The Catholic Culture Podcast

St. Hildegard of Bingen, 12 th -century abbess, mystic, polymath, and Doctor of the Church, is best known to non-Catholics for something else – her music. We have more pieces of music by Hildegard than by any other medieval composer whose name we know. Her chants are beautiful, otherworldly, virtuosic and ahead of their time. Some of them were written for her morality play, the Ordo virtutum , whi...

We all know the secular world opposes the very idea of a person with same-sex attraction seeking any kind of therapy or spiritual counsel that might enable them to reach a state of healthy relations with the opposite sex. But what's odd is that many Catholics seem to have bought into this. Many assume that if someone is not currently attracted to the opposite sex, this is a static, lifelong condit...

Fr. John Nepil, priest and mountaineer, joins the podcast to discuss his book  To Heights and Unto Depths: Letters from the Colorado Trail . Topics discussed include: The modern view of "nature" vs. God's creation A morally responsible approach to risk-taking The modern origins of hiking as a secular activity "Wilderness" vs. "garden" - Catholic attitudes toward the wild places To Heights and Unto...

The standard textbook of theology in medieval universities was the Sentences by Peter Lombard (1095-1160), bishop of Paris. This collection systematically arranged the theological judgments of Scripture and the Church Fathers on various topics. For almost four centuries, those seeking higher credentials in theology had to study, teach, and comment on Lombard's  Sentences . It was formative for the...

A great spiritual master of our time, Fr. Donald Haggerty, joins the podcast to discuss his important new book,  The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty . He offers profound reflections on the ongoing, and perhaps future, crisis within the Church, with an eye to arousing an appetite for the greater spiritual intensity God desires his faithful to live out...

Mimetic desire, scapegoating: if you've been hearing these terms thrown around lately, it's because the French Catholic philosopher René Girard (1923-2015) is having a renaissance, with powerful people like J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel citing his influence on their thought. Trevor Cribben Merrill, producer of the new documentary  Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard , joins the podcast...

Ryan Hammill of the Ancient Language Institute joins Thomas for a practical discussion about how to learn Latin, as well as the central place of the classical languages (Latin and Greek) in classical Christian education, and the various schools of thought in today's classical Christian education movement. Links Thomas's article about learning Latin https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/dreamt...

The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years , by the great English musicologist Christopher Page, covers the development of Christian liturgical music from its origins as an elaboration of the role of the lector to its flourishing in the monastic and cathedral singing schools of France, as Roman chant was spread across Europe. One of the most important developments was the gradual...

A new biography of Ven. Fulton Sheen gives special attention to his high-profile converts, but reveals many other interesting facets of his life as well. Author Cheryl Hughes joins to discuss Sheen's at times shockingly direct evangelization methods, his outstanding television presence, his lifelong struggle with vanity and ambition, and the mistreatment he suffered from his rival, Cardinal Spellm...

St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius's book The Consolation of Philosophy , which he wrote in prison while awaiting martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. But Boethius also owed much to the pagan philosophy that came before him.  Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius's dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled Aft...

There is increasing speculation and concern about the role of AI in the future of the arts. Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to "create" without actually achiev...

Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, a liturgical historian and priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London, is the author of the new book A Short History of the Roman Mass , from Ignatius Press. Topics discussed in this episode include: The origins of the Roman Rite and development of the Roman Eucharistic Prayer Problems with liturgical antiquarianism (trying to revive practices allegedly from the early...

DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio De Maria numquam satis : Of Mary never enough. This saying of St. Bernard is echoed by many other saints. St. Anselm, for instance, says that it is impossible to determine the limits of God's grace in elevating Mary's human nature. St. Alphonsus says that if there is anything good we can say about Mary, not contrary to the...

In his new book, The Stigmatists: Their Gifts, Their Revelations, Their Warnings , Paul Kengor gives a historical overview of the phenomenon of the stigmata, focusing especially on one thing many stigmatists have in common: they receive visions, often prophetic ones. The book devotes individual chapters to seven canonized or beatified stigmatists: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena, Bl....

