The goal of the Forte Catholic Podcast is to inspire, uplift, and share the Good News in a way that will help you take the next step in your faith, no matter where you are on your journey with God.

Taylor Schroll 4/3/24 Taylor Schroll 4/3/24

Catholic Speakers, Freestyle Preaching & Foster Care w/ Ryan O'Hara | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 382

Guest cohost Ryan O'Hara joins Taylor to discuss honing the craft of sharing the Gospel, they test their skills in our "Freestyle Preaching" game and Ryan shares his journey of becoming a foster parent.

I've respected Ryan O'Hara from afar for quite some time now so I was thrilled when we connected to be on each other's shows. In this episode, we talk about his podcast "Better Preach" where he chats with speakers on how they hone their craft of sharing the Gospel.

We also put him to the test with our spur of the moment Catholic talk game called "Freestyle Preaching."

To close the show, Ryan shares his story of becoming foster parents, how that process works and what lessons it has taught him.

We hope you enjoy this conversation! If you do, please hit subscribe and also check out Better Preach wherever you enjoy podcasts.

Donate
Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate

Produced by Taylor Schroll
Editing & Episode art by Sarah Allen

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 3/27/24 Taylor Schroll 3/27/24

Holy Week & Why We're Catholic w/ Kathryn Whitaker | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 381

Taylor & Kathryn reflecting on the Holiest of Weeks on the Church calendar, explaining why we became Catholic & stick with it after all this time.

Taylor & Kathryn sit down to kick off Holy Week and share their favorite (and least favorite) parts of this special week! They rank the liturgies of the Triduum, explain why they enjoy each one & share what's on their hearts and minds as they head into this week.

They also discuss the very different reasons they both became Catholic but then the oddly similar reasons that they remain Catholic.

We hope you have a blessed Holy Week! We're praying for you. Please pray for us.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 3/20/24 Taylor Schroll 3/20/24

Anger Management & Catholic Questions w/ Allison Sullivan | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 380

Taylor has a laundry list of things currently driving him into fits of rage. Allison does her best to help him through it. As the Lenten season begins to wrap up, join us in our suffering. Misery loves company! They laugh through it and Allison shares her classic fiery preaching skills to guide us through times when anger wells up.

They also soft launch a new segment called Catholic Questions, where they pose random questions about the faith and give zero attempt to answer them. We hope you like it!

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 3/13/24 Taylor Schroll 3/13/24

Comedy of Errors & Eucharistic Questions w/ Fr Anthony Sciarappa | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 379

LENT IS HAPPENING! The suffering continues in a true comedy of errors for today's two hosts. They commiserate about the last couple weeks & then play a brand new game to try and stave off despair. They close the show with a deep discussion about what transubstantiation actually does.

Taylor & Fr. Anthony Sciarappa jump right in to discuss their frustrating and difficult past couple of weeks. Taylor can only laugh as he shares the comedy of errors occuring in his life.

Next, they play a brand new game to try and lighten the mood. The game was stolen from social media and we're not exactly sure how it went. You'll either love it or hate it! lol

Then to close the show, they get into a theological discussion of the accidents and substance of the Eucharist. Taylor thought he knew what all this meant until he thought about it for a while. The more he thought, the more confused he became(typical smh). Fr. Anthony answers his questions and shares his expertise in an attempt to help Taylor (and hopefully you) understand one of the central mysteries of our faith.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 3/6/24 Taylor Schroll 3/6/24

Kathryn Whitaker's First Guest Appearances | Forte Flashback

We're doing a Forte Flashback this week, highlighting our cohost Kathryn Whitaker's first two appearances on the podcast as a guest. These conversations were the seeds planted that eventually led to her joining us on a monthly basis.

Today's show kicks off with her first appearance is person on Ep 256. We were recording in Liv Harrison's house so the three of us shared some things that are anchors or foundations for them as people that keep us strong during even the toughest of times.

