AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

A vivid definition of the Catholic Church is attributed to the literary giant James Joyce: Catholic means “here comes everybody.” Never in recent history has that felt more accurate than during the current Synod on Synodality. Lots of AMDG listeners have been active in the synod, participating in this global process of spiritual conversation and consultation. The synod comprises several stages, from the listening sessions in local churches all the way to the upcoming gatherings of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2023 and 2024. For the first time ever, about 20% of the voting members of the synod will be made up of lay women and men. And last week, the General Secretariat of the Synod in Rome published a 60-page document called the “Instrumentum Laboris,” which will be the basis of the work of the Synod fathers and mothers when they gather. Unlike previous Synods, this Instrumentum Laboris is not a document to be amended and approved, but a series of questions on key topics related to communion, mission and participation in the church. The document itself is an incarnation of synodality, which makes space for all participants to be heard. One of the Synod team members who collaborated on this working document is Professor Anna Rowlands, today’s guest. Anna holds the St. Hilda Chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University in the United Kingdom. She is a political theologian who works at the intersection of political and social theory and Christian theology. Anna is the author of an acclaimed book on Catholic Social Teaching titled “Towards a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times,” which was published in 2021. Anna is one of the few people on Earth who have read pretty much every word submitted to Rome from the church all over the world, so she brings an incredible wealth of experience and a truly global perspective to the conversation. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked her how the working document was shaped and for her take on the key themes that animate it. It is fascinating to hear what most surprised her as she took in such a enormous volume of testimony from every continent. We hope Anna’s reflections will be a useful introduction for you and that you’ll have the chance to read and pray with the working document, maybe even in spiritual conversation with people in your own local community. Read the working document: https://www.synod.va/en/news/instrumentum-laboris-a-document-of-the-whole-church.html Learn more about Professor Rowlands: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/anna-rowlands/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

This past April, French bishops voted to open the sainthood cause of 20th century Jesuit theologian Henri de Lubac. If you had a time machine and went back to the 1950s and told Fr. de Lubac this news, he probably wouldn’t believe you. In those years, the church was so nervous about de Lubac’s scholarship that he was prevented from teaching theology and his books were removed from Jesuit libraries. He experienced a rehabilitation within his own lifetime and was even named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1983. Host Mike Jordan Laskey has heard de Lubac’s name many times over the years, both for this theological controversy and even more importantly for the immense impact his work had on the Second Vatican Council and today’s church. But he knew pretty much nothing about him, so he invited the Rev. Dr. Jordan Hillebert on the show today to get him up to speed. Jordan Hillebert is an Anglican priest, a theologian and tutor at St Padarn’s Institute in Cardiff, Wales. He was born and raised in the United States and moved to Scotland in 2011 to pursue a PhD in theology at the University of St Andrews. His research interests include systematic theology, modern Christian thought and the theology of Henri de Lubac, whose work he has edited and authored several books on. His most recent book is called “Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence.” Mike asked Jordan to get all of us nonexperts acquainted with de Lubac’s life and work, and he did an amazing job. Jordan is clearly so intimately familiar with this great Jesuit. Jordan also shared a bit about his own vocation story and what his experience has been like as an Anglican studying a modern Roman Catholic theologian. Jordan’s book: https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268108571/henri-de-lubac-and-the-drama-of-human-existence/ Follow Jordan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JordanHillebert www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

There are so many theories about why young adults are leaving the Catholic Church today. Maybe our parishes aren’t welcoming enough, or maybe they’re watering down the faith. Maybe young people are being asked to do too much to be part of the community. Or maybe they’re not being asked to do enough. Maybe they’re angry at the church’s positions on social issues. Or maybe they just drift away because they don’t find anything relevant at church. It can be challenging to offer grand, sweeping theories about young adults and the church because we’re talking about millions of people. Young adults aren’t monolithic. But there is some good quantitative and qualitative data we can work with, and today’s guest is uniquely equipped to offer some compelling arguments. Ellen Koneck is the executive director of Commonweal Magazine, the venerable Catholic journal of opinion that celebrates its 100th birthday next year. She’s an incredibly insightful writer with experience in pastoral ministry, making her an astute observer of the reasons her fellow young adults slip out the church door. She also took over her role at Commonweal after working as head writer at the Springtide Research Institute, which does some of the best statistical work on young people and the church you can find anywhere. Ellen combined her wealth of experiences and observations into a talk she gave this past April for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative in Chicago. Ellen and host Mike Jordan Laskey recently had a wide-ranging conversation on why church membership is a bad metric for measuring youth involvement in faith, why the problem of polarization might not be as crucial to address as alienation, and how Commonweal is trying to reach a new generation of readers. Watch Ellen’s talk here (starts at 30:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6E54YDSdEY&t=4s Commonweal: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ Springtide Research Institute: https://www.springtideresearch.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

