AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

When Fr. Bill Barry, SJ, passed away late in 2020 at the age of 90 years old, he left behind a long and storied legacy as a spiritual director, author and Jesuit priest. Though he wrote many, many books, mentored generations of Jesuits and guided countless retreatants, there was one consistent theme that everyone who encountered Fr. Barry walked away with: God desires a friendship with each of us....

June is high school graduation season, and today's guest is one of the most impressive grads from the Jesuit Schools Network: Carlos Smith, who just finished his time at Loyola High School in Detroit. Loyola is an all-male Jesuit high school known for its rigorous academic standards and strong commitment to faith, and it serves about 150 predominantly Black young men. For the past 11 years, Loyola...

In the year 1838, the Jesuits of the Maryland Province sold at least 272 enslaved men, women and children to a plantation owner in Louisiana, in part to provide financial support to Georgetown University, which was struggling at the time. The Jesuits have long been aware of this shameful history, but living Descendants of the 272 enslaved persons have only learned about their ancestors over the pa...

As more and more of us are going back to Mass for the first time in over a year, today's episode is a celebration of our faith. Today's guest is the renowned theologian and teacher Dr. Thomas Groome, who serves as a professor of theology and religious education at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. He has an incredible ability to make difficult concepts clear and engaging, often usi...

Today’s episode is a challenging one. We take a deep dive into the tragic events gripping the people of India, and we reflect on the tremendous loss of life that has resulted from the second wave of COVID-19. According to Vatican News, as of May 29, there have been 27.7 million reported cases of COVID-19—second only to the US – and 322,512 deaths, placing India at the third highest death count aft...

Finding time to go on retreat is a challenge — even when there's not a global pandemic to contend with. But what if there was a way to go on retreat without having to book a room, set aside a weekend or travel out of state? What if you could just...go? In your own town, city or neighborhood? In this episode, co-host Eric Clayton talks with both retreatants and retreat leaders who have gone on what...

For Maka Black Elk, being a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe on Pine Ridge Reservation confers a great responsibility. And it forms the bedrock of Black Elk’s work — first as a teacher at Red Cloud Indian School and now as the school’s Executive Director for Truth and Healing. Red Cloud is a Jesuit-run school on the reservation. It was founded in 1877 and its history spans many turbulent and pain...

Listen to today’s show, and you’ll learn at least one incontrovertible fact: Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, is an absolute dynamo. She has spent close to four decades accompanying prisoners on death row and almost as long advocating for the end of the death penalty—work that first came to worldwide renown with the 1993 publication of her book “Dead Man Walking.” (The book inspired an Academy Award-win...

The arrival of more-normal life feels close now, at least here in the US. A lot of us might feel tempted to dive back in, to schedule gatherings and buy concert tickets and try to make up for lost time. Today's guest, Dr. Debra Mooney, suggests a more slow-paced return to normal. Any change is stressful, she told host Mike Jordan Laskey when they talked recently, even positive change. Dr. Mooney h...

A fun fact about the Society of Jesus is that there are more than 30 craters on the moon named for Jesuits, which is a great reminder that faith and science are not the adversaries so many people make them out to be. Since the beginning of the Society of Jesus almost 500 years ago, Jesuits have looked to the heavens to learn more about the wonders of our universe. (That's how so many got their nam...

Our guest this week is Mary J. Novak. She's the new executive director of NETWORK Lobby, a DC-based social justice advocacy organization formed by a coalition of Catholic nuns. While not a nun herself, Novak embodies a faith that does justice—the kind of roll-your-sleeves up and get to work attitude that Ignatian spirituality encourages. Novak’s career has traversed the intersections of spirituali...

When you think about the Catholic Church, you may be tempted to think in terms that are outside of history – the Church is more or less the same since Jesus’ time, right? The continuity is supposed to be obvious, untouchable. Of course, that’s impossible. No matter how much we may try to preserve something, the steady march of time, those slow and plodding changes to society and culture as well as...

The Hold Steady plays big, loud rock 'n' roll that sounds like the best bar band you’ve ever heard. But if you listen carefully to the lyrics, you’ll hear moving, funny, heartbreaking stories about broken people sinning, falling and reaching for redemption. You’ll hear references to saints and churches and Catholicism and parties. Lots and lots of parties. Today's guest is the songwriter behind Th...

Matt Wooters, SJ, and Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, are back to journey with us along the way this Lent. Danielle Harrison, co-director of the Slavery, History, Memory and Reconciliation Project of the Jesuit Conference joins.

If you have had any encounter with Jesuits – at a school, a parish, a nonprofit – you probably know a little about St. Ignatius of Loyola. You may know he got hit by a cannonball, that he wrote the Spiritual Exercises and that he ultimately went on to found the Society of Jesus. Good enough, right? Wrong. Fr. Bart Geger, SJ – a research scholar at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and Assi...

Matt Wooters, SJ, and Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, are back to journey with us along the way this Lent.

This is a special edition of the show we’re rushing to get in before this weekend’s Sweet 16 in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Why the hurry? Because three Jesuit schools have made it this far: the Gonzaga Bull Dogs, Sister Jean’s Loyola Chicago Ramblers and the Creighton Blue Jays. There’s nobody more prepared to talk about these teams and the past and present of Jesuit hoops than guest Jo...

Perhaps you're the kind of person who consumed a lot of science fiction and fantasy stories growing up. Stories like the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings have overt Christian themes. Others – Star Wars and Marvel movies, for example – might if you squint at them the right way. Regardless of spiritual intent, these stories can shape us, shape our imagination. We continue to return to...

Matt Wooters, SJ, and Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, are back to journey with us along the way this Lent.

Musician and author John Darnielle is the creative force behind the Mountain Goats, the critically acclaimed and deeply loved indie rock band he has led (sometimes as its only member) since 1991. He's also a deeply spiritual person with incredible religious literacy -- each song on the Mountain Goats' 2009 album "The Life of the World to Come" is named after a different Scripture verse, for instan...

Matt Wooters, SJ, and Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, are back to journey with us along the way this Lent. Special guest Pádraig Ó Tuama. Tune in on Saturdays for new episodes.

Joanna Williams has the kind of energy that sucks you in. Just talking to her is like getting a jolt of motivation. She’s passionate about social change and justice, but she’s also pragmatic. Williams recently became the executive director of Kino Border Initiative, a Jesuit-run ministry that accompanies migrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. She views her work at Kino like a global inv...

Matt Wooters, SJ, and Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, are back to journey with us along the way this Lent. Special guest Fr. James Martin, SJ. Tune in on Saturdays for new episodes.

Mark Kennedy Shriver has spent a lot of time with incredibly impressive people. His father was Sargent Shriver, who founded the Peace Corps, was the architect of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, and ran for vice president of the United States in 1972. Sargent Shriver was married to Mark’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver -- sister of JFK and RFK -- for 56 years. She, in turn, founded the Special Oly...

Matt Wooters, SJ, and Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, are back to journey with us along the way this Lent. Tune in on Saturdays for new episodes.