The Exorcist Files - The Power of Confession, Removing Sin and the Levitating St. Joseph Cupertino

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

Father Carlos Martins and Ryan Bethea break down the sacramental, ontological power of Confession—from breaking the grip of sin and guilt to the mechanics of perfect contrition. Plus, they discuss the lingering damage of sin, the dangers of generational occult objects, and listener questions on holy water and spiritual warfare.Thanks to our sponsors!Head to https://forkfulmeals.com/XFILES for 50% off your first order today!Watch or Listen to The Born Again Identity on EWTN+ or click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rym04mVTO8o and enjoy the auditory odyssey!Magnesium, multiplied. 10 forms for total support. Go to https://qualialife.com/EXFILES to get 50% off and save an extra 15% with the code EXFILES.Ollie. Feed the Obsession. Go to ollie.com/exfiles and use code exfiles to get 70% off your first box!Timestamps00:00 | Cold Open & Highlights01:07 | Welcome to The Exorcist Files02:49 | Listener Phobias & The "Cricket Confession"04:00 | Holy Water, Dates, and Demonic Reactions05:57 | What Is Perfect Contrition?12:12 | Why Go to a Priest? The Biblical Roots of Confession12:45 | Sponsor Break: Forkful Meals & The Born Again Identity Series16:00 | John 20: Christ Gives the Power to Forgive27:37 | Sponsor Break: Qualia Magnesium & Ollie Pets31:15 | The Soul After Sin: Guilt vs. Deformity37:28 | Purgation, Rehabilitation, and Martyrdom42:20 | The Palpable Grace of Absolution44:14 | St. John Paul II and the Power of the Confessional46:17 | Does God Literally Forget Our Sins?51:57 | Psychics, Occult Powers, and Generational Residue59:02 | Intellectual Disabilities and Spiritual Warfare01:01:09 | Exorcising and Destroying Masonic Heirlooms01:03:50 | St. Joseph of Cupertino: Holiness That Terrified Demons01:08:42 | Wrap-Up & Vault Member AnnouncementsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The worst case, I thought, whoever gets touched with Holy Water gets blessed. Best case, I find out if someone's demonized. But if she starts melting, they might charge you with Merck. My grandfather's stuff, I found a Masonic ring with a number 32 in it, along with a weird pin that is a strange face. I will exorcise it and then destroy it. Consciousness, he'd be in ecstasy, in other words, and float into the air. Sometimes he'd be two or three stories up, up into the air.

and such that only the command of his superior could bring him down you know well they thought they thought he was possessed they actually did do exorcisms on him because they thought this was a demonic action because it let's figure it's just so off the wall then when he was done he got in his knees and he and he said to the same man that he just chewed out father will you hear my finish there was a demonstration of i also need to you so your sinfulness is not all of you doesn't make up all of them i mean it showed just a tremendous act of generosity and character for that Welcome back to The Exorcist Files, the show that sometimes mentions perfect contrition and also talks a lot about petitions. I am your co-host Ryan Bethay, and with me is Father Carlos Martens in his voluminous library filled with many, many books.

So, Father, can we assume that most of those books are good fiction novels? Good fiction novels. You know, I love good fiction, but, you know, because of the business of my life, I just have no time for it. So essentially, I read three novels a year. I wish I could read more, but generally speaking three a year. And I do it in the summer when I go camping over the course of a week. So I look forward to it. It's really the only recreational kind of reading that I do. And I love it.

And I do just love a good story. But gosh, there's just so much to do. I just put rec reading off. But most of this, what you see behind me is philosophy, theology, demonology, stuff like that. And I'm just, this library just opened up for me. So things are a little bit misarranged at this point. The next time I'll be on, it'll be fuller and more straightened out and so forth. No, I think it looks great. Well, Father, we've got a lot of questions to get to today.

And I know some topics near and dear to your heart. But do you want to hear, one of the stranger questions that we've gotten on the show, and that's saying something, considering we are the Exorcist Files. Oh, gosh. I hate to say yes, but I'll say yes. We actually got two strange ones today. So, folks, you're in for a treat. The first one is actually surprised.

Father hasn't even seen this one. But, Father, a listener wrote in with a sincere concern, and this is not to make fun, because many of us have fears. Some of us have fears that can be debilitating, and so not to make light of that. But this is the first time. Father, listener writes in, says, Father, I know how this is going to sound. I have an immense fear of crickets, and they're chirping.

And I'm always worried that there's going to be too much chirping. And what can I do? This is a debilitating fear for me. I'm paraphrasing their note to protect. But, Father, you ever minister to someone who's afraid of crickets? I have never ministered to somebody who's afraid of crickets. I wouldn't even have the label for that phobia. Well, the first thought would be, don't be a comedian, right?

Is this a serious email that you got? Somebody actually sent this? Father, we can't disclose our sources. This is a seal of cricket confession here, Father. Okay. You're making it up. You're making it up. All right.

Let's go to our real questions here. All right. We'll start with a strange one here. Holy Water as a test. Okay, Father, hear me. I know how this is going to sound. But ever since the episode on The Witch with Trent, I am a little nervous about who's out there in the dating pool.

Is there anything technically wrong with me putting a little holy water, like a drop on either a girl I'm going to date with or her food to see if she reacts? Again, I know this sounds nuts. But the more I thought about it, the worst case I thought, whoever gets touched with Holy Water gets blessed. Best case, I find out if someone's demonized. or potentially demonized. But if she starts melting, they might charge you with Merck.

I wouldn't think there's anything wrong with it. It's not going to harm her, certainly. So, you know, go to it. And you know what? And if you're going to do it, you might as well do it fun. Put it in a super soaker and take the super soaker to her. But no, in seriousness, go for it. Try it.

