On the heels of celebrating Father’s Day this past weekend, Mary Patterson (writer, photographer, and designer on the WG team) caught up with Fr. Dave to ask him a few questions about our newest series, My Father’s Father. Read the full interview below.

MARY PATTERSON: “Could you tell us a little bit about the upcoming series My Father’s Father?”

FATHER: “Well maybe some background to My Father’s Father first. So we filmed The Wild Goose which focused primarily on the Holy Spirit. Then we did Metanoia which is more about Jesus, our relationship with Christ, and what it means to follow Him. So in the back of our minds, we thought, ‘Well we should probably finish this, and focus now on the Father.’ So that was a part of it, but so was the fact that our culture is, in many ways, a fatherless culture. Also, the role of priest as father is something that, as I’m getting older, I understand much more than I did, say, 20 years ago. So all of these elements inspired the idea. 

We started the series back in 2019, but then COVID happened and threw a wrench in a lot of what we were doing. And at that time a couple of things had come to mind: particularly that this series would be more personal than the others. Even before my father passed, I said that this series is going to be more vulnerable because when people are talking about fathers it just stirs up a lot of struggles with some people. All of these were just some big-picture ideas. And then obviously my father passed away in December of 2021 and that changed the dynamic of it a lot.”

MP: “Yeah, I bet it did. And I heard that a lot of the locations that are featured in the upcoming series are places that you went with your own father, so what was that like?”

FATHER: “Honestly, I have mixed emotions about some of them. I think the first filming we did was in my hometown and it might have been too soon. It was still very raw and had only been a few months since my dad passed away. It was the first time I had actually gone home since he had passed, so some of the sites were just very… (trails off) 

You probably haven’t seen any of the videos but some of it also relates to my brother who had died the previous year. So going home was very raw and difficult in some respects. But I think it really taps into the idea of home, you know. Home is where the father is, and it’s cheesy, but home is where your heart is. And those stories, and those relationships, and those walks, and that time that we spent together, while it was good, it was also hard and it was vulnerable. But I think it really spoke to the things that we said at the beginning in that this series is going to be more vulnerable.”

MP: “Right.”

FATHER: “And we do this series a little differently, Mary. In the past, we used big images of beautiful places while I give the talks, and while we do that a little bit, this series is more intimate and relational. In the previous series when we were interviewing people, I was never in the video. But in this series, I’m in all of the interviews. It's really about the relationship I have with the people as much as the relationship I have with the topic matter. So from that perspective, it's done a little bit differently.”

MP: “Well I was rewatching Metanoia recently and I was telling Dan that it’s just so good, you know. I’ve noticed throughout y’all’s time working together that each time you make something new, it’s even better than the one before, so I’m super excited to see this new series. We’ve already kind of talked about what prompted the idea for the series and we’ve touched on this next question, but was this series more difficult to film than the other two: The Wild Goose and Metanoia?”

FATHER: “In some ways it was. The format is different, it will be the most raw, and because of its subject will stir things up in some people.”

MP: “So then is this a film that you would say anyone with any sort of father-figure or good or bad father-relationship would want to watch?”

FATHER: “Absolutely, and that's one thing we talked about at the very beginning. We said that first and foremost God presents Himself to us as Father. We spent quite a bit of time talking about that: how it’s a fundamental Christian revelation and something that other world religions and cultures would have a hard time with. Other cultures and religions don’t have issues with God as creator or with God as Master, but God as Father is a Christian revelation. So no matter who you are or what your story is, God is always Father. And I think we do a really beautiful job at presenting that. And then, as would always be the case, it’s Jesus who reveals that, so we’re also able to focus on Jesus. Now, with that being said, in one of the episodes I’m just dealing with the topic of earthly fathers.”  

MP: “Mm-hmm.”

