#12707 How Do I Get Better at Debating Protestants? AMA: Dropped Calls - Joe Heschmeyer
Catholic Answers Live
Catholic Answers
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How can Catholics begin studying apologetics and get better at debating Protestants? In this episode of Catholic Answers Live, Catholic Answers apologists offer practical advice for learning Scripture, Church history, and core Catholic doctrines in a charitable and effective way. The discussion also addresses whether a pope at Vatican I really said “I am tradition,” whether watching Mass online fulfills a Catholic’s obligation after COVID-era habits, and why some Protestants strongly oppose devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The episode concludes with a look at whether any of the apostles were married or had families before following Jesus. A helpful conversation on apologetics, Church teaching, and Christian history.
Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter
Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com
Questions Covered:
- 15:16 – How do I begin studying to get good at debating protestants?
- 23:43 – Did the pope at Vatican 1 actually say “I am tradition”?
- 29:19 – Since COVID-19, my wife has been watching the Mass every Saturday. Is that okay?
- 40:26 – Why are some Protestants opposed to the Blessed Mother?
- 47:07 – Were any of the 12 apostles married or have children that they had to leave in order to follow Jesus?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent. |
| 0:05.2 | When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers. |
| 0:11.5 | Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Hello and welcome to Catholic Answers live. |
| 0:32.3 | I am Cy Keller, your host. |
| 0:33.6 | Very happy to be here with you, and it's Joe Heschmire today. |
| 0:36.7 | Let me just get that out of the way, Joe Heschmire, because I know people are like, wonder who it's going to be here with you. And it's Joe Heschmire today. Let me just get that out of the way. |
| 0:38.0 | Joe Heshmier, because I know people are like, wonder who it's going to be today. And Joe's so popular now. I just want to say his name right at the beginning because I know people are like, okay, I'll hang out for Joe Heshmeyer. Joe is the podcaster. He was a blogger, which tells you he's extremely old. |
| 0:54.7 | And he was a blogger with his blog, Shameless Popry. |
| 0:58.4 | And now he's a podcaster and YouTuber with Shaneless Popery, which is just taken over the world. |
| 1:05.2 | Joe Heschmire, welcome. |
| 1:06.6 | Thanks for being here. |
| 1:08.0 | First of all, thank you for that very warm introduction, followed by jokes about my elderliness. So you... I can't make it. I just can't do it, Joe. I can't do it. Like, I want... Just down the mighty from their throne. I say to myself, just be positive about Joe. Because there is so much positive about you, Joe. But for some reason, I can't keep from putting |
| 1:30.2 | one dig in there, at least one day. You're like a reverse, Palam. The prophet who went to curse |
| 1:36.7 | Israel and kept blessing them instead, he couldn't help himself. I didn't know if you were calling me a, |
| 1:41.1 | no, no, you're not, you're not his donkey. I thought that that might be where you were going with that. Yeah, no. I mean, if people want to take a certain interpretation of that, I'm not going to disagree with their personal read of scripture. Why are things going so well at... Oh, by the way, it's drop calls. We got a million calls. We got really good ones. We have dropped calls. We get to curate them a little bit. And so we got a lot of great questions for Joe, challenging questions for Joe today about the Catholic faith, about religion and philosophy in general. |
| 2:09.6 | A whole bunch of good stuff. But tell me this, why is shameless popery going so well? Why is it a hit? |
| 2:14.6 | This is one of those tough questions. |
| 2:16.6 | Yeah. I think people have a lot of questions about Catholicism. Why is it a hit? This is one of those tough questions. |
| 2:17.6 | Yeah. |
| 2:38.0 | I think people have a lot of questions about Catholicism. We're seeing that in the numbers. You know, this year, the number of people who entered the church at the Easter Vigil was higher than the year before, which was hired than the year before. Like, we were on at least a five-year high, and it seems like even probably bigger than that. Now, some of that, obviously, there was a big dip during COVID, so there's some recovery going on there. |
| 2:35.2 | Sure. But we see people are being |
| 2:40.2 | exposed to Catholic arguments through the internet, through public figures who are becoming Catholic, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Catholic Answers, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Catholic Answers and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.