Third Space: Pope Francis Generation

Endings and Beginnings

Paul Fahey — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 14:41:42 GMT

With sadness and excitement, today I’m sharing the very last episode of the Pope Francis Generation podcast and the very first episode of the Third Space podcast.

As I wrote about a few weeks ago:

I’m changing the name of this Substack and podcast to better reflect my own spiritual evolution over the past three years and the fact that I’m now a mental health professional as well as a catechist.
I have felt more and more convicted that the Heart of the Church isn’t the ecclesiastical institution, isn’t the hierarchy, and isn’t the pope. Jesus said, “whatever you do for the poor and vulnerable among you, you do for me” (cf. Matthew 25:40).
Over the past year I have been convicted that the Heart of the Church is the vulnerable and marginalized and those who serve them. And I believe it’s more important for me to associate myself with them, even more than it is for me to associate myself with the pope.

So I’m saying goodbye to Pope Francis Generation and starting Third Space.

What does this mean and what’s in store for the future?

For the past several weeks, I’ve been transitioning this website over to Third Space and I’ve been recording episodes for the new podcast.

Your subscription to this newsletter, whether it’s free or paid, will stay the same. If you want to continue following me, you don’t need to do anything. Also, there may be some downtime as the site is updating, but it should get back to normal quickly.

I am keeping the popefrancisgeneration.com web address and will direct it to the PFG podcast archives. All of the episodes will stay up, but after today it will no longer be updated.

The episode today is both the final episode of PFG and the first episode of Third Space (a two-for-one!). But after today, if you want to continue getting Third Space episodes, you will need to subscribe to this Substack (if you haven’t already) or subscribe to Third Space in your podcast app (search for “Paul Fahey Third Space”).

In this episode, Dominic and Paul reflect on Pope Francis Generation and share more in-depth about why Paul is making the change to Third Space.

We are so grateful for this podcast and for you, our listeners. We’ve had some incredible interviews with guests the past two years and so many conversations with listeners who have reached out after hearing something on the podcast that resonated with them. We are grateful for all the relationships that have grown from this podcast. Thank you.

LINKS:

Third Space
www.catholicthirdspace.com

Dominic de Souza
https://dominicdesouza.com/

Smart Catholics
https://smartcatholics.com/

Legand Fiction
https://legendfiction.com/

ABOUT DOMINIC DE SOUZA SmartCatholics founder, Dominic de Souza, is a convert from radical traditionalism – inspired by WherePeterIs, Bishop Robert Barron, and Pope Francis. He is passionate about helping ordinary Catholics break the ‘bystander effect’, and be first responders. “We don’t have to be geniuses. We just have to show up with witness and kindness. Christ does the rest.” Today he hosts the SmartCatholics community.

https://smartcatholics.com

ABOUT SMARTCATHOLICS If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your one friend you think would really like to see it. Come and regroup with us in the free, Catholic community on smartcatholics.com We're free of trolls and ads and toxicity, faithful to the Holy Father Pope Francis and the Church, and committed to a culture of kindness and learning. Sound like you? Come and join us. Join the free community:

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Dignitas Infinita

Paul Fahey — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 16:35:34 GMT

On April 8th, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released a new document about the infinite dignity of the human person, Dignitas Infinita.

More specifically, Dignitas Infinita is a Declaration (the same kind of document as Fiducia Supplicans) that was approved and signed by the pope and thus part of the ordinary magisterium of the Church. Cardinal Fernandez, the head of the DDF, introduced the document saying that it has been five years in the making and went through several drafts. I got the impression that Dignitas Infinita is kind of a companion text to Pope Francis’s 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti.

Fernandez introduced the content of the Declaration saying (emphasis mine):

“In its initial three sections, the Declaration recalls fundamental principles and theoretical premises, with the goal of offering important clarifications that can help avoid frequent confusion that surrounds the use of the term “dignity.” The fourth section presents some current and problematic situations in which the immense and inalienable dignity due to every human being is not sufficiently recognized.
The Church sees the condemnation of these grave and current violations of human dignity as a necessary measure, for she sustains the deep conviction that we cannot separate faith from the defense of human dignity, evangelization from the promotion of a dignified life, and spirituality from a commitment to the dignity of every human being.”

Dignitas Infinita begins by proclaiming the scandalous and prophetic truth that, “Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter” (DI 1).

This truth “rests on a threefold conviction” grounded in God’s revelation of Himself, and our destiny in light of His identity. The first conviction is that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God and possesses “a sacred value that transcends every distinction of a sexual, social, political, cultural, and religious nature” (DI 18). Second, “By uniting himself with every human being through his Incarnation, Jesus Christ confirmed that each person possesses an immeasurable dignity simply by belonging to the human community; moreover, he affirmed that this dignity can never be lost” (DI 19).

The third and final conviction is nothing less than our destiny for union with God, theosis:

“After the Creation and the Incarnation, Christ’s Resurrection reveals a further aspect of human dignity. Indeed, ‘the dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God,’ destined to last forever. Thus, ‘the dignity of this life is linked not only to its beginning, to the fact that it comes from God, but also to its final end, to its destiny of fellowship with God in knowledge and love of him’” (DI 20).

Overall, I liked this document. I loved that it fully embraced the word "infinite.” I think that word jolts us and makes us uncomfortable, which is important because I think there's a constant temptation to measure human worth and weigh it against other perceived goods in the moment. I really loved the emphasis on prioritizing powerless, specifically how Jesus is the model for preferencing the poor and powerless. I also liked the continuing escalation of the Church’s condemnation of the death penalty.

But I also had some criticisms, specifically in ways where I thought the document failed to live up to some of its own teachings.

This week on the podcast, Dominic and I walk through Dignitas Infinita, hitting some of the main beats, before going on to share our personal reactions, positive and critical.

I hope you enjoy it!

This episode is available on Youtube and your favorite podcast app.

Also, this is the final episode of this season. It’s been a privilege having the kinds of discussions with the caliber of guests who joined us this season. Thank you for joining us and for all your encouragement and support.

We’re planning on a Season Six! But with my graduation (less than a month now!) and a new full-time job as a counselor, I’m not sure yet when I will be settled enough to launch the next season.

But in the meantime!

I have two projects I want to tell you about.

The first is a new workshop I’m leading next month titled: “I Myself Will Shepherd My Sheep” A workshop for recognizing, preventing, and responding to spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church.

For my counseling internship I led a four-week group about spiritual abuse in Christian spaces. It went really well. So I decided to expand that and turn it into a five-week workshop about spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience in the Catholic Church. I'm going to run it during the month or so of limbo I have in between graduating and getting my counseling license from the state.

