Practicing Catholic Show

Spring is in the air and you know what that means.. Pretty soon we’ll be enjoying warm summer evenings outdoors, perhaps even at the softball fields!  

Catholic Softball Group is a co-ed softball league for young adults in our Archdiocese, ranging from experienced players to those playing just for fun. Chatting with us this past weekend to share about how you or the young adults in your life can get involved was Jamie Wheeler, a Leadership Team member for Catholic Softball Group, and Laura Daily: a player who’s been in the league since 2020. 

Looking for a meaningful tradition to your Easter celebrations? For 30 years, supporters around the Twin Cities have hosted Giving Trees around the Christmas season. This spring, Catholic Charities invites you to host your own Giving Basket! It is a new family-friendly opportunity to collect those highest-need items for the families and individuals within our community.

Joining us this past weekend to share how you can get involved was Mike Rios-Keating, Social Justice Education Manager for Catholic Charities.

Maybe you’ve heard the term before: an outcome of the 2015 settlement agreement between the Archdiocese and the Ramsey County Attorney's office, an Archdiocesan ombudsperson has served as an independent resource for people with questions or concerns about clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese.

Julie Craven, who works with restorative justice and healing at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, will step into this additional volunteer role as ombudsperson for our local Church. Julie is joining us today to share more about what her role entails.

Have you or somebody you love ever experienced a season of hard times? Whether it was financial or housing strain, an illness, or perhaps a death in the family, we all are able to relate to the feeling of needing help and support from our neighbors. The folks at Hospitality Houses for Divine Mercy do just that by serving our homeless brothers and sisters who suffer from mental health illnesses.  

Joining us today to share about this life-giving resource in our own Archdiocese is Gary Bowman, President and Founder.

As Practicing Catholics, we know we’re called to steward our finances well but it’s not always easy to do on our own. The Catholic Community Foundation serves Catholic individuals, families, parishes and institutions seeking to streamline their charitable giving while financially supporting the spiritual, educational, and social needs of our community.  

Joining us this past weekend to share about their 30 years of service, and the call to stewardship were Anne Cullen Milller, President of the Catholic Community Foundation; and His Excellency, Archbishop Hebda – ex officio Chairperson. 

In the depths of Lent, there’s still a bit of joy and fellowship to be had if you’re tuned in to the tradition of attending parish fish frys. As Practicing Catholics, we know that Fridays are a day to abstain from meat, particularly during Lent but is also practiced as a penance throughout the liturgical year.  

This weekend we chatted with two gentlemen from Our Lady of the Lake parish in Mound about why gathering in community in this way is so important in the spiritual life of the parish.  

While we continue this penitential season of Lent, a lot of folks in the Archdiocese are feverishly working on an episcopal ordination and some celebrations honoring Bishop-elect Michael Izen. It’s all happening under the encouraging and watchful eye of our shepherd, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who joined us this weekend on Practicing Catholic for his monthly visit

Over the past three years of our Archdiocesan Synod process, it’s become rather clear that our parish communities desire more opportunities for evangelization, fellowship, and development of our youth. We can’t help but notice a common theme in these three pillars: that folks are drawn to one another for support, encouragement, and accompaniment.

But why is fostering community such an important component in the eyes of our faith?

Joining us today is Bishop Joseph Williams, auxiliary bishop for our Archdiocese and a key leader in our Synod. We’ll be chatting about the call to community and how we might respond to it even if it’s something that might not come naturally...

Lent can be a time to welcome new traditions into our lives, especially ones that are rooted in prayer. This Holy Week, we invite you to reflect on the life of Christ in a unique way: through a series of radio plays first produced by the BBC in the early 1940s focused on bringing the Gospels to life.

Joining us today is Kathryn Wehr, managing editor of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, published by St. Thomas’s Center for Catholic Studies. Kathryn has edited a new edition of “The Man Born King,” which shows the humanity and divinity of Christ.

As we discussed last week on Practicing Catholic, the need to support our young people in their faith journeys is ever-so-important in our changing world. NET Ministries – which stands for National Evangelization Teams - has been helping young people evangelize their peers for the past 40 years; utilizing retreat teams, discipleship teams, and YDisciple - a small group discipleship resource – to help our youth walk with one another in Christ.

We had the honor this past weekend of speaking with Dave Rinaldi, the unanimously-voted upon new President of NET Ministries! We learned a bit about the man behind the ministry, some NET offerings happening within our own Archdiocese, and how we might further support our youth.