Yeah, no problem. In fact, I mean, families used to do this, a version of it. They would put a Holy Water font, small Holy Water font, like you find in churches, by their front door. And such that, you know, when they would come in, they would bless themselves with the Holy Water. But it would be there for a guest to do so as well. And so that kind of, that, that was, that was a tradition in many Catholic families. Wow. And I guess to do this in a non-cringe way, if someone says, hey, can I offer you a glass of water?

You're saying a couple drops of holy water, no problem. And, you know, if someone starts choking and manifesting, then at least it's time to talk to them before going on a second date. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah, I would concur with that for sure. All right. Well, there you go. Holy water is a diagnostic. Very, very interesting.

All right, father, we have a Protestant listener who writes in, Father, love the show. I've always been fascinated by the dilemma presented to me, especially by a lot of my Protestant friends, of someone in Catholic theology having sin, but actually not making it to confession, perhaps even on their deathbed, what would happen to them. I've heard about something called the perfect act of contrition. What is this? Yeah. So in order to, it's a really good question.

And in order to understand perfect contrition, it implies that there is an imperfect contrition. And so let's start with that. So contrition itself is sore from one. sins. Whether it's perfect or imperfect pertains to its cause. What is the cause of the contrition? Imperfect contrition pertains to having sorrow for one's sins because of the punishment that it offers. So I disobeyed God. And because of that disobedience, there's going to be a retribution. I've distanced myself from my glory, from holiness, from heaven, in other words. from my eternal happiness.

And so that is absolutely a step in the right direction. Imperfect contrition is contrition. It's just not reached the status of excellence that perfect contrition has. But it is moving away from the sin. So we're heading in the right direction. But the snag or the snare, what makes it imperfect is the fact that it's incomplete. It's a contrition based upon. upon a self-interest, a self-loss.

Perfect contrition is a contrition based upon, I've just offended the all-good, all-holy God. I've just wounded my relationship with God and fallen short of that love and perfection that I want to give him. That's perfect contrition. And so even if one is not in the presence of a priest for a sacrament,

confession. It is Catholic teaching. Perfect contrition opens up the grace to forgiveness and to salvation provided that you also have the intention, that the first chance you get, you make it to confession. So there has to be that intention as well. Your sins are forgiven you if you cannot make it to confession. But there is concomitant with your perfect contrition. There has to be an intention to go if and when you were able to. So look, the church doesn't oblige, neither does God, right? No one obliges you to do the impossible. So you're only obliged to do what you are able to do. And so in the case of contrition and a priest is not around to forgive you, then, and you're only stuck with imperfect contrition, that is not

enough for salvation. Where the catechism, the Catholic Church talks about these things is around 1452. So perfect contrition forgives mortal sin even before sacramental confession, even before, provided it includes the firm intention to go to confession as soon as reasonably. possible. It doesn't replace confession when confession is available. When confession is not available, it does replace confession. And so even in the confessional, the priest will typically ask you, he doesn't have to ask you, but typically he will ask you to recite an act of contrition. And that is an example. It is to elicit also your perfect contrition, even within the sacramal. And a typical formula for that would be, oh, my God, I'm hardly sorry for having offended you.

And I detest all of my sins because of your just punishments. That's imperfect contrition. But most of all, because they offend you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. Perfect contrition. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace to sin no more and to avoid the unnecessary occasion of sin. So the crucial words are because they offend you, my Lord, we're all good and deserving of all my love. So imperfect contrition in contrast arises from an awareness that I've done something ugly and I fear hell or other consequences that have come at me. Retribution.

I've offended somebody because I've stolen money. Now he's going to come at me. And I'm sorry. I turn to God and say, okay, I'm sorry for having my sin. But the reason why you're sorry is because the guy's coming with a baseball bat for you. It's not because you just violated one of God's laws. The only thing that I will add, and I do this as a priest, as a pastor of souls, is perfect in terms of contrition, does not mean emotionally perfect. You don't have to have this intense feeling of sorrow where you swoon, you're ready to fade,

or you're kind of, you're trying to elicit these things, even faking these things in order to kind of get yourself roused up to an emotional state. That's not what it is. It is a decision at the level of the will. God, Lord, I am sorry because my sins have offended you. You deserve better and I didn't give that to you. So I wish my desire is to love you more than what I have. That's perfect intuition. There you are. So I know this came from a Protestant listener and so I have a few questions that have popped up and I know this gets talked about a lot on the internet and there's a lot of great videos and I'm sure more comprehensive videos of course than our discussion on this. But maybe to start, Father, what is, what, you know, a common phrase.

you'll hear from Protestants like, why do I need to go to a priest? Doesn't God forgive sins? And many of my Catholic friends say, well, God does forgive sins. Like that is, there's not a, there's not a contradiction there. Could you walk through maybe since just a, this is a question listener, didn't ask, but could you address sort of the, and I think it's an erroneous, like, take that somehow it is the person, it is the priest as a person forgiving the person versus God working through a priest. It has been said often. You, are what you eat. And I want to be healthy. So I want to eat healthy. We've all been there. And guess what? When we're crunched on time, that's when dietary disasters happen. You have

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X-Files for 50% off. Thank you to Forkful for sponsoring this episode. Hello, friends. Ryan Bethay here with my dear friend, Father Gregory Pine. Hello, Father. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Now, you just journeyed thousands of miles

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Wow, amazing. Well, this series may not get you to Norway, but this series will help you answer questions such as, who am I? Do I have a purpose? What should I do about it? And of course, the most pressing question of them all is, what if everybody, in fact, does Wang Chung tonight?