This workshop is for:

Individuals trying to understand and/or heal from experiences of spiritual abuse in the Church
Clergy and lay leaders interested in safeguarding their communities from spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience
Therapists working with clients who have been spiritually abused

This workshop will help you:

Recognize and prevent spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience in the Church
Know the symptoms of spiritual abuse, religious trauma, and moral injury
Respond to individuals who have been spiritually abused

This is a five-part live workshop that will be held virtually beginning in May. It’s $125 to attend. Registration and more information are here: https://www.popefrancisgeneration.com/p/i-myself-will-shepherd-my-sheep

Second, I created a day-long retreat focused on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. I’ve led this retreat in parishes in West Virginia and Tennessee. During this election year, if you are looking for an event for your parish or community to help them learn and pray with the Church’s social teaching, check out my Life as Christ: Catholic Social Teaching Retreat.

Registration and more information are here:

Practical Kerygma

Life as Christ: Catholic Social Teaching Retreat

“For Christians, the words of Jesus have an even deeper meaning. They compel us to recognize Christ himself in each of our abandoned or excluded brothers and sisters. Faith has untold power to inspire and sustain our respect for others, for believers come to know that God loves every man and woman with infinite love and “thereby confers infinite dignity…

3 years ago · Practical Kerygma

Dominic and Paul wrap up this season with a conversation about the new document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Dignitas Infinita, about the infinite dignity of the human person. We discuss the main themes of the document before moving on to sharing our positive and negative reactions to it.

“Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter. This principle, which is fully recognizable even by reason alone, underlies the primacy of the human person and the protection of human rights. In the light of Revelation, the Church resolutely reiterates and confirms the ontological dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed in Jesus Christ. From this truth, the Church draws the reasons for her commitment to the weak and those less endowed with power, always insisting on ‘the primacy of the human person and the defense of his or her dignity beyond every circumstance’” (Dignitas Infinita 1).

LINKS

Dignitas Infinita
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/04/08/240408c.html

Fratelli Tutti
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html

Paid subscribers get to watch episodes early! All of your contributions directly supports my family and allows me to continue this podcast and all the resources I’ve shared here!

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Throwback Episode - The Dignity of the Human Person

Paul Fahey — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:34:31 GMT

On April 8th, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the DDF, released a new document about the infinite dignity of the human person. Dominic and I wanted to cover what this document says and our reactions to it, but due to my internship schedule and Dominic still in the midst of moving, we didn’t have time to record this week.

However, a year and a half ago, back in our second season of the podcast, we had an entire discussion about the infinite dignity of the human person drawing from Fratelli Tutti and the wider social teaching of the Church. So this week we’re sharing that conversation as a throwback episode for you in preparation for our discussion about the new DDF document.

This episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

In this throwback episode (from Season Two) Paul and Dominic discuss the first of the four principles of Catholic Social Teaching, the dignity of the human person. We are all tempted to reduce the value of others, to, as Pope Francis puts it, “despise the limit that another’s value imposes.” Since Vatican II, the Church has emphasized the infinite dignity of every human being and has explained the implications of that belief.

Faith has untold power to inspire and sustain our respect for others, for believers come to know that God loves every man and woman with infinite love and “thereby confers infinite dignity” upon all humanity. We likewise believe that Christ shed his blood for each of us and that no one is beyond the scope of his universal love. (Fratelli Tutti 85)

LINKS

Spiritual Abuse Workshop
https://www.popefrancisgeneration.com/p/i-myself-will-shepherd-my-sheep

Life as Christ: Catholic Social Teaching Retreat

Practical Kerygma

Life as Christ: Catholic Social Teaching Retreat

3 years ago · Practical Kerygma

Dignitas Infinita
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/04/08/240408c.html

Fratelli Tutti
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html

Paid subscribers get to watch episodes early! All of your contributions directly supports my family and allows me to continue this podcast and all the resources I’ve shared here!

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Cathy Melesky Dante - Power Dynamics in Church

Paul Fahey — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 16:33:17 GMT

I first came across Cathy Melesky Dante’s work a few months ago when Awake shared her article, "Power Literacy in Abuse Prevention Education: Lessons from the Field in the Catholic Safeguarding Response."

The article was excellent. It hit on things that I had only felt or intuited as not right, but then it was able to articulate why they actually are harmful. She offered an analysis of abuse in the Church using the framework of intimate partner violence and power dynamics (including how sexualized/gendered theology can perpetuate those structures of power imbalance). She talked about structures of virtue and vice and how they can relate to abuse of power in the Church. The article put words to so many ideas that I've just started to grasp over the past year or so.

As soon as I read the article I knew I wanted to have Cathy on the podcast, and I’m so grateful that she agreed. I hope you enjoy our conversation!

This episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

This week, Paul spoke with Cathy Melesky Dante, a social worker and scholar who recently published an article titled, "Power Literacy in Abuse Prevention Education: Lessons from the Field in the Catholic Safeguarding Response." This conversation is about how power dynamics, gender roles, structures of sin, and undermining the consciences of children play a role in perpetuating clerical abuse in the Church.

Cathy Melesky Dante is a PhD candidate at Marquette University writing a lay ethic toward solidarity with those sexually abused by Catholic leaders. A recent keynote speaker at the annual conference for the Guam Coalition against Sexual Assault and Family Violence (2023), she also is a spiritual director and former social worker. Her work can be found in Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction.

LINKS

Power Literacy in Abuse Prevention Education: Lessons from the Field in the Catholic Safeguarding Response:
https://jmt.scholasticahq.com/article/92065-power-literacy-in-abuse-prevention-education-lessons-from-the-field-in-the-catholic-safeguarding-response

Paid subscribers get to watch each episode early! All of your contributions directly supports my family and allows me to continue this podcast and all the resources I’ve shared here!

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What is Abuse of Conscience?

Paul Fahey — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 13:15:32 GMT

Over the course of the podcast we’ve had several conversations about conscience and the moral law as well as episodes about abuse in the Church. However, in my reading of Pope Francis’s teaching, as well as in my research about spiritual abuse, there’s a specific type of abuse that’s discussed, but not widely understood, the abuse of conscience.

So this week I wanted to unpack what abuse of conscience is and give concrete examples of what it looks like. I think you will be surprised how common it is, and even how, at times, the abuse of conscience is presumed to be the orthodox way of practicing the faith. Some of these examples include:

Ignoring the difference between the internal and external forum, that is, subjective discernment and freedom/culpability and the objective moral law
Telling someone that “God is telling you to do _______”
Telling someone that an objective action will damn them to hell or is a mortal sin, ignoring the subjective requirements of a mortal sin
Stating that the Church teaches a particular thing when there is not an actual written teaching on that matter
Confusing the objective moral law with my own subjective and prudential judgment of conscience

Dominic and I explain how the abuse of conscience is endemic in our experiences of Catholicism. And how all of us (whether we’re in formal positions of leadership, are parents, are older siblings, etc) have a responsibility to respect the conscience of others, and keep ourselves, and others, safe by being mindful of this abuse in our communities and families.

