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Respect Life Radio, hosted by Deacon Geoff Bennett of Catholic Charities in Denver.
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5 days ago
Rachel Hoover: Why young Catholics are not marrying — and how to help
"What I've seen among the circles that I run in — and the survey, as well — is that a lot of young Catholics are looking to date and marry someone who is within the same camp or division inside the Church, as they are," said Rachel Hoover in this Respect Life Radio interview. "So, they're not just looking for fellow Catholics, they're looking for the right type of Catholic, so to speak, the type of Catholic that they are. Obviously, this is very limiting. There are already a relatively small number of faithful Catholics in the world; if you're shrinking your dating pool even further from that — to just the subset of Catholicism that you want to be in — and then thinking about things like the right age; do they find me attractive, at all; do they live in the same area or are they on the same dating website? You go through all those filters, so to speak, and you'll end up with almost no one left.”
Hoover, a writer based in Nashville, wrote a two-part article for The Catholic World Report: “Why aren’t young Catholics marrying?” and “How to help Catholics get married.”
The first article references Hoover's "anonymous survey of 300 self-identified practicing Catholics ages 18-39, asking them about obstacles they faced to marriage" and cites four primary reasons: dysfunctional discernment; Catholic "camps" within the Church; parent and mentor influence; and the difficulty in knowing how to go on dates. The second article takes on each of those challenges and proposes solutions.
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Mar 13, 2023
Fr. Jeffrey Kirby: An easier way to read the Bible
“The Bible is intimidating and overwhelming until we know it,” said Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD, author of “Understanding the Bible: A Catholic Guide to Applying God's Word to Your Life Today” (Our Sunday Visitor). “The Bible is actually a library...of 73 books. Once we learn just a few basic things, suddenly it becomes very approachable, very comfortable. And then we start reading it, we realize this is actually really helping me. God's speaking to me. I know of His presence, I feel more loved, I feel more strengthened. I can do now what He's calling me to do. Once we take those first initial steps, we might ourselves be surprised at suddenly how easy the Bible is to read. And surprised, perhaps, by how much it really helps us in our lives today.”
Learn more about Fr. Kirby at his website, frkirby.com, and follow him @FatherKirby on Twitter. Listen to a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him, “How the Brown Scapular can deepen your life in Jesus Christ.”
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Mar 6, 2023
Fr. Timothy Vaverek: Realizing that Jesus Christ came to set us free
“Jesus is calling us in this life, not just in the life to come, to throw off the disorder and the resulting evil — whether it's through our ignorance or through our deliberate sin — to throw that all off and come to stand upright. Don't go around crouched and bent over and twisted — and then: oh, we're going to accommodate you so you can walk around in that kind of distorted way.
"No. We have to stand up, walk on our two feet. And that transition from being twisted around — it's like physical therapy. It's painful for us. But it sets us free,” said Fr. Timothy V. Vaverek, STD, a parish priest in the archdiocese of Austin, Tex.
Vaverek is the author of “As I Have Loved You: Rediscovering Our Salvation in Christ” (Emmaus Road Publishing) and whose recent articles for The Catholic Thing include "Accompanying Those Innocently in Error” and “Of Sin and 'Mitigated Culpability.'”
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Feb 27, 2023
Eric Sammons: Understanding the titles given to Jesus Christ
Many of the titles given to Jesus “have Old Testament connotations. He's called Elijah, Jeremiah, King of Israel, Son of Abraham, Son of David. All these things have connections to the Old Testament. That's something we learn about in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Matthew is writing primarily to Jewish converts, people who have become Christian in the first century; they were Jews. Or, people that were thinking about Christianity from the Jewish background. So he really wanted to tie in that Jesus is that promised Messiah you read about in the Old Testament; here He is," said Eric Sammons, author of books, including “Who Do You Say I Am? Unlocking the 24 Titles Given to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew” (Sophia Institute Press).
Sammons is executive director of Crisis Publications and the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. Follow him @EricRSammons on Twitter. Listen to a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him: Pope Francis and the Latin Mass conflict.
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Feb 20, 2023
Fr. John Bartunek: To deepen your prayer, get ready, set, go
A simple structure for prayer is "ready, set, go. 'Ready' is you just create a sacred time and a sacred space. I'm going to meet with God. I'm going to have my time alone with the Lord every morning, in this particular place. I'm going to light a candle...You begin that time, you turn off your phone, you recollect yourself...So that's getting 'ready,'" said Fr. John Bartunek, LC, author of books, including "40 Days to Peace and Union with God: A Journey in Prayer Through the Daily Gospels" (Sophia Institute Press).
"Then 'set' is the first things that you say to God. We recommend just thank God for something specific. Ask him for something that you need or someone you love needs. And then open yourself to receive whatever grace He wants to give you. So that's 'ready, set' and then you're ready for the 'go.' And the 'go' is the real substance of this time of prayer. And we've got five different steps that you can use during that."
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Feb 13, 2023
Dr. Kevin Vost: Journey through Lent with the help of St. Thomas Aquinas
"There's a meditation for every single day of Lent, typically about two pages long...focusing primarily on Scripture and on teachings of the Church Fathers. And yet, there's enough in each of those two pages — that meditation — that if you started that early in the morning, it will give you plenty to chew on, to ruminate, to ponder again throughout the day, in ways that will draw you closer to Christ every day as Lent progresses," said Dr. Kevin Vost, Psy.D., a professor and author whose recent book is "Aquinas's Lenten Meditations: 40 Days with the Angelic Doctor" (Sophia Institute Press).
Learn more at his website, drvost.com and hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Dr. Vost: Taking care of your body for health and holiness.
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Feb 6, 2023
Joy Stockbauer: Every preborn child, even conceived in a crime, has a right to life
"When a woman suffers sexual assault or rape — and especially, becomes pregnant in those situations — a woman is looking for justice. The abortion industry can so easily tell women to believe that justice in their circumstances would be having an abortion, and in fact, that having an abortion is the only just option," said Joy Stockbauer, policy analyst at the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.
"When in reality, it's super important to speak the truth to women in this circumstance — and to anyone who cares about women in this circumstance — that the unborn child conceived by rape or incest had nothing to do with the circumstances of their conception. That child is in no way to blame for the acts of their father. To believe that an abortion is the right option in this circumstance is to say that that child deserves to die for something that they didn't do — for something that someone else did. And so, it misplaces justice."
Stockbauer went on to say that "justice in cases of rape or incest is absolutely necessary. And pro-lifers need to be the first people to say that — to advocate for justice. But justice looks like punishing the wrongdoer, not punishing an innocent party."
Family Research Council has a webpage, titled "Difficult Conversations about Abortion," that includes links to PDF background papers on Rape and Incest, on Prenatal Diagnosis and on Ectopic Pregnancy.
Follow Stockbauer @joystockbauer on Twitter and follow Family Research Council @FRCdc.
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Jan 30, 2023
Fr. Ed Broom: Seeking holiness through humility
"The saints are God's heroes but they're very humble because they recognize all the good that they can do is because God gives them the grace" that corresponds to it, said Fr. Ed Broom, OMV, an author who wrote a recent article at Catholic Exchange, "Humility: the Cornerstone of Holiness."
Later in the interview, Fr. Broom said, "A lot of people don't want to go to confession because they don't want to humbly admit that they have fallen. But the fact of the matter is, as the psalmist points out, even the just man falls seven times a day. If you do pursue frequent confession — I think we should all try to go to confession at least once a month — that's a safeguard against allowing these weeds of pride to grow up and to suffocate humility [and] other virtues."
Listen to previous Respect Life Radio interviews with Fr. Broom, including "Combating the lies of the devil" and "Fighting discouragement with Bible verses" and "How to resist the attacks of the devil."
Learn more at fatherbroom.com.
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Jan 23, 2023
Jack Rigert: Defending your kids and family amid a spiritual war
"There is no grand leader or political force that's going to ride in on the great white stallion to rescue humanity or to rescue your family. You have to be the hero. I don't care if you feel like it or not. God will give you the courage and the grace to be able to do that...," said Jack Rigert, co-founder of the John Paul II Renewal Center. "You have to be speaking about [cultural threats] in your house and your home. You have to be bringing your kids to Mass and the sacraments. You have to be praying the Rosary...and if you're not doing those kind of things, then you're just allowing these currents of evil to come in. And your family's going to pay the price."
Rigert, who also hosts the "Become Who You Are" podcast, recently wrote an article on Catholic Exchange, "Stolen Innocence: The Spiritual War on Children and the Family." Follow the John Paul II Renewal Center @JP2Renewal on Twitter.
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Jan 16, 2023
Ines Murzaku: How a singing sensation reveals a crisis in vocations
"Various religious orders in the Church are failing precisely because they have abandoned their constitutions, their charisms — and for what?" said Ines A. Murzaku, Ph.D., professor of religion and director of Catholic Studies Program at Seton Hall University.
Murzaka wrote a commentary, "Like a Virgin?" for The Catholic Thing. She described what happened to Cristina Scuccia after winning "The Voice of Italy" in 2014. An Ursiline nun, Scuccia later left the religious order and "is now a waitress in Spain," according to the article, citing media reports.
See more from Prof. Murzaka at her webpage.
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Jan 9, 2023
Debbie Cowden: Tired parents, here’s a prayer book just for you
"If you're feeling helpless in your vocation, if you're feeling like you're resenting parenthood or marriage, family life — we want you to be able to find hope; to be able to have some practical tools for getting yourself out of that rut and to be able to experience the joy of your vocation and the love of God — and experience God's peace in your home. We really hope that our book accomplishes that for fellow Catholic parents," said Debbie Cowden, co-author with her husband, David, of "The Prayer Book for Tired Parents: Practical Ways to Grow in Love of God and Get Your Family to Heaven" (Sophia Institute Press).
Debbie Cowden is senior digital media specialist at EWTN. The Cowdens live in Ohio with their three young children. Learn more about the book at TiredCatholicParents.com.
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Jan 3, 2023
James Papandrea: Reading the Bible through the Church Fathers
"We live in a world that is so focused on the self and individualism and each person making him- or herself their highest authority, that when you apply that sort of worldview and that sort of way of thinking to reading Scripture, then it very quickly becomes...all about me. And that's entirely the wrong way to read Scripture...Especially as our culture has been influenced by the Protestant Reformation and Protestant Christianity, I think that we have lost our way in terms of how we are supposed to read Scripture," said James L. Papandrea, Ph.D., a professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.
Papandrea is the author of books, including "Reading Scripture Like the Early Church: Seven Insights from the Church Fathers to Help You Understand the Bible" (Sophia Institute Press).
Learn more at his website and hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him: "Pondering the truths of the early Church? It’s Catholic.…
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Dec 26, 2022
Sister Maris Stella: The Eucharist as the source of our life — and of the gospel of life
"Today I would like to speak to you about how the Eucharist is the source of our life and it enables us to live the gospel of life," said Sr. Maris Stella, SV, of the Sisters of Life. "As the basis of my reflection, I'll use the Gospel of John and I'll speak about three things: the dignity of the human person, transforming the culture and abiding in Jesus' Eucharistic heart."
St. Maris Stella spoke as part of the Gospel of Life Presentation 2022, sponsored by Respect Life Denver and held Oct. 22 at St. Thomas More Catholic Parish in Centennial, Colorado.
This episode of Respect Life Radio presents extended excerpts of her remarks. Video of her full remarks is at https://vimeo.com/765124079 and video of the full Gospel of Life event is at https://vimeo.com/764216851.
Sister Maris Stella was the first guest on Respect Life Radio in July 2018. You can listen to that episode at this link.
For more on the Sisters of Life, go to sistersoflife.org. For more on Respect Life Denver, go to r…
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Dec 19, 2022
Joy Stockbauer: Rebuilding a culture of life by studying the fall of communism
"What's really so parallel between communism and the culture of death in the United States is this common quality of failing to respect humanity, failing to respect the dignity of the human person. So we see that within communism — and then, of course, we see that within the abortion culture that has been built in the United States since 1973," said Joy Stockbauer, policy analyst for the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.
"What Communism Can Teach Us About Rebuilding a Culture of Life" is the title of Stockbauer's recent commentary in The Washington Stand. Follow her @joystockbauer on Twitter.
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Dec 12, 2022
Phil Lawler: No need to apologize for hard truths
Everybody knows "the Catholic position on abortion...on contraception and divorce and homosexual acts...so when Catholic priests or bishops or any kind of spokesman for the Church seems to shy away from saying what everybody knows the Church believes, it makes it look as if we're ashamed of our beliefs or we're hypocritical about our beliefs. It makes the witness of the Church — well, just wimpy. No one is attracted to an institution whose representatives won't be forthright in defending what we know the institution believes and preaches," said Phil Lawler, editor of Catholic World News and book author.
Lawler's commentary, "Apologizing for hard truths," described a homily on sin given in Ireland by Fr. Sean Sheehy, resulting in an apology from Bishop Ray Browne, Bishop of Kerry.
Follow Lawler @PhilLawler on Twitter and listen to a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him, "Denying Communion to Speaker Pelosi a teaching moment for us all."
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Dec 5, 2022
Fr. Peter Stravinskas: How to really pursue a Eucharistic Revival
Jesus Christ is present "body, blood, soul and divinity" in the Eucharist, "so why the lack of belief in that truth? And I suggest that it's because of the way we regard and handle — and manhandle — the Eucharist, so that the signs and symbols of the liturgy are not reinforcing the doctrine," said Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., who wrote an article for The Catholic Thing, titled "What's Really Needed for a 'Eucharistic Revival.'"
In his article, Fr. Stravinskas cited a number of reasons for that lack of belief in the Real Presence, including the "Loss of Latin" and "Removal of the altar rails" and "Communion in the hand."
"In all of this talk about the Eucharistic Revival coming from the Bishops' Conference, none of these issues — not one of them — is addressed," said Fr. Stravinskas in the Respect Life Radio interview.
Fr. Stravinskas is a founder of the Priestly Society of Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman and president of the Catholic Education Foundation.
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Nov 28, 2022
Greg Baylor: How a proposed marriage law targets religious liberty
The Respect for Marriage Act "poses a pretty significant risk to religious Americans, both individuals and organizations. Like the Equality Act, it hopes to cement into federal law the idea that marriage is not the institution, defined by God, consisting of the union of one man and one woman. It goes, obviously, far beyond that...The first thing it does is to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act that was passed by huge bipartisan majorities and signed by Pres. Clinton in the 1990s. It also imposes an obligation on many — including, potentially, religious organizations — to recognize same-sex marriage. And that's the piece that creates a lot of the religious liberty problems. And then the last thing it does is to define marriage for federal government purpose," said Greg Baylor, director of Center for Religious Schools and Senior Counsel for Government Affairs at Alliance Defending Freedom.
Follow @GregBaylor on Twitter and listen to previous Respect Life Radio interviews with him:…
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Nov 18, 2022
Dr. Kevin Vost: Taking care of your body for health and holiness
Citing the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, "It is a call to properly care for our bodies," said Dr. Kevin Vost, Psy.D., a professor and author whose many books include, "You Are That Temple! A Catholic Guide to Health and Holiness" (Sophia Institute Press). "We're not talking about just the capacity that you can run miles or lift some huge weight, but just that we're properly maintaining our bodies, trying to minimize the chances of getting any diseases that are going to slow us down. So that we're hopefully going to feel good and have energy and be able to use our bodies to serve our families and to serve other people."
Learn more at his website, drvost.com.
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Nov 14, 2022
Maggie Green: Praying for your kids to return to the faith
"No one wants to be a member of this club. You just wake up and find out that you've got a card. But what I have found is there's a tremendous fellowship. I know of a couple of parishes where they've formed, quite literally, a St. Monica Club, and they started with reading the book and then they meet...to pray for their families and to have fellowship and to help each other bear the burden," said Maggie Green, the pen name of the author of "The Saint Monica Club: How to Hope, Wait, and Pray for Your Fallen-Away Loved Ones" (Sophia Institute Press).
"The number one thing you can do for whoever it is that you long to have united with Christ — is bring that person in your prayers, to the Blessed Mother," said Green later in the interview. "She knows exactly how you feel. She has heard that cry over and over again. Think of all the rosaries that have been said to her, on behalf of someone who loves someone else who does not know her son."
She recently published an article, "I Still Hav…
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Nov 7, 2022
David Closson: Biblical principles to engage an arrogant culture
"The idea of us trying to impose our sense of right and wrong — especially on something that's so clear [as pro-life] and to tell God we know better — my goodness that is the height of arrogance. But we do live in an arrogant culture that thinks we know better than God," said David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council. "In the dialogue and conversations around this particular issue, you see that coming out, unfortunately."
Download a booklet, "Biblical principles for pro-life engagement," from the FRC website. Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Closson, "Amid all the confusion, what is your worldview?" Follow him @DavidClosson on Twitter.
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Oct 31, 2022
Fr. Jeffrey Kirby: How the Brown Scapular can deepen your life in Jesus Christ
"The scapular literally sitting on our body reminds us that we are consecrated to Jesus Christ, through Our Lady; that we follow a different path; we carry His yoke, the scapular almost even looks like a symbolic yoke that we wear on our shoulders," said Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, S.C., and the author of books, including "A Journey to Mount Carmel: A Nine-Day Preparation for Investiture in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady" (Sophia Institute Press). "So every day, that scapular is a reminder that I'm going to talk about Jesus Christ. I'm going to follow His way and remain faithful to Him. I'm going to love Him and speak about Him and speak about moral truth and talk about prayer. I will not let myself be silenced."
Learn more about Fr. Kirby at his website, frkirby.com, and follow him @FatherKirby on Twitter.
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Oct 24, 2022
Charles Nemeth: Understanding the rules of true happiness
For Aristotle and Aquinas, happiness is "a state of contentment, an ability not to get into the highs or the lows but to be right in the mean of the highs and the lows — which means that you're balanced about these things, so your balance of your own intellect and your own will and you're capable of not getting distressed or too depressed or too happy about any particular thing," said Charles P. Nemeth, Ph.D., author of "Finding Happiness in a Complex World: Rules from Aristotle and Aquinas" (Sophia Institute Press). Nemeth is a professor and program director of criminal justice at Franciscan University and the director of its Center for Criminal Justice, Law and Ethics.
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Oct 17, 2022
Adam Blai: Avoiding the demonic by honoring God
"Most of these extraordinary cases come from violating the First Commandment and that means turning to a spirit other than God for comfort, information or power. So, if you're not playing around with other spirits than God, you're not usually going to end up in trouble. Now, if you start getting close to being in trouble, confession and the Mass — for the Catholic who has access to those sacraments — is going to resolve more than 90 percent of the situations," said Adam Blai, author of "The Exorcism Files: True Stories of Demonic Possession" (Sophia Institute Press).
Blai works in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and is an expert on "religious demonology and exorcism." Learn more at his website, "Religious Demonology."