If you were going to make a list of the most inspiring things the Catholic Church is doing in the world, the work of Caritas Internationalis would be right there near the top. Caritas is a global confederation of Catholic charities working to alleviate poverty, promote social justice and advocate for the rights of the marginalized. With members organizations spread across about 200 countries and territories, Caritas is one of the biggest humanitarian networks in the world. Here in the US, the Caritas-affiliated organizations you’ve probably heard of are Catholic Charities, which serves people domestically, and Catholic Relief Services, which works overseas. In Canada, the Caritas organization is called Development and Peace. Today’s guest is the brand-new secretary general of Caritas, Alistair Dutton. He was just sworn in last week and elected a few weeks before that. Alistair had been serving as the director of Caritas’ agency in Scotland, which is called SCIAF. He will take over leadership of Caritas at a pivotal time. Last year, Pope Francis removed Caritas’ top leaders due at least in part to low staff morale. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asked Alistair what he hopes to do in his first weeks and months as secretary general to help promote healing within the organization. Alistair also discussed the work of SCIAF and some of the most inspiring humanitarian projects he has seen around the world, plus why Catholics ought to care about challenges those on the margins are facing both at home and abroad. Finally, as Alistair was a Jesuit himself for five years, he talked about how his formation in Ignatian spirituality influenced his life path and inspires him today. Learn more about Alistair and his election: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2023-05/alistair-dutton-elected-new-secretary-general-caritas.html Caritas Internationalis: https://www.caritas.org/ SCIAF: https://www.sciaf.org.uk/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

There’s always the temptation for religious orders to lionize their founder. To point to a single person and say, “There! That’s the way to live the Christian life! Just do what they did.” Despite the number of parishes and programs and centers named for Ignatius of Loyola, the man himself was pretty resolute on the need to have your own experience of God. His experience was exactly that: his experience. The unique way God was at work in his life. Ignatian spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises are gifts to us so that we can come to encounter God in our own way. So, we can look to Ignatius himself for inspiration. But as we should expect, the Ignatian tradition – and the Society of Jesus – has a vast array of diverse and fascinating figures. Saints and blessed, examples we can look to from the very first days of the Society to the present. Look to Ignatius, yes, but look also to the countless other sources of inspiration for living the Christian life. To help us do exactly this, the Institute for Advanced Jesuits Studies at Boston College has published a new, wonderful book: “Jesuit Saints and Blesseds: Spiritual Profiles.” The book traces the history of the Society through the lens of its holy people and is a companion for us as we explore our own paths to holiness. Back again on the podcast to talk about the book and Jesuit saints is Fr. Casey Beaumier, a Jesuit and the director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuits Studies. The conversation spans such important topics from which Jesuit saints are most inspirational in sustaining one’s vocation to which Jesuit saints most deserve an academic building named after them. (Hint: The answer is Joseph Pignatelli, and if you want to read up on him, there’s a link below where we’ve also included a link to the book and the Institute.) Learn about Joseph Pignatelli, SJ: https://www.jesuits.org/stories/what-joseph-pignatelli-sj-teaches-us-about-living-in-isolation/ Buy the book: https://jesuitsources.bc.edu/jesuit-saints-and-blesseds-spiritual-profiles/ About the Institute: https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/iajs.html

Often in the story of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we zero in on the “cannonball moment.” It’s the instant in Ignatius’ story when everything changes—even if the would-be saint hasn’t yet fully realized it. But even more important than that war wound is the eleven months that follow, that long, tedious period of recovery and reflection and reading. It’s then that Ignatius encounters a book on Jesus Christ, and through that book, the God of Jesus Christ, the God who had been loving him all along—and speaking to him through his desires and experiences. That’s the moment in the Ignatian tradition that best frames today’s conversation. Our guest is Jesuit Fr. Joe Tetlow, currently the director of Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Dallas, TX and the author of the new book, “Considering Jesus: The Human Experience of the Redeemer.” The title speaks for itself. Fr. Tetlow’s book is an opportunity to pray with Jesus’ own experiences, to see how those experiences speak to and inspire us. You’ll hear, too, how Fr. Tetlow’s own experiences shape his writing and retreat work—and can guide us in our own daily lives. You can get your own copy of Fr. Tetlow’s new book—or one of his many others—by checking out the links below. https://store.loyolapress.com/considering-jesus https://store.loyolapress.com/you-have-called-me-by-my-name https://store.loyolapress.com/always-discerning

