Respect Life Radio

Father Brian Mullady: Freedom through His truth

"We're actually becoming more free as we understand more about what the truth is ... through Christ's teaching," said Father Mullady, Dominican Catholic Priest, Professor, Scholar and author of eight books. "People who commit sin, enslave themselves to a certain point of view and they're not free even though they interpret freedom as license." In his new book, A Primer on Fundamental Moral Philosophy, Father Mullady explains what a well-formed conscience looks like and underscores that following one's conscience isn't enough without guidance from God and His Church. Chaos follows for individuals and the society around us. 

Learn more about Father Mullady at his website https://fatherbrian.weebly.com/ 

Dr. Thomas Williams: Alarming persecution of faith

Christians are being persecuted at an alarming rate across the world. Churches are being burned and Catholic communities have been driven underground, but most major news outlets aren’t covering the deteriorating situation. “These things are happening, but we are often unaware of how pervasive the issue is,” said Dr. Thomas D. Williams, a 2018 Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Culture at Notre Dame University who has written extensively about theology, philosophy, ethics and spirituality. In his new book, The Coming Christian Persecution, Dr. Williams explains how the post-Christian West has abdicated their position to protect Christians and has become part of the problem, rather than the solution.

 

Learn more about Dr. Williams at his website, thomasdwilliams.com.

R. Jared Staudt: In silence, find the peace you’re seeking

“Cultivating this disposition of being able to enter into silence and to sit with the Lord can be absolutely central for growing in the spiritual life,” said R. Jared Staudt, Ph.D. “It's necessary to be very deliberate, to put up a fence...I want to really have peace of mind, I want to have peace of soul. I want my family to have peace in the home. So, we are going to foster that and protect it and guard it from these outside influences. So, that's the phone and any other devices...[to say] we're going to have a time when all these devices are turned off. And, as a family, we're going to foster silence. Not just me, individually, but I'm going to help my kids to develop this. We're going to get it out of the bedroom so my wife and I can actually see each other, talk to each other, grow in our relationship. Because there's a lot of couples — you see these stereotypical images, but it's true — of a couple sitting next to each other and they're both just on their devices.”

See Staudt's article, "Learn to do nothing" at the Denver Catholic, which also appeared as “Learning to do nothing: the art of sacred silence” in The Catholic World Report. Staudt is director of content for Exodus 90 and an author, most recently of “How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization" (TAN Books). Learn more at his website, Building Catholic Culture.

Rachel Hoover: Why young Catholics are not marrying — and how to help

"What I've seen among the circles that I run in — and the survey, as well — is that a lot of young Catholics are looking to date and marry someone who is within the same camp or division inside the Church, as they are," said Rachel Hoover in this Respect Life Radio interview. "So, they're not just looking for fellow Catholics, they're looking for the right type of Catholic, so to speak, the type of Catholic that they are. Obviously, this is very limiting. There are already a relatively small number of faithful Catholics in the world; if you're shrinking your dating pool even further from that — to just the subset of Catholicism that you want to be in — and then thinking about things like the right age; do they find me attractive, at all; do they live in the same area or are they on the same dating website?  You go through all those filters, so to speak, and you'll end up with almost no one left.”

Hoover, a writer based in Nashville, wrote a two-part article for The Catholic World Report: “Why aren’t young Catholics marrying?” and “How to help Catholics get married.”  

The first article references Hoover's "anonymous survey of 300 self-identified practicing Catholics ages 18-39, asking them about obstacles they faced to marriage" and cites four primary reasons: dysfunctional discernment; Catholic "camps" within the Church; parent and mentor influence; and the difficulty in knowing how to go on dates. The second article takes on each of those challenges and proposes solutions.

Fr. Jeffrey Kirby: An easier way to read the Bible

“The Bible is intimidating and overwhelming until we know it,” said Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD, author of “Understanding the Bible: A Catholic Guide to Applying God's Word to Your Life Today” (Our Sunday Visitor). “The Bible is actually a library...of 73 books. Once we learn just a few basic things, suddenly it becomes very approachable, very comfortable. And then we start reading it, we realize this is actually really helping me. God's speaking to me. I know of His presence, I feel more loved, I feel more strengthened. I can do now what He's calling me to do. Once we take those first initial steps, we might ourselves be surprised at suddenly how easy the Bible is to read. And surprised, perhaps, by how much it really helps us in our lives today.”

Learn more about Fr. Kirby at his website, frkirby.com, and follow him @FatherKirby on Twitter. Listen to a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him, “How the Brown Scapular can deepen your life in Jesus Christ.”

