Father Jim Drucker
Join Walter Sterling for an irreverent and lively conversation with Father Jim Drucker, a self-proclaimed "misfit" and 45-year retired Catholic priest. In this episode, Father Jim weighs in on everything from Chuck Berry's legendary duck walk to who takes the reins at the Vatican when the Pope undergoes surgery. The duo also tackles funny theological oddities, detailing why the Book of Enoch didn't make the canonical cut, wild apocryphal tales of childhood zapping, and whether the Pope was ever a young greaser.
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Speaker 1: Father Jim Drucker, Catholic priest. You're 102 years old, Father Drucker?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm coming up on 103, and I'm a misfit.
Speaker 3: Come on.
Speaker 1: Did you know that Chuck Berry just had his 100th birthday?
Speaker 2: Oh, God bless him. My God, is he great. He
does a duck walk, and he's, God, just a great singer.
Speaker 3: He's truly one of the greats.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any walking right now.
Speaker 3: Well, maybe with a walker. Chuckle, chuckle.
Speaker 1: Now, listen, the Pope has lung cancer, and they did
surgery to remove the lower lobe of his lungs. What
does this do to the stability of the Catholic Church?
Speaker 2: A direct answer to your question would be very little,
except to be concerned about our leader, our spiritual.
Speaker 3: Leader, whom we believe to be the vicar of Christ
on earth.
Speaker 2: And with today's modern medicine, I know I, at my
age of 84, take many medicines that help me do
this and do that.
Speaker 3: So they said that.
Speaker 2: It was a successful operation. They're happy with the progress.
He'll be in bed for a week.
Speaker 3: He'll recover.
Speaker 2: And he'll get back doing his spiritual love, sharing his
love of Christ throughout the world.
Speaker 1: Do you think he was a chain smoker at a
younger point in his life when he was a greaser?
Speaker 3: I don't know for a fact that he was a greaser.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I would think not, having gone to Loyola.
I'm sorry, God, I made him a Jesuit. Oh, Lord,
I'm going to Villanova. I can't believe I did that
on the air.
Speaker 3: That's funny. Unbelievable. But anyway, I don't think he was
a greaser, but who knows? He was from Chicago.
Speaker 2: And his brother's with us, and the brother has talked
about him, and he's just a down-to-earth man that Christ chose,
as we feel in our Catholic faith, to be the
spiritual leader of all Christians throughout the world, even non-Catholics,
we believe that, whether they like it or not.
Speaker 1: Well, the Catholic Church has long been known as an
acquirer of countries and people, so yes, I believe that
they view all people as being Under their domain. Now,
when he's under anesthesia, like with the President of the
United States, when he's under anesthesia, are there emergency orders
as to who's in charge?
Speaker 3: Do you know?
Speaker 2: I certainly do not know for a fact. One could
take a guess, I guess, but.
Speaker 3: I do not know. No, but I would suspect.
Speaker 2: like that there's a vice president in Rome. There is
what we call the ranking in the pyramid setting would
be the pope being not only the vicar of Christ
on earth, but we consider him also, and even Bartholomew,
whom I know, who's the vicar, the patriarch, holy father
of the East in Istanbul, that when he leaves Rome,
he's also the bishop of Rome, as well as the pope,
the vicar of Christ on earth, representing Jesus Christ since
the first days of Christ when he was here. And
below him, just below him in the pyramid, would be
the head of the administrative offices, as in any diocese
or archdiocese, whether cardinal, archbishop, or bishop, there would be
the chancellor in the chancery. So in Rome would be
no different. So the chancellor would take care of any
administrative paperwork matters when the bishop of Rome, the Holy Father,
leaves to go to another country. Now, I'm sure that
he's going to be careful not to make any major decisions.
He's going to come back and say, you did what?
But anyway, putting that note aside. And the second command
would be the vicar general, who is the head of
all spiritual matters and sacraments and and in dispensations for
marriages and so forth, and he would act on that
behalf for the Pope.
Speaker 1: All right. Father Jim Drucker, a retired Catholic priest, 45
years a Catholic priest. What about the Book of Enoch?
When the Pope is knocked out, could somebody say, like
the number two guy, say, you know what, we're going
to publish the Book of Enoch, which was hidden for decades, centuries, centuries,
because it revealed the fact that there are giants.
Speaker 2: The Book of Enoch is not an approved book of
the Catholic Church. Canonically, all the Church Fathers of the
history of our Catholic Church and faith, including the Orthodox
Church in many ways, have so proclaimed the books that
are to be included in the Holy Bible of the
New Testament.
Speaker 1: But is it because it refers to UFOs and giants
and that the other Catholics don't like Ethiopia?
Speaker 2: No, I would simply say that the church fathers, the
bishop would gather together in a council, an ecumenical council,
and they would look at the facts as well as
the spirituality. And some of these books had Jesus Christ,
Son of God, zapping his childhood friends because.
Speaker 3: They didn't do what he wanted. Zap, you're gone, disappeared,
sucked away.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a good plan? It saves time.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, all kidding aside and chuckling aside, it's not a
book that's approved by the Catholic Church. And I certainly
would agree.
Speaker 3: And I think.
Speaker 2: Anybody of any common spiritual sense would realize that there's
a reason for this.
Speaker 3: And I do not have the power, nor does any
person except for the Church Fathers.
Speaker 1: What's the reason that the Book of Enoch has been
banned by the Catholic Church?
Speaker 2: I have to admit and confess, pardon the pun, that
I have not read that recently. I do know that
many parts of the book is incorrect in its theology
and incorrect in its premise, and it's not approved by
the Catholic Church, by the canons of the Catholic Church.
Speaker 1: Well, you've said that several times. Therefore, they must be
very afraid of what it says.
Speaker 2: Well, you give me some specifics. Because I've not read
the book for a long time. I have read it,
but not for a long time. I know the things
in it that I've read are really outlandish. And I
do not believe that it was divinely inspired, which is
what the Holy Father said. and the Bishop of the
Church when they gather together. It has to be a
book that's divinely inspired to be included in the Holy
Scriptures of the New Testament.
Speaker 1: Father Jim Drucker, do you have a final thought, a prayer,
a spiritual note for the Pope?
Speaker 2: I would ask everyone of any good faith, of whatever
faith you might be, to include a prayer for this man,
this human being, and for this spiritual leader of a
rather large church, many under his flock and his tending
and caring, that you would pray for him and pray
for priests, my good friends. And Walter Sterling, you're a knockout,
and thank you for allowing me to be a misfit
and or the Walter Sterling Show.
Speaker 1: All right, that'll be in the promo. Thank you very much,
Father Jim Drucker, 45-year retired priest with Walter Sterling.