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 RecoveryThe Twelve Steps and the Sacraments by Scott WeemanThe Catholic in Recovery Workbook by Scott WeemanStories of Grace, Episode 14: “I am” by Leah Jacob in the Church Life JournalLearn more about the McGrath Institute for Church Life's Fiat Program for Faith and Mental HealthChurch 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 CultureChurch Life Today episode with Joe Campo on “Being a Father to the Fatherless”Learn more about the McGrath Institute for Church Life's Fiat Program for Faith and Mental HealthChurch 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.