Ave Maria in the Afternoon Full Hours

Segment 1: “Blessed is He who Comes in the Name of the Lord!” (2 segments) This Sunday we enter into Jerusalem with Jesus and follow His paths through Holy Week down the road to Calvary. They’re among the most important readings of the year, and we’ll unpack them with Rob Corzine. Segment 2: Fulton Sheen’s War on Communism (2 segments) Fulton Sheen’s beatification is finally moving forward. He’s w...

Segment 1: Europe’s Long March to Secularism Two recent stories out of Europe highlight just how far the Continent is going down the road to Secularism. In Finland, a Christian member of Parliament has been convicted for expressing her Christian beliefs on marriage. And in Belgium, a radio host said his countrymen wouldn’t be offended by the smashing of a Marian statue because “we’re not a very re...

Segment 1: “Let’s not be Holy Week Bystanders” Do we fully embrace the mysteries of Holy Week? Or are we like the people waving palms, mere bystanders along the Via Dolorosa? We talk more about the meaning of Holy Week with Bishop Daniel Thomas. Segment 2: Pope Leo Addresses the Latin Mass (3 segments) Pope Leo XIV has called for renewed unity in the Church’s liturgical life, urging French bishops...

Segment 1: America’s Catholic Heritage should surprise nobody Michael Knowles has been widely praised for comments he delivered at a recent Heritage Foundation event, highlighting the many Catholic influences on the thought of the Founding Fathers. He’s certainly right, but when we treat his observations as something novel we betray our own historical ignorance. We must not overlook the Catholic h...

Segment 1: National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Gathers the Faithful not to posture, but to pray The recent National Catholic Prayer Breakfast was a celebration of Catholicism’s contributions to the nation and liberty. Andrea Picciotti-Bayer was there and gives us a look. Segment 2: India enacts another anti-conversion bill Catholic leaders in one of India’s most populous states are demanding the re...

Segment 1: Why did God choose Mary? Some Protestant thinkers will tell you that Mary was not “special” - God could have chosen any other young woman to be the mother of Christ. Some will go as far as to say Mary was merely an “incubator” for Jesus. But the Divine choice was infinitely deeper. Mary was never a random girl who stepped into a vacant role. Marcus has more. Segment 2: Inside Gosnell’s...

Segment 1: Kermit Gosnell: A Symptom of the Culture Notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell has died in prison at the age of 85. For 30 years, Gosnell operated out of an abortion clinic with conditions so disturbing it was nicknamed the “house of horrors” after law enforcement raided the clinic that had gone unchecked. But his life is simply the product of a sexualized culture gone awry. Marcus has m...

Segment 1: Forgiveness: What it is and what it isn’t Jesus famously tells Peter that he must forgive not just seven times, but seventy-seven times. But what does it really mean to forgive? Dr Greg Popcak joins us. Segment 2: Special Holy Week Event – See the Passion Relics (2 segments) Holy Week is upon us, and on Monday St. Michael’s Church in Livonia will feature a special exhibit of relics from...

Segment 1: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus is confronted with the woman caught in adultery. He tells the crowds about to stone her that anyone who is without sin may cast the first stone, then invites the women to go and sin no more. We talk more about the reading with Doug Keck. Segment 2: Death with Dignity – but without a...

Segment 1: Our Culture needs a Roundhouse Kick The last week has seen the deaths of two men who represented two very different forms of masculinity. Chuck Norris was the archetype of the “man’s man” whose characters defended the weak and stood up for justice. Meanwhile, OnlyFans owner Leo Radvinsky raked in nearly $2 million each day from his website, which was largely driven by pornographic conte...

Segment 1: Jesus Raises Lazarus (2 segments) In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus raises Lazarus. We unpack the readings with Rob Corzine. Segment 2: The Best Films for Lent (2 segments) The best movies are the ones that, in some way or another, draw us closer to God – and there are many that make for great Lenten viewing. Monica Miller has some suggestions. This is a public episode. If you would like t...

Segment 1: Marcus’ Monologue: The Slippery Slope of Scientism GK Chesterton once observed that we are perishing not from want of wonders, but from want of wonder. Scientism, the claim that empirical science is the only real form of knowledge, has led to a deeply dehumanized worldview. Marcus has more. Segment 2: The Hell of Overthinking Thinking is good, but overthinking is not. It warps our sense...