All this and more on the born again identity. Anything else father they should know before they start this auditory odyssey? I'd say just tell them to buckle up, bring popcorn, and prepare for a whimsical ride. There you go. All aboard the whimsical journey, the born again identity available wherever you consume YouTube, which is probably everywhere and EWTM plus and podcast. It's going to be everywhere. click the link in the show notes and listen to the born again identity or else right father yeah so look

it is god and god alone who forgives sins that the power of forgiveness is is none other than than the holy spirit that is god and so but the holy spirit doesn't work for man it's the other way around. So in the, now the, the question is, how does God choose to forget? And for that, we go to John chapter 20. So, so our Lord, this is his first resurrection appearance at the beach, to his 11 apostles, what has now become a band of 11, because Judas took his life. But what he said is, well, what he did first is he breathed on them. that harkens to the references in scripture where God is creating something new with his breath. It harkens to, for example, him breathing, when God breathed into Adam and turned him from a molded pile of earth into a living, breathing man with an immortal soul.

So he did something new to his creation there and then created man. what he does here is a hearkening to that so there's something happening there's a recreating being done and he does this to the 11 his first priest and then he says after he does that if you forgive men's sins they are forgiven if you do not forgive them they are not forgiven now either jesus was telling the truth or he was lying when he did this right either he he meant it or he didn't mean it. And I'll tell you this, you know, from that point that the Christian church took those words at face value. And up until the time of Martin Luther, let's say the year 1,500, more or less, right? So the church has now been around 2,000 years for three quarters of

its history. Every Christian in the world went to a priest to have his or her sins forgiven. every Christian in the world, right? There wasn't one that didn't. So I think that needs to give us pause because of the church possessed the Holy Spirit and it does. It cannot not possess it because of the promise of Jesus Christ.

What in heaven's name would justify a practice that is intrinsic to the Christian life of the church? I can see no justification. Now, I will say that the church and humans were bound to the sacraments. In other words, we're bound to follow them.

I don't see any way around it. God is not bound by his sacraments. In other words, he could forgive in a different way, in an additional way. However, nowhere in Revelation does it say that. Nowhere has it been practiced. It's not been incarnated in the life of the church. other than in this context where, hey, you're only bound to the sacraments when you were able to receive them.

When you're not able to receive them, you're not bound. And so you turn to the Lord with perfect contrition. And that in and of itself is sufficient for salvation. And so in James 5, when they talk about confessing sins to one another that you may be healed, obviously it's not talking about forgiveness of sins there. So what is the Catholic view on that? Is that sort of just, that's a really healthy practice that Christians should, is that more? It doesn't contradict what's going on in John 20.

And I don't think that it's something even different than what's happening in John 20. It's a variation of it, but not as explicit as John 20. In order to look at the meaning of Christ's words, this is the only way. I mean, in order to understand Catholicism and orthodoxy, you've got to get this point. So in other words, a Protestant would have to get this point. That to interpret scripture revelation correctly, you have to look at the lived practice of the church. How has the church constantly and consistently lived those words? So it cannot be the case that 2,000 years later we look at a passage and kind of get,

oh, I know what it really means now. It just there has to be a continuity of grace in the church, a sameness of action in God's church. Otherwise, how can it be said that it possesses the Holy Spirit? And that to me is just the overwhelming jugular vein or Achilles. heel or weak spot in the armor, if you will, of the Protestant enterprise. I respect sincere, devoted, faithful, Christ-believing Protestants. I absolutely do. And I've learned many, much from them.

And I've known many that I walk away from that encounter thinking, man, I just, I wish I had half of that person's holiness. this. I've walked away from those experience. But if you're asking me to explicate the truth as the truth stands, that would be my answer. That at the end of the day, we have to look at how Christ has managed the church through the Holy Spirit. You've got to look to that management in order to interpret revelation in order to interpret his words. Because it's impossible that the church does not faithfully reflect the will of God. It's been empowered by it. It suffered on the cross. He suffered on the cross for his church, right? So when his side was open, again, that's a

hearkening to Adam's side being opened in Eden and Eve was pulled out from within him. So what Christ gave birth to on the cross, if you want, what was pulled out of his open side was the church. It's impossible that the church cannot be a faithful, of Christ. Individuals can sin, absolutely. I mean, there's there's bone heads, there's evildoers everywhere, even among the college of the apostles, the original 12 that was, I mean, they were all sinners, but Judas became, you know, the man of perdition. Christ, I mean, think about this. Imagine being the human being that Christ himself called the son of perdition. I mean, could you think of anything in your existence more horrifying than that?

Yeah. No. No, and I think, father, you hit on, I mean, obviously you hit on attention that I personally even wrestle with too. And that's something that, you know, is hard to answer, right? Because two God-fearing, brilliant, spirit-filled individuals can and have, as we've seen, as this experiment of the Bible is now, you know, of being printed and translated and sent to the world, instead of making it more cohesive, we have really amazing people looking at the same version. and interpreting them differently, which, you know, on the Protestant side. And that's a fair question that I myself always have wrestled with. And my Catholic friends, we discourse about this. They say, yeah, like, hey, I'll do respect. Like, I go to Church A, the teaching is you should absolutely get baptized, but it's not required. But you should.

