Denver, Colo., Aug 8, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Candid Camera, the show that caught video of unwitting people in bizarre situations, premiered in 1984 and is considered by most to be the birth of the reality TV genre.
Today, the genre dominates a large corner of both regular and cable programming, with entire channels dedicated to reality shows. But there’s an element of life that nearly all of these shows consistently fail to address – faith.
That was something Catholic speaker, author, and youth minister Chris Stefanick wanted to change.
“Most reality TV leaves out the most important things,” he told CNA.
“It struck me watching (reality TV chef) Anthony Bourdain’s trip to the Philippines, and Catholicism didn’t come up once,” he said. Approximately 86 percent of the country identifies as Catholic.
“I thought, man, you have to try really hard to go the Philippines and avoid Catholicism. We’re not really getting reality when we turn the TV on, so I thought, I want to show the full picture.”
That’s why, when approached by EWTN about creating a new Catholic TV show, Stefanick pitched the idea of “Real Life Catholic”, a travel documentary of sorts that involves telling the stories of people’s lives and faith in their own element.
The idea, and the name, are based off his experiences with his ministry “Real Life Catholic”, for which he as traveled extensively and met Catholics all over the US and the world. Stefanick said he felt called to share the stories of Catholics he had seen in his travels.
For the project, Stefanick partnered with film production company Lux Lab, founded by Nick Falls and John Wojtasek, two filmmakers who first met as missionaries for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.
The team then started scouting locations, planning episodes, and looking for stories of faith to tell around the country for the new show.
Filming would take them all around the US and the world, including Krakow with Pope Francis and more than a million young people for World Youth Day.
Throughout the episodes, Stefanick has adventures with the Catholics he encounters, such as surfing in Hawaii, flying over cranberry bogs in Wisconsin, or walking the streets of Denver and meeting the city’s homeless. He gets his hands dirty in order to learn and showcase the Catholic culture of the particular area where he finds himself.
“It’s an incarnational going out into real life, experiencing the world of real life Catholics,” said Falls, who directed the show.
It was important, Stefanick said, to encounter Catholics and their culture in their own homes and lives, rather than talk about them from a studio. The experience has given him a new appreciation for Catholicism in his country, he said.
“A lot of the country doesn’t know just how Catholic south Louisiana is, or how amazing New Mexico is, and that it has a unique Catholic culture that is not Mexican but New Mexican.”
Stylistically, Wojtasek said it was important for him as a filmmaker that the show be as accessible as possible.
Since travel documentaries and other kinds of reality TV shows are so popular, he said he wanted the show to have a similar look and feel in order to pique people’s interest, even if they might not be Catholic.
“We wanted it to be something that someone could find and relate to, even if they came in late,” he said. “So we put those stories (of faith) within the framework of something that is very much in style and form like any other documentary or travel show or cooking show that people might want to watch and stick around for.”
“But we also don’t shy away from the deepest reality, in that we’re all made human, and we all have a spiritual component and a desire for God.”
Besides Stefanick having fun by getting out of his element, woven into every story and conversation with the people in each episode is how their Catholic faith has impacted their lives.
Through these real stories, the show tackles topics like how disabled people impact those around them, what it means to really serve the homeless, and what death with dignity means in a culture that increasingly promotes assisted suicide.
The death with dignity episode in particular “was sacred material for me,” Stefanick said, because he knew the family personally, whose wife and mother passed away within the course of two different filmings of the episode.
“To go into someone’s life and family and see how they’re coping with the death of a mom of young children, and the single dad raising the kids himself…to go into that and to see just how amazing grace is, the love, the faith, the hope that’s still there, that’s because the message of the Gospel is as real as ever,” he said.
God’s presence was felt not only on camera, but off camera as well. Wojtasek said that while he and Falls both are filmmakers by trade, they are also Catholics by faith, and God made his work and timing evident throughout the filming process.
“There’s a component of this where we recognize that there’s only so much planning we can do” before God’s timing and plans take over, he said.
For example, the last episode, which airs Aug. 8, shows Stefanick surfing in the icy-cold waters of Lake Michigan off the shores of Sheboygan, Wisc. in February, when the surrounding temperature was just 35 degrees.
