Upon This Rock

Sheilahn Davis-Wyatt, originally from Blessed Sacrament Parish in the urban core, has been part of the St. Therese Little Flower (STLF) faith community since 1991 when her family’s church closed. She is co-chairing the “Journey To 100” as STLF, established in 1925, reaches its centennial during this holy jubilee year. There are various opportunities for Kansas Citians who were once associated with...

Restauranteur extraordinaire Mike Garozzo sits down with Fr. Don to discuss how the meal, the table, and the feast unite people—something that Jesus knew so well. An unmistakable voice in Kansas City, Mike speaks with authority and hearty enthusiasm about his Italian roots, his hometown of Saint Louis, his lovely wife and beautiful daughters, his role as grandfather, and his many friends in Kansas...

Father Dan Reardon grew up in Chillicothe, Missouri. His parents and extended family provided a seedbed of faith that Dan embraced and took from his small town to every continent and the waters that connect them as part of the United States Navy. After formative years, he went to Philadelphia and developed an interest in both the military and the priesthood. He served our nation for twenty-six yea...

Father Mike Roach has served as a parish priest throughout the Kansas City-Saint Joseph area for over forty years, primarily in the northland. His compassion for those who are on the fringes of the church and of society reminds many people of the ways in which Jesus operated. His welcoming attitude, as well as his understanding of the human condition, draws people to him and the church. As he adva...

Michael Sanem is the director of Kansas City’s Ignatian Spirituality Center and director of Mission and Ministry for Saint Francis Xavier Parish. Educated in the Jesuit tradition and inspired by incredible mentors, he embraces a broad sense of faith that he applies as an author, teacher, and pastoral leader. Husband and father to three young children, he discusses the Catholic presence in our urba...

Kevin Collison has roots in Omaha and nearby Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota regions. He studied journalism in New York City, and his wife was a news anchor in Buffalo. They came to Kansas City earlier this century, where he first wrote for The Star and later founded CityScene KC, which muses upon topics crucial to our city’s well-being. A member of Saint Francis Xavier Parish, he articulates wel...

Dave Mehl and Jim Harris, along with Jim’s wife, Carol, talk about the importance of music in their lives and how it has played a central role in their worship of God and relationships with others.  Carol grew up in Saint Elizabeth Parish, where she was taught by Fr. Bill Bauman, a renowned liturgist and musician. Jim and Dave grew up in now closed parishes on the east side of KC (Immaculate Heart...

American artist John Bukaty grew up in Kansas City, yet he painted his way around the world and made his home in New Orleans.  He has also traveled far in his faith life, including difficult challenges, recovery from addiction, strong friendships, and great inspirations, starting with his parents, Fred and Rita. He offers interesting insights for listeners to follow their heart and the call of a h...

Father Don’s sisters, Joan and Veronica, join him on this podcast to recollect their early days growing up on a farm in western Missouri in a region with few Catholics. The sixth, seventh, and eighth children among eleven siblings were caught in the middle of older and younger family groupings that impacted them. The girls, now parents and grandparents, also speak about their hopes for their child...

The Roling Family hails from the smallest of many small rural German Catholic settlements near Jefferson City, Missouri.  Steve grew up there while incorporating religion with our human obligation to work for a better society; from learning political engagement while on the staff of a U. S. Senator and vice-presidential nominee in the 70s to being friends with our state’s governor-elect, he tries...

Jerry Anselmo’s life changed in September of 2008 when his son, Brian, suddenly died. He dedicates his remaining time on earth to advancing things his son did not have the chance to finish. Along with his wife, Mary Ellen, and their daughters, Julie and Lori, and a throng of friends, he honors Brian through the BMA Foundation that helps other kids, as well as their families and pets. The support t...

Jeff Angold and Kevin Connell have been friends since their early school days. Though they had different experiences, family backgrounds, schools, groups of friends, jobs, and activities, they stayed connected at every stage of life. After childhood, bachelorhood, fatherhood, and now enjoying the stage of being granddads, they offer commentary on what they learned from those who gave them life and...