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Oct 10, 2022
Kristen Van Uden: How atheism developed and took root
"This book really shows us that atheism and communism were not natural disasters that were just bound to happen, but rather they were ideological revolutions that were carefully calculated," said Kristen Van Uden, referring to "The Gods of Atheism," a 1971 book by Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., recently republished by Sophia Institute Press.
Van Uden is the author spokesperson at Sophia Institute Press and also "studies the persecution of Catholics under communist regimes," a subject on which she is writing a book. Van Uden is editor of, and a writer for, Catholic Exchange, including the recent article, "How to Make an Atheist," which revisits Fr. Miceli's book.
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Oct 3, 2022
Fr. Timothy Gallagher: How Rule Five from St. Ignatius can help save your spiritual life
Don't make any changes to your intended spiritual practice — such as going to confession, or attending daily Mass or making a planned retreat or reading Scripture — “when you're in the discouragement of spiritual desolation. That's [St. Ignatius of Loyola's Discernment of Spirits] classic Rule Five. I wish everybody in the Church knew that rule. I can't tell you how grateful in my own life I am for that rule; how many bad decisions I have not made because of Rule Five. People love it,” said Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., author of "When You Struggle in the Spiritual Life: An Ignatian Path to Freedom" (Sophia Institute Press) and other books. Follow him at FrTimothyGallagher.org.
Hear previous Respect Life Radio interviews with Fr. Gallagher: Understanding “Discernment of Spirits in Marriage” and “Overcoming spiritual discouragement in a time of pandemic."
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Sep 26, 2022
Joshua Nelson: How to offer up your fear
"We submit ourselves to fear and that's a kind of enslavement to passion. And that kind of enslavement to passions damages us. It leads us to sin. It leads us to not fight for the greater good — to sins of omission when we should have done the greater good," said Joshua Nelson, who wrote an article, "Offer Up Your Fear," on Catholic Exchange. "By keeping Christ in mind, and at the forefront, it helps us put our attachments in perspective. Because, in many times and many circumstances that I've experienced fear, it's because I'm overly attached to something else."
Follow Nelson's writing at his blog, Thoughts of a Christian Stoa.
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Sep 19, 2022
Fr. Robert Altier: For marriage and family under attack, here is God’s rescue plan
"The attack is on the family. The family is the foundation for everything, in our own individuals lives, as well as for the Church and society. So for the good of our children — for the good, of course, of the married people — for the Church and society, as well, it's absolutely a necessity right now to really put the focus on marriage. You look at the history of the Church — and God always raises up people to come to the aid of whatever area is under attack. What the devil tries to do in destroying something, God brings good out of evil and actually makes it better," said Fr. Robert J. Altier, author of "God's Plan For Your Marriage: An Exploration of Holy Matrimony from Genesis to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb" (Sophia Institute Press).
Hear homilies from Fr. Altier, based in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, at CatholicParents.org and learn about his series, "Beauty, Truth, Goodness: The Fundamentals of Catholicism."
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Sep 12, 2022
Jonathan Butcher: Let’s start over with Higher Ed
"Coming out of the pandemic, the widespread dissatisfaction with the way that colleges, as well as traditional district public schools, handled education is palpable. We see it in surveys, we see it in parents moving their kids from assigned schools and creating learning pods and choosing private schools and finding other options for them," said Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, Center for Education Policy, at The Heritage Foundation. He wrote a recent commentary, "Don't Reform Higher Education. Rebuild It."
Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him, "Critical Race Theory and the new intolerance" and follow him @JM_Butcher on Twitter.
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Sep 6, 2022
Michael Pakaluk: Embracing four deaths that can lead to eternal life
"There are two models of courage: one is absence of fear — and the other is being afraid, but being steadfast in holding your position, even though you are afraid. The Christian notion of...courage, which Our Lord presents, is different from both of those," said Michael Pakaluk, Ph.D., professor of ethics at The Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.
He wrote an article for The Catholic Thing, titled "The Four Deaths," in which he recommends reading "The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ," written by St. Alphonsus Ligouri. See more on Pakulak, including his published books, at this Amazon.com link.
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Aug 29, 2022
Katie Tubb: Pres. Biden’s climate policy undermines American energy needs
The intent of Pres. Biden's climate policy "is to get rid of coal, oil and natural gas in the long term. As I said earlier, 79 percent of our energy needs come from those three resources. And 90 percent of our transportation energy needs are met through petroleum. So, the president's climate agenda is in direct opposition to Americans' daily well-being. And yet he's out there making climate the issue, but apparently only one percent of Americans actually care about," said Katie Tubb, research fellow at the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment at The Heritage Foundation, who wrote a recent commentary, "What You Need to Know About Biden’s Climate 'Emergency.'"
Follow The Heritage Foundation @Heritage on Twitter.
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Aug 22, 2022
Meg Kilgannon: Combating threats against the innocence of children
“I hope that these colleges that are coming from a Christian worldview are teaching the goodness and the beauty and the truth of Western civilization. And the freedom that you experience when you conform your life to the will of God. These are the kind of people that we want coming out of Christian institutions and going into the public school system; to be a witness of that truth. And it's sorely needed. It's desperately needed. And we see that need when we see the videos on sites like Libs of TikTok, the kind of agenda that some of the teachers are leaving college with,” said Meg Kilgannon, a senior fellow for education studies at Family Research Council.
Kilgannon was recently quoted in an article, "'Center for Grooming Children': CDC Site Steers Minors to Facilitated LGBT Chat Forum," in The Washington Stand, a new FRC online "outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview."
Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Kilgannon, "Is God calling you to run for…
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Aug 16, 2022
Lauretta Brown: Catholics who proclaim their faith – then work against it
"In some ways it's sad to see people identifying as Catholics but then pushing these issues — not just as things they think are good — but they talk about the language of rights: a right to contraception, a right to same-sex marriage,” said Lauretta Brown, Washington-based staff writer for the National Catholic Register. “In the years that I've covered politics, though, unfortunately I've gotten quite used to seeing this: people being Catholic, talking about their faith, but turning around and disregarding some central Church teachings.”
See Brown's recent article, “Democrats’ Proposal to Codify Same-Sex Civil Marriage Poses Religious-Freedom Issues, Critics Say" and follow her @LaurettaBrown6 on Twitter.
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Aug 1, 2022
Derek Rotty: How America lost its foundation on natural law
“We are living in a new age of tyranny...of relativism, the dictatorship of secular modernity,” said Derek Rotty, who wrote a recent column for the National Catholic Register, titled, “Natural Law and Moral Virtues Bring Independence From Tyranny.” “What America has lost is its understanding, and its foundation, on the natural law.”
Rotty, the director of evangelization and discipleship at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson, Tenn., is the author of the 2019 book, “A Life of Conversion: Meeting Christ in the Gospels” (Our Sunday Visitor).
Follow him @derekrotty on Twitter.
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Jul 28, 2022
Simone Rizkallah: Endow equips women to live out their mission
“We call women together to study important documents of the Catholic Church,” said Simone Rizkallah, director of program growth for Endow. “We help women organize themselves into small group communities, whether that's in their homes or in their parishes. We create study guides to help them study the rich and important documents of the Church.”
Endow, founded in 2003, stands for Educating on the Natural and Dignity of Women. It has “grown into an international apostolate in over 130 dioceses, reaching over 40,000 women all over the world,” according to its website, endowgroups.org.
“I'm getting a lot of moms and women who are seeing what's happening to our young girls and they're desperate: Can you please help us get this started?” said Rizkallah. “It's much more a sense of mission and urgency for what's going on in this culture.”
Follow Endow @endowgroup on Instagram.
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Jul 25, 2022
Charlie McKinney: How Catholics can find the wisdom for these times
“The most important thing for any Catholic — right now and frankly, at any time in history — is to focus on your spiritual life. That is what's going to give us the wisdom to deal with the culture and all the problems that beset us. It's going to give us the understanding, the knowledge, the counsel and the piety that we need today,” said Charlie McKinney, president of Sophia Institute Press for the past decade. “We really focus on producing books and producing content that helps people to deepen their spiritual life.”
McKinney told his story in 2014 on "The Journey Home" of converting to the Catholic faith from being a Southern Baptist.
Sophia Institute Press, based in Nashua, N.H., publishes books and Crisis Magazine, as well as the Catholic Exchange website and other initiatives. Follow @SophiaPress on Twitter.
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Jul 18, 2022
GianCarlo Canaparo: Dobbs decision a victory for U.S. democracy
In the recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the abortion issue to the people in each state, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively said, “'We've got to play fair. We need to obey the terms of the Constitution and nobody gets an unfair judicial advantage in these policy fights,'” said GianCarlo Canaparo, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “Dobbs is the most pro-democracy decision the Supreme Court has handed down in several generations.”
Follow @heritage on Twitter.
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Jul 11, 2022
Dr. Ray Guarendi: How to master anger and frustration
"I realize that 90 percent of what I did that I regret would come from an emotional surge... Emotion doesn't last very long unless you feed it. If I can shut my mouth for...15 seconds and not say what I most had the urge to say, 15 seconds later the emotional surge will be probably cut in half. And then I will be able to control it," said Dr. Ray Guarendi.
Guarendi is "a Catholic father of ten adopted children, a clinical psychologist, author, professional speaker, and national radio and television host," according to his website, DrRay.com. He is the author of books, including the recently published, "Living Calm: Mastering Anger and Frustration" (EWTN Publishing).
Follow him on Facebook and listen to previous appearances on Respect Life Radio: "On what it takes to be married and raise 'upright kids'" and "Listening to Jesus, the master psychologist."
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Jul 5, 2022
Anthony DeStefano: Creating simple, but deep, books for kids and adults
"I always try to write as simply as possible, whether I'm writing for adults or children. My whole goal of my writing career is to simplify complicated spiritual, theological concepts — without watering down or compromising the faith. It's really easy to simplify things if you want to water them down. The trick is to keep them orthodox and traditional, but at the same time make them easier to understand," said Anthony DeStefano, author of "How the Angels Got Their Wings" (Sophia Institute Press).
DeStefano, based in New Jersey, "is the bestselling author of over twenty-five Christian books for adults and children," according to his website, anthonydestefano.com.
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Jun 28, 2022
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: The springtime that never came
Since the days of Saint Pope John XXIII, we were told “that we have entered — with Vatican II — a new time of the Church, a kind of new Pentecost and springtime. But everyone could state that it was really not a springtime. And now we are seeing that the churches are evermore empty and parishes are closed...convents are closed evermore and then the other aspects of the life within the Church, especially the great crisis of the clergy...the sexual abuses cases...and so on. In this sense, we cannot continue to speak about the springtime of the church,” said Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, and author of "The Springtime that Never Came: In conversation with Paweł Lisicki" (Sophia Institute Press).
Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Bishop Schneider: Restoring Catholic liturgy among the ruins. Follow him at his website, Gloria Dei, and @BishopAthanas1 on Twitter.
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Jun 20, 2022
Jim Papandrea: Pondering the truths of the early Church? It’s Catholic
"Whenever people ask me, 'Give me the short answer of why you reverted to the Catholic Church?' I tell them I discovered two things. Number one, I discovered sola Scriptura [Scripture alone] is false. The other one I discovered: apostolic succession is true. Apostolic succession is that process of the handing down of the truths of the Church through the Church Fathers. When you read the Church Fathers, you finally realize — wait a second — the early Church is Catholic," said Jim Papandrea, Ph.D., a professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and the author of books, including "Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine" (Sophia Institute Press).
Papandrea, a former Methodist, told his reversion story in 2013 on "The Journey Home" on EWTN. Find out more at jimpapandrea.com.
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Jun 13, 2022
Daniel Turner: The pro-life case for a fossil-fuel energy economy
“Part of respecting life, and having a pro-life sentiment, is creating a pro-life environment. That requires attention to family needs and personal needs and housing needs, etc. And all of that is undergirded by energy. America is what it is right now...because we have 150 years of reliable and inexpensive energy. And that has enabled us to move the vast majority of people into the middle class, to start jobs that open factories and businesses. And that brings with it dignity and purpose and opportunity. And quite frankly, the chance to glorify God, because you have value in your life," said Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power The Future, described on its website as a "501C4 with the mission of offering truth, facts, and research that will enrich the national conversation on energy."
Follow him @DanielTurnerPTF on Twitter.
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Jun 6, 2022
Phil Lawler: Denying Communion to Speaker Pelosi a teaching moment for us all
In denying Holy Communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi until she publicly repudiates her advocacy of abortion, confesses and receives absolution, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is "protecting the integrity of the sacraments but...also trying to protect the person — in this case — from herself. Because if you are receiving the Eucharist unworthily, you're just heaping condemnation on yourself," said Phil Lawler, an author of books and editor of Catholic World News. He recently wrote an article, "Pelosi and the archbishop(s): what comes next?"
Follow him @PhilLawler on Twitter.
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May 31, 2022
Laraine Bennett: Playing the game of Temperaments
"Let's just play a fun game and have people learn about themselves, and others, through that," said Laraine Bennett, a writer, author and the creator of "Know Thyself! The Game of Temperaments" (Sophia Institute Press), a game for those ages 12 and up, played with 480 temperament cards. Among her books, including those co-written with husband Art, are "The Temperament God Gave You" and "The Temperament God Gave Your Spouse."
Follow her @larainebennett on Twitter.
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May 23, 2022
Mary Szoch: Flip the script to proclaim pro-life protections in the law and culture
“We should be referring to the laws that are passing here as 'pro-life protections' — not abortion bans. What we're doing with these laws is protecting unborn children's lives. The goal here isn't to ban things; the goal is to protect. So we need to flip that language and not allow the pro-abortion movement to control this narrative, this idea that we're somehow taking away someone's rights. We're not taking away rights; we're saving lives. And saving women and men from heartbreak," said Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.
Follow them @FRCdc on Twitter and hear previous Respect Life Radio interviews with Szoch, including “The first 100 days of the Biden Administration gets a failing grade” and “How Planned Parenthood leads the culture of death.”
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May 16, 2022
Kelsey Bolar: What feminism got wrong — and how to make it right
"For so long, the feminist movement has pitted men and women against each other, instead of allowing men and women to naturally complement each other — and encouraging them to work together to solve challenges [facing] families, individuals and societies," said Kelsey Bolar, a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Forum and contributor to The Daily Signal and The Federalist. "Women and girls, in particular, have been a focus of the feminist movement for the past few decades and so we've got this girl-boss, rah-rah women culture. And, in the midst of that, men and boys were really forgotten."
Follow her @kelseybolar on Twitter.
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May 9, 2022
Joseph Backholm: The U.S. government’s ministry of truth wants to control you
“These are people who want to control you. They are going to use information to try to do that. They are going to try to use the authority of the official stamp of government to try to convince a number of people that: that is true because we say it's true; that it's false because we say it's false," said Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council. "And the sad reality is — and what '1984' [George Orwell's dystopian novel that has a Ministry of Truth], a big lesson of that is — there are a lot of people who will agree with that.”
Backholm spoke regarding the recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of the Disinformation Governance Board.
Follow him @josephbackholm on Twitter.
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May 2, 2022
Sarah Parshall Perry: Gender identity sows confusion and subverts women
"The notion of gender identity is internal, it is subjective, it is malleable. And it's the first time in all civil rights law in the history of America where we're being asked to acquiesce to someone's belief about themselves, treating it as though it is immutable fact," said Sarah Parshall Perry, an attorney and senior legal fellow at the Meese Center of The Heritage Foundation. Perry cowrote a recent commentary, "Lia Thomas Was Just the Beginning. Biden Administration Wants to Eliminate Women’s Sports."
Follow Perry @SarahPPerry on Twitter.
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Apr 25, 2022
Leila Miller: Catholics, rise up to protect the innocence of children
"Not enough people are standing up. Catholics, especially, have a role in society and the world to be salt and light, to be different. So when the world is becoming corrupt all around us, and when it's taking our children — when it's trying to steal our children for the devil — it's our job to be there as the one voice that says, 'No, we're not letting you have the children, we're not letting you have their innocence,'" said Leila Miller. "...It starts in the womb and goes all the way through. We need to be paying attention to every angle of this."
Miller is the author of books, including "Primal Loss: The Now-Adult Children of Divorce Speak," and co-author with Trent Horn of "Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues."
Listen to her previous appearances on Respect Life Radio: "Made This Way" and "Divorce makes children homeless" and "Wake Up! Our kids, and our souls, are in danger." See more at LeilaMiller.net.
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Apr 18, 2022
Paul Larkin: Political will lacking to address fentanyl scourge
"There are problems with drugs, but fentanyl clearly can kill and will kill a very large number of people if we don't do something about it," said Paul J. Larkin, senior legal research fellow, Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Institute for Constitutional Government, at The Heritage Foundation.
"Enforcement has to be one of the three legs of any response. We have to educate people, we have to enforce the laws and we have to treat the people who wound up being addicted," said Larkin, who recently moderated a panel, "The Fentanyl Crisis: The Mexico-Texas Connection."
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Apr 4, 2022
Declan Leary: No conservative allies who buy babies
"What absolutely is a settled question is that something is missing in the worldview of a person who is raised without a mother," said Declan Leary, associate editor of The American Conservative. "Especially someone who is raised without a mother and told that that's the way things are supposed to be. There's a difference between the tragic circumstances where a mother dies and a child is raised by a single father in some other arrangement. But when they're raised in an unnatural arrangement and told that this is the way the world is meant to be — that this is actually good — rather than something unfortunate or accidental; obviously, that person is going to grow up viewing the world the wrong way. And we can't be afraid to say that."
Leary recently wrote an article, "No Allies Who Buy Babies," described as, "The problem of gay surrogacy reminds us that the right's alliance with anti-woke liberals cannot and should not survive."
Follow him @DeclanLeary on Twitter.
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Mar 28, 2022
Joy Pullmann: Persecution of Christian speech in Finland a threat everywhere
Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Finnish parliament, told me "she really hopes that her case will, as it has for many people, not scare Christians or others who have strong beliefs that matter to public discussion, but will embolden them to speak the truth in love. Because if you don't use those rights, then they are more likely to be eroded and taken away," said Joy Pullmann, executive editor of The Federalist.
Pullmann is the author of a recent article, "How A Trial In Finland Could Have Worldwide Effects On Government Persecution Of Religion," which begins, "The trial of two Finnish Christians for publicly stating mainstream religious teachings that reserve sex only for heterosexual marriage is heading towards a judgment scheduled for March 30.”
Follow her @JoyPullmann as well as @PaiviRasanen on Twitter.
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Mar 21, 2022
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Restoring Catholic liturgy among the ruins
“What is the Church living in the past decades since the (Vatican II) Council — in the liturgy? We have a ruin in many places...Therefore we have to restore the centrality of God, of the adoration, in the midst of the chaos. This shall give us hope that we can do this," said Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, and author of "The Catholic Mass: Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy" (Sophia Institute Press).
