AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

October 11 was the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Vatican II. Pope Francis marked the occasion with a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, which is also the feast day of St. John XXIII, who of course was the pope to call the Council. In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on how Vatican II continues to shape us today. A lot of the headlines mentioned how he called for communion in the face of such polarization. But here’s the best quote from the homily: “Let us rediscover the Council in order to restore primacy to God, to what is essential: to a Church madly in love with its Lord and with all the men and women whom he loves; to a Church that is rich in Jesus and poor in assets; to a Church that is free and freeing. This was the path that the Council pointed out to the Church.” Guest David Gibson is one of the best people to talk to if you want to think about Vatican II and the way it continues to unfold in the church in our own times. David is the director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York City. The Center hosts conversations and events that explore the relationships between faith and contemporary life. David has been there since 2017, arriving after a long career as an award-winning religion journalist, author and filmmaker. Gibson is the author of two books on Catholicism: “The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism” and “The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World.” He co-wrote and co-produced several documentaries on Christianity for CNN and the History Channel and co-authored a book on biblical archeology, “Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery,” the basis of a popular CNN series of the same name. Before coming to Fordham, Gibson worked for six years as a national reporter at Religion News Service and specialized in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church. Gibson is a frequent media commentator and op-ed writer on topics related to the Catholic Church and religion in America. In addition to discussing Vatican II, David talked about the ongoing synod process taking place throughout the global church, plus why maybe engaging culture is a way to overcome polarization and decline in the church. More about the Center on Religion and Culture: https://www.fordham.edu/about/living-the-mission/center-on-religion-and-culture/ Follow David Gibson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GibsonWrites Pope Francis’ Vatican II anniversary homily: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2022/documents/20221011-omelia-60concilio.html U.S. National Synthesis from the Synod on Synodality: https://www.usccb.org/resources/us-national-synthesis-2021-2023-synod AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

If you’re a long-time listener of this podcast or long-time friend of Jesuits and Jesuit institutions, the claim made by our guest today might shock you: We need more than Ignatian spirituality in our lives as Christians. Of course, you’re likely nodding; this is probably obvious. And yet, too often – as our guest today, Jesuit priest, Fr Rossano Zas Friz de Col, SJ claims – in our lives of faith, we stop short of the depth into which God invites us to plunge. Fr. Rossano is the author of a wonderful book, “Ignatian Christian Life: A New Paradigm for Post-Christianity.” And while he and his work are deeply grounded in and influenced by Ignatian spirituality and Ignatius of Loyola himself, Rossano takes us on a journey in and through mystery, pulling in characters like John of the Cross and Sigmund Freud. The goal, as Rossano notes in our conversation, is to recognize the mystery that is each of us, and to bring our unique mystery into conversation with the ultimate Mystery. In the process, our prayer lives inevitably change and grow and deepen. And that’s where Rossano invites us to reconsider how we think about Ignatian spirituality. Born in Peru, Rossano has spent a great deal of time in Rome and now is a professor of Christian spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley at Santa Clara University. Learn more about Rossano's book: https://jesuitsources.bc.edu/ignatian-christian-life-a-new-paradigm/

Host MegAnne Liebsch first met Fr. Tim McCabe, SJ, at a construction site. Sporting clerics and a hardhat specialty branded with the Pope Francis Center logo, Tim toured Meg around the newly bulldozed foundation of what will become the Pope Francis Center Bridge Housing Campus. It's an ambitious project that Tim believes will help end chronic houselessness in Detroit. The Pope Francis Center—or PFC as it’s known—is a day shelter in downtown Detroit that offers respite to hundreds of unhoused people every day. As executive director of PFC, Tim has overseen a building renovation, creating a functioning kitchen to make hearty and nutritious meals, as well as showers, sinks, and a laundry room for guests. But the PFC team wanted to do more—they wanted to address the roots of housing insecurity. Upon completion, the Bridge Housing Campus will house 40 people in individual units for 90 to 120 days, offering 24/7 services, including meals, medical care, psycho-social support, job-readiness programs and more. At the end of their stay, guests will transition into permanent supportive housing through the assistance of PFC specialists. On today's episode, we talk to Tim about this singular approach to ending chronic homelessness, about how small changes can make a big impact, and, conversely, about how asking “how hard can it be?” can lead to transformative change. Learn more about the Bridge Housing Campus and track it's progress: https://popefranciscenter.org/donate/bridge-housing-campus/ Support the Pope Francis Center: https://popefranciscenter.org/donate/

Ciszek Hall is a Jesuit house of First Studies located in the Bronx. Jesuits in formation go there to do exactly what you’d guess: study. But something new is happening at Ciszek. This house is the site of a new way of doing formation, and the entire global Society of Jesus is watching to see what might be learned. Co-hosts Eric Clayton and Meg Liebsch visited the Bronx earlier this year to talk with some of the Jesuits there, as well as members of the wider community. In this special episode of AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast, you’ll hear their voices, as well as learn why a new approach to Jesuit formation matters to you — and our world.

