An Evening with Father Mike Schmitz

The Clarion Herald sat down with renown Catholic priest, podcaster and author Father Mike Schmitz before his May 18 “Parables” stop at New Orleans’s Saenger Theater. Because of the nature of the show and the Q&A session at the end, he described the evening as a unique one-of-a kind experience in an intimate setting that is always fresh and new each night.

New Orleans is the 15^th stop on the 19 city “Parables” tour and was added after Father Schmitz visited the city earlier this year. He began his 90-minute tour in 2025, grounded in Scripture speaking to sold-out crowds.

“After I came to New Orleans for a Pro-Life event it opened the door for this tour in reaching other cities where there’s interest in Catholic topics,” he said. “I decided to focus on Parables for this evening because it was on my heart and felt it was important and urgent to Jesus. Jesus had three years to teach and in those three years he taught 40ish Parables, this must have been incredibly urgent and important for him. I let this tumble around in my head for a while and came up with this idea.”

Father Schmitz described Parables as stories that can move hearts and change lives. For his tour presentation, he narrowed down the Parables to four that he considered the most compelling and easiest for people to apply to their lives:

1. The lost sheep and lost coin (Lk. 15:1-10; “You are relentlessly pursued and … ridiculously celebrated” by God.)
2.  The sower and the seed (Mt. 13:1-23; “Jesus says worry; anxieties of daily life … choke the Word. Why? Because you can’t be both worried and joyful.”)
3. The dishonest steward (Lk. 16:1-13; the dishonest steward craftily attempted to gain material wealth; the faithful should be just as resourceful in their pursuit of eternal life.)
4. The wise and foolish bridesmaids (Mt. 25: 1-13; “the oil stands for something that can’t be shared” … the foolish bridesmaids know Jesus, “but they didn’t have a relationship with him.”)

Millions of people around the world know Father Schmitz from his YouTube videos and podcasts. What most people don’t realize is that digital media is just one part of his ministry.
The driving force behind the “Parables” tour is to raise money for Father Schmitz’s Seeds of Faith Initiative for his primary ministry at the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) where he has served as a diocesan priest in the Diocese of Duluth for the last 21 years.

“Virtually 100% of what the tour brings in goes toward the initiative,” he said. “We are 70% to reaching our goal but have a way to go to breaking ground on the new chapel at the Newman Center in May of 2027.”

For more information visit: https://ascensionpress.com/pages/frmiketour