> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thedailyeudemon.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # For the Love of All Things Mitochondrial, Can We Stop Treating the Average Catholic Like a Moron? - URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/for-the-love-of-all-things-mitochondrial-can-we-stop-treating-the-average-catholic-like-a-moron/ - Published: 2026-09-18T13:29:54.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-18T16:07:26.000Z - Description: A screed. - Author: Eric Scheske - Tags: Catholicism I just finished a parish mission. Four nights. The first two were pretty basic but the speaker was splendid and I picked up a few things. I missed the third due to a prior engagement. I attended the fourth two nights ago. I left early . . . at two hours, when the priest hijacked that "short" break between the Mass' final prayers and the final blessing to launch more rounds (I left after 15 minutes). Especially that last night, I was stunned at the elementary substance and the way the speaker repeatedly repeated himself. Actual quote, spoken with solemnity: > "This is going to be a great feature. This is going to be a great feature. This is going to be a great feature. This is going to be a great feature, right Deacon? This is going to be a great feature." To quote the initialism mob: WTAF? That was the worst example, but not a total outlier. Other phrases were repeated so often, I couldn't tell whether they were purposeful refrains or verbal tics. And this from an accomplished speaker. A good priest. An intelligent, erudite priest. A priest who, when he let the retard-content-only bridle slip occasionally, showed that, if he wanted to, he could deliver spankingly good, stimulating material. But he didn't. He kept the good stuff reigned in tighter than a full-body girdle assigned the job of entirely concealing Sydney Sweeney's figure. Why? When the parish ordered the mission, did it check the "Make This Accessible to Droolers" box? Is the average Catholic dumber than 19th-century American stereotypes of the Irish and Italians? I don't think so. Granted, the average Catholic is more ignorant of their faith than I'm ignorant of the erotic intricacies of Tantric Buddhism, but that doesn't mean they're stupid. They're probably reasonably smart and deserve to be treated accordingly, especially folks who are voluntarily spending many hours at a parish mission. BTW: He was an engaging speaker. I could see reasonably intelligent people enjoying the presentations because of the speaker's rhetorical abilities and sense of humor. Neither my friend nor I enjoyed it much, but hey, we don't all quaff from the same cup of tea and humor is always a tricky thing. How many of you, for instance, enjoy screeds like this? It doesn't need to be this way. Substantive material would work. There's lots of evidence, including the scores of Catholic online sites that release "involved" long-form content. Here, I offer these two specific examples: ## Tom Rollins Rollins built a mini-media empire based on the premise that people will pay good money for smart content. He paid top-notch college professors to prepare freshman college-level courses in their areas of specialty, then sold a bazillion dollars worth of the lectures to people who wanted to, you know, learn something. He had two requirements for the lecturers: (1) Don't talk down to the audience.The audience, he told lecturers, are just as smart as them, so address the listeners accordingly. (2) Assume the audience, though intelligent, are pretty freakin' ignorant in the subject matter. It worked. The Teaching Company was wildly popular and is still cranking out great lecture series nearly 40 years later (though, TBH, its current owner, Wondrium, occasionally cranks out some drool stuff, so shop with care). ## [Peter Armenio](https://theologicalforum.org/authors/peter-v-armenio/?srsltid=AU7gw4UK2UwVbClux0Tq0HiUKck0pG71qe3UFVpYXxIFBU3RMMsmxzsS&ref=thedailyeudemon.com) Fr. Peter Armenio's meditations at the *St. Josemaria Institute* are excellent. I respectfully submit that the average Catholic can follow, learn, and grow from them. They ain't highbrow, but they ain't droolbrow either. Just middlebrow. I realize that the goal of a "meditation" probably isn't the same as a "mission," but both (at least the mission I just attended) purported to teach, so it's apt for me to compare (contrast) them. If you listen to a few, you'll notice that Armenio's are pitched at a level that fully respects the listener's IQ. I've made a Spotify playlist of Armenio's Ordinary Time meditations that the Institute released from January 1, 2020 through August 31, 2026\. Many of the meditations were delivered to live audiences. From what I gather, the audiences were most likely Catholic laypeople and young adults... not, in other words, Armenio's fellow doctors in philosophy. ## Sign up for The Daily Eudemon Essays for the restless mind in a crumbling age Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.