Church Life Today

Three Saints of the Sacred Heart

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:00:00 -0400

Your heart is restless. It wants more than this world can give. It longs for a love that will not fail, a peace that will not pass away, a home that cannot be taken from you. You know this—perhaps you have always known it—even when you try to silence the longing with lesser things.

In the seventeenth century, Jesus revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque the answer to that longing. He showed her his Sacred Heart: aflame with love, wounded by ingratitude, yearning for souls who would console him through their devotion. What she saw was not simply a vision but an invitation. Christ was opening his heart to her—and through her, to us—saying in effect: This is what you have been seeking. This is where you belong.

The Sacred Heart has become a home for many saints over the ages. In this episode, I want to share with you, briefly, three saints who fostered a devotion to the Sacred Heart. I add this to a previous episode where I shared a longer reflection on St. Margaret Mary Alacoque herself.

These reflections are taken from my new book, The Rule of the Sacred Heart: Finding Rest in a Restless World. I crafted this book as a 33-day devotional, leading us, step by step, toward intimacy with Christ in his Sacred Heart and responding to his mercy in our lives. Over the 33 days, we meditate on biblical scenes, probe the revelations of the Sacred Heart to Christ’s saints, and give our minds and hearts little by little to the Sacred Heart each day, all while taking on small but intentional devotions.

What I share with you today are short introductions to three saints that accompany the devotions in the third week of the devotional journey. I hope you enjoy.

Follow-up Resources:

The Rule of the Sacred Heart: Finding Rest in a Restless World by Leonard DeLorenzo (OSV)
“St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Devotion to the Sacred Heart,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Drawing close to feel the beating of the Sacred Heart,” by Leonard J. DeLorenzo, article via Our Sunday Visitor

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Magnifica Humanitas: Pope Leo XIV on Artificial Intelligence, with Brett Robinson

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:00 -0400

What are we building? Pope Leo XIV puts that question to us in his new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. The title itself echoes Mary's Magnificat — the song of a humanity whose grandeur is recognized in being lifted up by God, not in seizing heaven for itself. That grandeur, the Pope insists, is revealed in its fullness only in Christ, and threatened today by new forms of dehumanization.

The encyclical takes its bearings from two biblical images: the Tower of Babel, where a unified language and a unified technology serve a project that aspires to reach heaven without God; and the rebuilding of Jerusalem under Nehemiah, where a city is reborn through prayer and the shared responsibility of all. Pope Leo asks us which of these we are building. Technology, he reminds us, is never neutral. It takes the character of those who devise, finance, and deploy it.

Brett Robinson joins me today to help us read this encyclical. Brett is my colleague here in the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where he leads our efforts in Catholic Media Studies.

Follow-up Resources:

Magnifica Humanitas, Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIV
"Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson," podcast episode via Church Life Today
"Edge of Belief: UFO's, Technology, and the Catholic Imagination, with Brett Robinson," podcast episode via Church Life Today
"AI, Ethics, and the Common Good, with Adam Kronk," podcast episode via Church Life Today
"AI, Education, and Doing Hard Stuff, with Adam Kronk," podcast episode via Church Life Today
"The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez," podcast episode via Church Life Today
"Dilexi Te: On Love for the Poor, with Fr. Cristian Mendoza Ovando," podcast episode via Church Life Today
"Habemus Papam, with John Cavadini," podcast episode via Church Life Today

Dilexi Te: On Love for the Poor, with Fr. Cristian Mendoza Ovando

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 May 2026 09:00:00 -0400

When Pope Leo XIV issued his first apostolic exhortation, he chose a title drawn from the Book of Revelation: Dilexi te — "I have loved you." Those words, addressed to a community with little power and little standing, become in this document Christ's word to the poor of every age. The poor are not a problem to be managed. They are, the Pope insists, the place where Christ continues to speak.

But who exactly are the poor? That question turns out to be less obvious than it sounds. Poverty, as Fr. Cristian Mendoza Ovando helps us see in this conversation, is not one thing. It is material and spiritual, negative and positive, something suffered and — in a different sense — something chosen. Any serious reading of Dilexi te has to reckon with that complexity.

Fr. Cristian, who teaches at Santa Croce in Rome, joins me today following a lecture he gave on Dilexi te at the University of Notre Dame.

Follow-up Resources:

Dilexi Te, Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Leo XIV
“Anthropological concerns regarding digital technologies,” by Fr. Cristian Mendoza Ovando, journal article via Church, Communication and Culture
“The Sacred Heart of the New Encyclical,” by Leonard DeLorenzo, article on Dilexit Nos in Church Life Journal
“The Church is the Sacrament of the Preferential Option for the Poor,” by John Cavadini, article in Church Life Journal
“The Eucharist Commits Us to the Poor,” by John Cavadini, article in Church Life Journal

Luminor: Art with All Its Teeth, with Katy Carl

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

There is a lot of animosity out there, a lot of distrust, and a lot of fear and persistent anxiety about so many things. Where, in all that, can we go to find words that bring life? In particular, where might we find books that rise above the morass of the day to show us art that builds on the foundations of truth, beauty, and goodness? Providing a place that does just this, where a community of thinkers, writers, and readers are engaged in the common mission of preserving literate culture for generations to come … is precisely the mission of the new imprint from Word on Fire, called Luminor.

By publishing novels, short stories, memoirs, poetry, and more, Luminor brings out buried riches from the treasury of Catholic literature and highlights fresh voices among writers formed by Catholicity in our time.

Joining me today is Katy Carl, editor of Luminor, to share with us why this mission is so important today and what we can expect to find in this new imprint.

Links:

Learn more about Luminor at https://www.wordonfire.org/luminor
“When Nobody Reads Anymore: Positionality, Prophecy, and the Artist’s Vocation” by Katy Carl, article via Church Life Journal
“Why Literature Still Matters, with Jason Baxter,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Graham Greene’s ‘The End of the Affair,’ A Conversation with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Dilexit Nos—Part 1, a conversation with Josh McManaway and Melissa Moschella,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Dilexit Nos—Part 2, a conversation with Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

The Little Rose Shop, with Raquel Rose

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400

When you are a new parent, you may desire a genuine religious experience, but your young child often has other ideas. It’s not that the child is opposed to God per se; just sort of opposed to your plans and schedule and rhythm. You know what that’s like, right? The drama of the pew at Mass, the irregularity of morning and nighttime rituals, the joyful uncertainty of a rapidly developing young human being who has urges and powers and interests of their own.

The conversation on our show today is about the desires of faith and the practice of parenting. It is about creating beautiful things for small hands and new eyes; of building up the basic habits of a life of faith; and even of parents and children, older folks and the youngest folks, coming to share their lives together more deeply around things that help you to think, move, and rest in sacred ways within ordinary life.

My guest is Raquel Rose, founder and creative director of The Little Rose Shop, which seeks to bring the faith into everyday life with Catholic and Christian gifts and books.

Follow-up Resources:

Find ways to bring the faith into everyday life at thelittleroseshop.com
My First Examen (board book) at The Little Rose Shop
Morning Offering Prayer Catholic Mug at The Little Rose Shop
Learn More about the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s program on childhood and the liturgical imagination, Contours of Wonder
“Grace for the Hard Days of Early Motherhood, with Jessica Mannen Kimmet,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Parenting as Complex and Beautiful Vocation, with Holly Taylor Coolman,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“The Joy of Life, with Maggie Garnett,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

The Marian Turn in Newman’s Thought, with Rebekah Lamb

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0400

“It is the one peculiarity of the Christian character to be dependent … It is the Christian’s excellence to be diligent and watchful, and yet to be in spirit dependent; to be willing to serve, and to rejoice in the permission to do so; to be content to view himself in a subordinate place.”

These are words preached by St. John Henry Newman in a sermon on the “Communion of Saints.” He speaks to and indeed proclaims where the true meaning of Christian life is found: it is in receiving from God and responding in tune, or in the words of Jesus in St. Luke’s Gospel: “to hear the Word of God and act on it.” Newman discerned this fundamental obedience as the inner heart of sanctity, but not only that. It was also and surprisingly the inner heart of history, not just an individual’s history, but the world’s history, salvation history. That is a profound and revolutionary thought, if we grasp it. But for Newman, it was not merely a thought; rather, it was first a life, a person, a model … indeed, a mother. It is Mary—first among all the saints—who breaks open in her own unflinching duty before the Word of God, the true meaning of being a contingent and limited creature: a true human being. Everything about her points to her Son, and everything about him reveals her beauty. What Newman discerned is that this exchange is the true meaning of history, which all the saints themselves testify to.

I myself learned to recognize and understand this remarkable truth better by listening to my guest today, Dr. Rebekah Lamb, who is Lecturer in Theology and the Arts in the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She joins me today in studio as part of her visit to Notre Dame to deliver a lecture on “The Marian Turn in Newman’s Thought,” which is the topic of our conversation today.

Follow-up Resources:

“C. S. Lewis on Education and the Theological Imagination, with Rebekah Lamb,” podcast episode via Church Life Journal
“Doctor of the Church for Our Times,” by Rebekah Lamb, essay via Church Life Journal
“It’s More Effective to Attract than to Simply Chastise (on St. Philip Neri),” by Leonard DeLorenzo, essay via Church Life Journal

Introducing the ‘Gender Accompaniment Project’ — Part 2, with Abigail Favale

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode I continue my conversation with Abigail Favale, introducing the new podcast series she created and hosts called “The Gender Accompaniment Project.” If you missed the first part of our conversation, you can link to it in our show notes (or just see the episode that posted immediately before this one in our show’s feed). We are going to talk more now about Abigail’s scholarship and her encounter with the people featured in her new project, and we will eventually end up talking about what is required for conversion in Christ, for all of us.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about The Gender Accompaniment Project and the new podcast
The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, book by Abigail Favale
“The Genesis of Gender, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Sex, Gender, and Feminism, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender,” by Abigail Favale, article via Church Life Journal
“Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Transhumanism and Human Nature, with Mary Harrington,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Introducing the ‘Gender Accompaniment Project’ — Part 1, with Abigail Favale

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0500

What do we do with unmet desires? That is a deeply human question, but one that might not be addressed or attended to if we have a view of life that avoids such difficulty and tension. Some would seek to live the kind of life that tries to fulfill all desires, whenever they emerge. Some others might seek to live in such a way that ignores or tries to suffocate desires because that is seen as something like strength or virtue. Others still might just live a life that has no consistent ethic, so that the question of what to do with our desires—especially our seemingly discordant or contradictory desires—has no central theme or reason.

But Christianity actually calls us to wrestle with such difficult things as directly addressing and even confronting or living with unmet desires. Christianity is, if nothing else, a call to wholeness, to integration, because Christ is, in the words of St. Irenaeus, “the whole man” who brings his disciples to wholeness—to integration—in him.

In the new podcast series created and hosted by Abigail Favale and produced by the McGrath Institute for Church, the venture toward whole and integrated humanity is on offer. “The Gender Accompaniment Project” seeks to both identify a better understanding of the Catholic vision of gender, and attend to the personal stories of Christians who wrestle with gender as they seek Christ. This project is an exercise in encounter: going toward rather than away from points of tension precisely by going toward rather than away from each other in our pursuit of life in Christ.

This is the first of two episodes with my colleague Abigail to introduce this project, which consists of 10 episodes, released in batches. The first of these episodes will appear just about the time this episode which you are listening to now is released. Check out our show notes for ways to connect and listen to “The Gender Accompaniment Project” and for other resources that are sure to be of interest to you.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about The Gender Accompaniment Project and the new podcast
The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, book by Abigail Favale
“The Genesis of Gender, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Sex, Gender, and Feminism, with Abigail Favale,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender,” by Abigail Favale, article via Church Life Journal
“Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Transhumanism and Human Nature, with Mary Harrington,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

AI, Education, and Doing Hard Stuff, with Adam Kronk

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0500

This is the second of two conversations I share with Adam Kronk, the director of Outreach and External Engagement for Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. If you missed the first episode, it was released immediately prior to this one. Thanks for listening in again, or for the first time, to my conversation with Adam. As you either already know or will soon discover, he is an excellent conversation partner.

Follow up resources:

Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good
“The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“What is Man that AI is Mindful of Him,” by Jeffrey Bishop, journal article via Church Life Journal

AI, Ethics, and the Common Good, with Adam Kronk

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0500

The University of Notre Dame received a $50 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to work toward developing a faith-based approach to AI ethics. That grant landed in the university’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, which is spearheading this work. My guest today is the institute’s Director of Research and External Engagement—my good friend Adam Kronk.

Our discussion is about establishing the kind of practice-based formation for promoting human flourishing in the AI age. It is about education, faith communities, and public engagement. It is about becoming ever more intentional about knowing what our ends are and judging our means accordingly. It is about setting the right conditions for responsible and creative agency.

This is the first part of a two-part discussion with Adam, with the second focusing even more intently on issues related to education, under the looming promise of tacos.

Follow up resources:

Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good
“The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“What is Man that AI is Mindful of Him,” by Jeffrey Bishop, journal article via Church Life Journal

Why Literature Still Matters, with Jason Baxter

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:00:00 -0500

If I asked the question “Does literature matter?”, I suspect most people would quickly answer “Yes.” But if I asked “Why does literature matter?”, I think most of us would stutter in response. We probably don’t know how to give an account of the importance of literature, even if we have a sense that it certainly does matter.

Jason Baxter helps us respond to that second, harder question. His book, Why Literature Still Matters is both accessible and profound. In the span of some 80 pages, he gives us ways to not just think and speak about the importance of literature, but also to feel and remember why literature matters.

For some additional conversations with Jason on our show, please see the show notes for links to an episode about Dante, and a second to an episode about C. S. Lewis in relation to Dante and other Medieval thinkers.

Follow-up Resources:

Why Literature Still Matters by Jason Baxter
“The Heartbeat of Dante’s Comedy, with Jason Baxter,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“C.S. Lewis from Dante and the Medieval World, with Jason Baxter,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Augustine on the Psalms, with Josh McManaway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 08:00:00 -0500

Josh McManaway joins me again for the second of a two-part conversation on reading Scripture. This time, we focus on St. Augustine as reader and preacher of the Psalms. Josh teaches us Augustine’s principles for reading the psalms, which Augustine discovers throughout the Psalter, and what motivated Augustine’s engagement with the psalter from the beginning of his priesthood to his final day.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about the preaching program that Josh runs called “Savoring the Mystery”
“The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“What are you doing here?!?! Pontius Pilate in the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Augustine’s Homiletic Meteorology” by John Cavadini, article via Church Life Journal

To Find Christ on Every Page, with Josh McManaway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0500

What would it mean to read Scripture well? At minimum, it would mean reading it as a whole. That sounds like a tall task when you think about it, because there are a lot of pages and many of them feature seemingly uninteresting prose. We might prefer to pick-and-choose our favorite passages, while avoiding other passages or entire books all together. But when we do that, we hear and see far less than is actually there––not merely in terms of just encountering fewer words, but in terms of encountering less of the mystery of Christ on each and every page.

My colleague Josh McManaway both teaches people how to read Scripture well and forms preachers to preach on Scripture well through his Savoring the Mystery program. He joins me today to talk about how to approach the Old Testament, how to read the New Testament more fully, and how to begin to regard the Psalter in all its wondrous variety.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about the preaching program that Josh runs called “Savoring the Mystery”
“The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“What are you doing here?!?! Pontius Pilate in the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

St. Claude, the Jesuits, and the Sacred Heart, with Tim O’Malley

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0500

The saints reveal the fulfillment of Christ’s promises. As I promised a couple episodes back, we want to treat you to a series of reflections on the particular witness of particular saints through a series of episodes on our podcast. These episodes follow from the wildly popular “Saturdays with the Saints” lecture series we host each year on Notre Dame’s campus. For one hour on the morning of Notre Dame home football games, a scholar typically from Notre Dame delivers a public lecture on a saint. We’ve been hosting this series for 15 years now, and this year we focused on “Saints of the Sacred Heart.”

I myself delivered the first lecture this year on St. Margaret Mary and the rebirth of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. The lecture that followed was delivered by friend and colleague, Tim O’Malley. His lecture was on St. Claude de Colombiere, which is especially fitting because St. Claude is the one who made St. Margaret Mary’s visions of the Sacred Heart known to the world. But as Tim taught in his lecture, it matters very much that St. Claude was himself a Jesuit, as was our late Pope Francis who dedicated his last encyclical to the Sacred Heart. And so our conversation about this saint is also about the Spiritual Exercises, daily obedience to God’s will, and the shock of Christ’s personal and particular love for each of us.

Follow-up Resources:

“Providence and Obedience: Colombière, the Jesuits, and the Sacred Heart,” by Tim O’Malley via Church Life Journal
“St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Devotion to the Sacred Heart,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
Learn more about the “Saturdays with the Saints” series: https://mcgrath.nd.edu/events/saturdays-with-the-saints/
“Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Brett Robinson and Abigail Favale” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life Today

A Very Little Office of Compline, with Bo Bonner

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0500

I’m really tempted to open by saying that this episode it is about teaching your children how to die. Now I’m not saying that; all I’m saying is that I thought about saying that so you know it was an option. Why might I have said that? Because, as my guest will share, guiding your children toward the rest and surrender of sleep is, in the grand view, a preparation for death, and even more, of placing your whole self into the hands of God.

So maybe I should start again by saying this episode is about teaching your children to place themselves into the hands of God. That sounds nicer. It is also true because this episode is about introducing children to the basic rhythm of the Church’s night prayer, known as compline. And my guest has written for us a profoundly abbreviated and developmentally appropriate little book for just that purpose.

My friend Bo Bonner is a teacher, speaker, radio host, poet, husband of one and father of five, but he is also a Benedictine Oblate at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma. What he and his artist collaborate have created is a book for children to pray with that brings them into the wisdom and the discipline of Church’s life, as it is mostly subtly and brilliantly expressed in the monastery, in the keeping of liturgical hours. That’s what this episode is about … but it is also really does have to do with teaching your children how to die because it is shaping them in how to live in Christ.

Follow-up Resources:

A Very Little Office of Compline: Night Prayer for Children, by Bo Bonner, illustrated by Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs
“You Gotta Confront What You Are!” by Travis Lacy, article via Church Life Journal
The Church Communications Ecology Program (CCEP) from the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where Bo was a participant in 2022

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Devotion to the Sacred Heart

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Every fall, the McGrath Institute for Church Life hosts the wildly popular “Saturdays with the Saints” lecture series. For one hour on the morning of Notre Dame home football games, a scholar typically from Notre Dame delivers a public lecture on a saint. The room is always full and, in fact, there are auxiliary rooms to hold the overflow crowd. People who gather on campus for football games apparently also really want to learn about the saints. We’ve been hosting this series for 15 years now, and this year we focused on “Saints of the Sacred Heart.”

I want to offer you, our dear listeners, a little taste of this series through our humble podcast. In episodes to come, I’ll talk with some of the lecturers from the 2025 series about the saint of the Sacred Heart that they themselves spoke on. But it is hard to do that with the presenter from the first lecture in this year’s series because that lecturer is me. So, here’s what I’m doing today. I am going to deliver my lecture here, on our podcast. I’ll link in the show notes the few slides I included, but otherwise you will hear what the audience at Saturdays with the Saints heard.

My saint was St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, specifically as the saint who ushered in the rebirth of the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the modern world. I hope you enjoy.

Follow-up Resources:

The slides that accompanied this lecture are available here.
Learn more about the “Saturdays with the Saints” series: https://mcgrath.nd.edu/events/saturdays-with-the-saints/
“Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Brett Robinson and Abigail Favale” (about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus), podcast episode via Church Life Today

What is College Really for? Notre Dame's Experiment in Holistic Education, with Bill Mattison

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0400

What if a university included among its common learning goals for its students, cultivating the practice of disciplined attention and becoming active participants in your holistic formation? That would mean, I suppose, that such a university would be interested and invested in not just what their graduates could do or produce, but also in who they become. Such an education would value the education of the heart alongside and integrated with the education of the mind. This would go a long way toward giving a fresh, persuasive response to the increasingly pressing questions of what is college really for and is it really worth it.

These two learning goals – cultivating the practicing of disciplined attention and becoming active participants in your holistic formation – are in fact the stated goals of the newly launched first-year seminar at the University of Notre Dame. This is a course that every single Notre Dame student takes in their first semester of college, in a seminar setting comprised of 19 students, one instructor, and one peer leader. It is called the Moreau First-Year Seminar, named after the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Blessed Basil Moreau. The seminar seeks to give students a common entry point for their collegiate education, an education that takes seriously the responsibility and privilege of pursuing a life well-lived.

Joining me today to talk about this vision of education and the challenging project of creating a common yet substantive seminar for all undergraduate students is my friend and colleague, Professor Bill Mattison. Bill serves as the academic director of the Moreau Program, in addition to his role as Wilsey College Professor of moral theology and ethics.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about the Moreau First-Year Seminar at https://moreaufirstyear.nd.edu/
“In Search of a Full Life,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Forming an Intentional College Culture, with Joe Wurtz,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Becoming the Adult in the Room, with Sarah Pelrine,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“There is no such thing as winning at life, with Elizabeth Klein,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Emotional Holiness, with Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0400

Have you ever considered the divine plan for your emotions? We might think God’s plan would be for us to get rid of our emotions or ignore them, but the wisdom of the Christian tradition says otherwise. So, too, does the Son of God, who took on our human emotions when he took on our flesh. The key to the divine plan for our emotions lies in integration and alignment, working to direct all parts of ourselves toward the good God intends for us.

But how do we do that? My guest today has spent a considerable amount of time thinking such things, practicing such things, even teaching and preaching on such things. He is Abbot Austin Murphy, a Benedictine monk of St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Illinois, who holds a Ph.D. in theology from Notre Dame. His new book, Emotional Holiness: Discovering the Divine Plan for Your Human Emotions, offers guidance on how to reckon with and direct our emotions, into concord rather than discord with our mind and our will. It is a practical book that is filled with insight.

Follow-up Resources:

Emotional Holiness: Discovering the Divine Plan for Your Human Emotions, by Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB.
“Monastic Life and Human Ecology, with Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Hoops, Hope, and Holiness, with Fr. Pete McCormick, C.S.C.

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Hoops, Hope, and Holiness, with Fr. Pete McCormick, C.S.C.

Everybody at Notre Dame knows Fr. Pete. He’s the director of campus ministry, who’s responsible for leading a team that cares for the spiritual needs of our student body. He lives in a Notre Dame residence hall, where about 250 young men share life – and pranks – together. He’s the chaplain of the Notre Dame men’s basketball team, where he helps guide student-athletes through the privilege and challenges of balancing very busy lives. He’s even the sometimes-DJ for campus events, including live on College Game Day when the show visited campus a couple years ago. But at the heart of it all, he is a Holy Cross priest, dedicated to his prayer and ministry, and to his religious community in the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Fr. Pete and I have been close friends for over 20 years. He joins me today to talk about ministry to our students, chaplaincy to the basketball team, his own vocation, and being fully alive.

Follow-up Resources:

Story about “Fr. Pete” in the Notre Dame Magazine.
Learn more about Campus Ministry at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame Football and Faith, with Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C.

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Fr. Nate Wills has been the chaplain for the Notre Dame football team since 2018. He’s been along for exhilarating triumphs and devastating losses. He’s seen and felt the energy of packed stadiums and the nervous focus of the pregame rituals. He’s watched young men try and fail, then recover and succeed. But through it all, maybe the most important thing of all is simply this: he’s been there. He’s been present. And because of that, he’s witnessed the presence of God in unexpected and otherwise unseen places, and he’s helped other people to take note, too.

After collecting stories of these rich and humbling experiences, Fr. Nate has crafted these stories into short, illuminating reflections for the rest of us. His new book, Pray Like A Champion Today, opens up for us stories of the Notre Dame football program as seen in relation to the Gospel, with a call to prayer. Fr. Nate joins me today to talk about culture, character, and the presence of Christ as seen from the sidelines and beyond.

Follow-up Resources:

Pray Like a Champion Today, by Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C.
Follow ”Pray Like a Champion Today” on Instagram
Check out the hugely popular “Saturdays with the Saints” lecture series, where a public lecture on a saint is offered (in-person, plus available online) every Notre Dame home football Saturday.

C. S. Lewis from Dante and the Medieval World, with Jason Baxter

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Many of us have learned to see the world differently because of C. S. Lewis. But how did Lewis learn to see the world the way he did? From whom did he learn to see the marriage of the spiritual and material, of heavenly things right along with scientific things? If we go in search of answers to such questions, we find ourselves plunged into the Medieval world and encountering, among others, Dante.

In his book, The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis, Jason Baxter helps us uncover the influence of great books on Lewis’s great mind. Dr. Baxter joins me to continue our conversation which began on his work of translating Dante, to move now from Dante to Lewis, who was himself a man who lived in modern times but was not of those times.

Follow-up Resources:

The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind, by Jason M. Baxter
Learn more about Dr. Baxter’s work at https://www.jasonmbaxter.com/

The Heartbeat of Dante’s Comedy, with Jason Baxter

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Translating Dante is not a matter of rendering words in one language for words in another language. Indeed, no act of translation is so direct or basic. But as with Dante’s Comedy when the style itself is part of the art – the sound of the thing, the movement, the embodiment – the translator needs to feel as much as think, relying on sense along with knowledge. Why? Because the hope of giving us – the readers of a translation – an encounter with the great good found in the art depends on the more holistic, more full-bodied work of scholarship and personality, at once.

Jason Baxter has studied Dante for years and written on him before, including with his marvelous and illuminating book, A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy. Now he is completing the work of translating the master’s poem for English readers that brings us into not just what the poem says, but what it feels like.

Follow-up Resources:

Inferno, A New Translation by Jason M. Baxter
Purgatorio, A New Translation by Jason M. Baxter
A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy, by Jason M. Baxter
Learn more about Dr. Baxter’s work at https://www.jasonmbaxter.com/

A Pilgrim’s Thirst, special episode

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0400

On our last episode, I welcomed two of our Sullivan Undergraduate Saints Fellows to talk about the pilgrimage through France that our cohort completed at the start of summer. The final destination on that pilgrimage was Lourdes. As follow up to that episode, I want to share with all of you a relatively short reflection on thirst. In particular, I want to talk about a pilgrim’s thirst. But in the end, I really want to talk about the waters of Lourdes.

Follow-up Resources:

Read this episode in article form at OSV Magazine under “A thirsty American pilgrim drinks his fill at Lourdes” by Leonard J. DeLorenzo
The Song of Bernadette, by Franz Wurfel
Learn more about the Sullivan Undergraduate Saints Fellowship
“Pilgrimage and the Urgent Question of Faith,” by Leonard J. DeLorenzo, essay in the Church Life Journal
“A pilgrimage of sacred art,” by Leonard J. DeLorenzo, article in Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly

“Encountering Christ on Pilgrimage, with Joan Watson,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

A Saints Pilgrimage, with Two Notre Dame Student Leaders

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Arising from the McGrath Institute for Church Life, the Sullivan Undergraduate Saints Fellowship forms Notre Dame students as leaders in the study and spirituality of the saints. We launched this fellowship in 2025 with an inaugural cohort of 12 students selected from a pool of many, many applicants. As part of their fellowship, our saints fellows completed a course this past semester (with yours truly) on praying with the saints. Next year they will become leaders of other undergraduate students, as they form groups of students who pray together and serve together in a manner common to a saint each fellow selects. But in between the course they complete and the year of leadership they undertake, the whole cohort of 12 fellows, along with me and a chaplain, make a pilgrimage to immerse ourselves in the cultures that gave rise to particular saints––cultures which, in turn, these saints renewed and enriched. This year’s pilgrimage was to France, specifically: Paris, Chartres, Lisieux, LeMans, Tours, and Lourdes.

Today, two of our Sullivan Undergraduate Saints Fellows join me to talk about the meaning and significance of this pilgrimage with the saints. Macy Vance is a rising junior and Kate Apelian is a rising senior at Notre Dame, but really I should let them introduce themselves.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about the Sullivan Undergraduate Saints Fellowship
Check out the wildly popular “Saturdays with the Saints” lecture series
“Pilgrimage and the Urgent Question of Faith,” by Leonard J. DeLorenzo, essay in the Church Life Journal
“A pilgrimage of sacred art,” by Leonard J. DeLorenzo, article in Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly
“Saints who flew, with Carlos Eire,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Encountering Christ on Pilgrimage, with Joan Watson,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Saints, for Real, with Meg Hunter-Kilmer,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“The Theology of the Saints, with Katie Cavadini and Leonard DeLorenzo,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Our Faithful Departed, special episode

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Hi everyone. For today’s episode I do not have a guest joining me; instead, I am just going to share with you directly. You see, my dad died a few weeks ago and just last week we celebrated his funeral Mass. I’ve written a few books over the years and I dedicated one of those books to my dad, who raised me. That book is about fostering communion with our beloved dead. The beloved dead now include my dad. So what I wanted to do today is share with you a portion of the book in remembrance of my dad, specifically the book’s brief epilogue where I highlight five pastoral priorities for this communal task of fostering communion with the dead. These are priorities for those of us who mourn, for those who accompany – or should accompany – those who mourn, for families, for parishes. The book’s is title Our Faithful Departed: Where They Are and Why It Matters, published by Ave Maria Press in 2022. After I share the epilogue with its five priorities with you, I then read my dad’s obituary, which I wrote.

Follow-up Resources

Our Faithful Departed: Where They Are and Why It Matters, by Leonard J. DeLorenzo
Our Faithful Departed Discussion Guide, a free resource for parishes, schools, families and friends.
“Heaven in the Midst of Death, with Laura Kelly Fanucci,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Life is changed but something ended, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Life in Death in Life, with Robert Cording,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Praying for the Dead, with John Cavadini,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Working for the Inklings, with Three Belmont University Students

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 19 May 2025 16:00:00 -0400

In our previous episode of Church Life Today, I was joined by Professor Christie Kleinmann of Belmont University, who talked with me about her fascinating and truly original course on Strategic Public Relations for the Inklings (specifically, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Dorothy Sayers). This is a follow up to that previous excellent episode where things get even better because today I am joined by three of Professor Kleinmann’s undergraduate students.

Ryleigh Green is a senior at Belmont University who was part of the C. S. Lewis group in Professor Kleinmann’s class.

Jed Mangrum is a sophomore at Belmont who was part of the Tolkien group.

And Adriana Alosno is a junior at Belmont who was part of the Dorothy Sayers group.

I’ve done a lot of podcast episodes over the years, and this one is one of my favorites. Enjoy.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about The Inklings Project. Interested in applying as a fellow for 2026–26? Check out the call for applications here (due July 1, 2025).
Check out the Dorothy Sayers Instagram account from the Sayers group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.
Check out the C. S. Lewis Instagram account from the Lewis group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.
Check out the J. R. R. Tolkien Instagram account from the Tolkien group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.
Find syllabi from Inklings Project fellows in our free syllabus repository.

Read and subscribe to the “Inklings Quarterly.”

Habemus Papam, with John Cavadini

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 -0400

“Habemus Papam.” We have a pope. We have a papa. We have a father.

The announcement of a new pope is a startlingly joyous and even spellbinding moment, when not just the faithful but also many who seemingly have no interest in the Church stop and cheer together. What is being proclaimed? What is the significance of the pope for the Church and, through the Church, for the world? What are we all struck by when the announcement echoes through the arms of St. Peter’s square to every corner of the world?

John Cavadini joins me today to talk about the announcement of the election of Pope Leo XIV. We hope this conversation offers you something a little different than what the typical news commentary on this historic occasion offers.

Public Relations for C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dorothy Sayers, with Christie Kleinmann

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 05 May 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Have you ever thought about becoming a brand expert for C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien? On the one hand, these seem like authors who need no introduction. On the other hand, how many people today really know the work of these towering 20th Century authors, beyond what made its way onto the silver screen? And what about one of the authors closely associated with them – Dorothy Sayers – who is far from well known in the general public but whose work is of similar creative and literary quality with her more famous friends and interlocutors?

Maybe you haven’t ever thought about launching a public relations campaign for one of these authors for the sake of a modern audience of young adults, but my guest today has. She is Christie Kleinmann, Professor of Public Relations at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Professor Kleinmann is one of a dozen fellows in our second annual cohort of the Inklings Project, run out of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Along with the other eleven fellows who come from colleges and universities across the United States and in four foreign countries, Professor Kleinmann developed and offered a new course this spring that draws the work of the Inklings into her own area of expertise: strategic public relations. The students in her course were divided into three semester-long groups, which each took as their “clients” one of these three Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien, and Sayers.

Today, Professor Kleinmann joins me to talk about the project of her course, the relevance of the Inklings, and the creativity of her students.

