Dear Listeners,
Twenty-five years ago, lifelong Catholic Shannon Vavich sat at a neighbor’s kitchen table and heard something she couldn’t shake: “It will all be better when there’s a Catholic king.”
At the time, it sounded absurd—like a fringe fantasy whispered by zealots. But in the years since, Shannon watched that fantasy become a quiet organizing principle for far-right Catholic movements. Today, it’s part of the vision behind Project 2025 and theocratic nationalism: a Church intertwined with state power, and a return to monarchy cloaked in religious obedience.
In this week’s episode of Whiplash, "Who Wants a Catholic King? with Shannon Vavich," we talk about how she went from publishing recipes as a military spouse and mother of seven, to publicly challenging the dangerous ideologies growing within Catholic spaces. Shannon speaks candidly about her experience being recruited into Opus Dei circles after moving to North Carolina—an Opus Dei hub—where purity culture, patriarchal control, and a narrow definition of “real Catholicism” were sold as divine truth.
Shannon’s advocacy and speaking out work began with Trump’s inauguration, crystallizing when she saw that outlawing contraception, re-establishing patriarchal rule, and even monarchism weren’t fringe ideas—they were goals.
In this conversation, we talk about everything from natalism and gender roles to youth group grooming culture and how Shannon is raising her children outside of that system. We also reflect on the kind of fundamentalist church spaces (like Opus Dei) that lures in empaths, parents, and people looking for belonging—and how that hunger gets weaponized in the name of God.
This conversation is about monarchy, yes. It’s also about resistance. It’s about what we owe the next generation. And it’s about the deep, abiding conviction that being Catholic should never mean abandoning your conscience.
With hope,
Max & Emma
This podcast episode is available here on Substack but also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
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