Church Life Today

According to one recent study, fully half of the twentysomethings who were raised Catholic no longer practice the Catholic faith or name themselves as Catholic. Half. That’s troubling, isn’t it? Other recent studies have tracked the rates of disaffiliation from the Church and tried to identify some of the root causes of that disaffiliation. It is important for us to understand why young people are leaving the Church, but it is perhaps even more important to show young adults a Church they want to be a part of. That they desire to be a part of. That they are invested in and which is worthy of their investment and even their sacrifice. Nicole Perone is working toward that end. She is the National Coordinator of ESTEEM, a faith-based leadership program for Catholic students at colleges and universities across the United States. She joins me to talk about the challenges and opportunities of forming young adults for lifelong affiliation in the Church, the importance of mentoring and of developing leaders, and how

If you want to remain comfortable, do not let Jesus ask you questions. I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I decided that as a Lenten practice, I would spend time each day reflecting on and praying with the questions that Jesus asks in the Gospels. If you have ever looked for these, you’ll notice that he asks a lot of questions. • What are you looking for?• Why do you call me good?• How does your concern affect me?• Does this shock you?• Do you want to be well?• Have you anything here to eat?And on and on. What I found is that the more I dwelt with Jesus’ questions, the more I discovered that I was being moved by Jesus away from my own comfort zones. Those are the zones of my own thoughts, of my own vague desires, of my own expectations. Of course, I didn’t just read these questions––I read the pericopes in the Gospels where they are set. I found myself connecting these episodes and these questions to other parts of Scripture. And then I started writing. And writing. And writing. In turns out tha

To be a parent is to be busy. We often start by wanting to get everything just right but end up just trying to hold things together. And then Lent comes around, and we either dream up fantastic spiritual regimens for ourselves, or we think, “Gosh, I can’t do another thing.” This is normal. What’s more, Lent is for normal people––not superheroes, not gluttons for spiritual punishment. But especially for us parents, we might need a little help, a little guidance, for learning how to pray through Lent.Well, I’ve got good news: Maria Morrow wrote a book for us. It is called A Busy Parent’s Guide to a Meaningful Lent, available now from Our Sunday Visitor. In this book she shows us how to develop the habit of prayerfulness as busy parents, who are bound by all kinds of constraints. It is a practical book, because the best spiritual things are always the most practical things: they have to do with how we actually live our lives.Dr. Morrow is a scholar of American Catholicism and Catholic parenting, among other inte

“We have to imagine a people so deeply committed to their neighbors that they would risk their lives for them—and risk their lives perhaps not even to save them, but simply to be present and perhaps to speak to them of another life. As we imagine that, we begin to see the enormity and beauty of our own vocation as Christians.” This at the very heart of what it means to be “pro-life”Those are the words of Holly Taylor Coolman, who invites and challenges us, as Christians, to heed the central call of the Gospel to provide care to the suffering, to offer hospitality to those who in need, and to build communities that are indeed “pro-life”, through and through. Dr. Taylor Coolman is assistant professor of theology at Providence College, where she also serves as chair of the department of theology. She is here to talk with me about foster care, in particular, which was the subject of an essay she published in our Church Life Journal, and a call she has heeded in her own life.Church Life Today is a partnership betw

In the blink of an eye, digital technologies went from supplemental and exploratory in education to primary and necessary for continuing instruction during a global pandemic. This has been true in higher education as much as anywhere else. But how do you quickly move in-person learning experience into an online experience in an emergency, and then how do you plan for an entire semester of dual-mode instruction, with in-person and online education happening simultaneously? And what does this all mean for the present and future of higher education?These are the kinds of questions my guest asks and responds to. Elliott Visconsi is Associate Provost and Chief Academic Digital Officer at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also Associate Professor of English. He’s here to talk about the quick move digital instruction in Spring 2020, planning for dual-mode instruction in Fall 2020 and afterwards, and the role of technology and new modes of digital engagement for higher education, all for the ultimate goal of

Over the past year, I have been reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to my two younger boys, now age 7 and 9. We were into the third volume––called “The Return of the King”—and had just concluded the chapter entitled “Houses of Healing.” This is after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, from which came great suffering and destruction, but also great bravery and friendship. In the Houses of Healing, the wounded are being tended to, though some are so deeply wounded that their recovery is uncertain or even doubtful. But then Aragon is summoned to the Houses of Healing and is eventually revealed as the true king because he has the power to heal those who are wounded in body and spirit––wounds so deep that the normal courses of treatment could not heal. And my 9-year-old, Josiah, suddenly said, “That’s like Jesus who showed his kingship by healing people.”I want to talk about this kind of healing today on our show. Not explicitly Jesus’ healing touch, but profound meditation that Tolkien invites into in his

