Today I had a fun phone call with Lino. I called to apologize for the fan site not being updated, and when i took too long to choose one of his nasty beers (Bud Light, some moon thing or Red Stripe: who wants one of those!), I got hung up on.

I enjoyed every minute, and will miss it if he leaves.

If he leaves? I shudder at the thought, but I can't say I'd be surprised.

Seems as if the last few months have been peppered with thoughts about leaving. None of us knows any of the backstage stuff, so who knows, maybe we'd want to do the same if he were in his position. I know Lino is a praying man, and if he leaves, it'd be hard to argue with prayer.

As far as we know, there has been no contract signed keeping Lino on the air for additional time. Seems like this was the same issue a year ago, and he re-signed. But this year has been different. He talks about leaving more. He talks about going to Italy. He talks about doing anything besides radio.

Look, I'll be the first one to start crying when the Foo Fighter's Everlong plays for the final time on The Catholic Channel. I even took Linus as my patron saint when I got confirmed this year, mainly due to Lino. The guy is the reason I even bothered with this Catholicism thing in the first place. And I'll be eternally grateful for his guidance, wisdom and humor.

But after two years of hearing Lino, we all know that he's one of the most Godly men in the world, the Fr. Corapi of fun. If he leaves, we should all rest assured that he's doing it because God has great things planned for him in another avenue. Maybe there's another person out there who will convert to Catholicism based on future work Lino does away from TCC.

Lino, we have no idea what you are going to do. But whatever you do, we trust you. We thank you for everything you do on the radio. If you stay, we'll throw a damn parade. If you go, we'll be depressed, but eventually we'll get over it. You are an amazing radio host, and a spiritual life-saver for many of us.

I love you.*




* Intentionally creepy.