(LifeSiteNews) — Today, perhaps more than ever, many people are struggling with anxiety, depression, and other psychological issues amid a “crisis of truth and hope.” Faithful Catholics are not immune to this, and that’s why the “Hope is Fuel: Catholic on Purpose” event was created.

Today on The John-Henry Westen Show I sat down to talk with Catholic speaker and podcaster Patrick Coffin about the problem of anxiety and depression, as well as why he founded Hope is Fuel in response to that. Coffin also talked about his personal conversion story and how the Holy Spirit put him on a path to the authentic Catholic faith.

Coffin, who grew up in Canada, had a conversion when he was 16 years old. However, he went to a very left-wing Catholic university where he learned a watered-down “cafeteria model” of the Catholic faith.

“[After] a long journey and many mistakes and sins on my part … I finally made a real plea to the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself in a way that was Him and the foundation of all that is real, and not some wish projection of mine,” he recalled.

Coffin went on to earn a master’s degree in theology from the Catholic University of Steubenville and wrote his first book The Contraception Deception, in which he defended the Catholic Church’s’ teaching on sexuality.

Right now, Coffin is organizing the Hope is Fuel summit about how to be “Catholic on Purpose.”

The first Hope is Fuel summit took place on March 18, 2023, and dealt with the issues of anxiety and depression. Coffin told me that he and his business partner Ryan Morrow have “suffered [from] pretty substantial depression and anxiety” in the past.

“So in 2019, psychiatrists were writing that licensed family therapists were noticing this big uptick in suicidal ideation, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression,” Coffin said. “Then it tripled again with the lockdowns.”

To address this problem, the first Hope is Fuel summit in March featured “seven clinicians talking from various points of view about cell phone addiction, about tools and tactics to navigate anxiety, depression, feelings of despair.”

The next Hope is Fuel event will begin on May 24, 2023, and will feature a wide range of classes held by well-known Catholic speakers.

“We’re covering the things that you need to do, the books you need to read, the people you need to surround yourself with, to fortify yourself, to give the best presentation of you,” Coffin said.

Here is the description of the conference from its website:

This one-of-a-kind online Course addresses issues like these: how to fall in love with the Bible again, staying grounded in prayer and the Sacraments, cultivating strong marriages, countering woke ideology along with transgenderism and the LGBTQ+ movement, the proper role of laymen in the Church, understanding patriarchy vs feminism, how to spot logical fallacies, how to defeat porn addiction once and for all, the meaning of the Mass, how to evangelize, and so much more.

I myself will also be among the speakers, and you can get $20 off by using the discount code LIFESITE20.

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