Segment 1: Catholic Church Weighs Legal Challenge to New Anti-Conversion Law in India (2 segments)

Indiaʼs Maharashtra state enacted a sweeping anti-conversion law on Aug. 28, prompting Catholic leaders to call for prayer and a legal challenge. Matthew Bunson has more on this and other Church news.

Segment 2: The Sacred Heart: Our Light in the Darkness (2 segments)

More than 350 years ago, Jesus unveiled to St Margaret Mary Alacoque the secrets and desires of His Sacred Heart. This summer, the USCCB consecrated the USA to the Sacred Heart. Dr Robert Stackpole reflects on this devotion.

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Segment 1: What a Tornado taught me about St. Gregory (2 segments)

Just before we went on the air today, a tornado warning was issued for our county. On this Feast of Gregory the Great, Marcus reflects on our duty to share the Gospel and some lessons he learned from today’s storm.

Segment 2: The ecological and human concerns of AI (2 segments)

Pope Leo has offered the most serious look to date at AI and a lot of issues relating to technology. Importantly, he emphasize that human beings need to be at the center of these debates and we must always be mindful of how new technologies will affect everyday people’s lives. Tom Doran has more.

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Segment 1: Massachusetts Court Says Town Can’t Build Statues Of Christian Heroes Because They’re Christian

Massachusetts’ highest court just handed the ACLU a powerful new tool for scrubbing religious references from public life. The Supreme Judicial Court blocked Quincy, Massachusetts, from installing two bronze statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian outside its new public safety building, because the statues are new, large, and “closely affiliated with a particular religion.” Andrea Picciotti-Bayer has more.

Segment 2: Pornography: You’re not meant to fight alone

The modern world and our imprudent use of technology have left many of us isolated and struggling in fruitless cycles. We are often seeking what is right, with a strong desire to be transformed to participate in what is good, but don’t feel that we have the power to get there on our own. Alex Ziolkowski is launching a new app to help people in this fight. He joins us.

Segment 3: Care for Creation Begins Close to Home (2 segments)

A world stripped of beauty, stability, and peace is not healed merely by better policies. Nor are ecological problems solved simply by purchasing a few carbon credits. Dr. Matthew Ramage joins us.

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Segment 1: Longing for our children to return to Church

Today’s First Reading, taken from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, brings to mind the pain felt by parents who long for their children to return to the faith. Marcus shares some thoughts.

Segment 2: The challenge – and importance - of talking about difficult things

On yesterday’s program we talked with Ken Craycraft about alcoholism. And later today we will talk with Alex Ziolkowski about pornography addiction. Millions of people are fighting these battles, yet feel like they have to fight them alone. It’s important to talk about these topics, as difficult as they may be. Marcus has more.

Segment 3: Does God do any real work in the Declaration?According to the Declaration of Independence, human beings are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” This claim raises the question: Does God do any real work in the Declaration? Is the Creator language decorative or load-bearing? Dr. Christopher Kaczor joins us.

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Segment 1: Helping your kids express their emotions

Children often need help with the basic skill of expressing their emotions. Dr Greg Popcak frequently hears from parents, even parents of teenagers, whose children have anger issues that can explode out without warning. What can you do in this situation?

Segment 2: Three Ways Satan Attacks our Happiness

A quote popularly attributed to St Anthony of the Desert identifies three ways Satan tries to steal our joy:

1) Regretting the Past

2) Fearing the future

3) Being ungrateful for the present.

While we couldn’t find documentation of this precise quote, its wisdom remains. Marcus shares some more thoughts.

Segment 3: Bearing the Cross of Alcoholism (2 segments)

On December 16, 2002, Ken Craycraft made an impulsive decision that changed the course of his life. He gathered the liquor bottles from around his house and poured them down the sink – and he has not taken a drink since. Ken and Marcus speak about their experiences as alcoholics, bearing the cross of addiction, and what they want the loved ones of alcoholics to understand.

