AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

With U.S. midterm elections just a week away, we know a lot of people in the U.S. might be wanting a break from politics, a break from excessive political ads and tense discussions with loved ones. But as Pope Francis says, good Catholics meddle in politics. In fact, political engagement can be a positive manifestation of our faith. A way to promote the common good for all people. And that work do...

This is a spooky episode. And that makes sense, right? We’re in that time of year when both secular and spiritual calendars invite us to reflect on the supernatural, the unknown, those spirits at work in our lives in ways we can’t quite put our finger on. We celebrate and remember our beloved dead—but first we masquerade as ghosts and goblins For many of us, the more secular ghost stories that Hal...

October 11 was the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Vatican II. Pope Francis marked the occasion with a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, which is also the feast day of St. John XXIII, who of course was the pope to call the Council. In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on how Vatican II continues to shape us today. A lot of the headlines mentioned how he called for communion in the face of such...

If you’re a long-time listener of this podcast or long-time friend of Jesuits and Jesuit institutions, the claim made by our guest today might shock you: We need more than Ignatian spirituality in our lives as Christians. Of course, you’re likely nodding; this is probably obvious. And yet, too often – as our guest today, Jesuit priest, Fr Rossano Zas Friz de Col, SJ claims – in our lives of faith,...

Host MegAnne Liebsch first met Fr. Tim McCabe, SJ, at a construction site. Sporting clerics and a hardhat specialty branded with the Pope Francis Center logo, Tim toured Meg around the newly bulldozed foundation of what will become the Pope Francis Center Bridge Housing Campus. It's an ambitious project that Tim believes will help end chronic houselessness in Detroit. The Pope Francis Center—or PF...

Ciszek Hall is a Jesuit house of First Studies located in the Bronx. Jesuits in formation go there to do exactly what you’d guess: study. But something new is happening at Ciszek. This house is the site of a new way of doing formation, and the entire global Society of Jesus is watching to see what might be learned. Co-hosts Eric Clayton and Meg Liebsch visited the Bronx earlier this year to talk w...

If you were going to make a list of the most demanding and important jobs, nurses would be right near the top. The pandemic has revealed how much we ask of our nurses. They face exposure to illness, they juggle multiple patients simultaneously, all of whom have different needs and face a huge range of challenges. They work extremely long shifts and are on their feet most of the time. And so often...

If you live in the suburbs, you’re probably used to hopping in your car to run pretty much every errand, even if you just need to get cold medicine at the drug store. Have you ever wondered why this is part of your daily life at all? Or why you can’t walk more places? It’s easy to just assume that’s just the way things are, have always been and will always be. But the built environment of our subu...

The stunning new images of outer space from the Webb Space Telescope might prompt people of faith to ponder big questions: How do I square my belief in the Big Bang with my belief in the creator-God of the Book of Genesis? Could we really have an all-loving God who cares about such a tiny little speck of dust in this massive universe? Guest Fr. Adam Hincks, SJ, is the perfect person to talk to abo...

From the Jesuits of Canada and the United States, this is AMDG – and I’m Eric Clayton. I was introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien in seventh grade. This was the project that the seventh grade class of St. Catherine of Sienna participated in each year—the whole school knew it. Students read “The Hobbit” and then were tasked with creating their own version of Smaug, the villainous dragon. You could make a d...

Catholic Social Teaching is sometimes called the best-kept secret of the Catholic faith. But not anymore! Today host MegAnne Liebsch talks to Dr. Tony Annett, an economist who spent much of his career at the International Monetary Fund. His new book, Cathonomics, examines our global economy through the lens of Catholic social teaching on solidarity, wealth redistribution, social democracy, and ine...

"Star Wars" is a window into a larger universe, a universe that has the same flawed characters, hope-filled adventures and deep galaxy-altering questions as our own. A story like "Star Wars" helps us expand our own imagination, helps us better grapple with how we share and reflect upon our own stories. We dream bigger about what’s possible in our lives and our society as a result. And, maybe, we l...

