Almost Good Catholics

In his most recent book, Human Rights in a Divided World: Catholicism as a Living Tradition (Georgetown UP, 2024), Jesuit scholar and Georgetown professor, Fr David Hollenbach explains the Judeo-Christian roots of our concept of human rights and the contributions of secular institutions like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). He explains further when it is right for a country to intervene in the affairs of its neighbors, codified by the UN in 2005 as the Responsibility to Protect in answer to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that gave lie to the world’s promise of “never again” after the horrors of the Holocaust. He contrasts the doctrine of R2P with the tragic case of a homicide in Kew Gardens in 1964 where 38 witnesses, all law-abiding “good people,” failed to intervene because they assumed someone else would do it. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain asked God (Gen 4:9). “Who is my neighbor?” The lawyer asked Jesus (Lk 10:29), to which Our Lord told the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

Perhaps these questions are a little more complicated between sovereign nations than they are between travelers on a dangerous road, but Fr. David guides us through the Catholic Church’s moral teachings, the principles of proportionality and of just war, and the ability and desire to do something even when we can’t do everything.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cristofer Pereyra is the founder and CEO of the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative (TLI) and was a friend and follower of Bishop Thomas Olmsted (who was instrumental in restoring of Paul Zucarelli from the dead, the subject of our last two episodes). Cristofer talks about his collaboration with Bishop Olmsted, whom he considers a saint, and about the book he wrote about this holy man. He also talks about the Tepeyac Initiative and how we, lay Catholics, should serve Our Lord in our daily lives, how to sanctify our work, and how to approach the altar of our lay vocation. It is an exciting call to adventure and it begins today.

Our recent episodes about Bishop Olmsted:

Our Christmas Carol

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is my second conversation with Paul Zucarelli who died in 2017 and returned from the dead through the intercessory prayer of Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix and the faith of his family. Since his resurrection, he has been serving God as a lay evangelist. In the earlier interview, we talked about his new book, One Lord, One Faith, One Church: An Inconvenient Truth, in which he made a strong case for the authority of the Roman Catholic church. This time we are talking about his first book, Faith Understood: An Ordinary Man's Journey to the Presence of God. He tells us about his experience of death, purgatory, and the light of the face God; he also describes his return to our breathing world and the power of faith and intercessory prayer.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Paul Zucarelli died in 2017 and returned from the dead through the intercessory prayer of Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix and the faith of his family. Since his resurrection, he has been serving God as a lay evangelist. His new book, One Lord, One Faith, One Church: An Inconvenient Truth, makes a strong apologetic case for the authority of the Roman Catholic church. He goes into supernatural evidence: Eucharistic miracles, Marian apparitions, uncorrupted bodies of the saints, and raising of the dead. He follows the history of the church from its foundation over the centuries with its schisms and fractures, down to this day when we Catholics disagree about the True Way. Can we humans be reconciled and reunited this side of the veil? That’s the question we tackle together.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Reanne Newquist tells me about her voyage on Mercy Ships bringing healthcare to some of the poorest people in the world, a mission started by Don Stephens in the 1970s and encouraged by Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Reanne, her husband, and her kids left everything behind, sold their home and sailed off to adventure and service. Most people go back to normal life, but Reann stayed on with Mercy Ships as part of the communications staff, spreading the word by talking with people like me (and you). Here is her story.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dann Aungst was pretty far gone in his sexual addiction when Jesus grabbed him (figuratively) by the lapels and sent him (literally) messengers, a letter, and a locution during Adoration. He left the road of destruction and chaos and found himself on the road to purity. He then founded his apostolate (which he called The Road to Purity) after writing his inspired, From One Addict to Another. He talks about his story and also the roots of addiction in the human heart and how he helps seminarians advise us sinners in the confessional where they speak in persona Christi.

