Almost Good Catholics

Jesus: Undercover Boss or God with Us? (Anne Blackwill)- Holy Week and the Passion

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0000

As we move into Holy Week, the Triduum, Easter and its season, all Christians ask themselves ‘what is this all about?’ and why God created such and elaborate salvific economy that relies on our faith and His actions. Why? There’s a great Mystery here and the more we appreciate its size and depth, even if we don’t understand what we are seeing. Anne Blackwill and I have been talking about doing this interview for the better part of the year and we finally did it this last week, on the day before Palm Sunday. I think it went really well and I’m excited to share it with you.

Anne is a wise and wonderful woman, a literature professor who has taught all over he world in universities and colleges and also prisons. She my mother-in-law, the mother of my wife and the grandmother of my children; I’ve known her for twenty years and during this time she has been working on the book we are talking about today. Its working title is God with Us, that is of course: Emmanuel.

Related Almost Good Catholics episodes:

Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?
David Basile on Almost Good Catholics, episode 39: Why a Savior? The Theology of Sacrifice and Redemption
Fr Chris Alar on Almost Good Catholics, episode 61: Master Craftsman, Broken Tools: Why God Works Through Us, Hears Intercessory Prayers, and Grants Divine MercyJesus: Undercover Boss or God with Us? (Anne Blackwill)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Tree of Life (Brian Zahnd)

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0000

“The movie is a prayer,” says Brian Zahnd, about Terrence Mallick’s 2011 The Tree of Life, his favorite movie of all time. Brian has seen it forty times (I have seen it three times); Brian has taken his pastoral team from his Missouri Church to see it; he has shown it to his Congregation in Church. The film follows a family in Texas in the 1950s. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are the parents; they have three sons. Sean Penn plays the oldest boy when he is grown in the 1980s. It’s a sermon on theodicy, creation, eschatology, all of it, all of it. And it’s just very beautiful and interesting. If you’ve not seen it, go see it first, and then come back and talk it over with us!

Pastor Brian’s website.

Another talk with Brian Zahnd about another Terrence Mallick film:

Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 92: A Hidden Life: The Life and Martyrdom of Bl. Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943)

Another talk with Brian Zahnd about his books and his theology:

Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?

A couple more episode of Almost Good Catholics on related themes:

Jacob Howland on Almost Good Catholics, episode 65: Idolatry and Idle Hands: From Aaron’s Golden Calf to AI
Jonathan Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 58: The Book of Job: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

The video of our discussion of The Book of Job on the Missio Dei website and on YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Church and State (Professors Dan Rober, Michelle Loris, and Charlie Gillespie): American Cardinals denounce US Foreign Policy

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Following Pope Leo’s State of the World Address in January of 2026, the three American Cardinals who are also diocesan archbishops Cardinal Cupich (Archbishop of Chicago), Cardinal McElroy (Archbishop of Washington), and Cardinal Tobin (Archbishop of Newark)—in addition to Archbishop Broglio, the pastor of the US military—have been reminding the people of the United States that the American government is wrong to prop up the Venezuelan regime while sidelining its democratically elected leader, that it is wrong to withdraw aid from the global poor, that it is are wrong to covet Greenland and betray our NATO allies in a way that not only fails to oppose the ambitions of Putin and Xi Jin Ping but actually endorses their land-grabbing adventures. The United States is also wrong to use cruelty and chaos in the (otherwise lawful) enforcement of immigration rules. It’s been a bad dream and difficult and disorienting to wake up from.

Three professors from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut talk it over with me on Almost Good Catholics. They are theologian Dan Rober, chair of Catholic Studies, author of Recognizing the Gift: Toward a Renewed Theology of Nature and Grace, English professor Michelle Loris, founder and previous chair of Catholic Studies, also founder of the universities core seminars program, and Charlie Gillespie, director the university’s Pioneer Journeys program, himself an expert on St. Augustine; his new book is about the theater, God on Broadway.

Pope Leo’s State of the World Address on January 9, 2026 (and transcript)
the statement (also here) by the three cardinals (NPR article, and America article)
Sacred Heart University: Catholic Studies Department.

An episode of Almost Good Catholics on the same theme:

Fr David Hollenbach, SJ on Almost Good Catholics, episode 99: Human Rights in a Divided World: Catholicism as a Living Tradition.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Insane for the Light (Fr Ron Rolheiser, OMI)

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Father Ron Rolheiser’s new book Insane for the Light: A Spirituality for Our Wisdom Years, which is about how to grow old well and be fruitful, first giving your life away and then your death so as to be a blessing. That’s a recipe for joy. We also talked about mysticism, St. John of the Cross, and some miraculous experiences in real people’s lives that reveal God abiding and deep love, mercy, and patience with us all; that is truly the Good News of the Lord. I really, really enjoyed this book, and this conversation.

Father Ron grew up in on a farm on Cactus Lake, Saskatchawan, on the Canadian prairie. He joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1966 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1972; he has many degrees in theology and philosophy including a doctorate from the University of Louvain in 1983. He started writing a column, In Exile, over forty years ago, and has also written (by my count) sixteen books. He has been Provincial Superior of his order, worked in its administration in Rome for six years, and taught theology in a number of august institutions. He still goes home to Cactus Lake, especially for Christmas.

We recorded this episode on December 9, 2025, the Feast of Our Lady of Gudalupe, and Juan Diego, and also the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This will be our Christmas episode too and the last episode of 2025 and the first of the new liturgical year, so in keeping with our tradition I will play some Christmas Carols from Josh and Margot of the Great Space Coaster band with whom I was singing these carols last week. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. God bless you!

Father Ron Rolheiser’s website, which includes his books and his column.
Father Ron’s new book, Insane for the Light (2025), at Penguin and at Amazon.
Josh and Margot’s Christmas Carols on Soundcloud.

Related Almost Good Catholics episodes:

Joseph Pearce on Almost Good Catholics, episode 10: What about Hell? CS Lewis and Theology of the Afterlife.
Fr Chris Alar on Almost Good Catholics, episode 61: Master Craftsman, Broken Tools: Why God Works Through Us, Hears Intercessory Prayers, and Grants Divine Mercy
Colleen Dulle on Almost Good Catholics, episode 107: Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter

And our discussion about Our Lady of Guadalupe on Almost Good Catholics:

Joseph González and Monique González on Almost Good Catholics, episode 74: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth: How the Flower World Bloomed into History in 1531

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Knight, Monk, King, Prophet (Juan Domínguez)

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Before the Scientific Revolution, Western medicine was thought in terms of humors: cheerful people were sanguine and had a lot of blood, fiery cholerics had an excess of yellow bile, gloomy Melancholics had black bile, and mellow phlegmatics had phlegm of course. And the balancing of humors—hot and cold, wet and dry—was the key to a healthy life. It sounds medieval, it is, rooted in ancient Greeks, but we Catholics like medieval things, and some of us—especially Juan Domínguez, author: Knight, Monk, King, Prophet: A Christian Man’s Guide to the Four Temperaments—has found wisdom in this way of thinking. And it’s a way of thinking that we hear in some more conservative, or traditional, Catholic circles, so it’s something I’ve been wondering about for some time. I’ve also been interesting in archetypes for since I first read Joseph Campbell and The Hero of a Thousand Faces many years ago. We also talk a bit about how one’s role changes over time and also whether these models are applicable to women as well as men. I really enjoyed the conversation; I think you will too.

Juan Domínguez’s book, Knight, Monk, King, Prophet, on Amazon.
Juan Domínguez: ‘Simple Men’ on Substack.
Juan’s description of the book on Substack.
Juan Domínguez with Steven Caswell on Missio Dei.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Footsteps of St. Thomas (with Bishop Daniel Timotheos): Spreading the Gospel in the Indian Ocean World

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Bishop Daniel talks like a Texas Protestant in terms of Church Planting and giving your heart to Christ, but actually he is a bishop in the Orthodox Church in India where his father was born. His native village close to where the Apostle Thomas landed almost two thousand years ago. But Bishop Daniel is not part of the old Malankar Syriac Church in India, but of the Believers Eastern Church founded by his father who was consecrated by an Anglican Bishop and studied with Southern Baptists before founding this new Orthodox Church. Continuing his father’s work in evangelization, Bishop Daniel is the leader of GFA World, which works to bring the Gospel to those who have never heard it to five million people in sixteen counties from East Africa to Southeast Asia—and growing—across (what we might call) the Indian Ocean World.

What I admire most about his method how the GFA uses missionaries from these countries so that it is not an outside imposition but a local initiative, compatriot to compatriot, neighbor to neighbor.

The GFA World website.
The Revolution in Missions book (free).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Colleen Dulle, "Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter" (Image, 2025)

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Vatican journalist Colleen Dulle discusses her new book, Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter, a memoir of the last seven years. In 2018, she started for the Jesuit Review, America Magazine, and that was when all of the terrible revelations of sexual abuse scandals, lies and coverups, about [former cardinal, later defrocked] Theodore McCarrick became the main story, then [former nuncio, later excommunicated] Carlo Maria Viganò’s schismatic campaign, then Jean Vanier, then Marco Rupnik. Each betrayal shook our faith. “One woe doth tread upon another's heel, / So fast they'll follow,” says Gertrude in Hamlet, learning of Ophelia’s death. Colleen talks about these and the fractured body of the Church, a “crisis of community” as well, among other topics. It’s a personal and raw discussion. But these fiery trials might be the proving crucible that has made her faith stronger, wrestling with God, as Jacob did, and throwing plates in honest anger, as Pope Francis recommended.

Colleen’s new book, Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter (2025)
Colleen’s writing at America magazine.
Colleen Dulle on Almost Good Catholics, episode 16: Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution
Father James Martin, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 30: What if You’re Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics.
Father Chris Alar on Almost Good Catholics, episode 61: Master Craftsman, Broken Tools: Why God Works Through Us, Hears Intercessory Prayers, and Grants Divine Mercy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cup Overflowing: How Christians Should Think about Wine

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0000

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows,” wrote King David in Psalm 23. The overflowing cup is the image that Gisela Kreglinger uses when talking about the abundance and extravagance of God’s provision for His children.

Gisela Kreglinger is the daughter of winemakers and grew up on a vineyard and winery in Franconia, Germany, where her family has been crafting wine for many generations. She has a couple of master’s degrees in biblical studies from Regent College and a PhD in historical theology from the University of St. Andrews.

She has written three books—Cup Overflowing, The Spirituality of Wine, The Soul of Wine—

and most recently she is the co-author of a Bible Study Series called Wine in the Word which is the topic of our discussion today. She’s a Lutheran scholar but I think this is a topic where we Catholics agree with her 100%.

Gisela Kreglinger’s website, The Spirituality of Wine
Wine in the Word Bible Study website.
Wine in the Word Episode 1 on YouTube.
Books by Gisela Kreglinger

An episode of Almost Good Catholics about the film Babette’s Feast which we also talked about in this episode:

Sr. Maria Catherine, OP on Almost Good Catholics, episode 55: You Set a Table Before Me: The Teenage Witch who Became a Dominican Sister.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guidance about the Transgender Question

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0000

The authors and editors of a new edited volume, Gender Ideology and Pastoral Practice: A Handbook for Catholic Clergy, Counselors, and Ministerial Leaders, represent a tremendous knowledge and experience in theology, philosophy, history, and social politics, and apply it to help us sort how to think about and talk about the recent wave of transgenderism in society and especially among young people. Often clothed in terms of compassion and acceptance, transgender advocates encourage young people to make permanent surgical changes to their bodies, bodies that many will soon regret. So, how do we counsel them? Christianity is fundamentally committed to compassion and love (caritas, agape) and opposed to judgement (Mt. 7:1) yet also committed to truth. And true love does not mean letting young people make permanent mistakes that they do not fully understand—so it’s a real pickle! We talk it over on Almost Good Catholics.

This episode was recorded in the sede vacante moment between the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV.

Also, this episode is intended to be the first of two, with a second one following up in the near future with an interview with a transgender advocate in the coming weeks.

Here is the book available from En Route Media, and of course from Amazon as well.
Here is the Person and Identity website, an invaluable resource for those sorting through the issue.
Theresa Farnan’s website.
Robert Fastiggi’s website.
Susan Selner-Wright’s website.
And here’s the website of the International Catholic Jurists Forum that we discussed.

Here are some earlier episodes of AGC with Robert Fastiggi, the second one also about the transgender questions (and the first about Mariology):

Robert Fastiggi on Almost Good Catholics, episode 7: Mother of All Nations: Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Assumption, and Coronation of Mary
Robert Fastiggi and Deborah Savage on Almost Good Catholics, episode 100: Lived Experience and the Search for Truth: Revisiting Catholic Sexual Morality

Here is are earlier AGC episodes about the related themes of same-sex attraction from two perspectives, including the discussion with Fr. Jim Martin SJ we discussed in today’s episode:

Father James Martin, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 30: What if You’re Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics.

Garrett Johnson on Almost Good Catholics, episode 42: Who Do You Think You Are? Thorny Questions about Sex, Identity, and Catholic Doctrine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pope Leo XIV (with Christopher White)

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Vatican Reporter Christopher White has just written book about Pope Leo XIV, our new Holy Father, an American, an Augustinian, from Chicago, from Perú; it’s a biography, but it also places Pope Leo in the Context of the Second Vatican Council, the legacy of Leo XIII and especially his predecessor Pope Francis and the synodal church of the last few years, and that was a show to which Chris White had court side front row season tickets and plenty of good stories about, some of which he shares today on Almost Good Catholics.

Chris’s book Pope Leo XIV, Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy (Loyola Press, 2025).
Chris’s talk about the Synod in San Francisco, 2024.

