As Patrick Conley, host of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show, prepares to retire from the show, three former producers remember their coworker fondly.
In the “Practicing Catholic” program set to debut at 9 p.m. Aug. 15 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, Cami Berthiaume — who produced the show from 2020 to 2023 — said, “Working with Patrick really gave me a new perspective on contemplative prayer. He’d be so good about starting every recording session with prayer and just praying from the heart and really being vulnerable in that. I think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to share that with your coworkers and people who you know (but) aren’t maybe in your immediate circle outside of family and friends.”
Susanna Parent, who worked at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2013 to 2019, said, “Really it was just a fun time. We would produce the show on Friday mornings, and I always looked forward to going into the studio. We would have a cup of coffee, we’d chat about the plan for the show and just through those Friday mornings being in the studio for a couple of hours, Patrick really became a friend, and we just talked about our lives and what we were doing.”
Parent said Conley had a way of making guests feel comfortable and at ease, even when they were nervous.
“He would just remind them this is just like chatting over a cup of coffee,” Parent said. “You don’t have to worry about anything else; we’re having a conversation, and it was really cool to see how he can make people feel really comfortable.”
Kayla Mayer, who produced the show from 2023 to 2024, said the first word that comes to her mind when she thinks of Conley is “fun.”
“We were able to joke around a lot,” Mayer said. “He’s just such a nice, easy to talk to friendly person with a great sense of humor. During my time while I was producer, we had just moved over from the Relevant Radio studio and were building our own in-office studio at the (Archdiocesan Catholic Center) and that came with a lot of technical issues that Patrick was super, super patient with. He was super patient with me while I was trying to figure out how to audio engineer this built-in studio.”
Berthiaume and Parent both remembered times Conley would bring them food.
“When I was pregnant with my first child, I was pretty nauseous and Patrick would come to the studio with a hash brown stick from Kwik Trip,” Parent said. “And it was so thoughtful of him. It was kind of random that he would bring that, but that greasy, starchy snack hit the spot when I needed a morning snack. Kind of a funny memory, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”
“One thing that I will always remember is him bringing me Reese’s Fast Breaks after I mentioned one or two times that I enjoy Reese’s Fast Break,” Berthiaume said. “I remember one time we showed up to record an episode of “Practicing Catholic” and he brought in an entire case of Fast Breaks for me, which was so sweet that he remembered to do that.”
To hear the full interview with the former producers, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Aug. 16 and 2 p.m. Aug. 17.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an introduction of the new hosts of “Practicing Catholic,” Leah Heselton, the operations coordinator for the Office of Communications at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Father Tom Margevicius, director of worship for the archdiocese. Also, Patrick Conley, shares his career experience.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