Here is another AGC episode on the same topic:

• Michael John Cusick on Almost Good Catholics, episode 85: Knocking at the Brothel Door: How Disordered Desires are Actually Divine Desires

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González coming up with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dale Ahlquist is the founder the of the Society of G. K. Chesterton and Chesterton Schools, of which there are currently 70 and number is rising. He is also the editor of the book we are talking about today, Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching, from Sophia Press, which explores the economic and social questions of how we should organize out society. It is a third way, I think, that departs from both the big government solutions offered by our progressive friends and yet also the big business capitalistic model that sometimes alienates us from our labor and communities. Dale’s book brings balance and offers the focus on local community, both family and village, encouraging ownership, solidarity, and neighborly participation.

Here is the NEXT BOOK that Dale and I will be talking about on a future episode:

• G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man from Word on Fire Press

Joseph Pearce, one of the essayists in Dale’s book, has also been a guest on Almost Good Catholics.

• Joseph Pearce on Almost Good Catholics, episode 10: What about Hell? CS Lewis and Theology of the Afterlife.

Other Almost Good Catholics episodes on the subject of Catholic Education:

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What would you do in the place of Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter in 1943? Mumble your loyalty oath to Hitler like everyone else—or refuse and pay with your life? This martyr is a blessed in the Catholic Church and on the way to being canonized. He is also the subject of a transcendentally beautiful movie A Hidden life by Terrence Mallick in 2019. Pastor Brian Zahnd, author of the Wood Between the Worlds, talks about the man, the movie, and the martyrdom with me on Almost Good Catholics.

There’s a moment in our discussion where I say to Brian that, had I been in Franz’s shoes, I think I would have just gone along with the oath so that I could get through my service as a soldier, perhaps as a conscientious objector, driving an ambulance or serving as a medical orderly. This choice seemed to make sense because I would have honored my obligation to my little children, to my wife, to my farm and my village, and not worried about the abstraction of the oath. But by the time our conversation ended, I think I changed my mind. The whole point of our Faith is that we do not believe that death is an end but a beginning, and we believe that those who have gone home to the Lord are still with us—literally a communion of saints. So, I changed my mind over the course of this hour: and I now think, in conclusion, that the red crown of martyrdom is a grace offered to some of tremendous faith, and that God will help us take care of the family we leave behind in the world.

Here is my first talk with Pastor Brian:

• Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross?

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González this coming September with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED: The topic of today’s episode is human trafficking and crimes against children, usually sexual crimes, and sometimes ritual abuse and organ harvesting.

Matt Osborne has worked with OUR Rescue (originally Operation Underground Railroad) for ten years; he left his CIA career to join this NGO and is now one of the longest-serving members of the team. Last year he was COO and president and these days he’s Global Ambassador for Operations and Education; as part of this new role, he hosts the Voices for Freedom podcast with his friend and colleague Jessica Mass.

[I intentionally did not ask Matt about Tim Ballard, the founder of the organization and subject of the loosely biographical Sound of Freedom, who had to leave the organization after accusations in 2023 about past scandalous behavior toward (adult) women. I also did not ask him about the politics of Jim Caviezel who played Ballard in the film. You can read about these things very easily online, but it seemed to me to have nothing to do with our guest today and were rather a distraction from the important work of OUR Rescue.]

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González this coming September with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Here is my first discussion with Pastor Brian Zahnd and the film A Hidden Life which we will be talking about on August 15:

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pete Imperial has been principal of St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Berkeley, California, a Lasallian Catholic School of 160 years and going strong. Yet only 45% of the students are Catholics (though a similar number are Protestant Christians) and some of the kids have had no religious experience at all. How does a good Catholic school infuse the souls of its charges and the secular society at large with the Gospel and the teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church?

Dr. Imperial has a BA from the University of California in Berkeley, an MA in history from San Francisco State University, and an EdD in Educational Administration from the University of San Francisco. In addition to running the school, he also teaches Islamic Studies, Economics, and East Asian History.

This episode is indebted to Ryan Anderson, the listener and a friend of the podcast who suggested this episode and introduced me to Peter.

Other Almost Good Catholics episodes on the subject of Catholic Education:

Here is the pilgrimage with Monique and Joseph González this coming September with Inside the Vatican, and the related episodes from Almost Good Catholics:

Here is my first discussion with Pastor Brian Zahnd and the film A Hidden Life which we will be talking about in August:

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.