“These bishops and priests who are against the Traditional Mass, and persecuting it, they are the new Pharisees and scribes who are forbidding the simple one, the little one — as you mention, the Traditional Mass is packed with young people — they are prohibiting them to glorify Christ in such a worthy and respectful manner as it is the Traditional Mass.”
Follow Bishop Schneider at his website, Gloria Dei, and @BishopAthanas1 on Twitter.
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Mar 14, 2022
Kara Frederick: Big tech and big government converging to restrict freedom
Digital IDs and digital passports are the gateway to the "social credit system, in addition to the second element and that is: tech companies doing the government's bidding to effectively cut you off from digital life, and a public life, if you have the wrong opinions, especially with regard to the government," said Kara Frederick, research fellow in technology policy at The Heritage Foundation who recently published a research report, "Combating Big Tech’s Totalitarianism: A Road Map."
Frederick was previously a fellow at the Center for a New American Security and, prior to that, "helped create and lead Facebook’s Global Security Counterterrorism Analysis Program," according to her Heritage bio. Follow her @karaafrederick on Twitter.
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Mar 7, 2022
Arielle Del Turco: Ukrainians rise up to fight for their country
“We're used to seeing conflicts all around the world. What we're not used to is really seeing the population — average citizens, moms, grandparents, average people — rally together and make a unified effort to say, 'No, we're not all fleeing the country,' though many are. 'We're actually going to stay, we're going to fight, we're going to pitch in.' It's not just that Russia is attacking the Ukrainian military. [Russian President Vladimir Putin] really has to fight the entire country, because the entire country is rising up to fight him," said Family Research Council, who recently wrote a commentary, "Courage on Display in Ukraine."
Follow her @arielledelturco on Twitter.
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Feb 28, 2022
Charles Stimson: Crime rising amid ”rogue prosecutors”
"The rogue prosecutor movement operates under a misbelief that the entire criminal justice system is systemically racist. Of course it isn't. And that the only way to fix it is to fundamentally reverse engineer and destroy the existing criminal justice system. Which is hogwash," said Charles "Cully" Stimson, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. "You cannot find one of their policies, not one, that's pro-victim. Not one."
See Stimson's research at the Rogue Prosecutors web page and follow him @CullyStimson on Twitter.
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Feb 21, 2022
Fr. Blake Britton: Reclaim Vatican II for renewal of the Church
“What most people assume is Vatican II is actually not Vatican II. It's this paracouncil, this false narrative constructed by these different theologians and thinkers, as opposed to the actual documentation itself," said Fr. Blake Britton, a priest in the Diocese of Orlando, a contributor to Word on Fire and author of "Reclaiming Vatican II: What It (Really) Said, What It Means, and How It Calls Us to Renew the Church" (Ave Maria Press / Word on Fire).
Follow Fr. Britton @frbritton on Facebook and @frblakebritton on Instagram.
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Feb 14, 2022
Bob Fu: How the Chinese Communist Party threatens liberty
“The Chinese Communist Party [is] not only posing a threat from far away, they are penetrating deeply in our society already, in every sphere of our society,” said Bob Fu, Ph.D., founder and president of ChinaAid, based in Midland, Texas. Fu, a pastor and author, is Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council and "was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations for freedom and democracy in 1989," according to his ChinaAid profile.
“Pray for those who are persecuted and write letters to them to encourage them,” said Fu. “Write to our elected officials, instruct them. They need to speak for the people's voice — not the special interests and the Chinese lobbyist's voice, who really compromise our society.”
Follow him @BobFu4China and @ChinaAid on Twitter.
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Feb 7, 2022
Elizabeth Lev: Discovering St. Joseph in art history
"What I found was this 1,600 year development to Joseph, which is just so compelling and so beautiful, how he goes from being absent in the early history of art to being truly the patron of the universal Church," said Elizabeth Lev, Ph.D., art historian, professor and author of books, including "The Silent Knight: A History of St. Joseph as Depicted in Art" (Sophia Institute Press).
Lev said she was inspired by the 2020 apostolic letter (With a Father's Heart) from Pope Francis that described St. Joseph as having "creative courage."
St. Joseph is "a man of action, but then he's also a man of receptivity, of dreams, of meditation," said Lev. "So he has this wonderful balance between these angelic experiences he has — these angelic messages he's given — but then he gets up and he does something..."
Learn more at elizabeth-lev.com and follow her @lizlevrome on Twitter.
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Jan 31, 2022
Jonathan Culbreath: The need for common good conservatism
"Only recently have we started to see a resurfacing of an older type of conservatism — they call it a common good conservatism — which is trying to regain a little bit of a foothold in the recognition of the absolute universality of moral truth claims and trying to restore that recognition to the political philosophy of conservatism. Other than that, I think the capitulation to relativism is quite prevalent...," said Jonathan Culbreath, writer of a recent article, "Which Freedom? Whose Relativism?" for The American Conservative.
For more from Culbreath, see Postmodern Perennialist and follow him @maestrojmc on Twitter.
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Jan 24, 2022
David Closson: Amid all the confusion, what is your worldview?
"Every philosophy of life, every worldview, every religion has to answer four basic questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? What's gone wrong in the world? Is there any hope? Where is all this headed?" said David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at the Family Research Council, which is based in Washington, D.C. "Increasingly, even those who would call themselves professing Christians don't understand those basic questions. And that's one of the reasons we have the Center for Biblical Worldview. It's to remind pastors and to remind churches, and Christian parents, why they have to take this job of discipleship very seriously."
See resources from Closson, including "Year in Review: 10 Stories from 2021" and "Biblical Principles for Pro-Life Engagement." Follow him @DavidClosson on Twitter.
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Jan 20, 2022
Brock Martin of FOCUS: The goal of SEEK22 is to foster Christian community
“The truth is, every single human being has been created by God for a relationship with Him. So the more the world tries to strangle out that reality, the brighter somebody saying, 'Hey, you were created to be unbelievably incredible, you were created to be a great saint' — the more that truth rings true in men's and women's hearts," said Brock Martin, director of regional evangelization for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).
FOCUS “is a Catholic collegiate outreach whose mission is to share the hope and joy of the gospel with college and university students,” according to the Colorado-based organization, which cites a presence on more than 160 college campuses across the U.S., plus international locations. Its SEEK22 conference takes place online Feb. 4 — 6, with registration details at seek.focus.org. Follow @FOCUScatholic on Twitter, and the hashtag #SEEK22.
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Jan 12, 2022
Michael Lichens: What we can learn from Marian apparitions
Marian apparitions are "proof positive, right there — in the flesh, so to speak — that God didn't just make us and leave us alone. He is still involved in us and His mother still prays for us," said Michael J. Lichens, editor at Catholic Exchange and the editor of the recent book, "The World of Marian Apparitions: Mary's Appearances and Messages from Fatima to Today" by Wincenty Łaszewski (Sophia Institute Press). Lichens also discusses the care taken by the Church in evaluating and approving apparitions.
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Jan 6, 2022
Joey Pontarelli: In divorce, the kids are not O.K. and here’s why
“Intuitively, a lot of people know that divorce is this ugly, painful thing. But so often we focus more on the parents who are going through the divorce (rather) than the children. When it comes to the children, the cultural belief is that, 'They'll be fine, they're resilient.' The truth is: they won't be fine and they're not as resilient as you think,” said Joey Pontarelli, founder and president of RestoredMinistry.com and author of "It's Not Your Fault: A Practical Guide to Navigating the Pain and Problems from Your Parents' Divorce."
See also a Denver Catholic interview in 2021 with Pontarelli, "Ministry seeks to help children of divorce become ‘Restored.'" Follow him @RestoredHelp on Facebook.
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Dec 29, 2021
Cathy Ruse: Parents fight back — radical Sex Ed in schools (Part 2 of 2)
“Today's Sex Ed is anti-human, I argue. It goes against what is best for the human person. And, of course, it's a lie. The truth is, every child is born in exactly the right body. Institutionalized, politicized sex education can never replace a healthy dialogue between parents and their children about the goodness and beauty of married love. Every person is made in God's image and likeness, unique and unrepeatable. We are created for each other, male and female, by God's design, to cooperate with Him in creating new life," said Cathy Ruse, Esq., who gave the Gospel of Life Presentation on Oct. 22, 2021, at St. Thomas More Catholic Parish in Centennial, Colo. The event was sponsored by Respect Life Denver. Listen to Part 1 of the podcast at this link. For the full video presentation, go to https://vimeo.com/639728100.
Ruse is a "longtime governor of the Ave Maria School of Law and has been a frequent lecturer for the Blackstone Legal Fellowship," according to her biography at Dominio…
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Dec 23, 2021
Cathy Ruse: Parents fight back — radical Sex Ed in schools (Part 1 of 2)
"And that's when I learned that right down the street a spiritual battle was raging over the bodies and souls of the next generation. And the sexual left was winning. And the other side, my side, wasn't even on the battlefield. But I am convinced, thanks be to God, that that is about to change," said Cathy Ruse, Esq., who gave the Gospel of Life Presentation on Oct. 22, 2021, at St. Thomas More Catholic Parish in Centennial, Colo. The event was sponsored by Respect Life Denver. For the full video presentation, go to https://vimeo.com/639728100.
Ruse is a "longtime governor of the Ave Maria School of Law and has been a frequent lecturer for the Blackstone Legal Fellowship," according to her biography at Dominion Law Group LLP. Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Ruse, titled, "Kids as lab rats in a Sex Ed social experiment."
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Dec 16, 2021
Christopher Bedford: Fighting for freedom while under siege
“We have all the tools to resist this kind of thing, all the tools to understand that we're children of God, not just cogs in a machine that fit into your scientific database, all the tools to say that, 'No, our church will remain open...,'" said Christopher Bedford, senior editor at The Federalist, who recently wrote an article titled, "How COVID Lockdowns Handed Global Warming Extremists The Tools To Crush Freedom."
Bedford is also a founding partner of RightForge.com and author of "The Art of the Donald: Lessons from America's Philosopher-in-Chief" (Threshold Editions). Follow him @CBedfordDC on Twitter.
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Dec 9, 2021
Casey Chalk: How to help Christians persecuted in Muslim lands
"We need to view the persecuted Church as our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we go to Communion, we can remember them, we can unite our prayers to their prayers, and their sufferings before Christ. The more that we do that — and really make...a spiritual communion of it and devote our prayers to it — the more that we will recognize them as those who are certainly deserving, not only of our prayers, but all the help that we can muster," said Casey Chalk, a contributor for publications including The Federalist, and author of "The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands" (Sophia Institute Press).
Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Chalk, "How 'woke' parenting feeds kid's victimhood." Follow him at CaseyChalk.com.
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Dec 2, 2021
Ralph Martin: Misunderstanding the mission of the Catholic Church
"It's easy to get the impression these days that the main thing the Catholic Church is concerned about is getting people vaccinated or climate change or the Amazon, things like that," said Ralph Martin, president of Renewal Ministries. "Quite honestly, the primary mission of the Church isn't to save the Amazon, it's to save people from hell. It's to boldly proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of the whole world."
Martin, a professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, is the author of books, including "A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward" (Emmaus Road Publishing). He recently posted a video commentary, "A Startling Warning from a Surprising Source," regarding remarks from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Martin, "The biggest crisis in the world revealed."
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Nov 24, 2021
Katie Gorka: The great parent revolt and what comes next
"It just seems like some of our teachers and administrators and school board members have become so arrogant about their role and feel that they can supersede the role of the parents. And so we are seeing just tremendous pushback," said Katie Gorka, director of the Feulner Institute’s Center for Civil Society and the American Dialogue at The Heritage Foundation. Her commentaries include "Solving the Civics Crisis Begins at Home," as well as "Healing the Family and Saving the Country" and "The Great Parent Revolt." Follow her @GorkaKatie on Twitter.
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Nov 18, 2021
Exorcist Msgr. Rossetti: Go to confession to cast out demons
"If there's anyone listening to this who has not been to confession recently, you should definitely go...The most powerful thing that the Church offers to cast out demons is the confessional. Plus Mass, of course, and the Eucharist. So, go to confession," said Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti, Ph.D., author of "Diary of an American Exorcist: Demons, Possession, and the Modern-Day Battle Against Ancient Evil" (Sophia Institute Press). According to his online biography, he "has been an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington for over 12 years. He is a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse and is also the President and Founder of the St. Michael Center For Spiritual Renewal," which features his Exorcist Diary.
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Nov 11, 2021
Jennifer Bauwens: What it really means to follow the science
"We're hearing all the time in the media, 'Follow the science, follow the science.' But the reality is that a lot of the people who are saying that aren't actually following the scientific method and the tenets of the scientific method. So, I wanted to unveil the mystery behind what science actually is, and talk about what constitutes good science from bad science," said Jennifer Bauwens, Ph.D., director of the Center for Family Studies at the Family Research Council. She recently published an issue analysis, "Follow the Science: Does Anyone Know Where We Are Going?" (Part 1 of 2).
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Nov 4, 2021
Christopher Malloy: Fancy theology could get you to hell
"Just stick with the Catechism, that's what Cardinal Burke's been saying... Fancy theology could get you to hell...Good theology that's fancy or sophisticated, that's fantastic. But a lot of it just wants to be cool," said Christopher Malloy, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at the University of Dallas and author of "False Mercy: Recent Heresies Distorting Catholic Truth" (Sophia Institute Press). Follow him @cmalloy70 on Twitter.
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Oct 28, 2021
David Ditch: The trouble with Pres. Biden‘s budget
"One of the things this bill really wants to do is to enact a federal micromanagement of as many sectors of the economy as possible," said David Ditch, a policy analyst in the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation. Among his recent columns is "Biden’s Absurd 'Zero Cost' Claim—$3.5T Is Real Money and It’s Coming Out of Your Pocket." Follow him @DavidADitch on Twitter.
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Oct 20, 2021
John Martignoni: Helping Catholics learn and defend their faith
"First and foremost, my target are the Catholics because Catholics don't know their faith as well as they should, on average," said John Martignoni, founder of Bible Christian Society, longtime former host of EWTN Radio's Open Line and author of Blue Collar Apologetics (Sophia Institute Press), as well as director of the Office of New Evangelization and Stewardship for the Diocese of Birmingham, Ala. "I use the hook of, 'Hey, I can teach you how to answer those questions that you've been getting from your non-Catholic brother-in-law or your neighbors or your coworkers.'"
For more, see a recent EWTN Bookmark show with Martignoni and his Bible Christian Society Facebook page.
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Oct 14, 2021
Katherine Beck Johnson: Optimism that Roe v. Wade will fall
The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming review of a 2018 Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks "very much has the potential to undo all of the damage that Roe (v. Wade) and Casey (v. Planned Parenthood) have done and we are incredibly optimistic about it," said Katherine Beck Johnson, an attorney who is research fellow for legal and policy studies at the Family Research Council.
Beck's recent commentaries include "Explainer: What is Happening with Texas' New Pro-Life Law" and "Mississippi Boldly Leads the Fight to Overrule Roe." Follow her @_katherinebeck on Twitter.
The Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council also has available a publication, "The Best Prolife Arguments for Secular Audiences."
More than 62 million "Babies Have Been Killed in Abortions Since Roe v. Wade in 1973," according to LifeNews.com, based on estimates from the National Right to Life Committee.
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Oct 7, 2021
Timothy Gordon: A Christian feminist is a contradiction in terms
The patriarchy "is Christianity in a very real sense. So, when feminists say they want to do away with the patriarchy — down with it — or Marxists say this, of any stripe, they're talking about Christianity. And the funny part is, Christians and Catholics and conservatives being the great losers we are...culturally...we don't know it that when they say, 'Hey, down with the patriarchy,' they're talking about Christianity. But they do," said Timothy J. Gordon, author of "The Case for Patriarchy" (Sophia Institute Press).
Follow him @timotheeology on Twitter.
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Sep 30, 2021
Frank Cronin: How to know that God exists, without exception
"The truths of the Church are truths, they're not just 'the Church truths.' They have worked this out, not only from a faith standpoint, but from a factual standpoint. One of the startling realities can be that: not only do I know that God exists, but I can prove it...factually and without exception. When you hear the case, you cannot disagree with this. All you can do is deny it. It's right there. It's so clear," said Frank Cronin, author of "The World According to God: The Whole Truth About Life and Living" (Sophia Institute Press). Learn more about Cronin's book and his reversion to the Catholic faith by watching his interview on EWTN's "The Journey Home."
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Sep 23, 2021
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer: Civil liberties hinge on religious freedom
"Our civil liberties hinge on our respect for religious freedom," said Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, an attorney focused on civil rights and director of the Conscience Project. "These ideologies demand conformity; they don't allow for dissent. And in that respect, it's very contrary to the American tradition of pluralism and allowing for vibrant debate and disagreement on a range of issues. If you don't allow that, and if people's voices who are inspired by faith are silenced, we've really got a totalitarian situation brewing right now."
Picciotti-Bayer is a legal analyst for EWTN News and columnist for the National Catholic Register, with which the Conscience Project has launched the "Religious Freedom Matters" podcast. Follow her @BayerPicciotti on Twitter.
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Sep 16, 2021
Fr. Brian Mullady: Receiving and retaining God‘s grace
"For a person to be fully alive, as a human being, grace is absolutely necessary," said Father Brian Mullady, O.P., author of books, including "Grace Explained: How to Receive — and Retain — God's Most Potent Gift" (Sophia Institute Press). "One of the reasons I wrote the book is because [in] giving parish missions around the country, I found out that most Catholics are clueless now as to what sanctifying grace means for them...The Council of Trent was very clear that said justification by grace means the forgiveness of sins, yes, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior person. So they don't realize they can have a relationship or friendship with the Holy Trinity."
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Sep 9, 2021
S.K. Baskerville: What it means to be a gentleman
"There's always been over the centuries attempts to infuse the definition of a gentleman with new meaning, and it usually means some kind of ethical and moral meaning that is perceived to be lacking," said S.K. Baskerville, Ph.D., author of "A Gentleman’s Guide to Manners, Sex, and Ruling the World: How to Survive as a Man in the Age of Misandry – and Do So with Grace" (Sophia Institute Press). "Is a gentleman a wealthy man, a high status man, or is a gentleman a man who behaves properly? Those are questions which we need to continuously ask ourselves." Follow him at StephenBaskerville.com.
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Sep 2, 2021
James Carafano: Pres. Biden‘s “unmitigated disaster” in Afghanistan
“It's an unmitigated disaster for one reason: because the decision the president made. And all of the decisions the president made; made it harder to get out and more dangerous,” said James Jay Carafano, vice president of The Heritage Foundation's Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. “And where are we? The answer is: we're in the same place when we started. Our interests in the region haven't changed. It's just now we have endured a lot of misery, an enormous amount of expense; we've gotten people killed. And doing the things that we would need to do to protect America's interests? They're just way, way harder than they were five weeks ago.”
