Church Life Today

After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, a wide array of commentators bemoaned how much more support would now be needed for women who become pregnant when abortion is no longer available, or less readily available. What that implies, of course, is that abortion is a substitute for other supportive measures for pregnant and parenting women, or even more to that point, that those other forms of support are substitutes for the perceived cure-all of abortion. My guest today calls out this implicit assumption in an essay she wrote that specifically focuses on the ways in which institutions of higher education do or do not adequately support women as women, with their distinctive reproductive capacities in view.Angela Franks is Professor of Theology at St. John’s Seminary in Boston. She is no stranger to our own McGrath Institute for Church Life as she currently serves as a Life and Human Dignity Writing Fellow for our Church Life Journal, and she has joined me on our show before to talk about gender, bodies, and the space of responsiveness. The article that is the basis of our discussion today comes under the title “Why Does Higher Ed Throw Women Under the Bus?”, which appeared in the Church Life Journal in September 2022, not long after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the Dobbs case. Follow up Resources:●      Article: “Why Does Higher Ed Throw Women Under the Bus?” by Angela Franks in the Church Life Journal●      Podcast Episode: “Catholic Colleges and Pregnant Students, with Renée Roden” on Church Life Today●      Podcast Episode: “Gender, Bodies, and the Space of Responsiveness, with Angela Franks” on Church Life Today●      Article: “The Body as Totem in the Asexual Revolution” by Angela Franks in the Church Life Journal●      Video Series: “Into Life: Love Changes Everything” from the Sisters of Life and the McGrath Institute for Church Life: a 12-part original series on accompanying a woman into life.This episode is supported by NCEA, https://www.ncea.org/NCEA2023/whyattendChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

You may remember in the last couple years the listening sessions that took place in dioceses and parishes as a first step in the Church’s “synod on synodality.” Maybe you participated in one of these listening sessions, or even helped to host one, as I did. By Fall of 2022, reports from those parish listening sessions were gathered at the diocesan level, then at the national level by bishops’ conferences, and eventually sent to an organizing committee at the Vatican. At that point, a group gathered to review the reports and write a Document on the Continental Phase, which was meant to synthesize the local and national reports, and prepare for the next stage in the synodal process. When my guest today started to look more closely at the methodology of this process, though, he, as a social scientist, started to question the authenticity of the process itself, at least in terms of what it was purported to be. Are we really hearing the voice of the faithful here?My guest is Mark Regnerus, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of an article published in early 2023 in Public Discourse, calling the methodology of the synodal process thus far into question. In addition to this article written for a popular audience, Professor Regnerus is the author of more than 40 articles in peer reviewed journals and, additionally, author of four books, including The Future of Christian Marriage. He joins me today to discuss his misgivings about this synodal process, yes, as a Catholic, but more distinctively from his professional perspective as a social scientist.Follow-up Resources:●     “Census Fidei? Methodological Missteps Are Undermining the Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality” by Mark Regnerus in Public Discourse●     Document for the Continental Stage (the document Prof. Regnerus questions)●     “Co-Responsibility: An Antidote to Clericalizing the Laity?” by John Cavadini in the Church Life Journal●     Called & Co-Responsible: Exploring Co-Responsibility for the Mission of the Church, Conference at the University of Notre Dame (videos of presentations)●     Recorded seminars on co-responsibility, from the McGrath Institute for Church Life●     “Will They Return to Mass,” with Hans Plate on Church Life TodayChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed to his Father that “they may all be one.” He meant us, his disciples. As he entered into his passion, Jesus began to offer himself for our unity in him, with him, through him––sharing in his union with the Father by the Holy Spirit. And yet, if we look around the Church today, disunity may be more apparent than unity.In his new book, acclaimed author and moral theologian Charlie Camosy seeks to help Catholics––especially Catholics in the US––to rediscover our call to unity and to begin engaging with each other in a way that does not cancel out disagreements, but rather allows us to find unity in diversity. The book is One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity, from Ave Maria Press. Dr. Camosy joins me to talk about the sources of disunion, the pathways toward reunion, and the importance of reclaiming our unity in Christ.Follow-up Resources: ●     One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity, by Charles C. Camosy●     Discussion Guide for One Church, from Charles C. Camosy and Ave Maria Press●     “This Is What You Get When Politics Invades Our Ecclesial Lives,” by Robert G. Christian III in the Church Life Journal●     “Breaking from the Culture