There’s a common theme in today’s Office of the Readings – the way we are all in communion with the covenant body. God does not form us to be isolated believers. Marcus has more.

In a much-hyped address on Thursday night, President Trump presented documents which he claimed were proof of foreign interference in the 2020 election. We look at his comments with Peter Laffin and discuss other matters related to our political climate.

Further Reading

Recite the creed. Save the country

My grudging respect for Mamdani’s Rikers visit

Guest Info

Peter Laffin is a senior editor at the Washington Examiner , overseeing In Focus and Restoring America. He was formerly a staff writer for the National Catholic Register. His commentaries, news features, and book reviews have appeared in the Boston Globe, Catholic Herald UK, The Catholic Thing, RealClearPolitics, and RealClearReligion, and he has offered analysis on Fox News, C-SPAN, EWTN, and Sirius XM’s POTUS.

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.