Segment 1: Cardinal Cupich Critic Phased Out of Catholic Conference Board (2 segments) Nearly six months after publicly criticizing Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plan to give a “lifetime achievement” award to a pro-abortion-rights senator, a long-serving lay member of the Catholic Conference of Illinois (CCI) board of directors is being involuntarily phased out of his role. Matthew Bunson has more on th...

Segment 1: When St Joseph met Faust On March 19th, 1859, Charles Grenoad’s Faust received its premiere at the Théâtre Le Cric in Paris. It tells the story of a man who makes a pact with a demon; his soul in exchange for unlimited worldly knowledge and pleasure. It’s the mirror opposite of the “Terror of Demons,” St. Joseph, who we celebrate today. Marcus has more. Segment 2: Fatherhood and St. Jos...

Segment 1: Parental Rights – the Cornerstone of American Law For Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, raising daughters in today’s culture has reinforced a lesson that no policy document can capture: Girls flourish when they are known, loved and accompanied by the people closest to them. No school counselor, no government agency and no ideology can replace the presence of an attentive and loving parent. She jo...

Segment 1: The Grace of Gratitude Studies are showing that gratitude is on the decline in the developed world. We have lost our sense that good things come from something beyond ourselves. Marcus discusses the effects of gratitude on society. Segment 2: “Justice for Tree, but not for thee” The University of Sussex has published a “toolkit” to enable political and legal action to grant “rights” to...

Segment 1: The West is Spoiled and the East is Starving It’s easy for Catholics in the West to take for granted the myriad of resources available to them, and their freedom to worship and to express and grow deeper in their faith. During his time in Taiwan, Marcus encountered people who grew up in a society dominated by the Chinese Communist Party, where the human person is merely a cog in the adm...

Segment 1: Would St Patrick want us to Drink? How did St. Patrick’s Day devolve from a day honoring a heroic missionary to a day associated with binge drinking and debauchery? In his youth, Marcus struggled with alcohol. He reflects on the association St. Patrick’s Day has with binge drinking, what the church says about drinking, and how the real St Patrick can be a virtuous model for us all. Segm...

Segment 1: The Tragic Loss of the Sacramental Worldview One of the deepest wounds of modernity is the loss of a sacramental worldview, leading to a society that sees the material world as either meaningless or utilitarian. Marcus discusses. Segment 2: Meet the Sister Confronting the Mental Health Crisis When Sister Theres Hong Phuoc Tran teaches mental health workshops at Catholic parishes, school...

Segment 1: March Madness and the Messiah The NCAA Men’s basketball tournament tips off this week, and millions of people have joined the quest for the “Perfect Bracket.” The odds of guessing all 65 matchups correctly are astronomical – roughly 1 in 9 quintillion if you flip a coin on every game, and about 1 in 120 billion if you are knowledgeable about college basketball. But the odds that Jesus “...

Segment 1: Jesus Heals the Blind Man (2 segments) In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus heals a man born blind. He explains to the disciples that the man was not blind due to anyone’s sins, and responds to attacks from the Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath. We unpack the readings with Rob Corzine. Segment 2: In the battle between faith and science, you don’t have to choose a side. (2 segments) The rif...

Segment 1: Why Care about the Caliphate? The Sokoto Caliphate fell in Northern Nigeria on this day in 1903. Marcus grew up in a nation where Sunni Islam was the predominant religion and explains the need to understand how Islam views the idea of a Caliphate. Segment 2: The Death of Caesar and the Rise of the West “Beware the Ides of March!” It was on March 15 that Julius Caesar was fatally stabbed...

Segment 1: What Threats does AI actually pose? (3 segments) Artificial Intelligence has become one of the great controversies of our time. Will it inevitably try to overthrow us, as is depicted in so many films? It is simply another tool in our toolbox? Or is it somewhere in between? Thomas Williams is our guest. Segment 2: The Covenant of Social Fabrics ( In today’s First Reading from Jeremiah Ch...

Segment 1: The Challenges Facing Catholic Men Nate Kaji is a senior at Fr Gabriel Richard High School who joins us with a young man’s perspective on the crisis of manhood in our culture. It’s part of our conversation at the upcoming Familiaris Consortio conference, which will further explore Catholic manhood. He and president Joe Jordano join us. Segment 2: Fr. Dave Pivonka Reflects on Leading a C...

Segment 1: “I have not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples that he has “not come to do away with the Law, but to fulfill it.” In doing so, He deliberately places Himself in the grander covenant story of Israel and the drama of Salvation history. Marcus takes a look. Segment 2: A Vaccine for the Pandemic of Lunacy (3 segments) What is happe...