FATHER:  “And for some people that will be the most difficult, but for some it will be easy. I was very blessed and I had a wonderful relationship with my dad, but I’m also very cognizant that that’s not everybody’s story. We also have a whole episode about us being children. Scripture says we are children—John says that. And it’s interesting, I’ve had a lot of people talk about how their fathers weren’t great fathers, but rarely do we say that maybe we weren’t great sons or daughters. So we do a whole episode on what it looks like to be a child, to be a son or a daughter. So I think that will be interesting. We also do an episode on the priest as father. And we deal pretty extensively with the crisis and the scandal in the church and talk about how to reconcile that and realize that priests are sinful and they make mistakes and commit sins just like other people. So from that perspective, priests are no different from anybody else, but we want our priests to be different. And this episode is also personal, you know—how do I as a priest deal with that? This is one of the topics I wanted to chat with Fr. Jacques Philippe about because he wrote a book about the priest as father. He is also older than I am, so he is like a father figure to me.”

MP: “And what are your favorite parts of the creative process when beginning to film a series like this?”

FATHER: “The people. I always enjoy working with Dan, Jack and Jamie, and their team. So that is a blessing. Honestly, it was difficult to go back to Durango, but I enjoyed being able to spend some time with the crew there and I’m glad for the opportunity to introduce the people that follow The Ministry of the Wild Goose to my home and the mountains—I love the mountains. In one of the scenes, Chris Stefanik and I are fly fishing. A lot of the images from this series are very beautiful, but also poignant.

We always laugh a lot when we are together. And you never know where Dan will try to fly the drone—those are always fun moments.”

MP: “Were there any other off-screen moments that were memorable or funny?”

FATHER: “One of the things we want to get across is that the nature of God as Father is one of relationships. So some of the people we talked to were quite memorable for me, my mom in particular. It’s quite special because of the relationships I have with the people who are part of the filming process. 

Some of the people we interviewed, like my mom, I’ve been walking with my whole life. Others, like Heather Khym—I married her and her husband about 20 years ago—have been a part of my life for some time. And then there are people who I haven’t known for as long. So I really like the relationship element of this particular series. This intimacy and vulnerability will be different.”

MP: “What is it about the relationship between you, The Ministry of the Wild Goose, and 4PM Media that makes it so fruitful?”

FATHER: “That’s a good question. Well, a couple of things.

When we first sat down to start brainstorming The Wild Goose, one of the things we talked about was the story that needs to be told. I think people resonate with stories. In scriptures so often Jesus tells a story, and that really resonates in the heart of the person hearing or reading the story. 

We also said that these stories have to be beautiful because God reveals Himself in beauty. I think that myself and Dan, along with Jack and Jamie and their team are able to tell a story that is relevant, that has meaning, and that is powerful. We always want to tell stories that move the heart. 

You know, there are two ways you can reach the human person: through the intellect and through the heart, and oftentimes we focus just on the intellect, but both aspects need to be addressed and engaged. So a story that also moves the heart is important. 

I think that we film content that is relevant, engaging, and beautiful. 

Many people will say to me that they loved The Wild Goose or Metanoia because of its content and the next thing they tell me is that it is so beautiful. It’s so beautiful when people recognize both the beauty and story of what we created. 

The films capture all of the transcendentals.”

MP: “Last question, what has been the best moment ever filming with The Ministry of the Wild Goose?”

FATHER: “The first thing that comes to my mind is honestly how simple it was in those first days filming The Wild Goose—now we have all of this really fancy equipment. But the first interviews we filmed for The Wild Goose weren’t fancy. All we had was a camera and we didn’t have all of the lights or a sound person. There’s just something about the simplicity of those early days of just creating and telling a story. It wasn’t planned and was more spontaneous. As we have grown, the end results get more beautiful, but it's also more complicated on the back end with all of the logistics. 

I think of the first time we were standing in front of Niagara Falls and there was something really beautiful about that. It was when I told the story of the penny and the student. In those moments we didn’t know what it was going to look like or how it was going to work, but we knew this was what God was asking us to do. Then, once we released The Wild Goose it was clear that it was resonating with people.”

MP: “It was definitely watched!”

FATHER: “Let me just say something that I haven’t mentioned yet about My Father’s Father.

So, (inaudible) my dad died, and um, the last conversation we had before he passed away we were talking about the Lord, being with Jesus, a life of faith; and one of the things my father said to me was “And Jesus is going to present me to the Father, right?” And you know, that is really why the title is “My Father’s Father.” My dad understood following the Lord and following Jesus, but ultimately Jesus is going to present us to the Father. This is fundamental to our faith.”