Father Gerald Waris has been a priest for fifty-seven years. Growing up in Saint Joseph, Missouri, before the Second Vatican Council, he was nurtured by a loving family and parents who lived their faith both in praise of God and in outreach to the poor. His five parishes in the inner city, Northeast, Brookside neighborhood, KC Northland, and Cathedral in St Joseph broadened his sense of people and...

Father Greg Haskamp, pastor of Visitation Parish in Kansas City, reminisces about his upbringing, the priests who influenced him, his education, and his path to priesthood. He continues to grow and learn “on the job” through various assignments in culturally different parts of our local diocese. Returning as pastor to the two parishes in which he served decades earlier as a young priest, he sees G...

Father Don reflects on the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and how the church defines marriage, which is different from the way societies describe it as a civil union. Pope Francis makes this distinction when he suggests that church officials can bless people in civil unions, including same-sex unions, just as we bless children, grandparents, homes, vehicles, crops, animals, and many other creatures a...

Tom Laughlin grew up in Omaha and was educated by Jesuits; after becoming a doctor, he and his wife moved to Kansas City to work and raise their children. Mike Kopp grew up in KC at Visitation Parish, where his father served as a deacon, and his mother nurtured her eleven children. These friends now straddle the generation before them when discipline, order, and respect reigned with the one which...

Lane Lucas and Father Don discuss the church’s existence in our time, which is dominated by social media and online interactions. Lane served as a communications and marketing professional for the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese before doing the same for St. Charles Borromeo Parish in KC’s northland. He now performs this service for the Bishop Sullivan Center, which offers emergency assistance and...

Father Don and his sister, Barbie, review the September 28 Angel Fund celebration at Southside Bar & Grille with co-sponsor Dominic Welsh. Raising over $150,000 to assist children, families, and people in need, at the “When September Ends” gathering of friends, they report back on how the fund, started by a small group of guys, now expands to include many Kansas Citians and others who join thi...

This podcast is a follow-up to Episode #22, in which Mary Ann (Rolf) Welsh and her older son, Eddie, speak about family life. In this follow-up feature, her husband, Danny, and younger son, Stephen, further develop the portrait of family dynamics and beliefs received and handed down in their homes. Contemplating lineage, foundations, strong education, and other anchors in faith, father, and son pa...

Peter Clune sits down with Father Don as a follow-up to an earlier podcast with his buddies, Vince Hodes and Donnie Welsh. This time, Peter fills in some blanks about an upcoming celebration and fundraiser, When September Ends, for their group outreach to less fortunate citizens in the Kansas City area. It occurs on September 28 at the Southside Bar and Grille (1144 W 103rd St, Kansas City, MO, in...

Malik Ashford is a graduate student at Avila University and two-time captain of the Eagles football team, where he is known as “preacher.” Growing up in Detroit, he gained a good work ethic and learned perseverance from his parents. Moving to the California desert at eighteen and enduring a period of gloom, he discovered his role as a man of God before coming to Kansas City. Today, he combines stu...

Donnie Welsh & Vince Hodes are part of a men’s group that challenges members in ways of faith and acts together to help people in need. Years ago, they established an “angel fund” to support families in difficult situations that are trying to make ends meet: parents raising children in poverty, individuals facing struggles that seem unbearable, couples temporarily displaced, and students who w...

Sister Marie Joan Harris, CSJ, has served the Catholic Church in a broad capacity—much of her adult life in Kansas City.  She shares stories about how her faith was shaped by her Lutheran mother and Catholic father, as well as educators who influenced her, and suggests good ways to pass along the gift of faith to generations that follow us. She discusses the impact of programs at Avila University,...

Denis and Jenny Greene are an unlikely couple to be thought of through a stereotypic church lens. His life has been filled with adventure and international intrigue. Hers was altered when, as a young girl, she fell from a ladder and was caught by an older boy who told her that she was too young to go off the high dive. They have been operating on a spiritual high dive much of their adult lives and...

Keith (Bullhead) Allen, a longtime local high school literature professor, facilitates a book discussion group for men at the Farnan Spirituality Center. We read classical novels as well as modern and local authors. Through discussion, we consider various levels of messaging, and we explore spiritual levels of God’s presence in everyday experiences and encounters. By identifying with characters fr...