The Cordial Catholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by my friend Carla Lynch to unpack her outrageous journey from Charismatic, Evangelical Christianity into full communion with the Catholic Church. Carla's journey is one of a kind, beginning when her Evangelical Youth Group visited a well-known Catholic Church – the beauty, the stillness, and the devout worship of the Catholics she saw there coming up-ended her understanding of Catholicism and planted a seed that would slowly germinate...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Levi Sikes, the musical genius behind Former Ruins, to talk about his journey into Catholicism. What drew Levi out of his Evangelical Christian tradition, what drew him into Catholicism, and what continues to draw him in, evermore. And, as a musician, how Levi strives to bridge this gap, to explain and wrestle with his own paradigm shift, and to speak into a place of the deep faith and longing felt by others on journeys similar to his. I...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by former Protestant pastor Keith Nester and author and speaker Devin Schadt to discuss the process of Catholic conversion from two sides of the same story. In a first for this podcast we unfold the narrative of a Catholic conversion–Keith’s conversion, in this case–from two different perspectives; from the perspective of the Catholic loving and practising and sharing their faith, and from the side of the skeptical Protestant doing the exac...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Piece Benefield. A fierce defender of Calvinism, Pierce converted to the Catholic faith after a long and fascinating journey – including going head-to-head with Catholics in a group chat, fulling intending to convert them to Calvinism, but being challenged by their through and thoroughly biblical responses to many of his objections to Catholicism! This week, we talk about Pierce's evangelical upbringing, his shift to the serious and intel...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Mark Saunders, who has an incredible "reversion" story to tell. Raised in a devout Catholic household Mark explains why he initially left the Catholic Church – despite working as an altar server and even discerning the priesthood at one point! – and how his success as a musician led to a life of sin, depravity, and eventually found him seeking out Jesus once again – and finding him in an anti-Catholic, Evangelical church. ...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by ETWN's Dr. Matthew Bunson to talk about everything related to the Pope. We discuss Pope Leo XIV but also the history of the papacy, the biblical roots of the idea of the pope, how popes are elected and how that's changed over time, why the development of papacy authority is actually not what you think, and what we can make of the early papacy of the first American Pope. This plus a ton more on an amazing episode of The Cordial...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by early Church historian, scholar, and translator Dr. DP Curtin, to talk about what the documents left behind by the very earliest Christians tell us about the faith. Dr. Curtin, translator of hundreds and hundreds of documents from the Early Church, sits down to explain just how Catholic-sounding the first Christians were. What they believed about Communion – the Eucharist – baptism, the authority structure of the Church, and mu...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by the wonderful Dr. Carly York, a former Evangelical worship leader, a student of church music, a musician in her own right, and a Catholic convert. Dr. York's story – a journey from small-town baptist music ministry to studying Gregorian Chant at the Catholic University of America – is an incredible tale! Dr. York explains how following her passion and her gifts from God – studying and performing Church music – led her deeper and dee...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Deacon Frank – a deacon, author, columnist, and speaker – to unpack the biblical roots, proof, and evidence for the Perpetual Virginity of Mary. Using the Bible as the jumping off point, Deacon Frank is speaking directly to our non-Catholic Christian audience as he explains what makes Catholics believe – in tandem with the Early Christians – that Mary was not only a virgin before and after the birth of Jesus but was vowed, from the ...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Catholic Answers author, apologist, and columnist John Clark to talk about the stigmata – the incredible, miraculous wounds of Christ as experienced by some of the most profound saints down through history. And, the incredible evangelical power that the stigmata – and stigmatists – have today! We dig into the lives of great saints like Padre Pio, St. Francis of Assisi, and more and discuss not only the profound properties of their m...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Jannah Russell to share her remarkable Catholic conversion story. Raised in the Jehovah's Witness tradition, Jannah explains how her and her husband became disillusioned with the group, eventually leaving, and rediscovering faith on their own. Their journey, ever seeking the truth of Christ and His Church, led them into Evangelical Christianity where experiences around Communion, baptism, and the interpretation of Scripture se...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by the incredible Dr. Peter Kreeft, philosopher, theologian, and one of the most important modern converts to the Catholic faith to unpack his own conversion journey and discuss why it makes good logical, philosophical, biblical, and historical sense to become Catholic. We talk about his journey from Calvinism to Catholicism, the centrality and logical sense of the Eucharist, the Reformation, and much, much more. Including, of course, ...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by my two friends and former Evangelical seminarians (and, in Chris's case, a pastor) to discuss the importance of the Pope. Why is the Pope so important? In their trademark cordial and insightful style, Brandon and Chris help us to dig deeply into the biblical and historical roots of the papacy, the importance of the Pope as a tangible point of unity for Christianity, the reality of apostolic succession, and the witness of the E...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Father Donald Haggerty, priest at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and the author of a number of fine books including The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty. We're talking about taking the temperature of society and responding to crises both in the world and within our very own Catholic Church. It's a great episode. We talk about the need for abandonment to God, the importance of praye...

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by one of my all-time liturgical heroes Chris Carstens to talk all things liturgy – and the centrality of Christ at Mass. What is the liturgy? What is it meant to do and how are we meant to do it? Why do we worship liturgically? And how can we do it better? Plus, we talk about the future of the liturgy (and how the liturgy used to be) and Chris brings all kinds of hope and good thoughts with him on this visit by unpacking what he's see...