Jimmy Akin

The Weekly Leo – 3 June 2026

jeffmiller — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 23:12:22 +0000

Pope Leo XIV welcomes delegation of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in the Vatican (@Vatican Media)

This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 25 May 2026 to 3 June 2026.

Angelus

31 May 2026 – Angelus,Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

General Audiences

3 June 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. III. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 3. Rite, sign and symbol

Letters

1 June 2026 – Chirograph of the Holy Father establishing the Fratello Sole (‘Brother Sun’) Foundation and approving its Statutes

Messages

30 May 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the 16th National Symposium on Families in Aparecida (Brazil)

Prayers

2 June 2026 – Video Message ‘Pray with the Pope’ – June’ For the Values of Sports

Speeches

Social Media

Concerning Flight (VOY) – The Secrets of Star Trek

Domenico Bettinelli — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 20:00:34 +0000

When pirates beam away Voyager’s computer core and the Doctor’s mobile emitter, Janeway ends up chasing them to an alien world where her holographic Leonardo da Vinci — now powered by the stolen emitter — believes he’s been kidnapped to America. The man who has the computer core? Leonardo’s new patron. His name is Tau.

Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler go through “Concerning Flight,” the 11th episode of Voyager Season 4, and the verdict is unanimous: this is a middle-of-the-road episode saved entirely by **John Rhys-Davies**. They dig into the behind-the-scenes story, in which the episode’s writer wanted a Leonardo-centric adventure and was overruled — a decision that reportedly made the writer hate the final product.

The plot holes are significant. Voyager’s computer core was apparently unencrypted and unpassword-protected. There was no backup. And yet the ship somehow navigates vast distances of space for 10 days while “almost none of the ship’s crucial systems work.” The panel has thoughts.

Beyond the plot holes, the conversation goes wide. There’s a close read of the Doctor’s characterization here (not good — he’s more interested in ship gossip than the emergency). A look at Tuvok’s stiff but effective attempt at small talk with Leonardo. The Requiem for Methuselah callback — Janeway’s aside that James T. Kirk claimed to have met Leonardo da Vinci. And the parallel to the TNG Moriarty two-parter, where a beloved literary figure escapes the holodeck.

The episode also sparks a long digression on the science of human skin pigmentation — why did melanin decrease as humans migrated to higher latitudes, how long did it take, and why this makes Tuvok the least plausible Scandinavian on the ship.

One detail worth catching: the villain’s name is Tau — the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as Jimmy notes — not the philosophical principle.

https://youtu.be/YZDC7BsojNY

Direct Link to the Episode.

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Zombie Marriage, Holy Roman Emperors, Jesus’s DNA, and More Weird Questions – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

Domenico Bettinelli — Fri, 29 May 2026 10:00:54 +0000

Blood-drinking isn’t inherently evil. Zombies might be able to marry. And you probably can’t bless the entire Pacific Ocean. Probably.

**Jimmy Akin** fields 13 listener weird questions with **Dom Bettinelli** on this episode of *Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World*. The topics run from philosophy and alien theology to Church law and ancient civilizations.

The Eastern Orthodox idea attributed to Fr. **Seraphim Rose**, that all aliens are demons, gets Jimmy’s standard treatment: show me the evidence. Reported alien encounters don’t show entities doing what demons historically do — demanding worship, spreading false theology, possessing people. Jimmy references his prior debate with astronomer **Hugh Ross** on the alien-demon hypothesis and MYS episode 188 on the same question.

The questions span philosophy (would philosophy exist without the Fall?), biology (does Jesus genetically resemble God?), law (can zombies give valid matrimonial consent?), and history (did the Pope sneak up on Charlemagne with a crown?).

Real Haitian zombies, chemically paralyzed with tetrodotoxin from pufferfish, buried, and enslaved, are a documented phenomenon. **Clervius Narcisse** is the key case: declared dead at a hospital, buried, and later found alive. A zombie who recovers full mental function could, in principle, get married.

Other highlights: parapsychological “linger effect” research on healing; the fraction rite’s origin in early church inter-community communion-sharing; and why the Kabbalistic tree of life is problematic for Christian theology.

