The Catholic Lab

We finish our reading of Venite ad Me! How does the faith take root in culture?

What areas need special attention today — popular piety, the homily, young volunteers, women in the Church, Catholic schools and ecumenism?

And we hear powerful real-life testimonies from Colombia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Slovakia, Japan, Poland, France, Jamaica, Switzerland and Malaysia, ending with the beautiful image of the Paschal candle: one light, passed from hand to hand.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Ch. VI – Faith and Culture

07:30 Faith and the academic world

10:00 Ch. VII – Some Specific Areas of Attention

10:38 Popular piety

14:53 The homily

17:47 Women in the life of the Church

19:19 Lessons from Church history

22:12 Catholic schools & universities

24:46 Ecumenism

27:30 Ch. VIII – Personal Testimonies

54:18 Conclusion – The Light of the Paschal Candle

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How do we pass on the faith in a changing world? In Chapters IV & V we explore the centrality of the Kerygma, "Jesus Christ loves you, He gave His life to save you, and He is alive at your side", and how faith is handed on in our communities: through the liturgy, the witness of holiness, friendship, art and beauty, and every stage of life.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Ch. IV – The Centrality of the Kerygma

03:45 Fostering an Experience of Faith

09:40 The Question of Language

13:51 Christian Formation

19:05 Ch. V – The Transmission of the Faith in Communities

23:55 Liturgy

34:42 The Role of Witness

41:24 Art and Beauty

44:03 The Stages of Life

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Every love story starts with butterflies. But what happens when the excitement fades, life gets busy, and love becomes a daily choice?

In this episode, Richard Oyeleke sits down with Mr & Mrs Palmer-Ikuku for an honest conversation about marriage beyond the honeymoon: what commitment really looks like, how love grows through the ordinary and the hard seasons, and why choosing each other again and again is the secret power that keeps a marriage alive.

Whether you're single, courting, engaged or married, this one is for you.

🎧 Watch & listen:

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🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ZRRi5TVeU6b6dekAPg8MW

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#CatholicLab #Faith #God #Catholic #Marriage #CatholicMarriage

How do you disagree with someone and still find the truth together?

In the final part of our series on Pope St John Paul II's Fides et Ratio, Richard Oyeleke shares the Socratic method, the oldest critical-thinking tool in the world. Then we watch it at work in five honest conversations between two friends, Kunle and Ada, who go from "it's all just opinion" to one of the hardest moral questions of our time: abortion. No shouting, just questions, with truth and compassion side by side.

We also look at the Church as a lighthouse, not a cage; faith and science (did you know a Catholic priest proposed the Big Bang?); why philosophy matters for young people; St Bonaventure's checklist; and Mary, Seat of Wisdom, who asked "How can this be?" and then said "Let it be done to me."

This week's challenge: In your next disagreement, ask one honest question instead of attacking. And pray one Hail Mary daily for the gift of wisdom.

📖 Read Fides et Ratio: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html

New here? Start the series with EP 072, Two Wings: Faith & Reason, and EP 073, My Truth or The Truth?

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Is truth just a feeling? A vote in the group chat? Whatever your favourite influencer says?In part two of our series on Pope St John Paul II's Fides et Ratio, Richard Oyeleke asks what truth really is and who deserves our trust.

Then we name the "isms" quietly shaping our choices: pragmatism ("if it works, it's right"), scientism ("if it's possible, it's okay"), nihilism ("nothing really matters"), eclecticism, historicism and the do-it-yourself conscience.

Real-life examples, from padded invoices to situationships."Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery." (Fides et Ratio, n. 90)This week's challenge: Check before you share any broadcast, and spot one "ism" in a song, movie or post. Name it and test it.