Listen to a previous episode of Carafano on Respect Life Radio: Chaos in the streets is organized violence. Follow him @JJCarafano on Twitter.
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Aug 26, 2021
Connor Semelsberger: Your tax dollars are funding abortions
A few months into his Administration, not only has Pres. Biden "rerouted money to Planned Parenthood, he's now reverting back to the Obamacare law...and they're going to bill abortion and Obamacare subsidies together, collect them together. And they're not going to let the American public know whether these plans cover abortion or not," said Connor Semelsberger, director of Federal Affairs, Life and Human Dignity at Family Research Council. "It's just important to know that our taxpayer funds are funding abortions through Obamacare."
Analysis by Semelsberger's includes a letter objecting to proposed federal rules, a research paper titled, "America's Direct Deposit to Planned Parenthood" and commentary, "When It Comes to Federal Abortion Funding, Biden Is the All-Time King." Family Research Council and the Charlotte Lozier Institute also have a website, "ObamacareAbortion.com," which provides details on that issue across the country.
Follow the Family Research Council @FRCdc on Twitte…
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Aug 19, 2021
Meg Kilgannon: Is God calling you to run for school board?
"This is a spiritual war, this is a cultural war. And we are largely fighting over our children and the future," said Meg Kilgannon, a senior fellow for education studies at Family Research Council, which recently launched a School Board Boot Camp. "We're trying to harness this energy that's out there right now around schools and channel it into, maybe some folks running for office and changing the balance of power on some school boards around the country."
Kilgannon said that, "The fight over Critical Race Theory has really galvanized people in an unexpected and wonderful way. So, to sort of harness that energy and to channel it into — really prayerfully, thoughtfully considering — if God is calling you to run for office? Is God calling you to run for school board?"
Videos of the School Board Boot Camp are online. Follow Kilgannon @meg_kilgannon on Twitter.
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Aug 12, 2021
Sister Byrne, MD: Consider alternatives to COVID-19 vaccines
“I've been so busy now writing letters — or helping people to write letters — for religious exemption or for medical exemption, since I kind of have both avenues to go with, because there are a lot of people who don't want to get vaccinated with COVID-19 for medical reasons, and many of which for the spiritual or moral reason," said Sister Deirdre Byrne, who is also a medical doctor.
She was recently featured in a LifeSiteNews article, headlined, "'We have lost all common sense and as a result we are losing our religious freedom,’ Sister Dede Byrne warns." She makes reference in this Respect Life Radio interview to Dr. Peter McCullough, who was featured in a separate LifeSiteNews article, headlined, "Dr. Peter McCullough’s 5 most important truths about COVID-19."
Sr. Byrne, highlighted by the National Catholic Register in recent years as "Surgeon, Soldier, Sister, Servant," belongs to the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Listen to a 2020 interview with…
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Aug 5, 2021
Dr. Ray Guarendi: Listening to Jesus, the master psychologist
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less," said Dr. Ray Guarendi, explaining that doing so would help people become "more settled, they'd be more at peace, they'd be much closer to joy and contentment. They wouldn't be at the mercy of whatever happens, whatever words happen to come their way."
Guarendi is "a Catholic father of ten adopted children, a clinical psychologist, author, professional speaker, and national radio and television host," according to his website, DrRay.com. He is the author of books, including the recently published, "Jesus, the Master Psychologist: Listen to Him" (EWTN Publishing).
Follow him on Facebook and listen to his previous appearance on Respect Life Radio: On what it takes to be married and raise "upright kids."
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Jul 29, 2021
Christine Wohar: Pursuing holiness with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
“The universal call to holiness that we're all supposed to respond to, I find it doable, attractive and fun thanks to the example of Blessed Pier Giorgio,” said Christine M. Wohar, executive director of Frassati USA and author of the forthcoming "Finding Frassati: And Following His Path to Holiness" (EWTN Publishing).
Blessed Frassati died at age 24 in Italy in 1925 and was beatified in 1990 by Pope St. John Paul II. Follow @FrassatiUSA on Twitter.
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Jul 22, 2021
Eric Sammons: Pope Francis and the Latin Mass conflict
This week's episode is a lively conversation with Eric Sammons, Editor-in-Chief of Crisis Magazine and author of Deadly Indifference. Deacon Geoff and Eric discuss Pope Francis and his new restrictions on the Latin Mass.
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Jul 15, 2021
Noelle Mering: How Christians should respond to the Woke revolution
"It seems like this is a cultural revolution that's bloodless — or seemingly bloodless, although I do think that there's human casualties, for sure — but I think it's really hard to see it," said Noelle Mering, author of "Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology" (TAN Books). She is a writer and an editor, and also a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. See more at NoelleMering.com and follow her @Noellem on Twitter.
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Jul 8, 2021
Mike Pompeo: On threats to America, international and domestic
"I've joked about the fact that, you know, I've met with the Taliban, I've met with Chairman Kim, but nothing frightens me more than what's happening in our schools today. We truly have to get our hands around this because they are educating the next generation that we are a racist nation and that will fundamentally put at risk our republic," said Mike Pompeo, the former U.S. secretary of state who also served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, congressman from Kansas and U.S. Army officer.
A graduate of West Point and of Harvard Law School, he has also been a business founder and CEO. Pompeo is a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute and is chairman of CAVPAC, the Champion American Values political action committee. Follow him @mikepompeo on Twitter.
Note: Given technical difficulties, sections of the host's questions were re-recorded after the interview.
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Jun 30, 2021
Leila Miller: Wake up! Our kids, and our souls, are in danger
“We have one judgment at the time of death. Maybe we need to go back to...really learning and teaching and meditating and praying on the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, hell. Because we are at a precipice and everybody is dancing around it, going, 'Well, you know, we don't want to be mean' or 'We don't want to look foolish in the eyes of the world.' It's like, what? We're supposed to look foolish in the eyes of the world. That was what Christ promised. So this is really do-or-die at this point. This is a time to pick a side," said Leila Miller, a Catholic author whose recent article, "Grooming Preschoolers? This Shocking Video Makes Clear: It’s Time to Pick a Side," was republished by the National Catholic Register.
She is the author of books, including "Primal Loss: The Now-Adult Children of Divorce Speak," and co-author with Trent Horn of "Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues."
Listen to her previous appearances on Respect Life Radio…
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Jun 24, 2021
Fr. Ed Broom: Combating the lies of the devil
"The devil really pushes to get dysfunctional families because...you have a lot of wounded individuals. The devil goes after us so that we become these gaping wounds that we don't bring these wounds to Christ. Now, if we bring these gaping wounds to Christ — he's known as the Wounded Healer — he can heal us. But if we don't bring the wounds to Christ, they become gaping wounds and we end up by wounding even more wounded people," said Fr. Ed Broom, OMV, who recently wrote about the "Ten lies of the devil — the father of lies."
Listen to previous interviews with Fr. Broom on Respect Life Radio, including "How to resist the attacks of the devil" and "Fighting discouragement with Bible verses." See more at FatherBroom.com, including links to his daily Facebook livestreams.
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Jun 17, 2021
Charles D. Fraune: The "big parade" — transitioning to Hell
“A parade is a celebration of something. Our world is celebrating disorder all over the place. It is really a big parade marching down to, unfortunately — unless God stops it — to damnation for quite a number of people,” said Charles D. Fraune, author of the 2019 book, "Slaying Dragons: What Exorcists See & What We Should Know."
In a recent blog post, "The 'Big Parade' — Transitioning to Hell," he wrote, "So if we find ourselves becoming soft to the moral evils emerging around us, tolerant of the infection of evil into the souls of those we know and love, and less disturbed by the presence of blasphemy and irreligion in the culture, know that we too have been partly converted to the Kingdom of Hell."
Fraune appeared previously on Respect Life Radio to discuss his book. Follow him on Twitter @CharlesDFraune.
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Jun 10, 2021
Fr. Thomas Dailey: Beholding the Sacred Heart of Jesus
"The Sacred Heart is so powerful, precisely because it's that imagery of the actual human heart of Jesus that reminds us — not only of our own hearts physically, that we have one, that it's central to who we are — but that it's in hearts that are united in love that we find our greatest fulfillment," said Fr. Thomas F. Dailey, O.S.F.S., author of "Behold This Heart: St. Francis de Sales and Devotion to the Sacred Heart" (Sophia Institute Press). Fr. Dailey holds the John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
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Jun 3, 2021
Jim Hanson: America must address the weakness within
"Every time America is strong, our enemies don't mess with us. Whenever we have a weak Administration leading us, it empowers and emboldens the tyrants of the world — and they take advantage of it. We've already seen the opening salvos, barely a couple months into the Biden Administration. It's not likely to get better. So that's another reason [for] people to focus on what they need to do to ensure that we don't go down that path of weakness and socialism that the woke Left wants us to follow," said Jim Hanson, president of the Security Studies Group. He is the author of the recent book, "Winning the Second Civil War: Without Firing a Shot." Follow him @JimHansonDC on Twitter.
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May 27, 2021
Jude Schwalbach: Public trust at stake in CDC policy on school reopenings
When Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "guidelines are taken nearly verbatim from language that justify powerful teachers unions, it diminishes the public trust in our civil institutions. Parents, the biggest stakeholders in education, do not have the political clout to affect CDC reopening guidelines, yet teachers seem to have a direct line to policymakers in the upper echelons of the CDC," said Jude Schwalbach, research associate and project coordinator in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. He wrote a recent article, "Collaboration Between CDC and Teachers Union Doesn’t Help Our Kids." Follow him @JudeSchwalbach on Twitter.
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May 20, 2021
Luke Goodrich: Fighting the good fight for religious liberty
“Traditional Catholic beliefs about life and about marriage and human sexuality — whereas they were at least uncontroversial decades ago, if not widely held — are now increasingly viewed as a threat to modern culture,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Goodrich is also the author of “Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America.” Follow him @LukeWGoodrich on Twitter.
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May 13, 2021
Mary Szoch: The first 100 days of the Biden Administration gets a failing grade
President Biden has "shown in the first 100 days that the only people whose opinion he's taking into account — the only people whose desires for America that he's taking into account — are those on the radical left," said Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council. Follow the Family Research Council @FRCdc on Twitter.
Szoch was on a previous episode of Respect Life Radio, discussing, "How Planned Parenthood leads the culture of death."
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May 6, 2021
Steve Deace: Be a critical thinker to fight the spirit of the age
"Absent reason, faith will simply be based on emotion. We will never out-emote the pagan," said Steve Deace, host of the “Steve Deace Show” on Blaze TV and author of “Faucian Bargain: The Most Powerful and Dangerous Bureaucrat in American History” (Post Hill Press). Follow him @SteveDeaceShow on Twitter.
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Apr 29, 2021
Austin Ruse: How Catholics, under siege, can rise up
We're up against "sophisticated, uber-educated people who have screwy ideas. But a small group of very dedicated people can win," said Austin Ruse, author of the recent book, "Under Siege: No Finer Time to Be a Faithful Catholic" (Sophia Institute Press) and president of the Center For Family & Human Rights. Follow him @austinruse on Twitter.
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Apr 22, 2021
Roger Severino: Holding the Biden Administration accountable on health policy
"We're going to be a watchdog, making sure that the Biden Administration...will respect the mission of HHS (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services) which is to further the health and well-being of all Americans; and that includes from conception until natural death; that means science being the forefront over ideology; that means we respect conscience and religious freedom," said Roger Severino, a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, overseeing the HHS Accountability Project. Formerly, he was Director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS. Follow him @RogerSeverino_ on Twitter.
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Apr 8, 2021
Beth Stelzer: Women's sports falling under transgender ideology
"Unless we stand up today, women's and girl's sports and all of our opportunities will fade away. We all know it. It will not take long until there will be an entire male/female team," said Beth Stelzer, founder of Save Women's Sports. Stelzer is described as a "housewife, mom, and amateur powerlifter in Minnesota" on Save Women's Sports, which is "a coalition that seeks to preserve biology-based eligibility standards for participation in female sports." Follow her @BethStelzer on Twitter.
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Mar 31, 2021
Jeremiah Keenan: Transgender legal case in Canada erodes parental rights
The Supreme Court in British Columbia ruled in 2019 that a "14-year-old girl can receive testosterone injections without parental consent, on the sole basis of her own consent" and "if either of her parents refer to her using female pronouns or address her by her birth name, they would be considered guilty of family violence," said Jeremiah Keenan, a writer at The Federalist.
Keenan has been covering the case of the father, including a recent article, "Canadian Father Jailed For Talking About Court-Ordered Transgendering Of His Teenage Daughter." Follow Keenan @jeremiah_keenan on Twitter.
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Mar 23, 2021
Mary Szoch: How Planned Parenthood leads the culture of death
“Planned Parenthood's mission is deny science, exploit people and make profits,” said Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, which recently published the 2021 edition of “The Real Planned Parenthood: Leading the Culture of Death.”
“Planned Parenthood took the lives of 354,871 unborn children in 2019, the most in any given year. It is also the second largest provider of hormone therapy to those who identify as transgender/have gender dysphoria,” according to a key-point summary in the report.
“They say that they're about 'Care, no matter what,'” said Szoch in this Respect Life Radio interview. “But they don't actually care that the teenagers that they're giving these cross-sex hormones to will have lasting side effects. Some of them may actually experience sterilization as a result of these cross-sex hormones.”
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Mar 17, 2021
Fr. Thomas Morrow: How to overcome sinful thoughts
"By turning away from sin, we have the opportunity to become happy. That's why the saints are so important. You realize, when you read their lives, that they were virtuous and they were happy. When people live lives of sins, they're not happy. They live...the life of an addict who needs another fix from their sins and they don't find the happiness that they're looking for, " said Father Thomas Morrow, author of "Overcoming Sinful Thoughts: How to Realign Your Thinking and Defeat Harmful Ideas" (Sophia Institute Press) and other books. Follow him at Catholic Faith Alive!
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Mar 11, 2021
Jonathan Butcher: Critical Race Theory and the new intolerance
Critical Race Theory “is the idea that we can only see the world through a racial lens: America is systemically racist. And we must disrupt and, frankly, overturn systems of governing authority in the United States," said Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation. He is the co-author, with Mike Gonzalez, of "Critical Race Theory, the New Intolerance, and its Grip on America," published by The Heritage Foundation. Follow @JM_Butcher on Twitter.
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Mar 3, 2021
Fr. Edward Meeks: Why politics is not our religion
"Whether we're accused of being overly political or not, we have to take a stand for the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage and religious liberty, because all three of them are under assault in this culture today," said Fr. Edward Meeks, the founding pastor of Christ the King Church in Towson, Md. "And if we don't stand up and say: this far and no more, then we will wake up one day with all of them gone..."
His homilies, published on his YouTube channel, include "Politics is Not Our Religion" from January 2021. "Staring into the Abyss" from October 2020 has more than 2.4 million views. Fr. Meeks discussed his path into the Catholic Church on an episode of EWTN's "Journey Home."
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Feb 25, 2021
Fr. Quan Tran: Follow Our Lady to be a disciple of Jesus Christ
The Blessed Virgin Mary is "the perfect disciple. She is God's masterpiece. To imitate Mary is to imitate Christ. There's no contradiction," said Fr. Quan Tran, parochial vicar at St. Bonaventure Parish in Huntington Beach, Calif., and a former deputy district attorney. He is the author of "The Imitation of Mary: Keys to Growth in Virtue and Grace" (Sophia Institute Press) and leads FullnessOfGrace.org.
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Feb 18, 2021
George Weigel: Calling out incoherent Catholicism
“We've had a serious problem with Catholic public officials who are incoherent in their Catholicism for a very long time,” said George Weigel, the Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics & Public Policy Center, the author of books including The Next Pope, and of the recent First Things article, “President Biden and a Catholic inflection point.”
“This is a bit different. President Biden is the most visible Catholic in the country. He's the most important Catholic public official in the world. And he is actively advancing and facilitating policies that deny the truth of that first principle of Catholic social doctrine: the inalienable dignity and value of every human life.”
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Feb 11, 2021
Archbishop Cordileone: Defend life in the womb and a response to Catholic politicians who don't
“There's a danger that now these Catholics in high-profile prominent positions — now even the president — can mislead Catholics, so that's a problem of scandal,” said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, who also expressed concern about "further division in the Church..."
Responding to comments by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who represents San Francisco in Congress, Archbishop Cordileone issued a statement in January that "on the question of the equal dignity of human life in the womb, she also speaks in direct contradiction to a fundamental human right that Catholic teaching has consistently championed for 2,000 years."
In this Respect Life Radio interview, Archbishop Cordileone also discusses the efforts of FreeTheMass.com, which seeks to "end unfair restrictions on worship and to protect our churches and religious liberties," according to the website.
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Feb 4, 2021
Fr. Timothy Gallagher: Understanding "Discernment of Spirits in Marriage"
A "spouse is not going to try to be your spiritual director in a formal sense, but is someone who can walk with you, with whom you can talk about the burdens — and it makes all the difference," said Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., author of "Discernment of Spirits in Marriage: Ignatian Wisdom for Husbands and Wives" and many other books. Follow him at FrTimothyGallagher.org. He was previously on Respect Life Radio to discuss "Overcoming spiritual discouragement in a time of pandemic."
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Jan 28, 2021
Monsignor Pope: The priestly robes replaced by lab coats
"It's astonishing to me the levels of fear that have utterly collapsed us into this — whatever the government says, I'll do — and even in the Church: whatever the government says, we must follow. The priestly robes have been replaced by the lab coats. Ultimately, we're in trouble. The main bugaboo is fear. How many times did Jesus say, 'Do not be afraid,'" said Monsignor Charles Pope, a parish pastor in Washington, D.C., a writer and speaker.
He recently wrote a two-part reflection for the National Catholic Register, "5 Hard Truths We’ve Come to See With 2020 Vision" and "5 More Hard Truths We’ve Come to See with 2020 Vision." Follow him at msgrpope.com.
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Jan 21, 2021
Jack Brustkern: What is digital balance for our generation?
I was just "glued to my screen, a slave to my screen in many ways. And it scared me. I didn't think that I was the type of kid who would get wrapped up in something as crazy as this. I really wanted to wrestle with the question of what is digital balance for me and then I quickly realized this isn't just me, this is other kids, as well. So what is digital balance for our generation?" said Jack Brustkern, founder and CEO of Detachnow.com and author of "Acquired Connection: Forming Upright Digital Habits With & For Your Kids." He was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in 2020.
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Jan 14, 2021
Steven Aden: How the pro-life movement will prevail
"The issue is never going away until the courts and the legislatures respect all human life," said Steven H. Aden, chief legal officer and general counsel at Americans United for Life. "You can't duck and cover. You have to be engaged. It's either going to be in the Supreme Court, in the Congress — or, if Lord willing, Roe (v. Wade) is overturned — the issue will be returned to the states and to the people, where it belongs, instead of in the hands of nine people wearing black robes. When it goes back to the states, that's ideal for us, because that is where the pro-life movement is really at its strength." Follow him @StevenHAdenAUL on Twitter.