The episode closes with feedback on **Episode 408** (the Book of Revelation): the Wailing Wall prophecy, liturgical interpretations, and a preview of future Revelation-themed episodes from Jimmy.

https://youtu.be/yUgHxS4leDw

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

0:00 – MYS419
0:13 – Intro
5:02 – Are Aliens Demons?
12:42 – Human-alien romance in fiction
22:02 – Are vampires intrinsically evil?
32:05 – Does Jesus genetically resemble God?
38:19 – Is the Kabbalistic tree of life a valid conception of God?
46:25 – Would philosophy exist without the Fall?
50:16 – Thank you to Patrons
50:46 – Sponsor: The Secret of the Goldfish
51:40 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
52:48 – Could zombies get married?
1:02:05 – Who does Jimmy consider a healer?
1:11:54 – Does the Pope have power to crown a Holy roman Emperor?
1:16:29 – How to Convince a Medieval King You’re a Time Traveler
1:24:56 – Did Ancient Humans Have Advanced Technology?
1:31:16 – Why Is the Fraction Rite Separate from Consecration?
1:37:49 – How Much Water Can a Priest Bless?
1:41:17 – Mysterious Feedback: #408 The Book of Revelation
1:55:24 – Your mysterious feedback
1:56:00 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
1:56:04 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
1:56:38 – Next Time: Pre-Sputnik Transients
1:56:56 – Mysterious World store
1:57:04 – Get your Mysterious merch
1:57:11 – Show notes
1:57:18 – Become a Patron
1:57:27 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
1:57:51 – Sponsor: The Lord Is A Warrior
1:58:38 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroupInc.com.

The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, a new book for middle schoolers and inquisitive minds of all ages. What if Nancy Drew went to Catholic school?

This new mystery series presents 10-year-old Gloria Treddle, a bloodhound with glasses and sneakers who’s always getting the bottom of the latest mystery at St. Anthony School. Faith and family lie at the center of Gloria’s world and the adults in her life, though imperfect, strive to pass on their values. Each Gloria Treadle Mystery is centered on one of the eight beatitudes.

Dive into the first engrossing story with The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, now available from Our Sunday Visitor wherever books are sold. To find out more and download free Free Mini-Mysteries that you and your kids can solve at home, visit GloriaBook.com/Mysterious

The Lord is A Warrior, by Michael Regal. If you enjoy exploring the intersection of faith and history, you will be be interested in “The Lord is a Warrior: True Accounts of Divine Intervention in War” by Michael Regal.

Through dramatized retellings of biblical and historical battles alongside reflections drawn from Catholic tradition, it blends storytelling with spiritual themes like divine providence, trust in God, and the role of prayer in times of crisis. If you’ve ever wondered what happened at Lepanto, what really drove the Crusaders at Las Navas de Tolosa, or why the Japanese Catholic community responded to the bomb the way they did, this is the book for you. Available now on Amazon in ebook and paperback.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
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Direct Link to the Episode.

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The Weekly Leo – 27 May 2026

jeffmiller — Wed, 27 May 2026 23:11:33 +0000

Pope Leo XIV during the Wednesday General Audience (@Vatican Media)

This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 15 May 2026 to 27 May 2026.

Encyclical

15 May 2026 – Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas

General Audiences

27 May 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. III. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 2. The reform of the liturgy’ tradition and development

Homilies

24 May 2026 – Pentecost Sunday – Holy Mass

Letters

27 May 2026 – Chirograph of the Holy Father for the establishment of the Steering and Supervisory Commission for the Foundation ‘Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza – Work of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, O.F.M. Cap.’

Regina Caeli

24 May 2026 – Regina Caeli

Speeches

Social Media

The Siege (DS9) – The Secrets of Star Trek

Domenico Bettinelli — Mon, 25 May 2026 20:00:23 +0000

The Circle falls, but the price is one hero’s life. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler close the DS9 opening trilogy: duty vs. family, a holosuite trap, and the politics that end a coup.

https://youtu.be/4QMNmlF5o7M

Direct Link to the Episode.

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Skeleton Lake – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

Domenico Bettinelli — Fri, 22 May 2026 09:00:50 +0000

There’s a lake in the Indian Himalayas, more than 3 miles above sea level, that holds between 300 and 800 human skeletons.

**Roopkund** sits in the high peaks of Uttarakhand, in the sacred territory of Nanda Devi. Once a year, thousands of pilgrims walk the ancient **Nanda Devi Raj Jat** route, a 280 km trek through the mountains that passes directly by the lake. According to local legend, the skeletons are the remains of a royal court that defiled the goddess’s sacred ground. She sent a hailstorm. Nobody survived.

**Jimmy Akin** and **Dom Bettinelli** work through every theory: divine wrath, a Japanese army from World War II, an ancient military force, epidemic disease, catastrophic hailstorm (an 1888 storm in Moradabad killed 246 people with hailstones the size of cricket balls), and the findings of a sweeping 2019 DNA study that changed what researchers thought they knew about the site.

The physical evidence doesn’t fit a single clean answer. The DNA results are stranger than the legend. And what archaeologists and geneticists have found raises questions that still don’t have resolutions.

