Hi everyone. Welcome to this very special
bonus, episode of The Daily gospel, exegesis podcast, and
thank you so much for your support of the ministry.
So this is a bit of a different episode.
It's a bonus episode and it's actually an interview.
And the interview is with charbel rash, who is the
director of Perugia media, which is a quite significant Catholic
Ministry in Australia. Here.
And the interview is going to be all about Catholic Ministries
and in particular Catholic media in Australia.
So we wanted to release this at the start of 20:23 to give you a
feel. For some things you might want
to look at in the coming year, some Ministries you might want
to support and to give you some information about Catholic
Ministries and what's happening in Australia in the Catholic
media space that you may not be aware of and perhaps some new
projects for you to look into for the year.
And New Ministries for you to support.
So, I just wanted to say a bit about what's going to happen in
this interview because it is very different from what we
normally do in the podcast. And of course, there is today's
regular episode of the podcast where we look at the Gospel
reading from today's mass, and that's still there for you.
And this is an additional bonus episode that we felt was
important to get out there because daily gospel exegesis is
an Australian podcast and those of you in Australia would know
that we typically in Australia we have a tendency to rely on
the US for providing us with good solid Catholic media
resources and so this is an episode that's trying to address
things from an Australian perspective to tell you what's
out there. So how this interview came about
was recently logical Bible study was interviewed on the parousia
podcast so you can check that out and there's a link for that
in the episode description for this episode as well.
So we got to talk a bit about the purpose of this ministry
that The Logical Bible study Ministry, and how it came about
as an Australian Ministry. And we wanted to extend that to
talk a bit more in this episode that you're about to hear about
the Australian media space in general.
So I really wanted to get charbel back on here.
He has some great stuff to say about what's happening in
Australia. So I guess you could say there's
two purposes to this particular boat.
Bonus episode. So firstly, we want Australian.
Catholics to know what is going on in Australia.
So what are the kind of Ministries that are around them?
What can they get involved in? What can you support?
So if you're an Australian listener to this to the, to the
Daily gospel exegesis podcast, then hopefully this bonus
episode will tell you, some things about Australian media
that you hadn't considered before and maybe open up some
new Ministries for you to look into.
And you'll see when Charles Bell gets going in this To view,
there's so much more going on in Australia than what you first.
Might think in the Catholic space.
Secondly, we also wanted this bonus episode to be an
opportunity for overseas listeners to learn more about
what Australia has to offer the Catholic World.
So in terms of statistics, the daily gospel exegesis podcast,
the number one country that listens to this podcast is in
fact, the u.s. overwhelmingly, its us listeners that are
listening to this podcast and the Philippines is also a
significant listening country to this as well.
And so to you guys and all other overseas countries that are
listening to this podcast, hopefully, you'll hear some
things that charbel talks about in this interview that might get
you interested in looking into some, some more Australian
Catholic Ministries. I also wanted to say before we
start this interview that I'm not an interviewer.
As you know, that normally in the podcast, I'll do some
educational things talking you through.
Diverse the gospel. Now, in this one in this bonus
episode is actually an interview.
I'm not a professional interviewer, and you'll probably
be able to tell that as we go. But luckily charbel has a whole
lot of great stuff to say, and he did most of the work here.
So, in this interview, what you'll hear is a bit about
Australian Catholic Ministries in general, and then there's
going to be a section in the interview were shall Bell is
going to go through Australian our state by state.
So he's going to talk about What's on offer from a Catholic
Ministry perspective, in each of the Australian States, this
section is just gold and so I just let charbel go for it here.
He just off the top of his head. He's just listing fantastic
Ministries from each state and its really worth listening to.
If you're in Australia, please have a good listen to that
section of the interview, share it around.
Tell other people about the Ministries that you have heard
about in this section of the interview.
And I've included in the episode description here links to as
many of the Ministries that he mentions in that section.
As I possibly could I did a bit of research to try and match up
the Ministries that he mentioned with the links that are
available to them. So if you want to go a bit
deeper on any of those Ministries that he mentions,
hopefully you'll find a link to most of those in the episode
description here towards the end of the interview.
Shall Bill talks a bit about what Catholic radio stations are
available in Earlier including harm groin ones, as well as
International ones that we can access and also TV what's
happening in the Australian Catholic TV space.
And there's some really interesting stuff that you may
not be aware of. There's also a bit of a section
there about the parousia media Ministry and what they're
offering and they've got some great stuff planned for 2023 as
well. So please pray fully consider
supporting the parousia ministry and also if you're a u.s.
listener towards the end of The interview you'll hear shall
Bell. Make a really important
announcement about something. That's coming your way,
something that Australian Catholics soon to bring to the
US and that's coming up in 2023. And then, lastly, the interview
finishes with some really powerful advice from charbel to
Australian Catholics. And I think the interview is
worth listening to adjust for those last few minutes where
shall Bell speaks to each of us in Australia and tells us what
our attitude should be as Catholics.
What kind of things we should be?
Getting involved in and what God might be calling us to.
So this is a bit of a different episode and it's quite a long
one but it's really, really solid.
And it's definitely worth listening to what shall Bell has
to say here. So if you're in Australia and
you listen to this bonus episode, please do share it
around with other people with other Australian, Catholic
groups, and Catholic Ministries. And if you are an overseas
listener, please consider checking out some of the
Ministries that are mentioned here.
All right, let's get get into the interview.
Alright. Hi everyone.
Welcome to this bonus episode of The Daily gospel exegesis
podcast. So I'm actually doing something
a bit different today. I'm going to be doing an
interview now, I don't normally interview people, so please
forgive me if you know, if I Stumble here a bit.
So on the on the show today, we've got shall bow rash, who is
the manager or director? What's the right word?