Then we go alllll the way back to Ep 153. This was back in our radio/podcast days. The title of the episode was "Nightmares Are You Scaring /you" which is still one of my favorite episode titles. We discuss her book "Live Big, Love Bigger: Getting Real with BBQ, Sweet Tea and a Whole Lotta Jesus" which is a title that perfectly captures Kathryn's aura. She shares her story of dealing with loss and pain, how it affected her relationship with Christ and, as a bonus, how to share your faith without being a weirdo.

If you like this episode, all of our episodes are available wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. Check out our backlog if you've joined us at some point in the last eight years!

A great place to start is the list of our top ten episodes which can be found at ForteCatholic.com/podcasts.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 2/28/24 Taylor Schroll 2/28/24

Lent, Blackjack & Gen Z Bible w/ Kathryn Whitaker | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 378

Taylor & Kathryn do a Lenten check-in, discuss their differing views on the Gen Z Bible trend on social media & Taylor shares about how his best night ever at a blackjack table relates to Heaven, Hell & our spiritual lives.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 2/21/24 Taylor Schroll 2/21/24

GOF Wedding, Internet Friends & Long Homilies w/ Allison Sullivan | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 377

Taylor shares about traveling to North Carolina for the GOF wedding, having a great time with dozens of internet friends he met in person for the first time & some new fancy food that made him realize he's an idiot. This leads to Allison sharing about her own wedding & some hilarious stories of her kids in Mass.

Taylor shares about he and his wife's recent trip to North Carolina for the Game of Favorites wedding between our friends Peter and Yenza. They met dozens of internet friends in person for the first time, had a tremendous time celebrating the newlyweds & some fancy food(that made Taylor realize he's an idiot!) This leads to Allison sharing about her own wedding, some hilarious stories of her kids in Mass & Schitt's Creek(of course!).

Taylor also shares about one of the longest homilies he's ever heard and some of the strangest things he saw at a recent Mass. It's like they did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make the Mass a hostage situation.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 2/14/24 Taylor Schroll 2/14/24

Royal Rumble & Priest Voice w/ Fr. Anthony Sciarappa | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 376

Fr. Anthony has convinced Taylor to watch wrestling for the second time, and this time it's a family affair! They also discuss "priest voice" and do some rare voice acting!

Fr. Anthony has convinced Taylor to watch wrestling for the second time, and this time it's a family affair! At Fr. Anthony's behest, the entire Schroll family sat down to watch the Royal Rumble and it was a HIT! They discuss how this event really won over these non-wrestling fans and what this experience teaches us about how we can better evangelize.

In the next segment, Taylor shares about a recent podcast he listened to about "pilot voice", when all airline pilots sound the same. They discuss how this extends to priests in homilies and maybe even Catholic speakers/podcasters. It's a fun discussion about conformity, making people feel safe & some bonus rare voice acting work by our hosts.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 2/7/24 Taylor Schroll 2/7/24

Wholesome Media, the Super Bowl & Msgr. Shea’s Talk w/ Chris Bartlett | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 375

Taylor & Chris Bartlett share their favorite wholesome tv shows, play a Super Bowl inspired version of "Read My Lips" & dive into the massively popular talk from Msgr. Shea at the FOCUS Conference.

Chris Bartlett cohosts and shares with Taylor some of the wholesome media he's been watching and Taylor does likewise. They discuss Ted Lasso, Welcome to Wrexham, Everybody Loves Raymond and more borderline family shows.

Then the guys play a long lost Forte game called "Read My Lips." They take turns muting and guessing the Super Bowl themed words that the other is saying and guessing by only reading lips. And of course, they make every word connect with a Catholic concept (many rather loosely lol)

To close the show, they dive into the talk from Msgr. Shea at the FOCUS conference. This talk has swept the nation and seems to really be connecting with people. Chris praises it while Taylor has some mixed feelings about it and questions why the talk worked so well. It's a great conversations that challenges many of both hosts assumptions. We hope you enjoy!

