Talking Catholic

Our beloved host Jen Mauro was sitting in Mass last weekend and was blown away by the homily she heard from the priest. She was so amazed she had to whip out her reporters' notebook. The topic: Ordinary Time. We’ve done episodes on the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, but never an episode on Ordinary Times, since, you know, it’s ordinary. However, as Jen learned and we share with you...

With the March for Life around the corner – Jan. 20 – this week’s Talking Catholic focuses on the Respect Life movement in this post-Dobbs’ America. Joining hosts Jen Mauro and Mike Walsh are Donna Ottaviano-Britt, secretariat for the Diocese of Camden’s Pastoral Outreach, and Ann Marie Ours, the office’s administrative assistant, as well as Rachel Hendricks, coordinator of Respect Life Ministries...

After a two-week hiatus, we’re back! Hosts Jen Mauro and Mike Walsh usher in the new year by welcoming back a Talking Catholic favorite, Father Jason Rocks, Chancellor of the Diocese of Camden. This week’s episode centers on the life and legacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, recorded on the day the retired pope was laid to rest at the Vatican. Father Rocks, who is also pastor of Holy Eucharist Par...

"God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”  As the Catholic Church celebrates Christmastide, the life of Saint John the Evangelist is chronicled in this latest Talking Saints.  On his feast day, Laurie and Pete discuss this disciple whom Jesus loved,” including his penning of the Gospel and Book of Revelation; his devotion to the Blessed Mother; and how, through his exampl...

Recently, Mike had the honor of co-presenting a talk at Catholic Charities USA’s annual Applied Institute for Disaster Excellence (AIDE) on the topic of crises communications. It was such a great experience that he and Jen brought on two great people from the institute, Jennifer Dyer, Director, Capacity Building for Disaster Operations at Catholic Charities USA and Daniel Altenau, Director of Comm...

On today’s episode, our host Marianela Nunez is joined by guest host Mike Bress to interview Margaret Kaplow, Vice President at the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), the largest, private professional education association in the world. Their membership includes nearly 140,000 educators serving 1.6 million students in Catholic education. The conversation covers a wide range of topics...

In this episode of Talking Catholic, Kari and Mike had the wonderful college students from Kari's ministry at Rowan Catholic Newman Center take some time out of cramming for finals to share about their book club ministry. It was a roundtable discussion about the book the students are reading, Jason Evert’s “Saint John Paul the Great, His Five Loves”. Then we end the podcast with a quick movie revi...

It’s another roundtable episode of the podcast! This time we invite our friends from the Diocese of Camden’s Pastoral Department to talk all things Advent, those four weeks before Christmas that help us to prepare for Jesus’s arrival. It's a really great chat where we discuss the unique elements of the season and what opportunities there are to help us detach from the secular holiday season and in...

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 4th century Virgin Martyr, is this month’s subject on Talking Saints.  Learn about this holy woman from Laurie and Pete, who unpack her unwavering faith and attractive evangelization, and discuss the miracle of “Catherine’s wheel.”  Saint Catherine of Alexandria, patron of students, unmarried women, and apologists, pray for us! Listen to Talking Saints with Laurie Po...

It’s the beginning of the festive holiday season and we invited most of the Catholic Star Herald staff to join us to talk Thanksgiving, what it means to us, our family connections to it, and, perhaps most importantly, our favorite recipes! On this week’s show, Jen Mauro and Mike Walsh are joined by colleagues, Neal Cullen, Paul Worthington, Pete Sanchez, Maria D’Antonio, Cindy Soper, and Rich Hund...

This week is Discover Catholic Schools Week, a national initiative started by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), to help promote Catholic schools and Catholic education across the country. With this exciting week in mind, host Marianela Nunez and guest host Michael Bress, welcomed four members of the South Jersey Catholic School community to the show: Mary Whipkey, president at Ca...

It’s another classic Kari episode as she invites two amazing Catholics on the podcast, Kathy and Scott Woodside. The duo who have been staples in the Glassboro, N.J. area, talk to us this week about their long history as active members of the Church, as well as being lay leaders helping to instruct young adults on how to maintain a close connection to the faith and their families amid all the chao...

The great Paul J. Kim has returned to the podcast! A fantastic Catholic speaker, specializing in youth and young adult ministry, Paul was in South Jersey for four presentations last week and was kind enough to take an hour out of his very busy schedule to sit-down with us and chat about what life has been like since he last joined us (you can check out his first appearance on the podcast here: htt...