Here are some earlier episodes of AGC we referred to in this discussion:

Sr. Nathalie Becquart, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 36: Quo Vademus? The Pilgrim Church on the Road of Synodality
Bp. Athanasius Schneider, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 101: Salve Regina: The Power of the Rosary

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David G. Bonagura Jr, "100 Tough Questions for Catholics: Common Obstacles to Faith Today" (Sophia Institute, 2025)

Fri, 23 May 2025 08:00:00 -0000

David Bonagura teaches classical languages and theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York and Catholic International University; he also teaches high school kids. He invited them to ask their questions about the faith, which led to some exciting classroom discussions and David’s new book—100 Tough Questions for Catholics—which we are talking about today.

David Bonagura’s website.
David Bonagura’s new book, 100 Tough Questions for Catholics .

David Bonagura’s previous appearance on Almost Good Catholics, episode 86: Jerome’s Tears: Death and Mourning in Christian Late Antiquity

Chris Odyniec and Jonathon Fessenden take on the question of theodicy on Almost Good Catholics, episode 58: The Book of Job: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Art and Its Holy Object (with Steve Auth)

Thu, 08 May 2025 08:00:00 -0000

For the transcendental and numinous things, sometimes there are no words. But art—paintings, sculpture, music, film—can knock us sideways a little and help us see something, or understand a fleeting meaning, a dream we’ve woken from, that we try to hang onto.

He was a successful Wall Street investment guy for decades, but he had a deep love of art and art history; after brush with death and a re-conversion to his Catholic faith, Stev Auth applied both of those gifts in service of his lay apostolate of evangelization. Today we talk about his new book—Visions of the Divine: An Artistic Journey into the Mystery of the Eucharist (Sophia, 2025)—and how Our Creator speaks to us through his artists, his creative creatures, on Almost Good Catholics.

The book is filled with colorful photographs of inspiring masterpieces but small enough to carry with you to the museum or to read under a tree in the park. You can also read it with your computer at hand to look up the paintings online and magnify them as you read along with Steve’s conversational narrative (which is mostly how I read it).

Steve Auth’s book, Visions of the Divine (Sophia Press, 20205)
Steve Auth at the Regnum Christi website
Steve Auth at the Lumen website
Steve Auth’s video series Pilgrimage to the Museum at EWTN.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Salve Regina (with Bishop Athanasius Schneider)

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0000

“And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling [.…] And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (Mk 4: 37-41)

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan, has identified the challenges of our age, “a new pagan society,” he calls it, and “anti-Christian”; others have said “post-Christian” or apostolic. Although the time is difficult, Bishop Schneider is not afraid. He tells us to pray and to have confidence in the power or the Rosary, its importance and efficacy. So, today we are talking about his new book, Salve Regina: A Rosary Crusade for Holy Popes (Sophia, 2025); he entreats us to petition God that He give us holy popes in the coming years, that the head may lead the body, as the church sails on into the unknown. He also talks about the traditions and history of the Rosary. We also talk about his remarkable life.

Bishop Schneider’s book, Salve Regina: A Rosary Crusade for Holy Popes
Bishop Schneider’s website, Gloria Dei
Bishop Schneider on Wikipedia

Another episode of Almost Good Catholics about the Rosary:

Annabelle Mosely on Almost Good Catholics, episode 12: Did God Just Wink? Seeing the Numinous All Around Us

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lived Experience and the Search for Truth: Revisiting Catholic Sexual Morality

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0000

“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate scoffed at Jesus (Jn 18:38), and that’s how we think about matters today in our culture—subjectively: my truth, your truth, etc. To make the argument that there is a knowable Truth (with a capital T) that is written in the world and in our bones, theologians Deborah Savage and Robert Fastiggi examine a selection of autobiographical accounts of ‘lived experience.’ They take a number of personal essays written by those who have erred from the path of Catholic social teaching and sexual morality—in the dark forest of the world, to borrow from Dante—and their subsequent disappointments and suffering. They examine these narratives through the anthropology of John Paul II and the authority of the physical and social sciences, including medical doctors. So, there is Good News for all of us: if we find ourselves lost and unhappy in our errant meanderings, the Church can bring us home. We can always choose, as God reminded Cain gently (Gen 4:7), “sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you may overcome it.”

Here is the book on the En Route Books website (which includes video links)here is the book on Amazon.com.
Deborah Savage’s website.
Robert Fastiggi’s website (as a theology professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary).
The article we refer to by Leah Fessler, “A Lot of Women Don’t Enjoy Hookup Culture—So Why Do We Force Ourselves to Participate?” Quartz Online, May 17, 2016.
Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI on Wikipedia and on the Vatican website.

Robert Fastiggi’s previous appearance on Almost Good Catholics, three years ago (recorded in February of 2022, on the eve of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine):

Robert Fastiggi on Almost Good Catholics, episode 7: Mother of All Nations: Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Assumption, and Coronation of Mary

An episode of Almost Good Catholics on the same theme:

Garrett Johnson on Almost Good Catholics, episode 42: Who Do You Think You Are? Thorny Questions about Sex, Identity, and Catholic Doctrine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Hollenbach, "Human Rights in a Divided World: Catholicism as a Living Tradition" (Georgetown UP, 2024)

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In his most recent book, Human Rights in a Divided World: Catholicism as a Living Tradition (Georgetown UP, 2024), Jesuit scholar and Georgetown professor, Fr David Hollenbach explains the Judeo-Christian roots of our concept of human rights and the contributions of secular institutions like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). He explains further when it is right for a country to intervene in the affairs of its neighbors, codified by the UN in 2005 as the Responsibility to Protect in answer to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that gave lie to the world’s promise of “never again” after the horrors of the Holocaust. He contrasts the doctrine of R2P with the tragic case of a homicide in Kew Gardens in 1964 where 38 witnesses, all law-abiding “good people,” failed to intervene because they assumed someone else would do it. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain asked God (Gen 4:9). “Who is my neighbor?” The lawyer asked Jesus (Lk 10:29), to which Our Lord told the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Perhaps these questions are a little more complicated between sovereign nations than they are between travelers on a dangerous road, but Fr. David guides us through the Catholic Church’s moral teachings, the principles of proportionality and of just war, and the ability and desire to do something even when we can’t do everything.

Fr David’s book: Human Rights in a Divided World.
Fr David’s faculty website at Georgetown.
Responsibility to Protect, the R2P doctrine at the UN website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Way (with Cristofer Pereyra)

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Cristofer Pereyra is the founder and CEO of the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative (TLI) and was a friend and follower of Bishop Thomas Olmsted (who was instrumental in restoring of Paul Zucarelli from the dead, the subject of our last two episodes). Cristofer talks about his collaboration with Bishop Olmsted, whom he considers a saint, and about the book he wrote about this holy man. He also talks about the Tepeyac Initiative and how we, lay Catholics, should serve Our Lord in our daily lives, how to sanctify our work, and how to approach the altar of our lay vocation. It is an exciting call to adventure and it begins today.

Website of the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative (TLI)
About Cristofer Pereyra at the TLI website
About Cristofer’s book on The Catholic Professional website; it is available on Amazon.

Our recent episodes about Bishop Olmsted:

Paul Zucarelli on Almost Good Catholics, episode 96: Holy, Catholic, Apostolic: A Man who Rose from the Dead Speaks about Christian
Paul Zucarelli on Almost Good Catholics, episode 97: Talking with a Man Who Returned from the Dead: His Account of Death, Purgatory, and the Power of Prayer

Our Christmas Carol

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Talking with a Man Who Returned from the Dead (with Paul Zucarelli)

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0000

This is my second conversation with Paul Zucarelli who died in 2017 and returned from the dead through the intercessory prayer of Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix and the faith of his family. Since his resurrection, he has been serving God as a lay evangelist. In the earlier interview, we talked about his new book, One Lord, One Faith, One Church: An Inconvenient Truth, in which he made a strong case for the authority of the Roman Catholic church. This time we are talking about his first book, Faith Understood: An Ordinary Man's Journey to the Presence of God. He tells us about his experience of death, purgatory, and the light of the face God; he also describes his return to our breathing world and the power of faith and intercessory prayer.

Bishop Olmsted, the doctors, and Paul’s wife, Beth, and his son, Michael, recall his death and return in a short video.
Paul’s first book, Faith Understood: An Ordinary Man's Journey to the Presence of God.
Paul’s second book, One Lord, One Faith, One Church.
Paul’s website, Faith Understood.
Here are other videos of Paul telling this story.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holy, Catholic, Apostolic (with Paul Zucarelli)

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Paul Zucarelli died in 2017 and returned from the dead through the intercessory prayer of Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix and the faith of his family. Since his resurrection, he has been serving God as a lay evangelist. His new book, One Lord, One Faith, One Church: An Inconvenient Truth, makes a strong apologetic case for the authority of the Roman Catholic church. He goes into supernatural evidence: Eucharistic miracles, Marian apparitions, uncorrupted bodies of the saints, and raising of the dead. He follows the history of the church from its foundation over the centuries with its schisms and fractures, down to this day when we Catholics disagree about the True Way. Can we humans be reconciled and reunited this side of the veil? That’s the question we tackle together.

Paul’s book, One Lord, One Faith, One Church: An Inconvenient Truth (Sophia Press, 2024)
Paul’s website, Faith Understood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mercy Ships (with Reanne Newquist)

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Reanne Newquist tells me about her voyage on Mercy Ships bringing healthcare to some of the poorest people in the world, a mission started by Don Stephens in the 1970s and encouraged by Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Reanne, her husband, and her kids left everything behind, sold their home and sailed off to adventure and service. Most people go back to normal life, but Reann stayed on with Mercy Ships as part of the communications staff, spreading the word by talking with people like me (and you). Here is her story.

Mercy Ships website.
Mercy Minute podcast.
Reanne’s website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Letter from Jesus (with Dann Aungst)

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Dann Aungst was pretty far gone in his sexual addiction when Jesus grabbed him (figuratively) by the lapels and sent him (literally) messengers, a letter, and a locution during Adoration. He left the road of destruction and chaos and found himself on the road to purity. He then founded his apostolate (which he called The Road to Purity) after writing his inspired, From One Addict to Another. He talks about his story and also the roots of addiction in the human heart and how he helps seminarians advise us sinners in the confessional where they speak in persona Christi.

Dann’s Apostolate, The Road to Purity, and the gala this coming weekend, September 14, 2024.
The Road to Purity podcast.
Dann retells his story in great detail at the 2021 St. Thomas Aquinas Conference.
Dann’s first book, From One Addict to Another.
All of Dann’s books on The Road to Purity website and on Amazon.com.
The Prayer of Mary of Egypt on the Pappas Institute, an Orthodox Christian website, and about her life on Wikipedia and from the University of Notre Dame.

Here is another AGC episode on the same topic:

Michael John Cusick on Almost Good Catholics, episode 85: Knocking at the Brothel Door: How Disordered Desires are Actually Divine Desires

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González coming up with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Pilgrimage to Mexico: Our Lady of Guadalupe & the Flower World Prophecy 2024
Colleen Dulle on Almost Good Catholics, episode 16: Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution
Father James Martin, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 30: What if You’re Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics.
Joseph and Monique González on Almost Good Catholics, episode 74: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth: How the Flower World Bloomed into History in 1531.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Localism (with Dale Ahlquist)

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Dale Ahlquist is the founder the of the Society of G. K. Chesterton and Chesterton Schools, of which there are currently 70 and number is rising. He is also the editor of the book we are talking about today, Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching, from Sophia Press, which explores the economic and social questions of how we should organize out society. It is a third way, I think, that departs from both the big government solutions offered by our progressive friends and yet also the big business capitalistic model that sometimes alienates us from our labor and communities. Dale’s book brings balance and offers the focus on local community, both family and village, encouraging ownership, solidarity, and neighborly participation.

Dale’s book, Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching, from Sophia Press.
Dale Ahlquist and the Society of G.K. Chesterton and the Chesterton Schools Network.
Dale Ahlquist with Matt Fradd on the Pints with Aquinas podcast.
Dale Ahlquist on EWTN: The Apostle of Common Sense.
Rerum Novarum, encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, 1891

Here is the NEXT BOOK that Dale and I will be talking about on a future episode:

G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man from Word on Fire Press

Joseph Pearce, one of the essayists in Dale’s book, has also been a guest on Almost Good Catholics.

Joseph Pearce on Almost Good Catholics, episode 10: What about Hell? CS Lewis and Theology of the Afterlife.

Other Almost Good Catholics episodes on the subject of Catholic Education:

Joseph Nagel and Heather Skinner on Almost Good Catholics, episode 8: It's Elementary! Catholic Education in the 21st Century.
Pete Imperial on Almost Good Catholics, episode 90: What Would Jesus Say about Diversity and Inclusion?
Rich Meyer on Almost Good Catholics, episode 45: Education in the World not of the World: A School Director and Father Talks about Forming the Whole Child.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Hidden Life (with Brian Zahnd)

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

What would you do in the place of Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter in 1943? Mumble your loyalty oath to Hitler like everyone else—or refuse and pay with your life? This martyr is a blessed in the Catholic Church and on the way to being canonized. He is also the subject of a transcendentally beautiful movie A Hidden life by Terrence Mallick in 2019. Pastor Brian Zahnd, author of the Wood Between the Worlds, talks about the man, the movie, and the martyrdom with me on Almost Good Catholics.

There’s a moment in our discussion where I say to Brian that, had I been in Franz’s shoes, I think I would have just gone along with the oath so that I could get through my service as a soldier, perhaps as a conscientious objector, driving an ambulance or serving as a medical orderly. This choice seemed to make sense because I would have honored my obligation to my little children, to my wife, to my farm and my village, and not worried about the abstraction of the oath. But by the time our conversation ended, I think I changed my mind. The whole point of our Faith is that we do not believe that death is an end but a beginning, and we believe that those who have gone home to the Lord are still with us—literally a communion of saints. So, I changed my mind over the course of this hour: and I now think, in conclusion, that the red crown of martyrdom is a grace offered to some of tremendous faith, and that God will help us take care of the family we leave behind in the world.