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Jan 7, 2021
Michael Matt: What is the Great Reset?
"We're seeing overreach from government that George Orwell never imagined, that the Soviet Union never attained," said Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper and Remnant TV. "So I'm really concerned that if we don't start waking up right now — and by we, I especially mean Americans because we do have more freedom, I think, than our friends in Europe have, especially under the European Union, which was also sort of a test case for this Great Reset — if we don't wake up, I'm concerned that they will, to answer your question, end up having the ability to pull this off." Follow @Michael_J_Matt on Twitter.
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Dec 31, 2020
Reggie Littlejohn: How and why China infiltrates the U.S. (Part 2 of 2)
"China is the number one threat in the world," said Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers. "Pray for the people of China because they are languishing under the boot of this totalitarian government. And pray that all that is hidden in darkness will be brought to light concerning all the ways that the Chinese government has infiltrated internationally, not just the United States, but all over the world."
Part 1 of the interview with her, linked here, dealt with the horrendous human rights violations in China and what can be done. Follow Littlejohn @ReggieLittlejhn on Twitter.
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Dec 24, 2020
Reggie Littlejohn: China as human rights abuser (Part 1 of 2)
Women's Rights Without Frontiers is "an international coalition to expose and oppose forced abortion, gendercide and sexual slavery in China." On this first part of a two-part interview, Reggie Littlejohn, the founder and president of the organization, describes the horrendous human rights violations in China and what can be done. Follow her @ReggieLittlejhn on Twitter.
Part 2 of the interview with her, linked here, dealt with the infiltration by China of the U.S. Follow Littlejohn @ReggieLittlejhn on Twitter.
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Dec 17, 2020
Mary Eberstadt: Riots and the cry for the Father
"...Behind these protests, behind these people screaming in the street, is a deep suffering that has been brought on by a crisis of paternity. This is not only about literal fatherlessness — although when 40 percent of kids are being raised without a dad at home, it's certainly partly about that. But in the article I try to make the connection to other forms of the father, beginning with the Father in heaven," said Mary Eberstadt, senior fellow at the Faith & Reason Institute, author of many books and of the recent article, "The Fury of the Fatherless" in First Things. Follow her at https://maryeberstadt.com.
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Dec 10, 2020
Ken Craycraft: The Biden administration will put Christians on notice
President-elect Joe Biden "certainly has no interest in following the Church's teaching on anything. Even to the extent that it might coincide — some of his positions — with Catholic Church teaching, it's not informed by Church teaching, it's informed rather by [the] Democratic Party platform," said Ken Craycraft, author of the recent First Things article, "What Christians can expect from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris."
Craycraft, an attorney, was recently named the James J. Gardner Family Chair of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology in Cincinnati. Follow him @kcraycraft on Twitter.
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Dec 3, 2020
Joe Heschmeyer: Why are we Catholic and why the papacy?
"It is a time where a lot of people are asking hard questions about the papacy. At the same time, people are asking ordinary Catholics, 'Well, why are you still Catholic?' I think it's a really good question to ask. And I think it's a question that [as] Catholics, we should embrace that opportunity to really share: why are we Catholic and what does the papacy have to do with that?" said Joe Heschmeyer, author of the recent book, "Pope Peter: Defending the Church's Most Distinctive Doctrine in a Time of Crisis" (Catholic Answers Press) and an instructor with the Holy Family School of Faith.
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Nov 25, 2020
Fr. Vincent Lampert: An exorcism is a prayer to God
“An exorcism at its very core is a prayer. It's a prayer directed to God, who is asked to bring relief into the life of the person. In extreme cases, it's a command given to a demon, commanding it to depart based on the power of the authority of Jesus Christ. But again, it's all about bringing healing into the life of people who are suffering," said Fr. Vincent P. Lampert, a priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, an exorcist, and author of the recent book, "Exorcism: The Battle Against Satan and His Demons" (Emmaus Road Publishing).
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Nov 19, 2020
Ralph Martin: The biggest crisis in the world revealed
The biggest crisis in the world “is alienation from God, rebellion against God, it's not believing in Jesus Christ, it's not accepting the offer of mercy and salvation that God's offering to the human race. The primary mission of the Church is not to improve the world. We should absolutely apply the social teaching of the Church, out of charity in all these different areas. But the primary purpose of the Church is to lift up Jesus Christ and call all people, everywhere, to believe in Him and repent," said Ralph Martin, president of Renewal Ministries and author of books, including the recent "A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward" (Emmaus Road Publishing).
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Nov 12, 2020
David Deavel: What Solzhenitsyn can teach a divided America
"Gradually, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts," wrote Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian dissident, author and Nobel Prize winner, who died in 2008.
In this episode of Respect Life Radio, the life and legacy of Solzhenitsyn is recounted by David Deavel, Ph.D., co-editor of the recently released book, "Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West" (Notre Dame Press) and editor of "Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture."
Deavel was previously a guest on Respect Life Radio in a two-part series on "A Catholic critique of socialism." Part 1 is at this link and Part 2 is at this link.
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Nov 4, 2020
Anne Hendershott: Overcoming the politics of envy
"There's a whole lot of envy going on and we're seeing symbols of envy," said Anne Hendershott, professor of sociology at Franciscan University, director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life and author of the recent book, "The Politics of Envy," published by Sophia Institute Press. Follow her @AnneHendershott on Twitter.
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Oct 29, 2020
Michael Warsaw of EWTN: Voting for life is preeminent issue
"People have to vote for life. There's no question about that. Life is the preeminent issue," said Michael Warsaw, chairman and CEO of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the world's largest religious media network, and publisher of the National Catholic Register. "That is part of the vision, and the difference in vision, between the two parties and their candidates. And that is what we need to be voting for when we cast our ballot."
Warsaw wrote a recent column in the National Catholic Register titled, "Voting for a Vision, Not a Person."
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Oct 22, 2020
Kathleen Beckman: A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare
"How is my relationship doing with my loved ones and what can I do to help each and every single person in my family experience the love of God, the affirmation and the encouragement? And are there any living within my home who are not experiencing true liberation in Jesus Christ — or are they bound up in something, whether it's pornography or other things...," said Kathleen Beckman, author of A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare: Strategies for Deliverance and Healing.
Beckman is a "Catholic evangelist, best-selling author, writer, speaker, radio host, and Ignatian retreat director," according to her website, kathleenbeckman.com.
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Oct 16, 2020
Raymond Arroyo: Discovering "The Spider Who Saved Christmas"
"The Spider Who Saved Christmas" speaks to children as a "thrill ride of a story but to adults, it tells a very different tale about family and love and sacrifice," said Raymond Arroyo, author of the new book about the legend, which is the number one bestseller in Catholicism on Amazon.com.
Arroyo is "an internationally known, award-winning journalist, producer, and New York Times Bestselling author," according to his website, as well as managing editor of EWTN News and anchor of The World Over. Follow him on Twitter @RaymondArroyo.
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Oct 8, 2020
Dr. Kathi Aultman: The goal of late-term abortion is a child's death
Late-term abortion is "not what the normal OB/GYN would do," said Kathi Aultman, M.D., a former abortionist. "Even when the mother's life is in danger, you wouldn't do a late-term abortion. You would do a C-section or an induction and deliver the baby. And you would try to take care of the baby the best you can. Even if the baby has fetal anomalies, you would deliver the baby and take care of it. You wouldn't try to do a late-term abortion. It actually takes two to three days to be able to do a late-term abortion anyway...Why would you do something like that unless your ultimate goal is the death of the child?"
Aultman is a "retired Board-Certified OB/Gyn and is currently an Associate Scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute." Among her writings is, "Why I Am No Longer An Abortionist."
Earlier in the interview on Respect Life Radio, she said, "I suddenly saw myself as a mass murderer. I understand how the Nazis could do what they did. Because I was doing it. It all came down to wh…
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Oct 1, 2020
Paul Kengor: What the Devil and Karl Marx have to do with America now
"The deliberate infiltration of churches in the United States — I hope people can kind of sweat it through the awful stuff on Marx and Lenin and Engels (in the book) — and get to that because that takes us really to where we are right now," said Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College and author of books, including "The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration," recently published by TAN Books.
Listen also to a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Kengor, "Understanding the Marxist moment in America 2020."
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Sep 24, 2020
Matthew Franck: The future of Roe vs. Wade is up for grabs
"The overturning of Roe vs. Wade would not — in itself, overnight — change the law of abortion in this country," said Matthew J. Franck, an author and Associate Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, and Lecturer in Politics, at Princeton University. "It would return to the people the right to make the laws concerning abortion in this country. It will wind up being made very differently in different states. It'll be different in Colorado, and New Jersey...in Florida and New York, in Arizona and Illinois." Follow him @MatthewJFranck on Twitter.
Proposition 115 on the Nov. 3 ballot would end late-term abortion in Colorado, with an exception for the life of the mother. For more on Prop. 115, go to RespectLifeDenver.org and also see #YesOn115. For an archive of past episodes of Respect Life Radio, go to RespectLifeRadio.com.
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Sep 17, 2020
Deacon Geoff Bennett: How to vote as a faithful Catholic
Learn "how to vote as a faithful Catholic, but really how to vote as a faithful citizen who is based, and rooted, in the moral foundations of our Church," said Deacon Geoff Bennett, the host of Respect Life Radio. "It is critical that we get involved in the political process. We are not just observers; we need to be participants. We're not going to call on one political party or the other. But look, what they stand for should dictate who we should vote for. Everybody should defend life, from conception through natural death. Those are kind of non-negotiables. And we're going to talk about why this is so important."
For more background, see "Colorado Catholic Conference, as well as information on Colorado ballot initiatives, including Prop. 115 to end late-term abortion, which all four Colorado bishops endorsed in this letter.
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Sep 10, 2020
Catholics, hear Sister Dede Byrne on life, then vote your well-formed conscience
"The life issue supersedes politics, it's really ethical, moral, spiritual, human," said Sister Dierdre Byrne, who gave galvanizing pro-life remarks at the Republican National Convention in August. "My intention was not to be a political speaker up there on the podium, but someone who is just representing the Catholic Church and its response, and relationship, to the life issues..."
Sr. Byrne, highlighted by the National Catholic Register as "Surgeon, Soldier, Sister, Servant," belongs to the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
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Sep 3, 2020
James Carafano: Chaos in the streets is organized violence
"Make no mistake, this is organized violence. These are not protestors that got out of hand. Or people that may even be connected with the civil rights protests in this country. This is an organized campaign of violence," said James Jay Carafano of The Heritage Foundation, who recently published an opinion on Fox News, titled, "Rioting in US cities – 5 reasons why violent radicals feel emboldened."
Follow Carafano on Twitter @JJCarafano.
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Aug 27, 2020
Rebecca Kiessling: "I owe my birth to the law which protected me."
"I was conceived when my birth mother was abducted at knifepoint by a serial rapist," said Rebecca Kiessling, born in 1969. "I absolutely would have been aborted if it had been legal. I owe my birth to the law which protected me."
Kiessling is an international pro-life speaker who has "helped pregnant rape victims all around the world to choose life for their children," according to her website, RebeccaKiessling.com. "She’s also an attorney, wife, and mother of 5 (two oldest are adopted,) lost 2 additional babies to miscarriage, and her 33 day old adopted daughter Cassie, who was born with special needs."
Subsequent to the recording of this interview, and prior to publication, her sons Caleb and Kyler died of drug overdose. "I ask that you keep Rebecca and her family in your prayers," said Deacon Geoff Bennett, host of Respect Life Radio.
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Aug 20, 2020
Nicole Hunt: Help Mom Save Baby is the answer to late-term abortion
"Up until the day before your baby is born you can get an abortion for any reason?" is the question that motivates Nicole Hunt, whose daughter — now 11 years old — was born prematurely at 27 weeks, survived and thrived. "At that point, you have two bodies that can live apart from each other, with medical help. It's about the human right of both the mother and the child."
Hunt leads HelpMomSaveBaby.com, which is advocating for Proposition 115 at the Nov. 3 ballot in Colorado, which would prohibit abortion after 22 weeks, with an exception for the life of the mother. More than 40 states restrict abortion at a particular time of the pregnancy; Colorado does not.
"We need 100 percent involvement. We need 100 percent engagement," said Hunt, a wife, mother of four, an attorney and crisis pregnancy volunteer. "The truth is restricting late-term abortion is absolutely nonpartisan. And people are getting out to vote this year; they're going to vote for president. We need to be out there a…
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Aug 13, 2020
Kelsey Hazzard: You don't have to be religious to recognize the violence of abortion
"We exist because abortion is a human rights violation, it is not a mere theological debate," said Kelsey Hazzard, president and founder of Secular Pro-Life. "The abortion lobby, for a very long time, has tried to silo abortion by characterizing it as just a religious issue, just a theological difference of opinion. When what we're really talking about is violence, lethal violence, against a flesh-and-blood human being. And you don't have to be religious to recognize that."
The interview with Hazzard begins at 10:50 of the podcast, preceded by a commentary by show host Deacon Geoff Bennett on Proposition 115, the late-term abortion ban that will be on the Nov. 3 Colorado ballot. For more on that, go to RespectLifeDenver.org.
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Aug 6, 2020
Serrin Foster of Feminists for Life: How to make abortion unthinkable
"Our role is to systematically eliminate the root causes that drive women to abortion, through education and advocacy," said Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life since 1994. "Our flagship program has predominantly been on college campuses." See also their resource website, WomenDeserveBetter.com.
In light of Proposition 115, a November ballot initiative in Colorado that would ban late-term abortion, Respect Life Radio is "presenting a diversity of interviews and opinions that you are unlikely to hear in the mainstream media," said show host Deacon Geoff Bennett. For more on the ballot initiative, go to RespectLifeDenver.org.
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Jul 30, 2020
Brandon McGinley: Hope for Catholic reconciliation and restoration
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, "I think about the triumphant return, not the living in the pigsty," said Brandon McGinley, speaker and author of books, including "The Prodigal Church: Restoring Catholic Tradition in an Age of Deception," just published. Follow him on Twitter @brandonmcg.
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Jul 16, 2020
Fr. Ed Broom: Fighting discouragement with Bible verses
"If we don't know what to do, desolation can really wreak havoc in our lives," said Fr. Ed Broom, OMV, whose recent article on Catholic Exchange described, "10 Bible Verses that Fight Discouragement."
Fr. Broom was previously on Respect Life Radio, discussing "How to resist the attacks of the devil."
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Jul 9, 2020
Robert George: Stand up to the woke bullying in America
"People have forgotten that bullies are cowards," said Prof. Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and author of books and of articles, including "Solzhenitsyn's Prophecy."
"We need outspokenness. It's the power of the word, not the force of arms, that will win this battle. But if people are too afraid, too frightened, too intimidated, too bullied to speak out against the bully — to stand up and defy the bully when the bully says, 'Oh, you're not allowed to say that,' or the bully says, 'Oh, you must say this, you must give me your loyalty oath' — until somebody stands up, until we gather ourselves and stand up to the bullies, this bullying is going to continue. But the minute that we do stand up, the bully will be revealed to be what all bullies are...a coward. And then we will begin to restore our civilization and our country."
Follow George on Twitter @McCormickProf.
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Jul 2, 2020
Fr. Dwight Longenecker: We first of all lie to ourselves. Jesus Christ is the truth.
"The sin of the world is much more than just the naughty things I've done," said Fr. Dwight Longenecker, a Catholic parish priest in South Carolina, as well as a writer, speaker and author of "Immortal Combat: Confronting the Heart of Darkness" among other books. "The sin of the world is a deeply-woven net of deception and lies and deceitfulness written right into our genetic code, almost, right into the way we're wired — as individuals and as a society."
Fr. Longenecker was previously on Respect Life Radio in a podcast titled, "Build on the rock of the Catholic faith."
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Jun 25, 2020
Pecknold and Anderson: Supreme Court imposing sexual ideology on America
"We have our highest court completely unhinged from reality," said C.C. Pecknold, Ph.D., a professor at The Catholic University of America, referring to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock vs. Clayton County. "Bostock unhinges just the very nature of the person as sexually differentiated. It's a kind of sad, in a way not surprising, conclusion to a long series of decisions."
Also interviewed on this episode of Respect Life Radio is Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and author of books including, "When Harry Became Sally" and "Truth Overruled."
Anderson refers to the Supreme Court imposing "a misguided sexual and gender ideology on the country" and that, "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court can do a lot of damage when judges just impose their personal belief, their personal policy preferences, their views — on contested questions on the American people."
Follow Pecknold @ccpecknold and Anderson @RyanTAnd on Twitter.
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Jun 18, 2020
Paul Kengor: Understanding the Marxist moment in America 2020
Karl Marx "said so many things that, unfortunately, resonate with these radical elements today," said Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., and an author of numerous books including "Dupes" and "A Pope and a President."
"One of them at the close of the Communist Manifesto is, 'the Communists [everywhere] support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.'"
Kengor's commentary, "Riots, Pandemic and Astronauts: How 2020 Is Like 1969 All Over Again," was recently published in the National Catholic Register.
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Jun 11, 2020
U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski: How pro-life Democrats can make their voices heard
"You can be a Democrat and you can be pro-life," said U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Illinois, an eight-term Congressman. "About one out of every three Democratic voters in the country say that they are pro-life. I think it's very important for the pro-life movement to not just be a one-party movement, that there are not just Republicans, but there are Democrats who are pro-life."
In March, Lipinski lost his Democratic primary to challenger Marie Newman. She had the "support of EMILY’s List, a national group that supports pro-abortion rights Democratic women," according to the Chicago Tribune.
"I know there's going to be a lot of national attention paid" to Initiative 120, said Lipinski, when asked about the late-term abortion ban that will be on the Colorado ballot in November. "Hopefully we can all get the message out there of what the truth is and that the voters of Colorado stand up strongly and say that life needs to be protected. There's no way that you can deny that, after 22 wee…
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Jun 3, 2020
Michael New: Coloradans can save unborn lives at the 2020 ballot
"One of the first successful direct democracy campaigns that pro-lifers did actually took place in Colorado. In 1984, Colorado voters approved Initiative 3 that prevents taxpayer funding of elective abortions in the state Medicaid program," said Michael J. New, Ph.D., who is "a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science and Social Research at The Catholic University of America, as well as an Associate Scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute," according to the Lozier website.
New wrote a recently article on National Review Online, titled, "An important pro-life opportunity in Colorado," referring to Initiative 120, the late-term abortion ban proposed for the November 2020 ballot in Colorado.