On the afternoon of the shoot “it started dropping snow like crazy,” said Falls, which worried him and Wojtasek, whose film equipment isn’t waterproof.
“It was terrifying, the snow was terrifying especially for Chris, but he just had this grace that made him tackle this surfing in Lake Michigan with heavy snow falling. We couldn’t even really see through our cameras because of it, but he did it easily, the adrenaline just kind of kicked in and forced him to do it, to sacrifice for the shot,” he said.
“We were freezing, we couldn’t see, so we just had to trust we were getting the right shot,” he said. After they checked the tape, they realized the shots turned out beautifully.
“It was amazing to have the climax of our show,” he said.
Wojtasek said the show demonstrates that the universal Church is alive and active throughout the country and the world.
“To see the family of the Church has been profound, because everyone has their own story, their own journey, but we’re all pilgrims on the same road. Watching the show, what it boils down to is we’re all living life the best we can, united in this common faith,” he said.
Stefanick said the process of creating the show taught him that he needs to be more aware of the presence of God in his everyday life, and he hopes that viewers take that away from the show as well.
“It was my job as the host to put away the notes, the agenda, my email and my phone, and to pay attention to the grace of God in that moment, so that I could alert the viewer to God’s presence in the life of the person in front of me,” he said.
“And practicing that helped me a better person, and I hope people watching the show come away with that and that I continue to do that. Because life is very busy, and it’s difficult to do, but God’s calling us to find him in the moment.”
The final episode of Season 1 of “Real Life Catholic” airs Aug. 8, but episodes will be re-run on EWTN through October.
The future of the show is uncertain, depending on funding and on feedback received from viewers. The team already has plans to pitch the show to Netflix, and they have also received many invitations from the U.S. and abroad for future episodes.
Stefanick said he is encouraged by the number of people who have approached him with new ideas for episodes, because that means the show was successful at giving people a voice.
“I think of the show ‘Dirty Jobs’ and its popularity – it gave a voice to people who usually don’t have one in terms of media,” he said. “When people give me show ideas, that’s encouraging because it shows me that it successfully gives a voice. The show isn’t about me, it’s about the people that we’re highlighting.”
It’s also about reclaiming the narrative about Catholics that too often has been hijacked by secular media, who often portray Catholics as driven by guilt, or as followers of ancient and strict rules and rituals.
“The purpose was to give the average Catholic a voice and say, this is who we are, this is what we look like, it’s something beautiful, joyful, it gives us life to the full. It presents faith as something attractive, and there’s a real evangelistic power to that witness.”
[…]
The party of death will not rest until every sweet, innocent little child is disposed of before he or she (yes, you heard me; *he* or *she*) has the chance to draw a breath.
Analogically we may compare Heinrich Himmler, former Catholic, chicken farmer who espoused the Gottgläubig movement [indeterminate belief in god] and driving force of the Holocaust, the murder of undesirables, thought a threat to German purity and burden to the economy, to Joseph ‘Joe’ Biden former Catholic, car salesman who espouses nominal Catholicism and the driving force of America’s Abortion industry for the murder undesirables, predominantly pre natal infants, but including post partum survivors who pose a threat to the economy [as argued by Party Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin] and an inconvenience to mothers, now in Party terminology called birthers.
Analogy is never a perfect comparison, but there are similarities. Would the reader not agree?
In terms of essence, yes, Fr. Peter, but not in terms of volume.
Himmler, the chicken farmer, and his quotidian murderers were responsible for the deaths of a mere 50 or 60 million civilians and combatants.
That’s approximately as many deaths as are recorded each *year* around the world now.
So Himmler, as thoroughly despicable as he was, wouldn’t be worthy to loose the sandal strap of chickens*** Biden or Pelosi — or Obama or Schumer or any of the rest of the murder-glutted Democratic ilk — when it comes to slaughtering innocent people.
And, needless to say, there’s enough blood guilt to spill over onto all the Catholics who have voted for the great Democratic holocaust, the most horrific scourge to beset humanity in all of our sordid history.