Pastor Brian’s webpage.
Pastor Brian’s book, The Wood between the Worlds (2024) from IVP, also on Amazon.
Bl. Franz Jägerstätter on the Vatican website and on Wikipedia.
Director Terrence Malick and The Hidden Life.
A Hidden Life (2019) trailer, IMBD, and on Amazon Prime.
Go Creative Interview with Jorg Widmer, the director of photography (DOP) of the film.
Inverse Podcast Interview about A Hidden Life with Brian Zahnd and Fr John Dear.

Here is my first talk with Pastor Brian:

Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González this coming September with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Pilgrimage to Mexico: Our Lady of Guadalupe & the Flower World Prophecy 2024
Colleen Dulle on Almost Good Catholics, episode 16: Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution
Father James Martin, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 30: What if You’re Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics.
Joseph and Monique González on Almost Good Catholics, episode 74: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth: How the Flower World Bloomed into History in 1531.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let My People Go (with Matt Osborne)

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED: The topic of today’s episode is human trafficking and crimes against children, usually sexual crimes, and sometimes ritual abuse and organ harvesting.

Matt Osborne has worked with OUR Rescue (originally Operation Underground Railroad) for ten years; he left his CIA career to join this NGO and is now one of the longest-serving members of the team. Last year he was COO and president and these days he’s Global Ambassador for Operations and Education; as part of this new role, he hosts the Voices for Freedom podcast with his friend and colleague Jessica Mass.

[I intentionally did not ask Matt about Tim Ballard, the founder of the organization and subject of the loosely biographical Sound of Freedom, who had to leave the organization after accusations in 2023 about past scandalous behavior toward (adult) women. I also did not ask him about the politics of Jim Caviezel who played Ballard in the film. You can read about these things very easily online, but it seemed to me to have nothing to do with our guest today and were rather a distraction from the important work of OUR Rescue.]

OUR Rescue website and Instagram.
Voices of Freedom podcast with Matt Osborne and Jessica Mass.
Cyber TipLine (“cybertipline.org”) that Matt discussed in our show; this is a place to report the exploitation of children or potential or suspected exploitation of children.
Sound of Freedom (2023) Trailer and Angel Studios webpage.

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González this coming September with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Pilgrimage to Mexico: Our Lady of Guadalupe & the Flower World Prophecy 2024
Colleen Dulle on Almost Good Catholics, episode 16: Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution
Father James Martin, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 30: What if You’re Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics.
Joseph and Monique González on Almost Good Catholics, episode 74: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth: How the Flower World Bloomed into History in 1531.

Here is my first discussion with Pastor Brian Zahnd and the film A Hidden Life which we will be talking about on August 15:

A Hidden Life (2019) trailer, IMBD, and on Amazon Prime.
Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Would Jesus Say about Diversity and Inclusion? (with Pete Imperial)

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Pete Imperial has been principal of St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Berkeley, California, a Lasallian Catholic School of 160 years and going strong. Yet only 45% of the students are Catholics (though a similar number are Protestant Christians) and some of the kids have had no religious experience at all. How does a good Catholic school infuse the souls of its charges and the secular society at large with the Gospel and the teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church?

Dr. Imperial has a BA from the University of California in Berkeley, an MA in history from San Francisco State University, and an EdD in Educational Administration from the University of San Francisco. In addition to running the school, he also teaches Islamic Studies, Economics, and East Asian History.

This episode is indebted to Ryan Anderson, the listener and a friend of the podcast who suggested this episode and introduced me to Peter.

St. Mary’s College High School website and Pete’s faculty webpage.
About Lasallian education.

Other Almost Good Catholics episodes on the subject of Catholic Education:

Joseph Nagel and Heather Skinner on Almost Good Catholics, episode 8: It's Elementary! Catholic Education in the 21st Century.
Rich Meyer on Almost Good Catholics, episode 45: Education in the World not of the World: A School Director and Father Talks about Forming the Whole Child.

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González this coming September with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Pilgrimage to Mexico: Our Lady of Guadalupe & the Flower World Prophecy 2024
Colleen Dulle on Almost Good Catholics, episode 16: Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution
Father James Martin, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 30: What if You’re Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics.
Joseph and Monique González on Almost Good Catholics, episode 74: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth: How the Flower World Bloomed into History in 1531.

Here is my first discussion with Pastor Brian Zahnd and the film A Hidden Life which we will be talking about in August:

A Hidden Life (2019) trailer, IMBD, and on Amazon Prime.
Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Verso l’Alto (with Christine Wohar)

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Christine Wohar talks about Finding Frassati: And Following His Path to Holiness (EWTN, 2021), her book about Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. The book is a biography, hagiography, and delightful conversation about the participation of the Communion of Saints in our lives and how can join hands with them in our daily lives. Like many of us, Bl. Pier Giorgio was a normal guy with a comfortable life, and he did normal fun things available to him a young wealthy, Italian a hundred years ago, like mountain climbing, Alpine skiing, studying at university, and playing pool with his friends. But he also showed extreme love for the Eucharist, care for the poor, evangelization, and chastity—so, normal, and yet extraordinary.

Not only was Bl. Pier Giorgio’s body free from corruption when it was exhumed 75 years after his death, but he also has a couple of astounding miraculous healing attributed to him through his intercession. Christine Wohar talks to me about this remarkable figure in the church and how we can follow in his footsteps.

Christine Wohar’s organization, FrassatiUSA, on the web.
Christine Wohar’s book, Finding Frassati from Sophia International Press and also on Amazon.com.
Kevin Becker on YouTube discussing the miraculous healing through Bl. Blessed Pier Giorgio and also an article about it.

Other Almost Good Catholics episodes that we referred to in this interview:

Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 17: Eternity Now: Talking about Mysticism with the Apostle to the Gangs of LA.
Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wise as Serpents, Gentle as Doves (with Dorcas Oyelade and Kailea Barte)

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Dorcas Oyelade and Kailea Barté, two young women, still teenagers, organized a Christian club in a public at John Swett High School in Crockett, Northern California, where I am a teacher. The students worked with a Protestant NGO, Decision Point, which supported them even as they insisted on their First Amendment rights when there was opposition. The club has been an impressive success with many students joining them at lunch time, become interested in the Christian faith, and in some cases starting to go with them to church.

Decision Point website and YouTube channel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late Have I Loved You (with John Michael Talbot)

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0000

John Michael Talbot is a tremendously successful musician and writer; he is also the founder of a monastery—the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage in Arkansas—where he is Minister General today. He started as a Methodist and a country rock musician in the seventies and the story of his journey is amazing, from the encounter with Jesus he had at seventeen to the intense mystical experiences that he had later in life during an illness that brought him into closer communion with Our Lord.

John Michael Talbot’s website.
John Michael Talbot’s Wikipedia page.
Late Have I Loved You, album on Amazon Music.
Late Have I Loved You, book on Amazon.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jerome’s Tears (with David Bonagura Jr.): Death and Mourning in Christian Late Antiquity

Fri, 24 May 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Professor David Bonagura, theologian and Latinist, has translated and edited seven of St. Jerome’s letters dealing with death and mourning. This doctor of the church consoles his friends in first centuries of Christendom, describing death as sleep, and dying as our journey back home to God. And though the Mediterranean is big and fourth-century travel was slow, we see that the Christian community is surprisingly close. The letters also reveal some of the material history and mentalities of daily life which allow us a priceless glimpse across the centuries.

Professor Bonagura’s website.
Professor Bonagura’s book Jerome's Tears: Letters to Friends in Mourning (Sophia International Press, 2023).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Knocking at the Brothel Door (with Michael John Cusick)

Thu, 09 May 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Michael John Cusick argues that our addictions and disordered sexual desires are really a misdirected effort to reach God and live in connection with Him. How can this be? The crude simulation is but at poor substitute for the real thing, for the Truth. Yet in this fallen world, sinners repeatedly fall into the snares. “I do not understand my own actions,”—Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans—"For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” But like the prodigal son in the pigpen, we cannot but lift our eyes from the mud and think about the loving Father waiting for us at home.

Michael John Cusick, author, counselor, host of the wonderful podcast, Restoring the Soul, talks about what he has learned about addiction, disorder, mercy, and freedom, in his book Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle and also on this episode of Almost Good Catholics.

Michael John Cusick’s website.
Restoring the Soul intensive counseling ministry.
Restoring the Soul podcast, and on Apple.

Related Almost Good Catholics episodes:

Heather King on Almost Good Catholics, episode 4: Divine Intoxication: A Discussion about Grace, Sainthood, and Women in the Church
Mako Fujimura on Almost Good Catholics, episode 14: The Silence of God: The Meaning of Our Suffering and Redemption
Brant Hansen on Almost Good Catholics, episode 75: The Men We Need: What Men Are Supposed to Be Doing

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Making Moves (and Making Movies) in the Mission Field (with Temeko Richardson)

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Temeko Ricardson grew up in the Protestant American tradition; she was a “GPK” (grand-pastor-kid) from a family of church leaders. She has been thinking about Christianity and social issues—failure to include God’s people into His Church, fractured families, homelessness—and how to weave out society together and spread the Gospel. She’s an entrepreneur, consultant, philanthropist, and filmmaker. Today we talk about her work and the content she had been making to “ensure people understand the greatness of having Christ at the center of their lives through entertaining content.”

Temeko Richardson’s YouTube channel.
Temeko Richardson’s IMDB page.
Temeko Richardson on Film Freeway.
At the Cross film website.
Interview with Ray Lewis, “Fatherless.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catholic in Palestine (with Fr Firas Abedrabbo)

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 04:00:00 -0000

There have been Christians in the Holy Land for two thousand years; “we are the first church,” says Father Firas Abedrabbo who is from Bethlehem and works in Ramallah. He studied law in France and speaks excellent English and spoke with me about his experience as a priest in Palestine (the West Bank) during the Gaza War. We talk politics and history, but we also talk about how people in the middle of a war can see God’s love and His participation in our daily lives, even (or perhaps especially) in our darkest hours.

I am grateful for Josh Del Colle of South Dakota for this episode suggestion and for arranging the introduction.

Website of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem
Father Firas’s webpage.

Almost Good Catholics episodes with Father Piotr Żelazko in Jerusalem:

[Part 1] Fr. Piotr Żelazko on Almost Good Catholics, episode 71: Live from Israel: Catholics in the Holy Land Today
[Part 2] Fr. Piotr Żelazko on Almost Good Catholics, episode 73, starting at 55 minutes after my interview with Jay Richards: Darwinian Accident or Divine Architect? The Debate between Natural Selection and Intelligence Design
[Part 3] Fr. Piotr Żelazko on Almost Good Catholics, episode 79, The Ground is Crying out to God: Live from Jerusalem Part 3

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Wood Between the Worlds (with Brian Zahnd)

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0000

For Christians, the central event in history and in universe is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. This killing of God (or deicide) is so mysterious and terrible that it’s hard to even approach: what kind of a God would choose to be tortured and murdered by his rebellious creatures? Pastor Brian Zahnd’s poetic theology of the Cross (in The Wood between the Worlds) takes a kaleidoscopic approach, which turns this way and that, until that terrible cross reflects the light of God that dazzles with coruscating beauty.

Pastor Brian’s webpage.
Pastor Brian’s book, The Wood between the Worlds (IVP, 2024)
Tim Stewart’s interview with Brian on the Impact Nations podcast (February 2024)

Related Almost Good Catholics episodes:

David Basile on Almost Good Catholics, episode 39: Why a Savior? The Theology of Sacrifice and Redemption
Jeff Brannon on Almost Good Catholics, episode 40: O Death, Where is Your Sting? The Biblical Theology of Resurrection
Fr Chris Alar on Almost Good Catholics, episode 61: Master Craftsman, Broken Tools: Why God Works Through Us, Hears Intercessory Prayers, and Grants Divine Mercy
Sr Mary Josefa of the Eucharist on Almost Good Catholics, episode 68: Brides of Christ: Contemplative Life among the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Woe to this Generation (with Colin Rahill)

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Colin Rahill dropped out of law school to become a Catholic writer; he just finished his first book, Castor & Pollux (Emerald Books, 2023), which is about the troubles facing Gen Z: the idolatrous snares of social media, health cults, self-manifesting, neopaganism, a kaleidoscope of prescription drugs, and pornified AI digital realities (to name a few). It’s also about his journey as an artist and, above all, his path to the Catholic Church. But it’s not a book about social angst, the domain of older faultfinders; it’s a novel and a youthful one. It’s an allegorical—sometimes satirical—adventure story that leads the prodigal protagonist home to God.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Miracle Man (with Joe McGivney)

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Lifelong alcoholic Joe McGivney drank himself into brain damage and permanent disability. The day after being placed into the assisted care he would need for rest of his life, he sprang back to full recovery, restored health—it was a medical impossibility—for which he credits the intercession of Blessed Father Michael McGivney, his distant relative and the founder of the Knights of Columbus in the nineteenth-century Catholic charitable brotherhood and who is now being considered for canonization on the basis of the recorded intercessory miracles like the one Joe experience two years ago.

Joe and Nicole’s website
Joe McGivney’s book, You’re a Miracle, on Amazon.com
Blessed Fr Michael McGivney founder of the Knights of Columbus
Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome on the NIH website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Homo sapiens catholicus (with Jeremy Holmes)

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Theology Professor Jeremy Holmes of Wyoming Catholic College teaches a class called “Science and Theology,” which is about the Darwin’s theory of evolution and related topics, including the problems we encounter in the fossil record and our understanding of genetic change. I ask him about the discussions he has with his students and his colleagues and how where his investigations have led him.