War Mentality,” with Fr. Aaron Wessman on Church Life TodayThis episode is supported by NCEAhttp://www.ncearise.org/Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Scott Weeman wants to help empower the body of Christ to heal the body of Christ. His organization, Catholic in Recovery, intentionally brings together the Twelve Steps recovery process with the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. This work is an exercise in grace building on nature, where the holistic healing of mind, body, spirit, relationships, and all the rest that is necessary for those who have suffered from addiction and other compulsive behaviors opens up to the fulfillment that only the Lord can provide.In addition to founding Catholic in Recovery, Scott is also the author of two books: The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments, and more recently, The Catholic in Recovery Workbook, both published by Ave Maria Press.He joins me today to talk about this mission to foster communities of healing, helping people to find new life out of addiction, and in Christ with one another. Follow-up Resources:●     Learn more about Catholic in Recovery●     The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments by Scott Weeman●     The Catholic in Recovery Workbook by Scott Weeman●     Stories of Grace, Episode 14: “I am” by Leah Jacob in the Church Life JournalChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

In 2011, Steve Pokorny founded Freedom Coaching: a one-to-one mentoring system aimed at helping those with an attraction or compulsion to pornography. This isn’t merely about learning how to avoid pornography; it is even more about reclaiming true health in the mind, the heart, and the body. It is about reclaiming our humanity. Freedom Coaching operates from the conviction that the reason most people with an attachment to pornography don’t experience sustained, lasting freedom is they’ve never learned how to attain healthy forms of intimacy. And attaining healthy forms of intimacy is only possible through receiving a redeemed view of the human body.In addition to founding and leading Freedom Coaching, Steve is also the author of Redeemed Vision: Setting the Blind Free from the Pornified Culture. He joins me today to not only talk about his work, but especially about the hope for redemption for those for whom new life has seemed otherwise unattainable.Follow up Resources: ●     Learn more about Freedom Coaching website at https://freedom-coaching.net/●     Redeemed Vision: Setting the Blind Free from the Pornified Culture●     Church Life Today episode with Joe Campo on “Being a Father to the Fatherless”Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

“We had compassion for those left behind but thought that our job was to provide them an opportunity (no matter how small) to get where we were. We didn’t think about changing our definition of success.” Those words come from Chris Arnade. His definition of success had been tied to upward mobility, ascending socially and professionally to the point of becoming a well-compensated Wall Street investor, who happened to pick up PhD in theoretical physics on the way. But eventually he went searching for something else––for other places and indeed for other people. He walked. He walked right into the kinds of towns and abandoned cities that most of successful Americans turned away from, even ridiculed. He paid attention to the people in these places, learned their stories, entered––as much as could––into their lives, discovering the ways in which they searched for meaning or sought community. The result of these immersions is his book, Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Choose life. Building a pro-life culture means, among other things, making it easier for women who are pregnant to choose life. But is it easy to choose life if you are a college student, even a Catholic college student, maybe even at a Catholic school? FemCatholic recently conducted a study around questions just like that. In an article presenting their findings, they ask, “Are Catholic colleges designed for women?” One of the authors of that article is my guest today. Renée Roden is a journalist and playwright, who currently lives and serves in a Catholic Worker community in Chicago. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theology and theater, along with a Master of Theological Studies degree from the University of Notre Dame, and a Master of Science dual degree in journalism and religion from Columbia University. Her articles have appeared in publications like America Magazine, Commonweal, and the Church Life Journal. In this report for FemCatholic, she and her co-author don’t ask whether college students should be having sex, nor do they take up pro-choice vs. pro-life arguments; instead, they wanted to see what it is like for young women who get pregnant while in college. It is very likely that a large number of women who get pregnant in college seek abortions. This report tries to figure out what colleges are doing and what they might do to help students choose life.Follow-up resources:●     “Are Catholic colleges designed for women?”, a report from FemCatholic, by Renée Roden and Kelly Sankowski●     “Into Life: Love Changes Everything”, 12-part series with the Sisters of Life, created by CampCampo Films and the McGrath Institute for Church Life●     “A New Equality” by Jessica Keating in Notre Dame Magazine.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

