Jesuitical

Latest Episodes:

Life as a married Catholic priest and why most preaching is terrible Apr 08, 2022

Show notes

Father Joshua Whitfield is a priest of the Diocese of Dallas and the author of The Crisis of Bad Preaching. He’s also a married man and a father of six. This week, Father Joshua joins Ashley and Zac to talk about his vocation as a husband, father and father, why most Catholic homilies are just plain awful and why he still has hope for the upcoming synod on synodality. Ashley and Zac also discuss a recent semi-secret gathering of bishops, theologians and journalists and whether or not God still speaks to us in our dreams.

Links from the Show:

Not many Catholics care about the synod. But I’m not ready to give up on it yet.

Father Josh: A married Catholic priest in a celibate world

Bishops have frank conversations with lay theologians about Pope Francis, U.S. Church and Vatican II in semi-off-the-record meeting

The Crisis of Bad Preaching

Join Jesuitical in Italy!

Wondrium special offer

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We need to talk about sex Apr 01, 2022

Show notes

The sexual revolution and second-wave feminism were supposed to empower women in society—and in the bedroom. So why are so many millennial women miserable when it comes to their dating and sex lives? Even after the #MeToo movement enshrined “enthusiastic consent” as the baseline requirement for sexual encounters, women (and men) continue to have sex they don’t really want and don’t enjoy.

This week, we talk to Christine Emba, herself a millennial woman, who has surveyed this bleak landscape and think we need to build a new sexual ethic based on empathy and “seeking the good of the other.” Christine is a columnist for The Washington Post and the author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. We ask her why consent is not enough to guarantee ethical sex, how young Catholics can have conversations around these fraught issues and what values a healthier sexual culture would uphold.

No Signs of the Times or faith-sharing this week—but that doesn’t mean there was not a lot of Catholic news! Check out some of the great work being done by our America colleagues in the links below.

Links from the show:

What’s on tap?

Coffee

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Nukes, contemplation and vocation: An introduction to Thomas Merton for young Catholics Mar 25, 2022

Show notes

During his historic address to a joint session of Congress in 2015, Pope Francis raised up four virtuous Americans as models of citizenship: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. That last name was certainly familiar to Catholics who came of age after Vatican II, but do young Catholics know much about this mid-century Trappist monk and author?

Thomas Merton is best known for his spiritual autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain. But he was also a prolific letter writer and, though living in a monastery, engaged with the most pressing social and political issues of the 1950s and ’60s: the civil rights movement, nuclear proliferation and the Vietnam War. In his new book, Man of Dialogue: Thomas Merton's Catholic Vision, Greg Hillis introduces Merton to the next generation of Catholics. We ask Greg why some question Merton’s Catholicity, what we should make of the monk’s brief affair with a nurse and why his writing is still relevant today.

In Signs of the Times, we discuss Pope Francis’ major overhaul of the Roman Curia and what it means for the mission of the church.

Links from the show:

Join Jesuitical in Italy!

Pope Francis is drawing on Vatican II to radically change how the Catholic Church is governed

Man of Dialogue: Thomas Merton's Catholic Vision

Wondrium special offer

What’s on tap?

Something. Anything!—feel free to pour yourself a glass if you’re listening on Friday since it’s the Feast of the Annunciation. Fasting dispensed!

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How the Jesuits are reinventing college education (again) Mar 18, 2022

Show notes

The Jesuits, from their founding, have always been heavily involved in education. And in the last 50 years, they’ve made it their mission to expand access to their world-class schools to the poor who have traditionally been excluded and left behind. This week, Ashley and Zac talk with Steve Katsouros, S.J., founder of the Come to Believe network, “a results-oriented, affordable 2-year commuter program offering associate degrees in the liberal arts and sciences, designed to ensure that students complete their degrees with little to no debt and are prepared for either a 4-year higher educational institution or the workforce.”

During Signs of the Times, Matt Malone, S.J. comes on the show to talk about America Media’s new marketing campaign, #OwnYourFaith. And then they get into the question: Where does accountability end and cancel culture begin?

What’s on tap:

Manhattan (dispensed for St. Patrick’s Day)

Links from the show:

Join us in NYC: Film screening, “POPE FRANCIS IN IRAQ”

Come to Believe: How the Jesuits Are Reinventing Education (Again)

Come to Believe Network

The Catholic Church belongs to all of us. It’s time to #OwnYourFaith.

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What it's like to give up English for Lent Mar 11, 2022

Show notes

If you think meatless Fridays or forgoing sweets for the duration of Lent is hard, imagine giving up English—or whatever your primary language is. This week’s guest, Jimin Kang, did just that last year. Jimin speaks five languages but is most comfortable in English. We ask her how giving up English affected her relationship with her family and with God, and how people who only speak one language can adapt this Lenten practice to open themselves up to new people and cultures.