Jeremy Holmes’s faculty webpage at Wyoming Catholic College
Professor Holmes’s book, Cur Deus Verba: Why the Word Became Words (Ignatius Press, 2021).
“Confederate Evolution Debate” from Gettysburg (1993)

Related Almost Good Catholics episode:

Jay Richards on Almost Good Catholics, episode 73: Darwinian Accident or Divine Architect? The Debate between Natural Selection and Intelligent Design

Another Almost Good Catholics episode with Jeremy Holmes:

Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 20: Words and the Word: How Scripture Brings Us into God’s Eternal Moment

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ground is Crying out to God (with Fr. Piotr Żelazko)

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Father Piotr Żelazko is Vicar for the St. James Vicariate in Jerusalem and has been priest in Israel for fifteen years (he is a native of Poland and studied in Rome). He and I recorded our first talk about Catholicism in Israel in the fall, weeks before October 7 and the Gaza War. Since then, we have been periodically checking in to talk about War, Peace, the Holy Land and all of God’s children there. This is the third talk of that series.

Website of the Saint James Vicariate for Hebrew-Speaking Catholics in Israel.
Father’ Piotr’s webpage.

The other Almost Good Catholics episodes with Father Piotr Żelazko:

[Part 1] Fr. Piotr Żelazko on Almost Good Catholics, episode 71: Live from Israel: Catholics in the Holy Land Today
[Part 2] Fr. Piotr Żelazko on Almost Good Catholics, episode 73, starting at 55 minutes after my interview with Jay Richards: Darwinian Accident or Divine Architect? The Debate between Natural Selection and Intelligence Design

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Good Fire: Theology of Stewardship & Controlled Burning (with Peter Hess)

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Peter Hess (Ph.D, FFT2) is a theologian, an environmental scientist, a wildland fire practitioner, and firefighter type two. I ask Peter about this work which is a collaboration of firefighters and indigenous communities, about the Catholic Theology, stewardship of the Earth, and Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudatus Si’.

Peter Hess’s webpage at “Climate Abandoned.”
Peter Hess’s book, Catholicism and Science (Greenwood, 2008).
Laudatus Si’, Pope Francis’s encyclical letter (2015).
TERA website, the Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance.
‘Firefighter Type 2’ explained at the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.

Related Almost Good Catholics episode:

Joseph Nagel and Heather Skinner, episode 8: It's Elementary! Catholic Education in the 21st Century.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Apocalypto" and Mel Gibson (with Jonathon Fessenden)

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0000

The 2006 Mel Gibson movie, Apocalypto, takes us into a decadent Maya civilization in the Yucatan on the eve of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. It could be a commentary on ancient Rome or the present-day US, but, because it is a new world for both the viewer and the forest-dwelling protagonists, we get to see it through ‘new eyes’ and a ‘beginner’s mind.’ It’s a great movie, a cinematic masterpiece. It also allows us to ask how Mel Gibson, a devout Catholic and such a human sinner—as we all are, though when he does something terrible it’s in the news—should proclaim the Gospel after he has fallen from his moral pedestal a few times. We also ask about how the Church should proceed given her many painful scandals. It was a great discussion on the Missio Dei podcast on YouTube and I’m delighted to share it here.

Our original YouTube interview on Missio Dei (October 1, 2023)
Apocalypto on the Best Pick podcast with John Dorney, Jessica Regan, Tom Salinsky and( guest) Joy Wilkinson (August 24, 2022)
The Making of Apocalypto documentary with Mel Gibson.James
Empires of death: Apocalypto (2006) on Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast with James Majewski
History article by Richard Hansen: “Relativism, Revisionism, Aboriginalism, and Emic/Etic Truth: The Case Study of Apocalypto.”

Related Almost Good Catholics episodes:

Joseph González and Monique González on Almost Good Catholics, episode 74: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth: How the Flower World Bloomed into History in 1531
Brant Hansen on Almost Good Catholics, episode 75: The Men We Need: What Men Are Supposed to Be Doing

Other Almost Good Catholics episodes with Jonathon Fessenden:

Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 37: Catholic Movies, Pt. 1: Silence and The Scarlet and the Black
Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 49: Catholic Movies, Pt. 2: The Mission and A Man for All Seasons
Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 58: The Book of Job: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 64: The Fourth Wise Man: Follow Jesus—He’s Getting Away!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Men We Need (with Brant Hansen)

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0000

“What is a man?” asks Hamlet. If all he does is “sleep and feed,” then “a beast, no more.” That’s not enough for Hamlet, and it’s not enough for Brant Hansen, who spreads the Gospel by radio and in print. He’s written a number of books, including his new one, The Men We Need, which asks and answers questions about men’s special role in our world, and the opportunity for joy and meaning. Hansen’s thesis is rooted in scripture and reflects what Catholics will recognize as the theology of the Body developed by St. John Paul II. It was a great book and our conversation was tremendously fun.

This is the seventy-fifth episode of Almost Good Catholics and starts off our third season and the year 2024. My discussion with Brant is 52 minutes long, but then I’ve added fifteen minutes of Christmas music from Josh and Margot of the Great Space Coaster Band to celebrate.

Brant Hansen’s website and radio show.
The Men We Need by Brant Hansen (2022) and all of his books.
Brant Hansen’s page and CURE International’s page on Wikipedia.
Trailer for Wall-E (Disney and Pixar, 2008).
The ever-growing Josh and Margot Christmas Album and the Great Space Coaster band website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0000

It turns out that our familiar narrative of the Virgin of Guadalupe, when Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531 and left her image on his tilma, resembles an indigenous Mexican myth. And this myth of the Flower World in “Cuicapeuhcayotl” (“Origin of Songs”) has led some secular historians and anthropologists to conclude that the Catholic version must therefore be an imitation, a fabrication.

Yet Joseph Julián and Monique González concluded that the opposite was true. They argue “that God had prepared the Mesoamerican people to receive Christianity” that this Nahua myth had been inserted into history to make Our Lady comprehensible to the Nahua people—leading to ten million conversions—at a time when Spanish conquistadores and encomenderos were making a mess of the New World with their slavery and greed, polluting the evangelical work of the humble friars preaching Gospel.

Misa Azteca on Soundcloud, composed by Joseph Julián González
The book, Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy (Sophia Institute Press, 2023)
Missio Dei interview with Joseph and Monique González with Jonathan Fessenden

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Darwinian Accident or Divine Architect? (with Jay Richards)

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Jay Richards PhD, OP discusses the new book to which he contributed a chapter, God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design (Sophia Institute Press, 2023), edited by Ann Gauger. We take on the insufficient explanations of Darwinian orthodoxy which insists that our world—from the vast cosmos to the also vast (in its complexity) genetic code in our cells.

At the end of this episode (at 55 minutes), we hear an update from Father Piotr Żelazko in Israel as we enter the second month of the Gaza War.

Here’s the book, God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design, edited by Ann Gauger (Sophia Institute Press, 2023)
Here’s Jay Richard’s webpage at the Heritage Foundation.
Here’s the debate between Jay Richards and Christopher Hitchens from 2008 at Stanford.
Father Piotr Żelazko on Almost Good Catholics, episode 71: Live from Israel: Catholics in the Holy Land Today.

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let Us Make Man in Our Image (with Paul Louis Metzger)

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0000

In our talk about his book, More than Things: A Personalist Ethics for a Throwaway Culture (InterVarsity Press, 2023), and in addition to quoting Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, Paul Louis Metzger also quotes Indiana Jones. When seeking the Grail, he chooses the clay cup from among the gilded chalices, “that’s the cup of a carpenter,” is the metaphor of the inherent value of human beings, ends unto themselves, priceless and unrepeatable. So I ask him (Dr. Metzger, not Dr. Jones) how we keep this in our minds and hearts as we navigate a secular culture that prizes the exterior and utility. If we can figure that one out, then we’ve found our redemption in the poor baby shivering in a manger, and understood why ‘happy are the poor in spirit.’

Paul Louis Metzger’s faculty webpage at Multnomah University.
Paul Louis Metzger’s book webpage, More than Things (2023, IVP).
Conclusion of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Trailer for Gattaca(1997).
Trailer for Interstellar (2014).

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Live from Israel (with Fr. Piotr Zelazko)

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Father Piotr Zelazko is Vicar for the St. James Vicariate in Jerusalem and has been priest in Israel for fifteen years (he is a native of Poland and studied in Rome). He describes the Catholic Church in Israel today and also the broader Christian community. He discusses some of the challenges and many joys of the ecumenical work he does with Jews, Muslims, and the many other Christian denominations in the Holy Land. And he tells a lot of stories of pastoral work in Jerusalem and in the desert at Be’er Sheva.

The first 24 minutes of this recording are an update from Father Piotr about the current war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7, 2023. The interview I recorded in August begins at 24 minutes.

Website of the Saint James Vicariate for Hebrew-Speaking Catholics in Israel.
Father’ Piotr’s webpage.
Father Abraham Shmuelof reading the Torah; Father Abraham’s biography.
Cardinal Pizzaballa’s offer to be exchanged for hostages.
The story of Rachel Edery who fed Hamas fighters with coffee and cookies when they came to murder her.
Hagiography of St. Louis.
“The Carousel” scene from Mad Men (about nostalgia).

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kids These Days (with Jane Sloan Peters)

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Jane Sloan Peters remembers World Youth Day in Toronto back in 2002 when she was a teenager. She also talks about being a young mother and a teacher; she is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. We also discuss her articles in America Magazine, her teaching philosophy, and the faith journey she has been on since her teenage conversion to the present day.

Professor Peters’s faculty webpage at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx.
Jane Sloan Peters’s articles (several of which we discussed today) for America Magazine, the Jesuit Review.
Inside the Vatican podcast: “Deep Dive: How World Youth Day became an epic event for young Catholics” episode with Jane Sloan Peters (her interview begins at 28:40, though of course the whole episode is lovely).
Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize Lecture (1993).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hammertime and Hanukkah (with Matthew and Leeanne Thomas)

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Between 167 and 160 BC, Judas Maccabeus and his brothers led a revolt against the Greek tyrant who desecrated the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Miraculously victorious, the Jews rededicated the Temple in a festival of lights that became the first Hannukah. A bloody tale of oppression, war, and ancient diplomacy, these books (Maccabees 1 and 2) are a bridge between the Old and New Testaments and are the first places that the Jewish Bible speaks of life after death, intercessory prayer, and purgatory.

Matthew and Leeanne Thomas edited and annotated these texts for the Ignatius Study Bible. Matthew is a theologian and professor at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California. He and Leeanne are both scholars of Biblical Hebrew; they met in graduate school and got married. She had also once been a candidate for ordination in the Anglican Church in Canada before becoming a Catholic. Today, the couple live in Berkeley with their four beautiful children.

The First and Second Books of the Maccabees, edited by Matthew and Leeanne Thomas, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.
Matthew Thomas’s faculty webpage at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology.
Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 02: Who Wrote the Bible? Sorting out the History of the Bible We Have.
Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 03: The Gospels in the Early Church: Evidence for the Chronology and Transmission of the Christian Scriptures.
Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 22: Better Call Paul How Did the Early Jewish Christians Understand “Works of the Law”?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brides of Christ (with Sr Mary Josefa of the Eucharist)

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Sister Mary Josefa of the Eucharist is a Benedictine nun in Missouri; she and the sisters of her community recently wrote a charming children’s book, Brides of Christ (Sophia Institute Press, 2023), which invites the reader into the rhythms of their contemplative life through the course of the day and cycle of the year. She talks about this life with me and also the discernment that drew her into it.

We also discuss the late Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster who founded their community who drew the attention of the world earlier this year when her exhumed body was miraculously not corrupted four years after death, nor her garments (though the fabric of her coffin was completely rotted away).

Finally, we discuss the special charism and Marian consecration of this Benedictine community who emulate the quiet, loving role of the Mother of God in the years between the Ascension of Jesus and her own Assumption, supporting the Early Church.

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles website
The new book, Brides of Christ, from Sophia Institute Press
Articles about Sr Wilhelmina Lancaster’s uncorrupted remains: in the New York Times, in the Catholic News Agency, and in the Catholic Review.

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who’s Afraid of the Catholic Integralists? (with Kevin Vallier)

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Kevin Vallier is a philosophy professor and author of All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism (Oxford UP, 2023), a new book about Catholic Integralism, a mostly online intellectual movement that thinks the church should take over the state, something that made sense fifteen hundred years ago after the collapse of the Roman Empire, but not so much day in our pluralistic, democratic age. Professor Vallier’s goal is to help us all talk together with patience and grace (which includes really listening) to people we disagree with and regard as eccentric. So why not talk it over on Almost Good Catholics?

Kevin Vallier’s faculty website at Bowling Green University, Ohio.
Kevin Vallier’s personal website.
Kevin Vallier’s blogs at Reconciled.
Fr James Rooney, OP, critiques Integralism, in the Intellectual Catholicism podcast with Suan Sonna.
“What is Integralism, Anyway?” by Charlie Camosy, at the Pillar.

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Seven Deadly Sins (with Fr Chris Pietraszko)

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Father Chris Pietraszko has been thinking about sin and redemption for the last year and a half as he has been writing a series of articles that will become a book. Relying on the Gospel, Catholic Doctrine, Thomas Aquinas, and his experience in the confessional, Father Chris explains the mechanism of sin, how it works in our lives, and how it is to be defeated. He reflects on his experience as a confessor and explains the relationship between the deadly and venial sins.

