The Open Door

Esta semana en THE OPEN DOOR (21 de septiembre) discutimos sobre la formación sacerdotal. Nuestra bienvenida e invitado especial Monseñor Felipe de Jesús Estévez, Obispo Emérito de la Diócesis de St. Augustine, Florida. Es el coautor con el obispo Andrew H. Cozzens del libro Esposos Espirituales – Padres Espirituales: Formación de Sacerdotes en el Siglo Veintiuno. (En Route Books and Media, 2022)....

This week (Sept. 12th) on The Open Door we discuss politics and…Texas, the Lone Star State. Our welcome and special guest is Jacqueline Abernathy. She’s the gubernatorial candidate of the American Solidarity Party in the November Texas election. Abernathy is a wife, mother, and grant specialist from San Antonio. She earned her Ph. D. in Public Policy and Administration from the University of North...

This week (August 24th, 2022) on The Open Door we discuss marriage and the family. Our welcome guest is Perry J. Cahall of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. He is the Academic Dean of the School of Theology and Professor of Historical Theology. Dean Cahall is the author of Living the Mystery of Marriage: Building Your Sacramental Life Together (Hillenbrand Books, 2020), a book w...

Welcome to The Open Door! This week (Aug. 10) we move, virtually, to Australia. We’re heading to Perth, the capital of West Australia. We’ll discuss theology and philosophy in the context of Catholic life there. Our welcome guest is Frank Calneggia. He’s the author of Assertion and Refutation (En Route Books and Media, 2022). In it he challenges another Australian thinker, the theologian Tracey Ro...

Welcome to The Open Door! This week (Wednesday, July 27th) we return to a discussion of the American Solidarity Party, our political home. We’ve been called “the Party that reads the encyclicals.” We surely strive to read the signs of the times. Already the 2022 elections are close at hand. Can 2024 be far behind? Joining us will be Patrick Harris. He’s just finished his term as the Chair of our N...

In this episode of "The Open Door," panelists Jim Hanink and Mario Ramos-Reyes discuss Catholic liberal arts education, contemporary Thomism, and the role of the papacy. Our welcome guest is Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, a prolific author who has written widely about each. He holds degrees from Thomas Aquinas College and The Catholic University of America. In addition, he served as Admissions Director at...

Welcome to The Open Door! This Wednesday (June 29) we discuss Catholicism and politics. In doing so, we’ll also explore the current debate about integralism and post-liberalism. It’s a tall order, but we have a welcome and returning guest, Thomas Storck, to help us. He’s the author of several books, including a new edition of his Foundations of a Catholic Political Order (Arouca Press, 2022). In a...

This week on The Open Door, Catholic panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss with Dr. Andrew Cummings teaching philosophy at the oldest seminary in the West, Mt. Angel Seminary, Oregon. And, of course, we’ll explore what’s being taught, from the classics to the contemporary. Our special guest is Prof. Andrew Cummings. He received his PhD from the University of Leuv...

Western Philosophy has been a 2500-year conversation attempting to understand the reality which lies beyond the changing physical appearances of the world. This perennial metaphysical discussion provided the West with a framework for its beliefs, politics, morality, and common values. In the 20th century, this conversation was rejected in favor of new Materialist ideologies like Methodological Nat...

This week on The Open Door, panelist Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder talk about homelessness. It’s a multifaceted human tragedy. But it does not defy solution. Our welcome guest is Ted Hayes, a veteran crusader for homeless people. He just recently hosted a group of California political candidates at an encampment in Venice, California. Ted is plain-spoken and a friend of ph...

This week on The Open Door (May 4th), we discuss retirement and redirection and making one’s heart sing! Our welcome and returning guest is Mrs. Leslie Shaw Klinger, OP. Leslie is a life-professed member of the Blessed Fra Angelico Chapter of Lay Dominicans, has retired from one career as a government civil servant where she held a variety of Administrative positions and is about to retire as the...