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May 28, 2020
Kendra Clark: A Catholic convert from Mormonism describes her journey
"I did know that if I continued to just look at the cross and pray to Jesus and kind of fundamentally get my feet back on the ground — and using the Holy Bible, and the Bible only for my references and my truth — that I would be led to where I was supposed to be," said Kendra Clark. She is interviewed by Deacon Geoff Bennett, the host of Respect Life Radio, who introduces her as "a wife, a mother of four and convert to the Catholic faith after spending 40 years in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints..."
Clark also told her story in 2018 on the TV program, "The Journey Home," hosted by Marcus Grodi. Clark helps others and provided her email as kendraclark15@gmail.com.
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May 21, 2020
Krista Kafer: Just days left to sign Initiative 120 to put late-term abortion ban on Colorado ballot
"What I like about this issue is that it is bipartisan," said Krista Kafer. "When it comes to late-term abortion...a good three-quarters of Americans who say: Why do we have this? Why would you abort a child that can survive outside the womb?"
Kafer is a proponent of Initiative 120 that would put a late-term abortion ban on the Nov. 3, 2020, ballot in Colorado. Follow her on Twitter @KristaKafer.
The map at https://respectlifedenver.org/sign120map shows sites where and when registered Colorado voters can sign Initiative 120, with signatures being turned in the last week of May to the Colorado Secretary of State by Due Date Too Late. The language of the ballot initiative is available at this link.
Kafer, a weekly columnist for The Denver Post, wrote in favor of the ballot initiative in October 2019. More recently, she has been a paid communications person for the Initiative 120 effort.
Gallup polling nationwide from the mid-1970s consistently shows a majority of Americans support re…
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May 18, 2020
Sign Initiative 120 to help end late-term abortion in Colorado (:30 PSA)
"Help end late-term abortion in Colorado. If you haven't signed Initiative 120 yet, please go to RespectLifeDenver.org and click on the Initiative 120 link. Once you click on that link, provide your contact information, and we will contact you to let you know how you can sign the petition — and where you can sign the petition. We ask that you help us end late-term abortion in Colorado. Signature collection will start May 15 and run through May 29," said Deacon Geoff Bennett, host of Respect Life Radio.
To help lead a signature drive in May, contact Barbara Glesener at 303-995-8810 about petition pick-up, drop-off, training and signing.
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May 14, 2020
Dr. Ray Guarendi: On what it takes to be married and raise "upright kids"
The decline of marriage among the younger generation is a "natural byproduct of a culture that says let's put God on the shelf, let's remake Him in our image, if we allow Him to come around," said Dr. Ray Guarendi, "a Catholic father of ten adopted children, a clinical psychologist, author, professional speaker, and national radio and television host," as described on his website, drray.com. He is the author of many books, including the recently published, "Raising Upright Kids in an Upside-Down World: Defying the Anti-Parent Culture."
As a parent, "you do need to be fearless, you cannot parent in anxiety," said Guarendi. "You can't do it. You won't be able to make the decisions you need to make because you'll be attacked, assaulted, critiqued as a Neanderthal throwback, out of touch, your kids are going to get resentful, they're going to rebel, they're going to hate you, etc."
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May 7, 2020
Fr. Robert Sirico: Making public policy decisions amid the COVID-19 pandemic
The Acton Institute is "focused on the intersection of morality, theology, economics, human freedom. It's really the question of the relationship between liberty and the truth of who human beings are," said Fr. Robert A. Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, based in Grand Rapids, Mich. "The organization itself isn't a Catholic organization, as such, it's an ecumenical effort to understand moral responsibility in the market economy."
Fr. Sirico discusses how considerations of science and public health, the market economy, and faith intersect in the approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Apr 30, 2020
Charles D. Fraune on "Slaying Dragons: What Exorcists See & What We Should Know"
Exorcists all over the world are seeing "the same thing. Demons are acting the same way, people are getting into trouble in the same way. And people are being healed, and being pulled out of possession and obsession and oppression, in the same way," said Charles D. Fraune, author of Slaying Dragons: What Exorcists See & What We Should Know. "We should not fear the devil at all. Actually, if we do fear the devil, he's winning..."
For more about Fraune and his book, go to TheSlayingDragonsBook.com.
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Apr 23, 2020
Debbie Perry-Smith: Combatting sex trafficking in Colorado
"A call came to me from the Lord to step into this," said Debbie Perry-Smith of S.A.F.E. Rockies, the Strategic Alliance to Fight Exploitation, which works with organizations combatting human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the Rocky Mountain region. "We actually have more illicit massage parlors in the state than we do Starbucks."
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Apr 16, 2020
Kevin Knight: Subjecting everything, including the news, to Jesus Christ
"I've put together a personal feed of about 500 blogs and wire services," said Kevin Knight, editor, webmaster and founder of NewAdvent.org, a must-read website that presents Catholic news and commentary worldwide, as well as hosting The Catholic Encyclopedia and historic Church content. "I rely a lot on submissions by readers, as well. Some people really have a good eye for what's out there. I like to find quirky stories, too. It's fun to do that because, really, it's bringing all of this in, seeing it with the eyes of Christ and subjecting everything to Christ. That's the idea, and to have fun while doing it."
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Apr 9, 2020
Fr. Donald Calloway: Now is the time for consecration to St. Joseph
In these crazy times, "We could really use a model of a man, and a head of a family, and a protector of the good, the true and the beautiful. So I thought 'St. Joseph is perfect,'" said Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, author of "Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father." "So that's the intention behind it, to bring some clarity to the confusion of our times."
The book, available in print or e-book download, guides readers — either as individuals or in a group — through a 33-day consecration to St. Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary and earthly father to Our Savior Jesus Christ.
The phrase, "Now is the time for consecration to St. Joseph!" is from an endorsement of the book from Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers.
Calloway's conversion story, "No Turning Back," (available as a book, CD or DVD) describes his journey from "drugs, crime, and the Japanese Mafia, to the mercy of God" and his ordination as a Catholic priest in 2003.
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Apr 6, 2020
Joe Condit: Redeploying the Catholic Speakers Organization in wake of COVID-19
"We started a series of conversations, which will be online, with our speakers" on InspireWord.com, said Joe Condit, whose Catholic Speakers Organization represent 400 Catholic speakers and others. "We are going to bring you into the living room," via social media platforms, of speakers offering "words of inspiration during these hard times, these challenging times, where folks' lives have been turned upside down due to this coronavirus."
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Apr 2, 2020
Fr. Ed Broom: How to resist the attacks of the devil
St. Ignatius of Loyola presents our spiritual life as a "combat zone. We are in constant battle between the devil, the flesh and the world," said Fr. Ed Broom, OMV, the author of a recent article on Catholic Exchange, titled "Five Ways to Resist the Devil's Attacks."
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Mar 26, 2020
Rusty Reno: Should Catholic politicians act on what the Church teaches?
"A lot of what the Church teaches about public affairs is really the common stock of Christian wisdom, so the sanctity of life is something that obviously we share with Evangelicals and thoughtful Christians of all stripes," said Rusty Reno, editor of First Things. "Catholicism, at least in the modern era, has really been characterized by — in this sense it shares with Judaism — a very strong concern about the common good. That's a distinctive mark of a Catholic political outlook."
Deacon Geoff Bennett, host of Respect Life Radio, asked Reno, "So are practicing Catholics who are running for office, or are already elected to office, are they obliged to believe everything the Church teaches on faith and morals?"
Listen to Reno's answer and the rest of the interview on Respect Life Radio.
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Mar 19, 2020
Fr. Gallagher: Overcoming spiritual discouragement in a time of pandemic
Amid the Coronavirus pandemic, "there's a certain sense of just human helplessness" and also "anxiety, how long is this going to last, where is it going to go, will it affect anyone close to me? Those are just very natural reactions and they're very clearly in the air," said Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V, author of Overcoming Spiritual Discouragement: The Wisdom and Spiritual Power of Venerable Bruno Lanteri, and many other books.
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Mar 12, 2020
Nicole Russell: Children vulnerable amid the transgender movement
"As the transgender movement has really increased, what you're seeing is a lot of lawsuits percolating through the lower courts" and spreading throughout the "workplace, our houses of worship, our schools," said Nicole Russell, based in Texas, who writes for The Daily Signal and other publications. "It's gotten to where no place is untouched..."
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Mar 5, 2020
Terese Piccola: Interview with a woman who experienced exorcism (Part 3 of 3)
"It's always about God," said Terese Piccola. "It's not about us. It's about what He does through us — for ourselves and for others." Listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of the Respect Life Radio interview.
Her story was recently recounted by the National Catholic Register in a blog post titled, "Wife and Mother of Four Describes Experience of Possession, Exorcism." You can follow her @terese_little on Twitter.
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Feb 27, 2020
Terese Piccola: Interview with a woman who experienced exorcism (Part 2 of 3)
"I don't know why, as time went on, God allowed me to hear and witness things more than the average person might during an exorcism," said Terese Piccola. "And through that, was able to have these interactions with saints, too." Listen to Part 1 and Part 3 of the interview.
Her story was recently recounted by the National Catholic Register in a blog post titled, "Wife and Mother of Four Describes Experience of Possession, Exorcism." You can follow her @terese_little on Twitter.
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Feb 20, 2020
Deacon Geoff Bennett: Praying for kids guided to Drag Queen Story Hour
"Go to RespectLifeDenver.org to find out more details about prayer vigils and what we're planning on doing to defend children and protect them from these harmful [Drag Queen Story Hour] shows that are really trying to indoctrinate them," said Deacon Geoff Bennett, the host of Respect Life Radio. "What we have found is that this is actually an organized plan. This isn't something just happening randomly throughout the United States."
Listen to what Deacon Geoff discovered from the American Library Association, and also hear his interview with a father of two young children concerned about Drag Queen Story Hour in his Colorado community.
In addition, Respect Life Denver invites those concerned to attend morning Mass at Nativity of Our Lord in Broomfield on Saturday, Feb. 29, then participate in a public Rosary and prayer vigil in front of the Broomfield Library. The prayer vigil will take place at same time that the library is inviting children to attend a Drag Queen Story Hour that mo…
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Feb 13, 2020
Kristen Day: Pro-life Democrats must stand up to abortion lobby
"Pro-life Democrats have to stand up and say, 'No, we're not going to bend any longer...to this abortion lobby,'" said Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America. "The Democratic Party has to support these candidates. If the abortion lobby comes in and starts attacking a pro-life Democrat, they have to stop it."
Day generated attention in January by asking Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg at a televised town hall in Iowa if he wanted "the support of pro-life Democrats" and if he would support "more moderate platform language in the Democratic Party..." Here's video of his response and links to news coverage.
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Feb 6, 2020
Morgan Zegers: Why young people are prey to lies of socialism
"I think socialism is the most important issue facing our country right now and I just want to be a part of the fight," said Morgan Zegers, founder of Young Americans Against Socialism. "Knowing about the failures of socialism, I just assumed that nobody would every support that, in an amazing country like the United States of America."
Polling data over the past decade indicates that a declining view of capitalism, among respondents ages 18 to 39 in 2019, puts it roughly equivalent to socialism, according to Gallup.
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Jan 29, 2020
Terese Piccola: Interview with a woman who experienced exorcism (Part 1 of 3)
"Oftentimes what happens when we're abused, or something evil happens to us, if we don't respond in the correct manner, we leave ourselves open to that weakness, and to looking for things outside of the Church," said Terese Piccola. "And that's exactly what happened to me." Listen to Part 2 and Part 3 of the interview.
Her story was recently recounted by the National Catholic Register in a blog post titled, "Wife and Mother of Four Describes Experience of Possession, Exorcism." You can follow her @terese_little on Twitter.
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Jan 23, 2020
Alison Centofante: Defending the unborn via Live Action
Live Action is "a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the greatest human rights abuse of our time, which is abortion," said Alison Centofante, director of external affairs for LiveAction.org. "We do this through educational videos, through investigative reporting, by sharing the stories of women and girls who have chosen life, and making sure women know about all of their life-affirming options."
Deacon Geoff Bennett, host of Respect Life Radio, also discusses the importance of Initiative 120, an effortto put a late-term abortion ban on the Colorado ballot in November 2020.
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Jan 16, 2020
Greg Baylor: Fairness for All Act a bad compromise on religious liberty
"The Fairness for All Act essentially creates all the problems that The Equality Act creates, and then exempts a handful of people from those problems, and then they call that a victory for religious liberty," said Greg Baylor, senior counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom. "I would say it's a victory for religious liberty not to create the problems in the first place."
Baylor is a previous guest on Respect Life Radio, where he discussed The Equality Act , which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2019. The Fairness for All Act is purported compromise legislation, proposed in December by U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah. Follow @GregBaylor on Twitter to see links regarding the Fairness for All Act and other subjects.
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Jan 9, 2020
Louis Brown: Health care is the pro-life battleground
"I want to wake the Catholic community up and the pro-life community up...that the playing field upon which all the pro-life issues are determined is in health care," said Louis Brown, executive director of Christ Medicus Foundation, who recently wrote an article titled, "Health Care: The Greatest Pro-Life Political Battle of Our Time."
"The philosophical and theological underpinnings of our health care system is what will determine whether we protect the unborn, pregnant women, the dignity of human life, because so much of that is dealt with in the health care" system, said Brown.
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Dec 31, 2019
Casey Chalk: How "woke" parenting feeds kid's victimhood
Attempts by some parents to be "attentive to the latest cultural trends and sensibilities" to reach their kids are instead cultivating even more confrontational attitudes and behavior, according to Casey Chalk, a writer for "The American Conservative" and other publications, whose recent article is "Woke Parenting Eats Its Own."
"Their kids are modeling the behavior that they have seen from their parents, who have told them that they should be distrustful of authority, that the traditional stories about American history should be questioned...[as] full of bigotry and prejudice," said Chalk on Respect Life Radio. "The parents are feeding into their children's own sense of victimhood."
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Dec 23, 2019
Katy Faust: Rights of children precede adult choices
"The idea is them — the children — before us, the adults," said Katy Faust, founder of ThemBeforeUs.com and contributor to The Federalist. "Children have very specific rights when it comes to their life, and their right to be known and loved by the two people responsible for their existence. The only way to respect those rights is for adults to conform their lives to the rights of children. What we're seeing in pretty much every area of American life — whether it's in the abortion debate, or issues of divorce or issues of reproductive technologies or cohabitation, is the adults saying: No, this is what I want and this is how I'm going to order my family, regardless of whether or not it respects children's rights."
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Dec 19, 2019
Ramona Treviño: "Celebrate Life" with former Planned Parenthood manager
Ramona Treviño, a former Planned Parenthood manager who has become a vocal pro-life advocate, will be the keynote speaker at the Celebrate Life Rally and March on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020, on the west steps of the state Capitol in Denver, Colo.
Treviño said providing contraception at clinics is a gateway to abortion for Planned Parenthood.
"It's future abortion clients for them: We have to get people to have sex and be promiscuous and live these risky lifestyles so that they can become pregnant," said Treviño on Respect Life Radio. "So if they do become pregnant, then Planned Parenthood becomes [an] authority in their life and someone they can trust. So then they go to Planned Parenthood to receive their abortion. It's just this cycle that they continue to perpetuate..."
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Dec 11, 2019
Leila Miller: Divorce makes children homeless
"What divorce does is it makes children homeless," said Leila Miller, author of "Primal Loss: The Now-Adult Children of Divorce Speak." "All of a sudden, they go from having a home and an identity — to not. And they have two homes, and they're traveling between homes. Things that the adults would never allow for themselves — you'd never tell an adult, 'Oh, you have to switch homes every few days, and bring all your stuff with you' — but we do this to the kids. And then we allow them to split their identity."
For more from Leila Miller, go to LeilaMiller.net. Also, listen to a prior Respect Life Radio interview (in Part 1 and Part 2) with Miller about the book, "Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues," co-authored with Trent Horn.
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Dec 5, 2019
Brad Wilcox: The ripple effects from marriage
“Kids raised by their own married biological parents are markedly less likely to have teenage pregnancy and they're markedly more likely to do well in school, go to college, graduate from college; less likely to be arrested, incarcerated,” said Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. Wilcox also described the “community story” of families that “ripples out and affects our neighbors, our communities and even our country, of course.”
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Nov 27, 2019
Willis Krumholz: A revolutionary Higher Ed plan
"The reality is that the government — the taxpayers, people listening to this program — you guys subsidize all the stuff that goes on" in higher education, said Willis Krumholz. "It's not just even hiding anymore how anti-Christian, anti-American, pro-Marxist a lot of the teaching is in higher education. It's a real problem."
Krumholz, a fellow at Defense Priorities, wrote an article for The Federalist, titled, "The Right Needs To Adopt This Revolutionary Higher Ed Reform Plan Now."
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Nov 21, 2019
Helen Raleigh: Standing up to Communist China
"Hong Kong is really the only free place in China," said Helen Raleigh, an author who grew up in Communist China and now lives in Colorado. "People are naturally concerned that should this (extradition) bill pass, Beijing will demand that Hong Kong hand over human rights activists and all the other dissidents. So that's why people took to the streets" in Hong Kong.
Raleigh, who recently wrote an article titled, "China’s ultimate goal is to control American culture, and companies should resist it," also discussed how the National Basketball Association, Apple, Marriott and other U.S. businesses bend to Chinese interests. She also criticized the Vatican's agreement with China on the appointment of bishops, and its effect on the underground Catholic Church there.
Raleigh is a business owner, senior contributor to The Federalist and an immigration policy fellow at the Centennial Institute. Her website is HelenRaleighSpeaks.com and her Twitter handle is @HRaleighspeaks.
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Nov 14, 2019
Daniel Blomberg: Defending "Religious Liberty for All" at Becket
Becket "is a non-profit law firm that represents people of all faith backgrounds to defend religious liberty for everyone," said Daniel Blomberg, senior counsel at Becket. "From our perspective, if anyone is being denied their religious liberty by the government, then everyone is losing an important part of what religious liberty is. We represent people from all different faith backgrounds, from Anglican to Zoroastrian and everyone in between.
"I personally have represented Muslims and Protestants and Catholics and Sikhs and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Folks from all different backgrounds. The thing that unites them is that they want to serve their God as best they can. In some way, or for some reason, the government is preventing them from doing that."
Blomberg discussed the ongoing case of the Little Sisters of the Poor fighting against the prior Obama Administration's contraceptive mandate, as well as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship vs. the Univer…
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Nov 7, 2019
Brian Black: Forming young Catholic men for life and work at Harmel Academy of the Trades
"Harmel Academy of the Trades is a men's Catholic, post-secondary, residential trade school in Grand Rapids, Michigan," said Brian Black, president and co-founder of the new school. "It's open to high school graduates — and young men will enter a program that teaches them a skilled trade, and at the same time, they'll continue to be formed in their humanities education and in their Catholic faith. It's meant to be a college experience but with a trades program training in the mix."
The school, on the Kuyper College campus, is named after Leon Harmel, who "was a successful French Catholic industrialist who led a movement to recognize the dignity and rights of industrial workers," according to the Harmel website. The school is encouraging pre-registration interest at this link, in advance of its admissions process for its first class in the fall of 2020.
