The Daily News Network presents FaithWorks hosted by “Finding Your Frequency’s” Brian Sexton and Father Remek Blaszkowski. Today, they chat with Gary Chartrand.
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Welcome to the first edition of Faith Works here at the Daily News Network.
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I’m Brian Sexton, joined by two gentlemen who understand the intersection of faith and daily life. We’ll start with a man to my right here, Father Remick, promoter of justice. But the pastor of San Jose Catholic. How are you, Ram? Welcome. Thank you for having me. Listen, excited to have you and the gentleman to his right. Many people know as Gary Chartrand, but we know he’s a very devout Catholic and a movie producer about a Polish priest boy, does that make this a timely conversation?
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Does? Yeah. Listen, in 30 years of working in Jacksonville for the Jaguars, I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation that hasn’t started with football. Right? I mean, it just it just is. Yeah. But the conversations I really like to have are about this are about faith. That’s the fire. And what I’ve learned in talking to people is if I’ll start the conversation, then people will have it.
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But most people won’t express their faith as openly in a business kind of setting as, as as I do. Right? And I’m a big mouth you are to listen to. So let’s just let’s focus this conversation on people in the business world, people out there living their faith every day, you know? So I do I mean, we’re very blessed.
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And I think, Brian, I would say there’s a resurgence of faith in the public square. I think there is something beautiful happening. I see more people being open minded, talking about faith, being less afraid. And I see the fruit, you know, the I think the participation the church is growing, conversions to the Catholic Church are on the increase.
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And it’s this all kind of encompasses the new, I would say, again, resurgence of faith in the public. Do you think that has anything to do with politics, or is that just was this coming anyway? I would say probably the last year since probably the last election, I would say maybe there’s maybe kind of like a, tacit permission.
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Yeah. To talk about religion. Talk about faith. It is kind of it’s a good thing to talk about. It’s not a taboo anymore. Gary, in all of your business career, did you always have faith in in the forefront? Did you lead with that at any point in time, or is that something that came later in your business career with more success?
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I think I had it all along, and quite frankly, I think a lot of the success that we had in the business world was because of the faith. You know, I think we accomplished a lot as a company. And, you know, I’m not that good. I think I think I think God was looking out for us.
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Was it a conscious decision to lead, or was it just the way that that you brought to the table and the way you were raised, the way that you were raising your family? Yeah, I, I don’t know, I guess from a young age I wanted to lead, you know, captain of the football team, for instance, in, in, in high school and, and president of my fraternity in college.
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So I always had the yearning to lead. And then, of course, I went into the business world and became CEO to cast the right lead. And you know what? The great book, The Unreasonable Leadership, I’ve read the book. He also did a movie with you about five years ago, talking about Public Square and Faith being on the front lines.
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That has transformed everything. Yeah. When you started down this road, go ahead. So I was just going to say we were we were in Poland together in 2010. Gosh, that was a while ago, right? 2010. And it was raining that day. We were supposed to take a walking tour of, of Warsaw. And so I said, well, let’s go say mass while it’s raining because we can’t walk.
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Unknown
So we wouldn’t touch church. And actually, after mass, a lady came up to us and said, let me show you something on the in the downstairs. And it was a museum of the paper. You know who the young priest was murdered by the Communist Party for speaking out against communism. And that’s we walked out of there that day, and I just thought, wow, this guy had amazing courage.
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He was very faithful. He hated communism. He spoke out against it vehemently, and they killed him, which is what they did with a lot of priests over there. And I was just really moved. And I said to father, we need to make a movie about this priest. This is just amazing. So we come home and, you know, a little bit of time goes by, but he calls me one day, so you’re not going to believe it.
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There’s a guy in Jacksonville that bought the rights to a book called The Priests and the policeman, which is about Father Usui, and he wants to make a movie to talk about divine. And then it became messenger of the truth. Yes. Right. Which you can still find on YouTube. And it’s an excellent, excellent story. Very well told. Yeah.