Articles by Father Chris Pietraszko from Missio Dei (including all of the ones about the Seven Deadly Sins)
Father Chris at the Kent Lambton Roman Catholic Family of Parishes
Many videos with Father Chris for listeners who would like to hear more

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Idolatry and Idle Hands (with Jacob Howland)

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Philosophy professor Jacob Howland applies the lessons of Greek classics and Jewish scripture to this our curious moment at the inception of Artificial intelligence when computers are doing more and more work for us, and we humans—like miniature Gods—can make up new simulated realities and even identities for ourselves. There’s a word for when people worship the things they create: idolatry. Looking to the Bible (from the Garden of Eden, the Fall, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, and the Golden Calf) and literature (from Homer, Plato, and Hesiod, all the way to Milton), Professor Howland and I talk about where we are, and where we might be headed.

Jacob Howland’s website and his faculty pages at the University of Tulsa and the University of Austin
Jacob Howland’s article, “AI is a False Prophet: Our enslavement to idolatry will end in disaster.” (Unherd, April 2023)
Jacob Howland’s article, “AI has always plagued mankind: Technological arrogance brought about our Fall.” (Unherd, July 2023)
Jacob Howland’s article, “Henry Adams and the Crisis of Education: How the famed historian foresaw our civilizational predicament” (City Journal, July 2023)
Jacob Howland and Russ Roberts on the EconTalk podcast (June 2023)

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fourth Wise Man (with Jonathon Fessenden)

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Jonathon Fessenden, theologian and editor of Missio Dei, invited me to talk about The Fourth Wise Man, the 1985 film based on the 1895 Henry van Dyke novella, The Other Wise Man. It was a tale I had known as a children’s story, but it was a delight to learn more about it, to watch this movie (a few times), and to share this discussion with Jonathon. Martin Sheen plays Artaban, a Persian astrologer, a magus (one of the magi), who is following the star to the birth of Christ. But he arrives too late and spends the next thirty years pursuing Jesus, always one step behind, but always in His footsteps.

The first link below is to the movie itself (71 minutes) on YouTube:

The film, The Fourth Wise Man, on YouTube, also on Formed, and on Amazon.
Our video of this discussion on the Missio Dei website and also on YouTube.
Henry van Dyke’s eulogy for Mark Twain from the New York Times.
Henry van Dyke’s poem, “Time Is.”
Henry van Dyke’s The Other Wise Man on Wikipedia.
Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 37: Catholic Movies, Pt. 1: Silence and The Scarlet and the Black
Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 49: Catholic Movies, Pt. 2: The Mission and A Man for All Seasons
Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 58: The Book of Job: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Did We See You a Stranger and Welcome You? (with Ben Metcalf)

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

The poor have always been with us, even in a rich country and a prosperous time. I ask Ben Metcalf, former Secretary of Housing and Community Development in California, about the challenges and successes of the government in providing shelter for its people. Our conversation recalls the question from Matthew 25:37-38, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?’ I was pleased to see that many of my assumptions about homelessness were mistaken and even more pleased to hear about the things that are working well in places like Houston, Atlanta, and Salt Lake City, that can be replicated around the nation.

Ben Metcalf’s webpage at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley
Ben Metcalf’s webpage at the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley
The website for California’s Department of Housing and Community Development
The website for the national Department of Housing and Urban Development
Brother John Vianney Russel, OP, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 31: Chatting with the Homeless Looking for Jesus among the Least of Our Brothers

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Jesus Intended (with Bishop Todd Hunter)

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Bishop Todd Hunter is an Anglican Bishop in Tennessee and author of What Jesus Intended: Finding Faith in the Rubble of Bad Religion (IVP, 2023). He argues that, despite the troubles of the world and the messes we make, we should embrace Jesus’s invitation to follow him and live in his friendship and in his Kingdom right now. The goal is “being the cooperative friend of Jesus, seeking to live a life of constant creative goodness, for the sake of others, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Bishop Hunter’s webpage on the Churches for the Sake of Others website.
Bishop Hunter’s new book: What Jesus Intended (IVP Press, 2023), including an excerpt.
Mike Angell, article: “The Accidental Anglican: Bishop Todd Hunter” (July 15, 2017)
Philip Kosloski, article: “Main differences between Anglicanism and Catholicism.” Aleteia (May 11, 2023)

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Master Craftsman, Broken Tools (with Fr. Chris Alar, MIC)

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Father Chris talks about his devotion to Our Lady, and what he has learned from St. Maria Faustyna Kowalska, the poor Polish country girl, whose visions of and friendship with Jesus gave us Divine Mercy Sunday. Father Chris calls it the “Extra Credit of Grace.” We also talk about suicide and intercessory prayer and why God choses to work with broken tools. Fr. Chris is Provincial Superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception in the United States and Argentina.

Father Chris’s page on the Marian Fathers’ website.
Father Chris’s video about St. Faustina.
St. Faustina’s Diary online (in multiple languages)
Father Joe Roesch’s podcast: St. Faustina’s Diary in a year.

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Love Them Both (with Kimberly Bird)

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Kimberly Bird is vice president of external relations of Live Action, an online media advocacy and education organization that works to shift public opinion on abortion and protect the lives of children between conception and birth. I ask her about the most effective ways she has found to change people’s minds, instead of just screaming at each other, or past each other. I also ask her who the women who are getting abortions and why (the answer surprised me), and about the places of agreement across the political spectrum on how we can support them.

Live Action website
What is Abortion? video series
Pro Life Replies video series
Can’t Stay Silent video series

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long Live the Empire! (with Amb. Archd. Eduard Habsburg)

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Eduard Habsburg is Archduke of Austria and Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta. He’s also a husband, a dad, and a regular guy. He talks about Star Wars and Dune, Harry Potter and James Bond. He is probably the first member of the Order of the Golden Fleece to have written the screenplay for a zombie movie. I ask him about his family—both his happy marriage and six children, and also the dynastic history of the House of Habsburg. I also ask him his work as a diplomat working with Victor Orbán and Pope Francis, and his work as a writer, especially about his new book, The Habsburg Way.

Eduard Habsburg’s new book, The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times (Sophia Institute Press, 2023)
Eduard Habsburg on Twitter: @EduardHabsburg
First Things: interview with Mark Bauerlein, “Eduard Habsburg on the Habsburg Way of Life” (April 24, 2023)
The New York Times: an article by Jason Horowitz, “Hungary’s Habsburg Ambassador to the Pope, With an Offbeat Résumé” (April 27, 2023)

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Book of Job (with Jonathon Fessenden)

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Jonathon Fessenden, theologian and editor of Missio Dei, and I discussed this ancient and supremely interesting book on his podcast. The Book of Job is one of the oldest poems in our tradition. It is a joy to read and a puzzle to wonder about: why does God allow—even provoke—the Accuser to destroy Job’s life and test his faith? What does it mean for us when things are not going the way we hope? What is this troubled world, this vale of tears, for in the first place?

The video of our discussion of The Book of Job on the Missio Dei website and on YouTube
Jonathon Fessenden’s bio on Missio Dei
The Book of Job on the USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) webpage
The Book of Job (NABRE) on Bible Gateway
Professor Wesley Morrison, “God’s Answer to Job” (Cambridge University Press, 1996)
Bishop Barron’s sermon “Why Is Life So Full of Suffering” (2022)
Professors Sommers and Pizarro discussion on Job, “How Do You Solve a Problem like Theodicy?” on Very Bad Wizards (2019)
Jonathon Fessenden’s, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 37: Catholic Movies, Pt. 1: Silence and The Scarlet and the Black.
Jonathon Fessenden’s, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 49: Catholic Movies, Pt. 2: The Mission and A Man for All Seasons.

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Down Deep in My Soul (with Fr. Maurice Nutt, C.Ss.R.)

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

In his new book, Down Deep in My Soul: An African American Catholic Theology of Preaching (Orbis Books, 2023), Father Maurice Nutt, a doctor of preaching from the Aquinas Institute of Theology and a Redemptorist priest, teaches us about African American oratorical and homiletic tradition and shows how it can enrich preaching in every church. This is a discussion about history, cultural anthropology, and the Roman Catholic Church. As always, we ask how we got here and where do we go next. I also ask Father Maurice to respond to Pope Francis’s recommendation that homilies should be kept under ten minutes. Finally, Father Maurice gives guidance that will benefit all preachers—and, in fact, all public speakers.

Father Maurice’s webpage
Father Maurice’s book, Deep Down in My Soul (Orbis, 2023)
Father Maurice’s spiritual direction ministry
Father Maurice on Almost Good Catholics, episode 21: We Shall Overcome: Sister Thea Bowman and the Black Catholic Experience

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purgatory (with Tim Staples)

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Tim Staples is Director of Apologetics and Evangelization at Catholic Answers. His piece, “What Happens in Purgatory?” is the most read article on the entire website. I ask him to explain what the Catholic Church says (and doesn’t say) about purgatory. How does purgatory work? ...and how about heaven and hell? How should we think about these ‘places’ and about eternity?

Tim Staple’s profile in Catholic Answers
Tim Staples’s article, “What Happens in Purgatory?,” in Catholic Answers, July 8, 2021.
What the Catechism teaches on the subject of purgatory (CCC #1030 – 1032)
1 Corinthians 3:11-15

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You Set a Table Before Me (with Sr. Maria Catherine, OP)

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Sr Maria Catherine was looking for Truth in the wrong places when she started practicing witchcraft as girl. But she found her way out of the darkness and into the Dominican Order; today she teaches theology and literature at JSerra High School in California. We talk about that journey and about the challenges facing young people today, the generation we are both teaching. In the second half of the program we talk about her favorite movie, which I just watched for the first time, Babette’s Feast.

Babette’s Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987) on Wikipedia and IMDB.
Babette’s Feast trailer.
Mark Le Fanu’s article: Babette’s Feast: “Mercy and Truth Have Met Together,” June 22, 2013, Criterion.com.
Sr. Maria Catherine on the faculty page at JSerra High School.
Sr. Maria Catherine on the JSerra Podcast.
Sr. Maria Catherine on the Lumen Ecclesia podcast.
Rich Meyer, director of JSerra High School, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 45: Education in the World not of the World: A School Director and Father Talks about Forming the Whole Child
Ronald Reagan’s joke about the atheist and the cook.
King David, Psalm 23

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Down to Earth (with Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn)

Thu, 25 May 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Quaker theologian Richard J. Foster and charismatic pastor Brenda Quinn talk with me about Foster’s new book (which Quinn worked on with him), Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue (InterVarsity Press, 2022). Foster explains why we should and how we can cultivate this greatest of virtues. He also tells me about his Quaker foundations, his investigation of Lakota history and culture, and what he has learned from fire—something we have in common.

Richard Foster’s Learning Humility from IVP (InterVarsity Press)
Richard Foster’s Learning Humility on Amazon
Richard Foster’s Learning Humility excerpt on Renovaré
Richard Foster and Brenda Quinn on the Renovaré podcast
Richard Foster’s page on Renovaré and on Wikipedia
Brenda Quinn’s page on Renovaré
Richard Foster’s orthodox breath prayer in the Ignatian daily examen (at 00:36) with Dan Wilt from the Belfast City Vineyard
Amy McKeever, “The heartbreaking, controversial history of Mount Rushmore,” National Geographic, October 28, 2020

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here We Stand? (with Bishop Donald Hying)

Thu, 18 May 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, wrote a statement in his diocesan journal, the Madison Catholic Herald about the German Synodal Way. The German Bishops, in defiance of Pope Francis, have been promoting same sex unions and the ordination of women and transgender persons. I ask Bishop Hying what is going on and how these matters should be handled: is there a correct way for the brother bishops to disagree on social issues as they listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit to guide them and our Church in this time of accelerating change?

“Statement from Bishop Hying on the ‘Synodal Way’ process from bishops in Germany,” Madison Catholic Herald, March 21, 2023
Bishop Hying’s Wikipedia page
Discussion of Bishop Hying’s statement (and other topics) by JD Flynn and Ed Condon on the Pillar Podcast
Bishop Hying on Almost Good Catholics, episode 19: Pray Like a Mystic: Mystical Traditions and What to Do with Them
Sr. Nathalie Becquart, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 36: Quo Vademus? The Pilgrim Church on the Road of Synodality

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Miraculous Mind (with Paul Bloom)

Thu, 11 May 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Psychologist Paul Bloom and I talk about the human brain, morality, empathy, perversity, all the things—including Professor Bloom’s new book, Psych: The Story of the Human Mind (Ecco Press, 2023). Culturally Jewish but in practice an atheist, Paul Bloom comes at the recurring theological questions familiar to the Almost Good Catholics audience from the materialistic perspective of psychology.

Paul Bloom’s Yale faculty webpage
Paul Bloom’s Toronto faculty webpage
Paul Bloom’s Wikipedia page
Paul Bloom’s book, Psych
Paul Bloom and Dave Pizarro’s Psych podcast
Paul Bloom’s Introduction to Psychology on Yale Open Courses
Paul Bloom’s TED Talk about St. Augustine of Hippo and perversity.
Paul Bloom talks with Russ Roberts on EconTalk about Psych, The Sweet Spot, Cruelty, and Empathy.

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People of the Book (with Munir Sheikh)

Thu, 04 May 2023 08:00:00 -0000

I talk with a Muslim friend about the places that Islam and Christianity overlap, and also the places where they diverge. Of these subjects, none is more interesting than the role of Jesus Christ whom Muslims call the Prophet Issa (peace be upon him). Muslims hold him in high esteem but do not believe in his divinity or in the Trinity itself. Muslims believe in the Resurrection and Second Coming but interestingly not in the death of Jesus. They also revere Our Lady, the Virgin Mary.

Munir Sheikh is a Sunni Muslim from Bangladesh. He’s a management consultant on Wall Street in New York. He joined a Catholic Dads’ group (how I met him) to talk about important issues of faith and family life with some of his oldest American friends (who are Catholic).