And then Church B says, you have to. There's no possibility. And you say, okay, that's important information that if you're growing up, you know, if you're a 14th century, you know, peasant farmer, and you just want to know, hey, I just need to know, how do I get to heaven? And it would be a bummer to have two options, two people saying, yeah, and no. I would just defer to yes to be safe, given the downside of that. But it is a fair question. Another question on this too, you mentioned the Holy Spirit, what role in this perfect contrition? And I know folks were dwelling on this, but this is a big deal. I mean, this is a really important,

I think an important question. I really appreciate it is, is, And the perfect type of contrition is that the teaching, too, that the Holy Spirit convicts? Because I wonder, it almost seems like a gift if you were to have perfect contrition, because as a human, I sometimes like, obviously our consciences or, you know, when sin makes us dumb, it marries thing. And obviously, the more I'm mature in Christ, it seems the quicker I come to repentance, the quicker I come to ask for forgiveness. And it seems like the ramifications of sin, I don't call them a gift because that's not the right word,

but like it's like a mercy that he lets those things happen because they do wake you up. When you see Joe Pesci coming at you with a baseball bat, you're like, ooh, I shouldn't have done this, you know, and that's like, okay. And so, but on the other hand, it seems like when the Holy Spirit, like you read about people being like, oh, they were so instantly good. Look how old Joe Pesci is. I mean, you could take them now. You're going to give them a baseball bat.

You could still take it. Joe Pesci and Goodfellas though? Oh, he's like, you think I'm funny? Funny guy? I think I'm a clown? Oh, man. But I guess, yeah. So is there a, would you say it's a get when the whole, because you read out of those accounts where

like they fall down and they're like, whoa, I was so convicted. When the label perfect is attached to any moral decision and any decision is is a moral decision, right? Because it's an action and it's a human action. So when there's a human action, then then there's a moral dimension to it. So there's either goodness or badness that follows. When there's perfect perfection in that decision, you can bet the Holy Spirit was involved because it's not it's not possible to choose perfectly. When it means that you're moving away from some other decision that you've done where you've benefited from it, right? I mean, we do sin because it offers some benefit, right?

We eat the forbidden fruit because it tastes nice. We, you know, we steal because we gain something. We're mean to somebody because it feels good to exact punishment or revenge or whatever. on that person. So now you're moving away from that. And you're saying like, not only am I repentant because now there might be some retribution, either in this life or next life, for my having done that. But the very fact that, like, Lord, I recognize what you've done for me. I recognize what you are, who you are. And I didn't love you with the love that you deserve. Boy, now that, there is real relationship there. Right. Like now, there.

there's, you're, you're talking to God. Like a creature needs to talk to God. Right. Because in justice, you've just uttered the most true truth about yourself, about your moral failures, about where your heart is. Like, there it is. Now, God can do a whole lot with that. Right.

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box. Ollie, feed the obsession. Yeah, and at an ontological level, when a priest, from a Catholic teaching, when a priest or an orthodox priest forgives or stands in the place of Christ as, you know, and the vicar of Christ and actually, you know, pronounces that, you know, that removal of sin. What is the teaching that is ontologically happening? I guess what was the soul like before? And I know it depends whether there was a thing in Catholic theology,

whether it was a mortal sin or not. But in general, what is ontologically happening to the soul from the Catholic perspective in confession? Yeah. So, well, when we sin, two things happen. We incur guilt. So there's a legal dimension of it. That's removed in confession. That's removed in confession. But there's also a deformity of the soul. There's a deformity. That remains even after confession, right? Because look, a soul that sins is a sinful soul. And look, when you do that, develop a habit of sin, right? Let's say, you know, you know, action X, like you keep going and you do action X, and it's horribly sinful. So let's let's say it's a direct violation of one of the commandments. It's a serious violation of one of the commandments. You've developed an addiction. Well, you can go to confession. Guess what? The addiction still remains. It's there. The deformity has remained.

And that deformity has to be non-existent before you can ever enter into heaven. And so the Catholic teaching, and I dare say in the Orthodox as well, although they don't use the term purgatory, but they do talk about a purgation that happens after death. I mean, look, the Catholic and the Orthodox Church, they're not two different churches. They're one church. They're not in perfect communion with one another. But they are in perfect communion with God because they are the two lungs of the one single church. that Christ started. And so when an Orthodox priest forgive sins,

he really is forgiving sins. He is using the power of holy orders given to him through his canonical ordination. So we use slightly different terms. They say canonical ordination to refer to the apostolic succession that his bishop possesses going back to one of the apostles. We would just say valid holy orders because of the valid apostolic succession of our priest.

Different lingo for the same reality. But the point is that any deformity of soul, any imperfection, I'm going to repeat this, any imperfection, has to be removed from the soul. That includes deformity of soul before we can ever face God face to face. Why? Because it would be disastrous for it. it would be horrifically painfully.

We go before the all holy God with the slightest imperfection. Think about it. If you had muddy hands, if you've been working on a car, you've got oil on you, and would you show up at a fine dinner with fine linen on the table and start touching the table with your filthy hands? I mean, you would never do that. If somebody invited you to a fancy dinner like that, in a context like that, you would never go looking like a pig and soiling the environment around you

and just expect that it would be fine for you to do that. But you also probably wouldn't want to, right? I mean, that's the other thing I think about is that when you finally get to see. Because when you, when we finally know and we see him, we're going to just be, we're going to have the reaction to, you know, a much exponentially larger reaction. I mean, I think about how they reacted to Jesus on Earth and they're like, get away from me. Like I'm like, I don't. Yikes. And so I can only imagine like being in the presence of Lord, like how, yeah, you'd be, I imagine it's like you show up to this like epic.