A collection of highlight clips from past episodes. 82 A Habitual Counterculture - Brandon McGinley  https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-82-habitual-counterculture-brandon-mcginley/ 68 What I Learned from Making Music with Mark Christopher Brandt  https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-68-what-i-learned-from-making-music-with-mark-christopher-brandt/ Vie et Passion du Christ  http...

Catholic poet Ryan Wilson rejoins the podcast to read poems from his latest collection, In Ghostlight , which deals with themes of memory in a "haunted" world, encounters with realities beyond us, and reinterpreting ancient myths (Orpheus as a hair metal singer!). He also introduces four Catholic poets from his new anthology co-edited with April Lindner, Contemporary Catholic Poets . Links  Ryan W...

James Majewski plays guest host in this episode, asking Thomas about his recent essay critiquing the well-known Christian film distributor Angel Studios (associated with The Chosen ,  Sound of Freedom , and  Cabrini ). Articles and podcasts mentioned: "Angel Studios: Questioning the hype" https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/angel-studios-hype/ " Cabrini secularizes a saint"  https://www.cat...

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was one of the greatest sacred composers of the 20th century, best known for his Requiem and his motet "Ubi caritas". His lush and tranquil choral and organ works combine a deep familiarity with Gregorian chant with the style of impressionism, imbued with a sense of prayer as he was a devout Catholic. Organist and choirmaster Christopher Berry, who studied organ under D...

A collection of highlight clips from past episodes. 77 Gene Wolfe, Catholic Sci-Fi Legend—Sandra Miesel, Fr. Brendon Laroche https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-77-gene-wolfe-catholic-sci-fi-legend-sandra-miesel-fr-brendon-laroche/ Ben-Hur w/ Elizabeth Lev (Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast) https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ben-hur-1959-w-elizabeth-lev/ 80 Bring Out Your Dead...

In his new book published by Word on Fire, Beauty & Imitation: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts , philosopher and novelist Daniel McInerny argues for a recovery of the Aristotelian understanding of art as fundamentally imitative or mimetic. More boldly, he claims that this imitation is narrative and moral in nature, even in art forms that are not typically considered storytelling arts. In th...

Poet & philosopher James Matthew Wilson rejoins the show to read poems from his new collection,  Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds , published by Word on Fire; and to discuss the tradition of English poetry, especially with regard to meter. Don't miss the title poem, a verse setting of a passage from Aquinas's Summa Theologiae! Links Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds  https://bookstore.wordo...

On June 29 and 30, in South Bend, Indiana, there will be a major and even unprecedented event in the history of American Catholic art: a new, full-length classical ballet production with a new story, new music, new sets and costumes, and nationally known dancers - with a cast of about fifty. This fairytale ballet, titled Raffaella, was commissioned by Duncan and Ruth Stroik in honor of their daugh...

A new book presenting material from Flannery O'Connor's unfinished third novel shows the great Catholic writer pushing beyond her established fictional territory. Jessica Hooten Wilson returns to the podcast to discuss her book, Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress . Please consider donating to Catholic Culture's May fundraising campaign so th...

Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Bohemian Catholic baroque composer who has at times been called "The Catholic Bach" because his best compositions are on par with those of J.S. Bach, who indeed knew and esteemed Zelenka. This episode covers Zelenka's career at the Catholic court chapel in Dresden with its grand liturgies inspired by Habsburg piety and Jesuit aspirations to evangelize the Protestants of Sa...

One of the most brilliant philosophers working today, D.C. Schindler, returns to the Catholic Culture Podcast to discuss his latest book, God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics. In it, he draws an analogy between metaphysics as the most comprehensive science in the theoretical order and politics as the most comprehensive science in the practical order. Examining how in metaphysics, Go...