Munir Sheikh on LinkedIn
Derya Little, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 27: Faithful Frontiers: A Turkish Scholar Describes How She Became a Catholic Apologist
Mufti Menk, “The Story of Jesus”
Omar Suleiman, “The Life and Mission of Jesus”
Omar Suleiman, “Islam,” on the Lex Fridman Podcast

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember the Sabbath (with Senator Joe Lieberman)

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today I talked with Senator Joe Lieberman—who ran for Vice President in 2000 with Al Gore, and for President in 2004 in the Democratic primary—about his book, The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath (2011). Senator Lieberman is a devout Jew and talks with me about the Sabbath tradition, a custom rooted in God’s day of rest at the end of creation (Genesis 2) and the Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). It is the shared practice of all Abrahamic monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.

Senator Lieberman’s book, The Gift of Rest
Senator Lieberman’s Wikipedia page

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catholic Movies, Part 2 (with Jonathon Fessenden)

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Jonathon Fessenden and I talk about two movies, Roland Joffé’s The Mission (1986) and Fred Zinneman’s A Man for All Seasons (1966), both written by Robert Bolt, and both about men of Faith facing persecution and a sudden reversal of political fortune. These are themes that we began in our first discussion, Episode 37: Catholic Movies, Pt. 1.

Jonathon Fessenden is a Catholic writer, composer, and teacher of theology. He has written about movies and worked in the industry as a composer, and continues to write music for film.

Jonathon Fessenden’s articles at Missio Dei.
The Mission (1986): Trailer, Wikipedia page, and IMDB page.
A Man for All Seasons (1966): Trailer, Wikipedia page, and IMDB page.
Jonathon Fessenden’s album, Upon the Water, is here.
Jonathon Fessenden’s, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 37: Catholic Movies, Pt. 1: Silence and The Scarlet and the Black.
Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 17: Eternity Now: Talking about Mysticism with the Apostle to the Gangs of LA.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Revival (with Fr Norman Fischer): The Holy Spirit at Work in Kentucky . . . and Many Other Places

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

For three weeks in February of 2023, a spontaneous ‘Outpouring’ at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, set the hearts of American Christians aflame, reviving their faith and our spiritual conversation. Fr Norman Fischer, pastor of nearby St. Peter Claver Catholic Church and the chaplain at Lexington Catholic High School, in Lexington Kentucky, went over to Asbury to check it out. He tells us about the glorious events he witnessed there, in Wilmore. He also explains how, for Catholics, to feel the intercession of God is not unusual. God is in the Eucharist, in every miracle, in every saintly martyrdom, in every Marian apparition, and so our world is triumphantly enchanted with His Presence at every turn. Father Norman talks about his own numinous experiences and about his life as a priest.

Short Interview with Fr. Norman, National Black Catholic Congress
Fr. Norman on Facebook
St. Peter Claver Parish on Facebook and on the diocesan webpage.
Gina Christian’s article in Detroit Catholic (which talks about Fr Norman at Asbury)
Asbury University webpage about the Outpouring
“A Gen Z Religious Revival” on the Honestly podcast with Bari Weiss.
The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, on the Real Presence website and Wikipedia

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Gospel According to Dorothy (with Kathryn Wehr)

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

In 1941, Dorothy Sayers, Christian apologist, author of The Mind of the Maker, and even more famous for her Peter Whimsey mystery novels, wrote a cycle of plays on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was produced by the BBC for the radio and was a great success, though Sayers got flak for it from all directions—from secular voices calling it religious propaganda, from conservative voices calling it blasphemy. She also broke an established prohibition against actors playing Jesus and made a number of editorial choices that were astonishing for the time and remain notable in the twenty-first century.

In 2023, Kathryn Wehr annotated, edited, and published a new edition of these plays by Dorothy Sayers, including her commentary on the text and its context. Dr. Wehr is a Catholic apologist and writer, and is the managing editor of Logos: A journal of Catholic Thought and Culture. She also writes and performs devotional songs. She has a Doctorate of Divinity from St. Andrews University in Scotland.

Kathryn Wehr’s website
Kathryn Wehr’s YouTube Channel, which includes many of her songs
A recording of the plays on YouTube, The Man Born to be King (but it is out of copyright and abridged, as Katy Wehr explains in our discussion).

Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; he is also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gary Kulik: Conscientious Objector Who Served in Vietnam

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Gary Kulik was a Catholic Conscientious Objector (CO) during the Vietnam War, but when he was drafted he decided to go and serve as a medic. He tells me about this decision and how he arrived at it, about his journey to Vietnam, his experiences there, and his return. He also talks about how Americans often misrepresent the war in Hollywood and politics, which is the topic of his first book, War Stories: False Atrocity Tales, Swift Boaters, and Winter Soldiers—What Really Happened in Vietnam. (His second book, The Forgotten Medics of Vietnam, is forthcoming.)

Gary Kulik is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War; he was a medic in the Fourth Infantry Division and the Sixty-first Medical Battalion. He’s a graduate of St. Michael’s College and has earned a PhD in American Civilization at Brown University. He served as deputy director of the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, and had also been assistant director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and also the editor of American Quarterly.

Gary Kulik’s book, War Stories, available from Potomac Press and also from Amazon.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2309, about Just War, from the USCCB.
Article by William C. Michael, “What does the Catechism of the Catholic Church teach about War?” (2022), Classical Liberal Arts.
Podcast about the Petraeus Directive in Iraq and Afghanistan, “War Poems” on Rough Translation, from NPR.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Education in the World not of the World

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Rich Meyer, president of JSerra High School—named for St. Junípero Serra, the ‘Apostle of California’—in Southern California, discusses what is working in Catholic education today. He and I are both fathers and teachers; and I ask him about his philosophy and his school’s approach about social media and some of the contentious cultural issues of our day. How do we help our children find sure footing on the right path and what is the correct balance of order and freedom, of justice and grace?

JSerra High School website.
JSerra High School podcast: Unplugged.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ned Bustard, "Saint Patrick the Forgiver: The History and Legends of Ireland's Bishop" (InterVarsity, 2023)

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Ned Bustard is the author of a new children’s book, Saint Patrick the Forgiver: The History and Legends of Ireland's Bishop (InterVarsity, 2023). We talked about the book, the life of St. Patrick, and the conversion of Ireland. The day after the interview, during his Ash Wednesday homily, Pope Francis said, “the Gospel is not an idea, the Gospel is not an ideology: the Gospel is a proclamation that touches your heart and makes you change your heart.” That’s exactly what St Patrick showed by returning to pagan Ireland where he’d been a slave for six years. When a slave, he had been a shepherd. Now free, he became the shepherd of a nation.

IVP Kids imprint webpage.
Square Halo Books webpage.
World End Images webpage.
St. Patrick’s writings, the Confessio and the Epistola, in English and Latin.
EWTN Ireland documentary, Discovering St. Patrick
Pope Francis’s homily on Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Exorcist: Angels, Demons, and the Cosmic Battle around Us

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0000

I asked an exorcist, Monsignor Rosetti, about the spiritual world around us, the demons he fights, and the mischief they cause. He talks about his life and work as an exorcist, how people stumble into demonic ensnarement, and how we, in our daily practice and through the Sacraments and sacramentals, can steer clear of it.

Monsignor Stephen Rossetti is the head of St. Michael’s Center for Spiritual Renewal and teaches at the Catholic University of America. He has a PhD in psychology and is the author of a number of books, including Diary of an American Exorcist.

Msgr. Rossetti’s website and blog.
Msgr. Rossetti on Instagram.
Msgr. Rossetti’s Exorcism App.
Msgr. Rossetti’s publications.
Bishop Robert Barron’s recent talk in which he describes how far fewer people are going to Confession since the Council of Vatican II.
Al Pacino’s rant—part 1 and part 2—from The Devil’s Advocate that Msgr. Rossetti praised in our discussion for its verisimilitude.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) statement about Exorcism.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who Do You Think You Are?: Thorny Questions about Sex, Identity, and Catholic Doctrine

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Garret Johnson works with Courage, the Catholic apostolate for people experience same-sex attractions. He describes his experience living the gay lifestyle and responds to my interview with Father Jim Martin, SJ, author of Building a Bridge, and several things Fr Jim said in that conversation that Garrett disagrees with. This is—please be warned—an honest, raw, and redeeming discussion about sex, gay culture, drugs, pornography, identity politics, Catholic doctrine, and the secular narrative.

Garrett’s website, brotherwithoutorder.com.
The websites for Courage and also Encourage. Courage serves people experiencing same sex attraction and Encourage is for the people—parents, siblings, others—who love them.
Bishop Barron’s sorrowful mysteries of the rosary.
Father James Martin, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 30: What if You’re Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digging for Answers: The Archaeology of Jerusalem and the Politics of Archaeology

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Katharina Galor, an archaeology professor at the at the Program in Judaic Studies at Brown University who has done a lot of excavation in Israel, is the author of The Archaeology of Jerusalem: From the Origins to the Ottomans (2013). She takes us through the history of Jerusalem from its Canaanite beginnings to the capital of Israel today.

We discuss the foundations and geography of this fortified city in the hills, the importance of water, and the lives of ordinary citizens. We talk about the First and Second Temples and the improvements made by Herod “the Great” whom Christians recall as a notorious infanticide yet who is curiously prominent today—partly because many of his improvements are still visible, partly because they point to aspects of history that both Jews and Christians (but not Muslims) wish to emphasize—which brings us to the politics of digging up the past in the Holy Land. Finally, we turn to the problematic German miniseries Unorthodox that was so popular on Netflix recently and its portrayal of traditional Hasidic Jews in New York and progressive Germans in Berlin.

Katy Galor’s faculty webpage and Joukowsky Institute page at Brown University
Katy Galor and co-author Sa'ed Atshan discuss their book, The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians (2020), at the Watson Institute, Brown University.
Katy Galor’s books at Amazon.com.
Katy Galor’s article: “King Herod in Jerusalem: The Politics of Cultural Heritage,” Jerusalem Quarterly, Issue 62 (Spring 2015). Also here.
Trailer for Unorthodox, Netflix miniseries, 2020.
Article by Leah Aharoni: “Netflix’s ‘Unorthodox’ Degrades Hasidic Jews into Caricatures,” Jewish Journal, April 27, 2020.
Article by Julie Joanes: “Everything ‘Unorthodox’ gets wrong about being Orthodox,” Forward, April 30, 2020.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

O Death, Where is Your Sting? The Biblical Theology of Resurrection

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

In his new book, The Hope of Life After Death: A Biblical Theology of Resurrection (Intervarsity Press, 2022), Professor Jeff Brannon traces Resurrection and Redemption from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, taking the Bible as a unified whole—not as a library of disparate sources. He is a Biblical scholar and a Protestant Christian in the Reformed (i.e. Calvinist) Tradition. I also asked him to explain our need for salvation and a savior in the first place (which is the same topic I took up in the previous episode with Catholic theologian David Basile).

In his book and in our discussion, Jeff Brannon explains the necessity of the sacrifice of Jesus. “Without Jesus as the suffering servant, we could not be reconciled to God, could not have access to God’s presence, could not be a part of God’s kingdom, and could not inherit eternal life—both new spiritual life in the present and bodily resurrection life in the future” (pp. 103-104). He also explains how, in addition to being the sacrificial Lamb of God and the messiah, Jesus is an example and antecedent for us all: the “firstfruits” (p. 124; cf. 1 Cor 15), “leading the way for his people.”

Jeff Brannon is Professor of Biblical Studies and Chair of the Biblical Studies and Ministries Department at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi.

Department of Biblical Studies and Ministries Faculty webpage.
Jeff Brannon’s new book, The Hope of Life After Death: A Biblical Theology of Resurrection, from Intervarsity Press, 2022.
Jeff Brannon’s first book, The Heavenlies in Ephesians: A Lexical, Exegetical, and Conceptual Analysis, from Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.
David Basile on Almost Good Catholics, episode 39: Why a Savior? The Theology of Sacrifice and Redemption

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why a Savior? The Theology of Sacrifice and Redemption

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

As we start the second year of Almost Good Catholics, I asked my old friend David Basile, the theology teacher (and our very first guest last year) to come back and explain the mystery of our redemption in the sacrifice of Christ crucified. What is more central to our Christian faith, and yet – at least for me – what is more difficult to understand?

David Basile is Chair of Theology at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metarie, Louisiana. He explains how Paul’s verdict—“the wages of sin are death” (Roman 6:23)—is not the bad news it sounds like and how the power of sacrifice and redemption—“whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:15)—is good news indeed.

The episode ends with two Christmas carols from Josh and Margot of the Great Space Coaster Band: What Child is This? and Silent Night.

Bishop Robert Barron’s commentary on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary
Jordan Peterson’s lecture series on Genesis and his anthropological discussion of sacrifice.
Sermon by Martin Luther King Jr., “Transformed Nonconformist.” (1966)
Sermon by John Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” (1741)
David Basile on Almost Good Catholics, episode 01: How Do We Know There is a God? Rational Proofs for a Loving Creator.
David Basile on Almost Good Catholics, episode 09: From Zen Monastery to Catholic Church: Talking about Buddhist and Christian Mysticism.
Cathleen Chopra-McGowan on Almost Good Catholics, episode 33: The Mesopotamian Connection: Comparing the Bible to Other Literature of the Ancient Near East.
Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 22: Better Call Paul: How Did the Early Jewish Christians “Works of the Law”?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Quintessence of Dust?”: Friendly Argument about God and Man

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Peter Hall is my old friend, a once-atheist who now calls himself an agnostic; we’ve known each other for fifteen years since we both taught English literature at an international school in Egypt. He and I talk through our hopes and doubts about God and man. It’s an episode that departs from the Almost Good Catholics model and it begins with me explaining how and why the podcast was moving to the New Books Network: Academic Partners in December of 2022.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Walking the Via Dolorosa: An Archaeologist Follows Jesus from His Trial to His Crucifixion

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Archaeologist Ilka Knüppel discusses her master's thesis—The Search for Jesus's Final Steps: How Archaeological and Literary Evidence Reroutes the Via Dolorosa—and how she came to write it. To use both ‘archaeological and literary evidence’ requires digging in both the earth and in books, and to ‘reroute’ the Via Dolorosa reveals that many of the traditional fixtures are pious inventions of later centuries.