“There is much in life we can’t control, such as when we are born and where––the family, country, and history we inherit as time-and-place-bound beings. We enter the story of the world in media res. We don’t choose our sex or the path of development it takes. We don’t choose our unique amalgam of qualities and traits, those threads that form the tapestry of personality. We cannot choose when illness and trauma will strike; we can only know that they will. Yet there is one thing we can freely choose––free only because the gentle fingers of God have loosed what binds and blinds us. We can choose to receive all these things as gift.”So begins the very end of the Genesis of Gender, the new book by Professor Abigail Favale. In this book she teases out the hidden assumptions of the gender paradigm and exposes its effects, but only in light of the Christian understanding of reality, which she opens up as a holistic paradigm that proclaims the dignity of the body, the sacramental meaning of sexual difference, and the interconnectedness of creation. In a day and age when the meaning of sex, gender, the human body, and freedom are more and more uncertain, Dr. Favale has given us a theory that is at once substantive, clear, and compassionate.Follow-up Resources:●      The Genesis of Gender by Abigail Favale (Ignatius Press)●      “The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender” in The Church Life Journal by Abigail Favale●      “The Body as a Formed Stream” in The Church Life Journal by Angela Franks●      “Cultivating Catholic Feminism,” a free, self-paced educational and experiential program from The Catholic Woman, with contant from Abigail FavaleChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

The first Mexican American Saint may very well end up being the man they called the Bishop of the Barrio. The cause for canonization of Alphonse Gallegos was opened in 2005, and in 2016 Pope Francis authorized the bishops and cardinals of the Congregation of Saints to grant him the title of Venerable. In this special episode of Church Life Today, Meg Hunter-Kilmer introduces us to Venerable Alphonse Gallegos through the memories and stories of people who knew him.  Meg Hunter-Kilmer is the inaugural fellow of the Sullivan Family Saints Initiative here in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. This special episode was funded by the Sullivan Family Saints Initiative, which seeks to renew scholarship on the saints and increase devotion to the saints.Follow up Resources:●      “Bishop of the Barrio: Venerable Alphonse Gallegos” byMeg Hunter-Kilmerin the Church Life Journal.●      “Sullivan Family Saints Initiative welcomes inaugural fellow”Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Fiat. So spoke the Virgin Mary to the angel Gabriel. This is a word of creation––“let it be”––one that echoes the command of the Creator, who said Fiat lux, “let there be light”. With her fiat, Mary gave all she had to bear and share the Word of God.In Mary is the mission of the Church––from and for that mission comes a new program here at the McGrath Institute for Church Life with a name given in Mary’s voice. The Fiat Program of Faith and Mental Health seeks to form Catholic leaders to better care for and accompany persons with mental health challenges and their loved ones. This effort comes from the heart of the Church’s mission to bear and share the Body of Christ, caring for each member within the communion of his love. In practice, Fiat generates research, teaching, and formation opportunities to inform and strengthen sacramental and pastoral care that uplifts the dignity and goodness of each person. Fiat assists dioceses, parishes, and communities in fostering a culture of communion wherein the whole person is embraced and can experience the grace of Christian friendship and the sacramental life.The director of this bold and timely initiative is my guest today. Beth Hlabse is director of the Fiat program in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. With degrees in mental health counseling, theology, and peace studies, Beth has provided therapeutic care for adolescents and adults with histories of trauma and adverse child experiences. Her therapeutic approach is integrative, attending to neural-developmental influences and the intersection of spirituality and psychology. She brings not only her experience to the Fiat Program, but also a Catholic vision for the wholeness of the human person and an understanding of the interdisciplinary approaches necessary for developing the best mental health resources and forming Catholic leaders capable of nurturing mental health in the communities they serve.Follow-up Resources:Fiat Program on Faith and Mental Health“Integrating Faith and Mental Health, with Pat and Kenna Millea” on Church Life Today“Love to the Very End: A Theology of Dementia” in The Church Life Journal, by Xavier Symons“Profound Cognitive Impairment, the Virtues, and Life in Christ” in The Church Life Journal, by Miguel RomeroChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