This is the first of a two-episode set. The second episode will feature three of Professor Kleinmann’s students, one from each of the three Inklings groups.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about The Inklings Project. Interested in applying as a fellow for 2026–26? Check out the call for applications here (due July 1, 2025).
Check out the Dorothy Sayers Instagram account from the Sayers group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.
Check out the C. S. Lewis Instagram account from the Lewis group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.
Check out the J. R. R. Tolkien Instagram account from the Tolkien group in Prof. Kleinmann’s course.
Find syllabi from Inklings Project fellows in our free syllabus repository.

Read and subscribe to the “Inklings Quarterly.”

The Evangelizing Brilliance and Errors of Matteo Ricci, with Anthony Clark

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0400

When we say the name “God”, have we assumed too quickly that we know what we mean? We use that word quite regularly, without much strain or prolonged consideration, as if the meaning of the word were self-evident. But what if you had to explain – indeed, translate – the word “God” into a language that had no such concept? That would force you, I think, to really reckon with what you mean and what you assume when you use that word: the name, “God”.

That is not merely an intellectual exercise; that was in fact the experience of the 16th and 17th Century Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci. His primary mission was to China, where he strove to bring and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who often had not only a different language but also a different imaginary landscape than that which European Christians were accustomed to.

In our episode today, the eminent scholar of the Sino-Western Exchange, Professor Anthony Clark, talks with me about Matteo Ricci, evangelization, inculturation, and the legacy of dialogue. Anthony Clark is Professor of Chinese History at Whitworth University, where he also holds the Edward B. Lindaman Endowed Chair, and he directs the Oxford Lewis-Tolkien Program, the Rome History and Culture Program, the area of Asian Studies, and the Study in China Program. He joins me today, in studio, while visiting Notre Dame to deliver a lecture titled “In the Footsteps of Dialogue: China and the Legacy of Matteo Ricci.”

Follow-up Resources:

Find out more about Professor Anthony Clark at his website: https://anthonyeclark.squarespace.com/
China's Saints: Catholic Martyrdom During the Qing (1644–1911), by Anthony Clark
“China’s Religious Awakening after Mao,” by Ian Johnson, article in Church Life Journal
“Religion in China, with Ian Johnson,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Healing Wounds, with Bishop Erik Varden

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0400

By his wounds. His wounds are the source of healing. Our wounds are the wounds that are healed by his wounds. Our wounds may even become the source of healing for others because we have been healed by his wounds. What an unimaginable mystery. Wounds heal. Healing from wounds. Have we considered the magnificence or the near-unbelievability of this reality?

Let’s put that question another way: “By what means may I understand and experience Christ’s wounds not just in juridical terms, as the providential means by which God chose to ‘take away’ sin, but as the living source of a remedy by which sin is cured and humanity’s wounds, my wounds, are healed?” By what means may I understand and experience that? Indeed, that is the central question in the book my guest today has authored. The book is Healing Wounds, and the author is Bishop Erik Varden, a Cistercian monk who is bishop of Trondheim, Norway.

In addition to Healing Wounds, Bishop Varden is author of other works like Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses and The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance. Bishop Varden joins me today in studio during a longer teaching and lecturing visit to the University of Notre Dame.

Follow-up Resources:

Healing Wounds, by Bishop Erik Varden
Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses, by Bishop Erik Varden
The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance, by Bishop Erik Varden

Edge of Belief: UFO’s, Technology, and the Catholic Imagination, with Brett Robinson

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0400

How should Catholics think about UFOs? How can the Church respond to evolving scientific discoveries? What are the boundaries for Catholic belief?

These are the kinds of questions at the heart of a new documentary short film produced by The McGrath Institute for Church Life. "Edge of Belief: UFOs, Technology & The Catholic Imagination," explores the outer limits of belief.

Today, the film’s producer, who is also my friend and colleague, Professor Brett Robinson, joins me to talk about this project: its aims, its audience, and its intrigue.

Follow-up Resources:

"Edge of Belief: UFOs, Technology & The Catholic Imagination,"
“The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“A Very Short Introduction to the History of Catholic Debates about the Multiverse and Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” by Paul Thigpen, article at Church Life Journal
“What Can Catholic Theology Say about Extraterrestrials,” by Chris Baglow, article at Church Life Journal

Marian Preaching Competition, with Msgr. Michael Heintz

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0500

The McGrath Institute for Church Life, together with the John S. and Virginia Marten Program in Homiletics and Liturgics, is hosting a homily contest on preaching the Blessed Virgin Mary. We invite ordained Catholic bishops, priests, and deacons to submit a five-to-seven-minute homily (in either English or Spanish) for one of three Marian solemnities: the Annunciation (March 25), the Assumption (August 15), or the Immaculate Conception (December 8).

Winning homilies will draw on a homiletic methodology that brings together careful treatment of Scripture (including the lectionary and the various propers of the Mass of the day) with a spiritual exegesis that unveils the meaning of the Marian feast for the lives of the faithful today. We have more information about this competition and means for submitting homilies in our show notes for this episode.

Today on the show, Msgr. Michael Heintz of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend and Notre Dame’s Department of Theology joins me to talk about the craft of preaching, the importance of Mary in the life of the Church, and renewing the sacramental imagination of the faithful.

Follow-up Resources:

Announcing the Preaching Mary Homiletic Competition. Submissions should be emailed to ndcl@nd.edu no later than March 25, 2025.
The Marten Program at the University of Notre Dame.
Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness, by Richard B. Hays (mentioned in the episode)
“On the Formation of Future Priest, with Msgr. Michael Heintz,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture, with Abigail Favale

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Thirty years ago, in both Evangelium Vitae and his Letter to Women, John Paul II issued a clear call for the genius of women to be “more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole, as well as in the life of the Church” (Letter to Women 10). Throughout his papacy, in fact, JPII emphasized women’s “prophetic character,” calling on them to be “witnesses” and “sentinels” — guardians of the sacred gift of life and the order of love (Mulieris Dignitatem 29; Homily at Lourdes 2004).

This vision for women, clarified and proclaimed in the late twentieth century especially, has yet to be fully realized. Catholics in contemporary America face distorted narratives about women from both poles of our divided culture. By revisiting and extending John Paul II's thought we come upon the opportunity to offer a positive countervision to, on the one hand, the growing anti-feminism in some Catholic circles and, on the other hand, the widely-held perception that the Church is anti-woman.

The McGrath Institute for Church Life is hosting a conference that aims to help develop that positive countervision.

“True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture” will take place March 26 to March 28, 2025, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. It boasts a stellar roster of speakers, including Helen Alvare, Sr. Ann Astell, Erika Bachiochi, Angela Franks, Sarah Denny Lorio, Sr. Theresa Alethia Noble, Leah Libresco Sargeant, and my guest today, Abigail Favale. Abigail and I are colleagues in the McGrath Institute, and she is the conference convener and orgranizer.

Registration for the “True Genius” conference is now open, and we have links to more conference information and registration available in our show notes.

Show Notes:

“True Genius: The Mission of Women in Church and Culture” conference information and registration
“Can the Feminine Speak?” by Abigail Favale, article in Church Life Journal
“Hildegard of Bingen’s Vital Contribution to the Concept of Woman,” by Abigail Favale, article in Church Life Journal
“No Woman Is Only Woman: Distilling the Feminine Genius from Stereotypes,” interview with Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble on The Catholic Woman

Church Life Today Rewind: C.S. Lewis's ‘The Great Divorce’: a discussion with Josh McManaway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0500

You can’t take a souvenir from Hell into Heaven; likewise, you can’t fit the realities of Heaven into Hell. That is Gospel truth for C. S. Lewis, especially as he imagines the separation between Heaven and Hell, vice and virtue, corrupt loves and the fullness of joy in his brief, brilliant eschatological novel, The Great Divorce.

As we make the turn from Lent and Passion Week to the glory of Easter, Josh McManaway returns to the program to share a conversation with Leonard DeLorenzo about a book they both love.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about The Inklings Project, a new intercollegiate initiative that invites people to pursue meaning and joy by entering the world of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the other Inklings at inklingsproject.org.
“Giving Up Descartes for Lent,” by Josh McManaway, essay in Church Life Journal
The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis, edited by Leonard J. DeLorenzo (Ignatius Press, 2022)

Praise Her in the Gates: Telling the Pro-Life Story, with Brian Kennedy

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0500

“The Gospel is not some vague palliative, it’s a man raised from the dead.” The Pro-Life Movement has, for several decades now, remembered the dead, principally those children lost to abortion, with a hope for a new culture of life raised from those tragedies. And yet the story of the Pro-Life Movement is primarily told by its enemies, who regularly reduce the movement to caricatures and sound-bites, leveling into a collection angry objections and hostile tactics. The story of the pro-life movement––both its past and its present unfolding into the future––has not really been told as a coherent and full narrative. And so my guest today and his collaborators have set out to chronicle America in the age of abortion and emphasize the response of the pro-life movement as an unparalleled model for social and political resistance. It is a work that seeks to reckon with our dead in obedience to the man raised from the dead.

Praise Her in the Gates – Dispatches for a Pro-Life Nation is a longform (multi-episode, multi-season) audio journal released on January 22, 2025. Its creator, the artist Brian Kennedy, joins me today to talk about the original work and what it offers to us, whether we count ourselves as members of the pro-life movement or not. It is a work arising from the Catholic imagination, with which things otherwise neglected or forgotten are perceived, revered, mourned, and praised.

Follow-up Resources:

Lydwine Substack, home of Praise Her in the Gates (first episodes released January 25, 2025)
“The Ghost Outside,” essay by Brian Kennedy
“Vandals at the Golden Gate, Part One,” essay by Brian Kennedy
“How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 1, with Tricia Bruce,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 2, with Tricia Bruce,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Mary O’Callaghan on Disability Selective Abortions,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

The Next Wave of Artificial Intelligence and Our Humanity, with Stephanie DePrez

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Agentic AI is a term that will be new to many people. If we were to think of artificial intelligence in waves, the first wave was about making predictions and the second wave was about generating content. This third wave, known as Agentic AI, is far more sophisticated. It is about AI agents performing complex tasks and making decisions. That might sound like the beginning of a dystopian novel or an apocalyptic film, but in reality it has much more to do with how we engage in the consumer marketplace or with service providers, or really just about how we go through our day-to-day lives doing our day-to-day tasks.

Our episode today is the beginning of a conversation about what is taking place with the increasing integration of AI into our society and, in light of this, what is important for our own human and interpersonal development. My guest is my longtime friend who has been on our podcast before, Stephanie DePrez. For the past couple years, Stephanie has been working for a company investing heavily in Agentic AI, while also continuing to pursue her career in opera and comedy in Germany. She reached out to me after listening to our recent episodes on the encyclical Dilexit Nos, which is of course all about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to talk about what the growth in Agentic AI means for our humanity.

Follow-up Resources:

“Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“In Search of a Full Life: A Spiritual and Practical Guide,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Life is changed but something ended, with Stephanie DePrez,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
Find out more about Stephanie DePrez’s work in opera, comedy, voice coaching, and writing at stephaniedeprez.com.
“What is Man that AI Is Mindful of Him?”, by Jeffrey Bishop, essay via Church Life Journal

How Many Students Are Studying Theology?!, with Anthony Pagliarini

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0500

When people hear about the undergraduate theology program at the University of Notre Dame they are genuinely astonished. They had no idea that that many students were choosing to study theology. Each year, the number of students grows. What is going on? Why are students so interested? What does this tell us about evangelization, and hope for the Church, in the Church?

My guest today is my friend and colleague, Professor Anthony Pagliarini, who is the director of the undergraduate theology program at Notre Dame. In this capacity, not only does he teach hundreds of students annually in the classroom, he also meets with, learns from, and advises all the students who declare theology majors or minors at Notre Dame. He’ll help us learn about what is going on in Notre Dame’s theology program and why it is happening.

Follow-up Resources:

Notre Dame Theology Department website
“What happened to these Catholic college students after they took a required theology course,” article in Aleteia by Leonard DeLorenzo
“Encouraging students to ‘Take a Second Look’ at Notre Dame,” about a new initiative with Notre Dame theology to re-propose the Catholic faith

Rethinking Sex, with Christine Emba

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0500

For years now, modern-day sexual ethics has held that “anything goes” when it comes to sex—as long as everyone says yes, and does so enthusiastically. So why, even when consent has been ascertained, are so many sexual experiences filled with frustration and disappointment, even shame?

The truth is that the rules that make up today’s consent-only sexual code may actually be the cause of the sexual malaise—not the solution. In Rethinking Sex, reporter Christine Emba shows how consent is a good ethical floor but a terrible ceiling. She spells out the cultural, historical, and psychological forces that have warped the idea of sex, what is permitted, and what is considered “safe.”

Reaching back to the wisdom of thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and Andrea Dworkin, and drawing from sociological studies, interviews with college students, and poignant examples from her own life, Emba calls for a more humane philosophy, one that starts with consent but accounts for the very real emotional, mental, social, and spiritual implications of sex.

With a target audience that clearly includes sexually active young adults, Emba tries to help us imagine what it means to will the good of others and thereby discover greater affirmation and fulfillment.

Follow-up Resources:

Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, by Christine Emba
“In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, with J.P. DeGance,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Letter to a Young Catholic: How to have sex,” article by Leonard J. DeLorenzo in Our Sunday Visitor
“The End of Friendship, with Jennifer Senior,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Saints Who Flew, with Carlos Eire

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 13:00:00 -0500

Flying is impossible. Well, not strictly impossible, because we fly in airplanes and hot air balloons, but you know what I mean: human beings can’t fly. It’s impossible.

Except here’s the thing: a good number of people –– hundreds, maybe thousands –– have sworn, upon penalty of damnation, that they have witnessed people flying, or at least levitating. People like Teresa of Avila and Joseph of Cupertino. About saints like these, a nearly overwhelming number of testimonies say the same thing over and over: “they flew”.

If flying is impossible, then the history of saints who flew is a history of the impossible. And that is the book my guest wrote. The book is They Flew: A History of the Impossible. The author and my guest is the esteemed scholar Dr. Carlos Eire, the T. L. Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University.

Professor Eire joined us at the University of Notre Dame to deliver a lecture in our Saturdays with the Saints series, and a link to the recording of that lecture is included in this episode’s show notes.

Follow-up Resources:

They Flew: A History of the Impossible, by Carlos Eire
Saturdays with the Saints lecture.
“The Trouble with Levitation and Bilocation,” by Carlos Eire, journal article in Church Life Journal

Dilexit Nos – Part 2, a conversation with Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Notre Dame professors Abigail Favale and Brett Robinson join me today to talk about Pope Francis’s new encyclical, Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. This is the second of two conversations on the encyclical that we are featuring on Church Life Today, each with faculty colleagues of mine from the McGrath Institute for Church Life. In this episode, we will talk about poetry and symbolism, artificial intelligence and algorithms, the importance of memory, the human person as a living union, and more.

Abigail Favale is Professor of the Practice at Notre Dame, where her academic expertise brings her to the intersection of theology, literature, and women’s studies.

Brett Robinson is Associate Director of Outreach and Associate Professor of the Practice in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. He leads a number of initiatives in our institute, especially ones related to Catholic media studies.

Follow-up Resources:

Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ
Part 1 of the conversation on the new encyclical, with Melissa Moschella and Joshua McManaway, podcast episode via Church Life Today
“The Sacred Heart of the New Encyclical,” by Leonard DeLorenzo, essay in Church Life Journal
“Some Human Beings Carry Remnants of Other Human Beings in Their Bodies,” by Kristin Collier, essay in Church Life Journal
On the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Sisters of Carmel

Dilexit Nos – Part 1, a conversation with Joshua McManaway and Melissa Moschella

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:00:00 -0400

Notre Dame professors Melissa Moschella and Joshua McManaway join me today to talk about Pope Francis’s new encyclical, Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. The encyclical is a call to renew our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, thereby, to become more fully, more completely, more authentically human, especially in our love for God and love of neighbor. This conversation is the first of two that we will host on our show with my faculty colleagues in the McGrath Institute for Church Life, each of whom has a distinct area of expertise.

Melissa Moschella is the newest member of our McGrath Institute for Church Life faculty, where she is Professor of the Practice. She is a philosopher whose work spans the fields of ethics, political philosophy, and law, as well as natural law theory, biomedical ethics, and the family.

Josh McManaway has joined me on several episodes before. He is Assistant Professor of the Practice in the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where he is also the program director of the Savoring the Mystery preaching program, and academic director of the “Take a Second Look” initiative, which helps young adults rediscover the beauty and riches of Catholicism. A theologian, Josh is an expert on the Early Church and is currently finishing up a book on the Apostles’ Creed.

Follow-up Resources:

Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ
"The Sacred Heart of the New Encyclical," by Leonard DeLorenzo, essay in Church Life Journal
“Praying into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with Fr. Joe Laramie,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
Five-part series on the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Leonard DeLorenzo, via Our Sunday Visitor
- Part 1: “Contemplating the Mysteries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”
- Part 2: “Five Ways to Foster Devotion...”
- Part 3: “How to Conform to the Love of Jesus”
- Part 4: “Meet the Saints Devoted to...”
- Part 5: “What Is Behind the Theology of the Sacred Heart?”
“Are Jansenists Among Us?” by Sean Blanchard in Church Life Journal
On the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Sisters of Carmel

The Catholicity of Montessori Education, with Beth Capdevielle

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 20:00:00 -0400

In her 1936 book, The Secret of Childhood, Maria Montessori writes that “We must wake up to the great reality that children have a psychic life whose delicate manifestations escape notice and whose pattern of activity can be unconsciously disrupted by adults.” The approach to education that Montessori established sought to remove such unnecessary disruptions while cultivating a fruitful environment wherein children could discover the world, grow toward the maturation of their God-given capacities, and experience the wonder and responsibility of real freedom.

Montessori schools have since been established all across the United States and indeed across the world, including here in my own hometown of South Bend, Indiana. The conversation on our episode today will focus on one such school, Saint Joseph Montessori, which is in fact a Catholic Montessori school for children ages 2.5 to 6.

My guest is Dr. Elizabeth Capdevielle, who is a board member of Saint Joseph Montessori, and who, as a trained Montessori educator, will help us learn more about the Montessori approach, the anthropological underpinnings of this education, and the correspondence of Montessori education to a Catholic vision of the world and the human person.

In addition to serving on the board at Saint Joseph Montessori, Beth is an assistant teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches in the University Writing Program.

Follow-up Resources:

Saint Joseph Montessori, South Bend, IN
“Joy and Parenting,” by Claire Fyrvquist, Co-founder of St. Joseph Montessori, journal article in Church Life Journal
The Secret of Childhood, by Maria Montessori
The Absorbent Mind: A Classic Education and Child Development for Educators and Parents, by Maria Montessori
“Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, with Mary Mirrione,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

The episode is sponsored by Saints Mary’s Press, smp.org/bibles.

The Vigil Project, with Andrew Goldstein

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0400

The Vigil Project is a nonprofit Catholic apostolate and collective of musical artists dedicated to leading people to an encounter with God through music. Their work stretches from the liturgy to everyday life, from Sunday worship and Feast Days to Tuesday afternoons waiting in a carpool line. Their goal is to offer and support excellence and reverence in music in all of these moments. The Vigil Project has ten albums available, they create communities for Catholic musicians, and they offer retreats and courses for musicians and music leaders.

Today the Vigil Project’s Director of Mission Advancement joins me to talk about the work of their apostolate and the people they serve. Andrew Goldstein is himself a Catholic musician who, for ten years, served as a church music director. Before coming to the Vigil Project, he co-founded Seattle’s critically acclaimed chamber music series, Emerald City Music. He has also led chamber music festivals, and worked to guide orchestras and opera houses.

After our conversation today, stick around till the very end of this episode so you can hear one of the devotional songs that Andrew shared with us from The Vigil Project, one which appears on their album “True Presence.”

Follow-up Resources:

Visit The Vigil Project online at thevigilproject.com.
The Vigil Project’s monthly newsletter is available at thevigilproject.com/subscribe
Learn about the Catholic Musician Community at catholicmusician.org.
The song at the end of this episode comes from the album, “True Presence.” Stream that album on any service, here. Their full catalog of music is available at thevigilproject.com/listen
Learn more about the Catholic Musician Retreat at thevigilproject.com/catholic-musician-retreat
Learn more about the Meaning of Music film project at thevigilproject.com/meaningofmusic

Graham Greene’s ‘The End of the Affair’: a discussion with Josh McManaway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0400

College students really love The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. Both Josh McManaway and I have taught this book in undergraduate courses, with great success. Josh has used this book in a theology course on “Conversion,” and I have used it in a course on “The Catholic Imagination.” Since Josh and I really enjoyed creating an episode earlier this year about C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, we wanted to create this episode about another book we both love, and our students love, too. So here’s our discussion on The End of the Affair.

Follow-up Resources:

“C.S. Lewis’s ‘The Great Divorce’: a discussion with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Quantity and the Politics of Prayer,” by Chase Padusniak, essay via Church Life Journal (dealing, in part, with The End of the Affair)

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), which Josh and Lenny cite in this episode.

What Young Adults Are Seeking in Faith and Life, with Jeff Keuss

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 19:00:00 -0400

Purpose and meaning, healing and growth, community and fellowship—these values have traditionally been found in church. Though they are leaving the pews in droves, young adults are still seeking these spiritual benefits. Based on five years of qualitative and quantitative research,Defiant Hope, Active Love offers practical recommendations for making faith communities more hospitable to the next generation. The editor of the book and lead researcher in the project joins me today to talk about his team’s findings and where to go from here.

Jeff Keuss is a professor of Christian ministry, theology, and culture at Seattle Pacific University, where he also previously served as director of the University Scholars Honors Program and associate dean of graduate studies for the seminary.

Follow-up Resources:

Defiant Hope, Active Love: What Young Adults Are Seeking in Places of Work, Faith, and Community, edited by Jeff Keuss
Pivot NW Research, where you can find more about the study, the book, and additional resources.
“In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Rethinking Work, with Paul Blaschko,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Becoming the Adult in the Room, with Sarah Pelrine,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationship, with J.P. De Gance,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, with J.P. De Gance

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Wouldn’t it be fascinating if the most current social science research discovered not some new and unheard-of things but rather ancient and even biblical truths? The nonprofit organization Communio is reporting that this is indeed what is happening. Through their Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, they have found that family structure is the most important indicator for the religious commitment of those raised in that home. Alongside that, of course, we regularly find people who do better in school, who are more successful in work, who are healthier, and who can manage relationships better on their own. It is as if we humans were created for stable, committed relationships and called to procreate from this marital commitment.

J.P. De Gance, the founder and president of Communio, joins me today to discuss the work he and his team have been doing and how their work can help equip churches to evangelize through healthy relationships and marriage. J.P. is also the co-author of the book, Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America. You can find out more about J.P. and Communio at their website, communio.org.

Follow-up Resources:

Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationship from Communio
Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America by John Van Epp and J.P. De Gance.
“The State of the Family in America, with Brad Wilcox,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Parenting as Complex and Beautiful Vocation, with Holly Taylor Coolman

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400

“The call to parenting will never be an easy one. To have your heart walk around outside your body means that your heart will be bumped and bruised along the way. It is not a vocation to be pursued in isolation. What parents need is a network of support, a village.” So begins the epilogue of Holly Taylor Coolman’s new book, Parenting: The Complex and Beautiful Vocation of Raising Children. What she presents in her wise, practical, and spiritually enriching work is a vision for cherishing children as a gift and guest. To do this, we must learn how to depend on and draw life from others, while creating a community where we share in the responsibility for one another’s wellbeing. Holly joins me today to talk about this call to parenting, the ongoing discernment necessary for responding to that call, and the challenges and blessings of raising children and caring for other peoples’ children in today’s day and age.

Follow-up Resources:

Parenting: The Complex and Beautiful Vocation of Raising Children, by Holly Taylor Coolman.
“The Church’s Call to Foster Care, with Holly Taylor Coolman,” podcast episode via Church Life Today.
“Amid Plagues: The Church’s Call to Foster Care and More,” by Holly Taylor Coolman, article in Church Life Journal.
“The Invention of Parenting,” by Holly Taylor Coolman, article in Church Life Journal.

Prioritizing Faith in College

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0400

In this special episode, we share nine practical tips for how to prioritize faith when you go off to college. This is different than just trying to “keep your faith,” which is itself possibly a losing proposition. Rather than trying to “keep” something you are afraid of losing, focus on stretching, enriching, and building on what you already have, just like you stretch, enrich, and build on what you learned in high school classes when you go into college classes.

While this episode is directed specifically to young adults who may be going off to college (either for the first time or returning for a new year), it is also beneficial for young adults who are doing something other than college, or for not-so-young-adults who live in the world in other ways.

Follow-up Resources:

“Nine Ways to Kickstart Your Faith in College,” by Leonard DeLorenzo. This is the essay on which this episode is built, which also includes interviews with college students and alums.
In Search of a Full Life: A Spiritual and Practical Guide, by Leonard DeLorenzo.
“Forming an Intentional College Culture, with Joe Wurtz,” podcast episode via Church Life Today.
“Becoming the Adult in the Room, with Sarah Pelrine,” podcast episode via Church Life Today.

The Monastery, the Boardroom, and Daily Life, with John Cannon

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0400

“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these other things will be given to you besides.” When the Lord speaks to his disciples about anxieties, about busyness, about the hustle and bustle of the world, he does not lead them to abandon everything and run away; rather, he leads them to put the first thing first, and allow everything to come into the proper place thereafter. The life of integration, of wholeness, indeed of true holiness is rooted in putting God first and giving Him the authority to form you, guide you, and send you on mission. The monastic tradition has long offered pathways to this ordered, harmonious, rightly prioritized life, building communities where God is pursued first and in all things, while work and play and rest and learning and daily needs are organized with this first and truly necessary thing. But for those of us who do not enter monastic life, who live in the midst of the world with worldly anxieties and busyness and the hustle and bustle, we might think ourselves cut off from that wisdom.

Enter my guest today: John Cannon. He knows his way around the world, but he was significantly and definitively formed in a Carmelite monastery, where he was a monk for seven years. His mission now is to bring the order and harmony of the monastery, the fruits of that integrated life lived for and with the Lord, into the world. In particular, he serves and works with Catholic CEOs, founders, and investors to help them grow their ventures and their faith. He also launched Monk Mindset, which offers all of us, regardless of our jobs or stations in life, the opportunity to incorporate the simplicity, order, and harmony of the monastic life into our everyday lives.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn about SENT Ventures, which helps you lead your business with the collective wisdom of a faith-aligned community.
Find information about the SENT Summit 2024, which will take place September 3–6, 2024, in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Visit Monk Mindset, where you can sign up for a weekly newsletter, find a guide for building your daily and weekly schedule in alignment with monastic wisdom, and begin to seek greater order, harmony, and simplicity.
“Monastic Life and Human Ecology, with Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“You Gotta Confront Who You Are!” by Travis Lacy, article in Church Life Journal

Behold God’s Love: A Eucharistic Musical, with Carolyn Pirtle

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0400

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit” (John 15:5).

Disciples are Christ’s branches. We grow from him. His life courses through us. The fruit we bear is the sign of his love.

As the Eucharistic Revival in the United States reaches its culmination this summer, we at Notre Dame are marking the occasion in a special way, with the performance of an original, three-act musical called “Behold God’s Love.” The first of the three acts is “Root”, which draw us into the Book of Exodus, where we encounter the Passover and the Manna in the Desert. The second act is “Vine,” which focuses on the Last Supper and Jesus’ meal ministry. And the third act is “Branches,” where we join the early Christian community at Corinth to receive the Eucharistic teaching and gift.

Today, the creator and composer of this new musical joins me to talk about what we can expect and how we will benefit, in our faith and reverence, from enjoying this work of art. Carolyn Pirtle is Program Director of the Center for Liturgy, here in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. She and her cast are preparing this musical now, which will be performed twice on July 6, 2024, both at 1pm and at 7pm in the O’Laughlin Auditorium at Saint Mary’s College. It is a free but ticketed event, and you can get your tickets before they run out at the link in our show notes.

Follow-up Resources:

Find more information about and tickets for “Behold God’s Love”
“Eucharistic Beliefs among Adult Catholics, with Tim O’Malley,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Preparing for First Communion, Part 2: The Passover and the Last Supper,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Rekindling Eucharistic Amazement, with Jem Sullivan,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“The Passion, with J.J. Wright,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

This episode is sponsored by Catholic Charities USA. Help Catholic Charities serve your neighbors in need. Join us at www.WeAreThere.US

From Possessiveness to Gratitude, with Tania Geist

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0400

The Lord gives us what we cannot make or do for ourselves. Our first task in life is to receive. And from what we receive, we are to be changed. The mystery of the Eucharist abides in that exchange: receiving, becoming.

In a new book titled Eucharist: The Real Presence of Christ, my longtime friend Tania Geist presents twelve substantive Eucharistic reflections that help small groups discover, discuss, prepare for, and respond to the gift and mission of the Eucharist. Our conversation today will touch on the meaning of the Eucharist, the gift of peace, God sustaining us with simplicity and joy, and the movement from possessiveness to gratitude.

About today's guest: Tania M. Geist has worked as an editor and writer of Catholic books, newspapers, journals, and other media. Her reflections in these pages have been especially shaped by her time studying theology and philosophy at Blackfriars of Oxford University; her years translating and editing Pope Benedict XVI’s preaching for L’Osservatore Romano newspaper inside Vatican City, and the decade during which her young family was part of the community at the University of Notre Dame. There, she received a master’s degree in systematic theology and served as an editor for Church Life Journal.

Geist currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island, with her scripture-scholar husband and their four spunky young children. As a small business owner, she runs Book Pocket, LLC, which provides editorial and audio event services.

Follow-up Resources:

Eucharist: The Real Presence of Christ by Tania Geist
“The Folly of Mine” by Tania Geist, article in the Church Life Journal
“Matter Matters: One the Need for a Pastoral Theology of Radical Particularity” by Tania Geist, article in the Church Life Journal
“Motherhood and the Paschal Mystery” by Tania Geist, article in the Church Life Journal
“Eucharist Beliefs Among Adult Catholics, with Tim O’Malley,” podcast episode on Church Life Today
“Augustine on the Eucharist, with Elizabeth Klein,” podcast episode on Church Life Today

Memoirs, Ghostwriting, and Deep Listening, with Jessica Bross

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 20 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Jessica Bross helps people find their stories, craft their stories, and tell their stories. In fact, she usually writes out other people’s stories in their own voice. Jessica ghostwrites memoirs. She listens to people, she listens more, she helps them find the desire that shapes a story or theme in their lives, then she writes that story for them and with them, creating a memoir that contains that story for themselves and others. You could say that she is in the business of helping people grasp and communicate the meaning, uniqueness, and importance of their own lives’ stories.

Jessica is the founder and owner of Cider Spoons Stories, an Austin-based company that specializes in ghostwriting, editing, teaching, and coaching. Today Jessica joins me to talk about the memoir writing process, the impact it has on the memoirist, her skill and responsibilities as the ghostwriter, and the effect deep listening can have for all of us.

Follow-up Resources:

Cider Spoons Stories online at ciderspoonstories.com.
Follow Jessica Bross on LinkedIn

Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America, with Ken Craycraft

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

It’s hard—and getting harder—to discern the proper relationship between our Catholic faith and American political life. Perhaps it is time to reset the framework for how we engage politics as Catholics, even by broadening our understanding of our duty to public life beyond merely politics. In his new book, Citizens Yet Strangers, Kenneth Craycraft challenges Catholics to move away from individual liberal impulses of American political identity. He seeks to set out a vision for how we orient our moral and civic lives based on the dignity of the human person, through the practices of solidarity and subsidiarity, and toward a true and worthy vision of the common good.

Kenneth Craycraft is the James J. Gardner Family Chair of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology, the seminary for the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He writes a monthly syndicated column for OSV News, a weekly column for Our Sunday Visitor (“Grace is Everywhere”), and monthly columns for The Catholic Telegraph and the U.K.-based Catholic Herald. Dr. Craycraft is also the author of The American Myth of Religious Freedom. He is a licensed attorney in Ohio, who holds a Ph.D. in theology from Boston College and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.

Follow-up Resources:

Citizens Yet Stranger: Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America (OSV, 2024), by Kenneth Craycraft
“‘Say my name’: Self-Deception, Transparency, and Redemption in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with Ken Craycraft,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

C.S. Lewis's ‘The Great Divorce’: a discussion with Josh McManaway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Learn more about The Inklings Project, a new intercollegiate initiative that invites people to pursue meaning and joy by entering the world of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the other Inklings at inklingsproject.org.
“Giving Up Descartes for Lent,” by Josh McManaway, essay in Church Life Journal
The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis, edited by Leonard J. DeLorenzo (Ignatius Press, 2022)

This episode is sponsored by the NCEA: Find out more about NCEA Rise at www.ncearise.org

In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Because of Christ, the spiritual life is practical, and the practical life is spiritual. The Incarnation guarantees that. In this special episode, Leonard DeLorenzo shares some of the fruits of his newly published work, In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide. This book is especially well suited for young adults, perhaps upon Confirmation or graduation from high school or college. It also bears promise for those who are unsure about their spiritual life, who are seeking direction and bearings. It is also useful for not-so-young-anymore-adults, who are either involved in mentoring younger people, or who are looking for new bearings or fresh perspectives for their own lives.

Follow-up Resources:

In Search of a Full Life: A Practical and Spiritual Guide (OSV 2024) by Leonard DeLorenzo

This episode is sponsored by Saint Meinrad Seminary.
Register for the Saint Meinrad Summer Chant Workshop and find other workshops, concerts, and programs at the Institute for Sacred Music by scrolling down under “Events” at www.saintmeinrad.edu/ism.

Suffering, with Mark Giszczak

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0400

Suffering is universal. But how do we understand suffering? Does it have meaning? Can it have meaning? And most of all, what is the meaning of suffering in Christian life? Questions like these inform the work of my guest today, Dr. Mark Giszczak, author of the new book Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. Dr. Giszczak is Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, where he teaches a course on the Theology of Suffering that gave rise to this new book. In our discussion today we will talk about whether and how God suffers, how Christians might suffer well, obstacles to suffering well, and the importance of confronting rather than perpetually running from death.

Follow-up Resources:

Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know, by Mark Gisczak
Salvici Doloris, Apostolic Letter by John Paul II
“The Mystery of Love and the Redemption of Suffering,” by Lorenzo Albacete, essay in Church Life Journal

This episode is sponsored by Saint Meinrad Seminary: Register for the Saint Meinrad Summer Chant Workshop and find other workshops, concerts, and programs at the Institute for Sacred Music by scrolling down under “Events” at www.saintmeinrad.edu/ism.

What are you doing here?! Pontius Pilate in the Creed, with Josh McManaway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

It is really peculiar that Pontius Pilate’s name appears in the creed. Aside from Jesus and Mary, no other historical figures are mentioned. How did he make it into the creed? That is a question that Josh McManaway helps us to figure out.

This is the second episode of several where Josh joins us to discuss the creed. He is currently working on a book on the Apostles’ Creed to help seminarians, priests, catechists, and other interested Catholics to growi in understanding and wonder about the theology and history of the creed we profess.

Follow-up Resources:

● “The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

This episode is sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association 2024 Convention. To learn more visit https://ncea.org/NCEA2024

The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 10:00:00 -0500

We profess belief in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with such regularity that we likely fail to contemplate the profundity of what we declare. Josh McManaway of the McGrath Institute for Church Life is working on a book to spark new wonder and open up new depths for us about the Apostles’ Creed. In helping us learn the theology and history of our creed, Josh hopes to aid priests enrich their preaching just as other interested Christians come to a stronger and more lively understanding of the faith we profess.

This is the first episode of several where Josh will join us to discuss the creed. In this episode, we talk about the creed in general and then spend a good bit of time breaking open the first part of the creed: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

Follow-up Resources:

● “Giving up Descartes for Lent,” essay in Church Life Journal by Josh McManaway

● “Introduction to the New Testament,” online course by Josh McManaway (next session starts February 26, 2024)

Black Catholics and Catholic Social Teaching, with Deacon James Summers

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Black Catholics and Catholic Social Teaching, with Deacon James Summers

Why do so many Black Catholics leave the Church and why do so few new members enter the Church? This is the twofold question that Deacon James Summers along with his wife Wendy and others sought to understand when they were appointed to the Black Catholic Advisory Board for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The answer redounds to his own experience as a Black Catholic in the Church, and to his approach to and appreciation for Catholic Social Teaching. Today Deacon James talks with me about the Lord’s call to seek to understand, empathize with, and actively love one another.

Follow-up Resources:

“The Ark and the Dove, with Edward Herrera,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

“The Embodied Holiness of Sr. Thea Bowman, with Kayla August,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Black Live and the Preferential Option for the Poor,” by John Cavadini, essay at Church Life Journal
"Hope Stories with Black Catholics with Sr. Josephine Garrett, CSFN" An OSV Original Podcast

Catholic Institute of Technology, with Bill and Alexis Haughey

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Born from a vision to fuse rapid scientific and technological advancement with the wisdom of the Catholic faith, Catholic Institute of Technology forms scientists, engineers and mathematicians who are dedicated to upholding the Catholic faith. This brand new university will welcome students for the first time in Fall 2024 to its campus in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.

This university is the first-ever Catholic institution created exclusively for research advancements in the fields of the sciences, engineering, technology and mathematics, and is pursuing the elite title of an R1 school. The initial vision for CatholicTech was first conceptualized in the minds of Alexis and Bill Haughey, the husband-and-wife team whose own experience drove them to desire a new paradigm in academia where Catholic ethics thrive. Bill is an accomplished entrepreneur, and Alexis’ background is in academic research with an emphasis on technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. They join us today, along with my colleague Brett Robinson, who is co-hosting this episode with me.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about Catholic Institute of Technology
“How the Sciences Train You for Faith, Part 1, with Sofia Carozza,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“How the Sciences Train You for Faith, Part 2, with Sofia Carozza,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

This episode is sponsored by the U.S. bishops' 9 Days for Life Novena
Join the U.S. bishops’ pro-life novena from January 16 through January 24
www.9daysforlife.com

The Joy and Danger of Christmas

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 16:00:00 -0500

The question at Christmas is not about whether God will act for us. The babe born of Mary is the answer: God has given everything. The question is really about us. Will we receive Christ?

This is a most magnificent reversal, and a most perilous one. He in whom all things are created––in whom we live and move and have our being––is given into our hands. The Host has become the guest, and we, who depend on God for all things, are called upon to become His host.

Christmas is not only a time of great consolation, but the beginning of the great decision. God is all in: do we accept Him? Everything depends on our answer.

In this special episode of our show, I will lead us through a series of reflections upon the mysteries of Christmas. These reflections were initially part of an article I wrote for Our Sunday Visitor, who is also, as you know, our podcasting partner here at Church Life Today. I don’t have a guest in studio with me today; instead, I hope that, together, we can welcome the Word of God as our guest, pondering the depth, beauty, and even the risk of God coming among us, in the flesh.

Follow-up Resources:

“The Joy of Christmas (and the danger),” article at Our Sunday Visitor by Leonard DeLorenzo
“What it means to wait for the Lord,” article at Our Sunday Visitor by Leonard DeLorenzo
“How the O Antiphons direct our gaze toward the coming of our Savior,” article at Our Sunday Visitor by Leonard DeLorenzo
“The Three Wisemen,” podcast episode at Church Life Journal
Into the Heart of the Father: Learning from and Giving Yourself through Christ in Prayer (Word Among Us, 2021), by Leonard DeLorenzo
Model of Faith: Reflecting on the Litany of Saint Joseph (Our Sunday Visitor, 2022), by Leonard DeLorenzo
A God Who Questions (Our Sunday Visitor, 2019), by Leonard DeLorenzo

Encountering Christ on Pilgrimage, with Joan Watson

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Sometimes you have to leave what’s familiar to discover what is most beautiful, most profound, and most meaningful precisely in your ordinary life. A pilgrimage is one of the best means for doing just that: departing from what you know in order to return anew. But pilgrimage is not just any kind of trip or travel, it is instead an intentional journey made to encounter Christ, or rather, to allow him to encounter you. Being open to that encounter can be hard work, it takes time and preparation and a willingness of spirit. Christ is always a courteous guest––he may confront you but he never forces his way into your life or into your heart. He waits for you to welcome him in. To be formed well for pilgrimage means, among other things, learning how to welcome Christ when he comes to you, learning how to seek him more willing, and learning how to love him who always loves you first.

My guest today has dedicated herself to the ministry of helping form people for pilgrimages, which means that she is committed to helping others encounter Christ well. Joan Watson is Pilgrim Formation Manager for Verso Ministries, a Catholic pilgrimage company that specializes in not just the logistics of pilgrimage travel but also the spiritual and communal formation that makes encounters with Christ more meaningful and lasting. Joan came to Verso Ministries after years of serving the Church in catechetical and other formation ministries, as well as engaging in her own work as a speaker and writer who focuses on raising up saints in ordinary time. She joins me today to talk about the spirituality of pilgrimage, the forms of formation, and the transition from the extraordinary experiences abroad to enriching everyday life back home.

Follow-up Resources:

● Learn more about Verso Ministries at versoministries.com

● Listen to Joan Watson’s pilgrimage podcast, “In Via”, at https://versoministries.com/in-via/

● “By Sea and By Air: The Journey of the Gospel,” essay by Leonard DeLorenzo about pilgrimage in Church Life Journal

Eucharist Beliefs Among Adult Catholics, with Timothy O’Malley

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0500

What is the belief of ordinary Catholics around the Eucharist? That is a harder question to answer that it might at first seem. You could put forward two options and ask a respondent if they believe this or that. But it is not easy to phrase those options correctly, nor is it easy to ensure that your respondent understands what you are trying to ask. Belief in the Eucharist is not easy, and neither is asking about it.

A new study commissioned by the McGrath Institute for Church Life and conducted by CARA at Georgetown University attempts to get closer to the real Eucharistic beliefs of ordinary Catholics. More precision was put into the questions and possible answers, an opportunity was given for open-ended responses, and sustained reflection on all the responses yielded some more textured findings than previous national studies produced. Today, I talk with my colleague, Dr. Tim O’Malley, about this new study, its findings and their significance for renewing Eucharistic belief in the Church. Tim published an article on this study in the Church Life Journal under the title“The Theological Foundations of Eucharistic Beliefs: A New National Study.”

Follow-up Resources:

● “Eucharist Beliefs: A National Survey of Adult Catholics,” study by CARA at Georgetown University, commissioned by the McGrath Institute for Church Life

● “The Theological Foundations of Eucharistic Beliefs: A New National Study”, article in Church Life Journal by Timothy O’Malley

Social Media as a Conduit for Conflict, with Tim Weninger

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Many of us browsing social media have had the experience of seeing horrendous images and videos from armed conflicts. Sometimes those dehumanizing acts are featured widely even before conflict fully breaks out. Seeing these things gives us a sense of rage or sorrow or concern or all of the above. It is not uncommon for our sympathies to be swayed by the suffering that we see, or the dehumanizing acts that are brought before us .Actually, that is often the point of showing these scenes and images in the first place.

Computer science research shows that in the lead-up to hostilities, as well as after the outbreak of hostilities, there is a notable increase in dehumanizing political imagery that is often doctored or accentuated in some way and then reshared in digital space to evoke an emotional response. As media consumers, we may find ourselves swimming in a sea of images, not knowing what or whom we can trust. Or some of us might even focus in on the kinds of images and narratives that confirm our predetermined biases, and wed us more closely to our preferred group or tribe.

My guest on the show today is a computer scientist whose research reveals how social media is regularly used as a conduit for conflict. Tim Weninger is the Frank M. Freimann Associate Professor of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, where he also serves as the Director of Graduate Studies for Computer Science and Engineering. His research is in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and social media (and artificial intelligence on social media). Recently, Professor Weninger and his team have been studying how coordinated social media campaigns have been used to incite violence and discord, destabilize democratic processes, and disseminate propaganda. He is an advocate for increasing media literacy who recognizes the urgent need for moral formation for engaging and using media well. He joins me today to talk about his fascinating and important work, especially in light of recent world events.

Follow-up Resources:

● News and other information about Prof. Weninger and his work

● “ND Expert Tim Weninger: Using social media to dehumanize is part of the conflict playbook,” article in ND Works by Jessica Sieff

● “Media, Polarization, and the Gospel, with Deacon Matthew Kuna,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Grace for the Hard Days of Early Motherhood, with Jessica Mannen Kimmet

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Jessica Mannen Kimmet was searching for spiritual resources in the Church that would guide her and strengthen her during her early years of motherhood. She was experiencing significant struggles and was confronting unmet expectations. But other than a few scattered blog posts here and there, she really couldn’t find anything that would respond to her need and desire. So several years later, she wrote the book she was looking for, a book where the Word of God is brought close to the experiences of new mothers, and to many more of us besides.

In her concluding chapter, she writes, “finding my way into motherhood has been a long, convoluted road. Progress through my pain was never as linear as I would have chosen. There were better days and worse days, improvements and relapses. There were moments of hope and energy, followed all too quickly by moments of anguish and despair. … [But] God makes all things new. Even me. Even you. God has the power to end all death and mourning and pain, and God promises to do so. In the meantime, God acknowledges our suffering and sits with us in it.”

Jessica’s book is for those times in between, when there is suffering and struggle, and therefore the real need for hope and companionship. The book is called Groaning in Labor, Growing in Hope: Scripture Reflections for the Hard Days of Early Motherhood. As an early reader of this book myself, I can assure you that many other people besides those in early motherhood will benefit from this book, including men, whether single, married, fathers, or even priests.

Follow up Resources:

● Groaning in Labor, Growing in Hope: Scripture Reflections for the Hard Days of Early Motherhood by Jessica Mannen Kimmet

● “Some Human Beings Carry Remnants of Other Human Beings in Their Bodies,” essay in Church Life Journal by Dr. Kristin Collier

● “The Theobiology of a Mother’s Voice,” essay in Church Life Journal by Dr. Kristin Collier

● “Forming Catholic Leaders for Mental Health, with Beth Hlabse,” podcast episode on Church Life Today

The Ark and the Dove, with Edward Herrera

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0400

To love your neighbor, you must know your neighbor. And to know your neighbor, you often times have to go beyond the mind you have. The Greek word for conversion, metanoia, means just that: “to go beyond the mind you have”, so that loving your neighbor usually requires some kind of conversion. Conversions are often uncomfortable and even painful. It can be hard but it can also be liberating and healing to let go of what you assumed to be true so as to accept a little more of what is actually true, especially what has been and is actually true for someone else––namely, your neighbor.

A new narrative podcast series called The Ark and the Dove seeks to allow listeners to grow in knowledge of their neighbors in the Catholic Church and in the United States. The way it does that is by investigating the complex dynamics of race and religion in America through the lens of the Black Catholic Church. It holds together both broad issues of race and religion with local, particular stories of specific communities, parishes, and schools, especially within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Our episode today focuses on The Ark and the Dove, with my guest and the podcast’s co-creator, Edward Herrera.

In addition to his work on The Ark and the Dove, Edward Herrera is the Executive Director of the Institute for Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Follow-up Resources:

The Ark and the Dove podcast series
“The Catholic Response to the Sin of Racism, with Gloria Purvis,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Black Lives and the Preferential Option for the Poor” by John Cavadini, via Church Life Journal

This episode is sponsored by: Dr. Michael Dauphinais, https://catholic-theology-show.castos.com/

Preparing for First Communion, Part 2: Passover and the Last Supper

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400

One of the surest ways to incite wonder and love for the Lord in our children is for us to rekindle wonder and love for the Lord in ourselves. As mature Christians, we have a responsibility to instruct our children––to model and share our faith with them. For many of us, this begins as a daunting and uncertain task: we might question our own faith, or feel awkward in our wording or mannerisms in sharing faith, or recognize our own lack of knowledge when it comes to Scripture or the particularities of Catholic doctrine. I felt all those things myself when it was time for me to begin forming my children to reverence our Eucharistic Lord and welcome him in the Blessed Sacrament. But starting some years ago, I took on this precious and challenging responsibility in a new way, when I began reading Scripture with my then six-year-old son to help him prepare for his First Communion. In particular, we read and wondered at 12 biblical episodes of God feeding his people: six from the Old Testament and six from the gospels, when Jesus fulfills what has been prefigured. From all our time spent together, including my son’s work in illustrating each of those 12 biblical scenes, I came to see that paying attention to these particular actions through Scripture created one firm, clear, and beautiful memory for my son, which was this: the Lord feeds his people. Even more, when he stepped forward to receive his First Communion in May of that year, he rejoiced at the wonder that now he himself was being fed by the Lord.

I think this way of sacramental preparation is more important now than ever, especially as belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist continues to wane among Catholics. In the Catholic Church in the U.S., we are hoping for a Eucharistic revival, and I want to think together about how to form our children better for First Communion, to set the best foundation for a sacramental, Eucharistic life.

This is the second of two episodes where I share some of the teachings on the biblical episodes of God feeding his people. These teachings are drawn from my book Fed by the Lord: At-Home Scriptural Formation to Prepare Children for First Communion, from Liturgical Press. Fed by the Lord is written especially for parents, godparents, teachers, and catechists with two primary goals: first, to help enrich and renew the adults’ understanding of and wonder at the way in which God feeds his people throughout Scripture, and second, to offer guidance to adults as they seek to form their children and students for First Communion.

In the last episode, I shared my teachings on one Old Testament episode and the corresponding Gospel episode that fulfills it. From 2 Kings 4, we focused on the prophet Elisha and the abundant bread, then from Mark 6 we contemplated Jesus feeding the five thousand. In this episode, I want to add two more: from the Old Testament, we will turn our attention to the Passover in Exodus, and then from Luke 22, the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

Follow-up Resources:

● Fed by the Lord: At-Home Scriptural Formation to Prepare Children for First Communion (Liturgical Press, 2023), by Leonard J. DeLorenzo

● Article on the 2019 Pew Study on U.S. Catholics belief in the Eucharist

Preparing for First Communion, Part 1: Abundant Bread and Feeding of the Five Thousand

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400

In a 2019 study, the Pew Research Center found that just one-third of U.S. Catholics Agree that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ. That is a sobering statistic. Even if we account for the way in which the survey question may have been imprecisely formed, it still seems that the overwhelming majority of Catholics surveyed espoused belief in a more symbolic meaning of the bread and wine on the altar, as opposed to the sacramental, real presence of Jesus Christ.

The Eucharistic Revival in the United States seeks to respond to issues like this, to help increase both belief in and devotion to the Eucharist. One area that I have become especially attentive to is the formation of children for First Communion. Of all those Catholics who were surveyed and said that they believed only that the bread and wine of the altar were symbolic, most if not all of them had been formed for their First Communion and have likely received the Eucharist numerous times throughout their life. We could think that a Eucharistic Revival is about correcting and reforming the belief of adults, and enkindling their devotion, but I say that we ought to think deeply about Eucharistic formation from the very beginning, which means the period of preparation for First Communion.

I am also interested in that issue because I am a parent, and four of my own children have been formed for First Communion, with two more to go. More than anything else, I want them to know and to believe that the love of God does not stay far away, but draws near. The love of God is near enough for us to touch, near enough to taste. The Eucharist is the love of God Incarnate, given for us: the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

Follow-up Resources:

● Fed by the Lord: At-Home Scriptural Formation to Prepare Children for First Communion (Liturgical Press, 2023), by Leonard J. DeLorenzo

● Article on the 2019 Pew Study on U.S. Catholics belief in the Eucharist

Sponsored link: The Catholic Theology Show

Oppenheimer, with Ted Barron and Phil Sakimoto

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0400

In 1965, in an NBC News documentary, J. Robert Oppenheimer reflected on his role in leading the Manhattan Project that yielded the first nuclear weapons by saying this:

“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed; a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multiarmed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”

The new blockbuster film, Oppenheimer, chronicles the race to develop the means of mass destruction, and focuses on the man who led that effort. We take up a discussion of the film in today’s show, and I welcome in two guests to join this discussion with me. Both my guests are from the Univresity of Notre Dame. Dr. Ted Barron is executive director of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center as well as the Judd and Mary Lou Leighton Director of Performing Arts; he also teaches in the Department of Film, Television, and Theater. Dr. Phil Sakimoto is one of my longtime collaborators on a science and religion planetarium project who has joined me on Church Life Today once before to talk about our presentation, “All Creation Gives Praise”. He is an astrophysicist, a professional astronomer, and the Director of the Minor in Sustainability at Notre Dame.

Our episode today is produced in partnership with the Notre Dame Alumni Association, and specifically the FiresideND podcast from ThinkND, which brings the experience and expertise of Notre Dame to you, whenever, wherever. From STEM and art, to religion and health, FiresideND allows you to listen and learn with ND on the go. I want to thank our friends at ThinkND for bringing the idea for this episode to us and for helping it to come to fruition.

Follow-up Resources:

“All Creation Gives Praise, with Phil Sakimoto,” podcast episode via Church Life Today.
“Oppenheimer and the Lesson of Fat Man,” journal article via Church Life Journal
FiresideND podcast from ThinkND

“Say my name”: Self-Deception, Transparency, and Redemption in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with Ken Craycraft

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0400

To deceive yourself is easy, but to stop deceiving yourself is hard. This truth is more apparent to each of us when we look to other people than it is when we look to ourselves. Why? Because we tend to believe the lies we have told ourselves, so much so that they really aren’t lies anymore for we have forgotten the truth. One of the gifts of excellent drama––especially tragic drama but even the right kind of comedic drama––is that we are given the chance to see dynamics like this in play in the lives and worlds of characters on the stage or on the screen. If we are brave and honest enough, we may even be willing to see partial reflections of ourselves.

We’ve been spending a few episodes now diving into the masterful television dramas Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, following a lecture series we hosted here at the McGrath Institute for Church Life on the two shows. Today, we will continue that exploration, turning our attention now to the themes of self-deception, transparency, and redemption, or lack thereof. My guest today will guide us through these considerations, based on the lecture he delivered on this topic for our lecture series.

Kenneth Craycraft is the James J. Gardner Family Chair of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology, the seminary for the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He writes a monthly syndicated column for OSV News, a weekly column for Our Sunday Visitor (“Grace is Everywhere”), and monthly columns for The Catholic Telegraph and the U.K.-based Catholic Herald. Dr. Craycraft is the author of The American Myth of Religious Freedom. His forthcoming book, Neither Left nor Right: How Catholic Moral Theology Transcends Partisan Politics, will be published by OSV Press in the Spring of 2024. He is a licensed attorney in Ohio, who holds a Ph.D. in theology from Boston College and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.

Follow-up Resources:

“Men and Women in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with Francesca Murphy,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
“Meth, Money, and Marriage in Breaking Bad, with Gary Anderson,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
Webpage for “Gilligan’s Archipelago” conference, where videos from each of the five lectures on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are posted.
The collection Kenneth Craycraft’s articles for Our Sunday Visitor.

2023 SCOTUS: Religious Liberty and More, with Rick Garnett

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0400

It probably comes as a surprise to no one that cases with issues of religious liberty regularly make their way before the Supreme Court. What might surprise many, however, is that there is a lot of agreement if not unanimity among justices when they decide such cases. In 2023, the justices returned a 9-0 decision in a religious liberty case regarding a US Postal Service worker who sought a religious accommodation to abstain from work on Sundays. The court sided with the postal worker. There were of course other cases decided this summer that received a good deal of attention, especially ones pertaining to affirmative action, student loan debt forgiveness, and the freedom of expression of a web designer. As has become our custom here on Church Life Today, we are hosting Notre Dame Law Professor Rick Garnett to walk us through some of these decisions, especially in regard to questions of religious liberty.

This is the sixth episode that Professor Garnett has recorded with us, which puts him in the lead as our top contributor. When he is not appearing on Church Life Today, Rick is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law in the Notre Dame Law School. He is also Concurrent Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program on Church, State & Society. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, the First Amendment, and law and religion.

Follow-up Resources:

● “Refreshing Unity on Religious Liberty,” essay by Rick Garnett in Law & Liberty

● “Rick Garnett on Religious Liberty,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

● “2020 SCOTUS Decisions, Part 1, with Rick Garnett,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

● “2020 SCOTUS Decisions, Part 2, with Rick Garnett,” podcast episode via Church Life today

● “2022 SCOTUS: Dobbs, Roe, and Abortion Law, with Rick Garnett,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

● “2022 SCOTUS: Religious Liberty Cases, with Rick Garnett,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Meth, Money, and Marriage, with Gary Anderson

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Once when my eldest son was about five years old, we happened to be reading the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel when we came upon the account of a man with an unclean spirit. My son asked me what that meant. I didn’t know how to answer so I said: “What do you think?” He didn’t know. So we read it again. He noticed that the unclean spirit did not want to be near Jesus, and he knew that Jesus was God with us. I asked my son, “well, what do you think an unclean spirit is now?” And he replied: “I guess it is wanting to live in the world without God.”

My guest today on the show is not a five year old child, but rather Gary Anderson, the Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. We are going to talk about his read of the show Breaking Bad and its central character, Walter White, whom Professor Anderson sees as a profile in the determined resolution to live in the world without God. But unlike the unclean spirit in Mark’s Gospel, Walter White doesn’t even acknowledge God or recognize the possibility of his presence. For him, “there is nothing but chemistry here.”

My conversation with Professor Anderson follows a lecture that he delivered for a conference on the shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul that was hosted at Notre Dame in May of 2023. His lecture at the conference bore the title “Science and Marriage in the Life of Walter White.”

Follow up Resources:

● Webpage for “Gilligan’s Archipelago” conference, where videos from each of the five lectures will be posted when available.

● “Men and Women in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with Francesca Murphy” podcast episode via Church Life Today

● “God Doesn’t Break Bad in the Old Testament,” essay by Gary Anderson in Church Life Journal

Men and Women in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with Francesca Murphy

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Parental Notice: Adult language quoted in the episode.

The study of moral choice, character, and identity in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul was unprecedented in TV drama. Many experienced the two TV series as a journey through Dante’s underworld, even through to his Purgatorio. In a recent conference at the University of Notre Dame, five scholars of theology and philosophy analyzed various dimension of the moral and spiritual imagination in these two dramas. The name of the conference, as play on the name of the show’s creator Vince Gilligan, was “Gilligan’s Archipelago: Justice and Mercy in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.”

My guest today is the convener of the conference, who also delivered a conference lecture on “Men and Women in Gilligan’s Archipelago.” Francesca Murphy is professor of theology here at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of many books and articles. She is one of my favorite lecturers and someone I’ve had the joy of working with in a number of lecture series and conferences, including one on C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, which became a book we both contributed to called Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis (Ignatius, 2022). Today we’ll talk about the question of manhood in Breaking Bad, womanhood in Better Call Saul, and what makes one show an infernal comedy and the other a purgatorial comedy.

Follow up Resources:

Webpage for “Gilligan’s Archipelago” conference, where videos from each of the five lectures will be posted when available.
“The Macbeth of Meth,” essay on Walter White in Breaking Bad by Paul Cantor
“Evangelizing through Film and Television, with Doug Tooke” podcast episode via Church Life Today

This episode is sponsored by The CatholicTV Network on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/CatholicTV

Rekindling Eucharistic Amazement, with Jem Sullivan

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0400

“Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God – the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ” (CCC 2052). As the Church in the United States seeks to foster a Eucharistic revival, might the beauty of sacred art be a privileged avenue for teaching all the faithful––along with those estranged from the Church––to discover anew the resplendent beauty of our Eucharistic Lord? In a new book organized around 12 works of sacred art with Eucharistic themes, my guest today has laid out a path for us to journey together to the beauty of God.

Jem Sullivan is the author of Way of Beauty: Rekindling Eucharistic Amazement through Visio Divina, which is out now from Our Sunday Visitor. Dr. Sullivan is Associate Professor of Catechetics in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America. In addition to Way of Beauty, she is also the author of several other books, including The Beauty of Faith: Using Sacred Art to Spread the Good News and Believe, Celebrate, Live, Pray: A Weekly Walk with the Catechism. She joins me today to talk about Eucharistic Amazement, sacred art, the practice of visio divina, and our transformation as Christians through the presence and the calling of Jesus Christ.

Follow up Resources:

Way of Beauty: Rekindling Eucharistic Amazement through Visio Divina, by Jem Sullivan (OSV 2023)
“Our Eucharistic God, with Jonathan Ciraulo” via Church Life Today
“The Past, Present, and Future of the Eucharist, with Michael Hahn” via Church Life Today
“Redeeming Vision from Pornography, with Steve Pokorny” via Church Life Today

This episode is sponsored by Religious Freedom Week 2023, http://www.usccb.org/ReligiousFreedomWeek

The Passion, with J.J. Wright

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 -0400

The impact of Jesus: he changes everything, he changes us. The first to receive him were his mother and those disciples who walked with him in Galilee and Judea. They were there when he entered Jerusalem the final time. The twelve were there when gave his body and his blood in the Upper Room, they went with him to Gethsemane, then, one by one, they left his side. Mary and John were nearby when he was crucified, the others were distant. He was buried, and they were alone. On Holy Saturday, they remained in a space of sorrow and shame, of shock and of trauma. The crucifixion was behind them, the Resurrection yet to come. What did they think, how did they feel, what and how did they remember in that liminal space between memory and hope? That is the setting of an original composition of the Notre Dame Folk Choir called The Passion.

The composer of this astounding work is my guest today. J.J. Wright is the director of the Notre Dame Folk Choir. He holds a doctoral degree in conducting from Notre Dame’s sacred music program, prior to which he studied at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and interned with the Sistine Chapel Choir. He started working on The Passion with the Notre Dame Children’s Choir and carried that work into the Notre Dame Folk Choir a few years ago. The final work of The Passion emerged from a broad collaboration with other artists and, perhaps most important of all, with his own students, the members of the Notre Dame Folk Choir. The Passion is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other audio outlets, as well as on the Notre Dame Folk Choir’s YouTube channel, where there is a recording of the live performance of The Passion from Notre Dame on Good Friday, 2023. J.J. joins me to talk about the space of memory that this work draws us into, the creative process of music and prayer and pilgrimage, and the way in which the impact of Jesus never ceases, as the Paschal Mystery is the center of our lives as Christians, today and always.

Follow-up Resources:

● “Creating the Passion,” article with interviews.

● “The Making of ‘The Passion’” (video) about the Notre Dame Folk Choir in Jerusalem

● The Passion live from Notre Dame on Good Friday, 2023 (video)

● The Notre Dame Folk Choir YouTube Channel

● The Passion on Spotify

● Website for the Notre Dame Folk Choir

This episode is sponsored by the University of Saint Francis, https://www.sf.edu/about/camps-and-community-programs/#camp7

Elucidating the Synod on Synodality, with Sr. Marie Kolbe Zamora

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 01 May 2023 00:00:00 -0400

In initiating the Synod on Synodality, which is set to run through 2024, Pope Francis sought to lead the whole Church into a time of prayer, listening, and discernment. His hope is to foster these dispositions and habits within the Church as the regular way of living ecclesial life together. As this particular synodal process moves from the continental stage to universal stage, we wanted to spend some time getting a better sense of what this synod is all about and why it has been called. Our guest today is well-positioned to help us along.

Sr. Marie Kolbe Zamora is currently serving in the Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod. She is a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity, who completed her advanced degrees in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, writing her dissertation on the “Ecclesiological Elements in the Early Theology of St. Bonaventure.” She joins us from Rome, where she has been living most recently since 2021 upon her appointment to help plan the current synod.

Follow-up Resources:

“Co-Responsibility: An Antidote to Clericalizing the Laity?” by John Cavadini in Church Life Journal.
Called & Co-Responsible: Exploring Co-Responsibility for the Mission of the Church, Conference at the University of Notre Dame (videos of presentations)
Recorded seminars on co-responsibility, from the McGrath Institute for Church Life

“Questioning the Authenticity of the Synod on Synodality,” with Mark Regnerus on Church Life Today

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Transhumanism and Human Nature, with Mary Harrington

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

The desire for the deathless extension of existence. The desire for autonomy without impediments. The desire for consciousness without bounds, for self-determination without exhaustion, for individual benefits without costs. Desires such as these seem very much at home in the transhumanist project, which seeks to push back against human limits, especially via technological means. But have we rightly assessed the true costs of what many hail as “progress”? Should we continue to try to outwit the boundaries of our humanity, or, moreover, can we actually do so even if we want to?

These questions and more like them come to the fore on Church Life Today, as I welcome Mary Harrington to our show. Mary is a contributing editor at UnHerd, and our conversation today follows an event hosted by UnHerd in which Mary debated Elise Bohan on the latter’s book Future Superhuman: Our Transhuman Lives in a Make-or-Break Century. Mary’s opening remarks were published under the title “Transhumanism is already here” and you can find a link to the video of their debate in this episode’s show notes. Mary herself has just released a new book, Feminism Against Progress, in which she builds up many of the arguments she introduced in the debate and which she is sure to introduce to us today.

Resources:

Feminism Against Progress by Mary Harrington
Video of “UnHerd Club - Mary Harrington & Elise Bohan: The transhumanism debate”
“Why progress isn’t feminist” by Mary Harrington for UnHerd

“We Need a Class Politics of Biotech” by Mary Harrington for Compact

This episode is supported by Providence College Humanities Program, https://humanities.providence.edu/veritas/

The Eschatological Imagination in Literature, with Judith Wolfe

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

We live toward what we assume to be our ends. Some of us hold such assumptions consciously, others do not, but either way the ends we seek shape the lives we live and the societies we build. The Christian eschatological imagination is concerned with the end of all things in the consummate glory of God, in our union with God. The way there is through judgment. And what is judged is, oftentimes, the other ends we have desired and built our worlds around. But to glimpse––just glimpse––the beauty and fullness of the final end God gives even now is a light for hope, while at the same time the bestowal of a mission to return to––rather than flee from––the concrete and historical lives we live now, in this world, such as it is. That is the tension of Christian eschatology, which literature often times powerfully, stunningly, even hauntingly presents to us in images and experiences.

On our episode today we plunge into such considerations with Judith Wolfe, who recently delivered the annual Religion and Literature Lecture at the University of Notre Dame, on the topic of “The Eschatological Imagination in Literature.” Dr. Wolfe is professor of philosophical theology in the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrew’s. Additionally and among other positions and activities, she serves as general editor of the Journal of Inkling Studies, she has developed or is currently working on a number of large projects such as the Widening Horizons in Philosophical Theology project with funding from the Templeton Religion Trust, and she is the author or editor of a number of books (not to mention her articles), including the Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Christian Thought, Heidegger and Theology, Heidegger and Eschatology, and C.S. Lewis and His Circle. She joins me today, in person, during her visit to Notre Dame.

Follow Up Resources:

● Find out more about Professor Judith Wolfe on her University of St. Andrew’s faculty page

● “At the Threshold: Begin with the End” – a video with Judith Wolfe speaking about eschatology

● Books by Judith Wolfe

This episode is supported by Providence College Humanities Program, https://humanities.providence.edu/veritas/

Model of Faith: Reflecting on the Litany of Saint Joseph

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0400

“O God, who in your inexpressible providence were pleased to choose Saint Joseph as spouse of the most holy Mother of your Son, grant, we pray, that we, who revere him as our protector on earth, may be worthy of his heavenly intercession. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.”

So concludes the litany of Saint Joseph. This litany leads us to contemplate the titles and honors of Joseph, husband of Mary and custodian of the Incarnate Word. To contemplate Joseph requires that we contemplate the mysteries of God, because Joseph, from whom Scripture records no words spoken, is directed by and responsive to the Word who speaks our salvation. But it takes time, attention, and a patient, longing devotion to turn a prayer like the litany of Saint Joseph into something that allows us to contemplate such subtle and sweeping beauties. And so, for today’s episode, especially in honor of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, I want to offer you some reflections on a few of these titles and honors of Joseph, to help us, together, to marvel at this great saint anew, precisely by marveling at what and who he himself holds most dear and cherishes.

This episode of Church Life Today is different than most since this is an episode without a guest, unless you’d like to count Saint Joseph himself as my guest. The reflections I share with you in this episode are drawn from the book I wrote with Our Sunday Visitor under the title Model of Faith: Reflecting on the Litany of Saint Joseph. That book presents some 25 such reflections, but here today I will only share a handful with you, mostly in pairs. Each reflection seeks to open up one of the titles or honors of Saint Joseph from his litany. I am grateful to Our Sunday Visitor for agreeing to allow me to use portions of the book for our podcast today … and I am grateful to Our Sunday Visitor again for producing this podcast. So thanks all around to Our Sunday Visitor, who is helping us to give thanks to God for and through Saint Joseph.

Follow up Resources:

● Model of Faith: Reflecting on the Litany of Saint Joseph by Leonard J. DeLorenzo

● “Finding God in Saint Joseph” by Leonard J. DeLorenzo, presenting the first two reflections contained in this episode.

● A Report on American Catholic Religious Parenting from the McGrath Institute for Church Life.

● Providence College Veritas Conference

This episode is supported by Providence College Humanities Program, https://humanities.providence.edu/veritas/

Women Are Not Fallen Males, with Angela Franks

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0500

After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, a wide array of commentators bemoaned how much more support would now be needed for women who become pregnant when abortion is no longer available, or less readily available. What that implies, of course, is that abortion is a substitute for other supportive measures for pregnant and parenting women, or even more to that point, that those other forms of support are substitutes for the perceived cure-all of abortion. My guest today calls out this implicit assumption in an essay she wrote that specifically focuses on the ways in which institutions of higher education do or do not adequately support women as women, with their distinctive reproductive capacities in view.

Angela Franks is Professor of Theology at St. John’s Seminary in Boston. She is no stranger to our own McGrath Institute for Church Life as she currently serves as a Life and Human Dignity Writing Fellow for our Church Life Journal, and she has joined me on our show before to talk about gender, bodies, and the space of responsiveness. The article that is the basis of our discussion today comes under the title “Why Does Higher Ed Throw Women Under the Bus?”, which appeared in the Church Life Journal in September 2022, not long after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the Dobbs case.

Follow up Resources:

● Article: “Why Does Higher Ed Throw Women Under the Bus?” by Angela Franks in the Church Life Journal

● Podcast Episode: “Catholic Colleges and Pregnant Students, with Renée Roden” on Church Life Today

● Podcast Episode: “Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks” on Church Life Today

● Article: “The Body as Totem in the Asexual Revolution” by Angela Franks in the Church Life Journal

● Video Series: “Into Life: Love Changes Everything” from the Sisters of Life and the McGrath Institute for Church Life: a 12-part original series on accompanying a woman into life.

This episode is supported by NCEA, https://www.ncea.org/NCEA2023/whyattend

Questioning the Authenticity of the Synod on Synodality, with Mark Regnerus

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 00:00:00 -0500

You may remember in the last couple years the listening sessions that took place in dioceses and parishes as a first step in the Church’s “synod on synodality.” Maybe you participated in one of these listening sessions, or even helped to host one, as I did. By Fall of 2022, reports from those parish listening sessions were gathered at the diocesan level, then at the national level by bishops’ conferences, and eventually sent to an organizing committee at the Vatican. At that point, a group gathered to review the reports and write a Document on the Continental Phase, which was meant to synthesize the local and national reports, and prepare for the next stage in the synodal process. When my guest today started to look more closely at the methodology of this process, though, he, as a social scientist, started to question the authenticity of the process itself, at least in terms of what it was purported to be. Are we really hearing the voice of the faithful here?

My guest is Mark Regnerus, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of an article published in early 2023 in Public Discourse, calling the methodology of the synodal process thus far into question. In addition to this article written for a popular audience, Professor Regnerus is the author of more than 40 articles in peer reviewed journals and, additionally, author of four books, including The Future of Christian Marriage. He joins me today to discuss his misgivings about this synodal process, yes, as a Catholic, but more distinctively from his professional perspective as a social scientist.

Follow-up Resources:

● “Census Fidei? Methodological Missteps Are Undermining the Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality” by Mark Regnerus in Public Discourse

● Document for the Continental Stage (the document Prof. Regnerus questions)

● “Co-Responsibility: An Antidote to Clericalizing the Laity?” by John Cavadini in the Church Life Journal

● Called & Co-Responsible: Exploring Co-Responsibility for the Mission of the Church, Conference at the University of Notre Dame (videos of presentations)

● Recorded seminars on co-responsibility, from the McGrath Institute for Church Life

● “Will They Return to Mass,” with Hans Plate on Church Life Today

Reclaiming Catholic Unity, with Charlie Camosy

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 00:00:00 -0500

In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed to his Father that “they may all be one.” He meant us, his disciples. As he entered into his passion, Jesus began to offer himself for our unity in him, with him, through him––sharing in his union with the Father by the Holy Spirit. And yet, if we look around the Church today, disunity may be more apparent than unity.

In his new book, acclaimed author and moral theologian Charlie Camosy seeks to help Catholics––especially Catholics in the US––to rediscover our call to unity and to begin engaging with each other in a way that does not cancel out disagreements, but rather allows us to find unity in diversity. The book is One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity, from Ave Maria Press. Dr. Camosy joins me to talk about the sources of disunion, the pathways toward reunion, and the importance of reclaiming our unity in Christ.

Follow-up Resources:

● One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity, by Charles C. Camosy

● Discussion Guide for One Church, from Charles C. Camosy and Ave Maria Press

● “This Is What You Get When Politics Invades Our Ecclesial Lives,” by Robert G. Christian III in the Church Life Journal

● “Breaking from the Culture War Mentality,” with Fr. Aaron Wessman on Church Life Today

This episode is supported by NCEA
http://www.ncearise.org/

The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments, with Scott Weeman

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Scott Weeman wants to help empower the body of Christ to heal the body of Christ. His organization, Catholic in Recovery, intentionally brings together the Twelve Steps recovery process with the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. This work is an exercise in grace building on nature, where the holistic healing of mind, body, spirit, relationships, and all the rest that is necessary for those who have suffered from addiction and other compulsive behaviors opens up to the fulfillment that only the Lord can provide.

In addition to founding Catholic in Recovery, Scott is also the author of two books: The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments, and more recently, The Catholic in Recovery Workbook, both published by Ave Maria Press.

He joins me today to talk about this mission to foster communities of healing, helping people to find new life out of addiction, and in Christ with one another.

Follow-up Resources:

Learn more about Catholic in Recovery
The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments by Scott Weeman
The Catholic in Recovery Workbook by Scott Weeman
Stories of Grace, Episode 14: “I am” by Leah Jacob in the Church Life Journal
Learn more about the McGrath Institute for Church Life's Fiat Program for Faith and Mental Health

Redeeming Vision from Pornography, with Steve Pokorny

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0500

In 2011, Steve Pokorny founded Freedom Coaching: a one-to-one mentoring system aimed at helping those with an attraction or compulsion to pornography. This isn’t merely about learning how to avoid pornography; it is even more about reclaiming true health in the mind, the heart, and the body. It is about reclaiming our humanity. Freedom Coaching operates from the conviction that the reason most people with an attachment to pornography don’t experience sustained, lasting freedom is they’ve never learned how to attain healthy forms of intimacy. And attaining healthy forms of intimacy is only possible through receiving a redeemed view of the human body.

In addition to founding and leading Freedom Coaching, Steve is also the author of Redeemed Vision: Setting the Blind Free from the Pornified Culture. He joins me today to not only talk about his work, but especially about the hope for redemption for those for whom new life has seemed otherwise unattainable.

Follow up Resources:

Learn more about Freedom Coaching website at https://freedom-coaching.net/
Redeemed Vision: Setting the Blind Free from the Pornified Culture
Church Life Today episode with Joe Campo on “Being a Father to the Fatherless”
Learn more about the McGrath Institute for Church Life's Fiat Program for Faith and Mental Health

The Search for Dignity across America, with Chris Arnade

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0500

“We had compassion for those left behind but thought that our job was to provide them an opportunity (no matter how small) to get where we were. We didn’t think about changing our definition of success.” Those words come from Chris Arnade. His definition of success had been tied to upward mobility, ascending socially and professionally to the point of becoming a well-compensated Wall Street investor, who happened to pick up PhD in theoretical physics on the way. But eventually he went searching for something else––for other places and indeed for other people. He walked. He walked right into the kinds of towns and abandoned cities that most of successful Americans turned away from, even ridiculed. He paid attention to the people in these places, learned their stories, entered––as much as could––into their lives, discovering the ways in which they searched for meaning or sought community. The result of these immersions is his book, Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America.

Catholic Colleges and Pregnant Students, with Renée Roden

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Choose life. Building a pro-life culture means, among other things, making it easier for women who are pregnant to choose life. But is it easy to choose life if you are a college student, even a Catholic college student, maybe even at a Catholic school? FemCatholic recently conducted a study around questions just like that. In an article presenting their findings, they ask, “Are Catholic colleges designed for women?” One of the authors of that article is my guest today.

Renée Roden is a journalist and playwright, who currently lives and serves in a Catholic Worker community in Chicago. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theology and theater, along with a Master of Theological Studies degree from the University of Notre Dame, and a Master of Science dual degree in journalism and religion from Columbia University. Her articles have appeared in publications like America Magazine, Commonweal, and the Church Life Journal. In this report for FemCatholic, she and her co-author don’t ask whether college students should be having sex, nor do they take up pro-choice vs. pro-life arguments; instead, they wanted to see what it is like for young women who get pregnant while in college. It is very likely that a large number of women who get pregnant in college seek abortions. This report tries to figure out what colleges are doing and what they might do to help students choose life.

Follow-up resources:

● “Are Catholic colleges designed for women?”, a report from FemCatholic, by Renée Roden and Kelly Sankowski

● “Into Life: Love Changes Everything”, 12-part series with the Sisters of Life, created by CampCampo Films and the McGrath Institute for Church Life

● “A New Equality” by Jessica Keating in Notre Dame Magazine.

The Genesis of Gender, with Abigail Favale

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0500

“There is much in life we can’t control, such as when we are born and where––the family, country, and history we inherit as time-and-place-bound beings. We enter the story of the world in media res. We don’t choose our sex or the path of development it takes. We don’t choose our unique amalgam of qualities and traits, those threads that form the tapestry of personality. We cannot choose when illness and trauma will strike; we can only know that they will. Yet there is one thing we can freely choose––free only because the gentle fingers of God have loosed what binds and blinds us. We can choose to receive all these things as gift.”

So begins the very end of the Genesis of Gender, the new book by Professor Abigail Favale. In this book she teases out the hidden assumptions of the gender paradigm and exposes its effects, but only in light of the Christian understanding of reality, which she opens up as a holistic paradigm that proclaims the dignity of the body, the sacramental meaning of sexual difference, and the interconnectedness of creation. In a day and age when the meaning of sex, gender, the human body, and freedom are more and more uncertain, Dr. Favale has given us a theory that is at once substantive, clear, and compassionate.

Follow-up Resources:

● The Genesis of Gender by Abigail Favale (Ignatius Press)

● “The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender” in The Church Life Journal by Abigail Favale

● “The Body as a Formed Stream” in The Church Life Journal by Angela Franks

● “Cultivating Catholic Feminism,” a free, self-paced educational and experiential program from The Catholic Woman, with contant from Abigail Favale

The First Mexican American Saint? Meg Hunter-Kilmer on the “Bishop of the Barrio”

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0500

The first Mexican American Saint may very well end up being the man they called the Bishop of the Barrio. The cause for canonization of Alphonse Gallegos was opened in 2005, and in 2016 Pope Francis authorized the bishops and cardinals of the Congregation of Saints to grant him the title of Venerable. In this special episode of Church Life Today, Meg Hunter-Kilmer introduces us to Venerable Alphonse Gallegos through the memories and stories of people who knew him.

Meg Hunter-Kilmer is the inaugural fellow of the Sullivan Family Saints Initiative here in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. This special episode was funded by the Sullivan Family Saints Initiative, which seeks to renew scholarship on the saints and increase devotion to the saints.

Follow up Resources:

● “Bishop of the Barrio: Venerable Alphonse Gallegos” byMeg Hunter-Kilmerin the Church Life Journal.

● “Sullivan Family Saints Initiative welcomes inaugural fellow”

Forming Catholic Leaders for Mental Health, with Beth Hlabse

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Fiat. So spoke the Virgin Mary to the angel Gabriel. This is a word of creation––“let it be”––one that echoes the command of the Creator, who said Fiat lux, “let there be light”. With her fiat, Mary gave all she had to bear and share the Word of God.

In Mary is the mission of the Church––from and for that mission comes a new program here at the McGrath Institute for Church Life with a name given in Mary’s voice. The Fiat Program of Faith and Mental Health seeks to form Catholic leaders to better care for and accompany persons with mental health challenges and their loved ones. This effort comes from the heart of the Church’s mission to bear and share the Body of Christ, caring for each member within the communion of his love.

In practice, Fiat generates research, teaching, and formation opportunities to inform and strengthen sacramental and pastoral care that uplifts the dignity and goodness of each person. Fiat assists dioceses, parishes, and communities in fostering a culture of communion wherein the whole person is embraced and can experience the grace of Christian friendship and the sacramental life.

The director of this bold and timely initiative is my guest today. Beth Hlabse is director of the Fiat program in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. With degrees in mental health counseling, theology, and peace studies, Beth has provided therapeutic care for adolescents and adults with histories of trauma and adverse child experiences. Her therapeutic approach is integrative, attending to neural-developmental influences and the intersection of spirituality and psychology. She brings not only her experience to the Fiat Program, but also a Catholic vision for the wholeness of the human person and an understanding of the interdisciplinary approaches necessary for developing the best mental health resources and forming Catholic leaders capable of nurturing mental health in the communities they serve.

Follow-up Resources:

Fiat Program on Faith and Mental Health
“Integrating Faith and Mental Health, with Pat and Kenna Millea” on Church Life Today
“Love to the Very End: A Theology of Dementia” in The Church Life Journal, by Xavier Symons
“Profound Cognitive Impairment, the Virtues, and Life in Christ” in The Church Life Journal, by Miguel Romero

From Catholic Founding to Global Mission, with Catherine Arnold

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 07:00:00 -0400

By royal charter, St. Edmund’s College at the University of Cambridge is to take on the mission of advancing education, religion, learning and research in the University of Cambridge and “to promote and facilitate contributions from the Catholic Church and from members of the Catholic Church in carrying out” its endeavors. What is so remarkable about that mission is that St. Edmund’s was the first and still the only college with a Catholic founding since the Reformation. St. Edmund’s is also a global college, with students coming from all across the world and graduates going to serve and lead everywhere. Today I welcome the Master of St. Edmund’s College, who leads this distinctive institution of higher education in its service to the common good.

Catherine Arnold is the 15th Master of St. Edmund’s College, having assumed the office in October 2019. Prior to her role at St. Edmund’s, she served as the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Mongolia. Ambassador Arnold’s diplomatic career has also included service in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Oman, with particular focus on a range of issues including human rights, counter terrorism, trade, and public affairs. Her conversation with me comes as she visits the University of Notre as part of a new agreement between the two institutions to encourage and support international collaboration between the respective faculty, scholars, students, and administrators in education, research, and outreach.

National Study of Catholic Priests, with Stephen White

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 15:00:00 -0400

Are priests and bishops in the United States flourishing? How well do priests trusts bishops, or, more to the point, their own bishop? To whom do priests turn for support?––on whom do they rely? What are priests’ views of the policies and procedures surrounding accusations of abuse? Do priests worry about false accusations being brought against them? Are priests burned out? If so, which priests?

These are all questions which a national survey of over 3500 priests and 160 bishops sought to answer. The National Study of Catholic Priests was conducted by sociologists at the Catholic University of America, and specifically through The Catholic Project: an initiative that seeks to foster effective collaboration between the laity and clergy in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis. My guest today is the Executive Director of The Catholic Project, and he will share with us some of the most important results of their study.

Stephen White has served in his current role leading The Catholic Project at CUA since 2019. Previously, he served as executive producer of the award-winning podcast, Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church. He is a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Policy Center in Washington, DC, and the author of Red, White, Blue, and Catholic, published by Liguori in 2016. His articles have appeared in a number of outlets and websites, included The Weekly Standard, First Things, America Magazine, and The Catholic Herald.

The Joy of Life, with Maggie Garnett

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 00:15:00 -0400

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The Lord Jesus proclaimed this mission of his in the midst of a mixed crowed, surrounded by both skeptics and his disciples. To know this gift of life that he brings is to encounter in him the fullness of life. It is a life not of convenience nor a life measured strictly by accomplishments, but a life of joy. When Jesus encountered the rich young man who undervalued his own life and the life of others, Jesus looked upon that young man and loved him. That look of love was an invitation to open up to joy. For those who rediscover themselves in the Lord’s look of love, life begins anew, abundantly. My guest today has not only found herself in the Lord’s look of love, but also is hoping to spend her life reflecting that look of love toward others. Maggie Garnett is a 2022 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, who will soon enter postulancy with the Sisters of Life, a religious community that vows to protect and enhance the sacredness of life. The Sisters of Life were founded by the late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, who felt a strong call to do everything in his power to protect human life after he had a profound and distressing experience while visiting the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1975. After numerous frustrating attempts to pursue this calling, Cardinal O’Connor penned an article in the early 1990s in a local Catholic New York paper under the headline: “Help Wanted: Sisters of Life.” That article appeared across the country and hundreds of letters started pouring in in response. In 1991, 8 women gathered in New York as the founding members of this new community, and since then the community has grown to over a hundred sisters from across the globe, with missions across the United States. Maggie is now one of the latest young women who seeks to answer this call to love others into life. Together, we will talk about her discernment, the charism of life, the habits of prayer, and more.

Theology and Children’s Literature, with Daniel McClain

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 00:15:00 -0400

As you may have heard on recent episodes of Church Life Today, Ignatius Press just released a new volume called The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. I am the editor of that volume, for which seven other scholars in theology, literature, and the arts joined me to write contemplative, spiritual essays on Lewis’ Chronicles. We also brought in the original illustrations of an incredible visual artist and an original poem cycle from a remarkable poet. The idea of The Chronicles of Transformation is to help adult and young adult readers to rediscover (or discover for the first time) the joy of entering into Narnia, except this time to be even more mindful about the deep and abiding moral and spiritual transformation that can take place there for those of us who dare to become childlike. In previous weeks we’ve shared interviews with some of the contributors to the volume––and maybe we will have some more of the contributors join us soon––but today we want to bring back an interview that was not explicitly about Lewis or his chronicles, though it had everything to do with the enduring value of children’s literature, for children and for adults. This interview with the Rev. Dr. Daniel McClain first aired in 2019 after he gave a lecture at Notre Dame on just this topic. I hope you enjoy it, and I also hope you will check out our volume on The Chronicles of Transformation.

C. S. Lewis on Education and the Theological Imagination, with Rebekah Lamb

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 00:15:00 -0400

What you read goes a long way toward shaping the kind of person you become. At the same time, the kind of person you have become goes a long way toward determining how you read what you read, what you think about and how, and the ways in which you interpret the world around you. This mutual shaping of what and how you read, and the kind of person you become is fundamental to C. S. Lewis’ theory of education, especially but not only in regard to the education of children. His classic philosophical work on education and moral formation is The Abolition of Man, but my guest on this episode also wants to show us how Lewis’ understanding of a truly human education forms and animates especially one of his seven Chronicles of Narnia –– namely, The Silver Chair.Dr. Rebekah Lamb is a lecturer in theology and the arts at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland. She is one of the four principal faculty members in the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts. She is also a contributor to a new volume from Ignatius Press for which I served as editor––that title is The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. Dr. Lamb’s chapter is called, “Out of the Shadows: C. S. Lewis and the Idea of Education in The Silver Chair.” That chapter is accompanied by six other chapters from other scholars, treating the rest of six Chronicles of Narnia, as well as by seven original illustrations, seven original poems, and an introductory chapter about arriving at Narnia. This volume is primarily intended for adult and young adult readers, to help you rediscover the childlike wonder that is absolutely necessary to enjoy the deep spiritual treasures of these beloved children’s stories… which, as it turns out, are not just for children.We first recorded this episode a few years ago when Dr. Lamb visited Notre Dame to give a lecture on The Silver Chair, which served as the basis for her chapter in The Chronicles of Transformation.As for me, I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. I’m glad you’re here.

The Atmosphere of Narnia, with Michael Ward

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 00:15:00 -0400

Fr. Michael Ward is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. He is the author or editor of several books, including Heresies and How to Avoid Them, The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis, and After Humanity: A Guide to C. S. Lewis’ ‘Abolition of Man’. But it was another one of his books that Walter Hooper, the esteemed literary advisor to the Estate of C. S. Lewis, lauded as “unsurpassed in showing a comprehensive knowledge of and depth of insight into C. S. Lewis’ works.” That book is the groundbreaking and persuasive Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis.Fr. Ward brought his world-class expertise on the works of C. S. Lewis to a new volume recently released from Ignatius Press, for which I myself happened to serve as editor. This book is The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. In the book we take Narnia seriously as a place where the choices and actions, the desires and dispositions of children affect their own destinies and the fate of the world. It is a place where children learn what it means to grow in maturity, to become responsible and develop character. But it is also a place where adults can always start over in relearning what is all too quickly forgotten, for the sake of their own moral and spiritual transformation. For his part, Fr. Ward authored the chapter on Lewis’s Prince Caspian. In his chapter, Fr. Ward helps us to get acquainted with and be delighted by what it feels like to live inside a chivalric tradition.We first recorded this episode a few years ago when Fr. Ward visited Notre Dame to give a lecture on Prince Caspian. Our conversation moves broadly across and deeply into the imagination of C. S. Lewis.As for me, I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. I’m glad you’re here.

Arriving at Narnia, with David Fagerberg

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:15:00 -0400

C. S. Lewis published the first of the Chronicles of Narnia in 1950, followed by six others. Over the decades since, parents have read these books to their children as bedtime stories, and children have read them for themselves when they got a little older. That is a very profitable way to explore Narnia. But can grown-ups return to Narnia, finding meaning and wonder there for themselves? To this I say, emphatically: YES.That emphatic YES motivates a new book we just released with Ignatius Press called The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. I am actually the editor of the volume, in which we challenge adult readers to contemplate Lewis’ chronicles as profound, meaningful, and delightful immersions into a pilgrimage toward moral and spiritual growth. In the volume you will find one essay for each of the seven chronicles, with each one written by a different scholar of theology, literature, and the arts. There are also seven original illustrations in the volume––again, one for each chronicle––that present stunning glimpses into the narratives through rich symbolism. These illustrations are accompanied by a sevenfold poem cycle, completely new and original to this book, that draws us toward wondering at the majestic Lion Aslan whom we come to know for a little while in the vast land of Narnia. And before all of that, there is an introductory chapter on “Arriving at Narnia” which helps us prepare to re-engage these chronicles and the journey they beckon us toward, while also teaching us about what Lewis set out to do with his chronicles. The author of that introductory chapter is the guest on today’s episode, which was originally recorded a few years ago for a lecture series we hosted that first explored this whole topic.David Fagerberg is professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. For years and years, he has taught a hugely popular course on the theme of deification in the literature of C. S. Lewis, in addition another courses on G. K. Chesterton and a whole host of courses in his field of specialization, which is liturgical theology. Among his book publications are On Liturgical Theology, Liturgical Mysticism, and Liturgical Dogmatics. You can find his essay on “Arriving at Narnia” at the beginning of The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis, edited by Leonard DeLorenzo (that’s me) and published by Ignatius Press.

Integrating Mental Health and Faith, with Pat and Kenna Millea

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 00:15:00 -0400

Salvation comes from the Latin word “salus”, which means “health” and “well-being”. Illness and sin are therefore both, in different ways, a lack of the health and well-being that is intended for us. We might even say that we are created for wholeness just as we are created for holiness, and that growing in one means growing in the other. Salvation is both a matter of wholeness and holiness. The Martin Center for Integration seeks to bring together what is all too often kept apart: mental health and faith development. It is common for either one or the other of those two to be emphasized, but far too rare for both sanity and sanctity to be cared for and promoted together, in their own distinctive but coordinate ways. Today I welcome the husband and wife founders of the Martin Center to talk with us about this mission of integration, the needs that they are responding to, and how we become really whole, really healthy, really holy. Pat Millea is Formation and Operations Director for the Martin Center for Integration, while Kenna Millea is Clinical Director for the Center. Both have extensive experience in Church ministry, with advanced degrees in theology and formation in ministry from the University of Notre Dame, while Kenna is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy. To learn more, go to martincenterforintegration.com

2022 SCOTUS: Dobbs, Roe, and Abortion Law, with Rick Garnett

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 13:00:00 -0400

Each year, the so called “June Court” decisions from the Supreme Court garner quite a lot of attention, but few in recent memory have received close to the same level of attention as Dobbs v. Jackson, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. By this point, everyone knows about this decision, though fewer of us know as much as we might about the actual case that was before the court, why it was decided the way it was, and what this really means for abortion law going forward. To help us grow in our understanding of what has taken place and what is coming next––or what’s not coming next––I am happy to welcome back to the show Professor Rick Garnett of the Notre Dame Law School, who has become our show’s resident expert on the Supreme Court and especially cases relating to religious liberty. While Dobbs was not a religious liberty case, a number of other cases on which the Court ruled in the summer of 2022 were. To give due time to all these cases, my conversation with Professor Garnett will span two episodes. In this first one, we focus on Dobbs, then in the next one we’ll talk about several religious liberty cases.A little more about my guest, who has joined me several times before. In addition to being a Professor of Law here at Notre Dame, Rick Garnett is also the founding director of the Program on Church, State, and Society in the Notre Dame Law School, as well as a fellow of the School’s Religious Liberty Initiative. He has published widely and some of his recent articles on the Supreme Court decisions have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Law, City Journal, and the Daily News.

2022 SCOTUS: Religious Liberty Cases, with Rick Garnett

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 13:00:00 -0400

Cases with issues of religious liberty regularly make their way before the Supreme Court, and this year was no exception. In the decisions that the Court rendered in summer 2022, there were at least four cases where questions of religious liberty were adjudicated. If you have been listening to our show for some time, you may know that we regularly create episodes about religious liberty cases whenever the Supreme Court decides them, and our resident expert and guide to understanding these cases and the impact of the decisions is Professor Rick Garnett of the Notre Dame Law School, who is the founding director of the Program on Church, State, and Society, as well as a fellow of the Religious Liberty Initiative.This year, Rick has joined me for two consecutive episodes, with this being the second. In the first episode––right before this one––we talked about the decision in the Dobbs case, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Now we will talk about a host of religious liberty cases concerning state funding for school choice, the right to religious expression for government employees, non-discrimination on the basis of religion for private speech in public spaces, the religious rights of prisoners on death row, and even a “non-case” about religious exemptions to vaccination mandates. I hope you will find this conversation as helpful and educational as I do.

Empowering Young Catholic Professionals, with Jennifer Baugh

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:15:00 -0400

The Christian life is a life of creativity, the creativity to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ and allow him to transform every dimension of who you are, every aspect of how you live, wherever you find yourself in life. That’s the theory, but how does this happen in practice? Most especially, how does this happen in the business world, in the professions, in the life of work where it can be especially challenging to integrate faith into daily practice, and might lead to loneliness and longing before it yields a sense of communion and fulfillment?Young Catholic Professionals was launched to in 2010 to help young adult Catholics meet these challenges, to help lead one another into a more holistic and vibrant life of faith, especially in consideration of their work and careers. Jennifer Baugh, the founder and executive director of Young Catholic Professionals, joins me today to talk about the restlessness and desire of Catholics in their 20s and 30s, the communities and mentoring that her organization establishes to support and empower these young adults, and the ways in which this service is ultimately ordered to the life of the Church and engagement in local parishes.

The Past, Present, and Future of the Eucharist, with Michael Hahn

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 00:15:00 -0400

The theology of the Eucharist in St. Thomas Aquinas may seem complex, but that complexity is conformed to the tremendous mystery of Christ’s gift of himself in the sacrament. There is growth ahead for us not primarily in understanding the Eucharist as if we could ever achieve something like conceptual mastery, but especially in growing in love for and devotion to the Son of God who acts in love for us. If we can allow St. Thomas to help us raise our minds to the wonders of Christ’s Eucharistic gift, perhaps we can then better raise our hearts into union with him.Our guide to helping us learn from St. Thomas’s theology of the Eucharist is Dr. Michael Hahn, assistant professor of Sacred Scripture at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. Our conversation today follows from a lecture Dr. Hahn gave at the annual Academy of Catholic Theology conference, where he spoke on the sacraments and sanctification in the theology of Thomas Aquinas.

Augustine on the Eucharist, with Elizabeth Klein

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 13:00:00 -0400

St. Augustine’s Eucharistic theology is more controversial than you might think. It is controversial because throughout the Christian tradition, rival theological camps have appealed to Augustine to further their own arguments and Christian practice. It would not be uncommon for Augustine to be arguing against Augustine in these debates––at least in terms of how Augustine is presented and made to fit into the theological and spiritual program of those who seek to inherit his legacy.So what is Augustine’s Eucharistic theology and how does it accommodate this breadth of expression? On today’s show we want to try to understand what the Eucharist really means for Augustine. And I’ve got just the person to help us understand.Elizabeth Klein is Assistant Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute. She is the author of God: What Every Catholic Should Know, and of Augustine’s Theology of Angels. She recently delivered a paper at the annual conference for the Academy of Catholic Theology on the topic of “Augustine on the Eucharist as Sacrament of Unity.” Our conversation today will build off of what she developed for that lecture.

