Ignatius Press Podcast

Jimmy Mitchell works with young people every day in his job as director of campus ministry at a high school in Florida. He sees their struggles to form relationships with others, to manage the growing presence of technology in their lives, to deepen their spiritual lives. He also sees their desire for the true, the good, and the beautiful, and their yearning for connection, meaning, and happiness.

Mitchell’s new book, “Let Beauty Speak: The Art of Being Human in a Culture of Noise,” is informed by his experiences working with young people, but its blueprint for a way of life has wider appeal. The principles he outlines in the book—including wonder, freedom, friendship, joy, culture, and more—empower Christians to evangelize by bringing beauty to the forefront of their lives.

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with Jimmy Mitchell about the beauty of a life well-lived, and how such a life can work as a powerful tool for evangelization.

Related links:

“Let Beauty Speak: The Art of Being Human in a Culture of Noise” by Jimmy Mitchell

“The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise” by Robert Cardinal Sarah

“The Art of Living: The Cardinal Virtues and the Freedom to Love” by Edward Sri

“How a ‘culture of conversion’ transformed a Catholic high school” | Catholic News Agency/Catholic World Report

Jeremy Christiansen was a young married man, raising his children in the Mormon faith in which he’d grown up himself, when he began experiencing doubts about the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As he looked at his upbringing, his marriage, and everything he had always believed to be true, Christiansen began a journey of spiritual questioning that led him away from Mormonism and ultimately into the Catholic Church.

Christiansen’s process of conversion is the subject of his new memoir, “From the Susquehanna to the Tiber,” available now at Ignatius.com.

In this episode, our host Andrew Petiprin speaks with Christiansen about the destabilizing experience of losing his faith in Mormonism, the joys and challenges of finding a spiritual home in the Catholic Church, and how the Church can better understand and engage with Mormons.

Related links:

• “From the Susquehanna to the Tiber: A Memoir of Conversion from Mormonism to the Roman Catholic Church” by Jeremy Christiansen

“Christian existence must be cruciform—it has to be ready for martyrdom, especially now in the modern world.”

Larry Chapp’s new book “Confession of a Catholic Worker” is a call to Christians to shake off the idolatrous spirit of the age, and go to the root of our Gospel calling: radical love and radical living according to the Sermon on the Mount.

In this episode, Chapp speaks with Carl E. Olson about the new book, how modern Christians can best confront today’s spiritual and societal crises, and about the pitfalls of sharing the Gospel in a world increasingly in denial about the existence of the transcendent.

Related links:

“Confession of a Catholic Worker: Our Moment of Christian Witness” by Larry Chapp

“The Moment of Christian Witness” by Hans Urs von Balthasar

Larry Chapp’s website and blog, Gaudium et Spes 22

Catholic World Report – Global Church news and views

In this episode, Ignatius Press founder Fr. Joseph Fessio talks to his friend and fellow Jesuit, Fr. Robert McTeigue, about Fr. McTeigue’s new book, “Christendom Lost and Found: Meditations for a Post Post-Christian Era” (http://bit.ly/3Rl25FY ).

The book is a kind of a war journal, written between 2020 and 2021 during “the COVID Interruption” and the violent outbursts in cities across America. Witnessing cultural collapse in every direction, Fr. McTeigue offers meditations on what it will take to build Christ-centered cultures in our time—what must be retrieved and what must be renewed.

Fr. McTeigue can be heard Monday through Friday at 5pm Eastern on his radio show “The Catholic Current”; listen on your favorite podcast platform or online: https://thestationofthecross.com/programs/the-catholic-current/

Find Fr. McTeigue’s first book, “Real Philosophy for Real People,” at Ignatius.com: http://bit.ly/3HI1WIz

Was the Catholic Church slow to condemn racism? Can Catholic teaching be used to justify slavery? How should Catholics engage with Critical Race Theory, in its popular or academic forms?

In this episode, philosopher Edward Feser discusses these and other questions with Catholic World Report editor Carl E. Olson. Feser is the author of the new book “All One in Christ: A Catholic Critique of Racism and Critical Race Theory,” in which he examines what the Church has said and done historically on issues of race, and takes a close look at the origins—and recent bestselling popularizations—of Critical Race Theory.

Feser and Olson talk about the genesis of the book, common misconceptions about the Catholic Church and race, the inherent limitations of CRT, and more.