If you were going to make a list of the most demanding and important jobs, nurses would be right near the top. The pandemic has revealed how much we ask of our nurses. They face exposure to illness, they juggle multiple patients simultaneously, all of whom have different needs and face a huge range of challenges. They work extremely long shifts and are on their feet most of the time. And so often they’re accompanying people who are in the middle of the worst day or week or month of their lives. How do you prepare a college nursing student for all that? Georgetown professor Dr. Sarah Vittone has one surprising idea for nurse training: She takes the students to Lourdes. Lourdes, of course, is the French town in the Pyrenees made famous by Marian apparitions witnessed by a teenage girl named Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. Soon after the apparitions, visitors began to report miraculous healings after drinking or bathing in water from the grotto spring there. Millions of pilgrims continue to travel to Lourdes each year, many of whom are facing serious medical diagnoses. Dr. Vittone, her colleagues and the ten or so students who make each trip do a lot of things to support pilgrims while they’re in Lourdes, but most of their time is spent assisting those who come to bathe in the waters. The trip is rooted in the Ignatian principle of “cura personalis,” or care for the whole person – Dr. Vittone hopes students who take part in the project will become nurses who are comfortable noticing and responding to the spiritual needs of their patients, no matter what those needs might be or how they are expressed. Dr. Vittone teaches students in ethics and professional formation in the School of Nursing, and she’s a consultant at Georgetown’ Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. She talked with host Mike Jordan Laskey about her experiences with the students in Lourdes and how the project connects to her scholarly work as a healthcare ethicist. Dr. Vittone shares stories from her trips and the ways she has seen the experiences help shape nurses who are equipped to care not just for the physical needs of patients, but their mental and spiritual health as well. Learn more about the Georgetown Lourdes project for nursing students: https://gumc.georgetown.edu/gumc-stories/georgetown-nursing-students-focused-on-spiritual-health-of-pilgrims-in-lourdes-france/ Learn more about Dr. Vittone: https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RdvBAAS/sarah-vittone AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

If you live in the suburbs, you’re probably used to hopping in your car to run pretty much every errand, even if you just need to get cold medicine at the drug store. Have you ever wondered why this is part of your daily life at all? Or why you can’t walk more places? It’s easy to just assume that’s just the way things are, have always been and will always be. But the built environment of our suburbs is the result of decades of choices. And looking at how we use land in our local communities and trying to grow things like public transit are central ways to work on a whole collection of social justice issues. Usually when we make a list of social justice issues that people of faith care about, land use policies like zoning regulations aren’t on the top of the list. But maybe they should be. Today’s guest writes on these issues in such compelling and unexpected ways. Addison Del Mastro runs his own Substack newsletter on urbanism and cultural history called The Deleted Scenes, and he also contributes to places like Vox and The Bulwark and America Magazine. A Catholic who describes himself as a bit right-of-center politically, Addison crosses boundaries between groups that are often uncrossed in today’s polarized America. He’s a thinker you want to know. Read his writing or listen to him during this conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey and you might start to see why words and phrases like zoning regulations, land use and parking minimums are important things for all of us to be thinking and advocating about. Addison Del Mastro’s newsletter: https://thedeletedscenes.substack.com/ His writing at America: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/addison-del-mastro “NIMBYISM is a Distorted Love”: https://www.thebulwark.com/nimbyism-is-a-distorted-love/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

