2019 was a big year for Cami Berthiaume, producer of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. She got married, graduated from college and was offered a job at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
She’s facing a new change this year: Berthiaume is leaving her role at the archdiocese to begin a community engagement position for Pennsylvania-based Ascension Press, a publisher of Catholic books and digital media. Its authors include Jeff Cavins and Father Mike Schmitz.
But “Practicing Catholic” will continue as usual, Berthiaume said, as her position will be filled. “I’m trying to leave some good tips and some good feedback and how-tos on the process for everything,” she said. “Our show will go on as planned. We have a lot of good shows scheduled for May and even into early June.”
Before she finishes her work at the archdiocese, Berthiaume joined her “Practicing Catholic” colleagues — show host Patrick Conley and technical producer Paul Sadek — to reminisce.
Berthiaume joined the archdiocese as an evangelization intern and worked with the “Rediscover Hour,” which was rebranded as “Practicing Catholic” in 2020. Additional tweaks to the show have been made since then, including adding it to podcasting platforms, building a social media presence around the show and modifying the format for a more conversational feel, Berthiaume said.
In her role with “Practicing Catholic,” Berthiaume said she gets to work with “all the wonderful folks who help make the show better and better every week.” “And then I also do our archdiocesan social media,” she said. “So, lots of media, lots of content creation, which has been very fulfilling.”
Berthiaume worked closely with Conley and Sadek on topic ideas — whether “a topic or just an individual … who has a really incredible story,” she said. The goal of “Practicing Catholic” is sharing those stories from the local Church “and just shedding light on the ministries that … are just doing so much good for our local Church,” she said.
Among her responsibilities, Berthiaume said she maintains a spreadsheet of show ideas, schedules guests and pulls show templates together, which list discussion questions and information about guests. She also assists with “post production” — but said Sadek does “most of that,” calling him the show’s “technical genius” — and works with the archdiocese Communications Department and The Catholic Spirit team to help promote show episodes, provide questions for guests and suggestions for guests to invite.
Conley said that if show guests appear nervous when he talks with them before recording an episode, he tells them not to worry as it is his job as a host to make them sound good. “But I tell you what,” he added. “It’s your job, Cami, to help me sound good, to give me something to say. I’ve got the gift of gab … but … the structure, the order of the show, how it comes off at the end, that’s all Cami and Paul,” Conley said. “I like to say they’re doing all the legwork and I just have to show up.”
To learn more about how the “Practicing Catholic” team works together to produce three shows per week, and other reflections from Berthiaume about her time at the archdiocese, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. May 5 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. May 6 and 2 p.m. May 7.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Jeremy Rohr, founder of Freedom to Love, a ministry focused on the transformative impact of human and spiritual formation to free young men from the lure of pornography; and Sharon Shuck, whose parents attended an Indian boarding school, who discusses the schools’ generational impact.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