"The need for well-formed young men working in the trades is very high," said Black. "The timing is good. But really what we're doi…
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Oct 31, 2019
Jared Staudt: Launching Our Lady of Victory High School
The establishment of Our Lady of Victory High School was "something that was really grass roots, driven by the desire of parents to give their children a fuller education," said R. Jared Staudt, Ph.D., president of the Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Victory High School. Staudt is also the Director of Formation at the Archdiocese of Denver.
"We are at the St. Louis school building in Englewood," said Staudt. "We have 20 students, so we actually maxed out for our first year here."
Staudt noted the classical school's emphasis on reading the Great Books and Socratic dialogue, as well as experiential learning, such as the freshman class taking a three-day backpacking trip.
"We really want to emphasize this kind-of hands-on experience of Catholic education, and Catholic culture, more generally. We emphasize spiritual formation, service and the fine arts very heavily," said Staudt of the high school, which is affiliated with the growing Chesterton Schools Network.
"We speak of the triv…
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Oct 29, 2019
Made This Way: Authentic Femininity and Masculinity (Oct. 23, 2019 event)
Respect Life Denver presented "Made This Way: Authentic Femininity and Masculinity | Transcending the established norms of our culture" at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Broomfield, Colo., on Oct. 23, 2019.
Speaking at the event were Deacon Geoff Bennett, vice president of Parish & Community Relations at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver, as well as the host of Respect Life Radio; Lynn Grandon, program director of the Respect Life Office; and Senite Sahlezghi, LPC, program director of Marisol Health in Lafayette, Colo.
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Oct 24, 2019
Tom Martinez: The path to Blind Faith Brewing
While planning to launch a brewery, "a major hurdle was thrown in my way and I lost my eyesight" in 2016, recalled Tom Martinez about his remarkable journey and the creation of Blind Faith Brewing. "When we talk about walking by faith, and not by sight, it's the willingness to take what comes, because you are going to have struggles in life. And sometimes they're unexplainable and you don't know why." Read more about Martinez in this 2018 article in the Denver Catholic.
Hear dozens of previous interviews by Respect Life Radio host Deacon Geoff Bennett by going to RespectLifeRadio.com, with podcasts available on Podbean and Apple Podcasts. Respect Life Radio also airs every week on the Catholic Radio Network in Denver.
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Oct 17, 2019
Cathy Ruse: Kids as lab rats in Sex Ed social experiment
"Leftists who run our nation’s public schools love to hide behind the skirts of the APA when it comes to crazy Sex Ed," wrote Cathy Ruse, referring to the American Psychological Association. She also noted, "Children are being used as lab rats in a social experiment."
Ruse, senior fellow and director of human dignity at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., explains on Respect Life Radio the damage being done to kids in schools.
"The lesson plan for 12-year-olds in California forces teachers — this is Sex Ed — to use the term 'partners' because the mandate says that terms like boyfriend and girlfriend are discriminatory because some 12-year-olds may be non-monogamous. God forbid we speak of spouse or husband or wife, that's long gone," said Ruse. "...You have to use the plural 'partners' because we may have non-monogamous, polyamorous relationships from these young teens. It's stomach-churning, really."
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Oct 10, 2019
John and Keri Ebel: End late-term abortion in Colorado
"We believe that the people in Colorado are going to become informed about what's happening in our state with the late-term abortions — up to birth, for any reason — and vote to end this practice," said Keri Ebel in regard to Proposition 120, which needs 124,632 valid petition signatures by March 4, 2020, to go on the Colorado ballot in November 2020.
The initiative would prohibit abortions after 22 weeks in Colorado.
"People don't know that Colorado was the first state to decriminalize abortion, said John Ebel, referring to the 1967 law. "So we feel like this is a perfect battleground. We're going to start turning this around. And this is the time to do it."
John and Keri Ebel are part of the Coalition for Women and Children, which is promoting the initiative through the website "DueDateTooLate.com." The urgent need is for people to gather petition signatures, with a training process available to those who sign up on the website.
Respect Life Denver, the office of Catholic Cha…
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Oct 3, 2019
Fr. Dwight Longenecker: Build on the rock of the Catholic faith
"We underestimate how rapidly our world is changing, how rapidly technology is just washing over us like a tsunami, and science and mobility. There are so many things buzzing in our world, and unless our faith is grounded firmly, we're likely to get swept away," said Fr. Dwight Longenecker, a Catholic priest, speaker and author. Longenecker is pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, S.C. His blog and other content can be found at DwightLongenecker.com
Longenecker referred to the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus Christ contrasts building a house on rock or on sand (MT 7:24-27) and also says to Peter, "...upon this rock I will build my church." (MT 16:18)
"Very clearly, it seems to me, that Jesus is saying: hey, build your house on the rock, Peter's the rock. And the Catholic faith for the last 2,000 years is that rock of stability on which to build," said Longenecker. "If we don't actually build on a secure foundation, then when the storms come, that house will fall fla…
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Sep 30, 2019
Made This Way: Male and Female (Sept. 10, 2019 event)
How to address, with truth and Christian charity, the many aspects of transgenderism? That was the subject of "Made This Way: Male and Female," a special event presented by Respect Life Denver on Sept. 10, 2019, at St. Thomas More Catholic Parish in Centennial, Colo.
Nearly 500 people attended the event to hear Dr. Patrick Lappert, an Alabama-based plastic surgeon and also a deacon in the Catholic Church; and to hear Emily Zinos, a Minnesota-based Catholic mom who compiled the "Parent Resource Guide: Responding to the Transgender Issue," which can be downloaded at genderresourceguide.com.
The event was co-sponsored by the Denver Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver, and the Centennial Institute. The edited audio of the event includes extended remarks from Zinos and Lappert, as well as questions to both of them, submitted by the audience.
Video of the event is cross-posted at https://vimeo.com/366542026
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Sep 26, 2019
Walt Heyer: Transgender push on children is abuse
"It is categorically impossible to change your gender," said Walt Heyer, a biological male who had gender reassignment surgery in 1983 and later detransitioned. "It becomes sort of...an elaborate Halloween costume with surgery and hormones."
Heyer, an author whose website is SexChangeRegret.com, described the current transgender push on children as "medical malpractice, it's child abuse, it's experimental medicine" that will reveal itself in the years ahead. "They're all gonna go, 'Gee whiz. Why did we put this in schools? What were we doing?'"
Heyer traced his own gender confusion to his grandmother cross-dressing him as a four-year-old boy in the 1940s. She "affirmed me and told me how told me how cute I looked, is how that event planted the seed of confusion," said Heyer, who said that led him to be a target of sexual abuse by an uncle.
Read more of Heyer's story in a USA Today opinion piece.
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Sep 19, 2019
Honoring veterans in Colorado at "In God We Trust" events
"They really did give us everything: freedom; freedom for our faith, everything," said Deacon Jim Doyle, referring to military veterans, including his father, who are honored at the Colorado Freedom Memorial in Aurora, Colo. There will be a special Mass there on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019, at an event titled, "In God We Trust."
"Anybody that knows a vet should invite them to this, and especially a vet that has really turned sour on his faith," said Doyle. "Those are the folks that we want. For some reason, they've had a bad experience in the war and they're thinking that God doesn't love them anymore. So we want those women and men back."
According to a description of the event, "'The Colorado Freedom Memorial in partnership with the Archdiocese of Denver will host 'In God We Trust,' a calling to all veterans to be reunited with Christ at a Special Outdoor Mass, followed by a reception where veterans can connect with others who have served and others who can help us on the journey back…
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Sep 14, 2019
Elena Rodriguez: Join the EWTN Family Celebration in Denver on Sept. 21
"Every year, EWTN celebrates its anniversary in a different city across the country and this year EWTN has picked Denver," said Elena Rodriguez, the U.S. Northwest Regional Marketing Manager for EWTN, the Global Catholic Network.
The free EWTN Family Celebration will be at Magness Arena on the campus of the University of Denver, beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21. There will be presentations, in both English and Spanish, throughout the day by prominent Catholic speakers, with a Mass at 5 p.m.
"There is something for every age," said Rodriguez, who encouraged attendees, including families with children, to register in advance for the free event at ewtn.com/familycelebration.
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Sep 5, 2019
Deacon Molina: Teen STAR helps youth know their God-given bodies
Teen STAR helps youth understand "their fertility, their biomarkers and themselves through the self-discovery of their bodies and who they are" in the eyes of God, said Deacon Santiago Molina, executive director of Teen STAR, an educational program available in more than 46 countries.
"We like to call it...Theology of the Body, starting with the body," said Molina. "We know that kids in (7th to 10th grades) are still not quite in that age of abstract thinking. They're mostly concrete thinkers. So you give them the concrete facts of the biology of their bodies, allow them to experience the signs that their bodies give them for understanding who they are."
Teen STAR, taught separately to boys and girls for at least the first seven units, proceeds from anatomy and physiology to educate youth on the spirituality and meaning of the body, including Humanae Vitae and St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body, said Molina.
Teen STAR (Sexuality Teaching in the context of Adult Responsibility)…
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Aug 28, 2019
Carrie Gress: Mother Mary the antidote to feminism
Feminism, understood in the culture as “being pro-woman,” is really a “deadly combination of Marxism and the occult” with a focus on abortion, said Carrie Gress, Ph.D., author of the recent book, “The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity.”
Gress, editor of the online magazine Theology of Home, also describes the fallout from the roots of Protestantism, which “threw out Our Lady and they threw out religious orders for women, [which] kind of left women in this position where they don't have any way to understand how they can reach God and be in proper relationship with God.
“And that's where it comes back to, even these ideas of virginity and motherhood. Those are what are being attacked, very specifically. Which is no surprise: we call Our Lady the Virgin Mother. I think it underscores, too, just the importance of these two different ways that we know ourselves within a relationship with God the Father. And that's really what [feminism is] tryi…
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Aug 21, 2019
Thane Bellomo: We Killed God, Family & Community – And Now it’s Killing Us
Thane Bellomo, MBA - Organizational Development Innovator, Author, Speaker, Bass Player
Gun violence is a result of taking God, Family & Community out of society. Thane says the vast majority of people can barley count on one hand the number of people whose life would be altered by their passing. Suicide rates and drug abuse are up in our society and that is not because of guns. You can read Thane’s article at The Federalist.
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Aug 15, 2019
John F. Brehany, Ph.D., S.T.L, Director of Institutional Relations for the National Catholic Bioethics Center
We talk about reproductive technology and the Churches teaching. One easy litmus test to determine whether a procedure is morally acceptable is if it replaces the martial act it is morally wrong and if it assists the marital act it is morally acceptable.
John lets us know that bioethical challenges don’t go away they seem to become more numerous. He also says People are paying 20 to 30k for woman to go through ones attempt at Invitro Fertilization (IVF)
A number of eggs are fertilized creating embryos only to have the best ones picked out while destroying the remaining fertilized embryos. It is a form of eugenics.
Children are good and innocent – They can suffer profoundly based on the decision of their parents. So before going down the road which can lead to many difficult emotional situations with the children later in life there is hope for those suffering with fertility issues. John provides a place to go to get help and have the fertility issue examined.
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Aug 8, 2019
Olivia Enos – Policy Analyst, Asian Studies Center – Heritage Foundation
Find out about the oppression of all faiths in China with a particular focus on the Uighurs (pronounced Weegers). Reeducation facilities, forced labor, torcher & brain washing.
Also learn how China spies not only on their own people but on people of other nations.
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Aug 1, 2019
Dr. Theresa Deisher- Vaccines
Learn about vaccines and what parents should know when it comes to protecting their child with vaccines and potentially from them.
If you have questions about fetal cell vaccines or the possible link to autism you need to listen to this podcast.
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Jul 26, 2019
Patrick Reilly – President and founder of the Cardinal Newman Society
Patrick and his staff do extensive research on the over 200 Catholic colleges in the U.S. to help parents identify the 10% of those colleges that are faithful to the teachings of the Church (Newman Guide). Our children are leaving the faith at an alarming rate and most studies show that the college years are the greatest threat to our children’s faith. Patrick says there is something about living on these campuses where you have 4 yrs. of thoroughly Catholic Christian culture. Our kids my never have that opportunity again to be in such a faithful environment. If you are a parent or grandparent of school age children you must listen to this podcast.
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Jul 17, 2019
Dr. Jeff Berger – 35+ years experience helping those with addictions and a member of the Catholic Medical Association (CMA).
Dr. Berger tells us that the avg age of those starting to use marijuana is 8-12 yrs. old and getting younger. He says that 17% of adolescence who start using marijuana will become addicted to harder drugs. Some of the symptoms of marijuana use are; sudden mood swings, falling asleep at improper times, short term memory issues, glassy eyes and strange friends appearing and that is just to name a few. Listen to find out about the other dangers of this drug that our politicians are ignoring.
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Jul 10, 2019
Liberty McArtor: Women with Kids are bad for business according to 180 CEO’s
Liberty McArtor a freelance writer out of Texas talk about how these 180 and many other CEO’s are supporting abortion and don’t care about women’s empowerment.
She says there is a fertility crisis in the United States and many women aren’t having as many children as they would like. The CEO’s message to women is we want to hire more of you but we need to have abortions so women can make it at our companies and have a chance to move up in the organization. Liberty says “Our society doesn’t value family”.
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Jul 9, 2019
Mark Sanders: The evils of pornography
Mark Sanders is an addiction counselor at St. Raphael’s and he explains how pornography is addictive and that it can rewire the brain. According to Mark the average age of a child’s first exposure to pornography is 10 to 12 years old.
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Jun 26, 2019
Greg Baylor: Equality Act an assault on religious freedom
"The Equality Act is certainly a broadside frontal assault on religious freedom, and specifically, those who hold what are becoming the so-called 'wrong views' about controversial issues like the morality of homosexual behavior, about the definition of marriage, about the distinction between the sexes," said Greg Baylor, senior counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom. "It would impose a Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) nondiscrimination obligation in a whole host of settings. We're talking about businesses, places of public accommodation in their relationships with customers."
Baylor listed other groups that would be affected by the proposed Equality Act: employers, landlords, public schools, private schools, recipients of federal financial assistance, higher education, and many religious social service agencies.
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Jun 19, 2019
Rebecca Dussault: An Olympian explains the transgender threat to women's sports
Rebecca Dussault, a 2006 Winter Olympian in cross-country skiing and a world champion winter triathlete, warns that, "We are wading into some really dangerous waters” in allowing transgender participation in female sporting events.
“We as a people need to consider the consequences right now before the whole can of worms is opened,” said Dussault in an interview on Respect Life Radio, a weekly radio show based in Denver. “I am all for all people getting to express themselves through sport. But I am for fairness.”
Dussault, a wife and mother of six, has been described as a “multi-sport momma” for her achievements in cross-country skiing, winter triathlons and other sports. An Idaho resident, she coaches women to be “healthy, happy and holy” moms through FitCatholicMom.com.
Dussault's Catholic faith, her experience in international sporting competitions and a concern for the well-being of female athletes were evident in the 27-minute Respect Life Radio interview with…
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Jun 12, 2019
John Miller: Precious Lives Burial in northern Colorado
"We take babies that never make it home from the hospital into our care and reverently place [them] in a Rite of Committal...about once a month," said John Miller, outreach coordinator for Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services of northern Colorado, which includes Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. "It's open to people of all faiths."
See this link for more on Precious Lives Burial and reach John Miller at 303-715-2083 or via email at john.miller@archden.org.
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Jun 5, 2019
Dr. Bruchalski: a former abortionist now saves babies
"I did abortions the first two years of my residency," said Dr. John Bruchalski, who is the founder of who is the founder of pro-life Tepeyac OB/GYN and Divine Mercy Care in Virginia. "I terminated Down Syndrome. I terminated really sick babies. I terminated babies with no kidneys. And these are all quote-unquote 'incompatible with life.' But you never get rid of the disease by getting rid of the people with the disease..."
"...When you love the child in the womb of its mother, as long as the good Lord provides, you can...parse those diseases into livable, lovable and treatable."
Read his amazing conversion story at this link and see the videos of his appearance at the 2015 Gospel of Life Conference in Denver in Part 1 and Part 2.
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May 22, 2019
David Deavel: A Catholic critique of socialism (Part 2 of 2)
“The great miracle of the last century is that, for most of the world, developing market economies have allowed them to actually enter that “circle of exchange” [as St. John Paul II said] and so we have at this point in history...the smallest percentage of people in the world living in dire poverty. That to me is a much more important question than if somebody else has more stuff than I do,” said David Deavel, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and the editor of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture.
This is Part 2 of a two-part podcast. Listen to Part 1 at this link.
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May 14, 2019
David Deavel: A Catholic critique of socialism (Part 1 of 2)
“In almost every socialist system, you're going to end up with one group of people who are in the government, who are running things on behalf of the people...and they're going to end up having the power and the money for themselves,” said David Deavel, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and the editor of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture.
Young people attracted to socialism “may think of it simply as part of that welfare state ideal and they've been taught, 'Everything works better in Sweden' or something like that,” said Deavel. “And what they don't understand is that those Nordic countries actually did have fairly socialist arrangements in the 1970s. But what they led to was absolute stagnation. So many of them had to open up their economies in order to keep up their large welfare state.”
The “Catholic social tradition has largely been open to market economies within a strong juridical…
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May 8, 2019
Fr. Gary Selin: The existence and purpose of angels
"Every Sunday, when we pray the Creed, we profess our faith in things visible and invisible," said Fr. Gary Selin, who is a Formation Advisor, as well as an Assistant Professor, at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. "The invisible refers primarily to the angels, that God created both material things and the spirit world..."
See also this Denver Catholic article from 2012, "Angels: the invisible heroes among us," in which Fr. Selin is interviewed.
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May 2, 2019
Sister Joseph Marie: Caring for the elderly as for Jesus Christ
“Today we serve the elderly in over 30 countries around the world and count on a diverse network of collaborators to help us fulfill our mission,” said Sister Joseph Marie, vocations director of the Little Sisters of the Poor Mullen Home for the Aged in Denver. “As it says in our mission statement: We offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they will be welcomed as Christ, cared for as a family, and accompanied with dignity until God calls them home to Himself.”
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Apr 23, 2019
Leila Miller: Made This Way (Part 2 of 2)
"I had a mom who sent me a picture of her high-school daughter, who picked up the book in their kitchen, and sat down and read it straight through in two days and said, 'Mom, this is exactly what's going on in my school,'" said Leila Miller, co-author of "Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues," in Part 2 of this two-part interview on Respect Life Radio. Listen to Part 1 here.