“Abuse of conscience is the type of abuse of power that damages the conscience as the seat of freedom of judgment and as the place of encounter with God and with oneself. Abuse of conscience occurs when the ecclesial mediation transgresses its limits, so that it gains control of and replaces it.
For instance, it is perpetrated when representatives of the Church impose the will of God on the followers who have opened their conscience to them. In fact, when ecclesiastical mediation becomes absolute, it transgresses its limits and contradicts its aim and meaning. The leader no longer represents God, but supplants Him, and makes wrongful use of the name of the Lord (Ex 20:7).
Thus, conscience loses its freedom to judge and the follower can no longer be alone with God in his or her conscience. The hallmark of this type of abuse is that the faithful’s conscience can no longer fulfill its proper function because the abuser has replaced it.”
Fr. Samuel Fernández (2021). Towards a Definition of Abuse of Conscience in the Catholic Setting. Gregorianum, 102(3): 557–74.

I hope you enjoy this discussion!

This episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

This week, Paul and Dominic dive into a specific type of spiritual abuse, the abuse of conscience. An individual’s conscience is their innermost sanctuary where they are alone with God. However, that sanctuary can be invaded and violated by the malicious and the careless. Paul and Dominic give examples of what this kind of abuse looks like and how common it is. So common that, at times, the abuse of conscience is presumed to be the orthodox way of practicing the faith.

“We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.” (Amoris Laetitia 37)

LINKS

PFG episode about conscience:
https://www.popefrancisgeneration.com/p/conscience-and-disagreeing-with-the

The Place Where You Stand is Holy Ground: Recognizing and Preventing Spiritual Abuse in the Catholic Church:
https://wherepeteris.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Place-Where-You-Stand-is-Holy-Ground.pdf

Paid subscribers get to watch each episode early! All of your contributions directly supports my family and allows me to continue this podcast and all the resources I’ve shared here!

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Throwback Episode - Brad Jersak - Faith after Deconstruction

Paul Fahey — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 16:31:30 GMT

We have a Throwback Episode for you this week.

This was the first episode of our third season. Dominic and I interviewed the Eastern Orthodox theologian, Brad Jersak. It ended up being one of my favorite interviews ever for the podcast.

I first came across Brad’s work a few years ago when a friend shared a video of his talk "The Gospel in Chairs." I've probably watched that video twenty times since then. It is one of the most compelling proclamations of the kerygma that I've ever heard.

A month or so before the interview, I read Brad’s book, “Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction.” The book was healing for me and helped me navigate my own struggles trying to exist in a Church that has harmed me and people I care about. I have returned to it several times since and have referenced it in conversations with folks who are going through deconstruction or have been spiritually abused.

This interview with Brad has randomly come up in the past few weeks. And as I was thinking about it I realized that the podcast has a lot of new listeners since it first aired. This fact, combined with Dominic and my busy schedule, I thought it would be great to reshare it.

I hope you enjoy it!

This episode is available now on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

We have a Throwback Episode for you this week, all the way from Season Three. Paul and Dominic interviewed the Orthodox theologian Brad Jersak about new book, “Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction.” They talked about what it looks like to follow Jesus in the midst of suffering and trauma, even when the harm is coming from the Church.

Brad Jersak is the Dean of Theology & Culture at St. Stephen's University in New Brunswick, Canada, and editor in chief of Clarion-Journal.com. He is also the author or coauthor of a number of nonfiction and fiction books, including the More Christlike series.

LINKS

Gospel in Chairs

Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction
https://www.amazon.com/Out-Embers-Faith-After-Deconstruction/dp/1641238887

Website
https://bradjersak.com/

Paid subscribers get to watch each episode early! All of your contributions directly supports my family and allows me to continue this podcast and all the resources I’ve shared here!

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Eve Tushnet - Blessing Same-Sex Couples

Paul Fahey — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 16:32:11 GMT

After Eve Tushnet was on the podcast last year to talk about her book, Tenderness: A Gay Christian’s Guide to Unlearning Rejection and Experiencing God's Extravagant Love, I knew that she was the person I wanted to bring on the show to unpack Fiducia Supplicans (the new document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith permitting priests to bless same-sex couples).

As it turned out, Eve was working on two articles about Fiducia Supplicans (for Church Life Journal and for The Pillar), and in that process she was interviewing LGBTQ folks as well as priests to hear how the people most impacted by the document were reacting to it.

I thought that perspective was really important, so that’s where we focused our discussion in this episode. I always enjoy talking with Eve. I hope you enjoy our conversation as well.

This episode is available now on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

This week, Paul has a conversation with Eve Tushnet about Fiducia Supplicans, the new document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith permitting priests to bless same-sex couples. Eve has written a couple of recent articles about this document and, in the course of that, interviewed several LGBTQ Catholics and pastors. She shares some of those experiences with us. Eve was on the podcast last year and we had a wonderful conversation about her book, Tenderness: A Gay Christian's Guide to Unlearning Rejection and Experiencing God's Extravagant Love. It was really great having her back on!

Eve Tushnet is the author of two award-winning books on gay Christian spiritual life, Gay and Catholic and Tenderness: A Gay Christian's Guide to Unlearning Rejection and Experiencing God's Extravagant Love. She has also written two novels, and edited an anthology, Christ's Body, Christ's Wounds: Staying Catholic When You've Been Hurt in the Church. She recently co-founded the group Building Catholic Futures, which equips Catholic institutions to evangelize and catechize gay people of all ages. She writes and speaks frequently on gay Christian spiritual journeys, as well as on the arts. Tushnet lives in northern California.

LINKS

Pastoral Practice After Fiducia Supplicans:
https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/fiducia-supplicans-in-practice/

‘One step forward?’ — How some American Catholics experience ‘Fiducia supplicans’

The Pillar

‘One step forward?’ — How some American Catholics experience ‘Fiducia supplicans’

Simon Cereno had been expecting a normal, if not a quiet, Christmas with his large Italian-American family. But on December 18, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released Fiducia supplicans, and headlines like “POPE APPROVES SAME-SEX BLESSINGS” started scrolling across TVs and social media feeds…

2 years ago · 24 likes · 115 comments · Eve Tushnet

Tenderness: A Gay Christian’s Guide to Unlearning Rejection and Experiencing God's Extravagant Love:
https://www.avemariapress.com/products/tenderness

Building Catholic Futures:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/catholicfutures/building-catholic-futures

Eve’s email:
eve_tushnet@yahoo.com

Previous PFG episode with Eve:

https://www.popefrancisgeneration.com/p/eve-tushnet-helping-gay-christians

Paid subscribers get to watch each episode early! All of your contributions directly supports my family and allows me to continue this podcast and all the resources I’ve shared here!

