Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today, we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on October 3, 2016 and has been revised.

Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show on CBS, and actress, Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond, The Middle), are two of the rare Hollywood Catholic celebrities who are outspoken about their religion (Mark Wahlberg being another).
In the 7-minute video above, Heaton appears as a guest on The Late Show and she and Colbert have a “throwdown” about who is more Catholic. The discussion includes the preponderance of large Catholic families back in the day, relatives who entered religious orders, the superstitious practice of burying a saint Joseph statue upside down in the yard to expedite the sale of a house, and the definitions of “monstrance” and “scapular.”
In the middle of the friendly joust, Heaton challenges Colbert to name the number of places Mary has purportedly appeared since her death. She mentions that nine appearances have been sanctioned by the RCC* and asks Colbert to name them. Colbert confidently retorts that Mary never died, but was assumed into Heaven. What? Not so fast, Colbert! Actually, the Roman Catholic church has never officially defined whether Mary had died or was still alive immediately prior to her alleged assumption. Colbert then begins counting off some of the more well-known alleged Marian appearances: Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje… Whoops! Medjugorje? Really? Heaton accepts Medjugorje as a correct answer, but the Catholic church has NOT officially sanctioned the alleged Marian appearances there. At this point it’s clear that Heaton and Colbert aren’t quite the devout and knowledgeable Catholics they advertise themselves to be. Note also the ribald, double-entendre “humor.” That’s part and parcel for Roman Catholics.
The good-natured sparring between Colbert and Heaton reminded me of my many years in Catholicism. For a Catholic, it’s all about the church, the institution, the system, the structure. In Catholicism, Jesus Christ takes a back seat to the clergy, ceremony, ritual, the hierarchy, the rubrics, traditions, the organization, and Mary. In seven minutes, these two devout Catholics never once mention Jesus Christ. Not once. It’s all about the church. That’s exactly the way it is in Roman Catholicism. Faith is in the institution, not in the Savior, Jesus Christ.
*Actually, only six alleged Marian apparitions can be categorized as “Approved, with widespread liturgical veneration endorsed by the Holy See.” Twenty-five other supposed apparitions have received some degree of ecclesiastical endorsement (see here).