Making it Personal with Bishop William Joensen

On this episode of Making It Personal, Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill talk with Marilyn Jerome. She is a Professor of Psychology at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) and the founder of Saints & Sinners, a Des Moines band that grew out of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in West Des Moines. Bishop’s week. Bishop Joensen opens by honoring veterans on St. Martin’s Day and ref...

The Bishop’s Week Bishop William Joensen wraps up the fall confirmation season with stops at Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart in Ankeny, St. Joseph in Winterset, and Holy Trinity of Southeast Warren County, serving Milo and Lacona with pastor Fr. David Nkrumah. He recalls the diocesan priests’ gathering at All Saints in Stuart. There, Fr. Evan Koop of The Saint Paul Seminary led a reflection on Mary’s...

On the eve of All Saints Day, Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill sit down with Deacon Tom Bradley. He is a permanent deacon assisting at All Saints Parish in Des Moines and the author of Dancing Without Applause: The Land Remembers . Soldier to shepherd. Deacon Bradley grew up in small-town northwest Iowa, in Rockwell City, Fort Dodge, and Pomeroy. He graduated from the University of...

Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill welcome Col. Michael Good, USAF (Ret.), a former NASA space shuttle and space station astronaut who recently joined the Bishop on pilgrimage to Poland with former Iowa Catholic Radio morning host Jon Leonetti. Bishop’s Opening: Respect Life Month and Church News Bishop Joensen describes a moving Respect Life Mass at St. John Catholic Church in Adel,...

Bishop William Joensen and Co-Host Jeanne Thill welcome Pat Baumhover, a parishioner at Sacred Heart in West Des Moines, Knight of Columbus, and leader of Sacred Heart’s Habitat ministry with the Catholic Circle of Faith. Bishop’s opening: The Bishop previews confirmations, the installation of permanent diaconate candidates in the Ministry of Lector, and a Respect Life Month Mass. He shares spirit...

Falling birth rates are now a global phenomenon, yet about 5 percent of American women still choose to have five or more children. On this episode of Making It Personal, Bishop William Joensen and Jeanne Thill sit down with Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, economist, associate professor at The Catholic University of America, Executive Director of the James Cardinal Gibbons Institute for Human Ecology,...

What does it look like when a whole nation's faith has been tested by war, occupation, and communism, and still stands? Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill welcome Jon Leonetti, Catholic speaker, author, and longtime Iowa Catholic Radio voice. Jon and the Bishop just returned from leading a pilgrimage to Poland with 50 pilgrims from Iowa and around the country. Opening: Marriage, St. F...

It's Christ Our Life weekend! Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill visit with Ellen Miller and Marilyn Lane, the co-founders and co-chairs of the Christ Our Life Catholic Conference. They talk on the morning the ninth biennial conference opens at Casey's Center in downtown Des Moines. Bishop's Calendar Bishop Joensen previews a busy stretch. The priests of the Diocese of Des Moines hold...

Segment 1 — Poland: Auschwitz, Divine Mercy and the Saints of the Darkest Night Bishop William Joensen opens from the road, reflecting on the Diocese of Des Moines pilgrimage to Poland with Catholic speaker and author Jon Leonetti. The group visited Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II–Birkenau, where the Bishop recalls St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) — the Jewish...

Segment 1 — Diocesan news and a Poland pilgrimage Bishop Joensen opens with an update on the water main break that flooded the Bishop's Celebration of Education just as keynote speaker Father Ross Caniglia was being introduced. Water poured into the downtown facility at depths of six to twelve inches. No one was injured, but the damage is considerable and repairs are expected to take six months or...

Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill welcome Connor Lynch , seminarian for the Diocese of Des Moines and a son of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianola, who is studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Connor is set to be ordained a transitional deacon on October 1 , and this conversation catches him on the cusp of it. Bishop's Opening — Labor Day Weekend and the Week...

Bishop Joensen and Jeanne Thill open with high school football underway across the diocese — Valley and Dowling played the night before — and September weather moving in. The Bishop previews the Bishop's Celebration of Education , held that evening at the Catholic Pastoral Center in downtown Des Moines, lifting up all 16 Catholic schools in the diocese alongside the Catholic Tuition Organization (...