If you were to see the sacred, what would you see? Would you see beauty, light, color, form, simplicity, complexity, joy? One thing we can be sure of is that what we would see would be immersive and full-bodied. To really see the sacred is not about a fleeting or casual glance; it is a long, loving look that changes us.My guest today is an expert in helping people to “See the sacred,” She is Jill Alexy, who works with the Vatican Patron of the Arts, where she regularly takes people not only through the artistic treasures of the Vatican, but those scattered all throughout Rome and across Europe. She has launched a new initiative called “Seeing the Sacred,” that brings some of those treasures to you, where you are, while also teaching you and guiding you towards a more profound encounter with God through beauty. Let’s talk about Seeing the Sacred.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover mor

If you could see the full expanse of the universe, do you think that might change your perspective? That probably seems ludicrous to even consider, but I gotta tell you: it happened to me. In 2006, I walked into a digital planetarium, and a couple hours later I walked out beginning to see things differently. The man I met when I walked in? Phil Sakimoto, former NASA astronomer, professional planetarian, and, for the past 15 or so years, my partner in creating the unique planetarium presentation, “All Creation Gives Praise”—a journey of scientific observation and theological reflection.Phil and I are together recording the audio for the final version of this presentation, which will soon become “exportable” to pretty much any other digital planetarium in the world.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing sto

In a world where forgiveness seems less and less possible because transgressions are rendered more and more permanent, how can there be a tomorrow? Or maybe we need to ask that question another way: Is there a Christian way to have a tomorrow? Professor Joshua Mitchell of Georgetown University seeks to show us what is at stake in questions like these. He joins me to discuss his new book, American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time, where he addresses the ills of our contemporary society and attempts to chart a path forward, partly dialogue with great social theorists like Alexis de Tocqueville and Plato.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Every child is a mystery, but as scientific advances in prenatal testing grow, so does the temptation to know more and more about our unborn children. Will they be healthy? What are the chances they will have a disability? With questions like these comes another question: how much is too much when it comes to trying to know who our children will be? My guest is Dr. Mary O’Callaghan, a developmental psychologist who, among other things, studies, writes about, and teaches on “disability selective abortion” and issues of human dignity.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

In an age when belief in God seems more and more difficult to achieve, and perhaps less and less likely to be recommended, how do we commit our lives to God? This is indeed a spiritual question, but it is also a philosophical question, a question of incredible practical import, a question of faith and reason and beauty and imagination. My guest today dives deep into the question of belief in God for people like us, living in times like ours.Joining me is Fr. Ryan Duns, a member of the Society of Jesus and assistant professor of theology at Marquette University. We will be discussing his new book, Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age: Desmond and the Quest for God, which is out now from the University of Notre Dame Press.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Do you have hope for the future of American politics? Is now the time for the pro-life movement to take a leading role in that future? We’re going think about things that like on today’s show, as I welcome Dr. Charlie Camosy, associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University. We’ve got a lot to talk about, which means I’ll keep the intro brief.I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, thanks for listening in.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

When we think about bringing Catholic young people into adulthood, what should be included and prioritized for their formation as mature disciples? There is a lot we could talk about around that question, but today we will be talking about the crucial role of intellectual formation for Catholic young adults, especially in and around the college years. Joining me to talk about the intellectual formation of Catholic young adults is my friend and colleague, Dr. Tim O’Malley, who is the director of education in the McGrath Institute and teaches in the department of theology at Notre Dame. Among other books, Tim is the author of Liturgy and the New Evangelization, Bored Again Catholic: How the Mass Could Save Your Life, and Off the Hook: God, Love, Dating, and Marriage in a Hookup World.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcas

When Time Magazine named Sister Norma Pimentel as one of the 100 most influential people of 2020, they said that she “has been on the front line of mercy for three decades.” The front lines of mercy. That’s where God’s preferential love for the poor and suffering meets people who are hungry, thirsty, homeless, and seeking not just safety, but compassion. For Sister Norma, that meeting place is the area around the US-Mexico border, on both sides.Sr. Norma has been the executive director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley for over a decade. In that time, her organization has housed and assisted well over 100,000 people at the border. During his visit to the United States in 2015, Pope Francis thanked her personally for her work and witness. And in 2018, the University of Notre Dame awarded her the Laetare medal, which is the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics.To talk about the sanctity of life amid the humanitarian crisis at the border as well as her own religious vocation

