We all know Lino is the Manliest Man in all of Catholic Radio. The next Manliest Man title cannot be awarded to Lino unless of course he finished "discerning" and was called to the priesthood. (read those as air quotes because I mean it with sincere sarcasm and my vote remains in the marriage for Lino category)

Oh, Father Jim, I now declare you the Manliest Man of God...

Recently, I was placed face to face with our favorite New Jersey Priest in a place I least expected him.

There was Father Jim, on my TV...




I thought to myself how would our Fr. Jim be in a commercial and not tell us. Better still, what an odd commercial to be in for a priest. I figure if Father Jim Chern is going to be in a commercial it would be for the Newman Catholic Center at Montclair State University or the priesthood and would never have guessed it would be to proclaim in awe that a tasty steak could be in a meal of under 550 calories (that steak they are talking about is actually tasty!)


Okay okay so I doubt it is Fr Jim, but this guy has about a 95% Fr Jim look and appears to be a bit shorter than our beloved Priest. I was actually quite stricken back with the height he's got under that collar when I first met him in person. Everytime I see this commercial I think of Father Jim. I would love to go to Applebee's with Fr. Jim and convince the waitress that he was the guy from the commercial, what a laugh that would be!

You Rock Father Jim, whether or not you are on TV, I love you, Man!

by dustin (The Boston Celtics fan)

Father Chern kicked off today's show. As you saw in the post earlier, he put Lino in his place by questioning his belief that he is not called to the priesthood.

"One of the people they interviewed was my atheist camera guy, who has no religion," Lino said as he defended his belief that priesthood was not in the cards. "The question was posed, should Lino be a priest? And he said, you know I'm sure Lino would be a great priest, but It seems to me that this is his calling, this is really his mission right now."

"Yeah, cause agnostics are really good at that," Father Chern replied. Zing!

Father Chern, who celebrated nine years in the priesthood, said that it would be nice to have more guys join the priesthood.

"I think a lot of guys are being called to being a priest, and they're scared," Father Chern said. "Look at how much work we had to do with Dan."

Dan's future in Texas as a priest-in-training was touched on, with Lino quipping, "Hopefully I'll have a priest running Linofans.com."

Hopefully so. Which would give this blog two writers that are priests, a married guy as a writer....and me, who seemingly contributes nothing but idle time.

That hurts. I'll cry myself to sleep tonight.

"Congrats on nine years, here's to nine more!" Lino said.

After Father Chern supposedly spoiled Lino's birthday plans for Lou by telling him happy birthday, with Lino claiming to be embarrassed by the awful turn of events, the show settled into Fridays usual banter, complete with The Inquisition game and a new, spontaneous segment that came evolved from Ryan mentioning that he would love to "lay down his life for his friends."

The segment asked listeners what they would go through before they would denounce their faith in Christ (torture, death, and so on). Most people that called said they would go through any kind of torture, including getting your intestines ripped, beheaded and so forth, without so much as blinking.

I like to think that I would not deny Christ in that time of weakness. But Peter thought he wouldn't deny Christ either, and he did it three times. So while I could flap my yak and tell you, "Of course!" the truth is, right now, I do not think I am strong enough in my faith to be able to choose pain and torture over escaping with my guilt-ridden life.

Honesty hurts. But I hope to build my faith up, so that in time, I can give you a much different answer to that question.

Solid show, with Father Chern's appearance in the first 10 minutes highlighting the three hours, and Lino giving Lou a birthday card, complete with a Popener. It's about time Lou got one.

We'll keep you posted randomly throughout the weekend.

Father Chern appeared on the show today, and put Lino in his place.

After 54 days, you think you have your answer? Father Chern asked Lino after hearing that he prayed for only 54 days to find out that the priesthood wasn't for him.

Fun banter. Check it out on the replay if you can.

by dustin (the Boston Celtics fan)

After yesterday's show, which featured hand sanitizers for 50 minutes, today's show was on. Lino kept the pace fresh, the banter witty, and gave us a great Wednesday of radio.

I'm sure you're already aware of the Bill O'Reilly/Sue Simmons clips, which are featured below. The gem of today's show, however, was Father Chern, (our Father Chern!) in the "No Dumb Questions" segment. Father Chern had great responses to many of the questions, no doubt giving some listeners peace of mind. One that I particulary enjoyed was Father Chern telling a caller, the last one of the segment, that she shouldn't be scared into baptism, something that many churches do with success.

Baptism is a great sacrament, but you should do it mostly out of love and obedience to God, not fear. I won't rattle on too much: Father Chern will probably have more to say about today's show from his own eyes. His presence in the studio gives him a much greater advantage than I have at home when it comes to that.

Lino did mention the blog address today, and that's my regret about yesterday's post: I didn't display any gratitude towards Lou and Lino for spending a minute or two praising the website and the semi-hard work we put into it. Instead it was gripe-gripe -gripe. Lino spent too long doing this, Lino should have done that, Lino's still single, etc.

I focused on the negative aspects without showing gratitude for the positives. While it's ok to criticize in a loving manner, leaving out my thanks and appreciation for Lou complimenting Catholicguyshow.com and Linofans.com is not cool!

Thanks for the love. And the great show. Hopefully today's is one that gets replayed this weekend, as I advise tuning in. The third hour, particulary the No Dumb Questions segment was perhaps the best hour of radio Lino, Lou and the crew have put on in the three months I've listened to this wonderful show.