The stunning new images of outer space from the Webb Space Telescope might prompt people of faith to ponder big questions: How do I square my belief in the Big Bang with my belief in the creator-God of the Book of Genesis? Could we really have an all-loving God who cares about such a tiny little speck of dust in this massive universe? Guest Fr. Adam Hincks, SJ, is the perfect person to talk to about God and the universe. Fr. Hincks is an accomplished astrophysicist and a Jesuit priest. He’s assistant professor and holder of the Sutton Family Chair in Science, Christianity and Cultures at the University of Toronto, with a joint appointment between the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and St. Michael’s College, the Catholic college at the university. He’s also written about the intersections of science, philosophy and theology. He talked to host Mike Jordan Laskey about faith and science, Fr. Hincks’ vocation to the Jesuits, and what has interested him most about the new Webb images. Learn more about Fr. Adam Hincks: https://adh-sj.info/ Read Fr. Hincks’ essays in America Magazine: https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/adam-d-hincks AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

From the Jesuits of Canada and the United States, this is AMDG – and I’m Eric Clayton. I was introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien in seventh grade. This was the project that the seventh grade class of St. Catherine of Sienna participated in each year—the whole school knew it. Students read “The Hobbit” and then were tasked with creating their own version of Smaug, the villainous dragon. You could make a diorama, a clay sculpture—whatever. But the goal was to allow the world of Tolkien’s Middle Earth to inspire in you a little bit of creativity. I hope that today’s conversation does much the same for you. My guests are Dr. William Fliss and Dr. Sarah Schaefer. They are the co-curators of the “J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript” exhibition at Marquette University. Bill is the curator of Marquette’s Tolkien Collection, and Sarah is assistant professor of art history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Both are big fans of Tolkien and his world. The exhibition, as you’ll hear, is a really exciting thing. On display are manuscripts that Tolkien himself created. But these aren’t just pieces of paper with his draft of “The Fellowship of the Ring.” These manuscripts are part of his world of Middle Earth, actual pieces of the lore crafted by his own hand, bearing his own beautiful calligraphy. The exhibit is running from August 19 through December 23, 2022. Tickets are on sale—I’ve included a number of helpful links below, both for those interested in visiting, and for those just interested in learning more. Now, here’s my conversation with Bill Fliss and Sarah Schaefer. https://www.marquette.edu/haggerty-museum/tolkien.php https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/arts/2022/08/22/marquette-university-exhibit-shows-creation-jrr-tolkiens-lord-rings/7841566001/ Image Info: J. R. R. Tolkien English, 1892 – 1973 The King’s Letter, third version, early 1950s Ink on paper 9 x 7 in. (229 x 178 mm) Raynor Memorial Libraries, Marquette University MS. Tolkien, Mss - 4/2/25/2a © The Tolkien Estate Limited 1992, 2015 www.TolkienEstate.com

Catholic Social Teaching is sometimes called the best-kept secret of the Catholic faith. But not anymore! Today host MegAnne Liebsch talks to Dr. Tony Annett, an economist who spent much of his career at the International Monetary Fund. His new book, Cathonomics, examines our global economy through the lens of Catholic social teaching on solidarity, wealth redistribution, social democracy, and inequality. His conclusion? Our current economic system is exploiting inequality and perpetuating poverty. In our interview, he breaks down economic definitions, diagnoses the problems in our current economy, and offers some practical—and moral—remedies. Order Cathonomics here: http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/cathonomics

"Star Wars" is a window into a larger universe, a universe that has the same flawed characters, hope-filled adventures and deep galaxy-altering questions as our own. A story like "Star Wars" helps us expand our own imagination, helps us better grapple with how we share and reflect upon our own stories. We dream bigger about what’s possible in our lives and our society as a result. And, maybe, we learn something new about how God works. Don’t agree? Today’s episode of AMDG may help put your doubts to rest. Today's guests our Dr. Benjamin Espinoza and Fr. Ryan Duns, SJ. Ben is the associate vice president for online education and assistant professor of practical theology at Roberts Wesleyan College. He’s also an ordained minister in the Wesleyan Church. Ryan is an assistant professor in the theology department as Marquette University. He’s also the assistant department chair and director of undergraduate studies. And, he’s a Jesuit priest. Both of our guests are eminently qualified to discuss theology, philosophy and pop culture. But what makes them particularly amazing guests today is that they were both involved in a brand new, very cool book, “Theology and the Star Wars Universe.” Ben was the editor; Ryan contributed an essay — and he talks about that in our conversation. Even if you’re not a huge Star Wars fan, you’ll appreciate the conversation, the grappling with making sense of and encountering God in our culture today. Check out "Theology and the Star Wars Universe" here: https://www.amazon.com/Theology-Star-Universe-Religion-Culture/dp/1978707231