Belle Meade welcomes Fr. Carter Griffin for a conversation about chastity as the power to love well rather than a list of restrictions. Fr. Carter is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, a former Navy line officer, and the author of Reclaimed: Win the War of Freedom, Self-Mastery, and Holy Purity. 

Fr. Carter recounts his conversion at Princeton, the four years at sea that shaped how he understands discipline and fatherhood, and the dissertation that grew into Why Celibacy? He then walks through the practical battle plan behind his new book: honest limits on screens, real boundaries, friendship, and a daily habit of prayer.

What We Talk About:

• Why chastity is the virtue that enables us to love well as body and soul—and why angels have no need of it
• Where to begin when someone feels stuck: screen usage, boundaries around the near occasions of sin, building real friendships, and three Hail Marys at night
• Why Fr. Griffin could not disagree more with the counsel that occasional falls will always be part of the picture
• How a doctoral dissertation on the theology of celibacy became Why Celibacy?, and the part the Amazon Synod played in bringing it to a popular audience
• The Gerasene demoniac as an image of what chastity restores: clothed, in his right mind, and no longer harming himself

Resources Mentioned:

• Reclaimed: Win the War of Freedom, Self-Mastery, and Holy Purity by Fr. Carter Griffin
• Why Celibacy?: Reclaiming the Fatherhood of the Priest by Fr. Carter Griffin
• Forming Families, Forming Saints by Fr. Carter Griffin
• Covenant Eyes
• Paloma&Fig

Chapters:

• 00:00: Intro
• 00:31: Meet Fr. Carter Griffin and Reclaimed
• 04:38: Raised Presbyterian, Reading His Way into the Church
• 08:29: The Navy, Discipline, and a First Taste of Fatherhood
• 15:51: How Why Celibacy? Began as a Dissertation in Rome
• 20:15: What Chastity Actually Means
• 23:42: Freedom From and Freedom For
• 26:51: Signs of Hope in a Pornography-Soaked Culture
• 32:38: Where to Start: Screens, Boundaries, and Friendship
• 39:26: Why a Field Manual for a Real Battle
• 47:20: What It Means to Be a Herald of Freedom
• 54:28: One Field Order: Never Surrender

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

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