By royal charter, St. Edmund’s College at the University of Cambridge is to take on the mission of advancing education, religion, learning and research in the University of Cambridge and “to promote and facilitate contributions from the Catholic Church and from members of the Catholic Church in carrying out” its endeavors. What is so remarkable about that mission is that St. Edmund’s was the first and still the only college with a Catholic founding since the Reformation. St. Edmund’s is also a global college, with students coming from all across the world and graduates going to serve and lead everywhere. Today I welcome the Master of St. Edmund’s College, who leads this distinctive institution of higher education in its service to the common good.   Catherine Arnold is the 15th Master of St. Edmund’s College, having assumed the office in October 2019. Prior to her role at St. Edmund’s, she served as the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Mongolia. Ambassador Arnold’s diplomatic career has also included service in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Oman, with particular focus on a range of issues including human rights, counter terrorism, trade, and public affairs. Her conversation with me comes as she visits the University of Notre as part of a new agreement between the two institutions to encourage and support international collaboration between the respective faculty, scholars, students, and administrators in education, research, and outreach.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Are priests and bishops in the United States flourishing? How well do priests trusts bishops, or, more to the point, their own bishop? To whom do priests turn for support?––on whom do they rely? What are priests’ views of the policies and procedures surrounding accusations of abuse? Do priests worry about false accusations being brought against them? Are priests burned out? If so, which priests?These are all questions which a national survey of over 3500 priests and 160 bishops sought to answer. The National Study of Catholic Priests was conducted by sociologists at the Catholic University of America, and specifically through The Catholic Project: an initiative that seeks to foster effective collaboration between the laity and clergy in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis. My guest today is the Executive Director of The Catholic Project, and he will share with us some of the most important results of their study.Stephen White has served in his current role leading The Catholic Project at CUA since 2019. Previously, he served as executive producer of the award-winning podcast, Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church. He is a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Policy Center in Washington, DC, and the author of Red, White, Blue, and Catholic, published by Liguori in 2016. His articles have appeared in a number of outlets and websites, included The Weekly Standard, First Things, America Magazine, and The Catholic Herald.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The Lord Jesus proclaimed this mission of his in the midst of a mixed crowed, surrounded by both skeptics and his disciples. To know this gift of life that he brings is to encounter in him the fullness of life. It is a life not of convenience nor a life measured strictly by accomplishments, but a life of joy. When Jesus encountered the rich young man who undervalued his own life and the life of others, Jesus looked upon that young man and loved him. That look of love was an invitation to open up to joy. For those who rediscover themselves in the Lord’s look of love, life begins anew, abundantly. My guest today has not only found herself in the Lord’s look of love, but also is hoping to spend her life reflecting that look of love toward others. Maggie Garnett is a 2022 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, who will soon enter postulancy with the Sisters of Life, a religious community that vows to protect and enhance the sacredness of life. The Sisters of Life were founded by the late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, who felt a strong call to do everything in his power to protect human life after he had a profound and distressing experience while visiting the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1975. After numerous frustrating attempts to pursue this calling, Cardinal O’Connor penned an article in the early 1990s in a local Catholic New York paper under the headline: “Help Wanted: Sisters of Life.” That article appeared across the country and hundreds of letters started pouring in in response. In 1991, 8 women gathered in New York as the founding members of this new community, and since then the community has grown to over a hundred sisters from across the globe, with missions across the United States. Maggie is now one of the latest young women who seeks to answer this call to love others into life. Together, we will talk about her discernment, the charism of life, the habits of prayer, and more.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

As you may have heard on recent episodes of Church Life Today, Ignatius Press just released a new volume called The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. I am the editor of that volume, for which seven other scholars in theology, literature, and the arts joined me to write contemplative, spiritual essays on Lewis’ Chronicles. We also brought in the original illustrations of an incredible visual artist and an original poem cycle from a remarkable poet. The idea of The Chronicles of Transformation is to help adult and young adult readers to rediscover (or discover for the first time) the joy of entering into Narnia, except this time to be even more mindful about the deep and abiding moral and spiritual transformation that can take place there for those of us who dare to become childlike. In previous weeks we’ve shared interviews with some of the contributors to the volume––and maybe we will have some more of the contributors join us soon––but today we want to bring back an interview that was not explicitly about Lewis or his chronicles, though it had everything to do with the enduring value of children’s literature, for children and for adults. This interview with the Rev. Dr. Daniel McClain first aired in 2019 after he gave a lecture at Notre Dame on just this topic. I hope you enjoy it, and I also hope you will check out our volume on The Chronicles of Transformation.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