“Lodge 49,” a comedy-drama TV series that ran on the channel AMC for two seasons, is about an ex-surfer named Dud (Wyatt Russell) who’s drifting through life after the loss of his father and the closing of his family’s pool supply store. He stumbles into a rundown old fraternal lodge belonging to a group called the Order of the Lynx. (Think of the freemasons or the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.) At the Lodge, he meets a luminous knight of the order named Ernie (Brent Jennings) who’s also a plumbing salesman. Ernie welcomes the much younger Dud with open arms. And so begins host Mike Jordan Laskey’s favorite onscreen friendship in television history, these two guys of wildly different backgrounds and personalities hanging out and having some truly wild adventures together. Because running alongside this story of friendship and community in the face of economic downturn and social erosion is the mysterious legend of the Order of the Lynx itself, which is centered on some sort of alchemical philosophy that may or may not be true. Mix all of its ingredients together and “Lodge 49” is one of the strangest, most beautiful works of art you can find on television or anywhere else. The wildly original creative mind behind “Lodge 49” is Jim Gavin, today’s guest. A writer, Gavin published an acclaimed collection of short stories called “Middle Men” in 2013 before making the transition to TV. Gavin grew up in an observant Catholic family and went to Catholic school all the way through his college years at the Jesuit Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Both the show and the book are shot through with Gavin’s Catholic imagination, calling to mind work by other Catholic and lapsed-Catholic authors like Walker Percy, Don DeLillo, and George Saunders as we meet wounded characters searching for meaning and mercy. Mike asked Jim about his Catholic background and its influence on his work. They also talked about the current writers’ strike in Hollywood, which Jim is participating in. Watch “Lodge 49” on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/lodge-49-5061e151-c887-4e29-9e13-c1b48e392123 Read “Middle Men”: https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Men-Stories-Jim-Gavin/dp/1451649347 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

As you probably know, the global Catholic Church is in the middle of a three-year synod process on the topic of synodality. The synod has featured thousands of listening sessions with the faithful all over the world, the biggest consultation process in the history of the church. Maybe you’ve been involved in one or more of these meetings yourself. One of the key themes that has emerged again and again in the reports on these meetings is women’s leadership in the church. Here’s how the document synthesizing the synod process in the United States puts it: “…there was recognition for the centrality of women’s unparalleled contributions to the life of the Church, particularly in local communities. There was a desire for stronger leadership, discernment, and decision-making roles for women – both lay and religious – in their parishes and communities. ‘People mentioned a variety of ways in which women could exercise leadership, including preaching and ordination as deacon or priest. Ordination for women emerged not primarily as a solution to the problem of the priest shortage, but as a matter of justice.’” And if you’re going to reflect on women’s leadership in the church, you just have to talk to Dr. Phyllis Zagano. Dr. Zagano is a scholar based at Hofstra University in New York and is one of the world’s leading authorities on the past and present of women’s leadership in the Catholic church. Host Mike Jordan Laskey invited her on the show to talk about her new book, titled “Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women,” which was just published by Paulist Press. They discussed the history of women serving as deacons in the Catholic Church, plus some ways the church might better empower women today. Learn more about Dr. Zagano: https://sites.hofstra.edu/phyllis-zagano/ Her new book: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Church-Catholic-Teaching-Synodality/dp/0809156539 AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

Most of us probably don’t stop to reflect on our use of technology and how the devices and apps we use affect our lives and society as a whole. What is it doing to our brains and our souls that we reach for our smartphones mindlessly hundreds of times a day? What do we say on social media that I wouldn’t say in real life, and how does our behavior online make the world better – or, more likely, worse? Today’s guest, L.M. Sacasas, is an incredible thinker and writer who has devoted his career to asking big questions of our technology and what it’s doing to our communal life and individual lives. Sacasas has a great Substack newsletter called “The Convivial Society” that is host Mike Jordan Laskey’s favorite thing to read these days. Sacasas has this amazing ability to read and absorb scholars from the past like Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Hannah Arendt and the Jesuit literary theorist Walter Ong and apply their arguments to our very different media environment today. In this conversation, Sacasas shares his thoughts on AI chat-bots like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s new Bing and Google Bard. He and Mike also talk about social media and smartphones and artificial light and time and what countercultural roles faith communities might play in offering venues for incarnational, authentic community. Subscribe to “The Convivial Society”: https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/ Read L.M. Sacasas on Fr. Walter Ong, SJ: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-inescapable-town-square Listen to L.M. Sacasas’ interview on the Ezra Klein Show: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-lm-sacasas.html AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus

In 2021, two Jesuits who had just been ordained priests were missioned to serve migrant communities on the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas. Soon after they arrived, Father Brian Strassburger and Father Louie Hotop agreed that there were so many incredible people and stories they were encountering that they just had to share them with the world through a podcast. They asked our communications team at the Jesuit Conference for help producing it, and the result has been one of the most inspiring podcast series you’ll ever hear. It's called the Jesuit Border Podcast and we are thrilled to be featuring one of their recent episodes here on our AMDG feed. In this episode, Fr. Louie and Fr. Brian shift from interviewers to interviewees. Asking the questions this time around is the great Jesuit author Fr. Jim Martin, who leads Louie and Brian through an Ignatian examen of their ministry in Brownsville over the past two years. It’s a fabulous interview with so much vulnerability and insight. Be sure to subscribe to the Jesuit Border Podcast wherever you listen. Jesuit Border Podcast, plus study guides: https://thejesuitpost.org/2021/11/the-jesuit-border-podcast/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus