Holy Smoke

Latest Episodes:

Why liberals turn a blind eye to the global persecution of Christians Sep 02, 2019

Show notes

The new episode of Holy Smoke is about the persecution of Christians. That's a familiar concept, even if we don't read much about it in the media. Damian is joined on the podcast by a fearless campaigner on behalf of the suffering Church, Fr Benedict Kiely, founder of the charity Nasrean.Org. Tune in to what he has to say about the Vatican's cynical deal with China – and Britain's wretched Department for International Development.
Presented by Damian Thompson.

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The two time bombs threatening Pope Francis’s moral authority Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

This week’s Holy Smoke podcast discusses two looming disasters for Pope Francis.
The first is the ‘Amazon Synod’ in October, at which the world’s bishops will discuss a bizarre plan to ordain Amazon ‘village elders’ as priests. The framework for the synod has already been published; Damian's guest Dr Ed Condon uses the word ‘Orwellian’ to describe the language it employs.
The second threat to Francis is more personal. When he became pope he lost no time making his friend Gustavo Zanchetta a bishop in Argentina. Bad move. Within a short time Zanchetta was facing allegations of sexual and financial impropriety. The Pope was informed of these allegations (and if you google them you’ll discover that they were pretty lurid).
His response? He plucked Zanchetta out of his diocese and created a plum job for him in Rome... managing the Vatican’s finances. Another bad move, now that Zanchetta, back in Argentina, is facing charges of molesting seminarians and other allegations of misusing money.
A mood of despair has set in at the Vatican. You’ll understand why if you listen to the podcast.
Presented by Damian Thompson.

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Lessons learned from Carl Beech and what they mean for Cardinal Pell Aug 07, 2019

Show notes

Damian speaks to journalist Catherine Lafferty, who was in court for Carl Beech's trial, about the sensitivities surrounding sex abuse allegations. Have the police jumped to conclusions in Cardinal Pell's case too?
Presented by Damian Thompson.

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How radical Islam taught the progressive left to blame the Jews Jul 30, 2019

Show notes

It's less than four years since Jeremy Corbyn's hard-left sect seized control of the Labour Party, and yet already its anti-Semitic views – so alien to Labour tradition – seem too deeply rooted to eradicate.
Today's 'Holy Smoke' podcast puts this sinister development in the broader context of the 'Red-Green' alliance – the love affair between the progressive Left and the Jew-haters of jihadist Islam.
On the face of it, this is an unlikely, even surreal, relationship. But as Damian's guest, the historian Richard Landes, argues, the two have something in common: millennialism, the belief that some sort of Heaven on Earth, is not only imminent but historically inevitable.
In theory, progressives believe that this transition to a new era will be peaceful; Jihadists, by definition, don't. But, as Landes explains, it's not as simple as that...

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Does Boris Johnson have Christian values? Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

With Harry Mount, editor of the Oldie and author of the Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson.
Presented by Damian Thompson.

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Why has big business become so woke? Jun 21, 2019

Show notes

With the Daily Telegraph's Tim Stanley and Father Benedict Kiely, from the charity Nasarean.org, which campaigns in support of persecuted Christians.
Presented by Damian Thompson.

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Why Bach's The St Matthew Passion speaks to all of us Apr 18, 2019

Show notes

Every year around the world, many people around the world listen to Bach's three-hour musical depiction of Jesus' trial and execution. Why?

Host Damian Thompson is joined by Thelma Lovell, musical scholar and writer, to discuss why St Matthew Passion exerts such a strong grip on our imagination.

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Why are bishops so boring? Mar 15, 2019

Show notes

For 30 years Damian Thompson has been bored senseless by the public pronouncements of bishops – Anglicans and Catholics. Why do they feel the need to speak in such dreary jargon? Why do interesting clergy never make it to bishop? He's joined by Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie.

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Gay smears and the Vatican’s sex abuse summit Feb 22, 2019

Show notes

The publication of In the Closet of the Vatican by the French gay polemicist Frédéric Martel has been meticulously timed to coincide with Pope Francis’s ‘global summit’ of bishops to discuss the sexual abuse of minors. But is it really the 'bombshell' exposé that it is billed as being? And what can we glean from the sex abuse summit this week?

Damian Thompson talks to Ed Condon, canon lawyer and contributor to the Catholic Herald.

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My sister Carmel on her cancer and her faith Jan 29, 2019

Show notes

This is a picture of my sister Carmel and I having tea a few days after our mother’s funeral. She looks cheerful, doesn’t she? That’s because she was: although we both missed our mother intensely, and always will, we had done most of our grieving before she died, as we watched her tortured by Parkinson’s disease and severe dementia.

Carmel looks well, too. And she thought she was. Ovarian cancer plays that trick on women. The first symptoms tend to be annoying rather than alarming. A few weeks after this photograph was taken, I was reassuring her that Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a common response to bereavement – which it is. But that’s not what was wrong with her. On November 1, I was sitting next to her in the consulting room at Guy’s Hospital when the specialist confirmed that she had advanced ovarian cancer.

Carmel is my guest on today’s Holy Smoke podcast. Please listen to it. I guarantee that you’ll be surprised by what she has to say. And you will understand why I’m so proud of my sister.

Presented by Damian Thompson.

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