📖 Read Fides et Ratio: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html

Missed Part 1? Catch EP 072, Two Wings: Faith & Reason.Next: EP 074, Think Clearly, Choose Rightly.🎧 Watch & listen:▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecatholiclabpodcast🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ZRRi5TVeU6b6dekAPg8MW📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecatholiclabpodcast?cplk=MXZvdGpscXQ1MHRtbw==

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#CatholicLab #Faith #God #Catholic #FidesEtRatio #truth Music track: Take Off by Luke Bergs & WaestoSource: https://freetouse.com/musicFree Music Without Copyright (Safe)

Who am I? Where am I going? Why is there evil? What happens after this life?

In part one of our series on Pope St John Paul II's Fides et Ratio, Richard Oyeleke explores why faith and reason are "two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth".

We cover relativism and "my truth", the Church as servant of the truth, whether reason can find God, Paul at Athens, and what goes wrong when we fly on one wing.

This week's challenge: Write honest answers to the four big questions, and before one decision each day, ask: Is it true? Is it good?

📖 Read Fides et Ratio: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html

📖 Aeterni Patris (Leo XIII, 1879): https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_04081879_aeterni-patris.html

Next: EP 073, My Truth or The Truth?

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#CatholicLab #Faith #God #Catholic #FidesEtRatio #FaithAndReason

Why are human beings religious? Is faith just a psychological need, or something society created? Can a belief be passed down culturally and still be objectively true?

Rev. Fr. Francis Fabidun (Philosophy & Sociology of Religion) joins us to unpack it.

🎧 Watch & listen:

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"What we are experiencing is not simply an epoch of changes, but an epochal change." – Pope Francis

Why is the faith no longer passed on automatically from parents to children? In Chapter III of "Venite ad Me", the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith looks at how the world has changed, and what it means for the Church.

In this episode:

⏳ An epochal change, as described by Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV

👨‍👩‍👧 The breakdown in passing on the faith in families, from Europe and America to Asia, Latin America and Africa

🧍 Individualism and the "sovereignty of the self"

📱 Digital technologies and AI, and how they reshape space, time and authority

🌱 New frontiers: the rise in adult baptisms and conversions among young people

🇳🇬 The Nigerian bishops on how indigenous clergy help pass on the faith

📖 Read the full document:

https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20261022_venite-ad-me_en.html

Do well to share with your Catholic and Non-Catholic friends. 🙏

🎧 Listen & subscribe:

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🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ZRRi5TVeU6b6dekAPg8MW

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God bless you!

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"We also believe, and so we speak." (2 Corinthians 4:13)

Faith is passed on like one candle lighting another, through personal encounter, in our families and in the Church community. In this episode, we read Chapter II of "Venite ad Me", the new document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

📖 Read the full document:

https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20261022_venite-ad-me_en.html

Do well to share with your Catholic and Non-Catholic friends. 🙏

🎧 Listen & subscribe:

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🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ZRRi5TVeU6b6dekAPg8MW

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God bless you!

#CatholicLabPodcast #VeniteAdMe #LightOfFaith #CatholicFaith

"Come to me, all you who labour…" (Matthew 11:28)

We begin a new series reading aloud "Venite ad Me: Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal Change", the new document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (22 October 2026).

In this episode, we read the Introduction and Chapter I, "The Proclamation of the Father's Love": Jesus reveals the Father's unconditional love as the true light of the world, and the Church is sent to carry that message to everyone, because "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

📖 Read the full document:

https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20261022_venite-ad-me_en.html

Do well to share with your Catholic and Non-Catholic friends. 🙏

🎧 Listen & subscribe:

▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecatholiclabpodcast

🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ZRRi5TVeU6b6dekAPg8MW

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecatholiclabpodcast?cplk=MXZvdGpscXQ1MHRtbw==

🌐 Got a question? Ask it privately at https://www.thecatholiclab.com and we'll answer it on the podcast.

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💛 Support the work

If this podcast has blessed you, please consider a gift, big or small, to help us keep sharing the faith with young people everywhere:

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Thank you, and God bless you!

#CatholicLabPodcast #VeniteAdMe #CatholicFaith #Evangelization #GodIsLove