Segment 1: Iowa State Fair send-off, diocesan roundup, and welcoming the guests Bishop Joensen and Jean Thill send off the final weekend of the 2026 Iowa State Fair (Aug. 13–23), highlighting the Iowa Catholic Radio booth and the availability of confession from priests and deacons on-site. A look at the week's saints leading into this Aug. 22 broadcast: St. John Eudes (Aug. 19), St. Bernard of Cla...

Segment 1 — A New School Year Begins Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill open the show marking the start of a new academic year, offering encouragement to students and families and reflecting on the importance of keeping faith life active from day one on campus. The Bishop shares reflections on the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe (Aug. 14) ahead of an upcoming diocesan pilgrimage to Poland...

Segment 1: Bishop's Opening Monologue Bishop Joensen shares diocesan news and reflections as August unfolds: Preparing to join the diocese's permanent deacons — both ordained and in formation — for their annual gathering at Conception Abbey in Conception, Missouri Congratulations to Fr. Paul Sheller, OSB, elected the 11th Abbot of Conception Abbey on July 11, succeeding Abbot Benedict Neenan, OSB....

Segment 1 — Bishop's Reflections Bishop Joensen opens the show on the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, honoring the presence of Fr. Bob Dufford, SJ — member of the influential St. Louis Jesuits and resident at the Creighton University Retreat Center in Griswold, Iowa — and looking ahead to the August 1 feast of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, patron of moral theologians. He reflects on St. Ignatius's o...

Segment 1: Meet Dr. Laura Upenieks Bishop Joensen and Jean Thill welcome Dr. Laura Upenieks, Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director at Baylor University, whose research centers on religion and health, aging and the life course, and quantitative methods. She traces her path from a quantitative health sociology background at the University of Toronto to a faculty position at Baylor,...

Segment 1: Diocesan News & Community Updates Bishop Joensen and Jean Thill open with news from around the diocese and beyond: The Archdiocese of St. Louis celebrates its bicentennial this weekend, with Bishop Joensen joining Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski and fellow Midwest bishops for vespers at the Old Cathedral and Mass at the New Cathedral. The National Biking for Babies ride passed through Des...

Segment 1: Bishop's Opening Reflections & Diocesan Calendar Bishop Joensen opens with reflections on the Feast of St. Benedict and shares news from around the diocese: Celebrated a quinceañera Mass for seven young women at Sacred Heart Parish in West Des Moines Biking for Babies National Ride (Northern Route): Wednesday, July 15 — Mass at 5:00 PM at St. Francis of Assisi Parish (7075 Ashworth Road...

Bishop Joensen and Jean Thill open on Independence Day, marking America's 250th anniversary and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the lone Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Bishop remembers Father Dan Gaylor and Father David Smith of Shelby County and previews the upcoming candidacy rite at St. Patrick in Council Bluffs for Sean Daley. He then welcomes Fr. Stan Asjes, newly orda...

In this Full Show, Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill welcome Father Richard Veras, Director of Pastoral Formation and associate professor of homiletics at Saint Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York. Father Veras was in the Diocese of Des Moines for the ordination to the transitional diaconate of Luke Moen, a seminarian he is helping to form, and he shares the spiritual depth behind...

This week on Making It Personal , Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill welcome Jenni Lihs , Director of Faith Formation at Saints John and Paul Parish in Altoona , for a conversation about intergenerational faith formation — a model the parish has been running and refining for 23 years. Jenni traces her own path from ten years teaching preschool special education and a season at home rais...

Bishop William Joensen opens the episode with reflections on a full week ahead — upcoming confirmations at Saint Mary of Boca and Saint Patrick Walnut, and a prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus inspired by the recent gathering of U.S. bishops. The prayer, available at usccb.org, is offered for listeners who may not have had the opportunity to join their parish for the consecration....

Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill welcome back Patty Origer — Evangelization and Catechesis team member and Disability Coordinator for the Diocese of Des Moines — for a wide-ranging conversation on disability ministry, belonging, and the spiritual dignity of every person. Patty, who has served the diocese for over six and a half years, reflects on her personal calling to this work as t...

Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill welcome John Gaffney, Director of Evangelization and Mission for the Diocese of Des Moines, for an important conversation about preparing young people for the Sacrament of Confirmation. John shares how a diocesan task force of pastors, parents, deacons, educators, and parish leaders prayerfully discerned the move toward sixth-grade Confirmation in Sout...