Our Eucharistic God, with Jonathan Ciraulo

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 13:00:00 -0400

God is Eucharistic. That is a bold and profound claim. It is different from only saying that God gives the Eucharist or that Christ is made present in the Eucharist. To say that our God is a Eucharistic God has profound consequences for, well, everything… including how we revere and adore the Eucharist now, and how we come to know God through the Eucharist.My guest today wrote an essay under the title “The Key to Understanding God” in which he brings forward the Eucharistic thought of the Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov and the Roman Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. In both, we find the concerted effort to apprehend the entire Christian life, including the intellectual life, from and toward the Eucharist. The Eucharist, in other words, is the key to understanding all things, including and especially who God is and how God is. These are deep matters with surprising relevance, which together we are going to seek to understand and consider better.Our guide and my guest is Jonathan Ciraulo, assistant professor of theology at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. His essay, “The Key to Understanding God,” appeared in the Church Life Journal in April 2022, and his new book with the University of Notre Dame Press is The Eucharistic Form of God: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Sacramental Theology.

(rerun) Maureen Condic on When Human Life Begins

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 05 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0400

This week we bring you another past episode from June 2019 with Maureen Condic.Do you want to know when human life begins? And how to explain that to other people? That's what I'm going to ask our guest today, Dr. Maureen Condic, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah Medical School. In 2015, Dr. Condic was appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a distinguished group of physicians, scientists, and theologians from the international community whose mission it is to study questions and issues regarding the promotion and defense of human life from an interdisciplinary perspective.Three years later, in 2018, Dr. Condic received a Presidential appointment to the National Board of Science, the oversight body for the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on the development and regeneration of the nervous system, spinal cord repair and regeneration, and embryonic development, while she cultivates a strong commitment to public education and science literacy. In June 2019, she delivered the St. Albert Award Lecture at the annual convention of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

(rerun) The Church’s Call to Foster Care with Holly Taylor Coolman

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 29 May 2022 12:00:00 -0400

This week we bring you another past episode from February 2021, with Holly Taylor Coolman.“We have to imagine a people so deeply committed to their neighbors that they would risk their lives for them—and risk their lives perhaps not even to save them, but simply to be present and perhaps to speak to them of another life. As we imagine that, we begin to see the enormity and beauty of our own vocation as Christians.” This at the very heart of what it means to be “pro-life”Those are the words of Holly Taylor Coolman, who invites and challenges us, as Christians, to heed the central call of the Gospel to provide care to the suffering, to offer hospitality to those who need, and to build communities that are indeed “pro-life”, through and through. Dr. Taylor Coolman is assistant professor of theology at Providence College, where she also serves as chair of the department of theology. She is here to talk with me about foster care, in particular, which was the subject of an essay she published in our Church Life Journal, and a call she has heeded in her own life.

(rerun) Mary O’Callaghan on Disability Selective Abortions

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 22 May 2022 13:00:00 -0400

This week we bring you a past episode from December, 2020 with Mary O'Callaghan.Every child is a mystery, but as scientific advances in prenatal testing grow, so does the temptation to know more and more about our unborn children. Will they be healthy? What are the chances they will have a disability? With questions like these comes another question: how much is too much when it comes to trying to know who our children will be? My guest is Dr. Mary O’Callaghan, a developmental psychologist who, among other things, studies, writes about, and teaches on “disability selective abortion” and issues of human dignity.

(rerun) Tricia Bruce on How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 1

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 May 2022 12:00:00 -0400

This week we bring you 2 past episodes from July of 2020 with Tricia Bruce. This is Part 1.American do not talk much about abortion. That’s sounds strange, doesn’t it? We seem to hear a lot about abortion in the news, in politics, in relation to the Supreme Court, but in terms of everyday Americans in their interpersonal conversations, we are actually very quiet about abortion..This is part of what Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researchers discovered in their groundbreaking and comprehensive interview study of abortion attitudes in the United States among “every Americans.” The report of their study was released in mid-July 2020 under the title “How Americans Understand Abortion.” This study was undertaken in partnership with our McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, and you can download a copy of this report for free at mcgrath.nd.edu/resources.Today Dr. Bruce joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, for a two-part interview to discuss her report and to offer us some observations and insights about American attitudes towards abortion. This is part 1 of our interview, while part 2 will air next week on Redeemer radio or, if you are listening on our podcast, part 2 is the very next episode.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadio

(rerun) Tricia Bruce on How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 2

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 May 2022 12:00:00 -0400

This week we bring you 2 past episodes from July, 2020 with Tricia Bruce. This is Part 2.Americans do not talk much about abortion, but we can under the right conditions. This is one of the conclusions that Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researches posit in the report on their groundbreaking and comprehensive interview study focusing on abortion attitudes in the United States. Dr. Bruce is joining me for the second of a two-part interview on her report “How Americans Understand Abortion.” Dr. Bruce’s study was conducted in partnership with the McGrath Institute for Church Life and you can download a copy of the report for free at mcgrath.nd.edu/resources.I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, and you can find part 1 of my interview with Dr. Bruce on our Church Life Today podcast.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathND

Will They Return to Mass? with Hans Plate

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 08 May 2022 12:00:00 -0400

If you attend Mass regularly, maybe you’ve thought that your parish is a little less full than it had been before the pandemic. Or, maybe you’re someone who has noticed that you yourself haven’t been attending Sunday Mass quite as consistently as you did before. Some parish and diocesan leaders have some evidence about their own Mass attendance numbers to confirm the perceived drop in participation, but many of the rest have hunches or our own unscientific observations. Regardless, for everyone who notices and is concerned about the decrease in Mass attendance, the question of whether or not those who are not there will come back lingers.Thanks to a new report from Vinea Research, we now have survey data to support or challenge our assumptions, and to give us some reliable predictors about future Mass attendance, as well as church giving, faith in God, and prayer. My guest today is Hans Plate, founder and president of Vinea Research, which seeks to support the Church by helping it better understand those it serves through expert market research and insights. He joins me to discuss the findings of his team’s study on “The Impact of COVID-19 on U.S. Catholics.”

Forming an Intentional College Culture, with Joe Wurtz

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 01 May 2022 12:00:00 -0400

In his apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, St. John Paul II wrote that a Catholic university or college is “a living institutional wtiness to Christ and his message, so vitally important in cultures marked by secularism.” He continues by saying that everything in these Catholic institutions should be conducted in harmony with the evangelizing mission of the Church, including offering an “education in a faith-context that forms men and women capable of rational and critical judgement and conscious of the transcendent dignity of the human person.” I wonder if you might agree that Catholic colleges and universities that seek to form young adults holistically and intentionally in this manner are perhaps more important today than they ever have been.My guest today carries the responsibility of helping provide just such a Christocentric formation in an intentional college culture. Dr. Joe Wurtz is Dean of Students at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where he also serves as Executive Director of the Gregorian Fellows. A graduate of Benedictine himself where he earned a BA in philosophy, he also holds a master’s degree in Higher Ed Administration from the University of Kansas, and a doctorate in Higher Ed Administration from George Washington University. As Dean of Students, he oversees programs and activities involving residence life, student development, intramural programs, student health services, counseling, student activities, and career development at Benedictine. He joins me to talk about the vision of student formation at a Catholic college in our day and age.

Claiming the Mission of Easter (Special Episode)

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Christ did not rise from the dead so we could gorge ourselves on marshmallow Peeps. Gorging is an act of singular enjoyment, and it only takes a moment to look around our world to see how disastrous it is when people just fill themselves with what they want… besides, it would be just gross if all we wanted was to be stuffed with marshmallow Peeps. The true measure of Easter joy is the degree to which the disciples of the Risen Lord indulge in the good of others. The celebration of Easter is ordered to communion, so much so that Easter works centrifugally through Christ’s disciples: we move the joy outwards.Using Pope Francis’s beloved term, Easter is the season for “missionary disciples.” The heart of the mission is Christ, the source of the mission is his Resurrection, and the power of the mission is the Holy Spirit he imparts to us. With this mission, we, his disciples, bring him to others and work to unite all in him.This is a special episode of Church Life Today. Only very rarely do I create an episode without a guest, but when I do it is usually to offer a special seasonal episode like this one where I try offer a series of reflections that, I hope, are of some interest or use to you in your prayer, in your life, for your imagination. So today I want to spend this time with you asking, How do we embrace and live out the mission of Easter? The short answer: By heeding the Gospel and then exercising our own “missionary creativity” to become the disciples Christ frees us to be. And what I want is to offer is some in exploring this more fully by talking about four ways to fulfill our Easter mission––one way from each of the four Gospels.

The End and Beginning of Life, with Noreen Madden McInnes

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 12:00:00 -0400

With the right kind of care, support, and attention, the last days and months of an aging loved one’s life can become a source of new life for those who draw near to them. My guest today witnesses to this splendid, glorious truth in her new book about accompanying her father through death into life.Noreen Madden McInnis is the director of liturgy and spirituality for the Diocese of San Diego and author of the book Keep at It, Riley! The title of the book is a saying passed down through generations of Noreen’s Irish Catholic family––the Maddens––who never quit in the face of challenges in life and never quit on each other. In her testimony of journeying with her father and her mother toward their deaths and, ultimately, into the love of God, that resolve and resilience is shown to be a profound commitment to the dignity and beauty of the aged, the infirm, and the dying. Noreen’s book is part of the Magenta series from New City Press, which is committed to healing the ills of polarization by uplifting visions that heal and unify, especially for and in the Church.

Breaking from the ‘Culture War’ Mentality, with Fr. Aaron Wessman

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 12:00:00 -0400

When we, as Christians, engage in evangelization that seeks to transform our culture, what metaphor tends to inform our thoughts and actions?Frequently, we land on the metaphor of “war”––we are engaged in a “culture war.” Have we thought, though, about the implications of that metaphor, about what it might do to us and what it might do to “the other” in our eyes? If we do think about that, perhaps we see that this metaphor, which has been widely adopted, might in fact be at odds with a truly Christian vision of ourselves, of others, and of engagement with culture more broadly.Fr. Aaron Wassmen has been developing ideas about the inaptness of the “culture war” metaphor for the evangelizing mission of the Church and for Christian’s missionary activity. He spoke on this topic recently at a conference on Transforming Culture hosted by Benedictine College, in Atchison, Kansas. The title of his presentation made his conclusion pretty clear: “It’s Time to Bury the Culture War Metaphor.”Fr. Aaron is vicar general and director of formation of the Glenmary Home Missioners. Before serving in leadership in his community, he was pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Windsor, North Carolina.

The End of Friendship, with Jennifer Senior

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:04:00 -0400

It’s your friends who break your heart.That’s the title of the article by Jennifer Senior for The Atlantic. It is an incisive and enlightening piece that also made me laugh out loud. Friendship doesn’t get the kind of attention that other forms of relationship tend to get. It is not studied as much in psychology. It is not examined like family relationships for the sake of explaining the way someone is. It is not fretted over like romantic relationships or marriage. It is not obsessed over for the sake of maximizing productivity like the relationships in work culture. And yet, as Senior writes, “friendship is the rare kind of relationship that remains forever available to us as we age. It’s a bulwark against stasis, a potential source of creativity and renewal in lives that otherwise narrow in time.” So Jennifer Senior writes about friendship, but from an unexpected perspective: from their end, the dissolution of friendship.In addition to her work with The Atlantic, Jennifer Senior has written for the New York Times and New York Magazine, among other publications. She is also the author of All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood.

Evangelization through Catholic Education, with Thomas Carroll

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0400

When you hold a position of authority in Catholic education and you believe that the #1 goal of Catholic schools is to evangelize, then that affects everything you do. It affects who you hire and why, what your priorities are, how you think about curriculum and culture, and what you value in the hard decisions you have to make in times of trial or crisis. You give an account of why the kind of education you provide matters by what you place as your #1 goal, not just in print or in theory, but in practice.My guest today is shaping one of the largest and oldest Catholic school systems in the United States with precisely that goal in mind. Thomas Carroll is Secretary of Education and Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Boston. A longtime leader in education and in community development, Mr. Carroll has been leading Catholic schools in Boston since 2019.

Rethinking Work, with Paul Blaschko

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Do you or someone you know feel burned out by work? Have you questioned the place of work in your life, and how it balances with everything else? Do we work to live? Do we live to work? Do we reach for and sometimes touch value that is in our work and also somehow beyond our work? What is the meaning of work?Here’s another question: Can philosophy help us find meaning and purpose at work? That is a question that my guest has been asking, and he is helping college students and other people out there in the world to think about and investigate the meaning and the good of work.Paul Blaschko is assistant teaching professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, where he now also serves as director of the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise & Society within the College of Arts & Letters. Dr. Blaschko is deeply committed to matters of practical philosophy, and of doing philosophy in public, helping others to engage the world philosophically, as a way of life. In the past couple years, he developed and has been teaching a wildly successful course for undergraduate students on “The Working Life.” He is also now building a program focused on finding meaning in business through the liberal arts. Along with Meghan Sullivan, Dr. Blaschko is the author of The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning. He joins me today to talk about what’s going on with work, how we think about and approach work, and what difference developing a personal philosophy of work would make.

Xavier Society for the Blind, with Malachy Fallon

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Missionaries venture to sites unseen, to open up the Gospel in new ways. The hard to get to places are the special province of missionaries, who exercise both creativity and commitment to get where others have not thought to go. We might think of missionaries sailing across seas or hiking across mountains, but a missionary’s vision and aim can take on very different forms than those we see in movies. Sometimes, missionary work means recognizing the obstacles that impede access to the Gospel, or the Church’s tradition, or spiritually edifying resources that enrich people’s lives, and finding ways to lower those barriers to grant access where access was not previously granted.Such is the work and mission of the Xavier Society for the Blind, which came into existence over a century ago in response to a prayer that “God would inspire someone to take pity on the blind of the country for whom there was no Catholic book to be had.” The person who prayed that prayer became a co-founder of the society, and since then the Xavier Society for the Blind has been creating resources for blind and visually impaired persons, now most notably through braille reading materials and audio books.My guest today is the Executive Director of Xavier Society, Mr. Malachy Fallon. He joins me to talk about the mission of the society, the impact of its work, the model for evangelization that it provides, and the collaboration of a great many who help open up the treasures of the faith to those whose access might otherwise be obstructed.

The Opportune Time for Catholic Education, with Matthew Vereecke

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 11:00:00 -0500

Catholic schools extend and make present the life of Christ in his Church. Yes, Catholic education serves the students who are nurtured in its classrooms, but as we know the parents and families of those students are also often nurtured and even newly evangelized through the school. Catholic schools can be one of the most important ways in which the Church responds to the concrete needs and desires of a given community, and by doing so, draws people into intimacy and communion with Jesus Christ.Today I welcome to the show Dr. Matthew Vereecke, Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Dallas, who will share with us not only his vision for Catholic education, but also the way in which his growing and diverse diocese activates the Church’s evangelizing mission through its schools. Dr. Vereecke is in his seventh year as superintendent in Dallas, a role which he assumed after nearly a decade as a Catholic school director and as a principal.

Into Life: Love Changes Everything, with Sr. Marie Veritas and Michael Campo

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 27 Feb 2022 13:30:00 -0500

“A woman who knows she’s loved can do anything.” This fundamental belief animates the ministry of the Sisters of Life, who dedicate themselves to building up a culture of life and who work with the Lord to drive out the contempt for life in our world. It all begins with restoring the belief in one’s own belovedness before God.In collaboration with our McGrath Institute for Church Life and CampCampo film production company, the Sisters of Life have created a new, 12-part original series on accompanying women into life. The series is called “Into Life: Love Changes Everything.” This series will be released, for free, on March 25, 2022, along with accompanying study and discussion guides, that are especially well suited for parishes, schools, and ministry groups. The hope is to reframe the conversations around abortion and the beauty of life through helping people learn how to listen and understand the heart of another, how to rejoice in the beauty of the individual person in an encounter of hope, and how to truly accompany someone into God’s life and freedom. My guests today are two of the co-creators of this series. Sr. Marie Veritas is a Sister of Life, and Michael Campo is the founder of CampCampo and the series’ director.

Surgical Care for the Poor, with Kate Clitheroe

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 11:00:00 -0500

In countries with underfunded health systems, surgical care is often ignored and widely inaccessible to the poor. Local facilities lack appropriate supplies and equipment, medical professionals do not have the benefit of training in the latest techniques, and few can afford the high cost of surgery.An organization responding to this gap in healthcare is One World Surgery. Focusing heavily on forming local partnerships and capacity-building, One World Surgery has established a surgery center in Honduras and is developing one in the Dominican Republic. In Honduras, the Honduran staff leads the surgery center that serves patients on a daily basis, while volunteers and medical missionaries provide additional personnel support, education, and an extension into specialty services. Through its partnership with local health professionals and working in tandem with the local health care system, One World Surgery seeks to provide world-class surgical care and strengthen primary care for underserved communities.My guest today is Senior Director of Programs and Operations for One World Surgery. Kate Clitheroe graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and pre-med, before completing a master’s in public health from Washington University in St. Louis. She has served in health care in Honduras for several organizations, and has been with One World Surgery for the past six years, both in Honduras and in the U.S. I first came to know Kate when she served as a Mentor in Faith in our Notre Dame Vision program while she was an undergrad, after she attended the program as a high school student herself. She joins me to talk about her work, the impact of One World Surgery, and what it means to live solidarity in action.

Purgatory, with Brett Salkeld

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 11:00:00 -0500

Does purgatory matter? Does it matter later, as in after we die? How about now? Does purgatory make a difference to who we are now as Christians, how we live now, what we are responsible for now, and our relationship to the dead now?My guest today has been researching and writing on purgatory for some time. Dr. Brett Salkeld is no stranger to the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where he has contributed to the Office for Life and Human Dignity, as well as to our Church Life Journal. He is the author of several books, including the recently released Transubstantiation: Theology, History and Christian Unity from Baker Academic, as well as the book Can Catholics and Evangelicals Agree about Purgatory and the Last Judgment?, which will figure into our conversation today. In addition to being the Archdiocesan Theologian of the Archdiocese of Regina in Canada, Brett also hosts the podcast “Thinking Faith,” where this very episode will also be shared. Today, my conversation with Brett is all about purgatory.

Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 11:00:00 -0500

When people speak of “gender fluidity,” what is the understanding of the human body that is at play? When a researcher analyzes a dead body, are they seeing a still frame of what the body really is? How do we best conceive of––maybe even wonder about––the human body, and what does that mean for gender theories, feminist concerns, and biological sex?To guide us in thinking about all these things and more, Dr. Angela Franks joins me for a discussion today, building off of one of her recent essays which bears the title “The Body is a Formed Stream.” That essay appeared in the Church Life Journal. Dr. Franks is professor of theology at St. John’s seminary in Boston and Senior Fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge. I’m excited about this conversation today because I think that what Dr. Franks both lays out and proposes can help all of us to think more clearly and in a richer way about the questions of embodiment, sex, and gender that are so difficult to think through today.

Cultivating Catholic Feminism, with Corynne Staresinic and Abigail Favale

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 18:15:00 -0500

How would an authentically Catholic feminism both dialogue with and meaningfully differ from secular feminism? This is the focus of a new program from The Catholic Woman. The program is called “Cultivating Catholic Feminism.” It seeks to establish a framework for Catholic feminism through lesson and story and, from that framework, to engage with secular feminism on a range of important topics. Today I welcome two guests to talk about this program’s aims, approach, and timeliness. Corynne Staresinic is founder and executive director of The Catholic Woman, an online based nonprofit that is dedicated to sharing stories and wisdom from Catholic women to affirm the goodness, unrepeatability, and dignity of every woman for the redemption of humankind and the Church. Abigail Favale is Dean of Humanities at George Fox University, who wrote and presents the 21 video lessons included in “Cultivating Catholic Feminism.” She is the author of Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion, and of the forthcoming book The Genesis of Gender from Ignatius Press.

Dementia, the Soul, and God, with Xavier Symons

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 11:00:00 -0500

Who am I when I’ve forgotten who I am? What does it mean to love God and be loved by God when I have forgotten who God is? These are the two main questions of John’s Swinton’s book on Living in the Memories of God, and these are the kind of questions that Xavier Symon is trying to explore in developing a more robust theology and philosophy of dementia.Xavier Symon is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Australia Catholic University’s Plunkett Centre for Ethics and currently scholar in residence at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute for Ethics. In an essay he published with our Church Life Journal, he proposes that Christian personalism offers promising avenues for pursuing a theology and philosophy of dementia, since Christian personalism leads us toward seeing and caring for whole persons. Today we will talk about conceptions of the self, the deconstruction of the ego, the loss and the dignity of those who suffer from dementia, and even the radical reversal of our commonplace understanding of personhood.

Pursuing Freedom in Exodus 90, with James Baxter

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 23:15:00 -0500

It was the strength of the Israelites that scared the Pharaoh. You learn that in the first several verses of the Book of Exodus. The rest of the Book is about the journey to freedom: first the liberation from Egypt, then the training in freedom through the years in the desert. The whole journey concerns Israel’s growth as God’s own people.Since 2016, the Exodus 90 program has been following this same path: giving men a reliable structure of basic spiritual disciplines to grow in freedom. The point is to let the true strength of men become a gift for others.My guest today is the co-founder and CEO of Exodus 90, James Baxter. James has overseen the growth of this program from a handful of men in its first year to now over 50,000 men in over 70 countries around the world, and from hundreds of parishes all across the United States. I want to talk with James about the inspiration for this spiritual program, the fruits that it bears, and why something like this is so needed for men today.

Scivias: Know the Way of the Lord, with Fr. Michael Zimmerman

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 15:18:00 -0500

If you wait for certainty before acting, you will rarely ever act. More often, it is action that leads to certainty. We might expect to find a saying like that on an inspirational poster or as the takeaway from a motivational talk. But we might be surprised, challenged, and invigorated to consider such wisdom when approaching discernment, especially discernment of the priesthood. Rather than waiting for certainty to take the first step, start taking steps and build toward certainty. This, in a way, is the approach of a new guide to discernment produced by the Archdiocese of Boston, in the form of a series of short videos under the title “Sciavias: Know the Way of the Lord.” The creator of the series is Fr. Michael Zimmerman, assistant vocations director in the archdiocese, who joins me today to discuss discernment, the sanctification of time and place, and discovering true intimacy in the Christian life.

St. Bakhita Vocational Training Center, with Wendy Angst

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 02:00:00 -0500

More than 8,000 miles separate students at the University of Notre Dame from students at St. Bakhita Vocational Training School in Northern Uganda, but a course in innovation and design thinking brings them together. The creator of that course is Wendy Angst, teaching professor in the Medoza College of Business at Notre Dame, where she also serves as assistant department chair in Management and Organization––she is also a fellow of the Pulte Institute for Global Development. Through a partnership with St. Bakhita’s begun in early 2020, Professor Angst has taught and guided Notre Dame undergraduate students in working with students at St. Bakhita’s and local community members to develop and strengthen this school that helps create opportunities for young girls who otherwise have few opportunities before them.One of the best places to learn about St. Bakhita’s Vocational Training School is on their Facebook page, where you can also link to ways to supporting St. Bakhita students, especially in the form of scholarships.For now, Wendy Angst joins me to talk about the history and mission of the school, the ways in which design thinking is helping her own students serve the St. Bakhita community, and the innovative approach to development that begins with empathy.

Alone Among Friends, with Isaac Sullivan

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

On more than a few occasions on this show, we have hosted experts in media and technology, or education and family life, to talk about young people and the effects of digital and social media on their relationships and development. Today, I want to do something a little different, not in terms of content but in terms of conversation partner. That’s because my guest today is not someone talking about the ubiquity of technology in the lives of young people, but indeed a young adult who is living in this technological environment, and doesn’t like what he’s seen.Isaac Sullivan is a recent high school graduate from Lafayette, Indiana. He has been paying attention to what we have all seen elsewhere when a group of people get together in public: they’re technically together, but not really. They are all separately engaged with their phones. Isaac’s seen this very clearly in his own friend group for years now, and in this show he and I will talk about what he thinks about all that.

The Three Wisemen (Special Episode)

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

Today I’m doing a different kind of show to bridge Advent and Christmas. I’m calling this episode, “The Three Wisemen”. My three guests are not here in the studio, nor are they joining me by phone. Instead, they are with us in their preaching. This episode is built around Advent and Christmas Sermons of the Saints. My guests will be the great British intellectual and churchman St. John Henry Newman; the martyred pastor of Munich, Fr. Alfred Delp; and the martyred archbishop of San Salvador, St. Oscar Romero. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ve selected some excerpts of Advent and Christmas homilies from each of these great preachers that I want to share with you. I’ll mix in a little of my own commentary, sort of as a first pass at really pondering the depth and power of their preaching. One of the things I love about hosting this show is that I get to interact with some brilliant, inspiring, and persuasive leaders in the Church, who help us all to be more knowledgeable and discerning about Church Life Today. Today’s three guests—St. John Newman, Fr. Alfred Delp, and St. Oscar Romero—will do no less for us, through the enduring power of their preaching.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Carolyn Pirtle on Advent Music and Christmas Movies

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

There is nothing not to like about today’s episode. Advent music, Christmas movies, and obsessive concern with “progressive solemnity,” with both well-reasoned and unfounded opinions mixed in.Joining me today is Carolyn Pirtle, program director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy. She’s going to take us through the sounds Advents, the films of Christmas, and more besides.

The Catholic Response to the Sin of Racism, with Gloria Purvis

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

The sin of racism disfigures and hides the truth of the human person. The healthy response to sin is conversion, and conversion begins with begging the Lord for healing. That healing, though, provokes and necessitates change.My guest today is committed to helping to develop a Catholic response to the sin of racism, along these very lines.Gloria Purvis is well-known for in Catholic media in her capacities as radio host, TV series host and creator, and now as the host of “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” from America Media. Gloria was recently named as the inaugural Pastoral Fellow of the Notre Dame Office of Life and Human Dignity, in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Through this fellowship she will develop resources for classroom teachers, co-create an online course addressing the theology of racial justice, deliver two public lectures on Notre Dame’s campus, and facilitate a workshop series for pastoral leaders equipping them for dialogue and engagement on issues of social justice. Today she joins me to follow up especially on her first public lecture as part of her fellowship, which bore the title “Racial Justice: Solidarity and the Church’s Call to Action.”

The Embodied Holiness of Sr. Thea Bowman, with Kayla August

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 11:00:00 -0500

“Catholic Christans came into my community and they helped us with education, they helped us with healthcare, they helped us to find our self-respect and to realize our capabilities when the world had told us for so long that we were nothing and would amount to nothing. And I wanted to be part of that effort. That’s radical Christianity, that’s radical Catholicism. How do we find the needs of God’s people? How do we as a Catholic Christian community of believers say that we believe that God is active in our lives, and we want to share the Good News with you?”These are the words of Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman. She encountered the Gospel not just in the words but also in the actions of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration who came from Wisconsin down to Thea’s hometown of Canton, Mississippi and created new opportunities for education, for healthcare, for respect and dignity for Thea and other young black people like her in the segregated south of the early 20th Century. She was so attracted to the Gospel she found in these sisters that she joined them. The Word of God took root in the heart and mind, the imagination and the cultural history of Thea Bowman. Now, more than 30 years after her death, her cause for canonization is underway, and she shows a new generation of Catholics and Americans what it means to be fully alive in the Gospel.As part of the annual Saturdays with the Saints lecture series through the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame, Kayla August presented on the life and witness of Sr. Thea. Today, Kayla joins me to talk about this remarkable woman, this servant of God, this witness to Christ’s life in an especially American context. Kayla herself is a doctoral student in theology and ministry at Boston College. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, she served in Campus Ministry here at the University of Notre Dame, and also as a rector for one of or woman’s residence halls. Kayla is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. You can find the video of her lecture on Sr. Thea on the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Youtube page, or simply by googling “Saturday with the Saints, Thea Bowman.

Eucharist Means Thanksgiving (Special Episode)

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 11:00:00 -0500

It is Thanksgiving week and we want to celebrate that here on Church Life Today. I am going to do different kind of episode to mark the occasion. This episode is called “Eucharist Means Thanksgiving” and what I want to do is share with you quotes, passages, even a poem that invite us to deepen our appreciation for and wonder about the gift of Christ in the Eucharist as an exchange of thanksgiving. Now I know, of course, that the holiday Thanksgiving is not itself about the Eucharist. But this civic holiday is probably the closest in character to our religious holidays, and all the more because it is a feast of dedicated to giving thanks. For those who revere and adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we know that being transformed by that particular and unique “thanksgiving” should shape and transform our entire lives. So I hope you will spend the next half hour with me and a few guests who aren’t joining us by phone or in the studio, but rather through their meditations and prayer about the Eucharist meaning Thanksgiving.

Praying for the Dead, with John Cavadini

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 11:00:00 -0500

Praying for the dead. This is a spiritual work of mercy, but does it really do anything? Do our prayers matter to the dead? Do the dead matter to us?I wanted to find us some help in understanding this practice of the Christian faith, and so I have invited Prof. John Cavadini to talk with us about his own practice of praying for the dead, the love of Christ poured out for us, and our communion with the dead in the Eucharist. Yes, these are theological matters, but they are also matters of devotion, of grieving, of longing, and of hope. I think that what we are about to talk about will matter to you. I think it will matter to me, too.If you’ve been listening to our show for some, you know that I am working on a project between my own McGrath Institute for Church Life and Ave Maria Press about our relationship with our beloved dead. This is part of a book I am writing on this topic. As part of the project, I’ve been talking with people about their memories of and their hopes for their beloved dead. I’ve asked a few of those people if they would be willing to record an episode for our show so you can listen in, too. This episode stands in that line, and there were three previous episodes where I hosted, first, https://spokestreet.com/church-life-today?ppplayer=c1e6f1222116b6fb8c24fd7676839822&ppepisode=cbab65ed7bc87dfe8ddbbc4c5ad79c7a (Laura Kelly Fanucci), then https://spokestreet.com/church-life-today?ppplayer=c1e6f1222116b6fb8c24fd7676839822&ppepisode=41036ec763c281f66445a4c88d8be772 (Stephanie DePrez), and finally https://spokestreet.com/church-life-today?ppplayer=c1e6f1222116b6fb8c24fd7676839822&ppepisode=3bbfed57c695430c36e1ca5729d22b0b (Robert Cording). You may want to check out those episodes on our podcast if you like this one.By the way, John Cavadini is professor of theology and McGrath-Cavadini Director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame, which makes him my boss.

Unleashing Catholic Innovation, with Matt Smith

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 07 Nov 2021 11:00:00 -0500

It is easy to bemoan the problems in the Church; it is harder to take the initiative to heal and renew the life of the Church, and to sacrifice for that renewal with all your own creativity and passion. But that is exactly what the Our Sunday Visitor Institute for Catholic Innovation is calling forth from leaders in the Church today. They want to help visionaries become the innovators who discover new means of evangelization and who revitalize the faithful’s responsibility for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ.Dr. Matt Smith directs strategic alliances for the OSV Institute for Catholic Innovation, and today he joins me to talk about the tradition of innovation and its timeliness in the life of the Church today, while also highlighting some of the specific initiatives he and his team are working to develop to foster a culture of innovation for the Church.

Saints, for Real, with Meg Hunter-Kilmer

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 31 Oct 2021 12:00:00 -0400

Meg Hunter-Kilmer has no time for bland, stale stories of saints. She is too busy reveling in the wild and diverse beauty of holy people. When their stories have not been told well, she seeks after the heart of their story and waits to see the drama, the glory, the full-fledged humanity that others have missed. And then she tells their stories. Meg tells the stories of the saints with passion, with care, with personality, with joy.Friends, I have read a lot of books about sanctity. I have read a lot of stories about saints. I have read a lot of books of stories about saints. But the book that Meg Hunter-Kilmer wrote stands apart. It is an education in true holiness, which depends on a willingness to see and accept the whole human condition. Her stories of saints are filled with piety and grace, but also with the afflictions, failures, abuses, and unrespectability of these very flesh and blood people who received and responded to the love of God in Christ.The book is Pray for Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness. The author, Meg Hunter-Kilmer, joins me today in the studio from her travels around the country where she speaks and teaches everywhere as a full-time missionary evangelist. Believe me, you’re in for a treat in listening to her.