What you read goes a long way toward shaping the kind of person you become. At the same time, the kind of person you have become goes a long way toward determining how you read what you read, what you think about and how, and the ways in which you interpret the world around you. This mutual shaping of what and how you read, and the kind of person you become is fundamental to C. S. Lewis’ theory of education, especially but not only in regard to the education of children. His classic philosophical work on education and moral formation is The Abolition of Man, but my guest on this episode also wants to show us how Lewis’ understanding of a truly human education forms and animates especially one of his seven Chronicles of Narnia –– namely, The Silver Chair.Dr. Rebekah Lamb is a lecturer in theology and the arts at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland. She is one of the four principal faculty members in the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts. She is also a contributor to a new volume from Ignatius Press for which I served as editor––that title is The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. Dr. Lamb’s chapter is called, “Out of the Shadows: C. S. Lewis and the Idea of Education in The Silver Chair.” That chapter is accompanied by six other chapters from other scholars, treating the rest of six Chronicles of Narnia, as well as by seven original illustrations, seven original poems, and an introductory chapter about arriving at Narnia. This volume is primarily intended for adult and young adult readers, to help you rediscover the childlike wonder that is absolutely necessary to enjoy the deep spiritual treasures of these beloved children’s stories… which, as it turns out, are not just for children.We first recorded this episode a few years ago when Dr. Lamb visited Notre Dame to give a lecture on The Silver Chair, which served as the basis for her chapter in The Chronicles of Transformation.As for me, I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. I’m glad you’re here.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Fr. Michael Ward is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. He is the author or editor of several books, including Heresies and How to Avoid Them, The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis, and After Humanity: A Guide to C. S. Lewis’ ‘Abolition of Man’. But it was another one of his books that Walter Hooper, the esteemed literary advisor to the Estate of C. S. Lewis, lauded as “unsurpassed in showing a comprehensive knowledge of and depth of insight into C. S. Lewis’ works.” That book is the groundbreaking and persuasive Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis.Fr. Ward brought his world-class expertise on the works of C. S. Lewis to a new volume recently released from Ignatius Press, for which I myself happened to serve as editor. This book is The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. In the book we take Narnia seriously as a place where the choices and actions, the desires and dispositions of children affect their own destinies and the fate of the world. It is a place where children learn what it means to grow in maturity, to become responsible and develop character. But it is also a place where adults can always start over in relearning what is all too quickly forgotten, for the sake of their own moral and spiritual transformation. For his part, Fr. Ward authored the chapter on Lewis’s Prince Caspian. In his chapter, Fr. Ward helps us to get acquainted with and be delighted by what it feels like to live inside a chivalric tradition.We first recorded this episode a few years ago when Fr. Ward visited Notre Dame to give a lecture on Prince Caspian. Our conversation moves broadly across and deeply into the imagination of C. S. Lewis.As for me, I’m Leonard DeLorenzo, this is Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. I’m glad you’re here.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

C. S. Lewis published the first of the Chronicles of Narnia in 1950, followed by six others. Over the decades since, parents have read these books to their children as bedtime stories, and children have read them for themselves when they got a little older. That is a very profitable way to explore Narnia. But can grown-ups return to Narnia, finding meaning and wonder there for themselves? To this I say, emphatically: YES.That emphatic YES motivates a new book we just released with Ignatius Press called The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis. I am actually the editor of the volume, in which we challenge adult readers to contemplate Lewis’ chronicles as profound, meaningful, and delightful immersions into a pilgrimage toward moral and spiritual growth. In the volume you will find one essay for each of the seven chronicles, with each one written by a different scholar of theology, literature, and the arts. There are also seven original illustrations in the volume––again, one for each chronicle––that present stunning glimpses into the narratives through rich symbolism. These illustrations are accompanied by a sevenfold poem cycle, completely new and original to this book, that draws us toward wondering at the majestic Lion Aslan whom we come to know for a little while in the vast land of Narnia. And before all of that, there