Find “All One in Christ” at Ignatius.com: http://bit.ly/3VZ0OWl

You can read more from Edward Feser on his blog: http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/

Feser was interviewed at Catholic World Report about “All One in Christ”: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/09/08/the-churchs-teachings-about-racism-and-the-truth-about-critical-race-theory/

“Countering disinformation about Critical Race Theory” by Edward Feser | Catholic World Report, 8/22/22: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/08/22/countering-disinformation-about-critical-race-theory/

When Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ died in September 2020, friends, colleagues, and long-time readers mourned the loss of the biting wit and keen insight that characterized his writing, much of which was published under the pseudonym “Diogenes.”

In this episode, two men who knew and admired Fr. Mankowski—his fellow Jesuit, Fr. Joseph Fessio, and his editor at Catholic World Report and later Catholic World News, Philip F. Lawler—remember their friend, whose writing spanned decades and covered Church news, art and culture, politics, and more.

A sampling of Fr. Mankowski’s writings, most of which he published as Diogenes, has been collected in the new book, “Diogenes Unveiled: A Paul Mankowski Collection,” edited by Lawler and available at Ignatius.com: http://bit.ly/3X6UuNR

You can read more essays by Mankowski in the book “Jesuit at Large,” edited by George Weigel: https://ignatius.com/jesuit-at-large-jlerp/

You can find Philip F. Lawler’s writing at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/authors.cfm?authorid=3

And you can follow him on Twitter, @PhilLawler.

Broken-down buses, long lines, fractious tourists, strikes—and countless encounters with God’s immense providence. These are just some of the memorable experiences recounted by Irish tour guide Kieran Troy in his new book, “In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes,” which takes the reader to some of the most evocative Catholic pilgrimage sites: Vatican City, the Holy House of Nazareth in Loreto, the shrine of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, the Abbey of Montecassino, and many more.

In this episode, Troy speaks with Ignatius Press editor Thomas Jacobi about the book, and about the inspiring, exhausting, and often comical experiences he’s had over decades of leading groups of pilgrims to many of Christendom’s most beloved places. With wit and charm, Troy gives a first-hand account of Christ at work in all the beautiful messiness of pilgrimage.

Find the book, “In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes: Tales of an Irish Tour Guide in Rome,” here: https://bit.ly/3E8aWG5

Dr. John Bruchalski is a Catholic OB/GYN who used to perform abortions, believing he was providing compassionate care for women in crisis. A terrible misjudgment in the delivery room revealed to him the humanity of the unborn child, and he has since committed his life to providing women—and the children in their wombs—with truly loving, life-affirming medical care.

In this episode, Dr. Bruchalski details the events that led up to his conversion to pro-life medicine and his recommitment to his Catholic Faith. He also discusses the “hard cases”—including rape, incest, and fetal abnormalities—that many believe justify legal abortion. Dr. Bruchalski’s new book, “Two Patients: My Conversion from Abortion to Life-Affirming Medicine” (https://bit.ly/3DAho8s) is a memoir of his experiences. It is also a plea that advocates on both sides of the abortion debate see the humanity of all God’s children—from the unborn baby to misguided medical professionals.

Does the Catholic Church hate gay people? Do people of faith just want those with same-sex attractions to suffer? Is it possible for the Church’s teaching on sexual morality to be a source of unity among believers, whatever their sexual orientation?

In this episode, Paul Senz talks to Fr. Mike Schmitz, host of the popular Bible in a Year podcast, about the Catholic Church’s teaching on same-sex attraction, which Fr. Mike wrote about in his book “Made for Love” (https://bit.ly/3z9YkLN). Fr. Mike emphasizes the importance of not adopting an “us vs. them” attitude when discussing sexuality and identity; of approaching those with experiences of same-sex attraction with compassion, but not condescension; and of always keeping in mind that each of us was made by Love, from Love, and for Love.

Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is a Dominican friar as well as a photographer of sacred art. His new book, “Mysteries Made Visible: Praying the Rosary with Sacred Art,” brings together Fr. Lew’s stunning photography and his rich contemplations on the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, inviting all of us - those who pray the Rosary faithfully and those who struggle with the devotion - to pray with deeper reverence and greater understanding.

In this episode, Fr. Lew discusses how he came to discern his vocation as a Dominican, his interest in photography, and his great devotion to promoting the Rosary among the Faithful. He describes what he calls “Visio Divina”—that is, praying and meditating upon theological truths while viewing sacred art.

You can view sample pages from “Mysteries Made Visible” at Ignatius.com: https://ignatius.com/mysteries-made-visible-mmvp/