Catholic Guy comes to Miami, joke�s on us

By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami

MIAMI | Just a few minutes into his show, Lino Rulli had fodder aplenty for his gentle humor: Miami and its people.

Rulli is The Catholic Guy on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and he aired his show live from the archdiocesan Pastoral Center Feb. 29 and March 1. The first night, he interviewed Archbishop Thomas Wenski and several other archdiocesan priests - as well as Deacon John Clarke, an expert on mixed martial arts.

The second night he had a live audience for his 5 to 7 p.m. program. And that was the joke: Most of the people sitting before him in the Pastoral Center’s Carroll Conference Room were not from Miami. They had driven several hours from St. Petersburg or Immokalee. One mother and daughter even flew from Sarasota.

Some of the actual Miamians � a group from St. Augustine Church’s UM Catholic Campus Ministry � arrived late and left early. (They were going to a Marco Rubio rally.) Another group of Miamians who said they would come had canceled the day before.

Normally, Rulli said, he has to limit tickets to his live-audience shows to groups of 30 to 50 people. Here, he topped out at an audience of 25.

SiriusXM Satellite Radio has 29.6 million subscribers and 40 million listeners. The Catholic Guy began airing in December 2006 on the Catholic Channel, which is an outreach of the Archdiocese of New York.

Although it’s not a celebrity-based show, Rulli has interviewed actors such as Jim Caviezel, Mark Wahlberg and Andy Garcia; politicians such as Newt Gingrich; sports figures such as Sugar Ray Leonard and Derek Jeter; and Catholic luminaries such as Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York and Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, as well as Leah Darrow, Christopher West and Matt Maher.

“If I tell you I’m a success, I gotta go to confession. If I tell you I’m a failure, Cardinal Dolan will fire me,” said Rulli with his characteristic self-deprecating humor.

The self-described “man with a large nose” is a former television reporter, producer and host, a three-time Emmy winner and Howard Stern fan, and the author of two books, “Saint” and “Sinner.”

His radio gig came about as the result of a meeting with the so-called “Yoda of radio” � the man who brought Stern to Sirius.

As Rulli recalls, he was interviewing for a position as program director of the Catholic Channel when “Yoda” told him: “I need you on air. We got plenty of pious people but we need someone like you, a regular guy who just goes to Church and can talk about things in a regular way.”

Rulli does have a master’s in theology in addition to his bachelor’s in communications, but his show is neither overtly pious nor theological. As his listeners tell him, “It’s great ‘cause you’re just a regular guy. You make Catholics seem normal.

“And it’s the only time anybody calls me normal,” he stressed.

“I’ve been a fan of his for years,” said Rosemarie Banich, archdiocesan director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, who had been asking Rulli for months to do a live show here. “I’ve laughed so much at his show that I’ve started crying.”

“It’s a great way to evangelize. I love laughing,” said Patricia Morales, one of the St. Augustine young adults who said she recently discovered the program. “Your concept gets people interested,” she told Rulli while posing for photos afterward.

Sixth-grader Maria Dach, 11, flew from Sarasota with her mother, a pilot, to be part of the live audience. Maria had emailed Rulli asking him to visit Sarasota, home to the Ringling Circus and its unique museum.

Mary Ann Claret, Maria’s mother, had introduced her to the program when she was younger. “We lived in California at the time, so it was a long drive all the time,” Claret said. “Now she listens to the podcast.”

Maria got to speak to Rulli on-air, as did other members of the live audience. The program also featured audience participation games such as Ask Lino Anything and the Jesus Game (multiple choice questions on events in Jesus’ life).

Rulli also shared what he has been doing for Lent: attending an extra Mass each week, doing two spiritual and corporal works of mercy a week, and being grateful for one thing every day. Today, he deadpanned, “I’m thankful that anybody showed up” for the program.

The Catholic Guy aired from a studio in New York from 2006 to 2013, when Rulli changed the format by taking it on the road. Before Miami, he aired from Los Angeles and Las Vegas. After Miami, he spent two days in Boynton Beach, where his broadcasts featured seminarians from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

Rulli had been there in 2014. “I lived like a seminarian for a week. And the guys were just really great,” he recalled. “We need priests but we also need good ones. So I had such a great time, I wanted to come back.”

“I’ve been listening to his show since six months (after) he started. I used to listen in secret ‘cause the kids made fun of me,” said Mary Jo Cree, who drove from Apollo Beach, near St. Petersburg, with her husband, Wayne, and their 25-year-old daughter, Hannah, a pediatric cardiovascular intensive care nurse.

Wayne and Hannah Cree both got to interact with Rulli on the air. Hannah’s question centered on the difficulty of finding a Catholic mate. “The good ones are always seminarians,” she complained.

Cynthia Villa and her husband drove two hours from Immokalee to take part in the live audience. She has been listening to the show for three years and describes herself as “not so much of a strict Catholic, an everyday Catholic.”

Those are precisely the listeners Rulli seeks.

“I’m trying to make Catholic radio interesting for people who don’t normally listen to Catholic radio,” he said. “It’s not just for elderly daily communicants. It’s for people who maybe are not so sure about God, not so sure about Catholicism and just want to have a few laughs.”

That’s why he interviewed Archbishop Wenski, whom he had met during the papal visit to Cuba last September. “I knew he’d have stories,” Rulli said.

“I’m just so glad so many people get it,” he added. “Pope Francis has really helped. The pope has given people a reason to take a second look at Catholicism. The pope plays perfectly into a show like this.”

And Rulli has met him, having aired the show from the Vatican nine times since 2007. In fact, he and his fiancée will be married in Rome later this year � although not by the pope.

It all goes to prove the premise of his program, Rulli said: “If Lino Rulli can be Catholic, pretty much anyone can.”

The Catholic Guy's Miami program is now available via podcast at http://www.linorulli.com/catholic-guy-podcast-239-lino-in-miami-florida-with-a-live-studio-audience-and-an-mma-deacon.