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Did that how did that that whole process, how did that strengthen your faith, which we already heard was strong anyway? Yeah. I mean, it just reinforced it. I mean, I, I just kind of fell in love with that priest. I mean, he was, you know, he was just an ordinary priest. But he was, you know, he he listened to Pope John Paul, and he was adamantly against communism and spoke his mind, to the point where, you know, he put his life in danger.
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And they captured and and they beat him to death because he was speaking out against the communists. At that time, the communists from the Soviet Union had controlled Poland, but also as as a priest. He provided the venue for people to come together. And I would say that’s the beauty of the church, because the beauty of power is the conviction values that we have.
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If we can be the messengers of the truth, we provide opportunities for others to come and express their thoughts. And like, you know, talking about Blessed Jose back in Warsaw in the 80s, right during the Communist time, martial law, when everything is illegal, where you work human rights, there’s no human rights. And yet he stands on the balcony of the church and he preaches the truth and he invites people to come.
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And this is the power of faith, because if you have faith and values for an unstoppable. So there is a comparison. I don’t know whether you recognized it, but obviously throughout the years through communism and then faith kind of took a backseat in this country in recent years. And as you mentioned earlier, there’s this resurgence of faith of all faiths, but of Christianity in particular, that’s coming back.
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It blossomed in Poland. I mean, it is a massive center of faith in Poland. Now, do you think that’s possible in America that we will see something similar? Oh, I think we’re witnessing again, as I say, began my remarks, as a pastor of the parish, I see young families, young people. They’re coming back to the church. Schools, Catholic schools are full, young families attending Sunday masses.
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I believe there’s more conversation about God in the public forum, which all will bear fruit for the good of the society and all of that if it spills over into daily life beyond Sunday’s right, beyond home, but into the business world. The down flow there, Gary, seems like it could be unstoppable. And I think so. I would say the integrity of faith.
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Right. So we just don’t keep faith. That’s something private protected, you know, will just keep to Sunday one hour event. Right. But if the Sunday worship becomes an expression of who we are and how we live for six days, can I call this integrity is the full theme and this is the joy. This is the fun life. Yeah.
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And I’m mean, living, living the faith is really the most important piece. Not going to church on Sunday, although we go as a sacrifice to go to church. But if we don’t go into our business and, you know, embrace the values of what the Catholic Church teaches us, then we’re doing a disservice. I think that’s that’s what you’ve got to live it.
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Young business leaders where you once were, if they’re hesitant, what’s advice? What would you tell them? I would tell them to not I would tell them not. Don’t wear it on your sleeve. Right. No one wants that. But your actions speak louder than your words. And so. And people watch you when you’re in a leadership position. People watch everything you do and everything you say.
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And so, yeah, that would be my advice is, you know, if you believe in the in the teachings of the Catholic Church, live it and let people see it. Get what you said reminds me of the words, the tradition associated with Saint Francis of Assisi. Preach the gospel. Use words only if necessary. And today, in the time we have to evangelize as a society, especially as professionals, as businessmen and women, it is so beautiful when we can evangelize by our example, you know, after the meeting, after those social encounters, if people can say, like Brian’s different, it was some different world, Brian, you know, and you can say, well, I am let’s say
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it. I put it into practice what I, what I believe in, and that’s the message of what we’re going to do here on Faith works is we’re going to connect with people who are living their faith through their daily actions in the business world, and seeing how that spills over. And as you both have just mentioned, it goes beyond just 9 to 5 or on Sunday or at home.
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It becomes this thread that weaves throughout your entire day, throughout your entire life. Correct. And I call this really the integrity, integrity, integrity. Believe with that brother. Right. Thank you. Thank you so much for the inaugural show. Thank you. All right. Thanks. We appreciate it. And we’ll be back here on a regular basis with Faith works the stories of integrating faith and daily life.
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We’ll see you next time here on the Daily News Network.
