Messy Jesus Business

Episode 66 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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IN THIS EPISODE

In this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh talks with Father Carl Gales, pastor of Our Lady of Africa Catholic Parish in Chicago, Illinois. They discuss Father Carl’s journey into the Catholic Church and priesthood, his previous career as a concert pianist and the messiness of leadership and service in the Church. They explore the importance of managing expectations and one’s own temperament in service of the Gospel. Father Carl shares the creative and contemplative process that he utilizes to prepare to preach and invite the community to apply the teachings of Jesus to their lives. They also touch on how the Catholic Church could develop into a more inclusive Church that decenters whiteness. “The richness of Blackness needs to be acknowledged, affirmed, cherished, nourished and sustained by us all,” says Father Carl, emphasizing that Blackness is not an add-on. It is essential for each person and be their authentic selves within the Christian community.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Father Carl Gales, SVD, was born in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where he began his musical studies. He went on to earn his Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It was there that he converted to Catholicism.

After working as a director of liturgy and music for several parishes, Father Carl began to discern the priesthood. In 2014 he entered seminary formation with the Society of the Divine Word. After missionary work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Fr Carl professed Final Vows and was ordained into priesthood in May 2022. He is currently the pastoral administrator of Our Lady of Africa Parish in Chicago.

Our Lady of Africa in Chicago's Facebook page

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

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Episode 65 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

In this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh talks with Fr. Greg Boyle, director of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, CA. They discuss Fr. Greg’s journey into being a Jesuit priest who serves gang members and the mission of Homeboy Industries. Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world, welcoming thousands through our doors each year.  Homeboy is centered in its principles that “everyone is good (no exceptions)” and “we belong to each other (no exceptions.)” Fr. Greg shared how the Gospel of Jesus Christ motivates him to build a community of “cherished belonging” that welcomes and honors the wholeness of each person who is encountered. 

Sister Julia and Fr. Greg explore how Christians go to the margins to be changed, not to reach people or succeed, but try to be helpful. Sister Julia asks about the tension of running a successful nonprofit and being faithful to the Gospel call to be on the margins of society. They also get into the value of storytelling for moving minds and hearts, the importance of having healthy images of God and what Church and holiness mean.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Father Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest and native Angeleno. From 1986 to 1992 Father Boyle served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights, then the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles in a neighborhood with the most gang activity in the city. 

In 1988 Father Boyle, along with parish and community members, started what would become Homeboy Industries. Homeboy employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, and provides critical services to thousands of men and women who walk through its doors every year. 

Father Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion; 2017’s Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship; and 2021’s The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. He has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame.  In 2014, President Obama named Father Boyle a Champion of Change.  He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics.

https://homeboyindustries.org/

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

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Episode 64 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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"Sometimes it is at the prophetic edge you can see the Holy Spirit breaking through and allowing a new thing to happen” - Ellie Hidalgo

IN THIS EPISODE

In this episode of the Messy Jesus Business Podcast, Sister Julia Walsh talks with Ellie Hidalgo, co-director of Discerning Deacons. They discuss Ellie’s journey into ministry and how she discovered the relevance of listening and storytelling in building the reign of God. They explore the relevance of the Catholic Church today and what it means to be an active member: "Being Catholic is not a passive thing."Ellie also shared about her journey to the Amazon and Bolivia to witness the leadership of Catholic women in remote places. Together she and Sister Julia explore how vital and relevant good listening is in building up the reign of God and fostering the strength of the Church, narrowing in on their shared enthusiasm about the upcoming synod and the power that listening to the people of God ought to have for all. Ellie notes that Christians are called to "Understand the power that listening has and what it does to unleash people’s gifts for ministry … unleash people’s hope, it helps stitch people’s lives back together, it helps us to not be afraid of entering into the messiness of people’s lives.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ellie Hidalgo is co-director of Discerning Deacons, a project that engages Catholics in the active discernment of our Church about women and the diaconate. Ellie is active in the global synod process, helping to animate 350 sessions that reached 9,000 people in the listening phase. She has traveled to the Amazon region of Latin America to accompany women engaged in prophetic ministry. Ellie has a devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and to St. Phoebe, who served as a deacon in our early Church, alongside St. Paul. She served for 12 years as the pastoral associate at Dolores Mission Church in East Los Angeles, a Jesuit parish known for its advocacy of immigrants, restorative justice ministries, faith-based community organizing, and for being the home parish of Homeboy Industries. Ellie graduated with a Masters in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University and received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2020 she returned to Miami to live closer to her Cuban American family. In 2023 Ellie received the Robert M. Holstein Faith Doing Justice Award from the Ignatian Solidarity Network and the St. John XXIII Award for keeping alive the vision of Vatican II from the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests.

Learn more about Discerning Deacons here: https://discerningdeacons.org/

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

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A Special Episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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IN THIS EPISODE

We're in between seasons on a break but are offering a special episode featuring five Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, who are in the same community as Sister Julia.