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 1/31/24 Taylor Schroll 1/31/24

Providence, Jason Kelce & the Purge w/ Kathryn Whitaker | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 374

Taylor shares a crazy story of how God's providence came in the clutch! He & Kathryn discuss their shared love for Jason Kelce & Kathryn talks about he big house purge project and it's implications on family life & our spiritual lives.

Taylor was recently leading worship for a retreat and ended up actually leading worship for two retreats simultaneously! Can he now bilocate? MAYBE! He shares the wild story of how this happened with Kathryn and you!

Next, our hosts talk about their shared love for Jason Kelce. They discuss how his innate confidence in who he is is so inspiring.

To close the show, Kathryn shares about her yearly PURGE of her house and it's implications on her family life, stress levels & it's connections to our spiritual lives.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 1/24/24 Taylor Schroll 1/24/24

Love Languages & Mosaics w/ Allison Sullivan | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 373

This is the kindest and holiest episode we've done in a WHILE! Taylor & Allison rediscover the Five Love Languages with some new insight they haven't seen before that apply to all the relationships in our lives. They also say very kind things about a lot of people in their lives while discussing how it takes an entire community for us to see all the attributes of God.

They also say very kind things about a lot of people in their lives while discussing how it takes an entire community for us to see all the attributes of God. Who knew this show could be so kind!?!?!

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 1/17/24 Taylor Schroll 1/17/24

Loud American in Ireland w/ Fr. Anthony Sciarappa | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 372

Taylor is back home from Ireland & shares a plethora of stories from his travels with Fr. Anthony. From wild travel stories, to being a fish out of water in another country, to experiencing TWO new cultures to explaining why he was there in the first place, Taylor has a ton to share. These stories have humor, faith insight & more. We hope you enjoy this storytelling episode of the show!

Last week, we came to you live from Ireland!

This week, Taylor is back home & shares a plethora of stories from his travels with Fr. Anthony. From wild travel stories, to being a fish out of water in another country, to experiencing TWO new cultures to explaining why he was there in the first place, Taylor has a ton to share.

These stories have humor, faith insight & more. We hope you enjoy this storytelling episode of the show!

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 1/10/24 Taylor Schroll 1/10/24

Live From Ireland! w/Ebin Baby & Fr. Binoj | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 371

Live From Ireland! Taylor traveled to Dublin to speak at the Awake Ireland Conference hosted by the Syro-Malabar Youth Movement. Syro-Malabar is one of the rites within the Catholic Church. In this episode, Taylor talks about the history of the rite, it's roots in India, how it differs from the Latin rite & much more. Join Taylor, Ebin Baby & Fr. Binoj to learn about our Syro-Malabar brothers and sisters' faith tradition.

Live From Ireland! Taylor traveled to Dublin to speak at the Awake Ireland Conference hosted by the Syro-Malabar Youth Movement. Syro-Malabar is one of the rites within the Catholic Church. In this episode, Taylor talks about the history of the rite, its roots in India, how it differs from the Latin rite & much more. Join Taylor, Ebin Baby & Fr. Binoj live from the Awake Conference to learn about our Syro-Malabar brothers & sisters faith tradition.

To kick off the show, Taylor talks with Ebin Baby, the director of the Syro-Malabar Youth Movement for Ireland. Ebin shares the roots of the Syro-Malabar rite tracing all the way back to Doubting St. Thomas who made the journey to southern India to share the Gospel. Connect with Ebin @baby_ebin on Instagram.

Then, Taylor is joined by Fr. Binoj Mulavarickal, the leader of the Syro-Malabar Youth Movement for all of Europe. He and Taylor discuss his first experience at a Syro-Malabar rite Mass (called Qurbana) & adoration. They talk about what makes the Syro-Malabar rites different than what those of us in the Latin rite may be used to. Taylor shares about the beautiful experience of worshiping in this new way. Fr. Binoj is an incredible speaker and highly regarded musician with millions of listeners on YouTube & Spotify. Connect with him @binoj_achan on Instagram.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 1/3/24 Taylor Schroll 1/3/24

Piety & Military Priests w/ Grassroot Catholic & Fr. Uncle Sam | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 370

Happy New Year! Keith from Grassroot Catholic is back to discuss piety & devotion. He & Taylor also discuss their Christmas celebrations, including quite possibly the worst Mass experience Taylor has ever had! Fr. Peter Pomposello joins Taylor to teach us about the role of priests in the military.

