Jesuitical

This week on Jesuitical, Ashley and Zac chat with Bryan McCarthy, who teaches philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, and is the author of a new paper, “Christianity and Psychedelic Medicine: A Pastoral Approach.” They discuss:  What the church teaches about drugs and intoxication How psychedelic drugs are being used in therapeutic settings, and how Christians should respond Bryan’...

Earlier this year, Pope Francis called most Catholic homilies “a disaster.” Well, we’re doing something about it. This week, Ashley and Zac welcome Ricardo da Silva, S.J., their colleague and the host of the brand new podcast from America Media, “Preach: The Catholic Homilies Podcast.” “Preach” releases weekly and features a diverse cast of the finest Catholic preachers. On each episode, preachers...

This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley chat with Linda K. Wertheimer, a journalist and the author of the book Faith Ed: Teaching about Religion in an Age of Intolerance. In a recent article in The New Republic, Linda explores renewed efforts in some parts of the country to get prayer back into public schools. They discuss: Linda’s experience of being the only Jewish student in a public school w...

This week, Ashley and Zac are joined by Bishop John Dolan of the Diocese of Phoenix to talk about losing several members of his family to suicide, a groundbreaking new mental health ministry in his diocese and how the church can better support those struggling with mental health issues.  They are also joined by America colleague James Martin, S.J., who serves as a consultor for the Vatican’s Dicas...

This week, Jesuitical is joined by Sister Donna Dodge, the president of the Sisters of Charity of New York, which recently decided to embark on a “path to completion,” meaning the over 200-year-old congregation will no longer accept new vocations (though their ministry continues). We discuss: How religious life has changed since Sister Donna joined in 1966 How the sisters discerned that it was tim...

“Can we consider Toni Morrison a Catholic novelist,” Nadra Nittle asked in an article for America in 2017. Since Morrison’s passing in 2019, Nadra has been exploring that question in more depth, and the result is her new book: Toni Morrison's Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature, out this month from Fortress Press. This week, Zac reintroduces this popular int...

This week, Jesuitical is joined by Pete Davis to talk about his new documentary “Join or Die,” “a film about why you should join a club — and why the fate of America depends on it.” They discuss: Why Americans join fewer clubs and associations than they used to Why churches are suffering the same fate The work of Robert Putnam in his groundbreaking book, Bowling Alone During Signs of the Times, Za...

This week on Jesuitical, we’re joined by Luke Russert, the author of the new memoir Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself. Luke is the son of Tim Russert, the legendary host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and served as an NBC News correspondent from 2008 to 2016. We talk to Luke about: What it was like to lose his father and hero Tim Russert the year he graduated from college Why he de...

Everything is on the table: immigration and racism, women's ordination, abortion, sexual abuse, pornography, gender identity and dating apps. We’ve never seen a conversation with the pope like this. In Hulu’s “The Pope: Answers,” Francis sits with a group of 20 to 25-year-olds to discuss their most profound questions and struggles with faith and the church’s teachings. The young people also get pr...

This week, Jesuitical is joined by Sam Sawyer, S.J., the new editor in chief of America Media to talk about:  How Sam went from working as a software developer to joining the Jesuits The Catholic Church’s approach to technology, and what A.I. and ChatGPT have in store for it His latest essay in America: “Catholicism, authentic communion and the way out of our polarization trap” And during Signs of...

Let’s face it: talking about climate change can feel depressing and futile. It seems like every few years there’s a new dire report, another agreement signed, and little progress is made. This week’s guest, Dorothy Fortenberry, is a writer and executive producer of “Extrapolations,” a new show from Apple TV+ that aims to shake us from our complacency by showing us what the world might look like in...

This week, Jesuitical chats with Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I., spiritual master and the author of many books, including “The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality.” Ashley and Zac talk to Father Rolheiser about the importance and universality of spiritual energy, sex, isolation and the differences between therapy and spirituality. During “Signs of the Times,” the team is joined by Mich...

For this special triduum edition of Jesuitical, we’re doing something a little different. Instead of a regular interview, we’re sharing an episode from the America Media podcast “Imagine: A Guide to Jesuit Prayer,” by our friend and colleague Tucker Redding, S.J. In this episode, Tucker guides us through an imaginative prayer focusing on the Way of the Cross, the time between Jesus’ trial under Po...

Before Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, B.V.M., captured the heart of America during Loyola Chicago’s Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2018, she was Zac’s hero and mentor while he was attending Loyola. To be fair, she had been many things to many people in 100 years of life. Sister Jean is out with a new book (written with help from ace basketball writer Seth Davis) titled Wake Up With Purpose!: Wh...

What if you could pray with the Black Madonna of Montserrat, on the banks of the River Cardoner or the cave in Manresa where St. Ignatius developed the Spiritual Exercises—from the comfort of your couch? Today’s guest, Vivian Richards, S.J., wants to help Catholics do just that. Father Vivian is a Jesuit priest of India’s Karnataka province and part of the team of Jesuits who developed the JesuitP...

Bishop Robert Brennan leads the most diverse diocese in the country: Brooklyn-Queens. Every Sunday, you are able to find Mass in over 25 languages throughout the diocese. Before coming to Brooklyn, Bishop Brennan was bishop of Columbus, Ohio (Zac’s hometown). This week, we talk to Bishop Brennan about the differences between Ohio and Brooklyn, what it’s like to switch dioceses as a bishop and the...

Each year, during Holy Week, Catholics hear the story of Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the washing of the apostles’ feet, and finally, the betrayal, trial and crucifixion of Jesus. These events at the heart of our faith can become familiar, even sanitized after a while. But this year, we can hear them all anew thanks to “The Passion,” a new musical production from...

Catholics love their saints. But it's not easy to become one. On this special Deep Dive episode of “Inside the Vatican,” we take you inside the grueling process of saint-making, which starts at a local diocese and involves dozens of people, a long paper trail with the Vatican, travel for miracle verification and a lot of money. We’ll hear from Vatican historians and journalists about how the proce...

This week, Zac and Ashley join forces with the hosts of the universe’s leading Jewish podcast, “Unorthodox,” for our annual Lenten conversation. As is custom, Mark Oppenheimer, Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz offer the hosts of “Jesuitical” their annual Lenten practices.  Links from the show:  Unorthodox Tablet Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catholics probably won’t hear hip-hop at Mass anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean the genre doesn’t have a lot to say about God and the plight of God’s people. Much like liberation theology starts from the experience of the poor when talking about God, hip-hop, which originated in the South Bronx in the 1970s, expresses the struggles for justice and freedom of people living on the margins of Ameri...

Jean Vanier was the founder of L’Arche, a network of intentional communities where people with and without disabilities live alongside one another in mutual friendship. While he was considered a “living saint” up until his death in 2019, allegations that he had sexually abused six adult, nondisabled women sent shockwaves throughout the L’Arche Community. And more recently, a nearly 900-page report...

What would it take to build a radically inclusive church? That is the question Cardinal Robert McElroy took up in a recent article published by America. In it, he called on the church to dismantle the “structures and cultures of exclusion” that alienate some Catholics, including women, the poor, divorced-and-remarried couples and L.G.B.T. Catholics. Most controversially, he argued that people who...

The human person is an autonomous, self-governing and self-actualizing being. It has individual rights that no government or obligation should infringe upon. At least, that is the traditionally American, classically liberal way of viewing a human being. But does this view match up with a Christian anthropology? And what does that mean for how Christians should engage in the public sphere? This wee...

We’re changing things up a bit today and bringing you a preview of a new podcast we’re enjoying and think you will, too. Where There’s a Will searches for the surprising places Shakespeare shows up outside the theater. Host Barry Edelstein, artistic director at one of the country’s leading Shakespeare theaters, and co-host, writer and director Em Weinstein, ask what is it about Shakespeare that’s...

For many Christians, the prevalence of the religious imagery at the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol—crosses, rosary, a flag proclaiming “Trump Is My President—Jesus Is My Savior”—came as a shock. But not for this week’s guest, Brad Onishi, who joined (and eventually left) an evangelical church that combined the conservative politics and “God and country” faith embraced by many who sought to over...