The book addresses hot-button issues, including:
* Sex Outside of Marriage
* Same-Sex "Marriage"
* Divorce
* Contraception
* Abortion
* Reproductive Technologies
* Modesty
* Pornography
* Transgenderism
* Homosexuality
The Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver also provides presentations at your parish, school or community group. This can be an introduction to the overall goal of the book — helping kids get to heaven — as well as giving you resources to address specific topics at age appropriate levels. Submit your request…
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Apr 17, 2019
Leila Miller: Made This Way (Part 1 of 2)
"...Catholic parents, and Christian parents, are just pretty much petrified as to what they're watching happen in the culture and...you feel like you're just free-falling. You don't know what to do..." said Leila Miller, co-author of "Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues," in Part 1 of a two-part interview on Respect Life Radio. Listen to Part 2 here.
The book addresses hot-button issues, including:
* Sex Outside of Marriage
* Same-Sex "Marriage"
* Divorce
* Contraception
* Abortion
* Reproductive Technologies
* Modesty
* Pornography
* Transgenderism
* Homosexuality
The Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver also provides presentations at your parish, school or community group. This can be an introduction to the overall goal of the book — helping kids get to heaven — as well as giving you resources to address specific topics at age appropriate levels. Submit your request at respectlifedenver.org…
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Apr 10, 2019
Maddie Haas: The unplanned blessing of a new life
Maddie Haas of Colorado was a teenage freshman at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln when she found out she was unexpectedly pregnant. "For being so pro-life, the thought of abortion came into my head...for probably one minute," recalled Maddie. "It definitely came into my head [that] I could do this and no one in my family would even have to know that I was ever even pregnant."
"...Nothing can really prepare you, no matter how pro-life you are, or how Catholic you are, if you get in that moment."
An ultrasound revealed Maddie was nearly 20 weeks pregnant. "At that point, my question went from, 'Do I tell my parents?' to 'How do I tell them?'"
In this Respect Life Radio interview, Maddie Haas and her mother, Val, discuss the struggles and joys of the past six years and the gift of Maddie's daughter, Ellie Grace, now five years old.
See also this Denver Catholic story from 2014, "Pro-life teen tested by reality of own pregnancy."
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Apr 2, 2019
Ed and Eddie Reinhardt: You're OK, Kid!
"There's two stories involved here," said Ed Reinhardt Sr., referring to his son Eddie's traumatic brain injury in a 1984 college football game — and to "my relationship with my own father and then how it strangely, mysteriously, providentially connects with Ed's accident."
The Reinhardts are inspirational public speakers, addressing "the good that can come out of tragedy" and "the importance of the influence of parents in the family." Their story is told in the 2004 book, "You're OK, Kid!"
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Mar 25, 2019
Emily Zinos: A charitable response to the transgender movement (Part 2 of 2)
"That's why changing the culture right now is so important," said Emily Zinos, a mother of seven who leads Ask Me First Minnesota. "We have to remember our doctors, our endocrinologists, our surgeons, don't live in a bubble, right? They're living in a culture where these ideas are becoming popular. They're having more and more parents come in to ask questions or to make demands of them for these types of medical interventions. So the importance of speaking out isn't just about our public schools. But speaking out with our neighbors and our friends means that we're changing the culture one person at a time."
Click here for Part 1 of the Respect Life Radio interview with Emily Zinos.
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Mar 18, 2019
Emily Zinos: A charitable response to the transgender movement (Part 1 of 2)
"I work with Ask Me First Minnesota, which essentially advocates for common-sense recognition of biological sex in law, policy and culture. We focus especially on the negative impacts that gender identity laws have on women and girls," said Emily Zinos, a mother of seven. "My own interest in this issue stems from something that happened at my children's school. So, we had our children enrolled in a public charter school here in Minnesota. And, in 2015, we got an email that blindsided us — from the principal of the grade school." Click here for Part 2 of the Respect Life Radio interview with Emily Zinos.
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Mar 12, 2019
Sen. Williams: Repeal the death penalty in Colorado
"For us, as a Catholic community and a Christian community, there's forgiveness out there, too. People need to have an opportunity to rehabilitate if they've made a mistake. And that happens every day," said Colorado state Sen. Angela Williams of Denver, a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 19-182 to repeal the death penalty, under consideration at the state legislature. "But to put someone to death to try to solve our social issues is inhumane and I don't think that's our decision to make. The state of Colorado hasn't used the death penalty since 1997."
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Mar 6, 2019
Senite Sahlezghi: How Marisol Health cares for women who are pregnant and in need
“Our main mission is to provide dignified care to women and families," said — Senite Sahlezghi, Marisol Health Program Director in Lafayette, Colo. "The heart of the Marisol Health mission really is to meet that woman who is unexpectedly pregnant — and be able to provide her a wraparound supportive services network [with] dignified and qualified medical care, so that she may choose life and know that she is supported...”
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Feb 25, 2019
Celebrate Life 2019 Rally and March in Denver, Colorado (Part 2)
In the second part from the Celebrate Life Rally and March, hear the McGarrity family, who are raising four children with Down syndrome in addition to four "typical" children; Elías Moo, the Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Denver; and event MC David Bereit, the co-founder of 40 Days for Life, who closed the rally with a prophetic story about Abraham Lincoln. The annual Celebrate Life Rally and March was held Jan. 12, 2019, beginning on the west steps of the Colorado state Capitol in Denver. (Part 2 of 2 parts.) For more on Celebrate Life, go to RespectLifeDenver.org.
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Feb 19, 2019
Celebrate Life 2019 Rally and March in Denver, Colorado (Part 1)
The annual Celebrate Life Rally and March was held Jan. 12, 2019, beginning on the west steps of the Colorado state Capitol in Denver. David Bereit, the co-founder and former president of 40 Days for Life, was the emcee, introducing the Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, Archbishop of Denver. Other speakers included Deacon Geoff Bennett of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver and Elizabeth Felix of Students for Life of America. (Part 1 of 2 parts.) For more on Celebrate Life, go to RespectLifeDenver.org.
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Feb 14, 2019
Carrie Savage: Raising children in Kinship caregiving
Kinship is "a relative raising a relative's child," said Carrie Savage, manager of Kinship and Senior Services at Catholic Charities of Denver. "We most commonly see grandparents raising grandchildren, but we also have aunts and uncles, cousins (raising children). And they don't have to be blood-related. We can call them a psychological kin and they have a special relationship with the child; maybe a godparent would be an example of that. But most commonly, grandparents." For more, see the Kinship Caregiver Program at Catholic Charities, as well as Senior Care Services.
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Feb 8, 2019
Fr. Gary Selin: The purpose and meaning of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church
"At the foundation, the reason priests are celibate is because Jesus Christ himself was celibate," said Fr. Gary Selin, author of Priestly Celibacy: Theological Foundations. "He's the reason, he's the cause, he is the very foundation of the New Testament priesthood." Fr. Selin is a Formation Advisor, as well as an Assistant Professor, at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. For more, see the National Catholic Register interview with Fr. Selin, "Why the Church Guards Celibacy as a 'Brilliant Jewel.'"
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Dec 20, 2018
Fr. Greg Cleveland: Your relationship with God is a reality to be discovered
“We offer spiritual direction to people throughout the Archdiocese of Denver and beyond, as well,” said Fr. Greg Cleveland, O.M.V., of The Lanteri Center for Ignatian Spirituality in Denver. “We offer that service to people looking for that one-on-one guidance, helping deepen their relationship with The Lord. We also train people to become spiritual directors.” Go here for more on The Lanteri Center.
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Dec 11, 2018
Sam Perry: the power and purpose of praying the Rosary
“Prayer, with the Rosary, was a big part of our family,” said Sam Perry, discussing his mission to widely share that devotion, including distribution of tens of thousands of Rosaries and prayer books over the years, as well as initiating Prayer in the Square on the first Saturday of each month at locations across Colorado's Front Range. Perry also discussed the traveling statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which can be booked at schools and parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver. For more on Sam and Becky Perry, read this 2013 story.
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Dec 3, 2018
Lynn Grandon: Join the Celebrate Life Rally and March on Jan. 12, 2019
"This really is the largest civil rights movement of our time," said Lynn Grandon, program director of the Respect Life Office at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. Across the nation each January, "people join together by the hundreds of thousands to remember the tragedy of the Roe v. Wade decision and what it's done to our nation. Some people may not be aware that the numbers are above 60 million of the children that we've lost [from abortion] since January of 1973. So people gather and march peacefully all across the United States."
Grandon described the upcoming Celebrate Life Rally and March, to take place starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019, on the west steps of the state Capitol in Denver. Details are available at respectlifedenver.org.
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Nov 20, 2018
Deacon Robert Hoffman: the call to be a deacon in the Catholic Church
“Every two years, we will have a recruitment year at the St. Francis School of Theology for Deacons,” said Deacon Robert Hoffman, associate director. “We are in the recruitment year. For the entire year, once a month we will have discernment retreats for men who feel they have the call to be a deacon.”
Here is a link to the application process as well as registration for discernment retreats in the Archdiocese of Denver, which are to be held on Dec. 1, 2018; as well as Jan. 12 (bilingual), Feb. 9, March 9 and April 6, 2019.
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Nov 19, 2018
Cheryl Martinez-Gloria: On providing immigration services in Colorado
“We are accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals,” said Cheryl Martinez-Gloria, Esq., Director of Immigration Services at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. “We offer advice, assistance and representation to the indigent and low-income of Colorado — those with valid legal claims to status under our immigration laws. Our main office is located in Denver. We do have satellite offices in Glenwood Springs, Frisco, Greeley and Fort Morgan. In general, our practice covers family visa processing, deportation defense, citizenship and community education.”
For more details, go to http://ccdenver.org/immigration-services or call 303-742-7491.
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Nov 16, 2018
Suicide: the aftermath for family and friends (Part 2 of 2)
In the devastating fallout from suicide, not much attention is given to "the family members, the friends that are left behind. I think it's a topic that is rarely discussed and rarely addressed," said Cheryl, a guest on Respect Life Radio. In recollecting the responses of friends — following the suicide of her husband — she described five different approaches: Shame, Blame, Fame, Same and Aim.
This is Part two of a two-part program on the subject of suicide. The first episode featured therapist Elizabeth Higbie, LCSW, of St. Raphael Counseling.
[If your or someone you know is experiencing a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. For Colorado Crisis Services, call 1-844-493-8255.]
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Oct 30, 2018
Suicide: Risk factors and warning signs (Part 1 of 2)
"We know that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States," said Elizabeth Higbie, LCSW, a therapist with St. Raphael Counseling, a ministry of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. Higbie discussed risk factors that may include mental illness, depression, a family history of suicide, isolation, a history of abuse in childhood, unwillingness to seek help as well as barriers to treatment. Higbie also discussed potential warning signs of suicidal behavior and wrote an article on the subject, available here.
[If your or someone you know is experiencing a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. For Colorado Crisis Services, call 1-844-493-8255.]
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Oct 24, 2018
Gospel of Life 2018: Michael Barber, Ph.D., on Where Do We Go from Here?
Michael Barber, Ph.D., associate professor of scripture and theology at the Augustine Institute, spoke at the Gospel of Life Conference 2018: Prophecies and Consequences of Humanae Vitae. The conference on Oct. 20, 2018, was presented by the Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. For details, go to https://gospeloflifeco.org.
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Oct 24, 2018
Gospel of Life 2018: Emily Stimpson Chapman on living Humanae Vitae
Emily Stimpson Chapman, Catholic writer and author, spoke at the Gospel of Life Conference 2018: Prophecies and Consequences of Humanae Vitae. The conference on Oct. 20, 2018, was presented by the Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. For details, go to https://gospeloflifeco.org.
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Oct 24, 2018
Gospel of Life 2018: Dr. Marguerite Duane on Responding to the Contraceptive Crisis with Fertility Awareness Based Methods
Dr. Marguerite Duane, co-founder and executive director of the Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Science (FACTS), spoke at the Gospel of Life Conference 2018: Prophecies and Consequences of Humanae Vitae. The conference on Oct. 20, 2018, was presented by the Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. For details, go to https://gospeloflifeco.org.
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Oct 24, 2018
Gospel of Life 2018: Michaelann Martin on Hope and Help for Families with Special Needs
Michaelann Martin, co-founder and president of Made for More, Inc., spoke at the Gospel of Life Conference 2018: Prophecies and Consequences of Humanae Vitae. The conference on Oct. 20, 2018, was presented by the Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. For details, go to https://gospeloflifeco.org.
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Oct 24, 2018
Gospel of Life 2018: Dr. Patrick Lappert on Transgender Surgery and Christian Anthropology
Deacon Patrick Lappert, M.D., spoke at the Gospel of Life Conference 2018: Prophecies and Consequences of Humanae Vitae. The conference on Oct. 20, 2018, was presented by the Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. For details, go to https://gospeloflifeco.org.
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Oct 22, 2018
Fr. Doug Grandon: (Part 2 of 2) Understanding the scandal in the Catholic Church
"Pray for our bishops that they would have courage. They need courage, even the good ones, they need courage is what they need; courage to do what needs to be done," said Fr. Doug Grandon in this second of a two-part interview by Deacon Geoff Bennett on Respect Life Radio.
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Oct 13, 2018
Fr. Doug Grandon: (Part 1 of 2) Understanding the scandal in the Catholic Church
"This is a worldwide problem with men who have disordered sexual preferences and we didn't screen them out. We are now — since the Dallas Charter, we are doing a good job here — but men who fail to live up to what the Church teaches and the Church that hasn't policed them," said Fr. Doug Grandon in this first of a two-part interview by Deacon Geoff Bennett on Respect Life Radio.
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Oct 12, 2018
Deacon Martinez: RISE ministry to serve victims of sexual assault
Deacon Ernest Martinez, a Denver police officer, describes the launch of the RISE ministry to help victims of rape that are facilitated by alcohol and drugs. RISE stands for: Recognize, Intervene, Speak Up and Empower. "The recognition is that alcohol and drugs are the most commonly used method to facilitate sexual assault...," said Deacon Martinez. "We want to bring the awareness piece, from a faith-based perspective, to take what's currently out there and broaden it and preach the Gospel throughout the entire process and accompany — not only just victims — but try to be proactive on it."
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Sep 17, 2018
Lynn Grandon: Gospel of Life Conference addresses sexual revolution
The Gospel of Life Conference 2018 will feature "amazing speakers that will target some of the really incredible and interesting issues and topics related to" the encyclical Humanae Vitae "and what has happened in our society since its publication" in 1968 by Pope Paul VI, said Lynn Grandon, program director of the Office of Respect Life at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. For a full line-up of speakers, and to register for the conference on Oct. 20, 2018, go to gospeloflifeco.org.
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Sep 10, 2018
Lynn Grandon: the joyful mission of the Respect Life Office
Offering age-appropriate presentations, the Respect Life Office helps educate young people to understand the meaning of "authentic love," according to Lynn Grandon, program director of the Office of Respect Life at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. The office also presents and promotes public events throughout the year, including 40 Days for Life in the spring and fall, Prayer in the Square at various locations every first Saturday, the annual Day of Remembrance for aborted children, the annual Gospel of Life conference on Oct. 20, 2018, and the annual Celebrate Life rally on Jan. 12, 2019. For more, go to RespectLifeDenver.org.
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Sep 4, 2018
Deacon Steve Stemper: Charitable giving to build up the kingdom of God
The Catholic Foundation of Northern Colorado is "a stand-alone entity that inspires and facilitiates charitable giving for the long-term benefit of our donors and the Church, with the ultimate goal of building up the kingdom of God," said Deacon Steve Stemper, the president and CEO of the foundation, which in "2017 issued over 500 grants to over 200 organizations, totalling nearly $11 million."
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Aug 27, 2018
Sara Alkayali: Christ is central at Frassati Catholic Academy
"Everything that we do is rooted in us as Catholics and rooted in Christ," said Sara Alkayali, principal of Frassati Catholic Academy in Thornton. Colo., which opened in the 2017-18 school year. "The most important reason to send your child to a Catholic school is because you're formed in the faith. You're there where Christ is put central."
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Aug 20, 2018
Elías Moo: Catholic schools can be the beacon of truth for the world
Elías Moo, Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Denver, describes his vision for affirming and renewing the mission of Catholic schools. Moo's parents saw Catholic education — for him and his siblings — as a way to be "truly liberated to be able to experience a formation that would allow us to be free to love God, to serve God, to serve the church."
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Aug 13, 2018
Mark Sanders: Faith and the treatment of addictions
Enabling behaviors and boundary issues are a big challenge for families when a member is struggling with addiction, according to Mark Sanders of St. Raphael Counseling, speaking on Respect Life Radio, hosted by Deacon Geoff Bennett. "I love the fact that I can utilize faith in the practice that I do at St. Raphael's," said Sanders. "I have always had the sense that addictions really talk about the sense of a God-shaped hole in us."
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Aug 8, 2018
Jenny Kraska: Advocacy requires strength in numbers
Jenny Kraska, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, discusses ways to be effective in advocating for Catholic public policy positions at the Colorado state legislature. Go to http://http://cocatholicconference.org for more. Kraska was interviewed by Deacon Geoff Bennett of Catholic Charities.
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Jul 30, 2018
Deacon Alan Rastrelli, M.D.: Sacred space at the end of life
Deacon Alan Rastrelli, M.D., discusses end-of-life care and related issues in this episode of Respect Life Radio, hosted by Deacon Geoff Bennett of Catholic Charities.
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Jul 23, 2018
Dede Chism: Bella's life-affirming health care for women
"A desire to be cared for, a desire to be heard," is how Bella Natural Women's Care and Family Wellness attracted 5,000 patients in less than four years, according to Dede Chism, co-founder and executive director, interviewed by Deacon Geoff Bennett in this episode of Respect Life Radio.
Bella follows the "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services," yet half of its patients are not Catholic, according to Chism, who explains the life-affirming mission of Bella, reproductive health care for women, as well as the abortion-pill reversal procedure.
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Jul 16, 2018
Bishop Jorge Rodríguez: The message of life, of Jesus
Bishop Jorge Rodríguez, Ph.D., describes his life growing up in Mexico, his calling to the priesthood, and his surprise at being named the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Denver in 2016. "The most important thing we have in the Church — besides Jesus, the blessed Eucharist — is the people we serve," he said in this Respect Life Radio interview.
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Jul 9, 2018
Sister Maris Stella of the Sisters of Life: serving women in dignity
“...A lot of our work is serving women who are pregnant, and women who have suffered after the sorrow of abortion," said Sister Maris Stella of the Sisters of Life in Denver. "And we've always wanted to serve college women better — knowing that women at that age, so many of them, are faced with choices — and so much of what is presented to them by the culture is so beneath their dignity. And so we wanted to stand there and be there with them.”
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Jun 5, 2018
Respect Life Radio: Coming Soon!
Sister Maris Stella describes the life-changing work of the Sisters of Life in this clip from Respect Life Radio. The show, hosted by Deacon Geoff Bennett of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver, is coming soon to Catholic Radio 1060 AM — KRCN. Go to RespectLifeRadio.com for more.
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