is an introductory chapter on “Arriving at Narnia” which helps us prepare to re-engage these chronicles and the journey they beckon us toward, while also teaching us about what Lewis set out to do with his chronicles. The author of that introductory chapter is the guest on today’s episode, which was originally recorded a few years ago for a lecture series we hosted that first explored this whole topic.David Fagerberg is professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. For years and years, he has taught a hugely popular course on the theme of deification in the literature of C. S. Lewis, in addition another courses on G. K. Chesterton and a whole host of courses in his field of specialization, which is liturgical theology. Among his book publications are On Liturgical Theology, Liturgical Mysticism, and Liturgical Dogmatics. You can find his essay on “Arriving at Narnia” at the beginning of The Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis, edited by Leonard DeLorenzo (that’s me) and published by Ignatius Press.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Salvation comes from the Latin word “salus”, which means “health” and “well-being”. Illness and sin are therefore both, in different ways, a lack of the health and well-being that is intended for us. We might even say that we are created for wholeness just as we are created for holiness, and that growing in one means growing in the other. Salvation is both a matter of wholeness and holiness. The Martin Center for Integration seeks to bring together what is all too often kept apart: mental health and faith development. It is common for either one or the other of those two to be emphasized, but far too rare for both sanity and sanctity to be cared for and promoted together, in their own distinctive but coordinate ways. Today I welcome the husband and wife founders of the Martin Center to talk with us about this mission of integration, the needs that they are responding to, and how we become really whole, really healthy, really holy. Pat Millea is Formation and Operations Director for the Martin Center for Integration, while Kenna Millea is Clinical Director for the Center. Both have extensive experience in Church ministry, with advanced degrees in theology and formation in ministry from the University of Notre Dame, while Kenna is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy. To learn more, go to martincenterforintegration.comChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Cases with issues of religious liberty regularly make their way before the Supreme Court, and this year was no exception. In the decisions that the Court rendered in summer 2022, there were at least four cases where questions of religious liberty were adjudicated. If you have been listening to our show for some time, you may know that we regularly create episodes about religious liberty cases whenever the Supreme Court decides them, and our resident expert and guide to understanding these cases and the impact of the decisions is Professor Rick Garnett of the Notre Dame Law School, who is the founding director of the Program on Church, State, and Society, as well as a fellow of the Religious Liberty Initiative.This year, Rick has joined me for two consecutive episodes, with this being the second. In the first episode––right before this one––we talked about the decision in the Dobbs case, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Now we will talk about a host of religious liberty cases concerning state funding for school choice, the right to religious expression for government employees, non-discrimination on the basis of religion for private speech in public spaces, the religious rights of prisoners on death row, and even a “non-case” about religious exemptions to vaccination mandates. I hope you will find this conversation as helpful and educational as I do.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Each year, the so called “June Court” decisions from the Supreme Court garner quite a lot of attention, but few in recent memory have received close to the same level of attention as Dobbs v. Jackson, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. By this point, everyone knows about this decision, though fewer of us know as much as we might about the actual case that was before the court, why it was decided the way it was, and what this really means for abortion law going forward. To help us grow in our understanding of what has taken place and what is coming next––or what’s not coming next––I am happy to welcome back to the show Professor Rick Garnett of the Notre Dame Law School, who has become our show’s resident expert on the Supreme Court and especially cases relating to religious liberty. While Dobbs was not a religious liberty case, a number of other cases on which the Court ruled in the summer of 2022 were. To give due time to all these cases, my conversation with Professor Garnett will span two episodes. In this first one, we focus on Dobbs, then in the next one we’ll talk about several religious liberty cases.A little more about my guest, who has joined me several times before. In addition to being a Professor of Law here at Notre Dame, Rick Garnett is also the founding director of the Program on Church, State, and Society in the Notre Dame Law School, as well as a fellow of the School’s Religious Liberty Initiative. He has published widely and some of his recent articles on the Supreme Court decisions have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Law, City Journal, and the Daily News.Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.