thing that's like banquet thrown for you and you're just you know dressed terribly and you're like i'd be embarrassed like i can i'm going to stand before the king you know i want to make sure i'm looking look dressed nine's now and put that at a cosmic level like king shming right tablecloth schmebelcloth the all holy god you're going to be standing in front of so take everything we've been talking about and multiply it to infinity and and that's the kind of holiness and and and and goodness you're going to be standing in front of and if you have imperfection it would be it would cause your own demise you would want your demise sooner than to do that than to put yourself in that situation all right so so so so so far as we are concerned that this is what the state of uh purgatory is for

it's it is a purgation by suffering where that deformed soul is reformed in the image and likeness of god So is that, I guess that's the debate because I'm trying to think, obviously I can't, I can't speak for all Protestants, but on one hand, I don't know if anyone would take issue with, because like if I died tomorrow, I am still on my journey of sanctification and I have major deficits still that I'm going to continue to work, you know, work on and hopefully, you know, my sanctification continues till the day I die. But if I die tomorrow, there's just, there's, there's holes, right? They just like are there. And so I guess the question, you know, if I were to ask this to my, my Protestant friends, like, okay, what happened to you? So option one is God just does like, hey, like, you see everything's like brought new and the revelation of heaven. Like, and then, you know, Christ advocates for you, you're good. And suddenly the knowledge of being in the presence of God, he chooses to just like, you know, instantly zap you. And now you're good. I guess as I say that out loud, what is the philosophical or theological,

issue with that. Why does it have to be suffering? Because I get a lot of Protestants to look at purgatory and they go, well, is that somehow undermining Christ's sacrifice? I'm sure you've dealt with this many times. It's painful because it's ripping the poison out of you. It's ripping your eye that causes you to sin out of you. It's cutting off that right hand that causes you to sin from you. We've all had our conversions and conversion is a process. It's a lifelong process. But there are moments when I look at myself, I'm a convert from atheism. When I made that conversion, then I had to start looking and dealing and rectifying my moral life. Because the way I lived as an atheist was not going to be acceptable with my life as a believer. So I had to get rid of sin.

I had to get rid of sinful habits. I had to get rid of sinful people. I had to get rid of sinful people. I had to train myself. I had to put myself through a rehabilitation in many things. One of the things I did is I stopped watching movies because I just found the slime from heaven's 97% of all movies just remained on me afterwards. It was images, there was language, there was, it was the kind of the the unpleasant stuff i saw on the screen left a residue within me and i saw

come out in my behavior my language my lingo my thinking and so forth i just thought i just don't want this so so i excised that from my life uh and you know what i i don't find him any worse for the wear i love a good movie i love it but i don't love it enough to go through 97 duds out of a hundred to find the three that I think, oh, you know what, this is really well done. I'd watch this again. It just, for me, that's what it was. So that that process involves pain. My giving up, those movies, it's a depravity that I chose to put myself through. Now, we're talking now in terms of a deform, a deformation at the level of soul, something so deep within you, it causes you to become an enemy of God in your choices.

at least at times. This is pretty serious stuff. Now you can say to God, okay, I'm sorry, he forgives you. You can say, okay, I'm sorry, and he forgives you. But that wickedness remains. That wickedness has to be removed before you ever enter into the kingdom.

And either it's removed in this life. Through a rehabilitation you put yourself through so that put yourself in a sinful situation and you're not going to sin. Put yourself where you could sin, where the past you did, sin. You chose to sin. You delighted in the sin. And you're not going to sin until you're at that point. It just isn't going to happen. It's not going to happen. Well, what's not going to happen?

You're not going to be in the state of perfection ready for the kingdom. And this is why you see this in the, you know, when you hear the stories of the old monks talking to the young monks, you know, the young monks start grieving about how hard the journey that. The journey that. that they've embarked is. And the old monks say yes, but stick with that journey. So when am I going to reach perfection? And so here's a young monk who's 18 years old and he's talking to a monk who's 88 years old.

And he says, when I get there, I'll let you know. But, you know, like the one exception, the one exception to perfection in this life that comes instantaneously is through martyrdom. martyrdom for Christ, true martyrdom, removes not only all of your sins, the sacrifice is so big because you gave your whole being for Christ that it removes also your deformities of soul. Those who are martyrs enter into heaven immediately.

Those are ones you absolutely do not have to pray for. right so they they are they are in the kingdom in glory because they gave their so so those are ones you don't need to waste a prayer on because they're already in that place where you're praying that they that you hope they they are well there's actually a great well I guess well there's a great segue to our next question but to put a bow on the confessioning and just as on an ecumenical note obviously your Catholic priest take you very seriously you would be doing a, you'd be disingenuous and not doing a service to people if you didn't share

which you absolutely believe about this. But on ecumenical note, to the Protestant listeners who may be asking and saying, hey, you know, I'm just not convinced on, et cetera, but I do, something, something's happening when they kneel before God and beat their chest and say, have mercy on me, I am a sinner. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean, and there's, there's contrition, right? And God doesn't reject that. He doesn't reject that. But I will tell you this, you know, the experience of going into the confessional and receiving absolution from a priest, I'm a priest, I do that.

I give that to people. But I also am a sinner and I receive it for myself. Nothing can be. Nothing does be that experience of receiving that grace. And it goes beyond this, just the knowledge, okay, I know that I'm forgiven because I just did it, I just did this action. You experience that grace. I mean, you may have been riddled with the trauma of the sin that you've done or with further temptations, with, with just, you just feel discombobulated. You come out and there really is a reordering within you.

And it's palpable. There's a palpability to it. where, you know, a true grace is not sensible. It's impossible to sense it because it's an immaterial reality. But you can notice the effects, and those effects present themselves in the new ordering that you intuit that you are in. And you look at that. My goodness. I mean, this is what grace is.

I'm seeing the effects of it right now. Before we move on to next question, You've shared this on the show before, but it is a beautiful anecdote and a good reminder that this reconciliation and confession is not just a priest to parishioner, but it is priest to priests and bishops and all the way up to the Holy Padre himself. Yeah, so John Paul II. He did this in fact more than once, but there was one occasion where a cleric had violated a papal order and had he had conducted himself in a way that was in defiance of what his lawful authority had given to him. In this case, the Pope and the law of the church and so forth. And so he had, I believe the issue was leaking information to the press and gossiping, talking about a reality, positing that there are multiple options for a given situation when in fact there wasn't. And so he was called to the carpet by John Paul II, and he just pasted him.