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Joseph Stuart - Engaging with Secular Culture

Paul Fahey — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 16:25:35 GMT

I first met Dr. Joseph Stuart over a decade ago now. He was an adjunct professor with a newly minted Phd when Kristina and I were sophomores at Aquinas College. We took a course he taught called, Catholic Political Thought. I remember we talked a lot about the French Revolution and took a field trip to the Russell Kirk Center in Mecosta, MI. Most distinctly, I remember that the final exam was one of the hardest tests I’ve ever taken.

A year ago, Joseph reached out to me out of the blue saying that he had stumbled upon my article about spiritual abuse: The Place Where You Stand is Holy Ground. He asked if he could reference it during an upcoming lecture he was giving at Aquinas about his book, Rethinking the Enlightenment: Faith in the Age of Reason. It was humbling to have my work included in his lecture, and it was a great lecture!

Towards the beginning, Joseph said:

“Viewing the world…as a dialectic of secular and religious ideas at war with one another is bad for our souls. From a Christian point of view, it cramps us into a small space, nervous at what kind of attack the modern world might launch against us next. As if modernity has been the sole actor in the story of the last 300 years and Christians have simply reacted in defensive ways. We quake for fear that maybe God left us somewhere in the 18th century and now we live in a secular age without Him. The modern world is falling apart, we muse, and the spirit of the age, stemming from the enlightenment, has permeated even the Church. So we click to our favorite internet magisteria and give ear to the prophets of doom.”

This resonated a lot with different discussions I’ve been having about evangelization, integralism, the culture wars, and Pope Francis’s teaching. It took a year, but we were finally able to find a time to have him on the podcast.

I’m very happy to share this conversation with you. I think you’ll enjoy it!

The episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

This week, Dr. Joseph Stuart joins us on the podcast to talk about the ways that Christians responded to the Enlightenment in the 18th century. He dispels the myth that the Enlightenment was at war with religion. We then go on to discuss ways that Catholics can engage with the contemporary secular culture that grew from the Enlightenment. Specifically, we talked about the very real consequences of Christians engaging the culture using power and coercion rather than with credibility and faithfulness.

Joseph T. Stuart, Ph.D., is Full Professor of History and Fellow of Catholic Studies at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. His research and publications concern the life and work of cultural historian Christopher Dawson, the cultural history of the Great War, and the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. He is the author of three books: Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War; The Church and the Age of Reformations (1350–1650): Martin Luther, the Renaissance, and the Council of Trent; and Rethinking the Enlightenment: Faith in the Age of Reason.

LINKS:

Rethinking the Enlightenment: Faith in the Age of Reason:
https://sophiainstitute.com/product/rethinking-the-enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment and Our Souls: Legacies of Cultural Conflict, Engagement, and Retreat (2023 lecture at Aquinas College):

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Matthew Shadle - Francis’s Theological Paradigm Shift

Paul Fahey — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 17:31:40 GMT

I connected with Dr. Matthew Shadle last year. Back in December, I ran across an article he wrote about Pope Francis’s apostolic letter Ad Theologiam Promovendam, which revised the statutes of the Pontifical Academy of Theology. This letter received widespread criticism from some theologians/commentators because it encouraged a “contextual theology.”

One theologian that heavily criticized this apostolic letter was Larry Chapp. I’ve genuinely valued and grown from Larry Chapp's blog and podcast over the past few years, especially what he has written about Vatican II and Dorothy Day. I also understand, and share, some of Chapp's anger at Pope Francis for the ways that he has handled clerical abuse cases. But I have not been able to understand Chapp's anger and criticism directed at Pope Francis's theology.

Matthew’s article helped me understand this criticism in light of the wider theological debates going on the the Church since Vatican II which helped me see a little better where Chapp’s criticism is coming from (even though I disagree with him).

I think Pope Francis’s theology helps the Church to avoid a type of fundamentalism that presumes that we “possess the truth” (to borrow a phrase from Pope Benedict), or that we have access to God’s revelation in a pure, unmediated way. God has always revealed himself through human beings who are fallen, limited, and bound by their language, culture, and understanding of the world. Therefore, as limited creatures, we can always grow in our understanding of an eternal God. In a key passage, Matthew wrote:

“As I already noted, Chapp, following the line laid out by thinkers like Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, argues that our experiences, both personal and cultural, must be “sifted” and “tested” in light of the truths of Revelation. The difficulty here is that this assumes that we have unmediated access to Revelation, independent of experience.

Yet the truths of Revelation come to us as passed on through Tradition, which means they are mediated through the cultural and historical contexts of our forebears in faith, as my example of St. Anselm with which I opened this essay illustrates. This doesn’t mean we don’t have access to the truths of Revelation; it simply means that Tradition itself must be “sifted” and “tested” for us to discern what it communicates to us about Revelation, a process in which the Magisterium has an authoritative, although not exclusive, role.

Second, we necessarily encounter the truths of faith within the horizon of our own personal and cultural context. Of course, in a certain sense, the truth of Christ must come first, relative to experience or culture, but this can’t mean that we somehow have access to that truth prior to, or independently of, our historical and cultural existence.

We encounter the truth of Christ through a dialogical process, first entering into dialogue with those who have passed on the faith to us, seeking to understand them and their testimony in their context, and then engaging in dialogue with our own cultural context, drawing upon it to better understand how we can live out our faith but likewise rejecting those aspects of our context that run counter to the Gospel. This is precisely the method proposed by Pope Francis.”

I really enjoyed this conversation with Dr. Shadle, I hope you do as well!

The episode is available on Youtube and your favorite podcast app.

This week, Dr. Matthew Shadle joins the podcast to discuss the theology of Pope Francis in the context of Vatican II. Specifically—responding to some of the critics Pope Francis’s recent apostolic letter, Ad Theologiam Promovendam—we talk about how the pope’s theology fits in terms of the Ressourcement theology that dominated at the Second Vatican Council and its development since then.

After more than sixteen years of teaching theology at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa and Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, Dr. Matthew Shadle is the Academic Assessment Coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa. He received his B.A. in Religion from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Dayton, in Dayton, Ohio.

He has published Interrupting Capitalism: Catholic Social Thought and the Economy (Oxford, 2018) and The Origins of War: A Catholic Perspective (Georgetown, 2011), as well as numerous essays and articles on Catholic social teaching and its intersection with both fundamental moral theology and the social sciences, with special focus on war and peace, the economy, and immigration. He is currently the editor of Window Light, a Substack newsletter focused on Catholic theology and ministry.

LINKS

Window Light

Pope Francis and the Paradigm Shift in Theology, Redux

In his treatise Cur Deus Homo? (Why the God-Man?), the 11th-century theologian St. Anselm of Canterbury argued that the Son of God took on human flesh in the Incarnation because humankind owed God satisfaction for sin as a matter of justice but was incapable of adequately making satisfaction. Only God is capable of rendering satisfaction for our sin, an…

2 years ago · 5 likes · 3 comments · Matthew Shadle

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Sara Larson - Waking up to Abuse in the Church

Paul Fahey — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 17:07:11 GMT

I first connected with Sara Larson last summer. She reached out to me after listening to the interview we had with Dr. Marcus Mescher about moral injury and clerical sexual abuse. Since then we’ve had several conversations, and every time I walk away feeling understood and with a little more hope.