The school year is officially in full swing and our schools are enjoying a great start! To take a deeper dive into Catholic education beyond the classrooms, hosts Mike Walsh and Marianela Nunez are joined by guest host Mike Bress to talk with Larry Furey, Founder and Partner at Partners in Mission, a full-service consulting and professional education firm focused exclusively on developing excellen...

“Our God is a God of abundance.” Those are the words of Pat Slater, pastoral associate for justice and community outreach at the Catholic Community of Christ our Light, Cherry Hill, one of the guests on this week’s Talking Catholic podcast focusing on food insecurity. Hosts Mike Walsh and Jen Mauro talk about the Oct. 22 “Hunger for Justice” workshop with Slater; Donna Ottaviano-Britt, Secretariat...

“To be always close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.”- Blessed Carlo Acutis In his exhortation on youth, “Christus Vivit” (“Christ Lives”), Pope Francis said called Blessed Carlo a perfect example of one who “used the new communications technology to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty.” In their latest Talking Saints, hosts Laurie and Pete reveal the life of this 21 century Cathol...

It’s no secret that the Young Church in South Jersey is alive with love of the Lord. Currently helping the Diocese’s younger generation along the way are three young adults of the Echo Graduate Service Program, a service-learning opportunity based out of Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind.   Meet Cheyenne Schuster, Sean Farrell and Helen Polzer on this week’s Talking Catholic podcast as they...

The Diocese of Camden is conducting 30 Eucharistic Revival talks through Spring 2022. On this week’s episode we’re featuring a recent talk by Fr. Tom Newton of St. Damien Parish in Ocean City, NJ, titled “The Eucharist: The Meal We Share.” To learn more about the Eucharistic Revival in South Jersey and future talks being held in the region, go to: https://eucharisticrevivalsouthjersey.org/ Listen...

“What Saint Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known.”  From Saint Augustine’s lips poured these words describing this month’s featured saint- a student and scripture scholar with not only an intense devotion to the Lord, but a frequent bad temper and biting pen.  Critical of others, he was more severe towards his own shortcomings. Above all, though, it is Saint Jerome’s dogged search for t...

[Producers Note: This episode is not an ad for Cold Stone Creamery, however, we started talking to our guest about her store and, well, you’re going to learn a lot about the business :) However, don’t miss our conversation with our guest about her spirituality and how it’s buoyed her during the tough times.] We love to highlight Catholic business owners. We love it even more if they own a place of...

The Church celebrates Catechetical Sunday this weekend, and to honor the hard work of our catechists, Mike and Jen sit down with two who have spent most of their life in religious education: Dr. Lee DelleMonache, director of religious education for the Diocese of Camden, and Dolores Mozzillo, director of religious education in Christ the King Parish, Haddonfield. Lee and Dolores share what makes a...

We’re out of The Vault and into a bonafide studio this week as we visit with our friends from Domestic Church Media, Jim and Cheryl Manfredonia. The wonderful duo - who broadcast our pokey little show on their radio stations, app, and website - were kind enough to sit down with Jen and Mike to chat about how they met, their faith and what motivates them to broadcast the faith to the people. As a s...

This week marks the beginning of the 2022-23 school year for our South Jersey Catholic Schools. As a preview, we brought together the staff of the Office of Catholic Schools to discuss the new school year. Host Marianela Nunez, and fill-in co-host Mike Bress, chat with their colleagues, including Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Bill Watson; Assistant Superintendent of School, Sr. Rose DiFluri; and...

Last week’s episode was great, but it contained one terrible tragedy, our beloved Katie Comerford-Rivera only had about 5 minutes of airtime during our roundtable episode. Our host Mike Walsh decided that oversight needed to be rectified, so we brought her back this week to talk about her life as a fundraiser, how people can get more accustomed to fundraising, how to be strategic about it, and may...

"Nothing is far from God." With these words, Saint Monica displayed a fervent faith and courageous heart as she prayed diligently for the conversion of her family.  In this month’s Talking Saints, Laurie and Pete discuss the extraordinary life of this 4th century North African, whose tireless devotion and witness to the Lord inspired her son, Augustine, to follow her path to sainthood.    Monica’s...