Almost Good Catholics

Peter Dominic Martino is a trial lawyer, law professor, former CEO, and former nuclear submarine officer. He serves as Assistant Professor at St. Thomas University College of Law and is a co-founder of Honos Law PLLC. He studied in Annapolis and later Georgetown Law, served in the Navy, and in the Department of Homeland Security, and practices law in New York City. His new book from Sophia Press is Resurrection on Trial: A Judicial Inquiry into the Christian Claim of the Resurrection of Jesus (Sophia Institute Press, 2026), and he walks me through the evidence for our foundational belief—as he says, “the boldest claim that’s ever been made in the history of the world,”—on Almost Good Catholics.

• Here is Peter’s book from Sophia Press, and also from Amazon.
• Here is Peter’s faculty website at St. Thomas University College Law School.

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Brian Zahnd, a Christian leader and pastor of forty years and four-times pilgrim of the Camino de Santiago, completed this remarkable (and quite short) book, Unseen Existences: Of Heaven, Earth, and the Divine Mystery in All Things. You can read it in a long afternoon or a few sessions of a couple of hours each, sitting outside – perhaps under an oak or a fig tree – with a cup of tea. It’s conversational in tone; it’s clearly the fruit of decades of writing good sermons. Brian is talking to the skepticism—sometimes cynicism—of our times to show (empirically) that more is going on than we take for granted. He also discusses God’s great project for us here in this world, building on St. Augustine, Dallas Willard, and the Gospels. I really enjoyed this insightful book and our meandering conversation.

• Pastor Brian’s website
• Pastor Brian’s website.
• The Reverend: A Fantasy by Pastor Brian, here in four parts, and here as the audio play, read by Boyd Barret.
• “The Last Train out of Monkeytown,” a poem by Brian Zahnd.
• Here is the book, Unseen Existences, from Intervarsity Press (IVP), and here it is on Amazon.
• Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (1998).
• Carlos Eire, They Flew (2023).
• The story of the radio that turned on (told by Michael Shermer about the incident happened on the occasion of his marriage).

More conversations with Pastor Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics:

• Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 122: The Tree of Life: “no one who loves the way of Grace ever comes to a bad end”
• Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 92: A Hidden Life: The Life and Martyrdom of Bl. Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943)
• Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?

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The reason Eduard Habsburg, Archduke of Austria and formerly Hungarian Ambassador to the Vatican, has written a ‘travel guide’ to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) is that he finds beauty, meaning, and joy in the experience of being a pilgrim in a foreign land. We pass through the doors—the portals—of the Church and the otherness of it pulls at our hearts and lays on us a bit of a yoke that will feel new. Especially for young people who’ve been crushed softly by the constant entertainment and accommodation, this hardness refreshes their souls, in the tradition of St. Augustine: “our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Is it surprising it is to learn how the first few times he attended the Traditional Latin Mass, he found it off-putting—“oh no, not those crazy weirdoes”—but of course that’s all the more reason for a travel guide; because he can be our guide, like Virgil for Dante to show us around this new world—or, rather, very old world—that is our Catholic inheritance.

Here is my earlier conversation for Eduard Habsburg (from 2023):

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At age 22, Sydney’s Bennett’s brain stopped communicating with her body correctly; she was suffering from Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a condition in which the nervous system stops sending or interpreting signals the right way. Suddenly this bright, beautiful, college girl, recently married, was having seizures, numbness, difficulty moving. Soon she needed a cane, then a wheelchair. But, when we are weak, we are strong, and she found her rock in Jesus our cornerstone. Today she is a faithful and faith-filled advocate, mother of two, and (in the view of your host) present-day Job; and Job reminds us, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The episode of Almost Good Catholics with Mako Fujimura talking about kintsugi (which I excerpted):

Other related Almost Good Catholics episodes about the Book of Job and the meaning of suffering:

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Monica Snyder is the executive director of Secular Pro Life and makes the case for the value of human life from conception based on empirical biology and not on revealed religion. She’s also an atheist, statistically the demographic category most in favor of abortion.

Abortion is about as contentious a political topic as we have. It’s also one where we often talk past each other. We don’t even agree on the terms: we don’t even say I am for or against ‘abortion’ but rather we are in favor of ‘life’ or of choice’ as if our opponents were therefore perforce against life or choice! Remember the old Tom Lehrer joke about sixties folk song singers—perhaps the antecedent to today’s social justice warriors—“It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against, like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on.”

Of course, everyone is in favor of ‘life’ and of ‘choice’. And whether or not you believe in God, you are still a product of the Judeo-Christian world you grew up in. For this reason, it is wonderful to hear what an atheist who believes in the fundamental value of human life has to say about the practice of abortion.

