US Ambassador Brian Burch recently said that when Pope Leo spoke out against the war in Iran, he was not doing so as a leader of the Roman Catholic Church, adding that he was speaking as a world leader of the Holy See. What authority does the pope have in such occasions? Matthew Bunson joins us with more on this and other Church news.

Further Reading

Are the US Ambassador and Vatican News Both Wrong About the Pope’s Status as a Head of State?

Vatican clarifies pope’s role ‘as universal shepherd’ in wake of US ambassador’s comments

Pope Leo XIV names another Chinese bishop under Vatican-Beijing agreement

Brazil’s Catholic youth want more doctrine, a reverent liturgy, and less politics, survey finds

France becomes first European country to ban social media for minors under 15

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

When we think about the founding of the United States of America, we think of our Founding Fathers and the events surrounding the American Revolution. But there is another part to the founding – the American Catholic martyrs. We talk about them with Jared Staudt.

Further Reading

The Other Founding: The Blood of the Martyrs

Guest Info

Jared Staudt is Assistant Director of the institute of Catholic Culture. He is author of Words Made Flesh: The Sacramental Mission of Catholic Education (CUA Press, 2024), How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization (TAN), Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture (Divine Providence Press) and The Beer Option (Angelico Press), as well as editor of Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age (Catholic Education Press). He and his wife Anne have six children and he is a Benedictine oblate.

For John Hale, faith work and family go hand in hand. He explains why.

Guest Info

John Hale is the President of Corporate Travel

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asked why He teaches in parables. He warns us of people who will hear but not understand, and look but never see. We have the privilege of knowing our Messiah – we’ve not only seen his public ministry, we are in his public ministry. Have we taken for granted just how immensely blessed we are? Have we lost sight of the urgency of the Gospel message? Marcus shares some thoughts.

Fr. John Riccardo was recently speaking with a fellow priest about what people most urgently need right now. He believes that, more than anything, people need clarity on who God is and what He has done – and how we should respond. He joins us.

Further Reading

Acts XXIX

Rescue Project

The Christian Cosmic Narrative

Heaven Starts Now: Becoming a Saint Day by Day

Guest Info

Fr. John Riccardo is the Executive Director of ACTS XXIX. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1996. In 2019, after 23 years in parish ministry, he founded ACTS XXIX to proclaim the gospel in an attractive and compelling way and to equip clergy and lay leaders for the age in which God has chosen us to live. Fr. John is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Gregorian University, and the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family

.

Thousands of Catholics flocked to Detroit today for the Rising from the Ashes revival. Fr. Adam Nowak joins us at the conference to talk about how the Eucharist can revitalize the culture.

Guest Info

Fr Adam Nowak serves as priest-secretary to Archbishop Edward Weisenburger.

How can Catholics learn to recognize God’s voice amid the noise, distractions, and spiritual confusion of modern life? Fr. Timothy Gallagher has written on a new book, based on the writings of St. Ignatius and his fourteen Rules for the Discernment of Spirits. He joins us.

Further Reading

Thinking Like a Saint: Discernment of Spirits in the Catholic Tradition

Guest Info

Ordained in 1979 as an Oblate of the Virgin Mary, Fr. Timothy Gallagher is one of the Catholic Church’s most respected voices on spiritual growth, discernment and prayer. A retreat leader, seminary professor and bestselling author of more than 25 books, he has taught in Massachusetts and Colorado and shares his insights with audiences around the world through television, radio, podcasts, and online media.

BONUS:

In the episode Fr. Timothy Gallagher delivers what he calls the quickest overview of the discernment of spirit’s he’s ever done. Take a look below to see what he says:

What Discernment of Spirits Is

In his [St. Ignatius] title statement, he indicates what discernment of spirits is. It’s to notice and then understand what’s of God and not of God, and then accept or reject accordingly the stirrings that are always going on in our hearts. So affective stirrings, attractions, resistances, joy, discouragement, and then the corresponding thoughts on the level of the head. This is what I should do. That was a mistake. I need to change all of that kind of thing, which is going on all day long. So that’s what discernment of spirits is. It’s to be aware of that interior experience in the heart and the head, then to understand what’s of God and not of God in it, to embrace what’s of God, put it into practice, reject what is of the one Ignatius calls the enemy. By that, it’s just the classic triad. You know, Satan and his associated fallen angels assisted by concupiscence and harmful influences in the world around us.