Sara is the Executive Director of Awake. Among other things, Awake provides support groups and retreats for survivors. They also host excellent online events where survivors can share their stories and experts can educate about the reality of abuse in the Church.

I’ve talked here on the podcast before about a concept a friend of mine, Monica Pope, articulated: that is the need for a “third space” for people harmed by the Church. Often, the responses that people who have been harmed by the Church hear from others when they share their experience is either A) defense of the Church or B ) a “burn it all down, you never needed it anyway” mentality. But that leaves no space for people who have been harmed but who still desire to be a part of the Church. I believe that Awake occupies that Third Space.

As much as I value the work Awake is doing, the thing I appreciated most about this conversation with Sara was the way she talked about how her faith and relationship with the Church has changed because of her relationships with survivors. Sara’s story demonstrates her willingness to let the truth move her heart and form her conscience, even when doing so isn’t without risk.

It was a privilege for me to have her on the podcast and hear her story and the work she is doing in the Heart of the Church.

The episode is available on Youtube and in your podcast feed!

On this episode, Paul speaks with Sara Larson, the executive director of Awake, a Catholic nonprofit that supports and advocates for survivors of abuse in the Church. Sara talks about the history and mission of Awake and the great work it does in and for the heart of the Church. Sara also shares how working with survivors of abuse has changed her own faith life and relationship with the Church.

Sara Larson is the executive director of Awake, an independent Catholic nonprofit organization working for awakening, transformation, and healing from the wounds of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. She also lifts up the voices and stories of abuse survivors in her personal blog, In Spirit and Truth.

LINKS

Awake’s website:
https://www.awakecommunity.org

Sara’s In Spirit and Truth blog:
https://inspiritandtruth.substack.com

Upcoming Courageous Conversation:
https://www.awakecommunity.org/courageous-conversations

Letter to Survivors:
https://www.awakecommunity.org/sign-the-letter

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Bernard Prusak - Institutional Vice

Paul Fahey — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:01:16 GMT

I first came across Dr. Bernard Prusak’s work when a friend sent me his article in Commonweal titled, Who Knew? The sexual-abuse crisis and ‘epistemic injustice.’ This article struck me as contributing something important to the discussion about the abuse crisis in the Church, so I reached out to Bernard. After we connected, he sent me a draft of an article (that will be published later this year by Liturgical Press) about the concept of Institutional Vice as a way to help explain how abuse coverup happens in the Church.

The simple explanation of institutional vice is that if the virtues of an institution naturally encourage the individual members of that institution to be more virtuous than they were on their own, the vices of an institution can corrupt a person into acting in ways they wouldn’t act on their own. Institutional vice helps explain how a seemingly otherwise good person can turn a blind eye to abuse in their institution, even when that abuse happens in front of their face.

I think the philosophical work that Bernard is doing can be helpful for Catholics to better understand the abuse crisis and have more clarity about what needs to be done in working for reform.

The episode is available on Youtube and in your podcast feed!

This week, Paul and Dominic talk with Dr. Bernard Prusak. They discuss an up-and-coming article (being published later this year by Liturgical Press) that Bernard wrote about Institutional Vice and the coverup of clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Using the story of the disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick as an example, Bernard’s article attempts to explain how otherwise good people can act differently, sometimes dramatically different, as a part of the organization vs. when they are acting in their personal lives.

Dr. Bernard Prusak holds the Raymond and Eleanor Smiley Chair in Business Ethics at John Carroll University. He was formerly Professor of Philosophy and Director of the McGowan Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. His books include Catholic Moral Philosophy in Practice and Theory: An Introduction and Catholic Higher Education and Catholic Social Thought.

LINKS

Who Knew? The sexual-abuse crisis and ‘epistemic injustice’ https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/mccarrick-sex-abuse-church-catholic

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Colleen Dulle - Synodality and Spiritual Crises

Paul Fahey — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:55:34 GMT

This week we have Colleen Dulle back on the podcast! We talked about the Synod on Synodality as well as Colleen’s upcoming book. My conversation with Colleen last summer was one of my favorite interviews, so I’m so grateful she agreed to come back!

Colleen gave an update on the synod and where everything is at in the process. She also shared about her experience as a journalist at the Rome meetings this past October.

I told Colleen that Synodality—genuine listening, dialogue, real co-responsibility / co-authority between clergy and lay people—seems essential to me. But that I’ve also experienced that terminology being misused in the Church, where church leadership waved the banner of co-responsibility but didn’t actually empower lay people to make any changes. I personally struggle with hoping that real and significant reform will happen to address the abuse of power, clerical abuse, and spiritual abuse in the Church. Expecting that leaders in positions of power would freely give up or share their authority in order to reform the Church feels like misplaced optimism.

After the synod, we talk about Colleen’s upcoming book titled, “Struck Down, Not Destroyed” (it will be published by Penguin Random House in Summer 2025). On Twitter, Colleen wrote:

“I keep having conversations with people who, upon seeing headlines about the latest church scandals, both want to understand what's going on and, at the same time, are wrestling with whether they can still in good conscience stay in this institution. As a reporter, I have a front row view to these issues, and as a Catholic, I've wrestled constantly with that question of belonging. This book tells the story of both those institutional problems and grappling with the spiritual hurdles they present. It's been a challenge to write so vulnerably, but I'm certain it will pay off by helping folks struggling with these same questions to feel they aren't alone.”

I resonated with that a lot. And I asked Colleen how the book came about and how her faith has changed in the process of reflecting and writing about her past experiences as a journalist.

I hope you enjoy this episode!

The episode is available now on Youtube and will be in podcast feeds on Monday.

This week, Colleen Dulle is back on the podcast for another great conversation. Paul and Colleen talk about the ongoing Synod on Synodality and the likelihood that it will actually provoke real reform in the Church. They also spend time discussing Colleen’s upcoming book, “Struck Down, Not Destroyed”, about the spiritual crises that result from reporting on the endemic problems of the Catholic Church. Throughout the conversation, they reflect on how the continued scandals in the Church affect their faith and trust in the Church.

Colleen Dulle is an associate editor at America Media, where she co-hosts the weekly news podcast Inside the Vatican. She writes and edits Vatican news and analysis articles for America Magazine and contributes to Sacred Heart University's "Go, Rebuild My House" church reform blog. Her forthcoming book, Struck Down, Not Destroyed, on the spiritual crises that result from reporting on the endemic problems of the Catholic Church, will be published by Penguin Random House in Summer 2025.