Shall Bell director? Director of Peru's here director
of parousia in Australia, which is a significant Catholic media
institution, in Australia. So, what we want to do in this
bonus episode is, I guess to Ames.
So, for those of you who are Australian listeners, we want to
give you guys a feel for what's out there in Australia, and
maybe help you link in, with some Ministries in the media
world that you haven't thought of before.
For those of you in the US or other countries, this is an
opportunity for you to hear a bit more about what Australia is
doing in the media space. So yeah, thank you, Shelby all
for coming on. Thanks having me.
It's great to be with you now. Show a bell, you can you tell us
a bit about yourself? You'll known particularly for
your conversion story. Can you give us sort of a brief,
overview of how you've come to be where you are in the Catholic
media world today? Yeah, sure are very briefly.
I basically born and raised as a cradle Catholic and then I lost,
I fell away from my faith after my First.
Holy Communion went to high school at a public school that
high school had, lots of Islamic students.
And so those On boys challenge me on my faith.
It got to the point where I was invited to go to the mosque.
I did the shahada prayer gave my life to Allah and Muhammad O
have, I'm giving you the super Express version here and my life
changed that day. I actually had to have a shower
in the mosque. I then began to actually pray
and only present you with the prayers when I was a child, our
fathers and Hail Marys. So I ended up praying and I got
home late that that afternoon And my mother asked where I was,
and I just sort of casually told.
I was at the Moscone when I when she freaked out, gave me a huge
slap. Across the face said, go to the
church. I did.
I went to a local church st. Michael's in bellfield and I
asked, Jesus directly in the Tabernacle.
Alright Jesus, if you are really, he's showing me.
Do you want me to be a Muslim or a Christian?
And so, then, after about 30 minutes, I hear this inner voice
charbel. Are you going to give up all
that I've done for you and I see on the An outline of a face
which I now know is the Shroud of Turin.
It was a simple same image of the burial cloth of Jesus.
So I knew that to be. Jesus asking me, am I going to
turn my back on him and I responded?
No, Lord. I'm not going to give you up and
this huge weight came off my shoulders.
I'm a Catholic and gonna remain a Catholic.
Now, we need to know why. So then out of all the parishes
in the country, this very Parish had apologetics classes.
So that following week I went to these classes and I started
Asking questions about the Trinity about Divinity of
Christ. How can he ask you to Nature's?
How do we describe God being a man, how can we, how can we
unpack, the idea of the crucifixion and Resurrection to
have evidence of these things? So I got my answers week after
week after week and was introduced to Scott Hans,
cassettes at the time and I used to listen to heaps of those
cassettes and I just want to get more and when I when I asked to
get more I had the Attacked America and the shipping cost to
get these to Australia was astronomical and and I asked is
there another way of getting these?
And then they the person on the other phone actually Ruben
Quezada who was out in Australia this year.
He was the one to sort of plant the idea in my mind.
Why don't you take these cassettes, or CDs at the time?
It transitioned to CDs and manufacture them locally and pay
us a royalty. And so that's how it happened
and I was invited to start an apostolate.
Which I did I called it purusa. We had, we had a website
parousia, media.com and little angel blowing, a trumpet, you
know, for the coming of Christ, the second coming of Christ and
and that's how we started. I had a box of 20 CDs and
started spreading Word of Mouth, who would like a CD who would
like to and bit by bit bookstores, would contact me?
And, and, and, and surely slowly but surely, it started to grow
from there. And that was over 18 years now,
18, Ago when that happened. And so it's amazing how time has
flown and thanks be to God. I'm doing this full time so it's
been a blessing and my life changed.
Thanks to my Muslim friends and I thank God every day for my
Muslim friends challenging me about my faith because it wasn't
for them. I'd be probably a lukewarm
Catholic. Just going to church on
Christmas and Easter so so I'm really grateful for them.
It's a remarkable Story. I mean, you don't often hear.
Ya about Christians who've come to the faith particularly
through Islam. But you've got really
interesting element. Yeah.
And interesting how you know, you started looking for media
resources yourself and you realize it's actually quite
expensive to get them in from the US and that started a bit of
a journey. So I guess for those in the u.s.
many of you would probably know that a lot of other countries
particularly Western countries tend to rely on the us.
But we tend to use a lot of u.s. resources.
We look at a lot of us Ministries.
A lot of the, you know, the famous Catholic guest speakers,
a lot of them come out of the Wes, I think it's, that's
problem for historical reasons. Really?
I know you've traveled to the u.s. charbel when you, when you
compare Australia and the US, and I know it's not easy to
compare two countries, but in terms of Catholic demographics,
Christian demographics. Would you say that both
Christian countries? One is one's not.
What are the big differences that jump out at you between the
two countries? Yeah very interesting.
I think in America there would be probably more of a Christian
Our culture funny enough, even though it's very secular in, you
know, between the Hollywood and the media, but for the most
part, when you, when you traveling around there are a lot
more Christians or those who are least admitting their Christian
so born-agains or or Evangelical Christians and there's quite a
few in Australia. We do have, you know, similar
percentage. I think we're 23 percent
Catholic where 51 percent Christian, in Australia.
Just doesn't feel like it at all in Australia, anywhere you go.
It's very we keep our faith to our self.
We don't really talk about it. So the very the Christians that
are in Australia are quite reserved and so it goes down to
the different cultures that the Australian way were bit more
laid-back. We don't like to intrude on
people and we sort of hold things to ourselves a bit and in
America, they definitely got a fighting spirit.
So they stand up for what they believe in.
And, and sometimes, yeah, you have these polarized.
These groups, you know, that the far left and the far right.