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When Hollywood director Rian Johnson started making Wake Up Dead Man, the new Knives Out mystery (a movie you can watch on Netflix), he needed some help. His uncle and aunt in Denver connected him with their pastor in Denver, Father Scott Bailey, who became an advisor to the project. He talks about the process and the big questions of this movie with me. (And I admit: I hated the beginning and stopped watching a few minutes in. After reading about Fr Scott online and finding several Catholic sources who praised the movie, I gave it another look. I’m glad I did, because I think it’s not only entertaining but also important … and beautiful.)

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As we move into Holy Week, the Triduum, Easter and its season, all Christians ask themselves ‘what is this all about?’ and why God created such and elaborate salvific economy that relies on our faith and His actions. Why? There’s a great Mystery here and the more we appreciate its size and depth, even if we don’t understand what we are seeing. Anne Blackwill and I have been talking about doing this interview for the better part of the year and we finally did it this last week, on the day before Palm Sunday. I think it went really well and I’m excited to share it with you.

Anne is a wise and wonderful woman, a literature professor who has taught all over he world in universities and colleges and also prisons. She my mother-in-law, the mother of my wife and the grandmother of my children; I’ve known her for twenty years and during this time she has been working on the book we are talking about today. Its working title is God with Us, that is of course: Emmanuel.

Related Almost Good Catholics episodes:

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“The movie is a prayer,” says Brian Zahnd, about Terrence Mallick’s 2011 The Tree of Life, his favorite movie of all time. Brian has seen it forty times (I have seen it three times); Brian has taken his pastoral team from his Missouri Church to see it; he has shown it to his Congregation in Church. The film follows a family in Texas in the 1950s. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are the parents; they have three sons. Sean Penn plays the oldest boy when he is grown in the 1980s. It’s a sermon on theodicy, creation, eschatology, all of it, all of it. And it’s just very beautiful and interesting. If you’ve not seen it, go see it first, and then come back and talk it over with us!

Another talk with Brian Zahnd about another Terrence Mallick film:

Another talk with Brian Zahnd about his books and his theology:

A couple more episode of Almost Good Catholics on related themes:

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Following Pope Leo’s State of the World Address in January of 2026, the three American Cardinals who are also diocesan archbishops Cardinal Cupich (Archbishop of Chicago), Cardinal McElroy (Archbishop of Washington), and Cardinal Tobin (Archbishop of Newark)—in addition to Archbishop Broglio, the pastor of the US military—have been reminding the people of the United States that the American government is wrong to prop up the Venezuelan regime while sidelining its democratically elected leader, that it is wrong to withdraw aid from the global poor, that it is are wrong to covet Greenland and betray our NATO allies in a way that not only fails to oppose the ambitions of Putin and Xi Jin Ping but actually endorses their land-grabbing adventures. The United States is also wrong to use cruelty and chaos in the (otherwise lawful) enforcement of immigration rules. It’s been a bad dream and difficult and disorienting to wake up from.

Three professors from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut talk it over with me on Almost Good Catholics. They are theologian Dan Rober, chair of Catholic Studies, author of Recognizing the Gift: Toward a Renewed Theology of Nature and Grace, English professor Michelle Loris, founder and previous chair of Catholic Studies, also founder of the universities core seminars program, and Charlie Gillespie, director the university’s Pioneer Journeys program, himself an expert on St. Augustine; his new book is about the theater, God on Broadway.

An episode of Almost Good Catholics on the same theme:

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Father Ron Rolheiser’s new book Insane for the Light: A Spirituality for Our Wisdom Years, which is about how to grow old well and be fruitful, first giving your life away and then your death so as to be a blessing. That’s a recipe for joy. We also talked about mysticism, St. John of the Cross, and some miraculous experiences in real people’s lives that reveal God abiding and deep love, mercy, and patience with us all; that is truly the Good News of the Lord. I really, really enjoyed this book, and this conversation.

Father Ron grew up in on a farm on Cactus Lake, Saskatchawan, on the Canadian prairie. He joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1966 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1972; he has many degrees in theology and philosophy including a doctorate from the University of Louvain in 1983. He started writing a column, In Exile, over forty years ago, and has also written (by my count) sixteen books. He has been Provincial Superior of his order, worked in its administration in Rome for six years, and taught theology in a number of august institutions. He still goes home to Cactus Lake, especially for Christmas.

We recorded this episode on December 9, 2025, the Feast of Our Lady of Gudalupe, and Juan Diego, and also the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This will be our Christmas episode too and the last episode of 2025 and the first of the new liturgical year, so in keeping with our tradition I will play some Christmas Carols from Josh and Margot of the Great Space Coaster band with whom I was singing these carols last week. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. God bless you!

Related Almost Good Catholics episodes:

And our discussion about Our Lady of Guadalupe on Almost Good Catholics:

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