In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Evangelical convert to Catholicism Brandon Forschino to talk about his journey into the Catholic faith.Brandon was a zealous evangelist for Christ who went to Evangelical seminary to deepen his understanding of the faith, evangelism, and apologetics and after encountering crippling divisions in the faith he began to investigate other Christian denominations – and discovered Catholicism!It was in his unpacking of the things he thought he knew about Catholics that he realized he was mistaken on so many things and, instead, began to be compelled to look deeper in the Catholic faith. The rest is history! Please find and follow Brandon on his fantastic YouTube channel for more content.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!Theme Music: "Splendor (Intro)" by Former Ruins. Learn more at formerruins.com or listen on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by the wonderful Sam Nunnally. Sam spent two decades as a charismatic, evangelical pastor before leaving to pursue the truth of Catholicism – a journey which took him many more years to confront, understand, and finally embrace... and it's all on his story, this week on the show!Sam's story is a phenomenal one – clocking in at one of the longest – including a serious examination of Sola Scriptura in an approach and context which we've never heard before on the show, a deep study of charismatic gifts in the Early Church, and some seriously heart-wrenching moments of confronting and accepting the truth claims of Catholicism. This is a fantastic story of someone absolutely in pursuit of Christ, coming up Catholic! For more from Sam check out his Instagram account (one of my favourites).Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by the extraordinary Justine Callis from The Theology of Conversion. She shares her journey from a staffer at a non-denominational, Evangelical Mega Church to a Catholic convert – and what drew her in. Her story – of learning about the Eucharist, the magisterium, the Early Church and more – is the story of so many converts but the incredible MIRACLES that accompanied her along the way make for some AMAZING stories. Including one about Dr. Scott Hahn and the beginning of their amazing friendship!For more from Justine check out Theology of Conversion on Instagram:Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this not-to-be-missed episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Catholic Answers contributor, speaker, and apologist Joel S. Peters to talk about arguments for Sola Scriptura – "Bible alone" Christianity – and reasons why he thinks non-Catholic Christians should reconsider this theological position. For me, as host of this show, this topic gets to the core of what drove me to a deeper investigation of Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy: the question of the interpretation of Scripture and, especially, questions of how Scripture was historically used to underpin Christianity. In this conversation, Joel and I begin there, in the Early Church, and talk about what framework the first Christians used for understanding their faith – was it Sola Scriptura? We dig in to a lot else, besides, and there's lots of love about this conversation. If you know someone who would benefit from thinking deeply about their position on the infallible rule(s) of faith in Christianity, this episode if for them! Joel brings light – and not heat – to a sometimes contentious topic that is at the heart of Christianity. For more from Joel Peters check out his book Sola Scriptura Doesn't Work from Catholic Answers Press.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this not-to-be-missed episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Russ Breault, a long-time researcher, writer, speaker, and evangelist who has made it his life's mission to share the incredible miracle that is the Shroud of Turin with audiences across the globe. Russ brings an absolute wealth of knowledge about this intriguing biblical artefact to explain why it is absolutely a miracle – a tool for evangelization – for the 21st century. Russ talks about the scientific data, the attempts to discredit the Shroud of Turin (all of which have failed!), and why we should believe it is what faithful Catholics have believed that it is since the very beginning. Also, we dig into biblical clues, what the most recent and ground-breaking science has found about the Shroud, and how to use it to share the reality of Jesus and His Church with skeptics. For more from Russ visit his website.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by the incredible Brayden Cook, the host of The Catechumen YouTube channel, to talk about his conversion to Catholicism as an intern Baptist minister. Brayden's story – which is my own story in so many aspects – begins by encountering the Early Church Fathers and realizing that they didn't look like his local Baptist and non-denominational churches. This realization spurred Brayden to look deeper in Catholicism and to begin to unwind some of the misconceptions that he held about Catholics, dig deeper into the Early Church, and eventually decide to become a Catholic himself. Brayden shares his amazing insights this week on the show. For more from Brayden check out The Catechumen YouTube channel for all of his amazing content.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by Paul Zucarelli. A Catholic author, speaker, and evangelist to talk about the Church. Did Jesus found the Catholic Church – or many, different churches? What was Christ's plan from the beginning, and how do we know? What evidence do we have from Scripture? The Early Church? And from history... With charity and clarity Paul walks us through these questions to answer what he argues is one of the most fundamental questions of Christianity: Did Jesus found a single church? For more from Paul visit his website.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by my new best friend Nic Davidson to talk about how he, and his whole family, converted to Catholicism. Nic's got an amazing story to tell. As a missionary following the call of Christ Nic has some amazing adventures to recount, how God was with him and his family every step of the way, and how listening and following that call he had become to accustomed to led him to pursue Christ right into the Catholic Church. Nic discusses the importance of meeting good Catholics including an incredible priest named Father Mike Schmitz – you may have heard of him! How reading from the Early Church Fathers made him realize that the roots of Christianity were Catholic. And how the beautiful Theology of the Body teaching was exactly what he needed – and made sense of human sexuality and marriage, and was found no where else in the Christian world! What an amazing guy! To generously help Nic and his family do the work of God please visit FreelyGiven and check out Nic's YouTube channel for his great videos, including a look into their missionary lives.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by the renown expert on the Bible, apologist Gary Michuta. With bucketloads of insight, wisdom, and decades of research and experience Gary explains exactly how the Bible came out of the Catholic Church and why understanding the origins of the Bible is so important when talking to our non-Catholic Christian friends – who love their Bibles!Gary explains the process used to discern which books of the Bible belonged in the Canon, how this began in the very early Church councils, and why the Bibles supported by the Reformers actually removed books that had originally been in the Bible, accepted by all Christians, all along. It's a fascinating and informative look at any extremely important area of apologetics – something at the very core of Protestant Christianity. For more from Gary visit his website where you can buy his fantastic books on this topic. Also check out his fantastic YouTube channel.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic, I'm joined by the indefectible Dr. Larry Chapp to talk about the heart of what draws Catholic converts into the Catholic Church – the truth, beauty, and goodness – and what sucks when those things don't seem to exist in the way they ought to in day-to-day, on-the-ground Catholicism. With Dr. Chapp's trademark clear-eyed perspective, we talk about divisions in the Church, what happens when the truth of Catholicism is tested against fringe ideas on the left and the right, and what to make of those in places of authority who seem to speak out of both sides of their mouths. We tackle the beauty of the liturgy, the problematic nature of some Latin Mass communities, and the trouble with suppressing something beautiful without encouraging anything to grow in its place. And, finally, we talk about the goodness of Catholicism – and what happens when it fails to live up to its own standard. With respect, poignancy, and a good helping of Dr. Chapp's no-holds-barred straight shooting, we have an absolutely fantastic conversation about those things that are drawing in Catholic converts, what sucks when they fail to live up to expectations, and why y'all should be Catholic anyhow. For more from Dr. Chapp check out his YouTube channel and website.Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. Sign up for our newsletter for my reflections on  episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive contests.To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.Please consider financially supporting this show! For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!This show is brought to you in a special way by our Patreon Co-Producers. Thank you to Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William. Beyond The BeaconJoin Bishop Kevin Sweeney for inspired interviews with Christians living out their faith!Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showFind and follow The Cordial Catholic on social media:Instagram: @cordialcatholicTwitter: @cordialcatholicYouTube: /thecordialcatholicFacebook: The Cordial CatholicTikTok: @cordialcatholic