Bidencalls himself Catholic?He is committing Mortal sin by going to Communion while by agreeing on abortion!He dosn’t seem to care one iota about this and keeps going to Holy Mass!He is in mortal sin and I guess, agrees with it.He needs prayers.
It won’t stop with the unborn; imagine three or four orderlies who have been given their instructions regarding your future; you struggle in your aged and/or diseased ridden state but you cannot overpower against them as they hold down your limbs and insert the pill under your tongue.
The state has decided.
I agree with Fr. Morello’s statement.
I pray for this man since he is closing in on the eventual day when his natural life here on earth will be over. I pray that he will meet a most merciful God but I know that this same God is all Just as well. I suspect that God will ask him, “Where was your mercy toward those lives I had created?”.
What more does Biden have to do before Rome says enough!. There is no point in the pope condemning abortion in an obscure speech but then publicly support Biden and Pelosi. Actions speek louder than words.
Why is it that, when the Biden White House gives us a “photo op” of his signing an executive order to kill the unborn, there never are any children in the picture to witness this historic event? Just asking.
Right on!!!
The almost complete lack of any meaningful response, even rhetorical, from the hierarchy of the Church to this all-out war on Christian morality, led partly by self-professed Catholics, does not merely indict, but convicts those who have completely abdicated their responsibility. The judgement of history will be justifiably severe. It will pale in comparison to judgement of God. Perhaps the best thing we can do is to remind the incredibly complacent bureaucrats who hold positions of authority in the Church that they will soon have to give an account for what they did and did not do during their lives. Perhaps, some are for all practical purposes out of reach, but others could be jolted out of their slumber.
Good points, and this absence of appropriate leadership and response exposes the deep rot of corruption in the hierarchy. I honestly don’t know how the church will move forward in the faith with leaders who have no spiritual insight into themselves or the great issues of the day. Is there hope for renewal and restoration or will we need to abandon ship and salvage what we can?
Tony W. – your 7/9/22 @6:17 – well said.
All that you say is true. Reflect for a moment on what consequences that entails. The “lack of any meaningful response” from the “hierarchy of the Church” over the past 50 years renders them guilty of formal cooperation in the horrendous mortal sin and crime of the murder of 60 million innocent babies in the United States alone by their silence and refusal to act. Their sin and crime invokes their latae sententiae excommunication from the Church, including loss of their episcopal offices. On what basis, therefore, can they be obeyed since they are no longer members of the Church?
Friday July 8 – “Biden to sign abortion executive order in response to Dobbs.”
And on Sunday, July 10, if he’s in D.C., he will receive Holy Communion with the blessing of Cardinal Gregory (and the Pope) – WHEREVER he is he will go to Communion.
Meanwhile – efforts to abolish the Latin Mass are ongoing from Rome with the blessing of the Pope, the Pope grants a public audience to one of the must virulent American ‘catholic’ supporters of abortion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Pope has a very public sit-down with fellow Jesuit Fr. James Martin, patron saint of the lgbtq folks,
yada yada yada.
And at some point when we regular Catholics – including us ‘restorationists’ go to Sunday Mass, there will be a 2nd collection for ‘Peter’s Pence’, aka the Pope.
Speaking for JUST MYSELF – Forget it.
I will continue to go to Holy Mass either at the Novus Ordo Service in Augusta or the Latin Mass in Lewiston every week and Holy days, and hopefully a few extra days per week, I will be as generous as I can be in the weekly collection, I will give to ‘Wounded Warriors’ and to the Edmundites in Selma Alabama, where they have been since 1937, but to ‘Peter’s Pence’ – forget it.
History teaches us that reform in the Catholic Church starts at the very lowest level – us common every-day church goers, and we start with fasting and prayer.
At what point does Biden’s archbishop in DC create scandal by not cracking down on him?
“Biden, a self-proclaimed catholic……”.
Reads better CWR, no?
There’s your “man of character,” Cardinal Tobin; the one you “can really talk with,” Cardinal Gregory; the one who “is seamlessly pro-life,” Cardinal Cupich. Nice job, Cardinals. Well done, your eminences. Way to go, you who wear red to signify that you are willing to suffer martyrdom for the faith.