In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus uses several short parables to illustrate the meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven. Marcus unpacks the readings

In the early hours of July 17, 1918, members of the Bolshevik Revolution executed Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The execution of the Romanovs was a declaration to the entire world that the Bolshevik Revolution was going to do more than transfer political authority. It was going to, by bloodshed, destroy the entire moral and political order grounded in Christianity and natural law. Marcus has more.

One of the big questions emerging from the rise of artificial intelligence is what exactly it means to know something at all – and it’s a question that AI cannot answer. Philosophers have explored this question for centuries, and Aristotle recognized three fundamental rules for understanding logic. We talk about them with Mike Schramm.

Further Reading

Using Aristotle’s 3 principles of logic to advance our knowledge

Guest Info

Mike Schramm is a husband and father of seven children. He teaches theology and philosophy at Aquinas High School and Viterbo University. You can find his writing at Busted Halo, Mere Orthodoxy, and the Voyage Comics Blog. He is also the managing editor of the Voyage Compass, an imprint of Voyage Comics and Publishing.

Today is the feast of the Martyrs of Compiègne, French nuns who were executed during the Reign of Terror. They bravely walked to the guillotine singing hymns and offering their lives, “so that peace may be restored to the Church and the State.” Marcus honors their memory.

EWTN Documentary: Blessed: The Martyrs of Compiègne

The Founding Fathers believed the common good consisted in securing a community in which individuals could fulfill their natural duties, duties to God and to their families and to their fellow man. We look at how they expressed this vision with Dr. Phillip Munoz.

Further Reading

Religious Liberty and the American Founding

The Founders and the Common Good

Guest Info

Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.

French Bishop Marc Aillet has declared that Catholic members of France’s National Assembly who voted for the country’s euthanasia and assisted-suicide bill will no longer be able to receive holy Communion. Matthew Bunson joins us to discuss this and other Church news.

Further Reading

French Bishop: Catholic Lawmakers Who Back Euthanasia Bill Cannot Receive Communion

France Legalizes Euthanasia After Forceful Push Through Parliament

The Bishop of Albany, His Missing Ring, and a Bag of Potato Chips

How Does Pope Leo Take His Coffee?

Guest Info

Matthew Bunson is Vice President and Editorial Director of EWTN News and a Senior Fellow at St Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He’s the author or co-author of more than 50 books including the first English-language biography of Pope Francis and The Encyclopedia of Catholic History. Follow him on twitter at MattBunson. Register Radio airs Saturdays at 4 pm and Sundays at 11 am on Ave Maria Radio

The popular imagination of homeschooling has rarely aligned with reality. Amidst the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, the public was forced to reconsider its understanding of what homeschooling really was – and it’s becoming more popular than ever. We discuss how homeschooling went mainstream with Dixie Lane.

Further Reading

Skipping School: A History of American Homeschooling and How It Went Mainstream

Homeschoolers Aren’t Weird (Anymore)

Follow Dixie on X

Follow Dixie on Substack

Guest Info

Dixie Dillon Lane is an American historian and homeschooling parent who lives in rural Virginia. She holds a PhD in history from the University of Notre Dame and serves as associate editor of Hearth & Field.

Many Christians today are suffering from an epidemic of “spiritual sugar.” It looks enormous from a distance, it tastes sweet, but it immediately dissolves into empty air and leaves souls spiritually malnourished. Marcus has more.

Today marks the anniversary of the founding of the first California mission by St. Junipero Serra. Modern outrage has tried to “cancel” him for being a colonizer and oppressor of Indigenous peoples, but that is not who the historical record actually shows him to be. Marcus has more.

Further Reading

Junípero Serra: Pioneer, Missionary, Saint

The Man Who Founded California: The Life of Saint Junipero Serra

In his first year as leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV has published an Apostolic Exhortation on the poor, promulgated an Encyclical on humanity and technology, made several key appointments, and implemented measured changes in governance. He has also chosen to reflect on the documents of Vatican II during his Wednesday general audiences. What can we learn from Pope Leo’s first year and what implications does it have for promoting a free and virtuous society? Fr. Raymond de Souza joins us.

Guest Info

Father Raymond J. de Souza, 50, was ordained a Catholic priest on July 20, 2002, for the archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario. He is currently the pastor of Holy Cross parish in Kemptville, near Ottawa. He served as chaplain at Newman House (2004-22), the Roman Catholic chaplaincy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, while also serving as the pastor of Sacred Heart of Mary Parish (2006-22) on Wolfe Island—the largest of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. Since 2014 he has served on the board of directors of Catholic Christian Outreach, the leading campus evangelization movement in Canada. In 2019 he became chairman of the CCO board.