And, and what happens is they're standing up for their beliefs
and that's interesting in Australia, we're sort of in the
middle. There we sort of eye, yet,
whatever, anything goes, and she'll be right and sort of each
to their own and and and try not to be intrusive although that is
changing in recent times the last few years, I've noticed a
little bit more you know activity happening bit more
protests. And But ultimately I think
Because definitely we're about 10 to 20 years behind America as
far as the cultural side of things.
But it's interesting in the on the Catholic structural way it's
quite different to because in America that are a lot of
programs in the parishes. Lent is a big deal.
And so during Lent, they've got Lenten missions and Advent
missions. And there's all these different
things and you know, great work. Shout out to Great initiative
from Augustine Institute, the lighthouse Catholic media.
Got stands and lots of parishes formed.
They've got all these programs Ascension press and doing all
these great things speakers. There's a there's actually a bit
of a speaking circuit there where people are living and
speaking full-time and we just we hardly have many in
Australia. I think we can count them on one
hand and that's with a real Ministry behind them and support
but ultimately looking at the to we have a the government funding
for schools and that is an interesting angle.
America doesn't so the diocese run the schools in Australia.
In America, the parish is separate from the from the
church from the school. So the school is in there,
typically independent, even Catholic schools, there's no
Government funding. So, because of that in
Australia, having the government, funding means that
there are, I guess there's certain influences, although I
speak to many in the Catholic schools, There's nothing really
restricting. Catholics from being bold about
the faith. It's not as though the
government tells them what to say.
Yes. However, there is a there is an
understanding that I'll because it's Government funding, we have
to sort of, I don't know, respect it in a way and so I
feel that it's restricting the way the the religion is taught
in Catholic schools and so you are seeing although we could do
anything we want in Catholic schools in Australia and we've
got the government, funding got the finances, we Definitely got
a long way to go in, really boldly.
Proclaiming, I guess the fullness of what the Catholic
church has to offer and so there are that's a different.
That's definitely a big difference as far as the school
structures are done. However, in saying all that,
we're fairly similar in the sense that were secular, we've
become more and more secular as in 20, 22 23, so, that's
definitely a similarity. Yeah, and certainly many of the
like, the moral challenges that have come up in the US with
Blackbird the legal things that have been voted on.
In terms of abortion, gay marriage, the same things are
happening in Australia. The exact same issues are on the
cards and you know similar things are happening there.
Yeah. So you know pivoting to
Australia, can you think of any big Australian Catholic
Ministries that Australia would be known for is a couple of like
big names that you can think of? Yeah, father, robbed, Galia does
stand out as a he's doing amazing work with his music
Ministry, but also his. He's also giving tours and
pilgrimages and conferences. He's always given talks as well.
Now, he goes into schools so he has a real big Ministry and he's
fairly known in the states as well.
Father robbed, Galia. He was famous for going on, was
at The X Factor and he actually made it through to the next
round, but he had to withdraw because of his commitment.
His Priestly commitment. So I mean that's that's one on a
large scale. He's only one person but he's
doing doing great work. I would say, I mean, and I'm
thinking of groups outside of our own so good friends.
Real talk is definitely up there that they're very strong up in
Queensland but they are spreading across the country and
poorness is doing good work there.
So I would definitely highlight Them.
They've also got other Ministries pmrc.
So the parola couple. So you got Byron and Francine
parola and and they have the marriage Resource Center and
they are doing great work for engaged.
Couples, married, couples, and they've been gone for a while
now. So there's definitely a standout
in Les apostolis and Ministries. Yeah, yeah, fire at Ministries.
Has been a more recent one, Simon Carrington good friend of
mine and He's been traveling the country preaching and teaching
about Chastity and Purity. So he's I call him the Jason
Everett of Australia and his wife as well, a Madeline, she's
like, you know, Jason and kristalina Everett the Ozzy.
Version will be Simon and Madeline Carrington so they're
doing some great work as well. Yeah, there are others.
There are very few that are on the scale I guess I guess what
we try to do. But there's certainly quite a
few great apostolate. Yeah, I'm sure we can unpack a
few more if you like, but they're just top of my head
right now. But yeah, definitely more out
there. But then, if I was to go state
by state, that might be easier to break it down, but let's do
that. So so for those induced raelia,
what shall bow is going to try and do here is sort of move
through. Yeah.
Six States to territories. Okay.
So it's a total so Yeah, sure if I was going to I'm going to get
you to go through. If you go through each of those
eight, can you maybe give us one or two that are key standouts
and each of those. Yes, so starting with, let's go
from, let's go from Tasmania. Will start from the bottom up.
You want to go that way? It's true.
That has Vania the little item has man.
You got Sam Sam clear there and so Sam clear, he's famous for
walking around the world for Christian unity and he's got a
documentary called Road to Adolfo.
He's produced but he goes around schools, giving Retreats and
reflection days. And he's doing wonderful work
especially in the youth space but also giving information to
teachers as well. So Sam clearly is a standout in
Tasmania. It was recently actually the
some religious orders that are involved in evangelization as
well. Need a bit of a shout out, but
immaculate of this is immaculate of were in Tasmania though.
Now moved up two, armored outside New South Wales.
So but but That they're doing wonderful work as we move up to
Victoria, you've got a couple of Pub Ministries.
So you've got theology at the pub.
They're doing great things there, where they've got monthly
talks and there's God and be so John Smythe who actually found a
theology at the pub. So many years ago now it started
God and be but we've got to Pub Ministries.
That are doing great and you get hundreds of young adults coming
to these talks every single month.
You've also got now that's Lon. As recently as radio Maria, the
based in Melbourne, but they are broadcast across Australia.
So they're doing great father, Sam, and his team.
There there are international organization and so now the
Australian arm has been launched and recently.
So they're doing wonderful work there is now these fossati
houses that are starting as well.
So these are young men who are dedicating their life, they'll
have their professional life but they'll also live in common with
some other men. Lee single but not all.