LINKS

Season 4 interview with Colleen Dulle
https://www.popefrancisgeneration.com/p/colleen-dulle-fr-rupnik-and-trusting

Sacred Heart University's "Go, Rebuild My House" church reform blog
https://sacredheartuniversity.typepad.com/go_rebuild_my_house/

Inside the Vatican - “Deep Dive: How saints are made in the Catholic Church”
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/02/16/how-saints-are-made-244753

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Season 5 - Wrestling with Francis

Paul Fahey — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 13:41:21 GMT

Season 5 of the Pope Francis Generation Podcast starts now!

The audience who I created this podcast for are Catholics, especially millennials, who feel alienated from the Church because of politics, culture wars, struggles with Church teaching, or decades of abuse scandals. That is, folks inside the Church who feel like outsiders, who feel like they don’t fully belong.

For the past few years I have been living out my faith in a space of tension, of having to hold two things that feel both contradictory and true. The Church is good AND part of my experience of the Church (personally and from the stories of others) is coercion, manipulation, abuse, deceit, and neglect. Somehow, both things can be true. Right?

I’ve tried to use this podcast to carve out this space for people because it’s the space that I inhabit. My faith life is lived in that existential tension. My intention is that by being genuine about my faith that others will feel that they too have a place in the Church despite their struggles.

So go ahead and subscribe to the Pope Francis Generation podcast in your favorite podcast app.

The episode is available now on Youtube and in podcast feeds!

Paul and Dominic start Season Five by going back and doing a reexamination of our name: Pope Francis Generation. Our name was originally inspired by a talk from Bishop Barron, and a play on the term “John Paul II Generation.” It represented a kind of Catholicism shaped by the kerygma with an emphasis on God’s desire to save all people, grace, human dignity, and prioritizing the marginalized. But more recently, as it appears like Francis is failing to live up to his own teachings when it comes to addressing clerical sexual abuse, the meaning of that name has started to change.

“The Church is the sacrament of God’s infinite love” (Fiducia Supplicans).

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Season 4 Wrap Up

Paul Fahey — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 19:16:53 GMT

It’s been a great season of PFG with some amazing guests!

In this last episode, Dominic and I wrap up the summer by reflecting back on some of the ideas and conversations from this season that have stuck with us.

This episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

Looking ahead, we’re taking a longer than usual break before the next (5th!) season. So we will probably be back in two or three months.

Please keep Dominic and I in your prayers during this interim! We both have a lot of things going on.

Keep an eye out for a Fratelli Tutti workshop coming in October or November. More information will be coming out soon.

Finally, if you have valued this podcast, please consider supporting us in a few different ways.

Share the podcast with others
Subscribe, rate, and leave a review of the podcast on Youtube or in whatever podcast app you use
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Thank you so much!

This week, Paul and Dominic wrap up the season by reflecting back on some of the interviews and discussions this summer that have stuck with them. They specifically bring up the interview with Dr. Marcus Mescher and his proposal that there needs to be a new way of doing Church in order to address all the harm caused by the culture of institutional self-protection in the Church. They discuss if synodality is that new way of doing Church.

“In effect, doctrine, or better, our understanding and expression of it, is not a closed system, devoid of the dynamic capacity to pose questions, doubts, inquiries. The questions of our people, their suffering, their struggles, their dreams, their trials and their worries, all possess an interpretational value that we cannot ignore if we want to take the principle of the incarnation seriously. Their wondering helps us to wonder, their questions question us” (Gaudete et Exsultate 44).

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Marcus Mescher - Moral Injury and Clerical Sexual Abuse

Paul Fahey — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 14:31:08 GMT

I first came across Dr. Marcus Mescher late last year when a friend of mine shared something he posted on Twitter about an upcoming research study he worked on titled, “Measuring & Exploring Moral Injury Caused by Clergy Sexual Abuse.”

Because of my own interest and research into spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church, I read the study as soon as it was published, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Marcus’s research connected a handful threads about the relationship between abuse, trauma, conscience, and deconstruction. So I was excited when he agreed to come on the podcast and discuss his work.

First, the study defines moral injury as:

“Moral injury results from a betrayal of trust, disrupting one’s beliefs and moral compass. It comprises persistent psychological and emotional distress, moral confusion, spiritual anguish, social alienation, and distrust for institutions.”

The study looked at five dimensions of moral injury:

Moral identity - “the sense of one’s inherent goodness or the experience of shame”
Moral perception and reasoning - “the ability to make sound moral judgments or the experience of moral confusion/disorientation”
Moral agency - “the capacity to exercise free will or the experience of constraint/ futility”
Moral relationships with others - “feeling safe and being able to trust others or the experience of betrayal, stigmatization, or isolation”
Relationship to God and institutions like the church - “feeling connected and finding institutions credible or experiencing abandonment, punishment, and loss of confidence in the authority or credibility of the church”

One result that struck me was how even individuals who weren’t themselves abused by priests still experienced moral injury. The study stated:

“These results indicate that while moral injury was generally higher among those who are directly connected to clergy sexual abuse via their personal experiences of abuse, the impact of this crisis extends further, causing moral injury among those with varying degrees of affiliation with the Catholic Church.”

If individuals one or two layers out from clerical sexual abuse and coverup can experience moral injury, then we’re talking about nearly every Catholic in the US. As I said to Marcus during the interview, the ripple effects of clerical abuse and institutional coverup spread throughout the whole freaking pond. There isn’t a corner of the Church that’s unaffected.

Which raises the question, how does the Church, the institution and all of the baptized, even begin to justly respond to that kind of harm?

Then when I read the five dimensions of moral injury, my mind immediately went to the experience of “deconstruction.” Deconstruction is a growing phenomena in Christianity, inside and outside of Catholicism. My own experience of deconstruction, and the many stories I’ve heard from others about their experience of deconstruction, seems to overlap with these symptoms of moral injury.

What if the rise of “nones” and “dones” in the Church is in part, and maybe a large part, caused by religious authorities betraying their communities in morally grievous ways? If that’s true, does that change the way we try and evangelize them?

This conversation with Marcus was insightful and challenging. I hope you enjoy it.

This episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

This week, Paul interviews Dr. Marcus Mescher, an associate professor of Christian ethics at Xavier University. They discuss a new research about moral injury and clerical sexual abuse that Marcus published. First Marcus explains what moral injury is and the way that it impacts a person’s psychological health as well as their conscience. Marcus then talks about the implications of this research and how we can better understand the impact of clerical sexual abuse on individual people and the wider Church.

Dr. Marcus Mescher is associate professor of Christian ethics. He holds a Ph.D. from Boston College and specializes in Catholic social teaching and moral formation. His research and writing concentrate in the following areas: human dignity and rights; social/environmental justice for the global common good; how moral agency is impacted by cultural context and digital technology; the moral dimensions of friendship; sexual justice and the ethics of marriage and family life; liberation theology and inclusive solidarity; healing the psychological, spiritual, social, and moral harm caused by clergy abuse. Dr. Mescher has written dozens of popular and academic articles. His current research and writing focus on mental health and moral injury.

