The Catholic Accent Podcast

22 - Storms and Salvation: Paul Shipwrecked, Yet Unshaken

• Diocese of Greensburg • Season 2 • Episode 12

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A storm can break a ship, but it can’t sink a calling. We follow Paul on his hard road to Rome—chained, cold, and seasick—while a nor’easter shreds the rigging and fear narrows every horizon. In the middle of chaos, he does something unexpected: he gives thanks, breaks bread, and promises that lives will be spared even if the vessel won’t be. That moment at sea reframes everything that follows, from a crash on a Maltese sandbar to an act of mercy by a Roman centurion who chooses trust over protocol.

From there, the map widens. We explore why Rome matters—not as a postcard of ruins, but as the caput mundi, the head of the world where roads, laws, and languages converge. Luke’s great arc comes into focus: Jesus moves from Nazareth to Jerusalem; the Church moves from Jerusalem to Rome. Along the way, we look at how Peter and Paul’s witness outlasted marble, how obelisks crowned with crosses tell of a city’s slow conversion, and how the “unconquered sun” yields to the unconquered Son. Rome becomes a launchpad for mission, not because it is easy, but because it sits at the crossroads where news travels far and fast.

We speak candidly about endurance under pressure, using Paul’s story as a pattern for our own: act with courage when conditions are poor, worship when the waves rise, and see authority not only as threat but as an audience for truth. The Acts of the Apostles might close in Rome, but the action continues anywhere people choose hope over fear and service over survival. If you’re navigating your own storm, this conversation offers a compass—prophecy grounded in reality, mercy amid protocol, and a vision big enough to hold both wreckage and renewal.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, like, and subscribe, then share this episode with someone who could use steady footing in rough waters. Your review helps others find the show.

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Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, Father Christopher Pujol, Vincent Reilly, Cliff Gorski, John Zylka, Sarah Hartner

SPEAKER_01:

You're listening to the Catholic Active Podcast. We discussed the act that Jesus performed that stunned his disciples. Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't know us by now, you're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Jordan Waco here with Father Hamilton and Father Poojal. We made it, we made it to 12.

SPEAKER_02:

It's been a long time coming, all these weeks of recording. So Paul arrives in Rome.

SPEAKER_01:

So we're talking about the storms and salvation. Paul is shipwrecked yet unshaken.

SPEAKER_02:

Clever title, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks. So he arrives in Rome, and what is the significance? Where are we? Tell me where we are in this.

SPEAKER_02:

First of all, Paul is in custody. So he's being transported to Rome for basically for sentencing.

SPEAKER_00:

So there's a lot that goes on before he gets to Rome there with the shipwreck and so forth. As they're on the seas, there's a nor'easter and essentially like a hurricane for a few days, and they're just being tossed around in this thing. So that would be Paul, as well as the others that are there with him that are imprisoned, uh, as well as the soldiers that are with them.

SPEAKER_02:

Imagine being in a in a hurricane on one of these ancient vessels.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not a fun journey for him. He is probably even less fun than the actual you know sailors because he's a prisoner.

SPEAKER_00:

This wasn't like going on a uh a princess cruise.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna say it's not the Royal Caribbean of your dreams, you know, even it's not all inclusive, not a carnival cruise. Oh, nobody wants to go on those these days.

SPEAKER_00:

But uh, so yeah, there would have been a lot of suffering and uh you know, you're cold, you're wet, you're constantly sick.

SPEAKER_01:

In his letters uh to Corinthians, he says that he was shipwrecked three times and spent a full day and night floating on the water. So he was shipwrecked, he's floating on the water. Who scoops him back up?

SPEAKER_02:

Not the Coast Guard.

SPEAKER_01:

So they rescued him and then he just went back onto a boat.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, they had to continue the journey. As we're looking at these three shipwrecks of St. Paul, there's one that really stands out as the most famous shipwreck when he and the passengers wreck onto a sandbar, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so Paul is being escorted at this point by Roman guards, and he's being taken with others, rounded up, and they're being taken to Rome to be judged there. So Paul's in custody. Paul's in custody. Yeah, he's not just freely sailing around at this point. Yeah. And so as they're going, there's a storm that kicks up and it continues uh for uh a fair time, and they're throwing things over the ship walls, and they're trying to figure out how they can anchor themselves, and it's complete chaos. Paul is prophesying about how they will be okay, even though the ship will eventually be destroyed. And so, as they spend these uh couple weeks kind of just out in the Adriatic and confused, eventually there's a celebration of the Eucharist by Saint Paul. On board the Mass, yeah, there. Uh Mass on the seas there, walking on water. And then from there, Mass on cruise ships. Yeah, after that, uh he was the first cruise ship chaplain. Yeah, patron saint of it. Yeah, but after that, then that celebration of the Eucharist, they actually shipwreck into a sandbar, and then they find themselves on the island of Malta until eventually then uh they get things together and then they're taken back to Rome. But the centurion, who's the leader of this entire crew that is imprisoning Paul and and escorting him towards Rome, he so respects Paul and his ability to prophesy about things of the future and these signs and wonders that we talked about. Right. That he spares the lives of the prisoners. At this time, it would have been common if things are going poorly on a mission like that, you just kill all the prisoners and then you move on. And so Paul saves other people's lives for the time being by the great wonders worked through him.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, does he say to save the other prisoners and he like will go with them, or why?

