Respect Life Radio

Dale Ahlquist - Localism: Coming Home to the Catholic Social Teaching

"G.K. Chesterton wrote about everything. He defended God against a godless society, defended Christianity specifically against other religions and then ended up defending the Catholic faith against, well, everything else," said Dale Ahlquist, author of six books, editor of 16 more, public speaker, Evangelical convert to Catholicism and Catholic apologist. He is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on English writer, G.K. Chesterton. President and co-founder of the American Chesterton Society and the publisher of its magazine, Gilbert, Ahlquist is the creator and host of the television series, The Apostle of Common Sense, on EWTN. He is also the co-founder of Chesterton Academy, a Minneapolis-based high school rated one of the top 50 Catholic schools in the United States. In 2012, he was named a Senior Fellow of the Chesterton Library at Oxford University. Dale and his wife Laura have six children and live in Minneapolis.

Learn more about the new book he has edited called Localism: Coming Home to the Catholic Social Teaching, here.

Fr. Robert Spitzer - The Four Levels of Happiness: Your Path to Personal Flourishing

"There is so much good scientific evidence for God, the soul and transcendence that I wanted to include in this book. There's so much to include that wasn't available to previous generations," said Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D., the founder and president of the Spitzer Center. A scholar, teacher, author and seasoned leader, Fr. Spitzer is a pre-eminently a theologian and philosopher. His new book, The Four Levels of Happiness: Your Path to Personal Flourishing, is available for pre-order in mid-May. Father Spitzer's other fields of expertise include management science, finance, ethics and physics. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1952, Fr. Spitzer entered the Society of Jesus in 1974, was ordained a priest in 1983, and took final vows in 1992.

To learn more about Father Spitzer and his wealth of information and books, please visit https://www.magiscenter.com/father-spitzer

Dom David Watters: Just for Today

“I discovered the Catholic Church and found a certain stability there that was just unlike anything I'd ever known,” says Dom David Watters, author of the new daily devotional Just for Today. “There's something really powerful in this institution and something truly, really real.”

The son of Protestant missionaries, Dom David grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal and moved to the U.S. at 12 years old. While attending Baylor University, he converted to Catholicism and began considering religious life shortly thereafter. In 2020, Dom entered the Benedictines of perpetual adoration with plans to make final vows this September.

In this episode, he delves deeper into his journey of faith and how it led him here today. His message of God’s love and truth is both personal and far-reaching to bring others closer to the Lord.

We invite you to join the amazing conversation with Dom David this week, and make sure you get Just for Today soon to start your day off strong with a powerful devotion.

Bryan Feger: The Grief of Dads

“Men seem to have a delayed grief relative to women,” says Bryan Feger, co-author of The Grief of Dads: Support and Hope for Catholic Fathers Navigating Child Loss from Ave Maria Press. “And usually that's because they're focused on providing care and support for their wife, and so they delay their grief.” 

A member of the Knights of Columbus, Bryan earned his doctorate in physiology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and serves as a high school catechist and a participant in Yoke Fellows prison ministry. After experiencing the loss of three children from miscarriage, he finds purpose in letting other dads know that they are not alone. 

In this episode, Bryan discusses the intricate differences in grief experienced by men when a child passes away. The book was written by Catholic dads who have lost a child from various circumstances, and they provide the spiritual support and community needed to help others journey through the grief. 

Listen in on this powerful conversation this week, and be sure to grab The Grief of Dads to learn more.

Rachel Hoover Canto: How to Find, Date, and Marry Someone who Shares Your Faith

“There are countless different obstacles, all layered on top of each other,” says Rachel Hoover Canto of the journey to finding one’s spouse in today’s world. “It’s a very complicated situation, and I tried to address all the different obstacles I was hearing about and then provide at least a starting point, some tips for starting to overcome each one.”

Rachel shares these tips and more in her new book Pretty Good Catholic: How to Find, Date, and Marry Someone who Shares Your Faith. First taking her own advice, she found and is happily married to the love of her life and now lives in Nashville with her husband.

A graduate of Christendom College and new author blossoming onto the scene, Rachel also works as a freelance journalist and tech writer for Catholic news outlets.

Whether you are single, dating, engaged or waiting, be sure to grab Pretty Good Catholic and give ear to this week’s episode, as Rachel delves deeper into the modern-day landscape of relationship and marriage in the Catholic faith.

Jason Jones: Against the Great Reset

“To be honest, I was in a very dark place,” says Jason Jones, author of the new book The Great Campaign: Against the Great Reset. "I wanted to give people hope--I wanted to give myself hope, and I looked to the church."