Happy New Year! Taylor is back with some great guests to celebrate the New Year. Keith from Grassroot Catholic returns to the show to co-host this week. He & Taylor discuss their Christmas celebrations, including quite possibly the worst Mass experience Taylor has ever had! Later, they discuss piety, knowing we love God but lacking the desire to do anything about it & devotion. Keith tries to guide Taylor through some issues as an emergency spiritual director stand-in. Follow Keith @grassrootcatholic on Instagram.

Also this week, Fr. Peter Pomposello joins Taylor to teach us about military priests. Fr. Peter (also known as Fr. Uncle Sam) discusses how he became a priest for the diocese of the US military, how the military works with priests & more. It's a fun discussion with insight into an entire part of the Catholic world that Taylor knew almost nothing about. Follow him @fr.unclesam on Instagram.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 12/27/23 Taylor Schroll 12/27/23

The Christmas Episode! w/ Aaron Weber | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 369

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you! The gang is all hear with our yearly guest, comedian Aaron Weber. All three cohosts join in the celebrations to discuss what we love & hate about this season, if Mary knew & questioning some holiday traditions.

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you! The gang is all hear with our yearly guest, comedian Aaron Weber. All three cohosts join in the celebrations!

Taylor is first joined by Allison Sullivan to share their favorite & least favorite parts about the Christmas season.

Then, Fr. Anthony & Aaron Weber join in for the second segment. Having Aaron as our Christmas guest is a yearly tradition since 2018! This year, we discuss holiday traditions, Aaron's Comedy Central special this year, & Father Anthony's pastoral heart. Check out more from Aaron at https://aaronwebercomedy.com/

Kathryn Whitaker joins Taylor for the final segment as they debate "Mary Did You Know?" Choosing a side on whether she knew or not has become a yearly Catholic online tradition & Taylor & Kathryn are on opposite sides of the debate. They hash it out and hope to sway you to their side.

Thank you so much for listening! We love you guys! Merry Christmas!

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 12/20/23 Taylor Schroll 12/20/23

Paths to Holiness, Phone Upgrades & College Football w/ Kathryn Whitaker | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 368

Taylor & Kathryn discuss how there are multiple pathways to holiness within Catholicism and somehow how spiritual growth equates to phone upgrades. They also discuss their opinions on the college football playoffs, Jimbo Fisher’s firing, fairness & leadership.

Kathryn Whitaker cohosts our final episode of Advent. She & Taylor talk about how there are multiple pathways to holiness within Catholicism. This has been accepted for generations (i.e. different religious orders) but these days people find what works for them and want to impose it on everyone else.

Taylor shares one of his strangest quirks and discusses how iPhone upgrades mirror his spiritual life. How do we deal with spiritual growth?

To close the show, Kathryn has some hot takes on the College Football Playoff committee's decision & Texas A&M's historic firing of Jimbo Fisher. This connects to our moral life as we discuss fairness, excess, leadership & more.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 12/13/23 Taylor Schroll 12/13/23

The Shift Film, Advent & Matt Rife w/ Allison Sullivan | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 367

Allison walked the red carpet for "The Shift" premiere in LA. She & Taylor shares what their ruminating on during their Advent & they debate the cancellation of comedian Matt Rife.

Allison has been hyping up The Shift film for about a year now and was invited to walk the red carpet at the premiere! FANCY! She shares about that experience she shared with her son & discusses Christian art in the public sphere.

Allison also wrote a new talk for Advent and shares some of the highlights from that. Taylor shares what he has been pondering throughout this season of preparation and Allison is shocked by how insightful it was. Taylor was both hurt & happy with this outcome.