And it's almost like a discernment house but they have
their own jobs but they come together and they have
evangelization activities where they might have a barbecue on
one one day a week, the might go to the pub and other day week,
they'll they'll have Bible studies or talks or just
get-togethers and prayer. They do praying common once or
twice a week. So it's not a it's not really a
religious order but there'll a movement doing wonderful work
and there. They're both in Melbourne and
Brisbane then I mean you've got a bunch of other dialysis and
groups across Melbourne and they're doing great work.
I have to I have to point out on a national level though that the
mission team Youth mission team. So the Disciples of Jesus are
doing great work there where they are so they're not a they
are connected to the mg/l as missionaries of God's love.
So the founder father Ken Barker they now In case that I have,
like a thousand young people come together every year around
Easter time, and so they're across the country now.
And so you have brothers priest sisters and then you got the lay
movement and that's the Disciples of Jesus and within
that you've got the Youth mission teams.
And so there's a strong presence in Melbourne and also in New
South Wales and in Western Australia.
But so I'll keep moving through. As we come Victoria, let's go
New South Wales will come up, the East Coast.
Coast. But New South Wales right across
New, South Wales. Sydney, there's a great.
Let's start in Sydney, very quickly as Sydney.
We've got theology on top, which do great work, monthly, talks,
Pub Ministry. We got the marriage resource
center with the parole has, I would have to put parousia in
there. We're based in Sydney and what
we're doing and happy to talk a bit about what we do it later on
there are yes, we got fire at Ministries in Sydney.
We've also got there's quite a few youth groups that are linked
to parishes but they are sort of independent as well.
They're doing great works, like Guardians like flame Ministries.
Like my goodness, that there's so many youth ones, adult
formation groups, there's youth groups and they're starting to
pop up across the city, so it's great to see if I was to keep
moving up. We've got, we've got in over in
Canberra. I know that they used.
They did have a Guinness and God, and I think that was a
linked with a. See you at the time, there is
talk about resurrecting that so Australian, Catholic University
also, starting to stretch their wings.
And so, there are Crossover with Ministries that are sort of
linked with the diocese in some capacity or with universities.
But as you go through this exciting news about another Pub
Ministry. Being launched in Canberra
that's coming out next year. I can't say the name yet because
about to be launched but then we move up over the Augustine
Academy over in treatment. They're doing some great work.
Not only offering courses for for young people but also
getting out in the community, they're doing activities.
I was at a bush dance, not that long ago actually and they're
just doing things that involve The Wider community in
evangelizing and a great way as we keep coming up, you got waga
and Aubrey and And, you know, as far as lay of that there is a
there is a makers table there. So Janet Smith is doing some
great work there with bringing together, mostly mothers but
it's not limited to mothers as women of all ages, come together
and they make arts and crafts. And it's tapping into the idea
that God created us. And we also have a way of
co-creating with God. So using our creative side.
So they create arts and crafts, and things like that.
That honor and glorify God. They're doing wonderful work.
There's also a woman's help Ministry over there as well that
are helping Crisis crisis, pregnancy movements and
movements there I can't forget while I'm still up here we had
family life International doing things promoting the sanctity of
human life. So they promote they defend, you
know, the women and help women who are pregnant who who need
support And then, as we go up, we go up to Queensland, and
you've got for society young young people, they're doing
that. There's also a women's group, I
can't remember the name of the women's ones yet but their
LinkedIn. There's another oratory that's
been launched a couple of years ago and you work through.
You've got real talk by porn in us and real talk is doing great
work. Going to schools talking about
the problems of pornography addictions in general
relationships, Chastity. That did.
Great work. And then I have to connect the
the Bishops evangelization office is a good friend of ours,
a deacon, Peter Pelican who, who was a convert from the
Protestant church. He was a Pentecostal Minister
and he became Catholic and now is a deacon in the church and
now his head of director of evangelization and he's actually
doing quite amazing work there in Brisbane and the Archdiocese,
but he's got his own thing going on as well.
They used to have faith on tap tap there.
There and I think, I don't know if they're going to resurrect
that, I hope they do. But that was a great initiative
as well up in Brisbane. And as we move through, as we
move over to Northern Territory. I'm not really sure of too many
groups up there. So I know there was one group.
I just haven't got a top of my my tongue sorry but Northern
Territory. There was one up right up in
Darwin. I just can't remember the name.
Sorry but It slips me but South Australia, they had, they had
another Pub talk group, they do in Pub talks once a month and
they're doing great work there. So, yeah, South Australia.
Some other initiatives that are trying to get off the ground but
hoping this fertile soil there, there really want to do a lot
more in South Australia, in Adelaide trying, not to mention
the Diocese of ones because they are all the Official groups and
so many. I mean, I could I could go but
I'm I'm trying to focus on the the independence but but yeah,
yeah, anyone else I'm sorry if I missed anyone.
I know that Adelaide is is trying to do a lot more, but as
we go to Western Australia, you've got the national
evangelization team Australian evangelization Australia, which
is a new group started. Four years ago, started bringing
out speakers, Michael Chong I convert from the Anglican Church
in How these convert to come into the Catholic faith and are
so active is great, but he started this and and they've
been doing wonderful work. They get thousands of people
every year to conferences and so they're definitely a big one to
look out. For of course, Disciples of
Jesus are there as well in Western Australia and they're
doing some great work over there and there are a few others.
Not sure if there was a pub Ministry that started recently.
And then I'm not even mentioning a lots of different Catholic
book stores and things like that.
I'm not even touching on those. But there are there used to be
the record had a bookstore. Now I think they're just a
journal, they're just doing articles there but I think
they're now tied in with the Archdiocese or very there's some
collaboration. But you know, the Rich Harvest
is a place doing things. There's the ghetto, Bookshop
does other bookstores? And from that, they do, they
have. You know, launches book,
launches and things like that. But that's a very quickly going
through like a speed train going through everything, they're just
up hostile. It's not I'm not even touching
on the ones that do media. That's another category as well.
