Our special guest this week is Fr. Harrison from Clerically Speaking – not only is Fr. Harrison a huge fan of Pope Benedict XVI, he's writing his doctoral thesis on the guy!

But don't worry, this episode isn't super heady or academic as much as it is simply Matt & Fr. Harrison nerding out on their shared love for Pope Benedict XVI and why he's just as important to the average person in the pews as he is to the great Catholic intellectual tradition as a whole.

Special Guest: Fr. Harrison Ayre.

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• [BOOK] Finding Christ in the Crisis: What the Pandemic Can Teach Us
• [BOOK] School of Prayer by Pope Benedict XVI
• 2008 Address of Pope Benedict XVI on Apostolic Journey to France
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An exclusive audio recording of Patris Corde, the new apostolic letter from Pope Francis on St. Joseph, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Joseph being named Patron of the Universal Church and announcing a "Year of St. Joseph" starting December 8, 2020.

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• [FULL TEXT] Apostolic Letter Patris Corde of the Holy Father Francis on Saint Joseph
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This episode is a bit unique. It’s early December, so our Catholic listeners will know that there are two mega huge feast days celebrating Mary in the first half of this month – the Immaculate Conception on December 8 and Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

So we thought it might be fitting to break from the usual format and talk about the Mother of God under one of those titles, and what two 20th-Century popes have to say about her.

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• Ineffabilis Deus (1854) — Bl. Pope Pius IX's papal bull solemnly proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
• [Pope Pius XII] Fulgens Corona — Encyclical on the 100th anniversary of Bl. Pope Pius IX's dogmatic declaration on the Immaculate Conception
• [St. John Paul II] Immaculate Conception Defined by Pius IX

Our pope this week had the fun job of wrangling a bunch of Alphas and convincing them to work as a team for the sake of Christendom, and in the meantime tried not to lose everything the papacy had accumulated up to that point in history. Oh, and his nephew would later end up being one of the most powerful popes in history.

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• Pope Clement III (Wikipedia)
• Pope Clement III (The Catholic Encyclopedia)
• Pope Clement III (Flocknote's Popes in a Year)
• [BOOK] The Glory of the Crusades by Steve Weidenkopf

Our pope this week you might not know, but odds are you know about something he did. I’m talking about the biggest and oldest unreinforced concrete dome IN THE WORLD. He converted it from a pagan temple into a church, which has been in constant use now for over 1400 years.

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• St. Boniface IV (Catholic Encyclopedia)
• Saint Boniface IV (Britannica)
• Pope Boniface IV (Wikipedia)
• Pope St. Boniface IV (Flocknote's Popes in a Year)
• [COMING SOON] Today in Papal History

Our pope this week wasn’t around for long, but the time he did spend in office left its mark. He entered the Chair of Peter at a dicey time in Christian history and dealt with an arch nemesis from within the Church right after his election, to boot. He was eventually killed for his faith, and is now the patron saint of things like lovers and earaches.

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• Pope Cornelius (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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• Saint Cornelius (Britannica)
• LETTER: Cornelius to Cyprian, on the Return of the Confessors to Unity
• LETTER: St. Cyprian to Cornelius in Exile, Concerning His Confession.
• [COMING SOON] Today in Papal History — A new daily newsletter on papal history, powered by The Popecast

This pope was old and sick when he got elected, and wasn’t in office for all that long. But he wasn’t about to let any younger whipper snappers outdo him in energy or productivity. Oh, he also made the founder of the Jesuits a saint, and wrote the last document from a pope about when certain someones could or could not be burned at the stake.

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• Pope Gregory XV - Wikipedia
• Pope Gregory XV - Catholic Encyclopedia
• Pope Gregory XV - Popes in a Year

Our pope this week is in elite company in more ways than one – he was holy when sanctity was severely lacking in the halls of the Vatican, and he’s one of only FIVE men in history from the Order of Preachers to be elevated to the Chair of St. Peter.

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• Blessed Pope Benedict XI – Popes in a Year
• Pope Benedict XI - Wikipedia
• Pope Benedict XI – Catholic Encyclopedia

The exclusive audiobook of Pope Francis' new Apostolic Letter, Lettera Apostolica Scripturae, commemorating the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome. Chapters included if you'd like to skip around.

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• Apostolic Letter "Scripturae Sacrae affectus" on the sixteen hundredth Anniversary of the death of Saint Jerome (30 September 2020) | Francis

Our pope this week faced down an invading king, fought against a nasty heresy in the East, and has something in common with just FIVE other popes in all of Church history. Oh, and he’s not the St. Paul you’re probably thinking of.

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Support The Popecast: A History of the Papacy

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• CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Paul I
• Pope Paul I - Wikipedia
• Pope St. Paul I – Flocknote's Popes in a Year