Why does the Catholic church have 7 Sacraments? Why not just one really big one? You'll find out but you really have to LISTEN!

This is The God Show, a conversation about the human spirit, with your host, Pat McMahon.

You know, when I'm introduced and the word human spirit comes up, I'm always hoping, if it's somebody I've not met before, that we just got acquainted a matter of seconds before we got on the air, that it's somebody with spirit. because there's nothing worse in the world on the radio, podcast, television, whatever the communication angle is, is an absence of spirit, meaning we're all going to go to sleep before the end of the show is over. Not with Father Charles Kiefer, Reverend Kiefer, who has given me permission from the Vatican to call him Father Chuck. Is that still

holding? It still holds, Pat.

Okay, because I checked and they didn't accept my call. Oh, I have the

number right here.

You were at the Vatican in what capacity?

Well, I was just over there for the Jubilee of Synodal Teams back in October a year ago, but I've not had a Vatican job. My jobs have been diocese. Right.

And here in Phoenix, Arizona, the Synod team is ranked seventh in the country on the Associated Press. I don't know whether you know that or not, because here is the official title. for Reverend Charles Kiefer, otherwise known to his friends like me as Father Chuck, Vicar for Synodality and Planning. Now, you know, that title has taken up much of the show. It's rather long,

I know.

But when you were at the Vatican, didn't they say that it was extremely rare?

They did. In fact, I was told that According to their knowledge last October, I was the only vicar of synodality in the United States and only one of a couple in the world, the other one being in Austria that they could think of.

So your team could play for the World Cup, for that matter. You don't even have to visit with any of the other local synod teams. Kid from Washington, D.C. Spent a short time in Scranton, Pennsylvania. We should all spend a short time in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And you've done a little traveling, but you wound up here.

Why and how? Basically, I was... thinking of the priesthood in DC, but at the time I was thinking of it, my mom had recently died, and my family had kind of dissipated from the district, so I began feeling a call to go to a place that was more in need of priests. And, Phoenix was suggested to me, among other dioceses, but when I met Bishop Roush, who was the second bishop of Phoenix. He's been out of here with this. He and I hit it off, and one thing led to another, and he adopted me out here in 1979. I was finishing up my degree at Catholic University in D.C., and then he ordained me in 1980 to the priesthood. Never regretted for a moment. It's been a journey. It's been a roller coaster, but looking back on it, I'd still do it again. Okay, for those of

you listening right now in Fargo or Melbourne, Australia, or Singapore for that matter, and I know you all are extremely attentive to what the heck we're going to talk about today because we've spent all of this time with the background of Father Chuck. But when you came out, now we haven't talked about this at all because I mentioned to the audience we've just met. And I am curious, kid from DC spending as much time in the east as you have,