Church Life Today

This is Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today. Thank you for joining us for the second-part of my two-part conversation with Daniel Philpott, Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. We’ve been talking about projects of reconciliation in international settings and we’ll continue that here, but we will also talk about the possibilities for reconciliation in the Church after...

Have you ever thought about Eucharistic justice? Professor Daniel Philpott has. He is my guest on Church Life Today, where will talk about the biblical notion of justice, the work of reconciliation after violence and civil strife, restoring people torn apart by offenses and indignities to right relationship. Daniel Philpott is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He earn...

The Christian hope in the resurrection of the body is nothing short of absolutely radical. It not only gives meaning to the hereafter but also to the right now. Because if we are raised with our bodies, then everything that happens in our bodies, through our bodies, and with our bodies takes on permanent significance. Christians know this through their faith in Christ, who raised from the dead pro...

What can we do to build a culture more welcoming of life and more devoted to upholding human dignity? Many might think those to be worthy pursuits, but have no idea what to actually do. But you know who not only has good ideas, but is putting those ideas into practice? My guest on today’s show. I am joined today by Jessica Keating, who serves as the director of the Office of Life and Human Dignity...

The full vision of Catholic education spans from the beginning to the end of childhood, and on into who young people become as adults. It isn’t just about students: it is about their families, the community of faith, the very vision and life that is shared among people. My guest today speaks to this comprehensive vision of Catholic education from his perspective as the head of a k-12 Catholic scho...

Americans do not talk much about abortion, but we can under the right conditions. This is one of the conclusions that Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researches posit in the report on their groundbreaking and comprehensive interview study focusing on abortion attitudes in the United States. Dr. Bruce is joining me for the second of a two-part interview on her report “How Americans Understand Abor...

American do not talk much about abortion. That’s sounds strange, doesn’t it? We seem to hear a lot about abortion in the news, in politics, in relation to the Supreme Court, but in terms of everyday Americans in their interpersonal conversations, we are actually very quiet about abortion..This is part of what Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researchers discovered in their groundbreaking and compr...

This episode is part two of a two-part discussion focusing on some of the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court in June and July 2020. My guest is again Prof. Rick Garnett of the University of Notre Dame Law school.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSub...

In June and early July 2020, we’ve heard news just about weekly of controversial or at least hotly contested Supreme Court decisions. Maybe you found yourself with strong reactions now again, but you weren’t totally clear about what you were reacting to. What, actually, was at stake in that case and what does the ruling really mean? I have questions like that, too, especially in cases that are of...

As the host of a nationally syndicated morning show, Gloria Purvis is used to having many people hear her voice. But in the wake of recent violence and injustice, she has been using her voice to amplify the cries against racism and the demands for personal and societal repentance. Today she joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to speak not merely about law and order, but indeed about sin and conversion.--...

What does it mean to kneel? For Catholics, who are a liturgical people used to kneeling, we have a sense for that. My guest today is himself Catholic, he is himself steeped in the liturgy, and yet what he thought he knew about kneeling changed when George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020.This is Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today. My guest is Eric Styles, one of my colleagues at the University...

Who is forming our future priests, and how are they being formed? These are questions that have only grown in importance in recent years, especially in the wake of recent scandals in the Church. What has been going on in seminaries, and what should be going on in seminaries are topics of great interest and often of great speculation. So why don’t we talk to somebody who knows what’s what in semina...

Have we gotten Catholic education all wrong? That’s a daunting question, but an important one, and potentially a liberating one. It’s the kind of question that the resurgence of more classical models of education may be responding to. And one of the catalysts of this resurgence is the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. My guest today is the executive director of this Institute, Elisabeth Su...

When you think about what’s important for fulfilling the mission of Catholic schools, do you think about the spiritual leadership of principals, administrators, and teachers? Dr. Erin Barisano does. As the superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Orange, the 10th largest diocese in the US, and the 2nd largest diocese in California, after Los Angeles). Dr. Barisano is of course paying attention...

We all know that we need better leadership in the church. Of course that means that those we already recognize as leaders must be formed for and embody the highest levels of integrity, honesty, accountability, humility, and charity. But better leadership also means discovering new models of leadership, more co-responsible models. Whereby the gifts and expertise of both laity and clergy, profession...

Bishop Frank Caggiano came to the University of Notre Dame to deliver a major presentation about promoting co-responsibility between the laity and clergy for the mission of the church. That is, the mission of evangelization. In his own diocese of Bridgeport, CT, Bishop Caggiano has exercised both tremendous initiative for attempting bold new ventures in evangelization and simple humility in recogn...

Professor Richard W. Garnett teaches and writes about the freedoms of speech, association, and religion and constitutional law more generally. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding the role of religious believers and beliefs in politics and society. He has published widely on these matters and is the author of dozens of law-review articles and book chapters. Garnett is regul...

Today I welcome a medical doctor and a bioethicist to talk about the developing situation surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. My guests are Dr. Kristin Collier , assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, and Professor Charlie Camosy, associate professor of bioethics in the department of theology at Fordham University. Our conversation was recorded on March 13, 2020....

What is the meaning of time? I don’t mean that as an abstract philosophical question but rather an utterly practical one. How we measure time tells us a great of what we think like is all about, both on the grand scale and every day. Our guest today has developed a resource for helping us reclaim time as sacred—that is, as liturgical. Brandon McGinley writes about faith, culture, and politics from...

Fr. Mike Schmitz seems to be somewhere and everywhere at the same time. The “somewhere” is the Diocese of Duluth, where he not only serves as the director of the office of youth ministry, but also as chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota Duluth. But it feels like he’s “everywhere”, because he has become one of the most prominent and effective public evangeli...

If you could build a Catholic school from the ground up, what would you do? What would you emphasize? What would you leave out? What kind of vision would you have for how you want your students to be formed and what kind of culture you foster? I talk with someone today who had the opportunity to do something very much like that, when a couple years ago he took on the position of Headmaster at Our...

Is saintliness a pathway for inter-religious dialogue? A forthcoming conference at the University of Notre Dame will give us a chance to find out. The conference is “Ways of Perfection and Devout Lives: Saintliness across Traditions.” It convenes March 29–31, 2020.One of the organizers of this conference is our guest today. He is Professor Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of theology at the Univer...

We live in space, in time, among other people, with all kinds of needs and influence and desires. Our lives are connected, so that what we do and how we act impacts others. Even more, our environments matter. The places we live, the earth we inhabit, our homes. But do we think of ourselves in those terms when we consider media and communications? How do we practice responsibility for our communica...

“There are places in the heart that do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering, that they might exist.” Leon Bloy wrote that once. It is a perplexing quote, but it seems to have something to do with the fact that for us to be present to each other and, most importantly, to allow God to be present to us, we cannot hide from heartache or pain, but must rather embrace our vulnerability as creat...

The beauty and challenge of Advent is to make room for Christ. We are called to be intentional with our time and to create intentional spaces that open us to his coming. On today’s show, we will explore traditional Advent practices of time and space with my friend and colleague, Carolyn Pirtle. Carolyn is the program director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, here in the McGrath Institute for...