Fire Branded

Were some Catholic saints actually transgender—and has the Church simply refused to acknowledge it? Nonsense! And I'm attacking this argument with a war hammer.

See my article here, for a prelude to this livestream. It'll get your fire started

What happens when Catholic saints are retrofitted into modern gender ideology—and a Catholic priest helps promote the claim?

In this episode of FireBranded, I respond to an article arguing that Catholics should look to saints who supposedly “defied gender norms.” I look at the historical examples being used, including Joan of Arc, and ask whether the evidence actually supports the conclusions being suggested.

I also revisit a similar controversy involving Father James Martin and explain why I think the same basic argument is being recycled again.

Then, in the second half of the show, I turn to another question that has been bothering me: How do we actually bring young people back into the Church?

I push back on the constant language of “listening,” “accompaniment,” and dialogue and argue that what young Catholics are really looking for is something much more substantial: identity, purpose, formation, clear teaching, and leadership.

00:00 Fired Up Intro and Topics

01:58 Jesuit Reposts Gender Claims

21:04 Debunking Saints in NCR Article

44:24 The Tie In Saints Misused

53:23 Calling Out Latin Mass Fix

01:06:32 Listening Church Execution Fail

01:16:12 Youth Need Clarity Leadership

01:27:59 Wrap Up Prayer Advice Platform

Were some Catholic saints actually transgender—and has the Church simply refused to acknowledge it? Nonsense! And I'm attacking this argument with a war hammer.

See my article here, for a prelude to this livestream. It'll get your fire started

What happens when Catholic saints are retrofitted into modern gender ideology—and a Catholic priest helps promote the claim?

In this episode of FireBranded, I respond to an article arguing that Catholics should look to saints who supposedly “defied gender norms.” I look at the historical examples being used, including Joan of Arc, and ask whether the evidence actually supports the conclusions being suggested.

I also revisit a similar controversy involving Father James Martin and explain why I think the same basic argument is being recycled again.

Then, in the second half of the show, I turn to another question that has been bothering me: How do we actually bring young people back into the Church?

I push back on the constant language of “listening,” “accompaniment,” and dialogue and argue that what young Catholics are really looking for is something much more substantial: identity, purpose, formation, clear teaching, and leadership.

00:00 Fired Up Intro and Topics

01:58 Jesuit Reposts Gender Claims

21:04 Debunking Saints in NCR Article

44:24 The Tie In Saints Misused

53:23 Calling Out Latin Mass Fix

01:06:32 Listening Church Execution Fail

01:16:12 Youth Need Clarity Leadership

01:27:59 Wrap Up Prayer Advice Platform

A Jesuit priest says he “hates” the Traditional Latin Mass—but that may not be the most interesting thing he said.

Fr. Thomas Reese’s provocative article, “Why I Hate the Old Latin Mass: A Confession,” generated plenty of outrage online. But judging from the reactions, a lot of people never got past the headline.

I did.

In this Catholic Q&A edition of Fire Branded, I take an honest look at Reese’s argument: what he gets right, where I disagree with him, his surprisingly traditional comments about obedience to the Church, and the liturgical reforms he says he still wants to see.

And that last part is where things get interesting.

Because the real story may not be that a Jesuit priest “hates” the Traditional Latin Mass. The real story may be what happens when liturgical reform begins loosening the boundaries of the Roman Rite—and whether that leads to a better liturgy or simply the Wild West.

Later in the show, I also talk about some changes coming to Fire Branded, the new members-only “Fire Pit,” why I’m returning the podcast to more of an old-school broadcast style, and why I’m increasingly pulling my energy away from social media and toward the people who actually show up.

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CHAPTERS

0:00 A Jesuit Priest Who “Hates” the TLM

5:51 What Fr. Thomas Reese Actually Says

17:13 The Liturgical Reforms He Wants

28:12 The Danger of a Liturgical “Wild West”

36:46 Big Changes Coming to Fire Branded

44:28 Rethinking the Newsletter, Social Media & the Future

Trusting God sounds simple until we actually have to do it.

In this episode, T.J. Haines looks at spiritual combat, our tendency to worry about the Church, and the difficult work of surrendering our own need for control. He also discusses encouraging signs of college students returning to the Catholic faith, Jacob’s mysterious wrestling match with the angel, and Lorenzo Scupoli’s insight that discouragement and failure can reveal just how much we still trust in ourselves rather than God.