Can an oral tradition preserve a real historical event across centuries? And what does it mean when ancient accounts of divine judgment turn out to have something real behind them?

https://youtu.be/91CCOG1-bDs

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

0:00 – MYS418
0:12 – Intro
2:26 – Roopkund
5:39 – Cultural Significance: Nanda Devi
9:00 – Discovery of the Skeletons
12:09 – The Wrath of Nanda Devi
15:33 – 1940s British rediscovery
16:38 – Skeleton Lake today
18:57 – Thank you to Patrons
19:28 – Sponsor: The Secret of the Goldfish
20:22 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
20:39 – Theories
21:34 – Reason Perspective: Divine wrath?
23:02 – Japanese soldiers?
25:35 – Ancient army?
28:30 – Epidemic?
32:02 – Catastrophic hailstorm?
36:40 – 2019 DNA study
41:29 – Multi-event theory
44:28 – Weaknesses and open questions
47:39 – Oral tradition and mythic memory
49:07 – Faith Perspective
59:13 – Bottom Line
1:00:37 – Further Resources
1:01:22 – Mysterious Feedback: #407 The Library of Alexandria
1:05:47 – Your mysterious feedback
1:06:28 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
1:06:34 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
1:07:01 – Next Time: Zombie Marriage, Holy Roman Emperors, Jesus’s DNA, and More Weird Questions
1:08:00 – Get your Mysterious merch
1:08:16 – Show notes
1:08:23 – Become a Patron
1:08:31 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
1:08:54 – Sponsor: The Lord Is A Warrior
1:09:42 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, a new book for middle schoolers and inquisitive minds of all ages. What if Nancy Drew went to Catholic school?

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

The Weekly Leo – 20 May 2026

jeffmiller — Thu, 21 May 2026 01:18:37 +0000

Pope Leo XIV shakes hands with Armenian Catholicos Aram I as he arrives at the Wednesday General Audience (@Vatican Media)

This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 19 February 2026 to 20 May 2026.

General Audiences

20 May 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. III. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 1. The liturgy in the mystery of the Church

Homilies

15 May 2026 – Papal Mass for the Funeral Rites of Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig

Letters

4 May 2026 – Letter of the Holy Father to His Holiness Tawadros II for the Day of Coptic-Catholic Friendship [10 May 2026]

Messages

Regina Caeli

17 May 2026 – Regina Caeli

Speeches

Social Media

The Circle (DS9) – The Secrets of Star Trek

Domenico Bettinelli — Mon, 18 May 2026 20:00:43 +0000

The coup is underway on Bajor, and **Minister Jaro’s** face is finally on it. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler break down Part 2 of Deep Space Nine’s season-opening trilogy — the episode that turns the political intrigue of “The Homecoming” into something darker.

The panel opens with what might be the episode’s best scene: the crew’s chaotic goodbye to **Major Kira** in her quarters, shot in one continuous take modeled on the Marx Brothers. It’s loose, comedic, overlapping — and it quietly reveals how much **Odo** and Kira mean to each other, even if neither will say it.

At **Vedek Bareil’s** monastery, Kira gets the orb experience she’s dreamed of all her life. The vision is strange — ministers, a naked encounter with Bareil, a Kai’s robe on Dax that becomes **Vedek Winn’s** face. The panel works through what it might mean, landing on a possible symbolic reading: Bareil as a stand-in for Jaro, Kira for Winn — both pairs a political-religious alliance reaching for power.

**Louise Fletcher’s** Vedek Winn gets her showcase scene here, ambushing Kira and Bareil on a monastery bridge with suffocating passive-aggression. “Feel free to stay as many days as you like. A week, if necessary.” The panel agrees: almost no actor could play that role this well.

Meanwhile, Odo recruits Quark — by force. “You’re either my deputy or my prisoner.” Quark, as always, chooses survival. He tracks the Circle’s weapons supply to the **Kressari**, who turn out to be Cardassian middlemen. The Circle thinks it’s fighting for Bajoran independence; it’s being manipulated into handing the planet back to the people who enslaved it.

The panel also flags structural problems: **Li Nalas** as Kira’s replacement is undercut the moment Sisko promises her he’s getting her back. The show signals the outcome too early, and Li Nalas never gets room to establish himself as a viable alternative. Jimmy corrects a detail from last week — **Richard Beymer**, who plays Li Nalas, is Benjamin Horne in *Twin Peaks*, not Sheriff Harry S. Truman.

The episode closes on a coup underway, all channels to Bajor blocked, and Sisko deliberately slow-walking an evacuation order he can’t refuse. Two armed ships are on their way to DS9. Part 3 is “The Siege.”

https://youtu.be/T2veXPp_974

Direct Link to the Episode.