LINKS

Measuring & Exploring Moral Injury Caused by Clergy Sexual Abuse:
https://www.xavier.edu/moral-injury-report/

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Dawn Eden Goldstein - Antisemitism in the Church

Paul Fahey — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 12:44:22 GMT

I’ve been following Dr. Dawn Eden Goldstein for several years and have valued the perspectives she offers in Catholic discussions. I also appreciate hr love for Pope Francis and the ways she has supported and explained his teaching.

Two year ago, Dawn wrote a thread on Twitter about a talk she had just given for the Society of G.K. Chesterton titled, “Chesterton and My Jewish/Catholic Journey.” There she shared her own love for Chesterton and the significant ways he impacted her faith. She also shared several really disturbing antisemitic things he wrote.

In this thread, I thought Dawn modeled how Catholics can understand the sins of their heroes from previous generations. We can’t dismiss our heroes as just “people of their time” and sweep their sins under the rug. Rather, we need to be honest about their sins, because then can we be honest about the good they did.

I really enjoyed this conversation with Dawn. I hope you do too.

This episode is now available on Youtube and on your favorite podcast app.

This week, Dominic and Paul talk with author and theologian, Dawn Eden Goldstein. They discuss the presence, both historical and ongoing, of antisemitism in the Catholic Church. Specifically, Dawn speaks about a talk she gave two years ago for the Society of G.K. Chesterton concerning Chesterton’s antisemitic writings. Dawn talks about how Catholics today need to honestly acknowledge and wrestle with the sins of their heroes.

Dawn Eden Goldstein is the author of “Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor” and several other books, including “The Thrill of the Chaste” and “My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints.” Together, her books have sold more than sixty thousand copies worldwide in ten languages.

Dr. Goldstein began her working life as a rock-and-roll historian and went on to editorial positions at the New York Post and the Daily News before publishing her first book in 2006. In 2016, she became the first woman to earn a doctorate in sacred theology from the University of St. Mary of the Lake. She has taught at universities and seminaries in the United States, England, and India. Today she lives in Washington, DC, where she recently received a degree in canon law at the Catholic University of America.

LINKS

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Brian Armbrustmacher - Vocation and Discernment

Paul Fahey — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 17:04:03 GMT

In a PFG first, this interview was recorded in-person at my house.

(If you’re watching on Youtube, you’ll see that we recorded this conversation in my wife, Kristina’s, art studio for her business, Painted Sanctuary.)

For this episode, I talked with my good friend, Brian Armbrustmacher, about what it means to discern a vocation.

Brian was a seminarian for the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, and at the end of the month he will be starting formation with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFRs) in New York. He will share a lot of his personal story in this episode.

I first met Brian nine years ago. I had just started working at a parish and he was a student in my 11th grade religious education class. We became friends after he graduated, and that friendship has especially grown over the past couple of years.

As I’ve shared in previous episodes, about a year and a half ago I resigned from my ministry position at my parish due to really toxic behavior from my pastor at the time. It was a very difficult time for me spiritually, and still is, and it severely impacted my own relationship with the Church.

While this stuff at the parish impacted him as well, Brian accompanied me and my family through that time. And even though we don’t always agree on things, sometimes Brian’s positivity and hopefulness clashed with my cynicism, our conversations with him have been a real source of grace. He has offered me real encouragement and support throughout these trials, and he has also challenged me when I have been tempted to cynicism and despair.

Brian is a good friend. As excited as I am for him to join the CFRs, I will also miss him.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

This episode is available on Youtube and on your favorite podcast app.

This week, Paul talks with his good friend, Brian Armbrustmacher, about discernment and vocations. In a PFG first, this conversation was recorded in person. Brian was a seminarian for the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, and this fall he is beginning formation with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFRs) in New York. Brian shares his personal vocation story as well as some of the things he has learned about prayer, discernment, and what it means to discover your vocation.

“To discern our personal vocation, we have to realize that it is a calling from a friend, who is Jesus…I want you to know that, when the Lord thinks of each of you and what he wants to give you, he sees you as his close friend. And if he plans to grant you a grace, a charism that will help you live to the full and become someone who benefits others, someone who leaves a mark in life, it will surely be a gift that will bring you more joy and excitement than anything else in this world. Not because that gift will be rare or extraordinary, but because it will perfectly fit you. It will be a perfect fit for your entire life.” (Christus Vivit 287-288)

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Jessica Keating - St. Maximilian Kolbe and Christ’s Harrowing of Hell

Paul Fahey — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 19:00:44 GMT

In 2017, I came across in article in Church Life Journal titled, St. Maximilian Kolbe and the War Against Indifference. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is my favorite thing I have ever read about Fr. Kolbe. I’ve read it on his feast day just about every year since.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when the author, Jessica Keating, agreed to be a guest on the podcast.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Maximilian Kolbe. I’ve heard people say that you don’t pick patron saints, they pick you. Maximilian Kolbe picked me. For all of my adult life I’ve felt like I could trust Kolbe with the most important things. Maybe most significantly, Kolbe accompanied me after Kristina and I had a very unexpected pregnancy in the midst of some serious health problems several years ago. When we found out the baby’s due date - August 14 - at the first ultrasound, I knew that somehow this baby was in the will of God. We eventually named our son Francis Kolbe.

Another thing everyone knows about me is that I love the doctrine of theosis, or divinization. This idea reframed my entire faith life years ago. In it’s simplest terms, this is the teaching that says, as St. Athanasius stated, “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."

Salvation, from a Catholic perspective, isn’t only forgiveness of sin (as if that weren’t enough!), it’s sharing in God’s divine life, in Heaven, and during this life. And that’s the story of Fr. Kolbe’s life and death. Jessica Keating wrote:

"Kolbe would die as he had lived—an icon of the royal priesthood of Christ. Entering the ranks of the nameless condemned, he became one of more than 1.1 million men, women, and children to die within these walls of hatred.
He did not know the man he had volunteered to replace, but he was so practiced in love that it made little difference. They were stripped naked and cast into the starvation cell. As one biographer puts it, “God had snuck into hell.” Kolbe’s will had so completely merged with God’s that it was truly no longer he who lived, but Christ in him."

And in another place she quoted a biographer of Fr. Kolbe who said, “God had snuck into hell.”

In this sense, we can say that Kolbe’s arrest and time in Auschwitz was a kind of Holy Saturday, where Christ once again broke into hell to bring light and life into the darkest place.

It was a joy to talk with Jessica Keating. Please listen and then read her wonderful article.

This episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app!

This week, to celebrate the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Paul talks with Jessica Keating about the life and witness of this martyr of Auschwitz. They first share his story and their own personal relationships with St. Maximilian. Then they unpack some of Fr. Kolbe’s theology of Mary before moving into a discussion about how we can say, in a real but mysterious way, that Fr. Kolbe’s time in Auschwitz was like Christ’s harrowing of hell.

