The Catholic Herald Podcast: Merely Catholic with Gavin Ashenden

Opus Dei found unwelcome fame and undeserved notoriety at the hand of the infamous but hugely successful novelist Dan Brown. It has returned to the public stage this week, not in the form of the imaginative parody the Da Vinci Code presented, but because of the pope’s most recent letter. Entitled ‘Ad charisma tuendum’ “For the safeguarding of the prelature of the charism of Opus Dei”, the pope has stipulated that whoever leads Opus Dei in future will never be a bishop. Does this papal initiative fall into the category of the sacred or the sinister? In this the 15th episode of Merely Catholic, Jack Valero, the Head of Communications for Opus Dei in the UK,  joins Dr Gavin Ashenden to reflect on the prevalence of conspiracy theories and give his interpretation of what this really means; whilst also commenting on the prevalence of global and historic apologies as Pope Francis travels to Canada to engage with history, guilt and forgiveness.

Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative Cabinet Minister and MEP for the Brexit Party, speaks to fellow Catholic convert Dr Gavin Ashenden, in this 14th episode of the Merely Catholic podcast series for the Catholic Herald about the future of the Church of England to which they both once belonged. Miss Widdecombe says Anglicanism is terminally afflicted by a tendency to imitate the mores of secular society, irrespective of how insufferably and hysterically “woke” such positions might be, leaving the Catholic Church – once considered the home of “Irish navvies and Italian waiters” – as the greatest hope for the survival of Christianity in the UK.

The actor and political activist Laurence Fox joins Dr Gavin Ashenden to discuss the sinister ideologies behind the seemingly relentless quest to destroy faith, family, freedom, marriage and the innocence of children in society today. In this 13th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Fox sets out the reasons why he felt it was necessary for Reclaim, the political party he founded, to expose the shockingly lurid content of sex education programmes aimed even at children in a new film called Groomed: How Schools Sexualise Your Children. They identify a neo-Marxist ideological agenda which has among its objectives that of separating children from their parents and forcing them reject their Christian values.

In the 12th episode of the Merely Catholic podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Dr Gavin Ashenden talks to the highly distinguished European political scientist Professor John Loughlin, a Fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford, an Emeritus Fellow and former Tutor at St Edmund's College, former Director of the Von Hügel Institute, and a Senior Fellow and Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies, both at the University of Cambridge. Professor Loughlin offers an illuminating vision of hope for humanity through the flourishing of Catholic education and of Catholic universities in particular – a powerful antidote to prevailing false anthropologies and to the misguided contemporary utopian beliefs that mankind can somehow be redeemed by information alone.

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined from Chicago by Melissa Villalobos, the recipient of the miracle that led to the canonisation of Cardinal St John Henry Newman in 2019, for the 11th episode of the Merely Catholic podcast series for the Catholic Herald. They discuss the possible ramifications of the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion up to birth a constitutional right, as well as the hysterical and sometimes violent response of some of those people who are opposed to the new judgement. They also speak of the signs of hope for America in the midst of what Melissa say is essentially a great ‘spiritual battle’ between good and evil.

Father Dwight Longenecker returns to Merely Catholic for the tenth episode of the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, this time talking to Dr Gavin Ashenden about the English Catholic inheritance and what it means to both Britain and the world in the early 21st century. In this fascinating conversation, Father Longenecker, fresh from a pilgrimage tour of England, offers the perspective of both an American and a former Anglican on the role and significance of the English martyrs and upon a distinguished Catholic literary tradition which includes such figures as Robert Hugh Benson, Evelyn Waugh, GK Chesterton, Grahame Greene, JRR Tolkien and Elizabeth Jennings. English Catholics, he says, should do more to treasure and conserve the riches that have been left to them.

Dr Gavin Ashenden talks to the multi-talented Edmund Adamus about his work with A Fertile Heart, an easy-to-follow Relationships and Sex Education programme which is faithful to the teachings of the Catholic faith, and about his forthcoming role with the Sovereign Order of Malta. In this ninth episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, their wide-ranging discussion includes reflections on the Theology of the Body of Pope St John Paul II; how best to serve the poor and the needy in the early 21st century and the importance of underpinning the new evangelisation with a steady stream of prayer.

Dr Jules Gomes, the Rome correspondent of Church Militant, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this eighth episode of our Merely Catholic podcast series for the Catholic Herald. They reflect on the new appointments to the College of Cardinals which mean that almost two thirds of its members have now been appointed by Pope Francis. Dr Gomes identifies the workings of a politically-radical reformist agenda in the appointments and says that the new generation of “clone” cardinals will seek the consolidation and advance of the changes of the Bergoglian era at any forthcoming conclave to elect Francis’s successor. That would be the time, he says, to “watch out for rainbow-coloured smoke”.

In the seventh podcast of the Merely Catholic series, Dr Gavin Ashenden talks to Ralph Martin about the ‘all-out civil war’ that has broken out in the Catholic Church largely between those who wish to accommodate contemporary mores and those who believe the Church must hold fast to the teaching of two millennia. Dr Martin, an esteemed U.S. theologian and author of the 2020 book The Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward, predicts that the time is drawing near when bishops will increasingly conclude that they can no longer stay silent and will begin to take sides in a struggle which goes right to the heart of the Church’s mission and purpose.

The leak of a draft opinion that Roe vs Wade may be soon overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court has inflamed political tensions throughout America and led to attacks on Catholic churches and the disruption of Masses. The judgement is not only controversial because it created the federal legal framework for the 62 million abortions in the United States performed since 1973 but also because of its apparent lack of legal coherence. In this sixth episode of Merely Catholic, Dr Gavin Ashenden speaks to Richard Doerflinger, former associate director of the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-life Activities, about why Roe vs Wade has to go.