Finally, they end the show sharing their differing opinions on Matt Rife's new special. He has been called to be "cancelled" over some of his jokes. Allison agrees, Taylor thinks it might be taking it a bit too far. They talk about where comedy & morality mix & when they clearly don't.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 12/6/23 Taylor Schroll 12/6/23

Honky Tonk Confessional, Coolness & Old Church w/Fr. Anthony Sciarappa | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 366

Taylor has some confessions to make! Two extremely repressed (for good reason) memories just resurfaced & he wanted to share them with you & Fr. Anthony. They debate which of them are cooler & what coolness has to do with living out our faith. They also talk about how old our Church is, some of the things about it that have made it stand the test of time that might also be the same reasons we get frustrated with it. Fr. Anthony shares some good ol' fancy Catholic words that Taylor (and you!) have to guess what they mean.

Taylor has some confessions to make! Two extremely repressed (for good reason) memories just resurfaced and he wanted to share them with you & Fr. Anthony. They both involve musical performances from Jr High/High School. Fr. Anthony is TRULY shocked by one of them!

They also debate which of them are cooler. After hearing stories about both of their childhoods, they discuss "coolness" and what makes someone cool in childhood & how it may be different than in adulthood. They also discuss what our faith has to do with "coolness" and a revelation Taylor had that shouldn't be a revelation.

Finally, they talk about how old our Church is, some of the things about it that have made it stand the test of time that might also be the same reasons we get frustrated with it. Fr. Anthony shares some good ol fancy Catholic words that Taylor (and you!) have to guess what they mean.

This was a really fun episode to record and we hope that you enjoy it! :)

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 11/29/23 Taylor Schroll 11/29/23

Working Together & Finding Love w/ Sarah Allen | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 365

Taylor is joined by his friend & co-worker Sarah Allen this week. Sarah shares what it's like to work with Taylor, how it's different than the first time & gives a glimpse into life behind the scenes here. Sarah also got married earlier this year (yay!). She shares the cool story of how she met her husband, how the early months of marriage have gone & Taylor's role at her wedding. They also discuss people getting married later, the lack of young people going on dates & young Catholic ladies longing for marriage.

Taylor is joined by his friend & co-worker Sarah Allen this week. She started working with Forte Catholic earlier this year helping edit podcasts. This is now their second time working together so Sarah shares what it's like to work with Taylor, how it's different than the first time & gives a glimpse into life behind the scenes here.

Sarah also got married earlier this year (yay!). She shares the cool story of how she met her husband, how the early months of marriage have gone & Taylor's role at her wedding. They also discuss people getting married later, the lack of young people going on dates & young Catholic ladies longing for marriage.

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.

Taylor Schroll 11/22/23 Taylor Schroll 11/22/23

Thanksgiving & Mind Ya Business w/ Kathryn Whitaker | Forte Catholic Podcast Ep 364

Happy Thanksgiving! Taylor was reminded that it is hard to be negative and thankful at the same time so recalling what we are grateful for is a great remedy. He & Kathryn share what they are thankful for & also keep the Thanksgiving spirit alive but talking about minding your own business, especially when you don't have all the facts.

Happy Thanksgiving from our crew to yours! We hope this episode gives you some laughs while you're avoiding your in-laws ;)

There has been some negativity floating around the past few weeks so we decided to combat it with some thanksgiving! Of course it was perfect timing with the holiday this week, but Taylor was also reminded that it is hard to be negative and thankful at the same time so recalling what we are grateful for is a great remedy. He & Kathryn share the things in their personal lives, families, church, work and more that they are most thankful for this year.

In keeping with the theme of Thanksgiving, we had to talk about arguing and people not minding their own business ;) Kathryn shares a ridiculous comment she received that definitely crossed the line. She shares the story & what bothered her about it. She & Taylor talk about how we should all mind our own business a little more, especially when we don't have all the facts. Like mama always said, if you aint got nuthin nice to say then don't say nuthin!

We hope y'all all have a beautiful Thanksgiving! We are so grateful you listen to our show. :) Blessings on you and yours this week!

All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com.