In Signs of the Times, Zac and Ashley talk with their colleague Jim McDermott, S.J., about the Arizona priest who performed thousands of baptisms that have been declared invalid because he used one wrong word. How should the church respond when priests make mistakes like this?

I Gave Up English for Lent

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Jesuitical Lent 2.0 Mar 06, 2022

Show notes

As is our custom, Jesuitical asked our friends from the Unorthodox podcast to suggest some additional Lenten penances. Stephanie, Liel and Mark did not hold back this year, so Zac and Ashley get creative about how to incorporate these new sacrifices into their Lenten journey.

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Anti-racism spirituality, Ukraine and Pope Francis, and praying when it feels useless Mar 04, 2022

Show notes

This week, Ashley and Zac talk to Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J., a Jesuit in formation, an assistant professor of psychology and a student therapist at Creighton University. Patrick is the author of a new book, The Crucible of Racism, as well as The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola. We talk with Patrick about why anti-racism isn’t optional for the spiritual life, his experience with racism in the Jesuits and what young people should be looking for this Lent.

During Signs of the Times, we look at how Pope Francis is responding to the war in Ukraine, and what it means to pray for peace, even if it feels useless sometimes.

Links from the show:

The Crucible of Racism

The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice

Podcast: Can Pope Francis negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine?

Praying for peace in Ukraine—even when it feels useless

What’s on tap?

Nothing for Lent.

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Remembering Dr. Paul Farmer, a Catholic who wanted to cure the world Feb 25, 2022

Show notes

The global health community and countless others who were healed, taught or simply inspired by Dr. Paul Farmer were shocked and saddened to learn of his death on Feb. 21. Dr. Farmer was a medical anthropologist, physician and co-founder of Partners In Health, a nonprofit that revolutionized global health care. He believed the poorest of the poor in places like Haiti and Rwanda deserve high-quality medical care—then dedicated his life to delivering it.

Dr. Farmer was also deeply Catholic and a man with a gift for friendship, including with Jennie Weiss Block, who we speak with this week in Signs of the Times. Jennie, a Dominican laywoman and practical theologian, served both as Paul’s chief adviser starting in 2009 and his spiritual director. We talk to Jennie about the sides of Paul the world never saw and what she thinks Paul would want his many admirers to do now to carry on his legacy.

We also had the great blessing of speaking with Paul back in June 2021, and in honor and celebration of his life, we are sharing that conversation again this week.

Dr. Paul Farmer, pray for us.

Links from the show:

Paul Farmer was my friend. He should be made a saint—and a doctor of the church.

Dr. Paul Farmer: Medicine and liberation theology

Paul Farmer: Servant to the Poor

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Painting modern saints, nuns under fire at the border, and asking what God’s will *actually* is Feb 18, 2022

Show notes

Picture a painting or icon of your favorite Catholic saint. He or she probably has a pretty serious expression, is most likely white and is on the older side. Those images have been wonderful objects of prayer and devotion for Catholics down through the centuries. But do they speak to young people of faith today? To you?

The icons created by today’s guest, Gracie Morbitzer, seek to do just that. Gracie has created over 100 icons of saints that reflect the modern church: They are young, diverse, sometimes tattooed—and no less holy because of it. We ask what inspired this artistic endeavor and how creating icons has changed her relationship to the saints.

And in Signs of the Times, we speak with our colleague Kevin Clarke about CatholicVote’s lawsuit against Catholic Charities over their humanitarian work at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Links from the show

What’s on tap?

The Archangel: 2 1/4oz gin, 3/4 Aperol, 2 cucumber slices and a lemon twist.

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Catholic marriage prep doesn’t have to be terrible Feb 11, 2022

Show notes

A wedding is a day, a marriage is a lifetime. That’s what Paul and Maureen Moses like to tell couples (including Zac and his wife) that they prepare for matrimony. Paul and Maureen are coordinators of Catholic Engaged Encounter in Brooklyn and Queens, and have been married for 45 years. They run a weekend retreat that fulfills the infamous “marriage prep” part of getting married in the Catholic Church (though they’ve found that many non-Catholics get a lot out of it, too). Zac and Ashley talk to them about what they’ve learned about marriage in their vocation and how the church can better accompany couples.

The hosts are also joined by James Martin, S.J., to talk about how to discern whether the voice you heard during prayer was God or just your ego talking.

Links from the show:

Come to Italy with us!

5 signs you are hearing God’s voice (and not your ego) in prayer by James Martin, S.J.

Catholic Engaged Encounter

Catholic Engaged Encounter Brooklyn-Queens

Learning to Pray

What’s on tap:

Rock Red blend from the Waltz family vineyard

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