Reclaiming Vatican II, with Fr. Blake Britton

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 13:00:00 -0400

There was a time before the Second Vatican Council, and there is a time after. The time before is old, outdated, stodgy, stale, and lifeless. The time after is modern, progressive, adaptive, active, and alive. Out with the old and in with the new. That, at least, is the way Vatican II has often been portrayed, as a breaking point between liberals and traditionalists, between those who want to be relevant and those who want to be ancient.But maybe by interpreting Vatican II that way, we are seeing something that isn’t true. We are perhaps seeing a false image of the council, rather than seeing the council itself. That, in part, is what my guest on today’s show has to say to us, and he wants to help the Church and the world to rediscover the Second Vatican Council for what it truly is, not for what we have been led to think about it, one way or another.Fr. Blake Britton is the author of Reclaiming Vatican II: What It (Really) Said, What It Means, and How It Calls Us to Renew the Church. Fr. Blake is a priest of the Diocese of Orlando, frequent writer for the Evangelization & Culture blog and journal, and cohost of the The Burrowshire Podcast.

Forming Catholics for the Medical Professions, with Dr. Maggie Skoch Musso

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 12:00:00 -0400

A good number of the students I have taught in theology courses at Notre Dame have gone on to medical school. Many of these students feel called to the practice of medicine, and would even speak of their professional pursuits as a vocation. But I often hear from the graduates a grave sense of disappointment in what they encounter in medical school. These are the kind of people who are most committed to their Catholic faith and to seeking out a Catholic approach to healthcare and the understanding of the human person and their own role as healers, They learn a lot in med school and they are prepared well for the technical practice of medicine, but they feel like their way of seeing the world and other human beings is often under strain in the course of their studies. We might think this is the inevitable result at public, secular medical schools, but it turns out that many students who attend the few Catholic medical schools tend to feel similarly. Which leads us to this question: How ought we form young Catholics––as Catholics––for the healthcare professions?The students have become the teachers in this regard, and today one of my former students is my guest to talk about her own vocation as a doctor and how to form Catholics for healthcare. Dr. Maggie Skoch Musso is a psychiatry resident at Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. She completed her MD and a concurrent MA in Bioethics at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago, and she is a 2016 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she studied Theology. While at Notre Dame, Maggie served as the president of the Notre Dame chapter of NAMI––the National Alliance on Mental Illness––and for her work and advocacy on behalf of those suffering with mental illness, Maggie has received numerous awards at both her alma mater and through national organizations.

Media, Polarization, and the Gospel, with Deacon Matthew Kuna

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 12:00:00 -0400

What happens online does not stay online. The borders between the digital world andthe flesh and blood world have become rather porous. The ways we think, speak,and act in the digital environment bears meaning for how we think, speak, andact offline, and vice versa, at least to some extent. When we search around inmedia for Catholic voices, or for how Catholics engage with each other in thedigital space, what we find is conduct that is often far from charitable, andcontent that leads more readily to polarization than communion. What is theimpact, then, of digital media and the ways of being that are fashioned indigital space on concrete Catholic communities, like the parish?My guest today is paying close attention to these phenomena and workingto help develop ways and habits of communicating that are more conducive to theGospel. Deacon Matthew Kuna is a transitional deacon in the Diocese ofAllentown, who is finishing up his study and formation for the priesthood atSt. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. He is also a member of theinaugural cohort in the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s ChurchCommunications Ecology Program, where pastors, lay ministers, and educators arecalled to respond to the myriad pastoral challenges raised by life in thedigital age. He joins me to talk about the ways in which our environments shapeus––especially the digital environment––and how we might create betterconditions for disciples to be formed for healthy, responsible, and discerningengagement in our increasingly digital world.

Bring back the imprecatory psalms, with Timothy Troutner

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 12:00:00 -0400

“O God, smash the teeth in their mouths!”“Make their eyes so dim they cannot see.”“May his children be fatherless, his wife, a widow.”Who prays like that? Well, we do: Christians. Those petitions––those curses––that I justrecited come from Psalm 58, Psalm 69, and Psalm 109. But we don’t hear themvery often: not in the public liturgy as at Mass, not in the liturgy of thehours that we might pray alone. What is being lost by not praying things likethat, in just those words: the words of Scripture––the Psalms?These are examples of the imprecatory psalms. My guest today says we need to bring backthese psalms into the regular of the Church. He wrote an essay for our ChurchLife Journal with the very direct title, “Bring Back the Imprecatory Psalms.”This is the voice of Christ himself, who in praying the psalms took on eventhese cries, which the abused and oppressed offer up to God against theirvictimizers and the wicked.Timothy Troutner is a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at Notre Dame, where hefocuses on the doctrine of creation and the place of language. He is here totalk about this call to bring back the imprecatory psalms, especially now inthe wake of scandals in the Church and the seeming prosperity of the wicked atthe expense of the lowly across the world today.

Tolkien’s Creative Imagination, with Holly Ordway

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 13:00:00 -0400

What does it take to create a world? Well, you might think it requires you to be God. So why don’t we ask the question about a literary world, but nevertheless a complete world, with a comprehensive vision, an atmosphere and a history and languages, customs, and traditions. We might think few people are capable of creating such things, and we are definitely right in thinking that. Yet there are some authors––some artists––who manage such a feat, and one such figure who stands perhaps above just about any other in the powers and fruits of creation is J. R. R. Tolkien, creator of The Lord of the Rings. So let’s ask our question again: What did it take for Tolkien to create Middle-earth? And that is where today’s episode comes in. Many might think that Tolkien was a stand-alone genius, to whom ideas and images came complete unto themselves and without precedent. We might think his work is something like “pure originality” in that he conjures things up out of nothing, as if he were quite a bit like God who is indeed an uncreated creator. Or we might think that any influences Tolkien had, however dim they might be, are all located in the past, which accorded more with his special area of scholarly expertise. But today, we will consider the modern influences on Tolkien’s creative imagination, and in so doing we will think about what a creative imagination is and how a Catholic like Tolkien exercises his imagination.To guide us on our quest, Dr. Holly Ordway joins us today. Dr. Ordway is the Cardinal Francis George Fellow of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute, whose recently published book is Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-Earth Beyond the Middle Ages.

The Parish and the Call to Communion, with Katherine Coolidge

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 13:00:00 -0400

When a Catholic parish is being what is called to be, what does that look like? What are the marks of healthy and vibrant parish life? If we really tended to questions like these, we might find ourselves changing our perceptions of what it is we want from our parishes. And that, my friends, may very well mean that we have to change what we ourselves give to our parishes.My guest today invests her time and energy in helping parishes realize their mission, especially through forming Catholics for lives of vibrant discipleship. Katherine Coolidge is Director for Parish and Diocesan Services at the Catherine of Siena Institute. She joins me today to talk about where we are in parish life, where we should be, and how we get from one to the other.

Life in Death in Life, with Robert Cording

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 12:30:00 -0400

“Nothing new can happen between my son and me. And while I have taught the parable of the prodigal son many times, these days I feel not just why, when the lost is found, there is great cause for celebration, but how truly the zest goes out of life with such a loss. There is no word for the pairings of emotions one feels in grief—the enormity of love mixed with the enormity of sorrow.”Those words come from Robert Cording in an essay he published in the Image journal with the title, “In the Unwalled City.” In this remarkable essay, he puts into words what cannot be contained in words: his grief for the death of his son Daniel, his desire to keep communion alive with his son, and his duty of remembrance that raises his son to life in his own life. I reached out to Professor Cording after reading his essay and he graciously agreed to join me here on our show today.If you’ve been listening to recent episodes of our show, you know that I am working on a project between my own McGrath Institute for Church Life and Ave Maria Press about our relationship with our beloved dead. This is part of a book I am writing on this topic. As part of the project, I’ve been talking with people about their memories of and their hopes for their beloved dead. I’ve asked a few of those people if they would be willing to record an episode for our show so you can listen in, too. This is the third of these episodes––on the previous two I hosted Laura Kelly Fanucci and Stephanie DePrez.My guest today––Robert Cording––is professor emeritus at College of the Holy Cross. His most recent poetry collection is Without My Asking (CavanKerry). You can find some of his other recent work in the Georgia Review, New Ohio Review, Hudson Review, and The Common.

Life is changed but something ended, with Stephanie DePrez

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 12:30:00 -0400

We are developing a mini-series here on Church Life Today about the relationship with our beloved dead. We’re talking about death, grief, longing, hope, and a lot more. This is connected to a project I myself am working on between the McGrath Institute for Church Life, where I work, and Ave Maria Press, which is a book on this topic. Animating that project are questions like “Where do our beloved dead go? How do they live? And what does this all mean for us, who remain?”I have been talking with people about their experiences of the death of loved ones and their desire for communion with them. I’m not recording all of these conversations, but I have asked a couple people—and maybe I’ll ask more––if they would be willing to record an episode for our show so that you can listen in, too. This is the second of those episodes, the first of which appeared under the title “Heaven in the Midst of Death.”My guest today is my friend Stephanie DePrez, a professional opera singer, a comedian, a voice coach, an artist. I’m so grateful to her for her willingness to talk with us today about her mom, Susie DePrez, and her own grief, desire, and hope.

Heaven in the Midst of Death, with Laura Kelly Fanucci

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 13:00:00 -0400

“Where do our beloved dead go? How do they live? And what does this all mean for us,who remain?”Those questions are animating a project I’m working on between the McGrath Institutefor Church Life, where I work, and Ave Maria Press as part of the EngagingCatholicism series. To help with this project, I have asked a few people ifthey would talk with me about their experiences of grief, about their hope forcommunion with loved ones who have died, and about their images of Heaven. I’mnot recording all of these conversations, but I am asking a couple (or maybethree) people if they would be willing to record an episode for our show sothat you can listen in, too.Today is the first of those couple or maybe three episodes. My guest is Laura KellyFanucci, a writer and speaker who has worked extensively on grief and longingand hope and vocation. But she’s also got a story you’ve got to hear. Thanksfor listening in.

Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, with Luke Burgis

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 13:00:00 -0400

What do you want? We get asked a question like that often: when you order at a restaurant, when generating a Christmas list, when at a crossroads in a dating relationship. But of course, there are differing levels of seriousness to that question: sometimes it is what do you prefer or what strikes your fancy, and sometimes it is what do you really want. In other words, what do you desire? It is hard to think of a more piercing or demanding question than that: what do you desire? What do you really want? But then again, there is another question that goes right along with that one that most of us don’t confront even if we do take seriously the question of what we want. That other question is how do we want… how do we desire. And it is precisely that hidden question of “how do you desire” right alongside the slightly more evident question of “what do you want” that my guest on today’s show takes utterly seriously, and helps us to take seriously, too. Luke Burgis teaches business at the Catholic University of America, where he is also Entrepreneur-in-Residence. An entrepreneur himself, he has co-created and founded four companies in wellness, consumer products, and technology. Now he is managing partner of Fourth Wall Ventures, an incubator that he started to build, train, and invest in people and companies that contribute to a healthy human ecology. On the basis of his extensive experience along with his equally extensive classical training, research, and spiritual formation, Luke has authored a book filled with stories of woe and transformation, analysis of the mysterious workings of desire, and proposals for beginning to lead a healthier, more creative, truly human life. His book is Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. You can find an excerpt of the book in the Church Life Journal in an article titled, “The Joy of Hate Watching.”

New Pathways for Catholic Schools After the Pandemic, with Kati Macaluso

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 13:00:00 -0400

“While the shift to at-home learning has underscored the ubiquity of learning, [especially since March 2020, it has also cast into sharp relief [a crucial but suddenly imperiled dimension of education, which is] the distinct gift of teachers and artful teaching.” Those words appeared in the Church Life Journal as part of an essay titled, “New Pathways for Catholic Schools After the Pandemic.” The author of that essay is Dr. Kati Macaluso. Kati works and teaches at the University of Notre Dame within the Institute for Educational Initiatives, where she forms new teachers and helps to strengthen Catholic schools all across the country. She enables us to see that the experiences of education over the past year now force upon us urgent questions about the meaning and end of education, about the special mission of Catholic education, and about what exactly we hope that our children receive through their education. What Kati has to share would always be relevant, but in our day and age it is not only relevant but timely and even prophetic.

My Techwise Life, with Amy Crouch

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 13:00:00 -0400

What if your decisions about how to use technology were based on your fundamental beliefs about what it means to be a human being, and what human flourishing is? Now, what if your children also made their decisions about technology in that way? I know that sounds like a doubly-tall task, like a fantastic sort of idealism. But what if I told you that this is not only doable, but utterly practical and liberating? And I know just the book that can help you think about the right use of technology, and help your kids to do so, too. My guest today is the author of that book. She is Amy Crouch, who wrote My Tech-wise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices. In fact, she wrote this book when she was 19. I have read more books about technology than I’d like to admit, and I can tell you that this book is among the very best. Part of what makes it so spectacular is that Amy gives us a practical vision of how she and her family made their decisions about technology as a community and developed specific, intentional practices to cultivate their most cherished values while avoiding potential vices. And the book is just so readable, and enlightening. Amy joins me today to talk not just about her book, but about the vision of the good life that underlies her “tech-wise life” and how we can all make very small and practical decisions to be more fully and genuinely human.

Introducing the St. Thomas More Academy, with Margaret Blume Freddoso

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 13:00:00 -0400

When we educate our children, what are we educating them for? In the Catholic tradition, the end of education has always been sanctity: to form truly free, wise, virtuous disciples who love God and their neighbor. This kind of education concerns the cultivation of the whole person: mind and body, heart and imagination, especially in terms of the habits developed, the affections nurtured, and the abilities fostered and ultimately perfected.Over the past year on this show, I have spoken with a number of leaders across the country in Catholic education, including some who are reclaiming and reproposing classical, liberal arts education as distinctively conducive to the aims of Catholic formation and the holistic education of young people. If you have been listening to our show for a while, you may remember an interview with Elisabeth Sullivan of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, as well as a pair of interviews with Thomas Curtin, Head of School at Our Lady of the Rosary in Greeneville, South Carolina. If you don’t remember those, you can find those episodes on our podcast––and I recommend them to you.In line with those episodes, today’s conversation will also focus classical, liberal arts education in the Catholic tradition, except this time, it is all a bit closer to home… at least to my home, in South Bend, Indiana. My guest is Dr. Margaret Blume Freddoso, Head of School and board member of the St. Thomas More Academy in South Bend, which is a private, independent classical liberal arts school in the Catholic tradition, opening its doors with full enrollment in August 2021. Margaret holds a PhD in theology from the University of Notre Dame, as well as a BA from Yale University. Along with President of the Board at St. Thomas More Academy, Dr. Kirk Doran, and others, Margaret has been laying the foundation for and is now building this new classical, liberal arts school to pursue the ideals of a robust Catholic education, with a view to the full dignity and splendor of the human person in Christ.

“Relocatio” with Thomas Curtin

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 31 May 2021 13:00:00 -0400

Would you ever consider moving thousands of miles for the primary purpose of living in a committed and passionate Catholic community? Of course, people move all the time for jobs and other reasons, but to make the pursuit of a Catholic environment the main reason for a major move seems a bit unconventional. Today, we are going to talk about the unconventional with someone who is seeing just this sort of 6thing happen… and who is helping it to happen.My guest is Thomas Curtin, Headmaster at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic school in Greenville, South Carolina. Tommy joined me on a previous episode to talk about his work of building this particular Catholic school from the ground up, expanding from an elementary school to a K–12 institution that is modeled more on the family than on a university. I am happy to welcome him back to talk about some of the fruits of the kind of school he, his pastor, and the parishioners at Our Lady of the Rosary have been building, specifically in terms of Catholic families from all over the country moving to join their community.

Becoming the Adult in the Room, with Sarah Pelrine

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 10:55:00 -0400

When we are young, we need the guidance of mentors. We never really outgrow that need for guidance, but at some point, a change must take place if we are to reach maturity. Instead of always being the one who is guided and mentored, we become the ones who provide the guidance and mentoring to others. We stop always looking for the adult in the room because we have become the adult in the room.My guest today was recently awakened to the fact that she is very much at the threshold of that transition. Sarah Pelrine is a bona fide young adult Catholic, but one who is quickly moving away from the “young” part of that description and instead stepping into what it means to be an adult Catholic, a mature disciple. Professionally, Sarah works in the Archdiocese of Chicago where she applies her training in both theology and in business to help parishes undertake organizational transformations to better pursue their mission of evangelization. Personally, Sarah is relatively recently married but previously spent a great deal of time in her formative twentysomething years living and working in L’Arche communities. Together, we will talk about what we need and what we don’t need to be well-formed, engaged, and mature people of faith.

Praying into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with Fr. Joe Laramie

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 10:54:00 -0400

The heart of the Christian is not his own. Instead, our hearts belong to Christ. Our lives as Christ’s disciples are an ongoing formation to love what he loves, to care for those whom he cares about, and to join him in offering our hearts to the Father. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is open to all of us.Fr. Joe Laramie of the Society of Jesus has been praying into the Heart of Jesus for decades. But now, he has been called to bring people from all across the country into this devotion, joining in the prayer of Jesus and offering our own hearts to the Lord. Fr. Joe serves as the National Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, through which Catholics and others around the globe pray and work to meet the challenges of the world identified by the Pope in his monthly intentions, all while allowing the heart of Jesus to form our own hearts.Fr. Joe joins me today to talk about this apostleship of prayer, the relationship of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Ignatian Spirituality, and even his own book, Abide in the Heart of Christ, which leads people through a 10-day retreat at home.

The Real Presence, with Tim O’Malley

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 10:53:00 -0400

“The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.” But do we, as Catholics, really understand what the Eucharist is? Let me rephrase that: do we really understand who the Eucharist is? Actually, let me try one more time: Do we fully revere and adore him who meets us in the Eucharist? Maybe we could use some help with all of that.My friend and colleague Tim O’Malley has written a book that will help all of us both to understand the Eucharist better and, especially, to grow in our love of the Eucharist through devotion, prayer, and longing. Tim’s new book is Real Presence: What Does It Mean and Why Does It Matter? The book is part of the new “Engaging Catholicism” series from our McGrath Institute for Church Life through Ave Maria Press, where we explore important but perhaps misunderstood doctrines and devotions of the Catholic faith.In Real Presence, Tim teaches us about the related but distinct doctrines of transubstantiation and of the real presence, but he does more than merely teach us things to know. He shows us how what we come to understand must be joined to how we pray, and how we allow the Lord to transform and illumine our spiritual senses as we meet him in the Eucharist. This is an utterly practical book even as it is an utterly learned book. And today, Tim joins me to talk about the Eucharist, Eucharistic formation, and Eucharistic spirituality.

Evangelizing through Film and Television, with Doug Tooke

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 17:00:00 -0400

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. You’re familiar with that, aren’t you? But have you ever really thought about what that is saying. God loved the world. This world. This world that does not love God very well, and in fact more often rejects God that welcomes him. God loved this world so much that He gave this world what is most precious, most intimate, most beautiful: his only begotten Son. And you know what can embody and manifest that kind of love? Filmmaking. And television. I bet you didn’t see that coming. And I bet that you haven’t thought about the art of filmmaking or television in quite the way that my guest today thinks about it. But that’s why we’re here: to listen to what he has to say about it. My guest is Doug Tooke, Vice President for Ministry Advancement at Outside Da Box Films and Renovo Media Group. No one has ever had a boring conversation with Doug Tooke. You and I both are going to enjoy this conversation.

There is no such thing as winning at life, with Elizabeth Klein

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 00:18:00 -0400

“Life, for the vast majority of humans, is not very glamorous. It involves doing a lot of boring and tedious things like paying taxes, cooking dinner, and sweeping the floor. And yet, these everyday tasks seem to vex Millennials; this generation has suffered from widespread ridicule for laziness and for the inability to grow up. But, somewhat paradoxically, Millennials also seem exhausted.” Those words open an essay recently published through the Church Life Journal, where the experience of work and its consequences for especially Millennials living today was juxtaposed with the understanding of work that emerges from the Christian tradition and is hidden within the life of Christ. The essay is entitled “A Catholic Response to Workism: How to Lose a Life.” The author is my guest on today’s show. She is Elizabeth Klein, Assistant Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute.

How the Sciences Train You for Faith, with Sofia Carozza, Part 2

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 17:00:00 -0400

The desire for Truth. The Passion for discovery. The education of reason. The fundamental claim about what it means to be a human being. Being formed as a person of faith through the rigors of the scientific method. All these things and more were discussed in the first part of my two-part conversation with Sofia Carozza, a Marshall Scholar at the University of Cambridge, studying in the field in neuroscience. Sofia is back for the second part of our conversation, to talk about the role of morality in the training of scientists, the breaking from disordered attachments, the education of desire, and prayer and companionship. I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life in collaboration with the Spoke Street Media Network. I’m glad you’re here.

How the Sciences Train You for Faith, with Sofia Carozza, Part 1

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 17:00:00 -0500

“Hi, I’m so-and-so, and I’m a scientist. A Catholic scientist.” That might be how we would imagine an introduction in a support group for people who share a common problem. In this case, the problem would be being a person of faith in a field or profession within the sciences where prayer, belief, and openness to God would typically make you seem like less than you really should be. Or maybe we would imagine that, at best, the Catholic scientist can defend or give an adequate apology for religion and science being compatible. In other words, “It’s okay. Really. These things can coexist. I promise.” But what if we’ve gotten all wrong. What if rather than a problem to be eradicated or a dimension to be defended, there is a more profound, integral, and mutually enriching relationship to be heralded and explored in the person who is at once a person of faith and a person of reason: a Catholic and a scientist. That wider space is where my guest today leads us. She is Sofia Carozza, a Marshall Scholar at the University of Cambridge where she researches the neurobiological pathways through which early adversity affects the developing brain. She was the 2019 valedictorian of the University of Notre Dame, and now, in addition to her graduate work in neuroscience, she blogs at Synapses of the Soul and co-hosts the podcast, The Pilgrim Soul. Sofia and I will share a two-part conversation, and this is part one.

Guiding Young Adults from Affiliation to Leadership, with Nicole Perone

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 17:01:00 -0500

According to one recent study, fully half of the twentysomethings who were raised Catholic no longer practice the Catholic faith or name themselves as Catholic. Half. That’s troubling, isn’t it? Other recent studies have tracked the rates of disaffiliation from the Church and tried to identify some of the root causes of that disaffiliation. It is important for us to understand why young people are leaving the Church, but it is perhaps even more important to show young adults a Church they want to be a part of. That they desire to be a part of. That they are invested in and which is worthy of their investment and even their sacrifice. Nicole Perone is working toward that end. She is the National Coordinator of ESTEEM, a faith-based leadership program for Catholic students at colleges and universities across the United States. She joins me to talk about the challenges and opportunities of forming young adults for lifelong affiliation in the Church, the importance of mentoring and of developing leaders, and how we move together from being satisfied with cozy religious experiences toward becoming fully committed, courageous Catholics.

The Questions of Jesus as Lenten Pilgrimage

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 17:00:00 -0500

If you want to remain comfortable, do not let Jesus ask you questions. I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I decided that as a Lenten practice, I would spend time each day reflecting on and praying with the questions that Jesus asks in the Gospels. If you have ever looked for these, you’ll notice that he asks a lot of questions. • What are you looking for?• Why do you call me good?• How does your concern affect me?• Does this shock you?• Do you want to be well?• Have you anything here to eat?And on and on. What I found is that the more I dwelt with Jesus’ questions, the more I discovered that I was being moved by Jesus away from my own comfort zones. Those are the zones of my own thoughts, of my own vague desires, of my own expectations. Of course, I didn’t just read these questions––I read the pericopes in the Gospels where they are set. I found myself connecting these episodes and these questions to other parts of Scripture. And then I started writing. And writing. And writing. In turns out that I had stumbled into scriptural pilgrimage. I don’t know how us to put this but to say that Jesus led me by his questions through a prolonged examination of conscience, towards his suffering, and even to glimpse anew the glory of his resurrection.Reflecting on and praying with the questions of Jesus turned out to be a very appropriate, very challenging, and very renewing Lenten practice. So I want to share a bit that with you today.Our episode today is pretty straightforward. I am going to select a few of these questions of Jesus. I tell you what the question is, I will read the Gospel passage in which it is set, and then I will share with my reflection on that question. Maybe this will spark an interest in you to take the chance of letting Jesus ask you his questions.

Helping Busy Parents Pray through Lent, with Maria Morrow

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 17:00:00 -0500

To be a parent is to be busy. We often start by wanting to get everything just right but end up just trying to hold things together. And then Lent comes around, and we either dream up fantastic spiritual regimens for ourselves, or we think, “Gosh, I can’t do another thing.” This is normal. What’s more, Lent is for normal people––not superheroes, not gluttons for spiritual punishment. But especially for us parents, we might need a little help, a little guidance, for learning how to pray through Lent.Well, I’ve got good news: Maria Morrow wrote a book for us. It is called A Busy Parent’s Guide to a Meaningful Lent, available now from Our Sunday Visitor. In this book she shows us how to develop the habit of prayerfulness as busy parents, who are bound by all kinds of constraints. It is a practical book, because the best spiritual things are always the most practical things: they have to do with how we actually live our lives.Dr. Morrow is a scholar of American Catholicism and Catholic parenting, among other interests, and she serves as an Adjunct Professor of Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University. I am grateful that she’s made time to talk about her book, parenting and Lent with me

The Church’s Call to Foster Care with Holly Taylor Coolman

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 17:00:00 -0500

“We have to imagine a people so deeply committed to their neighbors that they would risk their lives for them—and risk their lives perhaps not even to save them, but simply to be present and perhaps to speak to them of another life. As we imagine that, we begin to see the enormity and beauty of our own vocation as Christians.” This at the very heart of what it means to be “pro-life”Those are the words of Holly Taylor Coolman, who invites and challenges us, as Christians, to heed the central call of the Gospel to provide care to the suffering, to offer hospitality to those who in need, and to build communities that are indeed “pro-life”, through and through. Dr. Taylor Coolman is assistant professor of theology at Providence College, where she also serves as chair of the department of theology. She is here to talk with me about foster care, in particular, which was the subject of an essay she published in our Church Life Journal, and a call she has heeded in her own life.

The Irruptive and Enduring Role of Technology in Higher Education, with Elliott Visconsi

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 01:28:00 -0500

In the blink of an eye, digital technologies went from supplemental and exploratory in education to primary and necessary for continuing instruction during a global pandemic. This has been true in higher education as much as anywhere else. But how do you quickly move in-person learning experience into an online experience in an emergency, and then how do you plan for an entire semester of dual-mode instruction, with in-person and online education happening simultaneously? And what does this all mean for the present and future of higher education?These are the kinds of questions my guest asks and responds to. Elliott Visconsi is Associate Provost and Chief Academic Digital Officer at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also Associate Professor of English. He’s here to talk about the quick move digital instruction in Spring 2020, planning for dual-mode instruction in Fall 2020 and afterwards, and the role of technology and new modes of digital engagement for higher education, all for the ultimate goal of enriching, enhancing, and delivering transformational learning.

The Lord of the Rings, Sickness, and Health with Dr. Kristin Collier

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -0500

Over the past year, I have been reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to my two younger boys, now age 7 and 9. We were into the third volume––called “The Return of the King”—and had just concluded the chapter entitled “Houses of Healing.” This is after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, from which came great suffering and destruction, but also great bravery and friendship. In the Houses of Healing, the wounded are being tended to, though some are so deeply wounded that their recovery is uncertain or even doubtful. But then Aragon is summoned to the Houses of Healing and is eventually revealed as the true king because he has the power to heal those who are wounded in body and spirit––wounds so deep that the normal courses of treatment could not heal. And my 9-year-old, Josiah, suddenly said, “That’s like Jesus who showed his kingship by healing people.”I want to talk about this kind of healing today on our show. Not explicitly Jesus’ healing touch, but profound meditation that Tolkien invites into in his Lord of Rings, where the health and wellbeing of the wounded is never only physical, never just bodily, but indeed psychological and especially spiritual. Tolkien’s meditation emerges, of course, from his Catholic imagination, and so though not explicitly about Jesus’ healing, it is nevertheless about Jesus’ healing in and through others.To talk about these kinds of sicknesses and this kind of healing, I am so happy to welcome back to our show Dr. Kristin Collier, assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, where she is also the director of the medical school’s Program on Health, Spirituality, and Religion.

Jill Alexy on Seeing the Sacred

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 16:59:00 -0500

If you were to see the sacred, what would you see? Would you see beauty, light, color, form, simplicity, complexity, joy? One thing we can be sure of is that what we would see would be immersive and full-bodied. To really see the sacred is not about a fleeting or casual glance; it is a long, loving look that changes us.My guest today is an expert in helping people to “See the sacred,” She is Jill Alexy, who works with the Vatican Patron of the Arts, where she regularly takes people not only through the artistic treasures of the Vatican, but those scattered all throughout Rome and across Europe. She has launched a new initiative called “Seeing the Sacred,” that brings some of those treasures to you, where you are, while also teaching you and guiding you towards a more profound encounter with God through beauty. Let’s talk about Seeing the Sacred.

Phil Sakimoto on "All Creation Gives Praise"

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -0500

If you could see the full expanse of the universe, do you think that might change your perspective? That probably seems ludicrous to even consider, but I gotta tell you: it happened to me. In 2006, I walked into a digital planetarium, and a couple hours later I walked out beginning to see things differently. The man I met when I walked in? Phil Sakimoto, former NASA astronomer, professional planetarian, and, for the past 15 or so years, my partner in creating the unique planetarium presentation, “All Creation Gives Praise”—a journey of scientific observation and theological reflection.Phil and I are together recording the audio for the final version of this presentation, which will soon become “exportable” to pretty much any other digital planetarium in the world.

Joshua Mitchell on Identity Politics and "American Awakening"

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -0500

In a world where forgiveness seems less and less possible because transgressions are rendered more and more permanent, how can there be a tomorrow? Or maybe we need to ask that question another way: Is there a Christian way to have a tomorrow? Professor Joshua Mitchell of Georgetown University seeks to show us what is at stake in questions like these. He joins me to discuss his new book, American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time, where he addresses the ills of our contemporary society and attempts to chart a path forward, partly dialogue with great social theorists like Alexis de Tocqueville and Plato.

Mary O’Callaghan on Disability Selective Abortions

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 17:00:00 -0500

Every child is a mystery, but as scientific advances in prenatal testing grow, so does the temptation to know more and more about our unborn children. Will they be healthy? What are the chances they will have a disability? With questions like these comes another question: how much is too much when it comes to trying to know who our children will be? My guest is Dr. Mary O’Callaghan, a developmental psychologist who, among other things, studies, writes about, and teaches on “disability selective abortion” and issues of human dignity.

Fr. Ryan Duns on Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 17:00:00 -0500

In an age when belief in God seems more and more difficult to achieve, and perhaps less and less likely to be recommended, how do we commit our lives to God? This is indeed a spiritual question, but it is also a philosophical question, a question of incredible practical import, a question of faith and reason and beauty and imagination. My guest today dives deep into the question of belief in God for people like us, living in times like ours.Joining me is Fr. Ryan Duns, a member of the Society of Jesus and assistant professor of theology at Marquette University. We will be discussing his new book, Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age: Desmond and the Quest for God, which is out now from the University of Notre Dame Press.

Charlie Camosy on American Politics and the Pro-Life Movement

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:00:00 -0500

Do you have hope for the future of American politics? Is now the time for the pro-life movement to take a leading role in that future? We’re going think about things that like on today’s show, as I welcome Dr. Charlie Camosy, associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University. We’ve got a lot to talk about, which means I’ll keep the intro brief.I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, thanks for listening in.

Tim O’Malley on the Intellectual Formation of Young Adults

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 16:59:00 -0500

When we think about bringing Catholic young people into adulthood, what should be included and prioritized for their formation as mature disciples? There is a lot we could talk about around that question, but today we will be talking about the crucial role of intellectual formation for Catholic young adults, especially in and around the college years. Joining me to talk about the intellectual formation of Catholic young adults is my friend and colleague, Dr. Tim O’Malley, who is the director of education in the McGrath Institute and teaches in the department of theology at Notre Dame. Among other books, Tim is the author of Liturgy and the New Evangelization, Bored Again Catholic: How the Mass Could Save Your Life, and Off the Hook: God, Love, Dating, and Marriage in a Hookup World.

Sister Norma Pimentel on the Crisis of Human Dignity at the Border

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 19:05:00 -0500

When Time Magazine named Sister Norma Pimentel as one of the 100 most influential people of 2020, they said that she “has been on the front line of mercy for three decades.” The front lines of mercy. That’s where God’s preferential love for the poor and suffering meets people who are hungry, thirsty, homeless, and seeking not just safety, but compassion. For Sister Norma, that meeting place is the area around the US-Mexico border, on both sides.Sr. Norma has been the executive director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley for over a decade. In that time, her organization has housed and assisted well over 100,000 people at the border. During his visit to the United States in 2015, Pope Francis thanked her personally for her work and witness. And in 2018, the University of Notre Dame awarded her the Laetare medal, which is the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics.To talk about the sanctity of life amid the humanitarian crisis at the border as well as her own religious vocation and family history, Sr. Norma joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, on Church Life Today from Redeemer Radio and the McGrath Institute for Church Life.