Ilka talks a bit about her life, how she became an archaeologist and what kind of projects she has been undertaking since wrote her master’s thesis.

Ilka Knüppel on Twitter
Ilka Knüppel’s forthcoming book, Finding Ruth, on Twitter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Mesopotamian Connection: Comparing the Bible to Other Literature of the Ancient Near East

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Professor Cathleen Chopra-McGowan examines some the incongruities of our Bible in the context of the Ancient Near East, showing how the stories and traditions of Israel resembled and borrowed from those of Babylon and Assyria. She compares the Genesis narrative to two others, the epics of Gilgamesh and Atra-Hasis, especially discussing the universal flood narrative and rationale for sacrifice to show the evolution of our ancestors’ religious practice and thinking about God.

Professor Chopra-McGowan teaches courses in the Religious Studies Department at Santa Clara University, including Near Eastern languages, literatures, history, and archaeology, as well as uses of the Bible in contemporary society.

Professor Chopra-McGowan’s faculty webpage at Santa Clara University.
The earthquake that interrupted our talk
St. Crispin’s Day Speech by Kenneth Branagh (Henry V, 1989)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apocalypse Past, Present, and Future: Thinking about the End in History and Culture

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Historian John Jeffries Martin traces narratives of the Apocalypse over the last 500 years in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions in his new book, A Beautiful Ending. This discussion about the culture of Apocalypse follows (and is the second part of) an interview we began on the New Books in History Podcast which was a historical discussion.

Professor Martin is an Early Modern Historian at Duke University. His earlier books include Venice’s Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City (1993), and Myths of Renaissance Individualism (2004). He is also editor of several books, including The Renaissance World (2007), which I remember reading as a graduate student.

Professor Martin’s faculty website at Duke University
Professor Martin’s books on Amazon.com
First Half of this Interview: New Books in History
Thomas More, Utopia (1516)
E. S. O. Martin, What We Talk About When We Talk About the Apocalypse:
Howard Zinn and Christopher Columbus on The Sopranos

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chatting with the Homeless: Looking for Jesus among the Least of Our Brothers

Sat, 28 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Dominican Friar John Vianney Russel has made a habit of talking with homeless people and shares what he has learned. He doesn’t have all the answers and, in fact, we agree we are not even clear on the problem; but we start to pull on some of the threads—spiritual, psychological, material, political—of this very tangled knot. Brother John Vianney also talks about his own vocation and how we might listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The forum that Brother John Vianney refers to is Defenders of the Catholic Faith
Paul VI, Populorum Progression (1967)
Lee Ohanian, Hoover Institution, "Despite Spending $1.1 Billion, San Francisco Sees Its Homelessness Problems Spiral Out Of Control" (2022)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if You're Gay? Starting Conversations with and about LGBT Catholics

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Since 2016, and with the blessing of Pope Francis, Father Jim Martin has been talking with LGBT Catholics about their relationship with their church. That’s the subject of his book, Building a Bridge, and also a documentary film by the same title; we talk about what the bridge is and where it might take us. He also reflects on his vocation as a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large at America Magazine: the Jesuit Review and about his travels in the Holy Land.

In this episode we refer back to earlier conversations, including episode 16 with Colleen Dulle of America Media and episode 17 with Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ of Homeboy Industries, both from May of 2022.

Fr. James Martin at America Magazine
Outreach, an LGTBQ Catholic Resource
Fr. Jim’s article on the Good Samaritan and the Road to Jericho
Fr. Jim’s 2009 article, “What Should a Gay Catholic Do?”
Fr. Jim’s books on Amazon.com.
Colleen Dulle on Almost Good Catholics, episode 16: Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution
Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 17: Eternity Now: Talking about Mysticism with the Apostle to the Gangs of LA.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Swiss Guards: Reflections on Two Years Guarding the Pope

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

David Geisser was a Swiss Guard protecting Pope Francis and the Apostolic Palace between 2013 and 2015. He was following the footsteps of his father who had been in the service a generation earlier under Pope John Paul II, including on the dark day (May 13, 1981) when a would-be assassin shot the Holy Father. I ask him about his experiences in one of the oldest (est. 1506) and smallest (135 men) military organizations in history.

David Geisser’s YouTube channel, It’s Cooking Time
National Geographic, “Inside the Vatican,” 2021: Episode 1 and Episode 2
A Swiss public television documentary on the Swiss Guards (in German)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stabat Mater: A Sandy Hook Mom Stands with Mary at the Foot of the Cross

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

One morning in December of 2012, Laura Phelps’s little children went to school and lived through an attack by a madman who shot 20 of their classmates. Laura’s community was devastated and she became a ‘Sandy Hook Mom’ helping people find their way through trauma of this senseless violence. She describes her walk with Mary, who watched the execution of her innocent and perfect son, in her book, Sweet Cross: A Marian Guide to Suffering.

Laura Phelps’s website.
Stabat Mater, Pergolesi (1736)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Faithful Frontiers: A Turkish Scholar Describes How She Became a Catholic Apologist

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Derya Little has been a Muslim, an atheist, and a Protestant; today she is a Catholic writer and apologist. She tells the story of her conversion, talks about faith, family, Islam, history, the role of women in our Church. Since she and I are both fans of Star Trek and some other science fiction narratives, we riff about these as well (through a lens tinted by Dostoyevsky’s ‘Grand Inquisitor’).

Derya Little is the author of From Islam to Christ (2017), At His Feet: Drawing Closer to Christ with the Women of the New Testament (2021), and A Beginner’s Guide to the Traditional Latin Mass (2019), and two books for young adults, Two Fallen Worlds, Lost, and Two Fallen Worlds, Found.

The Live a Little podcast
Derya Little’s books.
Derya Little on EWTN’s The Journey Home (2018).
"The Grand Inquisitor" from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1880)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catholic in Karachi: Living as a Christian in an Islamic Country

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Ayyaz Gulzar, journalist and Catholic youth leader in Pakistan, describes the challenges and persecutions the Church faces in the Islamic Republic, which includes the county’s blasphemy laws. He also talks about the many successes and joys he has seen—and some surprises, for example Muslim women praying the ‘Hail Mary’ for Our Lady’s help during childbirth.

We recorded this conversation during the floods of the summer of 2022 which have been described as the worst in the country’s history.

Articles by Ayyaz Gulzar in UCA News (Union of Catholic Asian News):
Caritas Pakistan
Jesus Youth, Pakistan, Facebook Page
Here is an excerpt from the National Geographic documentary, Inside the Vatican, that shows the humility, wisdom, and charm of Cardinal Joseph Coutts whom Ayyaz described in our interview

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Feminine Genius: Everyday Mysticism and How to Organize Your Life around It

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Danielle Bean talks about everyday mysticism and learning to listen for God in her book, Whisper: Finding God in the Everyday. God is there in our daily tasks and especially in our daily relationships. She also talks about the special role that women play in the Catholic Church – the feminine genius – from the Virgin Mary to today’s busy moms. Both of these threads are a delightful continuation of our earlier discussion about St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the Little Way (with Heather King and Lauren Nelson, on episodes 04 and 05, respectively).

Whisper: Finding God in the Everyday, from Ascension Press
Girlfriends podcast
The Gist TV show on Catholic TV
Heather King on Almost Good Catholics, episode 04: Divine Intoxication
A Discussion about Alcoholism, Grace, Sainthood, and Women in the Church.
Lauren Nelson on Almost Good Catholics, episode 05: The Little Way
Making Friends with the Saints.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reflections of a Mormon who Became a Catholic: Understanding the Sacrament of Reconciliation

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Jeremy Christiansen’s autobiography, From the Susquehanna to the Tiber, tells the story of his happy Mormon upbringing, the questioning of his faith, and his ultimate pilgrimage to the Catholic Church. The journey was a thorough investigation into 200 years of Mormon History and 2000 years of the foundations of the Christian Church. It was a long adventure and one that shook his family and marriage.

Jeremy Christiansen’s book (Sandman Books website): From the Susquehanna to the Tiber.
Jeremy Christiansen on Twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bless Me, Father, for I have Sinned: Understanding the Sacrament of Reconciliation

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Father Joseph Horn explains the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where it comes from, how it works, and what many of us don’t know about it. At its inception, the Sacrament of Confession was offered only once in a lifetime! And even today it seems that some Catholics avoid the sacrament because of confusion about guilt; yet it is through Reconciliation that their guilt is entirely washed away. Fr Joe also explains mortal and venial sins, and how the Sacrament of the Eucharist removes the latter every week.

St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California
Father Joe’s talk about Reconciliation for Theology on Tap
Confession scene from The Godfather Part III (1990)
Comic scene from The Mask of Zorro (1998)
Bishop Barron’s remarks on etymology of ‘Reconciliation’

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Better Call Paul: How Did the Early Jewish Christians Understand “Works of the Law”?

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

In his new book, theologian Matthew Thomas takes on the big question of what the Apostle Paul means when he talks about "Works of the Law" -- as opposed to Grace -- in terms of Justification, addressing a long-standing debate between biblical scholars and using second-century sources to adjudicate the question. The stakes of the faithful, and what it means to be a Christian for the first-century Jews who founded the religion, could not be higher, especially when St. Peter slid back into the observation of Mosaic custom.

This is Matthew Thomas’s third appearance on AGC: you can also hear him in episodes 02 and 03. The episode that we refer to with Fr. Greg Boyle is episode 17.

Matthew Thomas’s faculty website at DSPT.
Matthew Thomas’s book, Paul’s “Works of the Law” in the Perspective of Second-Century Reception.
Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 02: Who Wrote the Bible? Sorting out the History of the Bible We Have.
Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 03: The Gospels in the Early Church: Evidence for the Chronology and Transmission of the Christian Scriptures.
Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 17: Eternity Now: Talking about Mysticism with the Apostle to the Gangs of LA.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We Shall Overcome: Sister Thea Bowman and the Black Catholic Experience

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Though we are all one—“there is neither Jew nor Greek,” St. Paul wrote to the Galatians—each of us brings a particular heritage to the mosaic of God’s universal pilgrim church on Earth. Father Maurice Nutt helps us understand and celebrate the special contribution of African Americans in the Catholic Church. Father Maurice is a redemptorist priest and former director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, an apostolate that celebrates and connects Black Catholicism in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. And, as fewer Americans are embracing the vocation of the priesthood, more pastors are coming to us from other countries, which brings both cultural opportunities and challenges.

In addition, Fr. Maurice tells us about his friend and mentor, Sister Thea Bowman, and the case he and others are making for her sainthood.

Father Maurice’s spiritual direction ministry
The case for Sr Thea Bowman’s canonization
Sr Thea Bowman addressing the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1989

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Words and the Word: How Scripture Brings Us into God’s Eternal Moment

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Jeremy Holmes, Theology Professor at Wyoming Catholic College, describes his study of scripture through the lenses of narrative criticism and theological exegesis, following the model of St. Matthew. he needed a master to show him how the Word used words, so he went to St. Matthew. Professor Holmes argues that we, modern people, tend to think of time as linear and two dimensional. But ancient Jews, including St. Matthew, saw time as both spread out and also gathered together, allowing us to participate in God’s eternity. St. Matthew saw scripture working simultaneously in the past and present: for Jesus as he came from out of Egypt was another Israel, and so are we when we, in our lives, come out of personal enslavements and cross deserts into the Promised Land prepared for us!

Professor Holmes’s faculty webpage at Wyoming Catholic College.
Professor Holmes’s book, Cur Deus Verba

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pray like a Mystic: Mystical Traditions and What to Do with Them

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

I asked Bishop Don Hying of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, about mysticism and evangelization. He describes Christianity as unique among the world’s religions because “the universal, mysterious, all-powerful, invisible God humbled himself to become one of his creatures,” a baby, in fact, shivering in the night; and so, paradoxically, the Christian experience of God as both transcendent and imminent. A mystic must go on the journey from our limited ideas about God to stand before Him in prayer. Bishop Hying draws on the experiences and teachings of mystics from long ago and also from the present day as he explains this idea. He also talks about his own life and vocation.

Bishop Hying’s recent letter on violence
Bishop Hying’s article on St. Junípero Serra and vandalism of public monuments
Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr., “Junípero Serra: Saint or Sinner” from 1989
Chris Odyniec’s article (p. 10) on St. Junípero Serra's canonization by Pope Francis in 2015

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holy Paradox and St. Teresa of Ávila: Mysticism in Sixteenth Century Spain

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Carlos Eire, author of The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila: A Biography (2019) and professor of medieval and early modern European history and religion at Yale University, discusses the life of St. Teresa and mysticism in sixteenth-century Spain. He also talks a bit about his immigration to the United States as a child refugee from Cuba in the 1960s; his commentary and scholarship has earned him the title of “enemy of the state” in today’s communist Cuba.

· Here is Professor Eire’s faculty webpage at Yale University.

· Here are books by Carlos Eire available from Amazon.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eternity Now: Talking about Mysticism with the Apostle to the Gangs of LA

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in East LA, the world’s largest and most successful gang intervention and rehabilitation program. He talks about this ministry and his “therapeutic mysticism” which has trained him to see God and God’s people. Father Greg (“Father G”) has no interest in categories and the games of exclusion that we humans often play; he says, “gang violence is about a lethal absence of hope.” His mission to the homies, therefore, is filled with faith, hope, and love and brings “the God who is tender, the God who is too busy loving us to be disappointed, the God who can’t take His eyes off of us.” That’s why it has been so effective.

· Here is the website of Homeboy Industries.