But yeah, yeah. Michelle Banks do?
Yeah. Those of you who are Straley and
listeners. What?
You just heard there was really really solid stuff.
Hopefully you heard something in there for you based on where you
live. You know this little podcast is
probably worth sharing around just for what you heard there.
From charbel, there is great stuff happening in Australia.
We might just talk quickly about radio.
So if you live in Australia and you're a Catholic and you want
to tune into some Catholic radio, what are the options
there? Yeah, so Digital radio is what's
happening at the moment. There was a time when the church
did actually own an AM station station on the am frequency, but
that's now sold off. They don't have it anymore and
then There was also in Western Australia.
I know there was there still might have it an hour a week
where they're on on your mainstream radio on a Sunday,
the calf sounds Catholic. I think it is, it's on a Sunday
night, they have it an hour. But then, if I was to say really
there's a Maronite radio station called voice of Charity, and so
they're definitely one on the there on the am 1701 am.
So it's Right up on the dial and there they can be heard right up
and down the East Coast but they also use what's called an arrow
caste system. So they broadcast out in Sydney
and the East Coast, but then anyone outside say Western
Australia or laid, you get a narrowcast radio and tune in
that way, but they're 24 hours 7 days a week and it's a mixture
of English and Arabic programming.
So, that's the voice of Charity crazy 0, which is still
existing. It's still going, it's not got
the 24 hour, seven days a week programming anymore, but it does
have an archive of over 3,000 shows.
So for 10 years, Archbishop porteous launched it independent
from the church, it was his own initiative and and we've been
privileged to be partners with crazy.
Oh. So you can go too crazy 0, dot,
org, and .a you and you'll see three thousand different shows
st. Of the day and another
Reflections talks you name it then recently radio Maria.
Is now here in a big way. So look out Australia.
Radio Maria. Highly recommend it.
It's there now starting to broadcast 24/7 and you'll see
some great Australian content on there.
I understand your podcast is on there so that's really good.
Yeah, you're ready. Maria is, I think there were
only just started in Melbourne. I reckon 12 months ago, or maybe
a little bit more and they're working real.
I know, because I've had conversations with them, they're
working really hard to get Australian, grown fresh content
out there. We're not just recycling.
Other stuff, putting Australian Catholic music on the Australian
podcasts. Yeah, the daily gospel exegesis
podcast is on there. I think, once in the morning,
and once in the afternoon, so that's an option.
If you're an Australian listener, and you want to listen
to it that way. EWTN radio is there as well.
They're, they're starting to there's an EWTN Asia Pacific Rim
and they are now broadcasting in this region, with the stroke
with Australian and asia-pacific content.
So, so local to this region, I guess of the world, and how do
you get access to that one? The EWTN.
You go to ewtn.com and then you go under the satellite and
options and you'll select asia-pacific.
So, there's about six different channels within the EWTN world.
So USA have their own programming.
Canada has a separate program. I think there's even South
America, Germany, India and Africa might be different.
And then and In Asia Pacific is a different one, so yeah,
they're doing great work. Shalom world is more in the TV
side, although they might have radio as well.
I'm not sure. But it's all digital, but you'll
on world now has an Australian only channel.
So you go to Shalom world, and you'll see that there's an
American Channel or an international Channel.
And then there's UK and in Australia, Yes.
Yeah, let's talk about TV a little bit.
Now this is an area. I don't know much about now.
Obviously, you've got some of the main stream channels do like
a. They do put Sunday mass on
pretty early on Sundays usually, so yeah, that's right.
I think they have Channel Town it.
Yeah. Two-hour block on some days.
Is that right? You know much about those
shopping? Yeah.
Yeah, in the morning, I'm starting to see lots of
different priests. I think over in broken Bay in
Sydney, North part of Sydney, and also will.
Along the south south of Sydney. There's a these weekly Mass it's
done in a studio and and so that's done the mass at home.
That's been on ABC channel. 10 has been on different channels
and it's been great to see that's that's been gone for a
few years now. And yeah, it's wonderful to know
that we have a presence on secular.
Exactly. Yeah.
That's Sunday mornings early
mornings. But I think that's as far as TV.
There was on channel nine over in Perth, the Catholic guy.
So he actually had TV presence in Perth.
I don't know if it's still being aired weekly, but the Catholic
guy definitely has some TV presents and he's definitely
pave the way in that space over there.
And he's now based in the South part of Sydney and his going
strength to strength. So he's moved from Perth to
Sydney and he's now. Yeah, expanding his.
Ministry as well. So the couple of guy I remember
being part are not, don't think it's happening anymore.
But years ago, after World youth day around World youth day, tell
Apache, which is a Vatican TV or around you from Rome and and
there was an Australian content Channel.
And so I was involved in that in the broadcasting of it and we
shared some of the parousia content, then this is over of
our for 15 years, 16 years ago, naps So so that will that lasted
for a few years. And then, of course, there's
there are a few others that are just online online TV.
ROM, ROM Sky, Rome skyways. A is it from without a walker?
Sure. If you're familiar with that one
but yeah, father Jared Ryan he launched that and that's still
going. That's airing every every day,
there's something there. It's on demand.
They've got good content. Some of our stuff is there.
Yeah, so that's as far as TV. Is there any mini like I know
you like, yeah, they do this and be in the u.s., is there any
channels broadcasting where you can buy like a satellite to put
on you on your house, that will get you channel to your TV?
24/7. Do we have anything like that?
Yeah, EWTN, definitely. Either with the ends there.
I'm not sure if she'll on world have that.
