. The airfare alone comes to over $130,000 for this 48 hour event, not including the army of staffers, not including hotel, Ubers, meals ,and other costs. The annual budget of the USCCB is 180 million dollars, and not all of it is funded by donations. For the Catholic Relief Services alone, federal monies accounted for 64.70 percent of its total annual budget. It’s getting harder to know where the Church ends and where the State begins. Somehow the Church in America managed to preach the gospel, celebrate the sacraments, and teach the Faith before then for over 300 years, before the US Conference of Catholic Bishops began in 1966. All things considered, with six adults leaving the Catholic Church for every convert who joins, maybe it’s time to streamline and get back to basics, and seriously consider putting the USCCB out of its misery. Yes? No? Let me know in the comments.