He'd be raided him. And it made it clear in no uncertain terms that he was in violation of God's will because he was in violation of his lawful authority in the church. And he was wounding the body of Christ because of this. And so he just pasted him. And he probably used some pretty colorful language in the, the sense of, you know, he probably called him, called him out for being what he was. He was being a scoundrel, a dog, a fool, whatever. I wasn't there to hear it, but I think it, from what I was told, it was, it was, it was, it was pretty visceral. Then when he was done, he got on his knees and he,

and he said to the same man that he just chewed out, Father, will you hear my confession? So at the end of it, there was a demonstration of, I also need you. And you have something within you. So your sinfulness is not all of you. It doesn't make up all of you, that there's something good in you. And so he affirmed him and his dignity at the same time. I mean, it showed just a tremendous act of generosity and character for that. Wow.

Beautiful story. Beautiful story. Well, actually, the next question we had, was on a similar trend and topic. It was about God remembering sins or forgetting them. And so this listener writes, and, Hello, Father. I would love to hear your thoughts on the seeming tension

between the verse in Isaiah, like Isaiah 4,325, when God says, I will remember your sins no more. And Hebrews 812, and it says that God does not, obviously, we know that God does not suffer from a literal loss of memory. Scripture is clear that we are definitely held accountable for our actions. and yet God chooses to overlook our faults. Can you help me sort through this? Yeah. So look, Scripture, and in particular the Old Testament, uses very earthy language. It uses images and concrete things to describe God's will. This is just the way that

that the Hebrew people, that the Jewish people think. It's the way in which they think. So we hear them, you know, you hear the psalmist talking about God being his rock. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean God is literally a rock. It's an analogy that God is as steady and as strong as a rock can be. And he's more besides, but that's the image that's used. So we have, you know, we also hear God is going to lift up. He promises to lift up Israel on eagle's wings.

Well, is that literally what's going to happen? No. But what you have is the constant dilemma of trying to describe God and spiritual realities in human terms. So spiritual realities, and obviously God himself, they're invisible realities. They're not visible. So you have to bring this into language in such a way that humans can understand it. And so God uses imagery like this, concrete imagery in Scripture, to be able to make that accessible to us. I think the thing to remember is what's said in Hebrews chapter 1, kind of right at the beginning. In many and various ways, it says, God spoke of all to our fathers by the prophets.

in many and various ways, many and various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by the sun. He has spoken to us in one way, in the most accurate way, through God the sun. So now we don't have the flimsyness of the human creature with his brokenness, his sinfulness, and his imperfections, trying to filter divine reality, which is not going to be absolutely perfect. but you have Christ now who gives it and it is absolutely perfect. So divine revelation is accommodated to human beings and unfolds progressively while our earthly

apprehension is constrained. It's limited. It's, it's imperfect. So, you know, the fact that analogies are used in scripture, the poet also uses analogies, and that's not a hang up for most of us. Lyracists, they use analogies. We don't get our shorts in and on over that. So to distill down the Catholic position,

it's, God, of course, doesn't have amnesia, knows everything is, you know, forever and ever. But when the most likely, the most likely reading of that is that God's like, I'm going to choose in my active and my abilities and being God, I'm going to choose not to hold your sin to the point where I won't let it. like be part of like when I see you is that is that maybe a way of distilling it where it's like I'm not forgetting it's it's a it's an anthropomorphic way of saying I won't hold your sins against you it's as if I will have forgotten right and you think about yourself like you think about it if

if it were possible somehow if it were possible for God to literally forget the evil that you've done wouldn't you want that I mean on on a human level we say of course, yes. I mean, on a theological, spiritual level, we know it's impossible. And maybe we wouldn't even want it on that, on that level, because it would imply that there's an imperfection on God. But I would like the slate to be wiped clean. And I think you would too. And I think every Christian would with regard to himself and herself. That's what this scripture is, is attempting to establish. I will bring you into that place. Yeah, it's interesting because I think I'd only want it wiped clean if I also forgot too because if he forgot and I still knew the evil that I had done,

I feel like it would be a barrier to intimacy. So I think there's there's a merciful. There is something beautiful about saying, hey, like, you know, I'm about to, you deserve this and yet get up. Like, it's all good. And you're like, what? You know, there's, I mean, obviously that's more remarkable and that's more, I think, congruent with our relationship as him being God and me not. So. But it is interesting, you made me think if I had, like, it would be very awful. I don't know. I think what earthly relationships. Like if you've done something wrong and the other person doesn't know, like, you know, there's an imbalance there.

And so maybe that's why God, you know, treats it that way. I don't know. My way off? No, I concur with that. All right. Well, there you go. Be encouraged, listener. Ooh, interesting one here.

So, Father Martins, do you think it's possible that some people who are, quote, quote, psychic are born with a spiritual gift, perhaps a discernment of spirits that might have been co-opted or used by the enemy. Do you think there are actually people like the kid in the sixth sense who just may be more privy to the supernatural activity, souls in purgatory, etc? And might be given this gift with the intent to get them to pray more for those individuals. I know we've covered psychics a little bit on the show before, but, and this kind of thing. But what do you think, Father, are there people who have maybe an inherent gift? where they are their eyes are a little more opened to see past the veil a little bit?

All right. So I think we're got to be really careful here. So if we're talking about charismatic gifts, the spiritual gifts that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12 and, you know, that in other words, the gifts that come to us through our baptism, through our identity in Christ, that's one thing. And that comes only through baptism, period, end of discussion. Non-Christians, those who are unbaptized, do not have, by definition, charismatic gifts, those spiritual gifts. Then there are preternatural gifts that come from the occult, that comes from evil. And the devil gives those to certain people. practitioners who develop them, which is seek them, so on so forth.

