February 10, 2026 // Bishop

Speaker Ready to Challenge, Inspire Men at Rekindle the Fire

Scott Warden

Editor-In-Chief

Anyone who has seen Father Larry Richards on TV, heard him on the radio, or listened to his podcast knows that the priest of the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania, isn’t one to pull punches when discussing the faith. Life’s too short, and the stakes are too high to do anything but proclaim the truth – loudly and strongly, but with love.

“Jesus didn’t go around tiptoeing through the tulips,” Father Richards, who is well known for his EWTN radio shows “The Reason for Our Hope” and “Father Knows Best,” told Today’s Catholic. “Jesus said very challenging things, but he said everything because of love.” And love, he added, “can sometimes be a kick in the butt.”

Father Richards aims to provide that spiritual kick during his speech to men of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend at this year’s Rekindle the Fire Conference, which will be held on Saturday, February 21, at the Century Center in South Bend. Along with Father Richards, other keynote speakers include Dom Quaglia and Robert Rodgers. Bishop Rhoades will close the conference with a Q&A session before celebrating Mass for attendees.

Father Richards has been speaking at men’s conferences for more than two decades, and while he acknowledges that the times have changed – social media has erupted, polarization has gotten worse, the proliferation of internet pornography has grown exponentially – he said, “my message has always been the same … and I’m strong in giving it.”

His message to men is simple: “Be disciples of Jesus.”

“I’m the spiritual director of Catholic Men’s Leadership Alliance. … When we started it, one of the guys, just a couple of years ago, said, ‘Father, there’s all this stuff going on. What are we going to do?’ I said, ‘We do what Jesus did.’ And what did Jesus do? He died on the cross. And that’s the absolute opposite of what most men want to do. So, I say, we’re not going to go kill and kick some butt; we’re going to die on the cross for people, and we’re going to be Jesus.”

To do that in the context of a family, Father Richards said, men “have to know who they are. They have to repent and they have to give their lives for others. It’s about putting your wife and kids in front of you.”

Father Larry Richards

Men need to be challenged, Father Richards said – in how they serve God and their families, but also how they approach their lives and their faith. For example, he shared a story about how a video of him speaking at an event in Texas went viral on social media. This was during Pope Francis’ pontificate, he said, and the Holy Father was being widely criticized by some Catholics. The way Father Richards tells it, “All I was doing was telling the guys that you’ve got to support the pope.” But the reason the video went viral wasn’t necessarily the message but the passion with which he spoke.

Too often, Father Richards said, the Church equates kindness and gentleness with love. His message is different.

“When I’m speaking at conferences, if someone ever asks me to write in their book, I’ll say, ‘OK, what’s your name?’ And they’ll say, ‘Joe.’ And I’ll say, ‘Joe, be a saint. God bless, Father Larry.’ And then I hand it back to them and say, ‘or go to hell.’ There is no in between.”

Commitment to living a life in Christ isn’t easy, Father Richards said. “Oh, no, no, it’s going to kill you. It’s going to be much harder. And that’s the whole point.”

Father Richards said he spoke at the first men’s conference in Boston, and organizers asked him to return for the 20th anniversary conference last year. “I went up there and all I did was yell at a bunch of men for an hour, and I really kicked their butt. And I got a standing ovation. They’re not used to being talked to as men. So, I talk to them as men.”

Father Richards like to quote from St. Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, in which the Apostle of the Gentiles writes that God did not give us a cowardly spirit but one that makes us strong, loving, and wise. “All three of those things must be present if we’re living by God’s power and not by our power,” Father Richards said. “And masculinity today is a masculinity of the world. Masculinity has to be from the God who created us, and Jesus became one of us to show us how this must be lived. So, we don’t look at heroes. We don’t look at sports figures. We don’t look at anybody. I even say, don’t even just look at a saint, look at Jesus first. And, yes, these different saints imitated Him in different ways. Great. That person is one saint. You’re not called to be him. You’re called to be you. So, look at Jesus and let Jesus tell you what He wants you to be as a man. And it’s all going to be the same: We’ve all got to be people of love, because God is love. Jesus is the incarnation of love. We must be love in a world that doesn’t know love. It’s just that simple. But love is strong; it’s not weak.”

Father Richards acknowledged that Catholic men can oftentimes be passive in their practice of the faith. Conferences like Rekindle the Fire, he said, help those who attend surround themselves with faithful, virtuous men. Passivity, he said, “is a tactic of the Evil One, because the devil tries to keep us alone and isolated, because if a wolf is going to go after a sheep, it goes after the sheep that is by itself, not one in the midst of other men. So, the devil likes to tell us: You can do this yourself; you can be a lone ranger; you can be strong by yourself. … He wants you to be by yourself, and that’s where people fall off and look at porn and get themselves into trouble. It’s when they’re alone when the devil gets them. But when men come and be with men, that’s where they find their strength. Stop listening to the Evil One. Tell him to go to hell and show up at this conference.”

Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic. Email him at [email protected].

2026 Men’s Conference

The Rekindle the Fire men’s conference is an opportunity to be inspired and rejuvenated in your faith. This one-day event (Saturday, February 21) includes opportunities for prayer, reconciliation, adoration, and fellowship with other men who want to grow in their faith. The agenda includes hearing from three nationally recognized speakers on topics of our Catholic faith. The conference concludes with a holy Mass celebrated by Bishop Rhoades. Tickets are available at rekindlethefire.net. General admission is $60, and student tickets are $30.