Jason is also an activist, film producer, podcast host and the president of the Human Rights Education Organization (H.E.R.O.). He has been everywhere from the sets of great movies to the frontlines of war doing this amazing, selfless work.

In this episode and his newest book, Jason deals with the array of evil ideologies that comprise the Great Reset. He further explains how an elite class of individuals are attempting to take total control and tell people what to do and how to do it.

Join this compelling conversation this week, and go grab his new book soon to find out more about Jason and his work.

Charles Fraune: The Pull to the Occult

"We are constantly being tempted by demons throughout the day. It's not a big deal if you ignore it. That's just normal temptation. But there are billions, trillions of demons who are working to destroy everyone on the planet, whoever is on the planet at the time," said Charles D. Fraune, author of the new book "The Occult Among Us. "One of them is the occult and the corruption of culture and the suppression of Christianity and fear and addiction."   Charles is an author, teacher, and speaker with a Master of Arts in Theology and an Advanced Apostolic Catechetical Diploma. He is the author of the best-selling spiritual warfare books – Slaying Dragons: What Exorcists See & What We Should Know and The Rise of the Occult: What Exorcists & Former Occultists Want You To Know, both of which have been endorsed by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Joseph Strickland and exorcist Msgr. Stephen Rossetti.

Find him and his other publications at www.SlayingDragonsPress.com.
https://www.theslayingdragonsbook.com

Mary Jane Zuzolo: Unveiling the Sixth Station of the Cross

“Christ indicated in the revelations that it’s the greatest devotion to make reparation for the greatest crime,” says Mary Jane Zuzolo, author of the new book Unveiling the Sixth Station of the Cross.

The crime she speaks of is blasphemy, which she defines as any affront to God’s rights as outlined in the first three commandments. The devotion is penned by her renown great-great-great aunt Sr. Marie de Saint Pierre, the French Carmelite who received revelations from Christ Himself to create the Holy Face Devotion.

A summa cum laude Philosophy graduate from the University of Illinois and the keynote speaker for the first Conference on the Holy Face, Mary Jane’s work is discussed on several wide-reaching media outlets and even featured in publications such as Latin Mass Magazine and The Remnant.

Tune in to this week’s episode as she reveals more about her fascinating family tree and impactful work, and visit Mary Jane’s website at holyfacedevotion.org to access the book and learn more.

Dr. Christopher Reed: Sacred Conversations

"We know that 93% of what is communicated in a conversation is non-verbal. That's a combination of our body language - Are we leaning in? Have we established eye contact? Have we put down our phone to signal to the other person that we're attentive? - so we have to be mindful of that as we prepare for sacred conversation," says Dr. Christopher Reed, author of the new book "Sacred Conversations: How God Wants Us to Communicate."

Dr. Reed is a Christian, a husband and a human communication teacher, consultant and coach. Christopher says that the Holy Spirit led him to the work of Sacred Conversations. He began studying human communication in 1998 at Western Michigan University and completed his doctorate degree and gained postdoctoral experience as a consultant in the University of Michigan's Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. Today, his interest in human communication, relationships, organizational engagement and helping people discover and use their God-given talents is stronger than ever. His Sacred Conversations ministry is not just helping leaders, but everyone struggling to connect on a deeper level.

This captivating new book reveals how everyday interactions can lead to spiritual growth, deeper connections and meaningful impact. Learn more about Dr. Reed's work and new book at https://oursacredconversations.com

Michael Toscano: The False Idol of Technology

"It's a beautiful life that we could be living in each moment, but what many of us decide to do is to drown ourselves in false electronic contentment," said Michael Toscano, executive director of the Institute for Family Studies. In his new First Things article "Recovering our Memory" Michael writes, "It became quickly apparent to me that smartphones and social media were beginning to subject the people around me—smart, disciplined, hard-working people—to a profound change. They were more hunched over, prone to glancing at the device during conversations, and scrolling. Always scrolling." 

Michael is a leader in efforts nationwide to adopt laws to make technology safer for kids. He has written on family policy, tech policy, the uses of technology to reshape work, and the effect of technological change on America's republican form of government. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The New York Post, First Things, Compact, The American Conservative, National Review, and elsewhere. Under his leadership, IFS has more than doubled its annual budget and quadrupled its research output. He is co-author with Peter Wood of "What Does Bowdoin Teach? How a Liberal Arts College Shapes Students" (2013).

Follow Michael and his work at the Institute for Family Studies at https://ifstudies.org