· Books by Fr. Greg (including New York Times bestseller, Tattoos on the Heart) are available from Amazon.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist Discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Vatican journalist Colleen Dulle discusses her biography of the French Mystic Madeleine Delbrêl, author of The Marxist City as Mission Territory (1957), and Catholic evangelist among the urban poor of Ivry. Colleen calls Madeleine the “Dorothy Day of France.” Colleen and I also talk about her career reporting on the Vatican as part of America Media, Pope Francis’s new Apostolic Constitution, and her pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Fr. James Martin.

Inside the Vatican podcast
The Pope’s Voice podcast
Colleen Dulle’s 2018 article, “Who is Madeleine Delbrêl—the “French Dorothy Day” Pope Francis made venerable this weekend?”
“Go Rebuild My House” blog

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Queen of Heaven: How the Holy Spirit Works in the Catholic Tradition

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Keith Berube, professor of Mariology, theology, and literature, explains how the Holy Spirit is at work in the scripture, tradition, and magisterium in the Catholic Church; he also tells the story of his own faith journey and conversion and we talk about miraculous encounters—in our daily lives, in the lives of our friends, and in history (for example, at Lourdes). In addition, Keith discusses the historical context of Pope Francis’s consecration of Russia and Ukraine; along the way, he and I have a lively disagreement about Putin as we try to untangle the spiritual and political problems of the day.

Books by Mr. Berube available on Amazon
Mr. Berube on EWTN’s At Home with Jim and Joy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Restless Pilgrims: About CS Lewis

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

David Bates, Catholic apologist and CS Lewis expert, reflects upon Lewis's conversion (how he was 'surprised by joy'), how his reason confirmed his feelings, how his theology stands on the authority of the Church and the Patristic Fathers) and his own experiences as a 'restless pilgrim.'

Pints with Jack (David's podcast about Lewis) is here.
Max McClean as CS Lewis in The Most Reluctant Convert is here.
David's conversation with Norman Stone, the director of the movie that follows this play (above) is here.
David's conversation with Joseph Pearce (who was the guest on Almost Good Catholics, episode 10) is here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did God Just Wink? Seeing the Numinous All Around Us

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Anabelle Mosely talks about living sacramentally, finding holiness in little things, and seeing the numinous in our daily lives. The Kingdom of God is at hand, apparent in the little affirmations or “signal graces,” as Anabelle says, and in metaphors which are “even truer” than the thing alone. She discusses her recent book, Sacred Braille (2019), about the Rosary, its history, and its sacramental power.

Annabelle Mosely is a theology professor at St. Joseph’s College in New York, an author, a poet (she reads a couple of her poems at my request), a lay Carmelite, as well as a wife and a mother. Also see:

Annabelle Mosely, Tour Guide of Wonder
Annabelle Mosely, The Bethany Plan
Annabelle Mosely, Sacred Braille (2019)
CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (read by John Cleese)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pray for us Sinners: Our Lady of Fátima and Pope Francis’s Consecration of Russia and Ukraine

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Professor William A. Thomas explains today's Consecration (March 25, 2022) by Pope Francis of Russia and Ukraine which is part of a century-long story, one that started in the Portuguese village of Fátima in 1917. Fátima, the Ultimate Mystery, which we discuss, is here. Dr. Thomas is a Mariologist, director of the St. John Paul II Institute of Marian Studies, and prolific apologetic writer. He explains Mary’s mediation between humans and God, the meaning of Marian apparitions, and what we can do to help our world and grow in holiness.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What about Hell? CS Lewis and Theology of the Afterlife

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Joseph Pearce, writer and literary scholar, leads us through CS Lewis’s theology on the afterlife and the meaning of eternity (and what Catholics say about his views). I ask him about Holy Saturday when Jesus descended in Hell, as described in the Apostles’ Creed, and what this event means us considering also the at Catechism of Catholic Church which calls Hell a “state of definitive self-exclusion”, a separation of “our own free choice” (CCC 1033). When, if ever, does it become too difficult for us, creatures with free will who are nonetheless transformed by our decisions, to just leave?

Pearce’s article, "The Mysteries of Atheism" (2013), that we refer to in our discussion, is here. You can find Pearce’s appearance on Pints with Aquinas here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zen Buddhism, Mardi Gras, and the Metaphysics of Eternity: Talking about Buddhist and Christian Mysticism

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

David Basile (who was our guest in Episode 01) returns to talk about his ten years in as a Zen Buddhist monk at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Retreat Center in California. He tells the story of how he went from being a child in a lukewarm Catholic home, to a teenage atheist, to an ardent Buddhist at the monastery—where he encountered the Benedictine mystic, David Steindl-Rast—and finally back home to the Catholic Church. He and I discuss the commonalities and significant differences between Buddhism and Christianity. David also explains the radical departure that Buddhism took from Hinduism 2500 years ago, and how all three of these faiths approach the questions of existence and eternity. Finally we consider life, death, life-after-death, and why Christians think of God as a loving Father.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do We Live in a Christian Country?

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

I asked medieval historian Rachel Fulton Brown if we ought to still think of our nation (or any Western nation) as “a Christian country” in the twenty-first century. My reasoning was that I thought our Judeo-Christian inheritance is the foundation—if partially forgotten—of the democratic principles of our republic. The resulting discussion was lively, fruitful, and surprising.

Professor Fulton Brown teaches Medieval European History at the University of Chicago, specializing on Religious, Cultural, and Intellectual History, the History of Christianity, Liturgy and Prayer, and Devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Professor Rachel Fulton Brown's faculty webpage at the University of Chicago is here.
Rachel's blog, Dancing Bear at Prayer, is here.
The Mosaic Ark livestream that Rachel does weekly with Kilts Khalfan on Dragon Common Room is here.
The recent First Things interview (July 28, 2022), “The Spice Road of Today,” that Rachel did with Marc Bauerlein that we refer to is here.
Rachel's blog, “Three Cheers for White Men,” that caused such a stir is here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Elementary! Catholic Education in the 21st Century

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Joseph Nagel and Heather Skinner are principal and vice-principal of the School of the Madeleine in Berkeley, California; Mrs. Skinner was also once Joseph’s teacher and mine (your host, Chris Odyniec) and has been at the school for 45 years. Over this time, the school population and broader community has changed significantly. Mrs. Skinner and Mr. Nagel reflect on their experience teaching and working at a beloved and successful Catholic school in a progressive town like Berkeley, California; they discuss the School of the Madeleine, its mission, politics, and role in forming the whole child with the love of God.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mother of All Nations: Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Assumption, and Coronation of Mary

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Robert Fastiggi discusses Catholic doctrine about the Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Assumption, and Coronation of Mary, the Mother of God. He also reflects on his participation in ecumenical dialogues on these subjects and explains that many of these principles are shared by our Orthodox and our Protestant brothers and sisters—something many people don’t realize—and presents arguments from Scripture as well. Finally, Professor Fastiggi talks about some of the most famous Marian Apparitions—Guadalupe (1531), Lourdes (1858), and especially Fátima (1917)—and about how faith and reason are at work in our skeptical age.

NB: This episode was recorded on February 23, 2022, on the eve of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine (to which we refer).

The film, The Song of Bernadette (1943) is here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary, Full of Grace: Catholic Beliefs about Mary and How We Know

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Chris Padgett explains Catholic doctrine about the Virgin Mary and how both Sacred Tradition and Scripture inform the Magisterium. He talks about his Baptist upbringing, his own journey to the Church, and how he then became a theologian and one of the most influential Catholic speakers—and musicians—in the United States today. He explains Catholic Mariology and how we radically venerate and love Mary (dulia or hyperdulia) but adore (latria) only God. Padgett also talks about how this conversion caused a rupture with his family of origin, but also how he met his wife and started his own rambunctious and joyful family.

Happy Place Homestead is here.
Sanctify Your Marriage is here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Little Way: Making Friends with the Saints

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 21:00:00 -0000

Lauren Nelson discusses St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Way, the communion of saints, which is really quite close. She also talks about her ministries and classes and what St. Thérèse has taught he about life and being a mother.

Lauren Nelson's classes are here.
The Coffee & Catholics podcast is here.
The Gathering Manna Facebook community is here.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux's The Story of a Soul is available here. An audio recording is here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Divine Intoxication: A Discussion about Alcoholism, Grace, Sainthood, and Women in the Church

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Author Heather King discusses her journey from the alcoholic abyss to redemption and new life (which she described in her book, Parched, 2006), St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the Little Way (whom she wrote about in her book, Shirt of Flame, 20011), the Communion of Saints, literature, women in the Church. In this conversation, we talk over the “Little Ways” that we may look for in our lives to follow the Way of Jesus—as women, men, parents, clerics, lay-people, writers, teachers, workers, and every other kind of human—whether or not anyone see us doing it, except God.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Gospels in the Early Church: Evidence for the Chronology and Transmission of the Christian Scriptures

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 21:00:00 -0000

Professor Matthew Thomas returns to explain how we can place the Gospels in time and context using both internal clues (literary evidence) and the external ones (anthropological evidence). These are the first steps on a path of the many centuries of transmission toward the Bible we have today; Matthew Thomas tells why they are so important and where they have led us.

The papyrus (P66) of the Gospel of John in the Bodmer Library, Switzerland, can be found here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catholic Movies, Part 1: "Silence" and "The Scarlet and the Black"

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Jonathon Fessenden and I talk about two movies, Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2016) and Jerry London’s The Scarlet and the Black (1983) and what they say about how to confront evil in terrible times—seventeenth-century Tokugawa Japan in one film, and 1943 Nazi-occupied Rome in the other—how to face our shortcomings and lean on God even when He is hard to find. We also talk about Jonathon’s article about continuous prayer and his life and journey.

Jonathon Fessenden is a Catholic writer, composer, and teacher of theology. He has written about movies and worked in the industry as a composer, and continues to write music for film.

Note: In this episode we refer to my earlier conversation with Makoto Fujimura about his work on the film Silence and other topics: Almost Good Catholics, Episode 14.

Jonathan Fessenden, Missio Dei, “Pray without Ceasing” (October 6, 2022)
Pope Francis’s recent homily on continuous prayer (September 28, 2022)
All of Jonathan Fessenden’s articles on Missio Dei are here.
Jonathan Fessenden’s album, Upon the Water, is here.
Silence (2016), official trailer
The Scarlet and the Black (1983), trailer
Inside the Vatican, “Deep Dive: The Secret Archives of Pope Pius XII” (article and podcast)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Silence of God: The Meaning of Our Suffering and Redemption

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Makoto Fujimura, world-famous contemporary painter with global cultural influence, talks about his art, his thinking and writing about Shūsaku Endō's novel Silence (1966), and his work on Martin Scorsese's film Silence (2016). I ask him about Scorsese’s long collaborative friendship with Akira Kurosawa and his participation in Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990).

Mako also describes his work with his wife, Haejin Shim Fujimura, for Embers International and Kintsugi Academy, protecting and serving women and children in the brothels of Mumbai who are in danger of exploitation and trafficking.

Both in the lives of the suffering poor and in the trials of struggling Christians, Mako sees redemptive beauty that he compares to the Japanese art of kintsugi in which broken vessels are lovingly restored with gold and lacquer and to our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is always pictured with His five wounds.

Embers International website.
Silence (2016), official trailer
Art & Theology: Mr. Fujimura explains 'Kintsugi Theology'
Mr. Fujimura's essay, 'Kintsugi Generation'
Mr. Fujimura's paintings, 'The Four Holy Gospels'
David Brooks about Mako Fujimura, The New York Times, “Longing for an Internet Cleanse”
Michael John Cusick with Mako Fujimura, Restoring the Soul Podcast, “Silence and Beauty: Part I, Ep. 13, and Part II, Ep. 14,” and again, “Kintsugi Reflects Life, Ep. 193”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quo Vademus? The Pilgrim Church on the Road of Synodality

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

For two years Sr Nathalie Becquart has been in charge of the Church’s Synod on Synodality, coordinating the responses of millions of Catholics from 112 out of 114 Episcopal Conferences and from all the 15 Oriental Catholic Churches. She and I talk about the spirit of this Synod, its progress and direction, and the recently published Working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS), Enlarge the Space of Your Tent.

Sr Nathalie Becquart was appointed by Pope Francis to be Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. She's the first woman in church history to hold that office and to vote with that body of clerics.

Working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS), Enlarge the Space of Your Tent.
About Sr Nathalie Becquart, Global Sisters Report, “Meet Sr. Nathalie Becquart”
About Sr Nathalie Becquart, Boston College News, “Papal Appointment”
About Sr Nathalie Becquart, Rome Reports, “The Synod Special”
Inside the Vatican, “Deep Dive: The Synod on Synodality”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who Wrote the Bible? Sorting out the History of the Bible We Have.

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Matthew Thomas, theologian and biblical scholar, explains how the Bible got to be the Bible, how confident we can be in its historicity, and on what authority we can trust such judgments. We talk about the languages of the Scripture and their transmission over time, and how we see the emergence of the documents that would later become the Bible already in first-century Christian communities.

Professor Thomas teaches Biblical languages and the history of the Bible, Patristics, and Early Christian interpretation of the Scriptures, especially Pauline Theology, at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at UC Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Do We Know There is a God? Rational Proofs for a Loving God

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 21:00:00 -0000

David Basile explains Thomas Aquinas's cosmological proofs for God. David is department chair of Theology at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metarie, Louisiana; he is also an old friend of mine so he was a natural choice to be the first guest of this new podcast. He talked about his own journey from atheism to Buddhism and finally to the Catholic Church. (He spent a decade as a Buddhist monk, where he first encountered Catholic contemplative mystics.)

I asked David to explain how we know there is a God in the way he might make the case to his own students, to the skeptical—and maybe sometimes cynical—teenagers who native to our secular and materialistic society.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices