Church Life Today

What can we do to build a culture more welcoming of life and more devoted to upholding human dignity? Many might think those to be worthy pursuits, but have no idea what to actually do. But you know who not only has good ideas, but is putting those ideas into practice? My guest on today’s show.I am joined today by Jessica Keating, who serves as the director of the Office of Life and Human Dignity within the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame. Jessica holds a Master’s of Divinity degree from Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and sociology from St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia. In addition to her work in the office of life and human dignity, she is also completing a doctoral degree in systematic theology at Notre Dame. If you want to follow up on the resources or initiatives we will discuss today, please go to mcgrath.nd.edu/lifeandhumandignity.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Fa

The full vision of Catholic education spans from the beginning to the end of childhood, and on into who young people become as adults. It isn’t just about students: it is about their families, the community of faith, the very vision and life that is shared among people. My guest today speaks to this comprehensive vision of Catholic education from his perspective as the head of a k-12 Catholic school.Kyle Pietrantonio just completed his term as Head of School at Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta, where he served in school leadership for 15 years. He joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today from the McGrath Institute for Church Life and Redeemer Radio.------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

Americans do not talk much about abortion, but we can under the right conditions. This is one of the conclusions that Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researches posit in the report on their groundbreaking and comprehensive interview study focusing on abortion attitudes in the United States. Dr. Bruce is joining me for the second of a two-part interview on her report “How Americans Understand Abortion.” Dr. Bruce’s study was conducted in partnership with the McGrath Institute for Church Life and you can download a copy of the report for free at mcgrath.nd.edu/resources.I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, and you can find part 1 of my interview with Dr. Bruce on our Church Life Today podcast.------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 Chu

American do not talk much about abortion. That’s sounds strange, doesn’t it? We seem to hear a lot about abortion in the news, in politics, in relation to the Supreme Court, but in terms of everyday Americans in their interpersonal conversations, we are actually very quiet about abortion..This is part of what Dr. Tricia Bruce and her team of researchers discovered in their groundbreaking and comprehensive interview study of abortion attitudes in the United States among “every Americans.” The report of their study was released in mid-July 2020 under the title “How Americans Understand Abortion.” This study was undertaken in partnership with our McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, and you can download a copy of this report for free at mcgrath.nd.edu/resources.Today Dr. Bruce joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, for a two-part interview to discuss her report and to offer us some observations and insights about American attitudes towards abortion. This is part 1 of our interview, while part

This episode is part two of a two-part discussion focusing on some of the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court in June and July 2020. My guest is again Prof. Rick Garnett of the University of Notre Dame Law school.------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.

In June and early July 2020, we’ve heard news just about weekly of controversial or at least hotly contested Supreme Court decisions. Maybe you found yourself with strong reactions now again, but you weren’t totally clear about what you were reacting to. What, actually, was at stake in that case and what does the ruling really mean? I have questions like that, too, especially in cases that are of special interest to many Catholics or other religious believers: cases about religious liberty, immigration, healthcare mandates, and abortion law. To help us get better sense for some of these summer 2020 Supreme Court decisions and their ramifications, I’m happy to welcome back Rick Garnett Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also the founding director of the Program on Church, State, and Society.I’m your host, Leonard DeLorenzo and this is Church Life Today. This is part one of a two-part interview with Prof. Garnett.------Live: www.redeemerra

As the host of a nationally syndicated morning show, Gloria Purvis is used to having many people hear her voice. But in the wake of recent violence and injustice, she has been using her voice to amplify the cries against racism and the demands for personal and societal repentance. Today she joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to speak not merely about law and order, but indeed about sin and conversion.------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.

What does it mean to kneel? For Catholics, who are a liturgical people used to kneeling, we have a sense for that. My guest today is himself Catholic, he is himself steeped in the liturgy, and yet what he thought he knew about kneeling changed when George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020.This is Leonard DeLorenzo on Church Life Today. My guest is Eric Styles, one of my colleagues at the University of Notre Dame, where he serves as rector of Carroll Hall. He is also Associate Artistic Director of Afro-House, a music driven performance art company. I’ve asked him to join me today to talk about his article which appeared in our Church Life Journal, under the title “Black Bodies, Kneeling, and the Liturgy.” We’ll also talk about the neglected testimonies of African Americans, and systemic racism in relation to the call to solidarity and the Catholic Church.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter

Who is forming our future priests, and how are they being formed? These are questions that have only grown in importance in recent years, especially in the wake of recent scandals in the Church. What has been going on in seminaries, and what should be going on in seminaries are topics of great interest and often of great speculation. So why don’t we talk to somebody who knows what’s what in seminary formation? Good news, I’ve got just the person! Msgr. Michael Heintz is a priest of the Diocese of Fort Wayne- South Bend. He is the former pastor of St. Matthew’s Cathedral parish in South Bend, but now here serves full-time at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland where some 20 dioceses send their seminarians for their studies and formation as priests. Msgr. Heintz is associate professor of theology at Mount St. Mary’s, as well as spiritual director and academic dean. He offered a major address on the formation of seminarians and priests at the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Called & Co-Resp

Have we gotten Catholic education all wrong? That’s a daunting question, but an important one, and potentially a liberating one. It’s the kind of question that the resurgence of more classical models of education may be responding to. And one of the catalysts of this resurgence is the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. My guest today is the executive director of this Institute, Elisabeth Sullivan. She joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to talk about how the holistic model for Catholic education, that developed over two millennia, has been replaced over the course of just a few decades. And how Catholic Liberal Education seeks to retrieve what has been lost for the sake of a truly universal, integrative, and ultimately liberating education ordered to the fullness of truth, beauty, and goodness in Jesus Christ.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcas

When you think about what’s important for fulfilling the mission of Catholic schools, do you think about the spiritual leadership of principals, administrators, and teachers? Dr. Erin Barisano does. As the superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Orange, the 10th largest diocese in the US, and the 2nd largest diocese in California, after Los Angeles). Dr. Barisano is of course paying attention to what every education leader has to pay attention to (enrollments, budgets, staffing and retention, and supervision. But for her, the spiritual leadership of catholic educators is one of the key distinctive elements of what makes Catholic education truly Catholic. Dr. Barisano delivered a presentation on leadership and mission in Catholic education at the Called & Co-Responsible conference hosted by the McGrath Institute for Church Life. And today she joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to talk about her work, as well as Catholic education in her diocese and beyond.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radi

We all know that we need better leadership in the church. Of course that means that those we already recognize as leaders must be formed for and embody the highest levels of integrity, honesty, accountability, humility, and charity. But better leadership also means discovering new models of leadership, more co-responsible models. Whereby the gifts and expertise of both laity and clergy, professionals and pastors, men and women are brought together in service of the church’s mission of evangelization. So what role does managerial and strategic expertise play in this development of church leadership? The church is not a business, but parishes and dioceses face strategic challenges that call for the expertise of business professionals in an increasingly complex world. My guest today is not only thinking about these dimensions of leadership in the church, she also bears responsibility for them in the third largest diocese in the United States. She is Betsy Bohlen, Chief Operating Officer for the Archdiocese of Ch

Bishop Frank Caggiano came to the University of Notre Dame to deliver a major presentation about promoting co-responsibility between the laity and clergy for the mission of the church. That is, the mission of evangelization. In his own diocese of Bridgeport, CT, Bishop Caggiano has exercised both tremendous initiative for attempting bold new ventures in evangelization and simple humility in recognizing the ways in which that initiative has needed to be redirected or reshaped from time to time. But both the initiative and the humility are in service to a fundamental gospel ideal. As he said during his address at Notre Dame "The love that we have discovered has taken our life over and compels us to share it with others. That love has a face, and that face is Jesus Christ. The responsibility we all share is to witness to the one who saves us." Today Bishop Caggiano sits down with me, Leonard DeLorenzo, at the McGrath Institute for Church Life to talk about the mission of evangelization and co-responsib