I think they're just digital come on, but yet, EWTN stands
out for me as the 24/7 Channel. Good.
All right. Yeah, thank you Cheryl.
So Now podcast there's we were talking about this before the
show started. There's actually heaps of
Australian growing Catholic podcasts.
There's a list of about 40 of them on the national
evangelization Center website so I'll include that link in the
show notes definitely. Tell us about what you think is
happening in the podcast base. What are some of the big podcast
at the moment that are making a difference?
Yeah, excellent. We have to start with yours.
Of course, the daily gospel exegesis, that's got to be up
there. As a major one, a good friend of
my father Peters Vance, Corona of thorns, he called it.
The corona of thorns he's from Adelaide and so he's got a, some
great Reflections, their father, Paul Chandler.
Who's also someone an author of ours is in Armadale.
Hold, I stand at the door and knock that's @pw Chandler.
Dot buzzsprout.com. Yeah, definitely know him.
Father or it says Deacon Sam french fries actually father,
Sam French, the average Shepherd.
He's now a priest father Sam French.
He's definitely worth listening to the furnace in Sydney, the
record and and the these archdiocese ones that I'm not
too familiar with, but they look very interesting.
The down the Catholic life, I have to give a shout-out Peter
Holmes doing great work with that that podcast.
And then fire up Podcast with Simon and Madeline Carrington.
Very good, Catholic influence podcast, with Father robbed
Galia, Universal Sisterhood. Jessica Doty is doing great work
there, Karen Doyle, she's she's got a great ministry, season
camera, I forgot about her, but she's doing great work Karen and
her husband, Jonathan How could I forget them?
They've been doing it for years of doing great work, genius
podcast for women. So that's, that's definitely
recommended virtue Ministry. This is a living fullness
podcast. And then Bishop a, he's got a
funny one of the Episcopal podcast and he's the famous
Bishop that does all the memes. And I would, I would say then
the Catholic toolbox is there, George manasa is in Sydney, he's
on various platforms and then there's our Peru.
A podcast which is it was there. I highly recommend as well.
We had you on just recently. Yeah yeah so we did an episode
where I'll talk a bit about the daily gospel exegesis put us
thank you for having me on. It was hardly having this is a
good time to talk a bit about parousia specifically.
So you mentioned a bit about the origin of parousia and I think
you've what you've offered over the years, has sort of change
and you've experimented with different platforms and
different kinds of shows. So parousia is based in Sydney.
But there's a whole lot. I know you're offering a whole
lot of online stuff now. So can you give us a bit of a
run through of what Perugia is currently offering to people in
Australia? Yeah, sure.
We now it's funny. The ministry started its bread
and butter was a CD Ministry. And now and CDs were our bread
and butter. That was what we survived of
that's now our least popular format.
So, what's interesting is, we've had to adapt and, and my great
things online and We have lots of MP3s on our website.
So all the audio talks that were on CD, they're being transferred
over into MP3s all the DVDs, even that's facing out.
So that's all being transferred over into digital.
So we have a Peruzzi on-demand platform that people go to watch
Doc Perugia media.com. They'll see a non on-demand
platform, where you can pretty much binge-watch, you know, all
the content is over. 600 videos talks documentaries, some movies
in there as well, courses. Has that's all in there.
We launched an academy recently, a Peruzzi Academy so we realized
that people are wanting more to go deeper in their faith.
And so adult Faith formation was was a real.
There was a real need for it and so we launched that last year
and we have six courses available now seven courses and
we hope to have 12 by mid-year and you know and grow that maybe
1820 courses by next year. So we're growing the the
offerings of what courses we offer.
These are 12 our courses and you get a certificate at the end of
them. We also have a lot of Bible
studies and events that we do. So we go out to parishes and
we'll run some of the Ascension press Bible study.
So the Bible timeline or all the biblical walk with Mary or or an
introduction to the mass or things on different aspects of
our faith. So Ascension, press st.
Paul Center Augustine Institute. They're all got great programs.
And we run them in parishes, but we also give we also distribute
the resources. So, a major part of what we do
is distribute these resources, the physical books and programs
and and funny enough. What used to be the least
popular format has become our most popular format and that's
books. So books have actually
overtaking everything. So we've got a real publishing
arm now and so parousia publishing.
We've been publishing books, four five, six years now, But
we've really increased the range of what books we offer and we
got some Australian authors in there.
So probably about 50 books written by Australians and then
there's probably same sort of amount that that we then even
more than that. Now that we redistribute for
around the world that are with our partners so we get license
agreements, we print the books locally and pay a royalty.
So we're trying to solve that problem to eliminate shipping
for this, this region Well, so we're sorry.
Did you say you've got your own publishing house as well but you
publish Australian books through we Australian?
Yeah, that's right. So we publish books so far?
The poor Chandler. I noticed on the podcast list.
Yeah, he's one of them dr. Robert Haddad.
We've got his whole range as over ten books there.
Yeah, there's quite a few books that we're doing now and so that
it's been a real real enjoyment and joy doing that.
And I see it's interesting. People want the physical book
still is something. About a physical book.
So yeah, from books to study programs, to courses, online, to
Live Events, and then our podcasts blogs, or trying to
evangelize. And, and form people in the
Catholic faith, Awesome. Yeah, there's so much stuff you
guys are doing. So now, back to the academy
want. This is a project you still
working on but it's a massive thing.
And as you said that, I think in Australia, one of the issues or
Poss I would even say, possibly the issue in Australia, is a
lack of knowledge about the faith amongst adults that is.
So I think what you guys are doing with the academy is seems
like it's going to address that really well.
So you said the 12 hour courses and are these like written from
scratch. Or developed from scratch
specifically for parousia. Yeah, most of them are there are
ones that have been repackaged. So the introduction to
physiology Body by Christopher West, it's a common one that he
does. Sure.