Fr. Timothy Vaverek: Realizing that Jesus Christ came to set us free

“Jesus is calling us in this life, not just in the life to come, to throw off the disorder and the resulting evil — whether it's through our ignorance or through our deliberate sin — to throw that all off and come to stand upright. Don't go around crouched and bent over and twisted — and then: oh, we're going to accommodate you so you can walk around in that kind of distorted way.

"No. We have to stand up, walk on our two feet. And that transition from being twisted around — it's like physical therapy. It's painful for us. But it sets us free,” said Fr. Timothy V. Vaverek, STD, a parish priest in the archdiocese of Austin, Tex.

Vaverek is the author of “As I Have Loved You: Rediscovering Our Salvation in Christ” (Emmaus Road Publishing) and whose recent articles for The Catholic Thing include "Accompanying Those Innocently in Error” and “Of Sin and 'Mitigated Culpability.'”

Eric Sammons: Understanding the titles given to Jesus Christ

Many of the titles given to Jesus “have Old Testament connotations. He's called Elijah, Jeremiah, King of Israel, Son of Abraham, Son of David. All these things have connections to the Old Testament. That's something we learn about in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Matthew is writing primarily to Jewish converts, people who have become Christian in the first century; they were Jews. Or, people that were thinking about Christianity from the Jewish background. So he really wanted to tie in that Jesus is that promised Messiah you read about in the Old Testament; here He is," said Eric Sammons, author of books, including “Who Do You Say I Am? Unlocking the 24 Titles Given to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew” (Sophia Institute Press).

Sammons is executive director of Crisis Publications and the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. Follow him @EricRSammons on Twitter. Listen to a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him: Pope Francis and the Latin Mass conflict. 

Fr. John Bartunek: To deepen your prayer, get ready, set, go

A simple structure for prayer is "ready, set, go. 'Ready' is you just create a sacred time and a sacred space. I'm going to meet with God. I'm going to have my time alone with the Lord every morning, in this particular place. I'm going to light a candle...You begin that time, you turn off your phone, you recollect yourself...So that's getting 'ready,'" said Fr. John Bartunek, LC, author of books, including "40 Days to Peace and Union with God: A Journey in Prayer Through the Daily Gospels" (Sophia Institute Press). 

"Then 'set' is the first things that you say to God. We recommend just thank God for something specific. Ask him for something that you need or someone you love needs. And then open yourself to receive whatever grace He wants to give you. So that's 'ready, set' and then you're ready for the 'go.' And the 'go' is the real substance of this time of prayer. And we've got five different steps that you can use during that." 

Dr. Kevin Vost: Journey through Lent with the help of St. Thomas Aquinas

"There's a meditation for every single day of Lent, typically about two pages long...focusing primarily on Scripture and on teachings of the Church Fathers. And yet, there's enough in each of those two pages — that meditation — that if you started that early in the morning, it will give you plenty to chew on, to ruminate, to ponder again throughout the day, in ways that will draw you closer to Christ every day as Lent progresses," said Dr. Kevin Vost, Psy.D., a professor and author whose recent book is "Aquinas's Lenten Meditations: 40 Days with the Angelic Doctor" (Sophia Institute Press).

Learn more at his website, drvost.com and hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Dr. Vost: Taking care of your body for health and holiness.

 

Joy Stockbauer: Every preborn child, even conceived in a crime, has a right to life

"When a woman suffers sexual assault or rape — and especially, becomes pregnant in those situations — a woman is looking for justice. The abortion industry can so easily tell women to believe that justice in their circumstances would be having an abortion, and in fact, that having an abortion is the only just option," said Joy Stockbauer, policy analyst at the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.

"When in reality, it's super important to speak the truth to women in this circumstance — and to anyone who cares about women in this circumstance — that the unborn child conceived by rape or incest had nothing to do with the circumstances of their conception. That child is in no way to blame for the acts of their father. To believe that an abortion is the right option in this circumstance is to say that that child deserves to die for something that they didn't do — for something that someone else did. And so, it misplaces justice."

Stockbauer went on to say that "justice in cases of rape or incest is absolutely necessary. And pro-lifers need to be the first people to say that — to advocate for justice. But justice looks like punishing the wrongdoer, not punishing an innocent party."

Family Research Council has a webpage, titled "Difficult Conversations about Abortion," that includes links to PDF background papers on Rape and Incest, on Prenatal Diagnosis and on Ectopic Pregnancy.

Follow Stockbauer @joystockbauer on Twitter and follow Family Research Council @FRCdc.