Jessica Keating is the director of the Notre Dame Office of Human Dignity and Life Initiatives, where she engages in scholarship that strives to recover the concept of human dignity for the theological and philosophical imagination.

LINKS

St. Maximilian Kolbe and the War Against Indifference https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/st-maximilian-kolbe-and-the-war-against-indifference/

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Deacon Steven Greydanus - Watching Decent Films

Paul Fahey — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 14:01:04 GMT

I first started following Deacon Steven Greydanus about a decade ago, and since then he’s been someone I’ve looked up to. He is one of the very few Catholic public figures on Facebook who I have been able to wholeheartedly recommend to others. He’s modeled what constructive and charitable conversations can look like on social media. And, as a never-Trump prolifer who cares deeply about Catholic Social Teaching, his posts through the 2016 and 2020 elections helped make me feel like I still had a place in the Church.

But the reason I followed Deacon Greydanus in the first place was because he’s a movie critic, the first Catholic movie critic I found who helped me think deeper about movies instead of being moralistic about content.

I was homeschooled from 1st through 12th grade in the 90s and early 2000s, and the particular Catholic homeschool culture I grew up in included a fear of secular culture and media (I joke that I experienced the La Croix version of Shiny Happy People). Christian bookstores, music, and movies were safe spaces. But secular movies were viewed with a kind of suspicion. They were analyzed for bad content, particularly any sexual content, which would determine if the movie was good or bad (and implicitly, if the people seeing such a movie were good or bad).

What attracted me to Deacon Greydanus was his ability to engage with movies critically, with Catholic values and a Catholic worldview, but without fear or moralism.

I’ve chatted with him a few times on Messenger over the years, but I was really happy and honored to have this conversation with him. I hope you enjoy it!

This episode is available on Youtube and in your favorite podcast app.

This week, Paul talks with the Catholic film critic, Deacon Steven Greydanus. Steven explains how movies can change people for the good and help make the world a better place. They also discuss how to critically engage with movies without falling into fear or moralism, and how to pass those values onto our children. Finally, Steven shares what he thinks are the best movies of the past year.

Deacon Steven D. Greydanus has been writing about film since 2000, when he created Decent Films. Since then, he’s written regularly for a number of outlets including the National Catholic Register, Catholic Digest, Crux, Christianity Today, and Catholic World Report. Other bylines include RogerEbert.com, Slate, Bright Wall/Dark Room, and Our Sunday Visitor.

For over 18 years he wrote regularly for the National Catholic Register and was their film critic for nearly 11 years. His work at the Register was recognized several times by the Catholic Media Association Awards.

Steven is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and a deacon in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. He studied at the School of Visual Arts, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, and Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University. Steven and his wife Suzanne have seven children.

LINKS

Ethan Hunt’s second act and Tom Cruise’s third: The unending impossible mission

https://decentfilms.com/articles/ethan-hunts-second-act

Indiana Jones movies and Raiders of the Lost Ark: Why the original still stands alone

https://decentfilms.com/articles/indiana-jones

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an incomplete triumph

https://decentfilms.com/articles/spiderverse2

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When NFP isn’t Good Enough - OG Episode

Paul Fahey — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:57:49 GMT

We have an OG Episode for you this week.

This episode is from our very first season. It’s about NFP and conscience and is titled, “When NFP isn’t good enough.”

I'm releasing it again now because this past week was NFP Awareness Week in the US Church. Every year, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has a week dedicated to raising awareness about NFP. This is our contribution to that discussion.

The Church teaches a few things about family planning.

First, the Church teaches that “any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means” is “intrinsically wrong” (Humanae Vitae 14).

The Church also teaches that couples are called to “responsible parenthood,” that is, couples ought to be open to life with prudence, discerning their health and family situation (Humanae Vitae 10).

The Church also recognizes that when marital intimacy is cut off due to the need to avoid pregnancy, other aspects of a marriage can be put at risk (cf. Gaudium et Spes 51).

The Church allows Natural Family Planning (NFP), as a pastoral solution to help couples navigate and follow these teachings.

With NFP, couples track fertility signs to know when they are fertile and when they aren’t, then change their behavior accordingly depending on if they are trying to get pregnant or avoiding pregnancy.

For many people, NFP works really well. They're able to be responsible parents. And, even when they are avoiding pregnancy, only need to abstain maybe a week to ten days every month.

But for many other people—whether it's because of health issues, irregular cycles, mental illness, past trauma, uncooperative spouses, domestic abuse, financial difficulties, social problems, or a whole number of things—an unexpected pregnancy could be dangerous and NFP can be extremely unreliable.

For these couples, following the Church’s teaching on contraception can be a tremendous cross.

It's important that when we talk about NFP that we’re meeting people where they are at and not just trying to sell people. It's important that we understand this teaching, and it's good to explain this teaching to others, but we need to recognize that, for many people, apologetics and Catechism quotes are insufficient.

Having the right answers isn’t good enough. In part because many couples struggling with NFP may already know the answer. We need to avoid conflating knowledge of the teaching with a person’s ability to follow that teaching.

The catechism teaches that the kinds of circumstances I mentioned earlier can severely limit a person's freedom. Having knowledge of a truth does not mean someone has the capacity to live it out.

It's crucial that we hold space for grace to work in people’s lives, that we allow grace to work, in God's time, to bring healing and freedom to people so that they can grow in their capacity to follow the moral law.

It's important that we don't sell NFP as sunshine and roses and that we don't sell having children as nothing but grace, because sometimes it’s also a cross. If we only present it as grace then we implicitly condemn and exclude people who experience something different.

It’s with that in mind that I wanted to re-share this episode. In it, we try to hold this space for people who struggle with NFP. I also present the Church’s teaching more holistically, to show that the Church does not leave couples in impossible situations with no way forward.

Jesus told us to pick up our crosses and follow him. But he also said that his yoke is easy and his burden light because he, as Pope Francis has taught, “took our sufferings upon Himself and burdened Himself with our sorrows to bring us, through the Cross, to the joy of Resurrection” (Pope Francis’ “Prayer for Liberation from the Epidemic to Our Lady of Divine Love,” March 11, 2020).

I hope you enjoy the episode.

This episode is now available on Youtube and on your favorite podcast app.

This week we have an OG Episode from our first season. We’re releasing it again because last week was NFP Awareness Week in the US Church. We talk about NFP in light of the Church’s teaching about the individual consciences and the law of gradualism. Paul also shares some of his personal experience with NFP and being a part of the NFP subculture.

A content warning, this episode will include discussion about sexuality.

“We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life. We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfillment than as a lifelong burden. We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them” (Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia).

LINKS
"The Sweetness of the Yoke of Christ: Hope for those struggling to live out the teaching of Humanae Vitae"
https://www.hprweb.com/2020/12/the-sweetness-of-the-yoke-of-christ/

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