So it's like TR b 1 so to speak at similar and then father
Spitzer, Robert Spitzer has been sense Pizza.
He's a good man. Sorry Father, Spitzer, but faith
and science introduction of faith and science.
That's basically a repackaged course of his origin of Month.
So, we merged two or three courses that make up one and so
that was really good and he added on an intro and outro and
did way thing. But everything else is 110
original, so introduction. Apologetics bioethics
christology, we've got seven sacraments a deep dive in
theology body, the Creed and, and more coming out.
There's more coming out. The moral life is coming out.
Great. Yeah, actually catechism, yes.
A lot of these original content, 12 hour courses, some end you
get a certificate at the end of the and how great, you know, 12
hours. That's actually, you know,
really good. It's not too long that it's
unmanageable but it's not too short that it's just a basic
introduction. So it sounds like you're making
something really good there. And can you give us an idea of
cost for those who might be thinking about?
Yeah, going that way. Yeah, you can actually if you're
just doing it for self-interest just to learn the faith, it's 99
Australian dollars per course and you have 12 months access to
watch all the videos as many times.
You like if you wanted to get an assessment, it's just an extra
$50 $149 and you get to own the videos and then so you can
download them and keep them forever.
But you also then get someone to grade and assessment.
You submit a 1,000-word essay is just two pages and if you can
show that you've gained knowledge from the from the
course, then you get a path with credit or a pass and and then
you get a certificate of completion.
So we've got about 40 or so students.
Now it's a little over 40 from 16 countries that are doing
doing this and we hope to grow that in 2023, as more courses,
come on board. So excited about that.
I would definitely encourage you.
Any Australians who are listening.
Yeah, really consider doing these courses.
You'd probably the teaching you'll get in these May well be
better than what you might be able to get from a longer
University course peeps, cheaper, as well.
So yeah, really have a think about whether that's something
you want to do and then you, you may be And so just briefly
parousia podcast. That's, is that once a week and
what kind of guest speakers, do you have on that podcast?
Yeah, that's right. So every week, Wednesday
morning, it goes live. 8 a.m. we Premier them and it's on
multiple platforms. So we have various speakers we
had just before you we had dr. Scott Hahn he was fantastic
talking about, holy his name, we also have so many great
speakers, Jason Everett Christopher Sonic we've had
father, Mike Smith's on, we've had had Jeff cavins on, we've
had dr. Edward SRI Deccan Herald book
service Sonja, Corbitt then Australians as well.
Lots of Australians, so we've had a cardinal Pell was on on on
one pole Morrissey. We've had Daniel beanie North, a
few of the authors that we've done the Joanne dimity as we
forgive those who Published a book recently and we had her on.
So your every week is it's probably a mixture of Australian
International speakers. So 52 weeks a year, they'll be
say 50/50 guess the year and yeah, that it's a probably a
50/50 split Australians and Internationals, when you, when
you look at the whole range. Excellent.
Yeah. So can you tell us a bit about?
So, if you look at the Australian media landscape and
you've been working a Parisian parousia, for a long time, What
are the challenges that you often run up against in trying
to make Catholic media work in Australia?
Yeah, funding her for many people.
It's quite expensive to get your material on the mainstream
platform. So if you want to get a break
through to the channel, 7, 9 and 10, if you want to get there,
that's a next level but it's huge amounts of money and then
interest growing an audience as well.
Making sure that people do have an audience to talk to.
So sometimes we, we are very small in Australia compared to
the States but but we might you Locally and you start getting
out there and bit by bit word spreads and then because it's
online, it's accessible. So I think going online is
definitely been a game-changer for media.
So You Tube stations have skyrocketed, there's all these
other options online. Now podcasting is been huge and
I think more and more Australian podcasts are surfacing and so
they're all accessible online. So, anyone in the world can tap
into them, it's for free. It doesn't cost anything to
upload. Them.
So so the challenge Now is really just getting the word
out. So making sure there's a bit of
cross-promotion people are helping to do what you're doing
here to promote other good initiatives.
Yeah, encourage people to to discover the other podcast and
platforms and sometimes this is the church and maybe Americans
can relate to this. But when you've got lots of
independent Catholic organizations, and then you've
got lots of organizations. As part of the agencies of the
church, sometimes there can be a tendency to people can cross why
they're not talking to each other.
So, it is important to have communication.
I think a challenge is the the diocese in groups around the
country can have their their plan and it's a fantastic and
they've got big events on and then you've got a lot of the
private groups doing their thing.
And if, if there were to at least share the plans ahead of
time, you could probably strategize on timing of certain
events. Hence, especially when you're
looking at localized things, sometimes we can be a little bit
territorial when it comes to our region.
And that's just the way the church is set up.
You've got the Archdiocese of Sydney then the Archdiocese of
Melbourne and so you have an actual boundary that you're in
charge of and so that really creates some sort of territory
where that you're Crossing now into our territory and we're
going in so it can be hard to promote things across territory.
See if that makes sense. Because of the structure of the
church, but that is getting better.
Thanks to the internet. And so thanks to the internet,
more and more. People are spirits sharing these
things. Yeah, I'm seeing it less and
less of a problem and more and more of a solution, the
internet's actually become a, great outlet for everyone.
Awesome, and is any particular things you guys are working on.
In the New Year, anything new you want to launch or any
specific priorities. You have for next year.
Yeah, thank you. I mean, we're still going to be
expanding the academy so we're rolling.
Going out another five or six courses in 2023, but we really
want to give it a facelift to our podcast.
We want to make sure it's yeah. We're going to try.
Yeah. Fix up the studio a bit and have
a have a bit of a facelift there to look out for that.