So those gifts also sometimes I've seen have a residue, leave a residue within families. In other words, we've talked about, we have at some point down the road, we have an episode coming out on this because I know realities like this. I've encountered them where you have a member of a family. And sometimes it's all on the maternal side. Sometimes it's on the paternal side. Sometimes it's on both. But you have this uncanny ability, this psychic ability, this, you know, retrocognition,

where you kind of are able to see something in the past and be able to understand it in the present and so on and so forth. But I'm talking about when they specifically come from evil. Right. So those aren't gifts from nature and those are not gifts from God. their gifts from the evil one. So here's two different examples. Charismatic gifts, preternatural gifts that come from evil. Whether there are others that come from nature seems to me to be impossible

because nature is limited to the physical. Only human nature and spiritual nature entails anything else. So nature itself couldn't give you an ability. to be able to see the dead, for example. So I don't see any way, any way in which such gifting could be of a good source. I just don't see it. I don't see it. So it could be the case.

It could be the case. I'm not saying it is. I don't know enough about it to be definitive and be dogmatic about it. But it could be the case that God forces the evil one to, to be consistent with a, well, where he gives gifts for the sake of evil purposes, even to unintentional people. So when I'm talking about occult gifts being in a generation, you know, we've heard, and I've met families that, you know, every third child or every female,

so forth, has this ability for some astounding ability. So to lay hands on you and injuries kind of disappear. But it's never just that in those folks. It's always some other ability and there's a weirdness to it. And so what I think is happening there is that there's, it's, it's, it's the effects of a generational presence where evil residue is able to remain, although God will force it to also do good at times.

it's forced to perform some good action. Either that or evil performs the good action in order to lend credits to the evil dimension, which is present within it. I mean, that's what I see. So maybe because it's interesting, I have a few friends, really close friends who have children, and it's funny, when they were kids, they would report angels, you know, appearing to them. And we hear all sorts of stories about kids talking to angels, et cetera.

And I guess maybe one way to put it is so kids prior to, so I don't know, I guess it depends on the baptism, et cetera. So maybe kids can have these gifts in the Catholic tradition because of infant baptism. But I'm curious also, it could also be just God choosing. For example, if God has marked someone, it's like he could, for whatever reason, choose to reveal things to them, right, at a young age or whatever as part of their unique, you know, path and that's why some people and maybe god's say hey that person is going to have the gift of discernment of spirits and as a result as a young person you know i i appeared i sent visions of angels

are we talking about the baptized here because that's just a different kettle of fission yeah i don't know it's interesting i guess because i'm thinking about christians who don't baptize infants um but their kids see angels and i wonder if that's all that's just maybe that's not a contradiction it's God saying, hey, if it is, assuming it is real. So if they didn't baptize, the kids are, so, so in our Catholic theology, Orthodox theology, by definition, they are not Christians. You become a Christian by way of baptism. Sure.

So that's what I'm saying. So if they saw, like, you know, angels or claim to see angels, et cetera, it could be God just saying, hey, I'm, I'm just revealing myself or like, you know, the realm of heaven choosing to reveal itself a little bit. It could be. and it could also be imagination because kids see things and they're not limited to angels

kids see monsters they see soldiers they see whatever but also could be the evil one playing around right and keep in mind like when you're not baptized when you're unbaptized which kingdom do you belong in and that kingdom

you're not just in that kingdom that kingdom is in you Happy Mother's Day. Should do a greeting card line. All right. Well, all right, let's see. Last question before we get to our saint. Actually, no, we have two more questions.

Actually, I forgot of this one. So this comes from a fan who says, Father, love the actresses files. And given my line of work, the question came to me while I was driving and listening one day. If there's ever been a report of someone with an intellectual disability being impacted by demonic forces, and it's a longer email, so I'll paraphrase.

But would love any wisdom and discernment you have on this. And curious specifically, for example, with those with Down syndrome or any other intellectual disabilities, would it be possible that God has given them a unique grace and protection, a mantle protection over them, and their purity of heart makes it much more difficult for demons to afflict them? Interesting question. It is an interesting question.

I'm going to say it's reasonable to assume that it's reasonable. That being said, there are people with intellectual, well, a baby would have the equivalent of an intellectual disability because its intellect is undeveloped. And yet it can be demonically oppressed easily. So even look at, for example, in the scriptures you have when Christ came down the mountain at the Transfiguration, there was the exorcism of the boy and the young boy you know was was obviously you know two key words young boy we're talking about a child here we're talking about somebody who probably isn't even capable of sinning or at least not capable of sinning grievously and yet he's got demons so so so so there's other factors at

play it's not just as simple as hey god protects the intellectually disabled and you know nothing it's still, there's nothing that says that they can't inherit something generationally from their parents and be afflicted by, be bothered by it. In fact, I think that that happens. I think all of us are subject to that. And the proofs in the pudding. There's not a single human being that didn't inherit original sin. So there's a generational curse right there that every single human being was subject to. And so if we're subject to that one, it's pretty reasonable, I think that you'd be subject to others besides. All right.