Every year more than 100,000 people visit Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart (though of course, the year 2020 may be an exception). Nevertheless, those who walk in the basilica’s doors, discover a worship space that is immaculately maintained, utterly impressive, and completely orderly. But the order and intentionality of that church is not merely a matter of polishing and tidying up; it is in fact written right into the space itself: a space that was intentionally designed and ordered with a theological and spiritual vision. That vision is perhaps most visible in the light that bends through and illuminates the 44 stained-glass windows that contain 220 scenes throughout the basilica. Those windows tell the stories of the radiance of God’s love in the lives of his saints and the events of salvation history. These are Stories in Light. Nancy Cavadini is co-author of the new book Stories in Light: A Guide to the Stained Glass of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. This is a beautiful book, both in how it i

Our reliance on digital technologies and media accelerated dramatically beginning in March 2020. When we could no longer gather in offices for work, in schools for learning, or even in churches for worship, we found ways to make do through screens and chats and webinars. Even as communities and institutions started to open back up in the late spring or summer months of 2020, the increased reliance on technology persisted and continues to influence how we live, work, pray, and communicate.But that shift was not new. Again, it was an acceleration of trends that started long ago. Without diving too much into the historical factors, I wanted to share a conversation in today’s show about that focuses on what we’re seeing in especially the digital landscape, what is going on with us in our everyday lives, and what this might mean for where we’re heading.So I invited my friend and colleague, Brett Robinson, who is a media scholar to talk a little bit informally about all these things.------Live: www.redeemerradio.co

For Catholic Campus Ministries across the nation, the unprecedented interruptions to both typical campus life and the traditional ways of ministering to young people have generated frustration and trials, but also the possibility for rethinking approaches to ministry in terms of what is possible and what is most important. My guest today works with Catholic Campus Ministries across the country to help them sustain and enrich their work with young adults, and to meets the personal and spiritual needs of students in times certain or uncertain.Dr. Mike St. Pierre is executive director of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association. The mission of his organization is to connect, equip, and inspire ministry professionals, so that they can evangelize, catechize, and nourish the faith lives of students in private and public colleges and universities. In addition to his work in campus ministry leadership, Dr. St. Pierre also writes regularly on topics such as rest and focus, breaking from an over-reliance on digital med

This is Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today. Thank you for joining us for the second-part of my two-part conversation with Daniel Philpott, Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. We’ve been talking about projects of reconciliation in international settings and we’ll continue that here, but we will also talk about the possibilities for reconciliation in the Church after the sexual abuse crisis and Christians promoting reconciliation in the public square.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Have you ever thought about Eucharistic justice? Professor Daniel Philpott has. He is my guest on Church Life Today, where will talk about the biblical notion of justice, the work of reconciliation after violence and civil strife, restoring people torn apart by offenses and indignities to right relationship.Daniel Philpott is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and specializes in religion and global politics, focusing on religious freedom, reconciliation, the political behavior of religious actors, and Christian political theology. Professor Philpott joins me for two episodes, with this being the first. In the second episode, we'll talk about reconciliation in the Church after the sexual abuse crisis and the possibilities for Christians to promote a vision of reconciliation in the public square. If you’re listening on radio, the second part of our conversation will air next week, or if you’re listening on podcast, check out the next

The Christian hope in the resurrection of the body is nothing short of absolutely radical. It not only gives meaning to the hereafter but also to the right now. Because if we are raised with our bodies, then everything that happens in our bodies, through our bodies, and with our bodies takes on permanent significance. Christians know this through their faith in Christ, who raised from the dead promises the same for those who live in him. But does this decisive aspect of our faith truly shape our imaginations and affect the way we see the world, each other, and ourselves, right now? This hope should change everything. And if you find hope like that hard to come by, especially in these recent months, then I’ve got just the book for you.Today on the show, I discuss the new novel End of Ending with the author, Josh Noem. This is Josh’s book debut, but believe me, he crafted a narrative of an ultimately hope-filled vision of this very ordinary world that I can’t help but think is just the kind of truly realistic f