We also are going to ramp up a lot of the publishing books are
more titles going to be published next year and more
speaking tours. So lots of speakers coming out
next year. So father, Chris, a liar and
Deccan Herald. Sonja Corbitt Carla, Broussard.
We've got Joe, El Marron. A former Hollywood actress is
found her faith and doing amazing things.
Yeah, so many so many great initiatives that are coming out
and it's great speaker. So wrapping up everything,
basically the quite excited about that.
How many how many in your team or?
How many work for parousia. Yeah, we actually a small team.
People think we're a lot bigger than we are, but we're we've got
a team of seven so if you and then there's a few volunteers.
So If you conclude the volunteers or others as ten of
us. But but but seven that I guess,
you know, on payroll data for full-time and a couple part-time
but I have to announce one big thing for the American audience
is we will be launching our first USA tour.
So we're going to be sending some Australian speakers to the
states and that's in the second half of September.
So I dr. Robert Haddad myself.
And possibly Kevin Bailey, we're trying to finalize the lineup
with Deccan Herald. Who's in America, we're going to
be touring, the country will do probably the west coast up till
Dallas, sort of that side from Dallas to the West Coast 2023.
And then in 2024, we hope to then do the rest, go to the east
coast, they include Chicago Steubenville, you know, around
New York Philadelphia area and then down into Florida.
And so we're going to be covering quite a lot of ground.
So this This is 23 and 24. We got to that sounds fantastic.
So us listeners. Be on the lookout for that one.
So I guess I will start to wrap things up.
Now what would be if you could give any advice to Australian
Catholics in particular about, you know what, they should get
involved in or the kind of things, they should be watching
or listening to like, what advice would you give to our
Australian listeners? Yeah.
Awesome. I can't tell you how many times
I've been. Old Perugia needs to do this or
that or the other thing over and over again.
And so people have a lot of passion about certain areas that
they believe need to be addressed in the world.
And and if you have that desire, I would encourage you to say,
okay, that's God, speaking to you directly and saying, maybe
if someone else won't do it, you should do it.
And so, I encourage people in Australia, That may be one thing
we battle that, the port is a tall, poppy syndrome, you know,
where we, someone pops up and we sort of a very quick to knock
them down, settle down. Don't, we don't really encourage
enough for people to try Thrive and flourish and I think if we
did a more of that, and so if you are listening to this,
you're in Australia, be encouraged.
You are being given a mandate by Jesus Christ, himself to go and
evangelize the world. So we all encouraged to do that.
We do it in Whatever weight is possible.
And so the way you know what your call to is by address
looking at the talents, God has given you and the desires that
God has put in your heart. And if you can unite your
passion, your desires, with your talents, you've got a call him.
So that's a calling. And so, if it's in the media
world, and then go for it, if it's in, if it's in working
evangelization, if it's in teaching, if it's in medical, if
it's in political, whatever realm it is, you can actually
have a huge impact and so So I encourage you to First sort of
pray about and discern. What gifts God has given you.
What desires you have and then see where you are in the state
of life and see, maybe are you called to step into the arena in
that space of need? And is there a need?
And if there are other people who are doing good things, so we
don't have to necessarily reinvent the wheel.
If there are other people doing great things, why not encourage
those? And so if there is a an area of
need, maybe your call to Fulfill that area of need and that way
we can grow as a church and and work together as the body of
Christ, I hope that gives people, you know, a starting
Block in and and pray for us at Peruvian and I'm happy to
definitely help out in any way I can, I love, I love seeing new
initiatives being born and people who have energy to tap
into that and utilize that energy is nothing worse than
snuffing out. Someone's energy.
You know, you've got to really encourage and let them through.
Drive. And if they're bringing the
gospel to the world, in a positive way, bring it on.
More, the merrier, the laborers are few, that the parvis is
plentiful, but the laborers are few as Jesus said.
And and boy, oh boy, the world is in desperate, need of more
laborers. So it's a call out for
everybody. It's a fantastic advice.
Yeah, particularly about how you find, what?
God might be calling you to excellent.
Thank you so much. Now, if people want to get in
touch with you or the team, or even have a guest speaker,
what's the best way for people to get onto parousia?
That Our main website are parousia.
Media.com, I'll spell it out. It's PA Rous IA, media.com, and
it's a Greek word. That means not only the second
coming of Christ, but the presence of Christ as well.
So it's a Greek word and the puddle CR is how you say it in
Greek, the presence of Christ, which will be fulfilled in the
second coming and is already fulfilled in the Eucharist right
now. That's, it's a word that we sort
of, maybe gloss over and maybe you've heard in, but it's a
powerful way. Word and I hope people remember
that the purusa and parousia media.com is our main website.
We have a YouTube channel as well.
If lots of free content there, people want to subscribe to that
as well. And would you guys accept
donations? Are you are not-for-profit, what
if people want to financially support you?
What's the best layer? Thank you.
We are always in need of. We do have a donate button on
our website. So if you go and I made website
for, is your media.com and then you'll see a donate button at
the top. Right?
Yeah, you can opt to do a Off donation or a monthly and that
would be wonderful. We have monthly donors that
support us and that keeps us going month-to-month.
So anyone who's in a position to support?
That would be wonderful. Excellent.
Thank you, shovel. All right.
Well, thank you for listening. Everyone to this bonus episode.
I hope I've done an okay job interviewing charbel here.
If you're in Australia, make sure you share this around to
anyone who's looking for more Catholic, Australian resources,
get the word out there, as shall Bell said during the interview.
If Australian Catholics can support other Australian
Catholics and network with each other.
So much more good work can be done.
I'll try to include as many of the links and Ministries that we
talked about in this episode I'll go through and try and add
as many websites as I can into the episode description here and
hopefully some of those you'll find useful.
Thanks Charles Bell and thanks everyone for tuning in, thank
you and God bless you and all your work.