Almost Good Catholics

Peter Dominic Martino is a trial lawyer, law professor, former CEO, and former nuclear submarine officer. He serves as Assistant Professor at St. Thomas University College of Law and is a co-founder of Honos Law PLLC. He studied in Annapolis and later Georgetown Law, served in the Navy, and in the Department of Homeland Security, and practices law in New York City. His new book from Sophia Press is Resurrection on Trial: A Judicial Inquiry into the Christian Claim of the Resurrection of Jesus (Sophia Institute Press, 2026), and he walks me through the evidence for our foundational belief—as he says, “the boldest claim that’s ever been made in the history of the world,”—on Almost Good Catholics.Here is Peter’s book from Sophia Press, and also from Amazon.Here is Peter’s faculty website at St. Thomas University College Law School. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Zahnd, a Christian leader and pastor of forty years and four-times pilgrim of the Camino de Santiago, completed this remarkable (and quite short) book, Unseen Existences: Of Heaven, Earth, and the Divine Mystery in All Things. You can read it in a long afternoon or a few sessions of a couple of hours each, sitting outside – perhaps under an oak or a fig tree – with a cup of tea. It’s conversational in tone; it’s clearly the fruit of decades of writing good sermons. Brian is talking to the skepticism—sometimes cynicism—of our times to show (empirically) that more is going on than we take for granted. He also discusses God’s great project for us here in this world, building on St. Augustine, Dallas Willard, and the Gospels. I really enjoyed this insightful book and our meandering conversation.Pastor Brian’s websitePastor Brian’s website.The Reverend: A Fantasy by Pastor Brian, here in four parts, and here as the audio play, read by Boyd Barret.“The Last Train out of Monkeytown,” a poem by Brian Zahnd.Here is the book, Unseen Existences, from Intervarsity Press (IVP), and here it is on Amazon.Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (1998).Carlos Eire, They Flew (2023).The story of the radio that turned on (told by Michael Shermer about the incident happened on the occasion of his marriage).More conversations with Pastor Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics:Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 122: The Tree of Life: “no one who loves the way of Grace ever comes to a bad end”Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 92: A Hidden Life: The Life and Martyrdom of Bl. Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943)Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 82: The Wood between the Worlds: Why Death on the Cross? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The reason Eduard Habsburg, Archduke of Austria and formerly Hungarian Ambassador to the Vatican, has written a ‘travel guide’ to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) is that he finds beauty, meaning, and joy in the experience of being a pilgrim in a foreign land. We pass through the doors—the portals—of the Church and the otherness of it pulls at our hearts and lays on us a bit of a yoke that will feel new. Especially for young people who’ve been crushed softly by the constant entertainment and accommodation, this hardness refreshes their souls, in the tradition of St. Augustine: “our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Is it surprising it is to learn how the first few times he attended the Traditional Latin Mass, he found it off-putting—“oh no, not those crazy weirdoes”—but of course that’s all the more reason for a travel guide; because he can be our guide, like Virgil for Dante to show us around this new world—or, rather, very old world—that is our Catholic inheritance. the book, Discovering the Latin Mass: A Travel Guide for the Curious, from Sophia Press the secret link at Sophia Press that Eduard Habsburg was told us about to claim five free copies of the book so that you might share the Traditional Latin Mass Eduard Habsburg on Twitter/X Latin Missal on Amazon Here is my earlier conversation for Eduard Habsburg (from 2023): Amb. Archd. Eduard Habsburg on Almost Good Catholics, episode 59: Long Live the Empire! The Habsburg Tradition in the Twenty-First Century Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

At age 22, Sydney’s Bennett’s brain stopped communicating with her body correctly; she was suffering from Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a condition in which the nervous system stops sending or interpreting signals the right way. Suddenly this bright, beautiful, college girl, recently married, was having seizures, numbness, difficulty moving. Soon she needed a cane, then a wheelchair. But, when we are weak, we are strong, and she found her rock in Jesus our cornerstone. Today she is a faithful and faith-filled advocate, mother of two, and (in the view of your host) present-day Job; and Job reminds us, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Sydney’s book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken, on Amazon, and also from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, where you can listen to the first chapter of the audio book. The episode of Almost Good Catholics with Mako Fujimura talking about kintsugi (which I excerpted): Mako Fujimura on Almost Good Catholics, episode 14: The Silence of God: The Meaning of Our Suffering and Redemption Other related Almost Good Catholics episodes about the Book of Job and the meaning of suffering: Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 58: The Book of Job: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 112: The Tree of Life: “no one who loves the way of Grace ever comes to a bad end.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Monica Snyder is the executive director of Secular Pro Life and makes the case for the value of human life from conception based on empirical biology and not on revealed religion. She’s also an atheist, statistically the demographic category most in favor of abortion. Abortion is about as contentious a political topic as we have. It’s also one where we often talk past each other. We don’t even agree on the terms: we don’t even say I am for or against ‘abortion’ but rather we are in favor of ‘life’ or of choice’ as if our opponents were therefore perforce against life or choice! Remember the old Tom Lehrer joke about sixties folk song singers—perhaps the antecedent to today’s social justice warriors—“It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against, like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on.” Of course, everyone is in favor of ‘life’ and of ‘choice’. And whether or not you believe in God, you are still a product of the Judeo-Christian world you grew up in. For this reason, it is wonderful to hear what an atheist who believes in the fundamental value of human life has to say about the practice of abortion. Secular Pro Life website. Monica Snyder and economics Bryan Caplan discuss the Turnaway Study on YouTube. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.