Featured are Sisters Karen Kappell, Meg Earsley, Janet Fischer, Paulynn Instenes and Corrina Thomas.

Sister Julia asks each Sister three questions:-How did you know you were called to be an FSPA?-What does discipleship mean to you?-What is messy about being a modern Franciscan sister?

Learn more about the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration: www.fspa.org

Look for our new season to drop in September 2023!

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

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Episode 63 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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“Prayer has to push you to do something outside yourself.” -Kristina Ortega

IN THIS EPISODE

For the latest episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia is in conversation with Catholic educator and inclusivity advocate Kristina Ortega. Their conversation explores prayer and spirituality, advocacy, being women in the Catholic Church, and the value and neccessity of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in Catholic education. Kristina also talks about how her own Mexican heritage is essential to her own experience of being Catholic.

Kristina admits that being a woman in the church is experience of joy but also can be frustrating. She sees this in the girls’ Catholic schools where there is a “stained-glass ceiling.” To counter this she teaches a theology that allows her students to say “I see myself.”

When talking about doing DEI work at a Catholic School, Kristina makes connections to incarnational theology. As she says, to protect the image of God and honor the dignity of the human person, all people need to be honored for who they are and according to their culture, socio-economic status and gender identity. The church can do strenthen this part of its mission, Kristina says, by allowing more lay leadership.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kristina Ortega was born and raised in Los Angeles and is the product of 18 years of Catholic school. She has a BA and an MA in Theological Studies from Loyola Marymount University and has taught in Catholic high schools since 2001. She is a Minister of Liturgical Movement in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and serves on two of the planning committees for the LA Religious Education Congress. Kristina is currently the Coordinator of Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, CA. She has contributed a chapter to a book forthcoming in Summer 2023, "Creating Spaces for Women in the Catholic Church." Outside of ministry, Kristina is a docent at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a Mexican-American art, culture, and history museum in LA. She and her family are members of Dolores Mission Parish in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California.

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

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A Special Episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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California Lilacs near Brown Mountain dam, La Cañada Flintridge, california. photo © Colin wambsgans

IN THIS EPISODE

For this special time of year, we present to you this Easter contemplation episode of Messy Jesus Business Podcast. Sister Julia will lead you through a some thoughts on what Jesus's rise from the dead means for us, and includes a reading from Matthew 28:1-10. You can find the translation she uses here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/28

We hope this short meditation can help connect you with the wonders of Easter and the Resurrection!

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Original music and sound design by Colin Wambsgans.

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Episode 62 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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Afra Pourdad portrait

"Whoever is in front of us we are called to love." -Sister Christa Parra

IN THIS EPISODE

For this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh chats with an old friend, Sister Christa Parra, IBVM. Sister Christa shares her vocation story and how she became a Catholic Sister. Though she served in Peru before joining the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and went to Catholic Theological Union, her desire to serve people where they are led her to accompany the people at the US-Mexico border, specifically in Ciudad Juárez.

“I want to be able to live with the people and be involved in their daily lives, and to sit with them in their struggles and their joys," says Sister Christa.

Sister Christa also tells some of the tragic stories happening to women and refugees in Juárez (and a warning to listeners: many of these stories contain terrible violence and suffering). But always, Sister Christa tells us, the humanity of the people living there, Mexican and refugees, shines through. Also, Christa tells Julia that while she and her fellow workers give the refugees a chance to regroup before the next stages of their journeys, but they also form a community with each other and become a family.

Sister Christa adds, “When our families come to us all we can do is love them, provide them basics, and also to learn from [them] because our siblings teach us how to accompany.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sister Christa Parra is a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is part of an intercongregational intercultural community in El Paso, Texas and a third generation Mexican-American from a small border town in Arizona. A graduate of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, she earned a Master of Divinity and Certificate in Hispanic Theology and Ministry in 2016. She loves serving our brothers and sisters in Christ and presently does so through a pastoral accompaniment role at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

*To donate directly to Sister Christa and the IBVM's ministry in Ciudad Juárez:

https://ibvm.us/support-us/make-a-gift/general-donation

Under the "Designation Tab" choose Ministry FundUnder "Leave a comment" type "Migrant Ministry in Ciudad Juarez"

*To learn more about and donate to Annunciation House in El Paso go to: https://annunciationhouse.org/

*Facebook page for Casa Eudes in Juárez: https://www.facebook.com/micasaeudes

*Website for Centro Santa Catalina in Juárez: https://centrodesantacatalina.org/

*Sister Christa's page at Catholic Women Preach: https://www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preacher/christa-parra

*Sister Christa's speech at Catholic Theological Union's 2016 graduation ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qgzYaYL5v0

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

BE SOCIAL:https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness

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Twitter: @messyjesusbiz

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Episode 61 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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Afra Pourdad portrait

"Every time I've been raw and vulnerable before God, I've been surprised at how Jesus has responded to it." -Father Justin Claravall

IN THIS EPISODE

For this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh chats with Father Justin Claravall, SJ, Associate Pastor of Dolores Mission Church. Justin talks about his path to the Jesuits and how Saint Ignatius led him to a closer understanding of Jesus and God. He also talks about his prayer practice, and how he approaches it by "being real... with myself before God and noticing God being real with me."