Way back in June, 17 Jesuits from the US and Haiti were ordained to the priesthood. One of them was Joe Kraemer. And like many of his fellow Jesuits, as the summer months wind down, he’s preparing to start his new ministry as a Jesuit priest. Joe, though, didn’t “become” a Jesuit as his ordination. He’s been one for years, living and working with the Society of Jesus and its many collaborators. It...

Today’s guest is Stephen Schneck, a political philosopher by training and a well-known advocate for Catholic social justice teachings in public life. He spent more than 30 years at The Catholic University of America as a professor, department chair and dean, and he was the founder and long-time director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies. He’s worked with Catholic Climate Co...

The Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola on July 31 will mark the end of the Ignatian Year, through which we have been celebrating the 500th anniversary of Ignatius getting hit in the leg with a cannonball. This is admittedly a weird-at-first-glance event to be marking. What about Ignatius’ birth or the beginning of his ministry? The cannonball gets special attention in Ignatius’ story because it was such...

July 31st, 2022 ends our journey through the Ignatian Year. To mark this important moment in the life of the global Society of Jesus, Fr. General Arturo Sosa will travel to Loyola, Spain to renew the Jesuits’ consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. What is the Sacred Heart of Jesus? And why does a renewed consecration matter? For many of us, this devotion might be little more than a prayer card...

You’ve heard of FOMO – the “fear of missing out.” You’ve probably experienced it, too. It’s paralyzing. You find yourself trapped, asking the same question over and over again: What am I missing out on? And what will it mean for my future? Fr. Michael Rossmann, SJ, is back on the pod today to tweak the meaning of FOMO. His new book is called “The Freedom of Missing Out: Letting Go of Fear and Sayi...

Today on AMDG, host MegAnne Liebsch talks about how investment advocacy can stop climate change. Stick with us! Investing might sound boring, but the people who engage in shareholder and divestment advocacy are anything but boring. Plus, by holding polluting industries like fossil fuel accountable, these responsible investment strategies are helping reduce carbon emissions. MegAnne talked to three...

Why are so many young Catholics leaving the church? And what we can do to stop that trend and maybe even reverse it? There are lots of Catholic scholars studying these questions, and one of them is our guest, Dr. Tracey Lamont. Dr. Lamont serves at Loyola University New Orleans as the interim Director of the Loyola Institute for Ministry and Assistant Professor of Religious Education and young adu...

The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, was founded in 1843. It’s the oldest Jesuit and Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest in the whole country. Despite 178 years of educating students, Holy Cross’ current president, Vincent D. Rougeau, represents two huge firsts in the history of the college: He is the first lay president and the first Black president of the...

There are two temptations – at least! – that we often fall into when it comes to looking at our current state of politics. On the one hand, we may be tempted to look back at some previous period and say, “Our political discourse was really good then; I wish we could go back.” We romanticize the past and ignore the challenge and struggle and oversights that we’ve muddled through to get to the prese...

One cool thing about the Jesuits is the huge number of incredible men who have served the Lord so faithfully over the centuries. A lot of these guys are so well-known you can call them by just a single name: Ignatius, Xavier, Gonzaga, Canisius, Faber, Claver, Arrupe, Teilhard, Hopkins. But there have been thousands of other fascinating Jesuits who aren’t quite as famous, and it’s always fun to lea...

As a writer of spiritual nonfiction, one might wonder: Do any of these seemingly random stories, these anecdotes and details and bits of personal history, matter to anyone but me? What good is all this storytelling doing for other people? After all, the goal of good spiritual nonfiction isn’t to be another entry in a personal diary; it’s meant to help all people glimpse something new of their own...

When a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last month, the person host Mike Jordan Laskey most wanted to interview was Gloria Purvis. Gloria is the host of the Gloria Purvis Podcast, a show produced by America Media. She’s also a longtime pro-life advocate and one of the most outspoken Catholic commentators on racism. The way she ties these two justice issues t...

If you head over to the new website, outreach.faith, you’ll find these words to greet you: “Welcome. God loves you.” (At least, that’s what it says as of recording.) That’s not a terribly novel concept, right? And yet, for so many people in our Church, those words are foreign. And too many folks in the LGBTQ+ community may have never heard those words at all. That’s what Outreach is all about — ma...