The struggle itself isn’t necessarily the problem. Sometimes the real spiritual battle is learning when to stop fighting God and allow Him to fight beside us.

0:00 Why Trusting God Is So Hard

9:44 College Students Are Returning to the Church

21:37 Jacob Wrestles with God

27:03 Scupoli: Failure, Pride, and Trust

47:00 Struggling with God—and Letting Go

Everyone agrees there’s a crisis in the Church. But what if the real problem is that we’ve misunderstood what a crisis actually is?

There is a lot of talk today about “the crisis in the Church.” Declining numbers, confusion, scandals, division, and struggles with faith all lead many Catholics to conclude that something unprecedented is happening.

But is that really true?

This is a LIVE Catholic Q&A, as I also discuss yet ANOTHER excommunication, this time of a priest in New Mexico for the crime of schism.

In this live Q&A I talked about my experience with Sedevacantism, how I fell down that rabbit whole, and—most importantly—how I dug myself out!

Also, what should you do when you feel like "just a horrible sinner" and you can't seem to pick yourself up after a fall? I have great advice for you in this episode!

Lot's of nuggets in this episode, but those are the two major pillars. Links to things promised in the episode, and chapters to help you navigate it are forthcoming.

📝 POST SHOW NOTE: My narrow escape from Sedevacantism

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It's the other half of this Catholic commentary War Machine—exclusive articles, episodes, extra FIRE!

It’s easier than ever for Catholics to fall down a rabbit hole. It usually doesn’t start with something obviously false—it starts with a real concern, a confusing moment, or a question that deserves an answer. But when we stop approaching those questions with precision, humility, and the mind of the Church, we can slowly find ourselves following a trail of assumptions that leads somewhere very different from where we started.

In this episode, I look at some real examples of Catholic rabbit holes—from debates about liturgy and tradition to claims about the state of the Church itself—and explain how we can protect ourselves from being pulled away from truth by arguments that sound convincing but don’t hold up under careful examination.

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YouTube Channel members (The IInner Circle) can get a free Inner Circle Plus membership at FireBranded.fm. Once you've joined the Inner Circle as a YouTube Channel member, fill out this form. I'll manually upgrade your free Fire Branded membership to "Inner Circle Plus"

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It's the other half of this Catholic commentary War Machine—exclusive articles, episodes, extra FIRE!

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It's time for prayer to return to the Catholic family, and individual Catholic life; especially in the discovery of the Divine Office

Prayer is disappearing from Christian families. Pope Leo is putting his finger on a much bigger problem: modern life has conditioned us to expect immediate results, while the spiritual life simply doesn’t work that way.

In this episode of FireBranded, I talk about why Catholics need to recover a real habit and lifestyle of prayer, what happens when prayer seems to accomplish nothing, and why we need to stop treating prayer like a transaction with God.

Then we get into one of the great treasures of Catholic prayer: the Liturgy of the Hours. I’ll tell you how I discovered the Divine Office, why I’ve prayed it for years, and why I think far more lay Catholics should consider making it part of their lives.

Catholic talk radio  too hot for the airwaves.

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It's the other half of this Catholic commentary War Machine—exclusive articles, episodes, extra FIRE

When catechesis challenges us, do we really want better catechesis in the Church, or do we prefer to call for silence and submission to our opinions?

Catholics have spent decades blaming poor catechesis for the crisis in the Church. There's some truth to that. But what happens when clear Catholic teaching challenges those same Catholics to re-think what they think is true about Catholicism, the Church, or the history of Theology behind Catholic teaching?

This episode examines that contradiction through the controversy surrounding the SSPX and the consecration of bishops without papal approval. It also addresses distorted claims about the Novus Ordo, liturgical abuse, papal authority, and the selective use of saints such as Robert Bellarmine to justify resistance to the Church.

LINKS AND ARTICLES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

🚨 Also included: an announcement about new YouTube channel memberships and members-only content.

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Catholics have heard the phrase “crisis in the Church” repeated so often that it has become a catchall explanation for nearly everything: weak preaching, poor catechesis, liturgical abuse, corrupt bishops, Vatican II, the Novus Ordo, and every controversy coming out of Rome.

But what if those things are not the crisis itself?

In this episode, T.J. Haines argues that the deeper crisis is a growing inability among Catholics to recognize, receive, and reason from truth. That loss has left many Catholics vulnerable to sweeping claims, distorted histories, false alternatives, and arguments that sound faithful while leading them further from the Church.