Ed, check out Erie Insurance. They've been very good with us.
I'd be willing to bet White City came from the influence of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, where organizers built a bunch of white, Beaux Arts buildings in Chicago and it became known as the White City. It influenced nationwide urban renewal in the early 20th century called the City Beautiful Movement and numerous amusement parks (most of which are long gone) sprung up under the White City's influence.
Great episode. Questions for the Crew or combo... if schools are apostolates of parishes in canon law, what about high schools (not typically associated with a single parish) or independent Catholic schools (a la Seton or those associated with an order or lay association)? On governance being connected to orders, is bad governance any different from no governance? If not, should priestly formation tack on a year to get an MBA equivalent?
Gotta say- thinking of the German church through this lens makes many of my weird experiences as a student abroad in Germany make more sense! The KSG/KHG (Catholic student centers, basically) had so many resources, yet operated nothing like what I was used to in the States vis a vis actually being able to meet other normal Catholic students!
I'm a video game designer who has made free-to-play games like Candy Crush (thankfully not any more). The priest in Philadelphia is what the creators of those games call "a whale." That's opposed to a minnow or a dolphin. Minnows never spend money on their free-to-play games; I think this group is something like 80-90 percent of players. Dolphins spend occasionally, in reasonable amounts, maybe ten bucks every month or two. Whales... well, they're the big catch.
It's no accident that these games cost zero dollars to start playing while also having effectively no cap on how much you can pay if you want to. The free nature lets as many people in as possible. The more fish that can enter the net, the better the chance that just one is a whale. And that one whale effectively pays for thousands of minnows and dolphins.
It's also no accident that the games are addictive. And they gate your ability to play or achieve in very deliberate ways to incentivize you to start paying. We used to talk about the whales we wanted to catch as Saudi princes, who really would play the biggest games--or rather hire people to play the game for them--spend effectively infinite amounts of money, and then compete against each other for the prestige of being on top of the leaderboards (which is only possible by paying). Unfortunately, sometimes the addictive nature of the games turn people who are not Saudi princes into whales. That's when these games ruin lives.
Personally, as someone who tries to apply the Church's social teaching to policy, I think there is a common good case to be made for banning these kinds of games or curtailing their design to be much less exploitative. The immoral formula is pretty simple: Is an activity harmful to the participant AND is it provably addictive? Let's ban it! Because the only good it brings is to enrich exploiters. I think this clearly applies to free-to-play video games and just as clearly to pornography and (sorry, Ed) smoking.
It’s basically poker machines built into your phone that even mids can play… casinos refer to their customers as those kinds of sea creatures to catch too.
Didn’t even wait to finish the episode before coming to comment- when Ed answers the problem of how to care for clergy: “common life”. 1000% yes to this. I know JD is saying it’s not easy to do but I think this is simply THE thing we need to make happen. I’ve said it before, aside from those specifically called to live as a hermit I just think most people aren’t meant to live all alone for any long stretch of time, especially when you have such a demanding life, as priests do.
I'm just here to push back on the excel slander. Google sheets is fine for the most basic stuff, but if you need to do anything even a little complicated, sheets is useless. Excel is where it's at.
Now I'm glad I didn't email them asking what souvenir to buy my kids from New Jersey. I'm in Princeton for a week and don't know what to get.
Nebraska you get something Huskers or Corn related. Colorado is mountain themed. Kansas is pancake mix since it is so flat. But what do you get from NEW JERSEY?!
I have thought of what would happen if, instead of living in rectories, parish priests lived in deaneries. Having been formed in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, I could see communal residential deaneries working similarly to Holy Cross (or other religious communities) local communities: 10-15 priests/religious living together but having individual work (education, parish, mission, study, etc) who come together for common meals and prayer with typically one night set aside each week for a more intentional night of community living.
This raises a second point for me -- which canon lawyers would be more adept to answer -- what are the canonical purposes, rights, and responsibilities of deaneries? As far as I can see, deaneries are established under CIC 374 §2: "To foster pastoral care through common action, several neighboring parishes can be joined into special groups, such as vicariates forane."
Country Financial bruh.
As to the bureaucratic German Catholic Church (Catholic Inc.), I highly recommend Dr. Tracy Rowland's article in the most recent Communio or her interview by Larry Chapp (https://gaudiumetspes22.com/blog/the-communio-interviews-dr-tracey-rowland-discusses-her-article-on-ratzingers-views-on-the-democratization-of-the-church). This is essential info for navigating the Church of Committees.
Ed, check out Erie Insurance. They've been very good with us.