Later, Julia asks Justin about Dolores Mission. They talk about the joys and hardships of many of the parishioners. Justin delves into the two on-coming problems of gentrification and youth engagement, focusing on the idea of how to organize people for long-term health of the community. Paradoxically, as Justin points out, this organization goes hand-in-hand with the mess of people's lives.

Julia and Justin also talk about the relationship between art and justice, focusing on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s idea of a "soul force" and the idea of God as a creator. He urges people to be frank about where they are in the mess of their own lives: "If you don't like the mess... tell Jesus about it!"

ABOUT THE GUEST

Fr. Justin Claravall, S.J., is an associate pastor at Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles, CA. During his Jesuit life, he taught religion in prisons and high schools, and led faith sharing groups for teenagers and young adults. He currently accompanies his parish school, participates in the Ecclesial Base Communities and Social Justice Committee, and tries to make time for more art.

Dolores Mission's website: https://www.dolores-mission.org/

Dolores Mission's Facebook page, where Sunday masses are live-streamed: https://www.facebook.com/DoloresMissionChurch/

Father Justin's video essays on prayer and the pandemic on Jesuits West: https://www.jesuitswest.org/stories/fr-justin-claravall-sj-praying-during-the-pandemic/

Chapter 11 from St. Paul's letter to the Hebrews, which comes up in the interview: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/11

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

BE SOCIAL:https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness

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Twitter: @messyjesusbiz

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LISTEN HERE:

A Special Episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Oasis of Mara, Twentynine palms, california. photo © Colin wambsgans

IN THIS EPISODE

Though Holy Week will be here soon, the Lenten journey continues. We invite you to take some time in prayerful contemplation of this season with Sister Julia in this special episode. This meditation includes a reading from Isaiah 58:5-12 and a poem previously published on Messy Jesus Business in 2022 entitled "Death Poetica" by Sister Julia. You can find the poem here: https://messyjesusbusiness.com/2022/03/02/death-poetica/

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Original music and sound design by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

BE SOCIAL:https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness

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Episode 60 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh.

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"Jesus teaches us that differences aren’t deficits. Because a person is in poverty or struggling… that doesn't make them any less human.” - Ralph McCloud

IN THIS EPISODE

In this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh chats with Ralph McCloud, Director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. They dig into some of the fundamental concepts of the Campaign's work, especially what it means to have a preferential option for the poor, and the difference between fairness and justice. Ralph talks about the limits of charity and how fear and racism can prevent engaging with the poor, even if, as he says, "Working with low income communities is... very rarely neat."

Julia asks Ralph about how he deals with criticism thrown at him, and how he sees the messy balance between living the Gospel and being a part of a divided Church and society. As Ralph adds, "If we prioritize our way of life, our comfort, our income, our ideology, all of these above the call that says love one another, all of these above worshiping and following Jesus, ... that can throw you into a society that is as polarized as the one we find ourselves in right now."

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ralph McCloud is the Director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (or CCHD), the domestic anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. CCHD works to break the cycle of poverty by helping low-income people participate in decisions that affect their lives, families and communities and by educating people on poverty and justice. Ralph has served as the national director for fifteen years.

Prior to working at the USCCB, Ralph worked as Division Director of Pastoral and Community Services in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas. While in this position, Ralph served four terms on the Fort Worth City Council from 1997 – 2005 and 3 terms as Mayor Pro Tempore.

He currently serves on the board of the Catholic Mobilizing Network. Ralph is a member of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington DC where he serves on the Finance Council and is a lector.

He has served as President of the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators and as a board member of both the National Black Catholic Congress and the Roundtable Association of Social Action Directors. Also, he chaired the County Homeless Commission and was named Tarrant County’s First Racial Reconciliation Award Winner by the Tarrant County Community of Churches. He is also the recipient of the State of Texas Courage Award from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. In 2009, he was awarded the History Maker Award from the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 2009 and Catholic Charities USA’s Martin Luther King Keep the Dream Alive Award in 2010. In 2017, Ralph was awarded the Bishop John Joseph Keane Medallion from the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America and the Harry A. Fagan Award by the Roundtable for dedication and commitment to social justice in 2018.

The main site for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, where you can find out more about its mission and projects: povertyusa.org/

More information about the CCHD: https://www.usccb.org/committees/catholic-campaign-human-development/who-we-are

Ralph's writing on Lent: https://www.usccb.org/committees/catholic-campaign-human-development/lenten-reflections-director-cchd

MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. 

Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans.

Email us at [email protected]

BE SOCIAL:https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness

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