
Church Life Today
Hosted by Dr. Leonard DeLorenzo, of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame (http://mcgrath.nd.edu), Church Life Today features conversations with pastoral leaders and scholars from around the country and covers issues that matter most to Church life today. Church Life Today is an OSV Podcasts partner.
Latest episodes

Sep 6, 2019 • 28min
Katie Cavadini & Leonard DeLorenzo on the Theology of the Saints
This week we did something a little different Lenny was actually interviewed by Dr. Katie Cavadini about his book Work of Love and the Communion of Saints.Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Aug 31, 2019 • 28min
Joe Campo on Being a Father to the Fatherless
What effect does the absence of fathers have on our society? What do you do to listen for God’s will? What’s the greatest threat to a family home? How can you recognize and draw out the talents of young people? These are just some of the questions I ask of our guest today, Joe Campo, in a discussion that touches on the intimate and the grand, the spiritual and the practical alike. Joe is the head of the St. Francis Home in Brooklyn, where young men in need of support and direction live together as a family, with Joe as a father who shares with them a life of faith. Joe is also the founder of Grassroots Films, which he started with some of the young men from his household. Grassroots has produced such films as The Human Experience, Outcasts, Fishers of Men, and Child 31.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Aug 17, 2019 • 28min
Nichole Flores on the Extended Family
We talk today about the family, especially the expansive notion of the extended family and what this means for who we are as individuals, who we are responsible for, and what this means for our parishes.We are joined by Dr. Nichole Flores is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. She speaks, writes and teaches about the significance of Catholic and Latinx theology and ethics in plural social, political, and ecclesial contexts. She has published academic articles broadly and also popularly on such publications as America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture. She is currently at work on her first book, To Lift Up the Lowly: The Aesthetics of Solidarity. In 2015, Dr. Flores was honored with the Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for the best academic essay in Catholic theology from the Catholic Theological Society of America. Recently she joined us as a keynote speaker for the Liturgy and Domestic Church conference at Notre Dame.------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Aug 10, 2019 • 28min
Brad Wilcox on the State of the Family in America
What is the state of the family in the United States? What is the good news? What’s the bad news? And what does the Church need to pay attention to? W. Bradford Wilcox is Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. Professor Wilcox’s research has focused on marriage, fatherhood, and cohabitation, especially on the ways that family structure, civil society, and culture influence the quality and stability of family life in the United States and around the globe.Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Aug 3, 2019 • 29min
Aimee Shelide Mayer on Loving God and Neighbor
Today we want to talk about the whole Gospel, and by that I mean contemplation and action, the Lord’s love and our response, life in the parish and life with the poor. Our guest is Aimee Shelide Mayer. Aimee is a graduate of Notre Dame’s Echo program, where she served in catechetical ministry in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for two years. Afterwards she lived in a Catholic Worker community in South Bend, IN, before moving to Nashville to serve as the Coordinator of Advocacy and Social Concerns for Catholic Charities. On the basis of all she’s done and learned, she is going to talk with us today about the whole Gospel.Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Jul 13, 2019 • 29min
Reverend Dr. Daniel McClain on Theology and Children's Literature
The Reverend Dr. Daniel McClain is a theologian and priest in the Episcopal Church and serves as the Episcopoal Chaplain at the College of Wiliam and Mary. He earned his PhD in Historical and Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America, then taught at Loyola University Maryland from 2012 to 2017, where he launched and administered Loyola’s Master of Theological Studies program. Dr. McClain specializes in theology and literature and is co-author of Reading Scripture as a Political Act. He is currently at work on a book entitled Theology and Children’s Literature: An Introduction, forthcoming from Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock. In 2019 he taught a weeklong track at our Institute’s Liturgy & the Domestic Church gathering, where he focused on Forming the Sacramental Imagination of the Child through Literature------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Jul 6, 2019 • 29min
Marie George on Evolution, the Image of God, and Extraterrestrials
Today we talk with a Catholic philosopher whose work brings her in contact with evolution, the image of God, and extraterrestrials. Marie George is Professor of Philosophy at St. John's University. In addition to holding a Ph.D. in Philosophy, she also holds Master's degrees in Biology and in Pastoral Theology. Her interests lie primarily in the areas of natural philosophy and philosophy of science. She has received several awards from the John Templeton Foundation for her work in Science and Religion, and she was co-recipient of a grant from the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences for an interdisciplinary project entitled "The evolution of sympathy and morality." Professor George has authored over 70 peer-reviewed articles and two books Christianity and Extra Terrestrials: A Catholic Perspective and Stewardship of Creation. As well as editing The Essential Guide to Catholic Spiritual Classics.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Jun 29, 2019 • 29min
Fr. Nicanor Austriaco on Genetic Engineering and the Search for Adam
On today's show, we're going to talk about genetic engineering, pursuing truth in a post-Christian culture and the search for Adam. Our guest is Father Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., is Professor in the Department of Biology of Providence College. He received his Ph.D. in biology from MIT and does research in experimental molecular biology. He is a Dominican priest and holds a doctorate in theology from the Univ. of Fribourg in Switzerland. Among other distinctions he is an investigator in the NIH-Rhode Island Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Program. He is the author of Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics (CUA Press, 2011) and co-author of Thomistic Evolution: a Catholic approach to understanding evolution in the light of faith (Cluny Media, 2016). Fr. Nicanor is on the Board of the Society of Catholic Scientists.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Jun 22, 2019 • 27min
Conor Cunningham on Darwin, the Soul, and Life Before Death
Leonard DeLorenzo asks three questions in this episode:1.Did Darwin God?2.Is the soul real?3.Is there life before death?If you're listening, just buckle up and wait for the answers because today's guest is Conor Cunningham is Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy, and Director of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Prof. Cunningham has degrees in Law, Philosophy, and Theology. He is the author of Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing and the Difference of Theology (2002) and of the book Darwin's Pious Idea: Why the Ultra Darwinists and Creationists Both Get It Wrong (2010). He is at work on a third book that follows these previous two, with the title The Soul and the Marriage of Discourse: The Return of Scientia. Additionally, Prof. Cunningham was the writer and presenter of the multi-award winning BBC documentary "Did Darwin Kill God?"------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.

Jun 15, 2019 • 29min
Maureen Condic on When Human Life Begins
Welcome to Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. I'm your host, Leonard DeLorenzo.Do you want to know when human life begins? And how to explain that to other people? That's what I'm going to ask our guest today, Dr. Maureen Condic, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah Medical School. In 2015, Dr. Condic was appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a distinguished group of physicians, scientists, and theologians from the international community whose mission it is to study questions and issues regarding the promotion and defense of human life from an interdisciplinary perspective.Three years later, in 2018, Dr. Condic received a Presidential appointment to the National Board of Science, the oversight body for the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on the development and regeneration of the nervous system, spinal cord repair and regeneration, and embryonic development, while she cultivates a strong commitment to public education and science literacy. In June 2019, she delivered the St. Albert Award Lecture at the annual convention of the Society of Catholic Scientists.------Live: www.redeemerradio.comFollow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@RedeemerRadioFollow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram:@McGrathNDSubscribe to the Podcast:iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloudChurch 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.