I'd be willing to bet White City came from the influence of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, where organizers built a bunch of white, Beaux Arts buildings in Chicago and it became known as the White City. It influenced nationwide urban renewal in the early 20th century called the City Beautiful Movement and numerous amusement parks (most of which are long gone) sprung up under the White City's influence.
Came here to say this! Surely it’s a reference to the Chicago World’s Fair.
Great episode. Questions for the Crew or combo... if schools are apostolates of parishes in canon law, what about high schools (not typically associated with a single parish) or independent Catholic schools (a la Seton or those associated with an order or lay association)? On governance being connected to orders, is bad governance any different from no governance? If not, should priestly formation tack on a year to get an MBA equivalent?
Gotta say- thinking of the German church through this lens makes many of my weird experiences as a student abroad in Germany make more sense! The KSG/KHG (Catholic student centers, basically) had so many resources, yet operated nothing like what I was used to in the States vis a vis actually being able to meet other normal Catholic students!
I'm a video game designer who has made free-to-play games like Candy Crush (thankfully not any more). The priest in Philadelphia is what the creators of those games call "a whale." That's opposed to a minnow or a dolphin. Minnows never spend money on their free-to-play games; I think this group is something like 80-90 percent of players. Dolphins spend occasionally, in reasonable amounts, maybe ten bucks every month or two. Whales... well, they're the big catch.
It's no accident that these games cost zero dollars to start playing while also having effectively no cap on how much you can pay if you want to. The free nature lets as many people in as possible. The more fish that can enter the net, the better the chance that just one is a whale. And that one whale effectively pays for thousands of minnows and dolphins.
It's also no accident that the games are addictive. And they gate your ability to play or achieve in very deliberate ways to incentivize you to start paying. We used to talk about the whales we wanted to catch as Saudi princes, who really would play the biggest games--or rather hire people to play the game for them--spend effectively infinite amounts of money, and then compete against each other for the prestige of being on top of the leaderboards (which is only possible by paying). Unfortunately, sometimes the addictive nature of the games turn people who are not Saudi princes into whales. That's when these games ruin lives.
Personally, as someone who tries to apply the Church's social teaching to policy, I think there is a common good case to be made for banning these kinds of games or curtailing their design to be much less exploitative. The immoral formula is pretty simple: Is an activity harmful to the participant AND is it provably addictive? Let's ban it! Because the only good it brings is to enrich exploiters. I think this clearly applies to free-to-play video games and just as clearly to pornography and (sorry, Ed) smoking.
It’s basically poker machines built into your phone that even mids can play… casinos refer to their customers as those kinds of sea creatures to catch too.
Didn’t even wait to finish the episode before coming to comment- when Ed answers the problem of how to care for clergy: “common life”. 1000% yes to this. I know JD is saying it’s not easy to do but I think this is simply THE thing we need to make happen. I’ve said it before, aside from those specifically called to live as a hermit I just think most people aren’t meant to live all alone for any long stretch of time, especially when you have such a demanding life, as priests do.
(PS I obvs did finish the episode- great conversation as usual)
I stopped the episode (because I stopped driving) just after Ed said “I am very suspicious,“ which come to think of it is his own personal motto.
I'm just here to push back on the excel slander. Google sheets is fine for the most basic stuff, but if you need to do anything even a little complicated, sheets is useless. Excel is where it's at.
"2-300 emails per day"
Now I'm glad I didn't email them asking what souvenir to buy my kids from New Jersey. I'm in Princeton for a week and don't know what to get.
Nebraska you get something Huskers or Corn related. Colorado is mountain themed. Kansas is pancake mix since it is so flat. But what do you get from NEW JERSEY?!
Either a knit pullover or a cow, I assume.
I think you keep one of the casino chips as a souvenir instead of cashing it in.
Coming back to this episode and thinking on how to address loneliness, or rather singleness, among the clergy when rectories. Archbishop Perez of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia just announced a restructuring of the archdiocese's deaneries (https://catholicphilly.com/media-files/2024/07/NJP-Letter_Deaneries-Decree_07-01-2024.pdf).
I have thought of what would happen if, instead of living in rectories, parish priests lived in deaneries. Having been formed in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, I could see communal residential deaneries working similarly to Holy Cross (or other religious communities) local communities: 10-15 priests/religious living together but having individual work (education, parish, mission, study, etc) who come together for common meals and prayer with typically one night set aside each week for a more intentional night of community living.
This raises a second point for me -- which canon lawyers would be more adept to answer -- what are the canonical purposes, rights, and responsibilities of deaneries? As far as I can see, deaneries are established under CIC 374 §2: "To foster pastoral care through common action, several neighboring parishes can be joined into special groups, such as vicariates forane."