Rules 1–2: How the Spirits Work

In the first two rules, Ignatius clarifies how the good spirit and the enemy work. Good spirit is his way of saying God, his angels, his grace, just all of those influences which are either God himself or from God and directed toward God. How these two spirits work in a person far from God. In the second rule, how they work in a person who, however imperfectly but sincerely, loves the Lord and is seeking to grow toward God.

Rules 3–4: Consolation and Desolation Defined

In rules three and four, he describes what he calls spiritual consolation, joy in the Lord, and spiritual desolation, discouragement like the woman at 1 p.m.

Rule 5: Never Make a Change

Rule five is the rule people never forget by God’s grace. If you are in desolation like the woman at 1 p.m., never make a change. You pray with the Bible for 15 minutes at this time, you know rule five tells you right now you’re in desolation. Don’t change what you planned before you got into desolation. That’s maybe the second thing I hope everybody will take from this is in time of desolation, never make a change.

Rule 6: Fighting Back

Rule six is the ways we can combat the desolation, Ignatius gives four of them.

Rule 7: You Have Enough Grace

Rule seven, know that you always have all the grace you need to get through it.

Rule 8: Consolation Is Coming

Rule eight, remember that consolation is returning sooner than the desolation wants you to believe.

Rule 9: Why God Permits Desolation

Rule nine, why does a God who loves us permit us to go through desolation? Because of various fruits that come into our lives when we go through it well.

Rule 10: Preparing in Advance

Rule 10, you don’t have to wait to be in desolation to combat it. You can prepare even in consolation before desolation begins.

Rule 11: The Balance

Rule 11, the balance, humble in consolation, trusting in desolation.

Rules 12–14: On Temptation

And in the last three rules, Ignatius turns to the other basic tactic of the enemy, which is temptation.

Rule 12, the enemy’s temptations are weakest in their beginning. Resist them then, and you save the snowball effect of the temptation, which gets harder and harder to deal with.

Rule 13, don’t be alone with this. Find a wise and competent spiritual person and talk about the burdens and the struggles.

And rule 14, all of us, and there’s no shame in this, it’s just living in a fallen but redeemed and loved world, have some place in our whole spiritual life where we are most vulnerable to the enemy. Know what that is, be working to strengthen it.

Laura Hovious considered herself an agnostic, until one day when she walked into a church and had an encounter with God through worship music. Today, she is a worship leader who helps bring that encounter to others. She shares her story.

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. Many popular films and other depictions imagine Mary Magdalene as a harlot, or as the woman caught in adultery. However, the real Mary Magdalene was someone far different. Marcus has more.

The entire Christian faith is an overflow of a tree that began with a true Abrahamic heritage: the Hebrew people. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul prophesies of us that the deliverer will come from Zion and that the gifts and call of God are irrevocable. And therefore, there is an onus of evangelization of our Jewish brothers and sisters. Tom Nash has more.

Further Reading

Proclaiming Jesus to Our Jewish Friends

Biblical Roots of the Mass

To Whom Shall We Go? The Biblical Case for the Catholic Church

Guest Info

Tom Nash has served the Church professionally for more than 35 years, including as a theology advisor at the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). He is a staff apologist for Catholic Answers, and a contributing writer for both the National Catholic Register and Catholic World Report. Tom appears as a periodic guest host for Ave Maria in the Afternoon and has appeared as a regular guest apologist on Catholic Answers Live for more than fifteen years. Tom is the author of The Biblical Roots of the Mass, To Whom Shall We Go?: The Biblical Case for the Catholic Church, and 20 Answers: The Rosary. He is also a contributing author to Catholic for a Reason: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass, and Faith Facts: Answers to Catholic Questions, Vols. I and II. He is also a regular member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.