Nancy Cavadini on Stories in Light

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 18:33:00 -0400

Every year more than 100,000 people visit Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart (though of course, the year 2020 may be an exception). Nevertheless, those who walk in the basilica’s doors, discover a worship space that is immaculately maintained, utterly impressive, and completely orderly. But the order and intentionality of that church is not merely a matter of polishing and tidying up; it is in fact written right into the space itself: a space that was intentionally designed and ordered with a theological and spiritual vision. That vision is perhaps most visible in the light that bends through and illuminates the 44 stained-glass windows that contain 220 scenes throughout the basilica. Those windows tell the stories of the radiance of God’s love in the lives of his saints and the events of salvation history. These are Stories in Light. Nancy Cavadini is co-author of the new book Stories in Light: A Guide to the Stained Glass of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. This is a beautiful book, both in how it is written and how it is presented, replete with full-color photographs of these windows. This work of art history and theology undertaken by Nancy Cavadini and her co-author Celicia Davis Cunningham, brings the stories of this remarkable church and its resplendent stained-glass to both those who have visited the Basilica and those who have not yet in a fresh and indeed illuminating way.

Brett Robinson on Recent Shifts in Digital Media

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 15:31:00 -0400

Our reliance on digital technologies and media accelerated dramatically beginning in March 2020. When we could no longer gather in offices for work, in schools for learning, or even in churches for worship, we found ways to make do through screens and chats and webinars. Even as communities and institutions started to open back up in the late spring or summer months of 2020, the increased reliance on technology persisted and continues to influence how we live, work, pray, and communicate.But that shift was not new. Again, it was an acceleration of trends that started long ago. Without diving too much into the historical factors, I wanted to share a conversation in today’s show about that focuses on what we’re seeing in especially the digital landscape, what is going on with us in our everyday lives, and what this might mean for where we’re heading.So I invited my friend and colleague, Brett Robinson, who is a media scholar to talk a little bit informally about all these things.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Mike St. Pierre on the State of Catholic Campus Ministry

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 15:45:00 -0400

For Catholic Campus Ministries across the nation, the unprecedented interruptions to both typical campus life and the traditional ways of ministering to young people have generated frustration and trials, but also the possibility for rethinking approaches to ministry in terms of what is possible and what is most important. My guest today works with Catholic Campus Ministries across the country to help them sustain and enrich their work with young adults, and to meets the personal and spiritual needs of students in times certain or uncertain.Dr. Mike St. Pierre is executive director of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association. The mission of his organization is to connect, equip, and inspire ministry professionals, so that they can evangelize, catechize, and nourish the faith lives of students in private and public colleges and universities. In addition to his work in campus ministry leadership, Dr. St. Pierre also writes regularly on topics such as rest and focus, breaking from an over-reliance on digital media, and prayer, both on his blog at mikestpierre.com and in his book, The 5 Habits of Prayerful People. Mike joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, on Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. And I’m very happy you’re joining us, too.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Daniel Philpott on Eucharistic Justice, Part 2

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 14:38:00 -0400

This is Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today. Thank you for joining us for the second-part of my two-part conversation with Daniel Philpott, Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. We’ve been talking about projects of reconciliation in international settings and we’ll continue that here, but we will also talk about the possibilities for reconciliation in the Church after the sexual abuse crisis and Christians promoting reconciliation in the public square.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Daniel Philpott on Eucharistic Justice, Part 1

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 14:35:00 -0400

Have you ever thought about Eucharistic justice? Professor Daniel Philpott has. He is my guest on Church Life Today, where will talk about the biblical notion of justice, the work of reconciliation after violence and civil strife, restoring people torn apart by offenses and indignities to right relationship.Daniel Philpott is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and specializes in religion and global politics, focusing on religious freedom, reconciliation, the political behavior of religious actors, and Christian political theology. Professor Philpott joins me for two episodes, with this being the first. In the second episode, we'll talk about reconciliation in the Church after the sexual abuse crisis and the possibilities for Christians to promote a vision of reconciliation in the public square. If you’re listening on radio, the second part of our conversation will air next week, or if you’re listening on podcast, check out the next episode.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Josh Noem on 'The End of Ending'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 18:35:00 -0400

The Christian hope in the resurrection of the body is nothing short of absolutely radical. It not only gives meaning to the hereafter but also to the right now. Because if we are raised with our bodies, then everything that happens in our bodies, through our bodies, and with our bodies takes on permanent significance. Christians know this through their faith in Christ, who raised from the dead promises the same for those who live in him. But does this decisive aspect of our faith truly shape our imaginations and affect the way we see the world, each other, and ourselves, right now? This hope should change everything. And if you find hope like that hard to come by, especially in these recent months, then I’ve got just the book for you.Today on the show, I discuss the new novel End of Ending with the author, Josh Noem. This is Josh’s book debut, but believe me, he crafted a narrative of an ultimately hope-filled vision of this very ordinary world that I can’t help but think is just the kind of truly realistic fiction we need right now. Josh joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, for this episode of Church Life Today, brought to you by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and Redeemer Radio. We are recording this episode in-person, safely distanced, from the deck in Josh’s backyard.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Jessica Keating on Building a Culture of Life and Human Dignity

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 16:00:00 -0400

What can we do to build a culture more welcoming of life and more devoted to upholding human dignity? Many might think those to be worthy pursuits, but have no idea what to actually do. But you know who not only has good ideas, but is putting those ideas into practice? My guest on today’s show.I am joined today by Jessica Keating, who serves as the director of the Office of Life and Human Dignity within the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame. Jessica holds a Master’s of Divinity degree from Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and sociology from St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia. In addition to her work in the office of life and human dignity, she is also completing a doctoral degree in systematic theology at Notre Dame. If you want to follow up on the resources or initiatives we will discuss today, please go to mcgrath.nd.edu/lifeandhumandignity.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Kyle Pietrantonio on a Comprehensive Vision of Catholic Education

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:38:00 -0400

The full vision of Catholic education spans from the beginning to the end of childhood, and on into who young people become as adults. It isn’t just about students: it is about their families, the community of faith, the very vision and life that is shared among people. My guest today speaks to this comprehensive vision of Catholic education from his perspective as the head of a k-12 Catholic school.Kyle Pietrantonio just completed his term as Head of School at Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta, where he served in school leadership for 15 years. He joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today from the McGrath Institute for Church Life and Redeemer Radio.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Tricia Bruce on How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 2

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:41:00 -0400

Americans do not talk much about abortion, but we can under the right conditions. This is one of the conclusions that Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researches posit in the report on their groundbreaking and comprehensive interview study focusing on abortion attitudes in the United States. Dr. Bruce is joining me for the second of a two-part interview on her report “How Americans Understand Abortion.” Dr. Bruce’s study was conducted in partnership with the McGrath Institute for Church Life and you can download a copy of the report for free at mcgrath.nd.edu/resources.I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, and you can find part 1 of my interview with Dr. Bruce on our Church Life Today podcast.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Tricia Bruce on How Americans Understand Abortion, Part 1

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:37:00 -0400

American do not talk much about abortion. That’s sounds strange, doesn’t it? We seem to hear a lot about abortion in the news, in politics, in relation to the Supreme Court, but in terms of everyday Americans in their interpersonal conversations, we are actually very quiet about abortion..This is part of what Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researchers discovered in their groundbreaking and comprehensive interview study of abortion attitudes in the United States among “every Americans.” The report of their study was released in mid-July 2020 under the title “How Americans Understand Abortion.” This study was undertaken in partnership with our McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, and you can download a copy of this report for free at mcgrath.nd.edu/resources.Today Dr. Bruce joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, for a two-part interview to discuss her report and to offer us some observations and insights about American attitudes towards abortion. This is part 1 of our interview, while part 2 will air next week on Redeemer radio or, if you are listening on our podcast, part 2 is the very next episode.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Rick Garnett on 2020 SCOTUS Decisions, Part 2

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:45:00 -0400

This episode is part two of a two-part discussion focusing on some of the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court in June and July 2020. My guest is again Prof. Rick Garnett of the University of Notre Dame Law school.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Rick Garnett on 2020 SCOTUS Decisions, Part 1

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:42:00 -0400

In June and early July 2020, we’ve heard news just about weekly of controversial or at least hotly contested Supreme Court decisions. Maybe you found yourself with strong reactions now again, but you weren’t totally clear about what you were reacting to. What, actually, was at stake in that case and what does the ruling really mean? I have questions like that, too, especially in cases that are of special interest to many Catholics or other religious believers: cases about religious liberty, immigration, healthcare mandates, and abortion law. To help us get better sense for some of these summer 2020 Supreme Court decisions and their ramifications, I’m happy to welcome back Rick Garnett Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also the founding director of the Program on Church, State, and Society.I’m your host, Leonard DeLorenzo and this is Church Life Today. This is part one of a two-part interview with Prof. Garnett.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Gloria Purvis on Sin, Conversion, and Racial Justice

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 14:00:00 -0400

As the host of a nationally syndicated morning show, Gloria Purvis is used to having many people hear her voice. But in the wake of recent violence and injustice, she has been using her voice to amplify the cries against racism and the demands for personal and societal repentance. Today she joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to speak not merely about law and order, but indeed about sin and conversion.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Eric Styles on Black Bodies, Kneeling, and the Liturgy

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 14:00:00 -0400

What does it mean to kneel? For Catholics, who are a liturgical people used to kneeling, we have a sense for that. My guest today is himself Catholic, he is himself steeped in the liturgy, and yet what he thought he knew about kneeling changed when George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020.This is Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today. My guest is Eric Styles, one of my colleagues at the University of Notre Dame, where he serves as rector of Carroll Hall. He is also Associate Artistic Director of Afro-House, a music driven performance art company. I’ve asked him to join me today to talk about his article which appeared in our Church Life Journal, under the title “Black Bodies, Kneeling, and the Liturgy.” We’ll also talk about the neglected testimonies of African Americans, and systemic racism in relation to the call to solidarity and the Catholic Church.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Msgr. Michael Heintz on the Formation of Future Priests

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Tue, 05 May 2020 11:50:00 -0400

Who is forming our future priests, and how are they being formed? These are questions that have only grown in importance in recent years, especially in the wake of recent scandals in the Church. What has been going on in seminaries, and what should be going on in seminaries are topics of great interest and often of great speculation. So why don’t we talk to somebody who knows what’s what in seminary formation? Good news, I’ve got just the person! Msgr. Michael Heintz is a priest of the Diocese of Fort Wayne- South Bend. He is the former pastor of St. Matthew’s Cathedral parish in South Bend, but now here serves full-time at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland where some 20 dioceses send their seminarians for their studies and formation as priests. Msgr. Heintz is associate professor of theology at Mount St. Mary’s, as well as spiritual director and academic dean. He offered a major address on the formation of seminarians and priests at the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Called & Co-Responsible conference. And today he joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo to answer our questions and give us a better grasp of who’s being formed in seminaries, how they’re being formed, and to what end

Elisabeth Sullivan on Catholic Liberal Education

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 14:00:00 -0400

Have we gotten Catholic education all wrong? That’s a daunting question, but an important one, and potentially a liberating one. It’s the kind of question that the resurgence of more classical models of education may be responding to. And one of the catalysts of this resurgence is the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. My guest today is the executive director of this Institute, Elisabeth Sullivan. She joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to talk about how the holistic model for Catholic education, that developed over two millennia, has been replaced over the course of just a few decades. And how Catholic Liberal Education seeks to retrieve what has been lost for the sake of a truly universal, integrative, and ultimately liberating education ordered to the fullness of truth, beauty, and goodness in Jesus Christ.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Erin Barisano on the Spiritual Leadership of Catholic Educators

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 15:07:00 -0400

When you think about what’s important for fulfilling the mission of Catholic schools, do you think about the spiritual leadership of principals, administrators, and teachers? Dr. Erin Barisano does. As the superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Orange, the 10th largest diocese in the US, and the 2nd largest diocese in California, after Los Angeles). Dr. Barisano is of course paying attention to what every education leader has to pay attention to (enrollments, budgets, staffing and retention, and supervision. But for her, the spiritual leadership of catholic educators is one of the key distinctive elements of what makes Catholic education truly Catholic. Dr. Barisano delivered a presentation on leadership and mission in Catholic education at the Called & Co-Responsible conference hosted by the McGrath Institute for Church Life. And today she joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to talk about her work, as well as Catholic education in her diocese and beyond.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Betsy Bohlen on Developing Strategic Leaders for the Church

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 22:29:00 -0400

We all know that we need better leadership in the church. Of course that means that those we already recognize as leaders must be formed for and embody the highest levels of integrity, honesty, accountability, humility, and charity. But better leadership also means discovering new models of leadership, more co-responsible models. Whereby the gifts and expertise of both laity and clergy, professionals and pastors, men and women are brought together in service of the church’s mission of evangelization. So what role does managerial and strategic expertise play in this development of church leadership? The church is not a business, but parishes and dioceses face strategic challenges that call for the expertise of business professionals in an increasingly complex world. My guest today is not only thinking about these dimensions of leadership in the church, she also bears responsibility for them in the third largest diocese in the United States. She is Betsy Bohlen, Chief Operating Officer for the Archdiocese of Chicago. She delivered a major presentation on leadership and strategic management at the Called & Co-Responsible conference, hosted by the McGrath Institute for Church Life. And today she joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to talk about her work, her archdiocese, and leadership in the church today.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Bishop Frank Caggiano on Co-Responsibility and Evangelization

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 14:00:00 -0400

Bishop Frank Caggiano came to the University of Notre Dame to deliver a major presentation about promoting co-responsibility between the laity and clergy for the mission of the church. That is, the mission of evangelization. In his own diocese of Bridgeport, CT, Bishop Caggiano has exercised both tremendous initiative for attempting bold new ventures in evangelization and simple humility in recognizing the ways in which that initiative has needed to be redirected or reshaped from time to time. But both the initiative and the humility are in service to a fundamental gospel ideal. As he said during his address at Notre Dame "The love that we have discovered has taken our life over and compels us to share it with others. That love has a face, and that face is Jesus Christ. The responsibility we all share is to witness to the one who saves us." Today Bishop Caggiano sits down with me, Leonard DeLorenzo, at the McGrath Institute for Church Life to talk about the mission of evangelization and co-responsibility among all the baptized.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Rick Garnett on Religious Liberty

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 15:40:00 -0400

Professor Richard W. Garnett teaches and writes about the freedoms of speech, association, and religion and constitutional law more generally. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding the role of religious believers and beliefs in politics and society. He has published widely on these matters and is the author of dozens of law-review articles and book chapters. Garnett is regularly invited to share analysis and commentary in national print and broadcast media, and he contributes to several law-related blogs, including Mirror of Justice and PrawfsBlawg.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Kristin Collier and Charlie Camosy on the COVID–19 Outbreak

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 13:00:00 -0400

Today I welcome a medical doctor and a bioethicist to talk about the developing situation surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. My guests are Dr. Kristin Collier , assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, and Professor Charlie Camosy, associate professor of bioethics in the department of theology at Fordham University.Our conversation was recorded on March 13, 2020.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Brandon McGinley on the Meaning of Liturgical Time

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 17:55:00 -0500

What is the meaning of time? I don’t mean that as an abstract philosophical question but rather an utterly practical one. How we measure time tells us a great of what we think like is all about, both on the grand scale and every day. Our guest today has developed a resource for helping us reclaim time as sacred—that is, as liturgical. Brandon McGinley writes about faith, culture, and politics from his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He works as Editor of EWTN Publishing, Inc., a book publishing collaboration between the global Catholic media network and Sophia Institute Press. He is the creator of the weekly newsletter “These Seven Days” and today he talks with us about how the reclaiming the rhythm of the liturgical calendar helps us to live our faith as Catholics.------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Fr. Mike Schmitz on the Faith Lives of Young Adults

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 14:00:00 -0500

Fr. Mike Schmitz seems to be somewhere and everywhere at the same time. The “somewhere” is the Diocese of Duluth, where he not only serves as the director of the office of youth ministry, but also as chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota Duluth. But it feels like he’s “everywhere”, because he has become one of the most prominent and effective public evangelists in the Catholic Church in America. His short, catechetical videos pop up on YouTube and all over social media all the time. He’s ministering to young people both where he lives and where the rest of us live—that is to say, he seems to be preaching and ministering to people everywhere. Today, he’s here with me in the studio for a conversation about the faith lives of young people, the importance of family, and a lot more. Thanks for joining me, Leonard DeLorenzo, and Fr. Mike Schmitz here on Church Life Today.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Thomas Curtin on Building a Catholic School from the Ground Up

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 14:30:00 -0500

If you could build a Catholic school from the ground up, what would you do? What would you emphasize? What would you leave out? What kind of vision would you have for how you want your students to be formed and what kind of culture you foster? I talk with someone today who had the opportunity to do something very much like that, when a couple years ago he took on the position of Headmaster at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School. He was brought in, in part, to help build an upper school that went through to 12th grade, and he was charged with the mission of nurturing a small, family focused Catholic school. My guest is Thomas Curtin, joining us from his school community in Greenville, South Carolina. Prior to taking on his present role, Thomas was the principal of a well-regarded Catholic high school in the Atlanta area, and prior to that he served Catholic education as a teacher and in other administrative positions. Our conversation today will touch on the ideals of a Catholic education and the challenges to pursuing those ideals in today’s educational climate. Thanks for joining me, Leonard DeLorenzo, for yet another episode of Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Gabriel Said Reynolds on Saintliness and Interreligious Dialogue

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 14:00:00 -0500

Is saintliness a pathway for inter-religious dialogue? A forthcoming conference at the University of Notre Dame will give us a chance to find out. The conference is “Ways of Perfection and Devout Lives: Saintliness across Traditions.” It convenes March 29–31, 2020.One of the organizers of this conference is our guest today. He is Professor Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Reynolds focuses on Qu’ranic studies and Muslim-Christians relations in Notre Dame’s World Religions and World Church program. He joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to talk about this conference, the distinctiveness of theology, learning to disagree well, and much more, here on Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Brett Robinson on Catholic Communications Ecology

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 14:00:00 -0500

We live in space, in time, among other people, with all kinds of needs and influence and desires. Our lives are connected, so that what we do and how we act impacts others. Even more, our environments matter. The places we live, the earth we inhabit, our homes. But do we think of ourselves in those terms when we consider media and communications? How do we practice responsibility for our communications ecology, especially in and for the Church? Our guest today is asking questions like that. He is Brett Robinson, director of communications and Catholic media studies at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. With a background in English and marketing, and a PhD in Mass Communication from the University of Georgia, he is leading a new effort to help parishes and dioceses develop practices and strategies for communications in a new media environment. In particular, he is developing a new program for “Church Communications Ecology” with funding from the Lilly Endowment. He joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, on Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, where we engage academic and pastoral leaders in critical issues in the life of the Church.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Lindy Wynne on 'Mamas in the Spirit'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 14:00:00 -0500

“There are places in the heart that do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering, that they might exist.” Leon Bloy wrote that once. It is a perplexing quote, but it seems to have something to do with the fact that for us to be present to each other and, most importantly, to allow God to be present to us, we cannot hide from heartache or pain, but must rather embrace our vulnerability as creatures and as children of God. This is also a central insight and clear reality of the ministry “Mamas in Spirit”, founded by Lindy Wynne.Lindy holds a Master's degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling from the University of San Diego. Lindy has worked in professional ministry for over fifteen years, most recently as Associate Director of Campus Ministry at Loyola Marymount University. She has also worked as a teacher and campus ministry at two all-girls, Catholic high schools: Notre Dame, Belmont and the Academy of our Lady of Peace, San Diego.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Carolyn Pirtle on Making Room for Christ

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 14 Dec 2019 14:00:00 -0500

The beauty and challenge of Advent is to make room for Christ. We are called to be intentional with our time and to create intentional spaces that open us to his coming. On today’s show, we will explore traditional Advent practices of time and space with my friend and colleague, Carolyn Pirtle.Carolyn is the program director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, here in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. She oversees the planning and facilitation of the Center’s signature events, including the annual summer symposium (“Liturgy Week”), and other annual events like the Marian Procession and May Crowning, and one of the topics of today’s show: the International Crèche Exhibit and Pilgrimage. She also happens to have a lot of degrees, including a master’s in music theory-composition, another master’s in sacred music, and a third master’s in theology. She brings all that wisdom and experience here to join me, Leonard DeLorenzo, on Church Life Today.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Robert Duncan on Romano Guardini's 'Letters from Lake Como'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 07 Dec 2019 14:00:00 -0500

Can we learn some profound things about the impact of technology on our world and our lives from a voice that spoke out 100 years ago? How could someone writing in the 1920s possibly glimpse what we’d be facing in our highly technological world of as we approach the 2020s? Well, it may seem unlikely, but it is indeed true that the Catholic Priest, theologian, early media and technology scholar Romano Guardini glimpsed well in advance where we were heading in the modern world. My guest today is not Romano Guardini—he’s not available—but Robert Duncan, who is completing a documentary on Guardini’s “Letters from Lake Como”, that deal deeply with the questions of technology and culture. Robert Duncan is an award-winning multimedia journalist from the Rome Bureau of Catholic News Service. He was born and raised in North Carolina, he studied film, television, journalism and philosophy at New York University. He now resides in the countryside near Rome with his family.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Harrison Ayre on Social Media and Communion

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 14:01:00 -0500

The whole idea of social media is to make us more social to connect us, to bring us together. But do our experiences with social media tell us that’s what’s happening? Do we perhaps feel they’re actually instruments of isolation and division? Or on the other hand could social media really become a means of communion? My guest today is Father Harrison Ayre pastor of Holy Family Notre Dame Church in British Columbia who is also the cohost of the wildly popular podcast Clerically Speaking. Father Harrison recently participated in a panel discussion on the topic and friendship, communion and social media.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Ian Johnson on Religion in China

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 14:00:00 -0500

For more than a hundred years, China embarked on a movement of forced secularization, with most religions heavily persecuted or banned. But religion is now back at the center of Chinese society and politics, with the country awash with new temples, churches, and mosques – as well as cults, sects, and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Churches are being demolished and Muslims forced to attend reeducation camps, while the government is also promoting Buddhism and folk religion. How to reconcile these contradictory claims?------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Kristin Collier on TheoBiology

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 14:00:00 -0400

Were there long-term consequences for Mary who carried the Son of God in her womb? We can actually say something about this not just theologically, but indeed medically. We are eventually going to talk about that on today’s show, after talking about the stunning connections between a mother and her unborn child, the role of religion and spirituality in health care, and the training of medical professionals today.This is Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, and my guest today is Dr. Kristin Collier, who is a practicing physician and assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan. Dr. Collier is also the director of the University of Michigan Medical School’s Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion.Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Katie Cavadini & Leonard DeLorenzo on the Theology of the Saints

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 15:09:00 -0400

This week we did something a little different Lenny was actually interviewed by Dr. Katie Cavadini about his book Work of Love and the Communion of Saints.Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Joe Campo on Being a Father to the Fatherless

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 14:30:00 -0400

What effect does the absence of fathers have on our society? What do you do to listen for God’s will? What’s the greatest threat to a family home? How can you recognize and draw out the talents of young people? These are just some of the questions I ask of our guest today, Joe Campo, in a discussion that touches on the intimate and the grand, the spiritual and the practical alike. Joe is the head of the St. Francis Home in Brooklyn, where young men in need of support and direction live together as a family, with Joe as a father who shares with them a life of faith. Joe is also the founder of Grassroots Films, which he started with some of the young men from his household. Grassroots has produced such films as The Human Experience, Outcasts, Fishers of Men, and Child 31.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Nichole Flores on the Extended Family

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 14:30:00 -0400

We talk today about the family, especially the expansive notion of the extended family and what this means for who we are as individuals, who we are responsible for, and what this means for our parishes.We are joined by Dr. Nichole Flores is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. She speaks, writes and teaches about the significance of Catholic and Latinx theology and ethics in plural social, political, and ecclesial contexts. She has published academic articles broadly and also popularly on such publications as America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture. She is currently at work on her first book, To Lift Up the Lowly: The Aesthetics of Solidarity. In 2015, Dr. Flores was honored with the Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for the best academic essay in Catholic theology from the Catholic Theological Society of America. Recently she joined us as a keynote speaker for the Liturgy and Domestic Church conference at Notre Dame.------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Brad Wilcox on the State of the Family in America

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 14:30:00 -0400

What is the state of the family in the United States? What is the good news? What’s the bad news? And what does the Church need to pay attention to? W. Bradford Wilcox is Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. Professor Wilcox’s research has focused on marriage, fatherhood, and cohabitation, especially on the ways that family structure, civil society, and culture influence the quality and stability of family life in the United States and around the globe.Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Aimee Shelide Mayer on Loving God and Neighbor

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 03 Aug 2019 14:30:00 -0400

Today we want to talk about the whole Gospel, and by that I mean contemplation and action, the Lord’s love and our response, life in the parish and life with the poor. Our guest is Aimee Shelide Mayer. Aimee is a graduate of Notre Dame’s Echo program, where she served in catechetical ministry in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for two years. Afterwards she lived in a Catholic Worker community in South Bend, IN, before moving to Nashville to serve as the Coordinator of Advocacy and Social Concerns for Catholic Charities. On the basis of all she’s done and learned, she is going to talk with us today about the whole Gospel.Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Reverend Dr. Daniel McClain on Theology and Children's Literature

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 14:30:00 -0400

The Reverend Dr. Daniel McClain is a theologian and priest in the Episcopal Church and serves as the Episcopoal Chaplain at the College of Wiliam and Mary. He earned his PhD in Historical and Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America, then taught at Loyola University Maryland from 2012 to 2017, where he launched and administered Loyola’s Master of Theological Studies program. Dr. McClain specializes in theology and literature and is co-author of Reading Scripture as a Political Act. He is currently at work on a book entitled Theology and Children’s Literature: An Introduction, forthcoming from Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock. In 2019 he taught a weeklong track at our Institute’s Liturgy & the Domestic Church gathering, where he focused on Forming the Sacramental Imagination of the Child through Literature------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Marie George on Evolution, the Image of God, and Extraterrestrials

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 14:30:00 -0400

Today we talk with a Catholic philosopher whose work brings her in contact with evolution, the image of God, and extraterrestrials. Marie George is Professor of Philosophy at St. John's University. In addition to holding a Ph.D. in Philosophy, she also holds Master's degrees in Biology and in Pastoral Theology. Her interests lie primarily in the areas of natural philosophy and philosophy of science. She has received several awards from the John Templeton Foundation for her work in Science and Religion, and she was co-recipient of a grant from the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences for an interdisciplinary project entitled "The evolution of sympathy and morality." Professor George has authored over 70 peer-reviewed articles and two books Christianity and Extra Terrestrials: A Catholic Perspective and Stewardship of Creation. As well as editing The Essential Guide to Catholic Spiritual Classics.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Fr. Nicanor Austriaco on Genetic Engineering and the Search for Adam

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 14:30:04 -0400

On today's show, we're going to talk about genetic engineering, pursuing truth in a post-Christian culture and the search for Adam. Our guest is Father Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., is Professor in the Department of Biology of Providence College. He received his Ph.D. in biology from MIT and does research in experimental molecular biology. He is a Dominican priest and holds a doctorate in theology from the Univ. of Fribourg in Switzerland. Among other distinctions he is an investigator in the NIH-Rhode Island Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Program. He is the author of Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics (CUA Press, 2011) and co-author of Thomistic Evolution: a Catholic approach to understanding evolution in the light of faith (Cluny Media, 2016). Fr. Nicanor is on the Board of the Society of Catholic Scientists.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Conor Cunningham on Darwin, the Soul, and Life Before Death

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 14:29:59 -0400

Leonard DeLorenzo asks three questions in this episode:1.Did Darwin God?2.Is the soul real?3.Is there life before death?If you're listening, just buckle up and wait for the answers because today's guest is Conor Cunningham is Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy, and Director of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Prof. Cunningham has degrees in Law, Philosophy, and Theology. He is the author of Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing and the Difference of Theology (2002) and of the book Darwin's Pious Idea: Why the Ultra Darwinists and Creationists Both Get It Wrong (2010). He is at work on a third book that follows these previous two, with the title The Soul and the Marriage of Discourse: The Return of Scientia. Additionally, Prof. Cunningham was the writer and presenter of the multi-award winning BBC documentary "Did Darwin Kill God?"------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Maureen Condic on When Human Life Begins

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 15 Jun 2019 14:30:06 -0400

Welcome to Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. I'm your host, Leonard DeLorenzo.Do you want to know when human life begins? And how to explain that to other people? That's what I'm going to ask our guest today, Dr. Maureen Condic, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah Medical School. In 2015, Dr. Condic was appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a distinguished group of physicians, scientists, and theologians from the international community whose mission it is to study questions and issues regarding the promotion and defense of human life from an interdisciplinary perspective.Three years later, in 2018, Dr. Condic received a Presidential appointment to the National Board of Science, the oversight body for the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on the development and regeneration of the nervous system, spinal cord repair and regeneration, and embryonic development, while she cultivates a strong commitment to public education and science literacy. In June 2019, she delivered the St. Albert Award Lecture at the annual convention of the Society of Catholic Scientists.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Roy Petifils on Helping Teens with Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 25 May 2019 13:00:07 -0400

Roy Petifils is a licensed counselor at Pax Renewal Center in Lafayette Louisiana. Roy studied ministry and spirituality at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas and holds a masters in mental health counseling from the University of Louisiana. Roy has worked with youth and young adults for more than 20 years as minster, as teacher, school administrator, school counselor, and now as a counselor in private practice. Roy speaks all over the country and he hosts a popular podcast called Today's Teenager. His most recent book "Helping Teens with Stress, Anxiety, and Depression" is available from Ave Maria Press and today he joins us on Church Life Today.Helping Teens With Stress, Anxiety, and Depression - https://www.avemariapress.com/search/?q=roy+petitfils------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Jason Shanks on the History and Future of Our Sunday Visitor

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 18 May 2019 14:30:09 -0400

In 1912, a priest named Fr. John Francis Noll worked up a plan to evangelize on a broad scale and respond to some of the pressing issues of his day facing the Church. His plan came into print as the Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly, which has been in print ever since. In 1915, as circulation and revenue grew from this and soon-to-be other publications, Fr. Noll innovated again, this time founding the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, the sole mission of which was to distribute the profits from Our Sunday Visitor’s publications to religious, educational, and charitable projects of the growing Church in the United States.More than 100 years later, this legacy of the man who would later become Archbishop Noll has funded more than $75 million through grants to support and enrich the life of the church in the United States. Today, the current President of the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, Jason Shanks, joins me to talk about the new strategic vision for the institute a century after its founding.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Abigail Favale on Sex, Gender, and Feminism

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 11 May 2019 15:00:09 -0400

Do you know how to talk about “gender” today? Does the Church? We might find ourselves caught up in language because we don’t know what to think about this stuff or how to think about it. What about feminism, women’s empowerment, or the question of identity? Pastoral responses, education, formation all seem to be hindered by our lack of competency and confidence. That’s why the work and witness of Abigail Favale is so important, so liberating in its own right. She’s written about her conversion to Catholicism in a new book, Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion. Her articles have been going viral online lately because she talks in substantive, clear, and compelling ways about sex, gender, contraception, feminism, abortion, and the importance of the body. She’s a scholar who communicates clearly and accessible, and what she’s communicating about is precisely what many of us feel incompetent or unconfident to talk about ourselves. She’s helping us, immensely. Dr. Favale is the director of the William Penn Honors Program at George Fox University, and she’s also a Life and Dignity Writing Fellow with our own Notre Dame Office of Human Dignity and Life Initiatives. RESOURCESSex and Symbol Article- https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/sex-and-symbol/Into the Deep Book- https://www.amazon.com/dp/1532605013/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_PdT0CbPD8ZDQJ ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Rebekah Lamb on C. S. Lewis, Education, and Theological Imagination

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 04 May 2019 14:30:59 -0400

As Leonard DeLorenzo has mentioned before on this show, the McGrath Institute for Church Life is hosting its annual Lent-to-Easter lecture series this year on C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. We’ve welcomed two of this year’s lecturers to our show in previous weeks, and now we host a third.Dr. Rebekah Lamb is a lecturer in theology and the arts at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland. She is one of the four principal faculty members in the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts. Her lecture in the Chronicles of Narnia series was on the book, “The Silver Chair.” ------RESOURCESMcGrath Narnia Resources - mcgrath.nd.edu/narniaDavid Fagerberg Interview - https://soundcloud.com/user-178289668/2019-february-16Michael Ward Interview - https://soundcloud.com/user-178289668/2019-april-6------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

