Jesuitical

Movies about demons and exorcisms are popular at this time of year, and are—let’s be honest—pretty scary. Well, real life demonic possession is even scarier—and nothing to mess around with. This week, we talk with someone who would know. Dr. Richard Gallagher is a board-certified psychiatrist, a leading expert in the field of exorcism and the author of Demonic Foes: My Twenty-Five Years as a Psych...

We're dropping an episode from the Voting Catholic podcast in the Jesuitical feed! Voting Catholic is an original podcast series from America Media that explores the top voting issues in the United States, from abortion to immigration to racial justice, by sharing the voices of experts and activists on the front lines. Each episode tackles one issue through personal storytelling and socio-politica...

Do “real Catholics” have to vote for Donald J. Trump? That’s what Jeannie Gaffigan was hearing from Twitter trolls and loved ones alike following her husband Jim Gaffigan’s uncharacteristically profanity-laced tirade against the president and his supporters during the Republican National Convention.  This week, Jeannie, one half of the Gaffigan comedy duo and author of the book When Life Gives You...

Father Pat Conroy has served as the 60th chaplain to the U.S. House of Representatives since 2011 (with a brief interruption thanks to former Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan). He’s a Jesuit priest, but that doesn’t mean he’s the Catholic chaplain—he’s chaplain to all 435 members.  We talk to Father Conroy about his role, what Americans don’t understand about their representatives and what his pray...

Our lives are shaped by language, even if most of us are not poets. But it helps to talk to one if you want to reflect deeply on how language, in the words of this week’s guest, can make or break a world, can fail us or save us. Pádraig Ó Tuama is an Irish poet and theologian and host of the podcast “Poetry Unbound” with On Being Studios. We speak with Pádraig about his love for words, the politic...

In the midst of a global pandemic, an economic recession and renewed unrest around racial injustice, it can feel overwhelming to highlight yet another crisis. But the Catholic Church is only two years removed from the summer of 2018, when the sexual abuse crisis came roaring back after the release of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report and the crimes of former Cardinal Theodore McCarick had come to...

For many, the killing of George Floyd was a turning point. People of every age and race poured into streets across the country, demanding justice for not only Mr. Floyd but Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other Black men and women victimized by racist structures. But for this week’s guest, Anthea Butler, this moment feels more like a precipice than a turning point. Dr. But...

Yes, we know that you’re (probably) already sick of the presidential campaign. The next six weeks are going to be filled with television ads, yard signs, push notifications and Facebook flame wars among friends and family. Yet we know that Catholics have a duty to be in political conversations, so the solution at America is not to tune out but to be more discerning about what to tune in to.  That’...

Anyone who is familiar with “Catholic Twitter” or dives into the comments section of Catholic publications knows there are some ugly fights happening between Catholics on the internet—especially about Pope Francis. But is this just a social media phenomenon? This week’s guest doesn’t think so. Mike Lewis believes the pope’s most strident, reactionary critics are not just a fringe to be ignored or...

Please tell us what you think about Jesuitical by filling out our listener survey! It takes about 10 minutes to fill out and can be found here. If you’ve spent any time looking for Catholic resources online, you have certainly come across the work of Bishop Robert Barron. The auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the founder of Word on Fire Ministries and has been called a “Fulton...

If you are paying attention to the news these days, you have probably heard the term “systemic racism” used to describe the conditions in this country that made something as horrific as the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in broad daylight possible. The disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on people of color has also been talked about as an issue of “systemic racism.” But what ex...

In cities across the country, Americans are taking to the streets and plazas to express their outrage over the killing of yet another black man at the hands of a white police officer and to demand radical changes in how law enforcement is carried out in the United States. And at dinner tables and on social media platforms, many families and friends are haltingly, belatedly, beginning to have conve...

Pete Holmes played the game. He followed the rules. He went to church, attended a Christian college and saved himself for marriage. He was ready for God to hold up his end of the deal and deliver happiness and success.  Then his wife (the one he saved himself for) had an affair. Pete’s life started to spiral, sending him on a spiritual journey through atheism, agnosticism, drugs, to what he now ca...

“This is a group of people who are figuring out how to pay their bills every month. And now they’re going to be faced with a more difficult challenge, and the government isn’t coming in to help them.” J.D. Long-Garcia is a senior editor at America working out of Phoenix, Az. He covers the south west, where the Catholic Church is growing. During the Covid-19 pandemic, his writing has focused on imm...

What do you do if God has commanded you to do something that could put your health and even life at risk? This is the wrenching question faced by thousands of Jewish women who visit mikvah’s, small, public pools, which women immerse themselves in as part of the purity ritual after having their period. Unlike the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday, this religious requirement cannot be dispensed or...

You’ve heard of the “nones.” It seems like every week there is a new book, article or survey trying to explain the increasingly large segment of millennials and Gen-Zers who check “none” when asked about their religious affiliation. Tara Isabella Burton, a theologian, author and journalist, is less interested in what these young people are leaving behind (institutional religion) than in how they a...

Countries around the world are fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and Vatican City State is no exception. But since the coronavirus shut down Italy in early March, Pope Francis has pointed toward the world to come...on earth. The host of America’s “Inside the Vatican” podcast, Colleen Dulle, joins Ashley, Zac and Vivian to explain what Pope Francis has done to respond to the pandemic at the Vatican wh...

For teens struggling with substance abuse and addiction, the typical pressures of high school can spill over into the realm of disastrous. Recovery high schools—with smaller class sizes, counseling and sober social activities—are designed to support students in recovery. The first recovery high school opened in 1979; today there are over 40 nationwide. But before Kolbe Academy, which opened last y...

In every age there are a small number of Catholics who intentionally isolate themselves from society to serve God and the church through lives of “prayer and labor.”. They’re called monks. Gregory Hillis, an associate professor of theology at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., knows one community of monks particularly well: the Cistercian monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani. In a recent essay...

A 25-minute conversation between President Trump and hundreds of bishops and other Catholic leaders sparked an intense debate about the right way for Catholic leaders to engage in politics. While the conference call got a lot of attention, it is just one story among many affecting the church in the United States, and as the national correspondent for Crux, Chris White has to try to cover them all....

When the Covid-19 pandemic quarantined America’s editor at large, James Martin, S.J., he felt he had to offer some spiritual solace to people struggling with fear, isolation and uncertainty. So, he logged onto Facebook from his room in the America House Jesuit community and went live. Father Martin’s daily “faith sharings,” as he calls them, reach tens of thousands of people around the world who a...

Father Michael Trail had administered the anointing of the sick many times in his first three years as a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Usually, he would sit at the bedside and hold the hand of a person nearing death while family and other loved ones gathered around to pray and say goodbye. In the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the essentials of the sacrament are the same but it looks ve...

When the staff at America realized that Covid-19 could overrun the United States, the idea of drafting an original prayer was put on the table.  The responsibility fell to executive editor Kerry Weber, who was experiencing more anxiety than most about the virus, especially on the train commuting into Manhattan from New Jersey. She is pregnant with her third child. “I got to take something that was...

In late February, when the coronavirus still seemed like a far-off threat to many Americans, officials in West African nations began to prepare their public health response: They brought out thermometers, protective equipment and handwashing stations. When the first cases arrived in large cities, schools and airports were quickly closed. These nations did not have a large number of cases (and stil...

In early March, Patrick Gilger, S.J., boarded a plane in New York en route to Milan. He was on a research trip and going to study Italian in the historic cosmopolitan city located in Italy’s northern Lombardy region. The cross-Atlantic flight had only 12 passengers on it. When he arrived, the city had just been shuttered. Italy was on the verge of a brutal month of suffering and death at the hands...