So if I have a question about disposal of a Masonic ring, listener writes in earlier this year, my grandmother on my father's side passed. My grandfather, her husband, past years prior to her. I hadn't seen them in years. I went up to help my aunt sort through some stuff and brought some photos and items home with me. In my grandfather's stuff, I found a Masonic ring within over 32 in it, which I'm assuming means 32 degrees along with a weird pin that is a strange face like that of a woman or

Egyptian and a sword an upside down crescent moon with pearls in it. Earlier this year, I did pray some Masonic renunciation prayers after listening to an episode about these things that you produced, but it has been haunting me thinking I had seen these things in his stuff, and I finally just confirmed it now. I don't even know if my grandfather or another relative like my great grandfather, that it belonged to them. What should I do? Should I just throw it away, destroy it, love any thoughts? Okay. So look, I'm going to point something out. You prayed, prayers against masonry earlier this year, and then these things fall in your lap. If that's not proof of the efficaciousness of your prayers, I don't know what is. So God brought it about two things

at once that not only did you find out that masonry has a place in your family line, but also the paraphernalia, the residue that remains, also fell into your lap. So look, those objects, they need to be destroyed and it's hard to destroy things like a ring and so forth. So look, I'll give you an option. You can send it to me and I do that for those kinds of

things regularly. But typically, I would grind the thing down until there's nothing left to it. Do not just throw it out because somebody's going to find it and then use it. Or at least the risk is always there.

So we want these things to just not exist anymore. So if you desire to send it to me, you are most welcome to do so, and I will take care of it for you. I will exercise it and then destroy it. All right, but you got to keep your wedding ring, right, Father? Keep your wedding ring.

If you want to get rid of your nose rings, too, you can. If you have any navel rings, absolutely get rid of those. I just, those are just... We'll put a link in the show notes. to father's not a fan. Not a fan. Cursed object,

disposals and former, yeah, and looked down upon jewelry for father. Okay. All right, well, as we come to a close,

we've decided we want to start doing a little bit of discussion around some of father's favorite saints. There's too many to count, of course, but today we have selected

the patron saint of Apple Computers, Joseph Cooperino, obviously not Apple Computers, but interesting Cooperino named after him. So, Father, who was Joseph Cupertino? Why does he matter?

And why are you a big fan? Well, Joseph Cupertino is one of those saints. It's just hard not to love him. He was a Franciscan, lived about 500 years ago. And in a word, he was really dumb. He was just intellectually not very intelligent. Struggle to read. You know, his whole life, I don't know that he ever really learned how to read with facility.

But every time, so how did it, you know, we became a priest. Well, how in heaven's name did he ever pass the exams? And the exams in those days, boy, it was the opposite problem today. In those days, everybody wanted to be a priest, right? Because it was a life outside of labor then. You didn't have to work the fields. You didn't have to callous your hands. You didn't, you know, you got to live, you know, an intellectual life.

Sign me up for it. So they took the best of the best for the priesthood, the best. the best how does this guy make it through well every time he had an exam it just god let him through it you know and and you know he would be given a bible verse and you know what is the verse i mean this is how well you used to have to know the scriptures a verse would be given to you and then you had to recite it and he always he always received the same verse which is the only verse that he knew you know the verse pertaining to christ being the good shepherd and so uh he became a priest what happened he was so given to prayer so given to mysticism that if he heard something spiritual

like a bell ringing church bells ringing the name of mary the name of our lord he would begin to levitate he would fall into a trance of prayer and he would lose consciousness he'd be an ecstasy in other words and float into the air sometimes he'd be two or three stories up up into the air and such that only the command of his superior could bring him down. And, you know, like this, this became really embarrassing for the Franciscans. That's what he was. He was a Franciscan. Why?

Well, because he became renowned for his holiness. And of course, for these phenomena as well. And he was stationed at one point in Assisi. And they moved him into the back room of the convent so that people couldn't see him. So he was not even, he was not permitted to be around the public because of the spectacle. So you have a son of St. Francis, Joseph Cupertino, who became in his day even more famous than St. Francis. So they moved him successively into more and more remote places, but he never lost that holiness. And in fact, his superior at one time was traveling in a different part of Italy.

And he came upon a scene where there was an exorcism that needed to be done. so he assisted the local exorcist. He happened to have the sincture, the white cord, the Franciscan cord that would tie the robe of Joseph Copertina Wan. And he used it to, he wrapped it around the victim. And the demon stated, the wearer of that cord is the holiest man on this earth. So, you know, it just, he's a, he's just a beautiful saint.

There's an old movie, a Hollywood movie from the 1950s back when a Hollywood movie. Hollywood made fantastic movies. It's called the reluctance saint. And it's the story of St. Joseph Coppino. Watch it. It's, it's worth, it's absolutely worth it. Okay. Awesome. And I'm correct, right? Cooperino's named after him in California? Yes. There you go. Okay. Father, how would the, how would the dialogue go if someone was levitated? Would it be like, Joe's like, father, please come down, you know? Well, they thought, they thought he was possessed. They actually did do exorcisms on him because they thought this was a demonic action because it let's figure it's just so off the wall it's just so weird that was good no pun intended but he was holy

and he was devout his prayerful soul humble just a great great humble man all right well lord thank you for the life of st joseph cooper tino and uh i know we're always praying you know i'm always praying, God, keep me grounded, but maybe I need to rethink those prayers after hearing about St. Joseph Cooperino. Well, folks, that is all the time we have. We want to say thank you so much for supporting the show. Vault members, thank you so much for your support. As a reminder, your membership includes a very special benefit, which is, well, everyone else will get the episode on the Blessed Feast Day, a wonderful celebration of St. Bartol Longo. You will get the episode, a full 24 hours in advance. So just think about that.

The gift, Father, isn't amazing with a vault membership. You can get the early episodes and taunt your friends because you know all the good and amazing lessons and crazy stories that are happening. And your friends will look upon you with envy and think, I should have subscribed because you know the truth far before them. Amen. That's exactly it. That's the place to be.

There you go. You don't want to be left out, folks. Well, thank you, folks. We really appreciate your support. God bless you all. And we will see you soon. Thanks again, Father. Okay, God bless. Bye-bye.