Today on The Open Door (April 20) we discuss power! Our welcome and returning guest is Ed Rushman, from Anaheim, California. Ed directs the enterprise IT efforts of leading companies, most recently securing them against ransomware attacks. He is a long time religious educator who prepares young people for the Sacrament of Confirmation. And Confirmation is the sacrament of courage! So it’s no surpr...

Welcome to The Open Door! In this program, we discuss integrating the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality and the practice of therapy. Our welcome guest is Michael Gasparro. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional clinical counselor in the State of California. He previously worked for four years at the Breakthrough Clinic under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Ni...

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder explore the philosophical and artistic legacy of St. John Paul II. Our welcome guest is Dr. Michael J. Healy. He recently authored A Primer in the Philosophy of John Paul II—In His Own Words (En Route Books and Media, 2021). Healy has served as Dean of the Faculty at Franciscan University of Steubenv...

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink and Mario Ramos-Reyes explore a dynamic pro-life group, the Healthcare Advocacy and Leadership Organization (HALO). Our welcome guest is its executive director, Anne O’Meara. In our view, she and her collaborators are indeed heroes. They are front line workers who repeatedly challenge today’s “throw-away” society. We asked her the following qu...

In this episode of the Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss the Supreme Court of the United States and promising challenges to abortion in Texas and Mississippi. Then we will turn to the pressing issues of “designer babies,” criteria for brain death, and hospital consolidation. Our welcome guests are Professor of Law Teresa Collett and Associate Profe...

On this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss dignity, its Christian roots, and whether secular liberalism can sustain it. Our special guest and returning guest is Nathaniel Peters. He is Contributing Editor of Public Discourse and Director of the Morningside Institute. Among the questions we will ask him are the following. Please feel f...

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder talk with Dr. Mary Lemmons, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, about the University Faculty for Life, a multidisciplinary association of scholars speaking out for human life, located online at https://www.uffl.org/ Some questions: 1) Professor Lemmons, Ma...

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss A Manifesto of the New Traditionalism. It’s unique! Written from a Catholic Worker perspective, the Manifesto presents an integrated, dynamic for the redirection of the Catholic Church. Our welcome and returning guest is Larry S. Chapp. With Sean Domencic (another guest of ours) and Marc Barn...

This week, we explore concrete and person to person ways of serving low income people and the homeless. Our guest is Mary Agnes Erlandson. She directs St. Margaret's Center, a program of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles. The Center provides help to about 10,000 unduplicated individuals annually. Over the past 34 years, people with multiple needs have come to the Center for food, shelter, legal, m...

The Open Door (December 15th) we discuss evangelizing young people. Statistics suggest that many of them will join the ranks of the “Nones” and profess no religious identification. Some commentators take the view that the “Nones” are prone to replace religion with politics. Our welcome and returning guest is Ed Rushman of Anaheim, California. He is a consultant who directs the enterprise IT effort...

Welcome to The Open Door! This week (December 1) we discuss the direction of the Catholic Church, especially in the United States, and the currents of thought—and action—that shape that direction. Our welcome guest is Larry S. Chapp. He taught theology for two decades at De Sales University. Currently he owns and manages, with his wife Carrie, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm in Harveys Lake,...

Welcome to The Open Door! (November 17th) Today we discuss theology, bioethics, and evangelizing the culture. We’ll also explore how it can be necessary to challenge one’s academic alma mater. Our welcome guest is Samantha Stephenson. She holds three degrees from Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles). She has hosted the podcast Brave New Us: Bioethics in the Light of the Catholic Faith and blo...

This week on The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss teaching, writing, and the evangelization of culture. Our welcome and returning guest is Patrick Tomassi. He teaches junior high and high school math and science at Trinity Academy in Portland, Oregon. He even takes students backpacking around the Pacific Northwest! Tomassi’s work has appeared in P...

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss political philosophy. We’ll introduce the work of the late John Rawls and offer a critical examination of his legacy. Their special and welcome guest is Christopher Wolfe. Prof. Wolfe is Distinguished Research Scholar at the University of Dallas and Emeritus Professor at Marquette University....