Respect Life Radio

Derek Rotty: How America lost its foundation on natural law

“We are living in a new age of tyranny...of relativism, the dictatorship of secular modernity,” said Derek Rotty, who wrote a recent column for the National Catholic Register, titled, “Natural Law and Moral Virtues Bring Independence From Tyranny.” “What America has lost is its understanding, and its foundation, on the natural law.”

Rotty, the director of evangelization and discipleship at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson, Tenn., is the author of the 2019 book, “A Life of Conversion: Meeting Christ in the Gospels” (Our Sunday Visitor).

Follow him @derekrotty on Twitter.

Simone Rizkallah: Endow equips women to live out their mission

“We call women together to study important documents of the Catholic Church,” said Simone Rizkallah, director of program growth for Endow. “We help women organize themselves into small group communities, whether that's in their homes or in their parishes. We create study guides to help them study the rich and important documents of the Church.”

Endow, founded in 2003, stands for Educating on the Natural and Dignity of Women. It has “grown into an international apostolate in over 130 dioceses, reaching over 40,000 women all over the world,” according to its website, endowgroups.org.

“I'm getting a lot of moms and women who are seeing what's happening to our young girls and they're desperate: Can you please help us get this started?” said Rizkallah. “It's much more a sense of mission and urgency for what's going on in this culture.”

Follow Endow @endowgroup on Instagram.

Charlie McKinney: How Catholics can find the wisdom for these times

“The most important thing for any Catholic — right now and frankly, at any time in history — is to focus on your spiritual life. That is what's going to give us the wisdom to deal with the culture and all the problems that beset us. It's going to give us the understanding, the knowledge, the counsel and the piety that we need today,” said Charlie McKinney, president of Sophia Institute Press for the past decade. “We really focus on producing books and producing content that helps people to deepen their spiritual life.”

McKinney told his story in 2014 on "The Journey Home" of converting to the Catholic faith from being a Southern Baptist.

Sophia Institute Press, based in Nashua, N.H., publishes books and Crisis Magazine, as well as the Catholic Exchange website and other initiatives. Follow @SophiaPress on Twitter.

GianCarlo Canaparo: Dobbs decision a victory for U.S. democracy

In the recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the abortion issue to the people in each state, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively said, “'We've got to play fair. We need to obey the terms of the Constitution and nobody gets an unfair judicial advantage in these policy fights,'” said GianCarlo Canaparo, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “Dobbs is the most pro-democracy decision the Supreme Court has handed down in several generations.”

Follow Canaparo at The Heritage Foundation, which is @heritage on Twitter.

Dr. Ray Guarendi: How to master anger and frustration

"I realize that 90 percent of what I did that I regret would come from an emotional surge... Emotion doesn't last very long unless you feed it. If I can shut my mouth for...15 seconds and not say what I most had the urge to say, 15 seconds later the emotional surge will be probably cut in half. And then I will be able to control it," said Dr. Ray Guarendi.

Guarendi is "a Catholic father of ten adopted children, a clinical psychologist, author, professional speaker, and national radio and television host," according to his website, DrRay.com. He is the author of books, including the recently published, "Living Calm: Mastering Anger and Frustration" (EWTN Publishing).

Follow him on Facebook and listen to previous appearances on Respect Life Radio: "On what it takes to be married and raise 'upright kids'" and "Listening to Jesus, the master psychologist."

Anthony DeStefano: Creating simple, but deep, books for kids and adults

"I always try to write as simply as possible, whether I'm writing for adults or children. My whole goal of my writing career is to simplify complicated spiritual, theological concepts — without watering down or compromising the faith. It's really easy to simplify things if you want to water them down. The trick is to keep them orthodox and traditional, but at the same time make them easier to understand," said Anthony DeStefano, author of "How the Angels Got Their Wings" (Sophia Institute Press). 

DeStefano, based in New Jersey, "is the bestselling author of over twenty-five Christian books for adults and children," according to his website, anthonydestefano.com. 

Bishop Athanasius Schneider: The springtime that never came

Since the days of Saint Pope John XXIII, we were told “that we have entered — with Vatican II — a new time of the Church, a kind of new Pentecost and springtime. But everyone could state that it was really not a springtime. And now we are seeing that the churches are evermore empty and parishes are closed...convents are closed evermore and then the other aspects of the life within the Church, especially the great crisis of the clergy...the sexual abuses cases...and so on. In this sense, we cannot continue to speak about the springtime of the church,” said Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, and author of "The Springtime that Never Came: In conversation with Paweł Lisicki" (Sophia Institute Press).

Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Bishop Schneider: Restoring Catholic liturgy among the ruins. Follow him at his website, Gloria Dei, and @BishopAthanas1 on Twitter.

Jim Papandrea: Pondering the truths of the early Church? It’s Catholic

"Whenever people ask me, 'Give me the short answer of why you reverted to the Catholic Church?' I tell them I discovered two things. Number one, I discovered sola Scriptura [Scripture alone] is false. The other one I discovered: apostolic succession is true. Apostolic succession is that process of the handing down of the truths of the Church through the Church Fathers. When you read the Church Fathers, you finally realize — wait a second — the early Church is Catholic," said Jim Papandrea, Ph.D., a professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and the author of books, including "Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine" (Sophia Institute Press).

 

Papandrea, a former Methodist, told his reversion story in 2013 on "The Journey Home" on EWTN. Find out more at jimpapandrea.com.

Daniel Turner: The pro-life case for a fossil-fuel energy economy

“Part of respecting life, and having a pro-life sentiment, is creating a pro-life environment. That requires attention to family needs and personal needs and housing needs, etc. And all of that is undergirded by energy. America is what it is right now...because we have 150 years of reliable and inexpensive energy. And that has enabled us to move the vast majority of people into the middle class, to start jobs that open factories and businesses. And that brings with it dignity and purpose and opportunity. And quite frankly, the chance to glorify God, because you have value in your life," said Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power The Future, described on its website as a "501C4 with the mission of offering truth, facts, and research that will enrich the national conversation on energy."

Follow him @DanielTurnerPTF on Twitter.

Phil Lawler: Denying Communion to Speaker Pelosi a teaching moment for us all

In denying Holy Communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi until she publicly repudiates her advocacy of abortion, confesses and receives absolution, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is "protecting the integrity of the sacraments but...also trying to protect the person — in this case — from herself. Because if you are receiving the Eucharist unworthily, you're just heaping condemnation on yourself," said Phil Lawler, an author of books and editor of Catholic World News. He recently wrote an article, "Pelosi and the archbishop(s): what comes next?"

 

Follow him @PhilLawler on Twitter.