John Cavadini on Marian Processions and the May Crowning

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 14:30:59 -0400

Leonard DeLorenzo is joined today by Dr. John Cavadini, Director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life and professor of theology at Notre Dame. He's here to talk with us about the tradition of Marian Processions and May Crownings, because he and the McGrath Institute are hosting one that you're invited to next Saturday, May 4th at 10:30 a.m. beginning at Notre Dame's Grotto. ------RESOURCESNotre Dame’s May Crowning information – www.mcgrath.nd.edu/maycrowning. ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Obianuju Ekeocha on a Culture of Life in Africa

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 13:00:04 -0400

Our guest today is Obianuju Ekeocha: founder and president of Culture of Life Africa, an initiative dedicated to the promotion and defense of the African values of the sanctity of life, beauty of marriage, blessings of motherhood and the dignity of family life. Ekeocha is the author of “Target Africa: Ideological Neo-colonialism of the Twenty-first Century.” She has spoken before the United Nations & the Canadian Parliament. She’s also appeared on the BBC’s “Focus on Africa.” A practicing biomedical scientist, Ekeocha holds a Masters degree in biomedical science from the University of East London and a Bachelors degree in microbiology from the University of Nigeria. In March 2019 she delivered the annual human dignity lecture for the Office of Life and Human Dignity in our own McGrath Institute for Church Life. The title “The Primacy of Reproductive Health and Rights and the Rise of Ideological Neo-colonialism.” You can find the video of that lecture at mcgrath.nd.edu/life.------RESOURCES2019 Human Dignity Lecture - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0fuTT-bQqs&feature=youtu.be------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Rev. Dr. Michael Ward on C. S. Lewis and 'Planet Narnia'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 14:00:02 -0400

As I mentioned several weeks ago on this show, each year, the McGrath Institute for Church Life hosts a lecture series that runs through Lent and Easter, which invites people everywhere to join in a communal reading of a spiritual work for the liturgical seasons. For this year’s series, we are focusing on C. S. Lewis’s beloved children’s stories, The Chronicles of Narnia. I’m so pleased to welcome today one of our lecturers to this series, Rev. Dr. Michael Ward, who is as of last year a Catholic priest and who comes to us from the University of Oxford, where he is senior research fellow in Blackfriars Hall and Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. Fr. Ward is the author or editor of several books, including “Heresies and How to Avoid Them”, “The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis”, and “The Narnia Code: C.S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens”, which was made into a one-hour documentary by the BBC. But it was of another of his books that Walter Hooper, the esteemed literary adviser to the estate of C.S. Lewis, lauded as unsurpassed in showing a comprehensive knowledge of and depth of insight regarding C.S. Lewis’s works. That book is the masterful, persuasive, and illuminating “Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis”. He joins us today to talk about C.S. Lewis, Narnia, theology and the arts, and more.------RESOURCESDavid Fagerberg Episode on Chronicles of Narnia - https://soundcloud.com/user-178289668/2019-february-16Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why It Matters What Christians Believe - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801047498/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_6JnMCbJYYFE66The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521711142/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_X9nMCbT6QG3S5The Narnia Code: C. S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1414339658/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_2-nMCb6R6434EPlanet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis - https://www.amazon.com/dp/019973870X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_s.nMCbR9GPCT6------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadio

Kim Daniels on the Sexual Abuse and Leadership Crisis in the Church

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 14:30:02 -0400

In late February, Pope Francis called the heads of the national conference of bishops from around the world to the Vatican to address the sexual abuse and leadership crisis wracking the church and the faithful. From this side of news reports, it is something hard to know what really happened and what comes next. So we invited someone who was there to join us today to help us learn more. Kim Daniels is the associate director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, at Georgetown University. She is also a Member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, to which she was appointed in 2016 by Pope Francis. She joins us today to talk about the meeting in February, about reform in the church and what we can look for in terms of next steps.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Sarah Shutrop on Ministering to Teens in Catholic High Schools

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 12:49:12 -0400

We welcome Sarah Shutrop, Director of Campus Ministry at Immaculate Heart Academy in Bergen County, New Jersey. Sarah is a graduate of Rutgers University, where she studies English and Political Science, and she holds a masters degree in Theology from The University of Notre Dame. While there she focused on moral and systematic theology, she is here with us today to talk about what she is seeing in the young people she works within the High School setting, and to reflect on her mission as a Catholic campus minister at a rather prestigious Catholic High School.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Eric Mabry on Hope and Friendship in Times of Crisis

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 15:00:08 -0500

Can a time of crisis become a time of hope? Can we cultivate joy, not just after, but even in the midst of scandal? Can friendship teach us how to be authentically Christian, authentically human? Beginning from a place that we may not expect - a seminary. Joining us today to talk about a vision of education and formation of seminary that led to a new collaborative conference, is Dr. Eric Mabry. Maybry is an Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, and department chair of Christ the King Seminary, in the Diocese of Buffalo. ------RESOURCESChrist the King Seminary - https://www.cks.edu/faculty-mabry------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

David Fagerberg on C. S. Lewis and 'The Chronicles of Narnia'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 15:00:05 -0500

Each year the McGrath Institute for Church Life hosts a lecture series that runs through Lent and Easter. Which invites people from everywhere to join in a communal reading of a spiritual work for the liturgical season. Two years ago, we focused on Donte’s Divine comedy, last year it was the book of Exodus, and this year it will be C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s stories the Chronicles of Narnia.As with Dante and the book of Exodus, the Chronicles of Narnia can become an occasion for making a spiritual journey through these seasons. Allowing your imagination, and really your kids’ imaginations, to move in a land where renunciation and trust, belief and bravery, hope and longing, are all prime themes surrounding characters that we come to know and love.Practically speaking these books work well because if you begin reading the first book of the series in the week of Ash Wednesday, and read one book every two weeks, you’re going to finish the last book by Pentecost. So, it is really from Lent through Easter. This really is, therefore, an opportunity to journey through these liturgical seasons with these timeless classics.The lecture series that the McGrath Institute is hosting will convene on four separate nights with two lectures each night. Each story in the series will receive its own lecture, plus an introductory lecture for the whole series. That first lecture will be delivered by today’s guest Professor David Fagerberg. Professor Fagerberg teaches in the field of Liturgical studies at Notre Dame’s Theology Department, he is especially noted for his work in liturgical asceticism and mysticism. Among many popular courses he has taught on the collegiate level over the years, perhaps the most popular of all is his class on Transfiguration in the fiction of C.S. Lewis. His lecture on the upcoming series will address what Lewis hopes for us to find in Narnia. ------RESOURCESMcGrath Series on the Chronicles of Narnia - https://mcgrath.nd.edu/events/chronicles-of-narnia/Chronicles of Narnia Book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061969052/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_XrzzCbV50Q8KN------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

John Carr on Lessons for Moving Forward from the Sexual Abuse Crisis

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 15:00:45 -0500

We welcome John Carr, Director of the initiative on Catholic Social thought and public life at Georgetown University. He also serves as the Washington correspondent for America Magazine, and as an adjunct professor in Georgetown's Theology Department. For 20 years Mr. Carr was the Director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Late last year Mr. Carr wrote an article in America names "Eight lessons to help us move forward from the sex abuse crisis". As the heads of all the Bishops' conferences from around the world meet at the Vatican soon to confront this crisis, we invited Mr. Carr to join us and offer us his insights, both about this crisis and in relation to its broader work in his initiative at Georgetown.------RESOURCESJohn Carr - Georgetown University - https://catholicsocialthought.georgetown.edu/people/john-carrJohn Carr - America Magazine - https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/john-carrEight lessons to help us move forward from the sex abuse crisis - https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/09/25/eight-lessons-help-us-move-forward-sex-abuse-crisisJustice, Peace and Human Development USCCB - http://www.usccb.org/about/justice-peace-and-human-development/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Samantha Povlock on FemCatholic

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2019 15:00:05 -0500

Samantha Povlock doesn't believe you have to choose between being Catholic and being a feminist. She's even got a popular blog to prove it. After earning degrees in In Theology and Business and now as a full-time working mom, Samantha launched FemCatholic. FemCatholic has been not so modest mission of working to promote truth about women in the Church and in the world. She'll talk with us her own vocation, her inspiration, her work, and her message. ------RESOURCESFemCatholic - http://www.femcatholic.com/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Joy Clarkson on Seeing, Creating, and Pursuing Beauty

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 15:00:03 -0500

It was Fyodor Dostoevsky who famously said "Beauty will save the world", but do we take time to notice beauty? Will we create beauty? Will we seek it? Our guest is deeply invested in seeing, creating and pursuing beauty. Joy Clarkson is a doctoral candidate in Theology and the arts at the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. She hosts a fantastic podcast called 'Speaking with Joy', and her first book, which she co-wrote with her mom and her sister, is due out soon. It is called 'Girls Club: cultivating lasting friendship in a lonely world'.------RESOURCESSpeaking with Joy podcast - https://joyclarkson.com/podcast/Girls Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1496432150/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_I-WsCbETTVF0K ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Chris White on the Developing Stories in Catholic News

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 23:00:00 -0500

We welcome Chris White, national correspondent for Crux and The Tablet. In addition to his regular writing for those publications, Chris' work has also appeared in places like the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, First Things and Forbes. As someone who covers news and trends in the Catholic Church, especially here in the United States, there have been many hard and troubling things that have become the focus of Chris' reporting. While it might seem inevitable for a reporter to continue to look at the darkest things in his coverage area, the articles that Chris publishes do show a wider verity. He has written recently on such topics as religious liberty in Australia, the 300 year Catholic history or New Orleans, and the importance of Art in the church. Show host, Leonard DeLorenzo, says that because today's conversation is going to focus on some of the more trying and troubling matters in the Church today, including Chris' three-part series on the less than amicable resignation of the US Bishop of late last year.------RESOURCESCrux - https://cruxnow.com/author/cwhite/Twitter -https://twitter.com/cwwhite------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Gloria Purvis on Revamping 'Morning Glory' (with a Social Justice Coda)

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 14:56:36 -0500

"Morning Glory" is getting revamped so that it can be focused on more serious topics and less on the news. Then Lenny and Gloria chat about social justice in the church. Today’s guest, Gloria Purvis, has been working in the arena of social justice for many years and is currently co-host of Morning Glory on EWTN and a member of the Commission of Social Justice for the Black Catholic Congress. Today she and Lenny chat about racism, social justice, and the Catholic Church.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Fr. Michael Sweeney on Forming Lay Catholics for Mission

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 15:00:04 -0500

What is the mission of the laity in the Church and the world? How ought lay Catholics to be formed for that mission?These are questions for the whole church. Today’s guest, Fr. Michael Sweeney, has been working for decades to push these questions to the forefront. But, rather then just advocating for their importance, or merely thinking about them, he’s been doing things. Lots of things, including founding a new lay mission project in the Diocese of Sacramento. You may know Father Sweeney as the co-founder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, or President of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Where he served from 2004 – 2015.He joins show host, Leonard DeLorenzo, as part of a swing through the Midwest where he is traveling to give talks related to the laity and rebuilding the Church in a time of crisis. ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Elise Italiano on Activating the Gifts of Young Women for the Church

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 15:00:04 -0500

We need more leaders in the church. In fact we need the best leadership for The Church, but where will these leaders be found? And how will we prepare them for giving a creditable witness to the Gospel? These kind of questions are not foreign to Elise Italiano, Who serves as Executive Director ofThe Given Institute. Host, Leonard DeLorenzo talks with her about leadership in the Church, and the mission of her institute, which is dedicated to activating the gifts of young women for the Church and for the world. ------Resources: The Given Institute - https://giveninstitute.com/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Fr. Robert Imbelli on Rekindling the Christic Imagination

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 17 Nov 2018 15:00:08 -0500

Does Jesus know us? Do we know Him? That is the provocative and somewhat disturbing title of a short book by the 20th Century swish theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. We won't talk about that book today, nor will we talk about that theologian. But we will talk about Jesus. About knowing Him, about Him knowing us, and about the crisis of forgetting Jesus, and the urgency of rediscovering Him in the Church and for the world today. Host, Leonard DeLorenzo talks with Father Robert Imbelli. Father Imbelli is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, he studied in Rome during the years of the Second Vatican Council, and was ordained there in 1965. He received degrees from the Gregorian University in Rome, and his PhD in systematic theology from Yale. He has taught Theology at the New York Archdiocesan seminary and at the Marnier school of Theology. From 1986 to 2015 Father Imbelli taught systematic theology at Boston College and is currently Associate Professor of Theology Emeritus from there. He was visiting scholar at Seaton Hall University in Spring 2017, and at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, Spring 2018. His numerous articles and reviews appeared in such journals as Theological Studies, Worship, First Things, Commonweal, and America. His book, "Rekindling the Christic Imagination: Theological Meditations on the New Evangelization", won a first-place award from the Catholic Publishers Association. ------Resources: Rekindling the Christic Imagination: Theological Meditations on the New Evangelization - http://a.co/d/2WN1nZH------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Fr. Richard Schenk on Joseph Ratzinger, Vatican II, and 'Introduction to Christianity'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 13:18:33 -0500

Shortly after the close of the second Vatican council, a young theologian, who had been influential at the council, was invited to give a series of lectures at the University of Tubigidan, partially as a way to begin to interpret and receive the work of the council. That theologian’s name was Joseph Ratzinger. Who would become, as we know, Pope Benedict XVI nearly four decades later. The series of lectures that he delivered were collected into a book published under the title: “Introduction to Christianity” in 1968. By one unscientific estimation, the way to deem if a book is indeed a classic if it is still in print and widely read 50 years after its publication. At a recent conference of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, we observed the 50th anniversary of this text. Today I talk with the key-note presenter from the conference, Fr. Richard Schenk. Father Schenk is a Dominican Priest, who is currently honorary professor of the philosophy of religion at the theological faculty of the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and a member of the Roman Catholic chaplaincy there. He previously served as professor of philosophy and theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and concurrently as director of the Hannover Institute of Philosophical Research, as well as of the Intercultural Forum for Studies in Faith and Culture in Washington, D.C.. He was also President of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt from 2011 to 2014 and is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.------Resources: 'Introduction to Christianity' by Joseph Ratzinger - a.co/d/hRaQMLu------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

John Cavadini on Dorothy Day and Devotion to the Saints

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 14:30:27 -0400

Dorothy Day was a lot of things, but is she a Saint? By her own words, we should save her from the honor. She once bluntly said, 'don't call me a Saint!'. Maybe to spite her own wishes, Dr. John Cavadini, Director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, is delivering a public lecture on the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day, as part of our Institute's Saturdays with the Saints Series. So we want to talk to him about that to find out what Dorthy Day meant, what the Saint mean, how we miss the Saints, how we can learn to see and love the Saints better, and how the Church needs Saints today.In addition to serving for two decades as the Director of the Institute, Dr. Cavadini is also Professor of Theology and former chair of the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. On top of lots of other initiatives, and preparing this very lecture on Dorothy Day, he is also hosting conference marking the 50th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI, that is Joseph Ratzinger's classic text, "Introduction to Christianity' in the coming week.------Resources: Saturdays with the Saints - mcgrath.nd.edu/events/saturdays-with-the-saints/Dr. John Cavadini - mcgrath.nd.edu/about/faculty-sta…-c-cavadini-ph-d/Introduction to Christianity at 50 - mcgrath.nd.edu/conferences/acade…ristianity-at-50/Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger - a.co/d/hRaQMLu------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Chris Baglow and the Initiative on Science and Religion

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 15:00:03 -0400

Dr. Chris Baglow, directs the science and religion initative in our Institute, and he also teaches in our department of theology. He is the author of a textbook on science and religion, entitled “Faith Science and Reason: Theology on the cutting edge”. Dr. Baglow holds a BA from Franciscan University of Steubenville, an MA from the University of Dallas, and Ph.D. in Theology from Duquesne University------Resources: Faith, Science, and Reason Theology on the Cutting Edge - http://a.co/d/65LZSoiChurch Life Today with Dr. Stephen Barr - https://soundcloud.com/user-178289668/2018-july-28Science & Religion Seminars - https://mcgrath.nd.edu/conferences/summer-institute/science-religion-seminar/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Malcolm Harris on 'Kids These Days'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 15:00:19 -0400

Especially with the Synod of Bishops focusing on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment, there is an increasing focus on what is going on in the lives of young people today, personally and culturally. If the church is asking about vocational discernment for our young people, we are really thinking about their freedom to hear and respond to God’s call to take on the responsibility and joy of discipleship. Our show today is dedicated to trying to get a better sense of what is actually marking the lives of young people, what is their situation? What are their burdens? What are their possibilities? To help us think more deeply, we are talking with someone who examined the millennial generation, from a very broad, cultural perspective. Malcolm Harris is a freelance writer and editor at The New Inquiry. His work has appeared in the New Republic, Book Forum, The Village Voice, and n+1 and the New York Times Magazine. He hails from Philadelphia. In his recently published book, ‘Kids These Days: Human capital and the making of millennials’, Harris examines a broad trend like runaway student debt, the rise of the intern, mass incarnations, social media, and more. He is here today to talk to us about his new book and what he is seeing in the millennial generation. ------Resources: The New Inquiry - https://thenewinquiry.com/author/malcolm-harris/‘Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials’ - https://www.amazon.com/Kids-These-Days-Capital-Millennials/dp/0316510866/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539096351&sr=8-1&keywords=kids+these+days+human+capital+and+the+making+of+millennialsThe New Republic - https://newrepublic.com/authors/malcolm-harrisN+1 - https://nplusonemag.com/authors/harris-malcolm/Malcolm Harris on Twitter - https://twitter.com/bigmeaninternet ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Bill Schmitt on Catholic Journalism

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 06 Oct 2018 15:00:09 -0400

In his 2018 World Communications address, Pope Francis spoke to the importance and dignity of journalism, and the now widespread much talked about the problem of fake news. Against that backdrop, the Holy Father recalled the promise of Jesus that the truth will set us free. Wouldn’t we all like a little more truth in the world? Over our airwaves? And online? But, how do we find the truth that we seek? That search must begin with prayer. And so Pope Francis offered a new version of an old, beloved prayer, popularly attributed to his namesake- Saint Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis concluded his message by asking that the lord, make us instruments of His peace, and then when line by line, through the Saint’s prayer to mold it to the needs of our time. For good, reliable, personal and true communication. Our guest today was so taken by this message of Pope Francis, and his renewed Franciscan prayer, that he wrote a book about it. Bill Schmitt, is a long time journalist, and communications specialist. Who also happens to be a third order Franciscan. He is here with us to talk about journalism, noise and silence, information and formation, and his book: "When Headlines Hurt: Do We Have a Prayer?"------Resources:When Headlines Hurt: Do We Have a Prayer? - http://a.co/d/0fJh4zB------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Audrey Assad on Faith, Doubt, and Longing for God

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 15:00:09 -0400

To write music about God, or to God, how much do you have to believe in God? Can you doubt? Can you struggle? And it is music that comes from that spiritual restlessness, perhaps the most authentic of all? These questions are questions that very much pertain to today’s guest. Both as a singer/songwriter and as a person of Faith.Audrey Assad, is an award-winning Catholic recording artist, whose albums consistently top the charts. Her popularity continues to grow, not just for those who generally like Christian music, but even, and sometimes especially for those who do not. And that is no accident. Hew newest album, Evergreen, emerges from a place of deep questioning, and spiritual wrestling in her life. Today she opens up with us about her new music, its inspiration, and her mission as a Catholic artist. ------ResourcesAudrey Assad - www.audreyassad.comEvergreen Album - https://rma.lnk.to/evergreen ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Geoffrey Keating on Beauty and Carpentry in the Catholic Life

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 15:00:06 -0400

How important is beauty to Catholic life? What about the physical spaces where we worship? Engage in the liturgy and encounter the sacrificial love of God? On today’s show we talk with someone who has not only given a lot of thought, but also a lot of hands on work to answering these questions. Geoffrey Keating is the owner of Keating Woodworks, after a decade of producing handcrafted furnishings for people’s homes; he took on the project of renovating his home parish, Sacred Heart in Colorado Springs, CO. What he and his team of artists, and artisans have created is a place where the mysteries of faith, are celebrated upon the work of human hands, the work of the hands of those who worship, week in and week out, at Sacred Heart Parish. ------ResourcesKeating Woodworks – www.geoffreykeating.com/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Eric Buell on the Catholic Identity of Catholic Schools

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 15:00:26 -0400

Eric Buell, a Catholic educator from the Diocese of San Jose. Eric is a theology teacher at an all-girls Catholic High School, Where he recently completed a term as Department Chair of Theology and continues to serve as the Director of the school's liturgical choir. He was recently appointed to the newly created position of Director of Catholic Identity for his High School. Buell talks with show host, Leonard DeLorenzo, about Catholic Education, teaching theology, Catholic identity, and some of the cultural shifts he is seeing from the perspective of living in the Silicon Valley. ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Luis Vera on Technology and Augmented Reality

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 16:30:56 -0400

Technology certainly never stands still, the moment we get comfortable with one thing it seems like the next thing is coming along. How do we prepare ourselves, especially as Catholics, to engage with technology as it develops? Today we will be talking to Dr. Luis Vera, of Mount Saint Mary's University, a Moral Theologian, who pays attention to media studies, and the development of technology. ------Resources - Luis Vera - http://msmary.edu/academics/Faculty-Directory/luis-vera------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Susan Reynolds on Ethnic, Social, and Culture Shifts in the US Catholic Church

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 14:30:06 -0400

Dr. Susan Reynolds is an Assistant Professor of Catholic Studies at Emory University. An experienced teacher and parish minister, Dr. Reynolds is now closely following transformations in the US Catholic Church, in terms of ethnic makeup, geographic shifts, and migration. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, as well as Boston College, Dr. Reynolds makes space in the halls of higher education for pressing issues in the life of the church. ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Karen Öberg on Catholicism and Astrochemistry, Part 2

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 14:30:04 -0400

We continue our conversation with Dr. Karin Öberg, professor of Astronomy at Harvard University, and head of the Oberg Astrochemistry group. A member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists, Dr. Öberg has been a featured presenter at the McGrath Institute annual science and religion summer seminar. where we bring together teachers of science with teachers of theology from Catholic High Schools across the country. In the same spirit as that seminar, we are running a short series on Church Life Today to reexamine the perceived conflict between science and religion. In our last episode, Dr. Öberg shared with us some of the fruits of her research, especially in relationship to exoplanets and the chemical composition and physical requirements of what we would deem, habitable planets. She makes complex ideas accessible to non-experts. in this episode we focus a bit more on her journey as a person of faith, one who is a practicing Catholic, not in spite of, or removed from her work as one of the world’s leading scientist, but indeed as ultimately integrated with her professional life. ------Resources:Part 1 with Dr. Öberg - https://soundcloud.com/user-178289668/2018-august-4The Oberg Astronomy Group: www.cfa.harvard.edu/~koberg/Home.html------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Karen Öberg on Catholicism and Astrochemistry, Part 1

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 14:00:06 -0400

These days when most of us look at the night sky, we don't see very much. Sure, there may be a few hundred visible if we are outside the reach of the light pollution of cities, we see more. Even the faint white band of the Milky Ways billions of stars. We may pick out a constellation or two, while those who study a bit of astronomy see patterns all over the place. Now and again you may look up there and wonder if there is any life out there, in all that vast space. Around one of those faint white lights doting the sky. When Dr. Karin Öberg looks up at the sky, she sees more than just about anyone else on Earth. When she asks the question about the possibility of life somewhere out there, she knows what to look for and how to look for it. Dr. Öberg is a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University, where her research focuses on astrochemistry, and the processes of star and planet formation. Her expertise gives her a unique view of the composition of habitable planets. Ones in which it would be at least possible for life as we know it to exist. Of course, all her work, looking way out there, also bears tremendously on our understanding of what it means for us to have life here, on this planet. While Host Leonard DeLorenzo is sure it doesn't surprise anyone, that in Dr. Öberg, Harvard boasts of the leading scholars in her field, what may surprise you is that she is a practicing Catholic, who serves on the board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Today's episode will be the first part of a two-part episode with Dr. Öberg, as part of the short series we are running on the relationship between science and religion, and our conversation will move between her work, some questions that many of us have of someone with her expertise, and the story of her own faith journey of coming into the Catholic Church during her formative young adult year, while already deeply engaged in serious scientific pursuits.------Resources:The Oberg Astronomy Group: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~koberg/Home.html------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Stephen Barr on Science, Religion, and the Society of Catholic Scientists

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 15:00:04 -0400

There are some things that just don’t go together. And it is something like a generally accepted fact that science and religion belong on that list. They don’t mix. In a recent study of both practicing Catholic Young Adult between the ages of 20-30 and former Catholic Young Adults of the same age, one thing that they all had in common: is that they believe science and religion ultimately conflict with one another. They All think that. And that study represents the norm, rather than the exception. If there is a place for religion it is assumed that it is a place that steers clear of science. Or so it seems. We want to re-examine this apparent certainty. So we are launching a short series on Church Life Today, in which we will talk with Catholic Scientist about science and religion. About questions of faith and reason. And even about the vocation and witness of Catholics who are drawn to the scientific fields with the mission to engage in a serious inquiry alongside which the faith of the church requires no apology. Our First guest in this series is Dr. Stephen Barr, professor of physics at the University of Delaware. You might not have read some of his notable research publications like 'Minimality Conditions and Atmospheric neutrino Oscillations' or 'The Search for a Permanent Electric Dipole Moment', but you may have run across some of his VERY popular and important books like 'Modern Physics and Ancient Faith', 'Science and Religion: The Myth of Conflict' or 'The Believing Scientist: Essays on Science and Religion'. Dr. Barr obtained his Ph.D. at Princeton University and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. He is also a founding member, and the current president, of the rapidly growing Society of Catholic Scientist. Which brings together leading scientist from all over the globe, who seek to answer the call of St. John Paul II, to “Integrate the worlds of science and religion in their own intellectual and spiritual lives” ------Resources:Modern Physics and Ancient Faith - http://a.co/5HGRaTuScience and Religion: The Myth of Conflict - http://a.co/hAlVFB5The Believing Scientist: Essays on Science and Religion - http://a.co/4N9Pjw1------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Medi Volpe on a Contemplative Theology of the "In Between"

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 14:30:04 -0400

Have you ever felt in between not quite sure where to fit? Today's guest on our show, she gets that. Except that, for her, the point has not been to fit somewhere rather than another place, but instead to creatively, and faithfully, abide in between. Medi Volpe describes herself as a contemplative theologian, called to the work of motherhood. She is a lecturer in theology and ethics in Durham University in the UK, she researches identity in formation in Christian practice, especially in her book, 'Rethinking Christian Identity: Doctrine and Discipleship'. She has experience with large communities founded by John Vanier and has a scholarly and a personal interest in thinking at the intersection of theology and intellectual disability. She is invested in the Catechesis of the Good Shephard (Check out: https://soundcloud.com/user-178289668/2018-july-14 to learn more), and all that it offers in forming children in the faith. On these and other topics, she has spoken at numerous conferences all over the globe, including a Liturgy Symposium held at the University of Notre Dame, devoted to the Sacramental Catechist. ------Resources:Rethinking Christian Identity: Doctrine and Discipleship: https://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Christian-Identity-Doctrine-Discipleship/dp/1405195118------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Mary Mirrione on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:00:05 -0400

What if you could teach children to entrust themselves to the love of God throughout their entire lives? no matter what life might throw at them. That would be a kind of religious formation for the whole of life, right through adulthood. Mary Mirrione, National Director of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in the United States talks about the Relationship between God and Children and the importance of hands-on stuff for learning to see the word in light of the Gospel.------Resources:http://www.cgsusa.org/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Abbot Austin Murphy OSB on Monastic Life and Human Ecology

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 07 Jul 2018 14:30:04 -0400

Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB, a Benedictine monk & superior of his religious community, talks on the Benedictines, Life Balance, Human Ecology.------Resources:http://www.procopius.orgAbbot Austin on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Abbot-Austin-G-Murphy-OSB-132033710170075/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Andrew Hyatt on 'Paul, Apostle of Christ'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 14:30:04 -0400

Andrew Hyatt, director of Paul, Apostle of Christ talks with Host, Leonard DeLorenzo. Andrew Hyatt discusses writing and directing a Christian movie.------Resources:http://www.paulmovie.com/site/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Katie Prejean McGrady on the Synod on Young People

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 23 Jun 2018 14:30:04 -0400

Katie Prejean McGrady, Catholic speaker and author of 'Room 24: Adventures of a New Evangelist' and 'Follow: Your Lifelong Adventure with Jesus'. Host, Leonard DeLorenzo, and Katie Prejean McGrady discuss the upcoming Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment.------Resources:https://katieprejean.com/Room 24: Adventures of a New Evangelisthttps://www.amazon.com/Room-24-Adventures-New-Evangelist/dp/1594716498/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1529584894&sr=8-2&keywords=Katie+PreJean+McGradyFollow: Your Lifelong Adventure with Jesushttps://www.amazon.com/Follow-Your-Lifelong-Adventure-Jesus/dp/1594718237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529584894&sr=8-1&keywords=Katie+PreJean+McGrady------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Alexis Kutarna on the Renewal of Liturgical Music

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 14:30:04 -0400

Alexis Kutarna, Director of Music at St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, Texas discusses a renewal of liturgical music and trends in Church music today.------Church Life On the SidewalksIf you were to have coffee with one Saint, who would you choose and what question would you ask?------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Megan Schrieber on Raising a Strong Catholic Family

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 12:56:03 -0400

Megan Schrieber, Catholic mother, and host of Thriving in the Trenches podcast and discusses the domestic Church and raising a strong, Catholic family in today's culture.------Resources:http://thrivinginthetrenches.com/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Ernest Morrell on Values-Based Education

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 14:30:02 -0400

In this episode:Dr. Tim O’Malley interviews Dr. Ernest Morrell, Director of the Center for Literacy Education at the University of Notre Dame. Morrell and O'Malley discuss value-based education.Office Hours with John Cavadini:Where does the Church come from?What was Mary's role in this?------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Nicholas Carr on Technology, Perception, and Culture

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Sat, 26 May 2018 14:30:02 -0400

In this episode:Nicholas Carr discusses his research on technology and its effects on our thoughts, perception, and culture.------Resources:http://www.roughtype.com/------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Katherine Angulo on Youth Ministry's Role in Catholicism

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 21 May 2018 14:00:02 -0400

In this episode:Dr. Tim O’Malley interviews Katherine Angulo, Associate Director of Youth Ministry, Archdiocese of Atlanta . Katherine discusses how vital youth ministry is for laying a solid foundation for Catholicism. ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Brandon Vogt on 'Why I Am Catholoc'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 14 May 2018 13:00:02 -0400

In this episode:Dr. Tim O’Malley interviews Brandon Vogt, author of ‘Why I am Catholic (and You Should Be Too)’. In the Book, Brandon seeks to understand the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of Catholicism, make it an counter-cultural way of living. ------Resources:Why I am Catholic (and You Should Be Too): https://www.amazon.com/Why-Catholic-You-Should-Too/dp/1594717672/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526051730&sr=8-1&keywords=why+i+am+catholic+and+you+should+be+too+by+brandon+vogt------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Anna Keating on Catholic Devotional Life at Home

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 07 May 2018 12:00:06 -0400

In this episode:Dr. Tim O’Malley interviews Anna Keating, author of The Catholic Catalogue and coordinator of Catholic Life at Colorado College. Keating explores ways to practice Catholic devotions in the home and the importance of introducing practice and beauty to young people in the Church.Office Hours with John Cavadini:How do I explain the Eucharist to someone who doesn't understand how bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ?Resources:https://www.amazon.com/The-Catholic-Catalogue-Field-Guide/dp/1101903171------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Bishop Robert Barron on the Religious Disaffiliation of Young People

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 13:00:21 -0400

In this episode:Leonard DeLorenzo, Director of Undergraduate studies at the McGrath Institute of Notre Dame, interviews Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Ministries. Bishop Barron Bishop Barron discusses the alarming number of young people who no longer identify as Catholic.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Clemens Sedmak on Catholic Social Teaching

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 14:48:22 -0400

In this episode:Dr. Tim O’Malley interviews Clemens Sedmak, Professor of Social Ethics in the Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame; and Advisor in Catholic Social Tradition at the Center for Social Concerns------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud

Rod Dreher on 'The Benedict Option'

Web@RedeemerRadio.com — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 12:50:21 -0400

In this episode:Dr. Tim O’Malley interviews Rod Dreher and discusses his latest book The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian nation.Church Life on the Sidewalk:If you could go to coffee with any saint, who would it be and why?Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option and writer at The American Conservative. You can find his articles online: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/ ------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud