Mezzo by Chris Damian

Chris is joined by Laura Kelly Fanucci and Jacqui Skemp to discuss the intense presence of ICE's immigration enforcement in Minnesota and how they are responding and processing it as local Catholics. They share personal experiences and feelings of guilt, anxiety, and the struggle to balance activism with everyday responsibilities. They highlight the importance of community support and the vari...

Immigration attorney Rachel Davis—self-proclaimed “Dairy Queen” and mom of a yogurt-obsessed 4-year-old—joins lawyer and gay Catholic writer Chris Damian to pull back the curtain on the hidden immigrant labor behind America’s food supply. They talk TN visas for animal breeders, how COVID border shutdowns almost broke major dairies, the chaos of the $100,000 H-1B fee, and why current immigration po...

draft Meg Hunter-Kilmer has become “the Catholic saints lady” for a reason. In this conversation, she joins Chris to talk about how the lives of the saints can anchor us in an anxious, polarized, and often unjust world—especially for immigrants, the undocumented, and those who feel like they don’t belong in the Church or in the heart of God. Meg shares stories of saints and blesseds who protested...

The ex-gay movement never really went away—it just rebranded. From “reparative therapy” to “healing ministries,” Catholic leaders continue to promote the same discredited ideas about homosexuality under new names. In this episode, I dig into how these theories shape Catholic seminaries, influence pastoral care, and fuel ongoing harm in the Church. We’ll explore why conversion therapy bans don’t go...

I’ve spent years digging into the Catholic Church’s approach to sexuality, and in this episode I take a hard look at the work of Dr. Bob Schuchts and the John Paul II Healing Center. From conferences costing up to $1,100 per week, to seminary workshops that push bizarre ex-gay theories, to gaslighting clients who challenge his methods—this story reveals how Catholic psychology has been twisted int...

Danny Peterson, ordained in 2016 in Newark and now a therapist in Salt Lake City, walks through the real mechanics of ex-gay culture inside Catholic spaces: chastity “support” groups that were conversion therapy / SOCE, Journey Into Manhood weekends, minor exorcisms, and diocesan referrals to therapists using unscientific, often unethical methods. He unpacks the “double bind” (“God loves you… but...

The Catholic Church uses the word “sexuality” without ever clearly defining it. In this conversation, I explore four competing ways Catholics understand sexuality—from gendered complementarity to the erotic desire that fuels saints and mystics. What does it mean to live a flourishing sexual life as a celibate gay Christian? And why does the catechism’s language cause so much confusion?00:00 Defini...

Father Bryan is a Catholic priest and registered psychologist serving clergy and seminarians in Vancouver. He shares how depth psychology reshaped his ministry, why “start with behavior” backfires in sex conversations, and how evidence-based therapy, informed consent, and clear boundaries protect religious clients. We dive into same-sex attraction in formation, conversion-therapy debates, self-acc...

Let's take a deep dive into the contradictions of modern Catholic sexual teaching. From Augustine’s negative views on sex to John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, Chris explains how straight Catholics are told they’ve entered a “new era” of sexual positivity while LGBTQ+ Catholics are left behind. We also unpack the harmful influence of conversion therapy on Catholic popularizers like Christoph...

Greg shares his powerful story of how he unknowingly entered conversion therapy through a Catholic counselor who blurred the lines between prayer, therapy, and friendship. In this conversation, we unpack how “Reintegrative Therapy” works, why it’s so dangerous, and how confusing boundaries can create lasting harm. Greg also reflects on accountability, healing, and what he wishes he could tell his...

Mary Rice Hasson, Theresa Farnan, and Susan Selner-Wright are presenting themselves as “experts” on gender identity at the Supreme Court—without any training in psychology or mental health. In this episode, I break down their brief, their credentials (or lack of them), and how their arguments misrepresent research, professional standards, and even Church teaching. If this is the best the Church ha...

Catholics often say the Church’s teaching on homosexuality is timeless—unchanging since the beginning. But what if that’s not true? In this episode, I uncover how modern pseudoscience and the ex-gay movement shaped official Church documents, the Catechism, and the lives of countless LGBTQ+ Catholics. From Freud to Courage International, from Christopher West to Vatican councils, I trace how a pyra...

Licensed psychologist and Catholic author Dr. Julia Sadusky joins us to talk about real-world care for gender-questioning teens: treating co-occurring anxiety/depression first, avoiding fixed-outcome therapy, and using her “plateau” approach instead of an all-or-nothing push to medical transition. We discuss faith-congruent, trauma-informed practice, “God image vs. God concept” work for kids who w...

Christopher spent a decade in conversion therapy, emptied his savings, and checked himself into inpatient treatment—only to discover real healing when he finally named the grief and came out. In this conversation we unpack the cost of silence, the day a bishop moved to fire him over a podcast, the blurred lines between “healing ministry” and therapy, and how grief and gratitude can coexist. We dis...

Catholic bishops are backing conversion therapy at the U.S. Supreme Court—even though research shows it nearly doubles suicide risk for LGBTQ+ people. This episode unpacks the clash between Catholic teaching, psychology, and the law. I dive into the bishops’ arguments, the blurred line between therapy and spiritual direction, and why defending conversion therapy is both a theological and moral sca...