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Crisis Apparitions – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

Domenico Bettinelli — Fri, 15 May 2026 09:00:46 +0000

Something happens at the moment of death. Sometimes the living sense it from miles away — a vision, a voice, a presence, a sudden inexplicable certainty that someone they love is gone. These are **crisis apparitions**, and they’ve been documented in the scientific literature since 1882.

**Jimmy Akin** and **Dom Bettinelli** trace the full history of crisis apparition research, from the founding of the **Society for Psychical Research** and its landmark Census of Hallucinations — a survey of more than 17,000 people — through modern studies on deathbed phenomena and altered states of consciousness. Along the way, they examine the cases that shaped how researchers think about these experiences: a soldier’s wife who sees her husband’s figure and notices a wound on his right temple, later confirmed; a man who perceives his brother at the exact moment of death; collective apparitions witnessed by multiple people simultaneously.

The SPR defined a strict “crisis window” — within 12 hours of a death or serious physical crisis — and documented six distinct categories of crisis impressions: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, emotional, and dreams. When analyzed statistically, the rate of crisis coincidences was far beyond what chance alone would predict.

The word **”telepathy”** was coined specifically to explain these experiences. Researchers needed new vocabulary because nothing existing fit what they were documenting. That line of inquiry eventually fed into the development of the **EEG** — one of the unexpected downstream effects of taking these phenomena seriously as a scientific question.

Jimmy and Dom also work through the skeptical objections: coincidence, selective memory, the tendency to remember the hits and forget the misses. They walk through what the evidence actually supports and what it doesn’t.

And they look at what the **Catholic tradition** says. The Church has never found crisis apparitions troubling. The soul’s journey after death isn’t instantaneous, and Catholic tradition has always left room for mystery at the threshold between this life and the next.

140 years of data. Still no clean answer. But the evidence is stranger — and more compelling — than most people realize.

https://youtu.be/Bgh-LeZDTYI

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

0:00 – MYS417
0:13 – Intro
1:28 – What is a crisis apparition?
5:26 – Reorts of crisis apparitions
10:02 – Mrs. Birkbeck
13:31 – Captain Colt
17:43 – J.G. Keulemans
21:30 – Sarah Jardine
23:18 – Multiple percipients
23:48 – C. Colchester
26:06 – Liston and Creigh
28:51 – Silence in apparitions
29:18 – Miss H.
32:46 – Apparitions without death
33:27 – Bishop Wilberforce
34:49 – Auditory apparitions
35:05 – R. Fryer
37:08 – Frederick Corder
44:13 – Apparitions in dreams
45:03 – Dr. A
48:44 – Origin of telepathy
51:21 – Census of Hallucinations
53:33 – Hans Berger
58:01 – Thank you to Patrons
58:30 – Sponsor: The Secret of the Goldfish
59:24 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
59:41 – Reason Perspective
1:00:14 – Crisis impressions
1:02:35 – How common?
1:06:51 – Six categories
1:07:51 – Visual or auditory hallucinations
1:13:07 – Dreams or borderland visions
1:14:38 – Mental impressions
1:19:59 – Physical impressions
1:22:03 – Deathbed visions
1:23:36 – Sensed-presence experiences
1:24:59 – Components of crisis impressions
1:25:50 – Genders of the agents and the experients
1:27:23 – Relationship between experient and agent
1:31:07 – State of consciousness of experient
1:33:08 – Geographic occurrence
1:34:47 – Frequency of experience
1:35:48 – Telepathy? Paranormal?
1:38:27 – Faith Perspective
1:44:40 – Bottom Line
1:45:28 – Further Resources
1:46:34 – Mysterious Feedback: #406 Exposing the Myth of the Zodiac Killer
1:52:31 – Your mysterious feedback
1:53:12 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
1:53:16 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
1:53:58 – Next Time: Skeleton Lake
1:54:09 – Share the show
1:54:18 – Get your Mysterious merch
1:54:26 – Show notes
1:54:33 – Become a Patron
1:54:42 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
1:55:05 – Sponsor: The Lord Is A Warrior
1:55:53 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, a new book for middle schoolers and inquisitive minds of all ages. What if Nancy Drew went to Catholic school?

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

The Weekly Leo – 13 May 2026

jeffmiller — Wed, 13 May 2026 23:09:11 +0000

Pope Leo kneels where John Paul II was shot

This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 21 September 2025 to 13 May 2026.

General Audiences

13 May 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. II. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium. 9. The Virgin Mary, model of the Church