Professor Richard W. Garnett teaches and writes about the freedoms of speech, association, and religion and constitutional law more generally. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding the role of religious believers and beliefs in politics and society. He has published widely on these matters and is the author of dozens of law-review articles and book chapters. Garnett is regularly invited to share analysis and commentary in national print and broadcast media, and he contributes to several law-related blogs, including Mirror of Justice and PrawfsBlawg.------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 Cath

Today I welcome a medical doctor and a bioethicist to talk about the developing situation surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. My guests are Dr. Kristin Collier , assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, and Professor Charlie Camosy, associate professor of bioethics in the department of theology at Fordham University.Our conversation was recorded on March 13, 2020.------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.

What is the meaning of time? I don’t mean that as an abstract philosophical question but rather an utterly practical one. How we measure time tells us a great of what we think like is all about, both on the grand scale and every day. Our guest today has developed a resource for helping us reclaim time as sacred—that is, as liturgical. Brandon McGinley writes about faith, culture, and politics from his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He works as Editor of EWTN Publishing, Inc., a book publishing collaboration between the global Catholic media network and Sophia Institute Press. He is the creator of the weekly newsletter “These Seven Days” and today he talks with us about how the reclaiming the rhythm of the liturgical calendar helps us to live our faith as Catholics.------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCl

Fr. Mike Schmitz seems to be somewhere and everywhere at the same time. The “somewhere” is the Diocese of Duluth, where he not only serves as the director of the office of youth ministry, but also as chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota Duluth. But it feels like he’s “everywhere”, because he has become one of the most prominent and effective public evangelists in the Catholic Church in America. His short, catechetical videos pop up on YouTube and all over social media all the time. He’s ministering to young people both where he lives and where the rest of us live—that is to say, he seems to be preaching and ministering to people everywhere. Today, he’s here with me in the studio for a conversation about the faith lives of young people, the importance of family, and a lot more. Thanks for joining me, Leonard DeLorenzo, and Fr. Mike Schmitz here on Church Life Today.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow

If you could build a Catholic school from the ground up, what would you do? What would you emphasize? What would you leave out? What kind of vision would you have for how you want your students to be formed and what kind of culture you foster? I talk with someone today who had the opportunity to do something very much like that, when a couple years ago he took on the position of Headmaster at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School. He was brought in, in part, to help build an upper school that went through to 12th grade, and he was charged with the mission of nurturing a small, family focused Catholic school. My guest is Thomas Curtin, joining us from his school community in Greenville, South Carolina. Prior to taking on his present role, Thomas was the principal of a well-regarded Catholic high school in the Atlanta area, and prior to that he served Catholic education as a teacher and in other administrative positions. Our conversation today will touch on the ideals of a Catholic education and the challenges

Is saintliness a pathway for inter-religious dialogue? A forthcoming conference at the University of Notre Dame will give us a chance to find out. The conference is “Ways of Perfection and Devout Lives: Saintliness across Traditions.” It convenes March 29–31, 2020.One of the organizers of this conference is our guest today. He is Professor Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Reynolds focuses on Qu’ranic studies and Muslim-Christians relations in Notre Dame’s World Religions and World Church program. He joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, to talk about this conference, the distinctiveness of theology, learning to disagree well, and much more, here on Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life.------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 Lif

We live in space, in time, among other people, with all kinds of needs and influence and desires. Our lives are connected, so that what we do and how we act impacts others. Even more, our environments matter. The places we live, the earth we inhabit, our homes. But do we think of ourselves in those terms when we consider media and communications? How do we practice responsibility for our communications ecology, especially in and for the Church? Our guest today is asking questions like that. He is Brett Robinson, director of communications and Catholic media studies at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. With a background in English and marketing, and a PhD in Mass Communication from the University of Georgia, he is leading a new effort to help parishes and dioceses develop practices and strategies for communications in a new media environment. In particular, he is developing a new program for “Church Communications Ecology” with funding from the Lilly Endowment. He joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo, on Church Li