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Segment 1: The Daily Challenge of Christian Life

Today’s Office of the Readings includes an excerpt from Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. He warns us of a very dangerous spiritual illusion – the assumption that just because we were faithful yesterday, we will automatically be faithful tomorrow. The Christian life depends on waking up every day and seeking the grace of God to sustain us in fidelity. Marcus has more.

Segment 2: The World Needs more Ghost Stories

Catholic Answers President Christopher Check will be speaking at St Matthew’s Catholic Church in Flint tomorrow about why the world needs more ghost stories. He gives us a preview.

Segment 3: The Soul of a Disciple: Praying with Fulton Sheen

There is a hunger inside all of us that the world cannot satisfy. Yet it remains – that quiet ache for something real, something lasting, something holy. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen knew that hunger well. He spent more than sixty years assuaging it in the best way: on his knees, in silence, before the Blessed Sacrament, in what he called his daily Holy Hour. From that secluded hour flowed everything – his preaching, his books, his television ministry that reached millions, and his spiritual fire that made him one of the most compelling voices of the twentieth century. We talk about it with Allan Smith

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Segment 1: The Next 30 Years of Ave Maria Radio (2 segments)

In summer 2021, Ave Maria Radio hosted a celebration of our 25th anniversary. Much has happened since then, most notably the death of Al Kresta in 2024. This year, Dr. Marcus Peter assumed the role of our new President, and Dr. Billy Kangas took over the role of CEO from the retiring Mike Jones. We will celebrate this fall with the SENT Gala and would love to have you join us! Marcus and Billy have the details.

Segment 2: Is God “Jealous?” (2 segments)

What does it mean to say that the Lord our God is a jealous God? And how does that relate to the doctrine of the Eucharist? Jared Staudt joins us

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Segment 1: What did Dolly Parton believe? (2 segments)

Dolly Parton holds a unique spot in American culture as one of only a handful of artists whose appeal crossed political, religious, and generational lines. What role did her faith play in her life? How did she deal with her massive stardom? We look at her life with east Tennessee native Terry Mattingly.

Segment 2: Grieving with Augustine (2 segments)

In his Confessions, St Augustine reflects on three losses that transformed his life – the death of a friend, the death of his mother, and the death of his son. In reading his account of these deaths, we see a change in his understandings of what death is and how he should respond to it. We look at what Augustine wrote about grief with Abigail Jorgensen.

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Segment 1: “Get behind me, Satan!” (2 segments)

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Peter tells Jesus he will not let Him be killed. In response, Jesus says “Get behind me, Satan!” He then lays out the cost of discipleship – we must deny ourselves and take up the Cross. We unpack the readings with Rob Corzine.

Segment 2: The West is cutting off its nose to spite its face (2 segments)

Facing the English justice system and knowing his life was on the line, St. Thomas More refused to back down, insisting he could not set his private judgement against “the general council of Christendom.” He would not sever himself from the living body of the Church in history. Nearly five centuries later, society has forgotten that lesson. The West has not simply drifted from Christianity. It has, in a profound way, orphaned itself. We talk about it with Brendan Towell.

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Segment 1: “Tell ‘em about the dream!” – The forgotten story behind MLK’s iconic speech (2 segments)

On this day in 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history. But many people don’t know that the most iconic part of the speech was not in his original speech. As King paused in his delivery, Gospel vocalist Mahalia Jackson shouted to him to “Tell them about the dream!” The rest, as they say, is history. Marcus has more.

Segment 2: Why the new Animal Farm movie falls short (2 segments)

George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm, published just over 80 years ago, has been adapted into an animated film starring a bevy of Hollywood stars. Perhaps not surprisingly, it falls short of the novel and the points Orwell was trying to make. As the Rotten Tomatoes consensus notes, “All Animal Farm adaptations are equal, but some Animal Farm adaptations are more watchable than others.” We talk about it with John Rodden.

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