SPEAKER_02:

So, in the midst of his troubles, he still continues to spread the gospel in the midst of a hostile world.

SPEAKER_01:

So the Acts of the Apostles ends in Rome, but how does the church then develop in Rome?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you have a living apostle there who's there for a couple years before what becomes his eventual death, and so people start to form around that. And you can think of Paul already being a well-traveled man, that he has this great missionary tradition behind him at this point, all these stories and how God has provided for him. He continues to spread the gospel through charisma, right? Through his own life, how he's been victorious even over shipwreck, being stoned, kicked out of places, ridiculed, imprisoned. And so he's a living witness of the gospel. To the gospel.

SPEAKER_01:

In Luke's gospel, he shows the movement of Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish world. And then in the Acts of the Apostles, shows the movement of the church from Jerusalem to Rome, which is the center of the entire world.

SPEAKER_00:

So what does that mean? We see uh a transition from where Jesus was, which is around Jerusalem, Galilee, Judea, and so forth. Now, as the church continues to grow from its locus point there of Jerusalem, we have all these different communities that are set up by St. Paul, and now he's going towards Rome. Likewise, Peter will later find himself in Rome as well. And what we see there is they kind of have to go to the center of the world at that point. Jerusalem, of course, an important historic city for the Jewish people and so forth, but really at this time, who controls Jerusalem and these surrounding regions and areas? Well, the great empire of Rome.

SPEAKER_02:

And so this is And that's why Rome is known as Caput Mundi, the head of the head of the world, because it's there where not only ancient times are held in such great esteem, and where this ancient governance of ancient Rome was held, but now the church is governed there for the whole world.

SPEAKER_01:

So now I know you both have been to Rome, but you were just there, Father Chris. I was so why is Rome?

SPEAKER_02:

My father and I both made pilgrimages this year for the Jubilee, and then I had the opportunity to head back a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01:

So why is Rome so special to you that you went right after you came back?

SPEAKER_02:

You decide to well, it's always a good time. There's always there's no excuse needed to go to Rome. But for me, I think Rome represents to us the triumph of Christianity over the pagan world. So you have these ancient religions, even from Greece, you know, that found their way to Rome because as the empire spread, they took what was good, what they liked, and brought it back. But Rome really is home not only to us as Catholic Christians, but to these great apostles, Peter and Paul. And so everywhere you go in Rome, there's always images of Peter and Paul. They're the apostles of Rome. And Rome allows us to see the fruits of their labor, see the places of their martyrdom, see the tools of their martyrdom. We can see the change of Saint Peter, we can see the change of Saint Paul with St. Paul outside the walls. And we also, more importantly, can go to their tombs. And it's at their tombs where we the church often says we go to the threshold of the apostles. And it's a great reminder that we too are to be sent, we are to be apostles to the world today.

SPEAKER_00:

And Rome was a a city of power, of authority, and of victory. You think about the the great triumphal arch of Constantine that's next to the Colosseum. You think of all the great monuments that are there. And so at the end of their lives, Paul and Peter bring the real savior of the world to Rome, which is Jesus, with them in the preaching of their message. Not the Roman Emperor, that there's all this divine worship of the Roman Emperor as a god-like figure, but the one true God, the true son of God, which is Jesus, not Augustus or Caesar. And so what you see from there is that Rome is really the epicenter of everything. At this time, the landmass of Rome reaching to the east and to the west, it becomes the place from which they can spread the gospel, and then it goes out to the very far-reaching corners of the world, and you start seeing the planting of the seed of the gospel, not just in the Mediterranean region, but the whole way across up to England eventually, and the whole way over towards Asia and into the East.

SPEAKER_02:

And as it moved into Spain, and then with you know the conquistadors and those great discoverers, you know, they're bringing the faith with them. But in Rome, too, I think what's so interesting is you see the that that worship of the soul invictus, the unconquered son, replaced with the worship of the true son of God. And so it's still this whole completion, right? So we have the completion happening from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and now we're even seeing in pagan worship it coming to a new understanding and replacement with true Christian worship and true worship of God. And you see that most perfectly in the different obelisks around Rome. They were brought there from ancient Egypt, and they're covered in hieroglyphs and you know, we would say Egyptian spells, whatever those may be. But now each and every one of them are topped with a cross to show that Christ's cross conquers all things.

SPEAKER_00:

And they would mark the most important stational churches of Rome where people would make pilgrimage to Rome to see the ancient places of where Saint Peter and Paul gave their lives, the spreading of the gospel by their blood. So Rome's so important for us because it just had this entire structure and system by which the word of God could spread through and then proliferate, multiply. And so it was really the best missionary effort possible that Paul and Peter could do, even though Paul, for example, as we're talking about, is brought there by Roman authorities to be judged there.

SPEAKER_02:

And it reminds us too, I think, that it's these difficulties that he faced that Peter will face, and that all the early Christians will face in Rome, as many of them go to their deaths. You know, the Acts of the Apostles as it's written might end with their time in Rome, but the Acts continue because Christians always are acting in the person and in the name of Christ.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast. Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe to our show. Any closing remarks? Bye. As they say not as they say no, we're wrecked. We're shipwrecked.