Catholic interview

A 1446 Word Interview with the Papal Ninja

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Sean Bryan via phone call on September 12th, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

How did your journey of faith lead you to embrace the mission of being the “Papal Ninja”?

Providence throughout my whole life, I have always been athletic. I did gymnastics through college. When I was with the Salesians, I was doing athletics through youth ministry work. After my time with the Salesians, I continued to do gymnastics. I saw one of my former teammates from when I was on the gymnastics team at Cal Berkeley participate on the show. I found a Ninja gym in my area. I found the culture of Ninja Warrior inspiring and I found a community there. Some of the veterans took me under their wing and gave me advice. 

When I was developing my story, they told me that people want to hear about you being Catholic. So I took on the name Papal Ninja. In the talks that I give for the youth, I tell them that they are papal ninjas too. Ninjas are individuals who are skilled in training and following the master. And papal refers to the Vicar of Christ. So anyone who is Catholic is technically a papal ninja following the Master of Christ.

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An 1199 Word Interview with Mercy Divine

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Kira Andrea via phone call on September 3rd, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

Journey of Music and Faith

You’ve had incredible success in the mainstream music world, from America’s Got Talent to TV placements and charting songs. What led you from that path to writing and performing music specifically for the Church?

We lived in Los Angeles for about five years. We started in secular rock bands playing in clubs. We moved back home in 2011/2012 (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio), had our daughter and we were asked to play for the Life Teen Mass at our local parish. I had cantored at Mass since I was 13. 

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A 695 Word Interview with Dan Campos about Catholic Financial Planning

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Dan Campos, founder of Campos Financial Group, via email in August 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

How has your Catholic faith influenced the way you approach financial planning and advising clients?

My Catholic faith shapes everything I do, including the way I serve my clients. I see financial planning not just as numbers and investments, but as part of a person’s vocation—how they provide for their family, serve their community, and live out their values. I am also blessed with the flexibility of my schedule to attend daily Mass most days, which keeps me grounded and reminds me that all the work I do is ultimately in service of God. Faith reminds me that money is a tool, not an end in itself. My role is to help clients be wise stewards of what has been entrusted to them, while never losing sight of eternal priorities.

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A 1474 Word Interview about Catholic Liberal Arts Education

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Elisabeth Sullivan, Executive Director of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, via email in 2025. We have rearranged and edited some of the questions. This provides the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

You describe Catholic education as an “engine of evangelization.” Can you share a specific example of how a Catholic classical liberal arts approach has transformed a student’s or school’s understanding of faith and learning?

At one of our member schools, Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, California, the results were almost immediate after the pastor and principal welcomed ICLE in to form their teachers in 2018-2019. Fr. G. Peter Irving was intent on offering a deeply formative education to the children entrusted to his care in this low-income and socioeconomically diverse Catholic community. His new principal and teachers were devoted to their students and were keen to learn new approaches that would engage them with rich content and better pedagogy.

Principal Cyril Cruz reported that, once the teachers stopped teaching to the test, standardized scores in reading and math jumped dramatically. Both teachers and students were enlivened by a more substantive curriculum.

As one veteran teacher described the change: “It’s not just something that’s compartmentalized into religion class, but it really is the most coherent way to explain reality itself. And the purpose of education is to help our children be able to grasp what reality is, what truth is, and to be able to know how to live according to that truth in their lives. That’s what we call growing in wisdom and virtue.”

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An 1185 Word Interview with a Coptic Catholic

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Christian Salem via phone call on August 7th, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

The Coptic Catholic Church traces its origins to St. Mark the Evangelist. How does this apostolic heritage shape the spiritual life and identity of Coptic Catholics today?

When St. Mark brought the Gospel to Egypt, he gave us the foundation for a Church rooted in apostolic faith. After his martyrdom, the community he formed blossomed into a vibrant ascetical tradition, giving rise to saints like Anthony the Great, Cyril of Alexandria, and Athanasius, whose lives of prayer, fasting, and theological brilliance shaped Coptic spirituality for centuries. 

You can see how this heritage lives on today in the Coptic Catholic Church’s liturgy, monastic ideals, and steadfast witness, preserving the same faith St. Mark entrusted to Alexandria.

The Coptic Catholic Church uses ancient liturgies like those of St. Mark, St. Cyril, St. Gregory, and St. Basil. What are some distinctive elements of the Coptic Catholic Mass that a Roman Catholic might find striking?

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A 1021 Word Interview with Playground Saints

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Sophia Chamblee via phone call on August 9th, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

What inspired you to start Playground Saints?

I think the inspiration started up around Covid. I noticed people starting up these small businesses. It started as an Etsy stop with bookmarks. The bookmarks were like a humble beginning. I really like stickers and I noticed that other shops prioritized stickers. I wanted to have stickers as my own. 

After I graduated college, I got a printer and cricut. I use an app call Design Space. 

What saints did you begin with for your stickers?

I use the same designs of Padre Pio, and Therese of Lisieux, and Mama Mary as when I began.

Thomas Aquinas and Martin de Porres and Rose of Lima were original saints that I have later upgraded the designs.

Your logo, “Mama Mary and Son,” has such a warm, whimsical feel. What was your inspiration? 

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An 1180 Word Interview with Baritus Catholic

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Chris Lewis via phone call on August 7th, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

What inspired you to start creating Catholic art?

I had been a graphic designer for a number of years and I was a convert. I converted as a practicality to get married in the Church but eventually I started to have questions about the faith I accepted, and was being pulled to learn the faith for myself which led to a profound and authentic intellectual conversion. However in my 30’s I was diagnosed with lung cancer and this experience shook me spiritually. I learned I was grateful for my gifts and thought maybe I should use these gifts to help share the faith. 

I started doing Catholic art for fun and as a cathartic experience. I used to be an illustrator. And I would hand-draw everything. I went into graphic design for stability. 

When I started out sharing my sketches on social media my art took off. When you started Baritus Catholic in 2018, I was still working at my full-time graphic design job. Two years later, I decided to go full-time with Baritus Catholic. 

 How did you decide the name of your company?

I love reading ancient history. I was reading about the fall of the barbarians to the Romans in the 300s. There was a war cry that sounded like a trumpet, it was called “baritus”. That’s actually where we get the word baritone from. The war-cry and trumpeting reminded me of the angels ushering in the end time judgement in Revelation and the war-cry at Jericho in the Book of Joshua. 

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