This is the first in a series of episodes (accompanied by articles) surveying the most important encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. His third encyclical, Aeterni Patris (1879), on the restoration of Christian philosophy, famously called for a revival of the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas. Links Thomas’s article on Aeterni Patris , “Leo XIII and the restoration of Christian philosophy” https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/leo-xiii-on-restoration-christian-philosophy/ Pope Leo XIII, Aeterni Patri...
Jul 08, 2025•53 min•Ep. 199
St. Hildegard of Bingen, 12th-century abbess, mystic, polymath, and Doctor of the Church, is best known to non-Catholics for something else – her music. We have more pieces of music by Hildegard than by any other medieval composer whose name we know. Her chants are beautiful, otherworldly, virtuosic and ahead of their time. Some of them were written for her morality play, the Ordo virtutum , which is also the first of its kind. Musicologist Margot Fassler joins the podcast to discuss what makes ...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 198
We all know the secular world opposes the very idea of a person with same-sex attraction seeking any kind of therapy or spiritual counsel that might enable them to reach a state of healthy relations with the opposite sex. But what’s odd is that many Catholics seem to have bought into this. Many assume that if someone is not currently attracted to the opposite sex, this is a static, lifelong condition and therefore they must be called to celibacy. But this view involves multiple misunderstandings...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 197
Fr. John Nepil, priest and mountaineer, joins the podcast to discuss his book To Heights and Unto Depths: Letters from the Colorado Trail . Topics discussed include: The modern view of "nature" vs. God's creation A morally responsible approach to risk-taking The modern origins of hiking as a secular activity "Wilderness" vs. "garden" - Catholic attitudes toward the wild places To Heights and Unto Depths https://ignatius.com/to-heights-and-unto-depths-thudp/ DONATE to make this show possible! htt...
May 27, 2025•46 min•Ep. 196
The standard textbook of theology in medieval universities was the Sentences by Peter Lombard (1095-1160), bishop of Paris. This collection systematically arranged the theological judgments of Scripture and the Church Fathers on various topics. For almost four centuries, those seeking higher credentials in theology had to study, teach, and comment on Lombard’s Sentences . It was formative for the likes of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure. Over time, the genre of commentaries on the Sentenc...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 195
A great spiritual master of our time, Fr. Donald Haggerty, joins the podcast to discuss his important new book, The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty . He offers profound reflections on the ongoing, and perhaps future, crisis within the Church, with an eye to arousing an appetite for the greater spiritual intensity God desires his faithful to live out in this time. It is essential that we see that our Lord Himself is reliving His Passion in His Mysti...
Apr 10, 2025•57 min•Ep. 194
Mimetic desire, scapegoating: if you've been hearing these terms thrown around lately, it's because the French Catholic philosopher René Girard (1923-2015) is having a renaissance, with powerful people like J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel citing his influence on their thought. Trevor Cribben Merrill, producer of the new documentary Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard , joins the podcast to discuss Girard's principal ideas, and reflect on aspects of his thought which seem difficult to re...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 193
Ryan Hammill of the Ancient Language Institute joins Thomas for a practical discussion about how to learn Latin, as well as the central place of the classical languages (Latin and Greek) in classical Christian education, and the various schools of thought in today’s classical Christian education movement. Links Thomas’s article about learning Latin https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/dreamt-learning-latin-heres-how-youll-finally-do-it/ Ancient Language Institute https://ancientlanguage.co...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 192
The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years , by the great English musicologist Christopher Page, covers the development of Christian liturgical music from its origins as an elaboration of the role of the lector to its flourishing in the monastic and cathedral singing schools of France, as Roman chant was spread across Europe. One of the most important developments was the gradual development of a system of notation in the late first millennium, culminating in Guido d'Arezzo's i...
Feb 21, 2025•46 min•Ep. 191
A new biography of Ven. Fulton Sheen gives special attention to his high-profile converts, but reveals many other interesting facets of his life as well. Author Cheryl Hughes joins to discuss Sheen’s at times shockingly direct evangelization methods, his outstanding television presence, his lifelong struggle with vanity and ambition, and the mistreatment he suffered from his rival, Cardinal Spellman. Links Cheryl C.D. Hughes, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Convert Maker https://ignatius.com/archbis...
Feb 11, 2025•58 min•Ep. 190
St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius's book The Consolation of Philosophy , which he wrote in prison while awaiting martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. But Boethius also owed much to the pagan philosophy that came before him. Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius's dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher . Topics discussed include: Boethius's debt to ...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 190
There is increasing speculation and concern about the role of AI in the future of the arts. Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to “create” without actually achieving the object of the desire in question. We should not use technology to replace the human specialt...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 188
Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, a liturgical historian and priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London, is the author of the new book A Short History of the Roman Mass , from Ignatius Press. Topics discussed in this episode include: The origins of the Roman Rite and development of the Roman Eucharistic Prayer Problems with liturgical antiquarianism (trying to revive practices allegedly from the early Church in preference to what has been handed down continuously) The value of ad orientem worship Ou...
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 187
DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio De Maria numquam satis : Of Mary never enough. This saying of St. Bernard is echoed by many other saints. St. Anselm, for instance, says that it is impossible to determine the limits of God’s grace in elevating Mary’s human nature. St. Alphonsus says that if there is anything good we can say about Mary, not contrary to the teaching of the Church and having some legitimate theological basis, then we ought to say it. But so...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 186
In his new book, The Stigmatists: Their Gifts, Their Revelations, Their Warnings , Paul Kengor gives a historical overview of the phenomenon of the stigmata, focusing especially on one thing many stigmatists have in common: they receive visions, often prophetic ones. The book devotes individual chapters to seven canonized or beatified stigmatists: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena, Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich, St. Pius of Pietrelcina, St. Faustina, Bl. Elena Aiello, and St. Gemma Gal...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 185
A collection of highlight clips from past episodes. 82 A Habitual Counterculture - Brandon McGinley https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-82-habitual-counterculture-brandon-mcginley/ 68 What I Learned from Making Music with Mark Christopher Brandt https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-68-what-i-learned-from-making-music-with-mark-christopher-brandt/ Vie et Passion du Christ https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/vie-et-passion-du-christ-1903/ SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's ne...
Oct 07, 2024•1 hr 15 min
Catholic poet Ryan Wilson rejoins the podcast to read poems from his latest collection, In Ghostlight , which deals with themes of memory in a "haunted" world, encounters with realities beyond us, and reinterpreting ancient myths (Orpheus as a hair metal singer!). He also introduces four Catholic poets from his new anthology co-edited with April Lindner, Contemporary Catholic Poets . Links Ryan Wilson, In Ghostlight: Poems https://lsupress.org/9780807181478/in-ghostlight/ Contemporary Catholic P...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 184
James Majewski plays guest host in this episode, asking Thomas about his recent essay critiquing the well-known Christian film distributor Angel Studios (associated with The Chosen , Sound of Freedom , and Cabrini ). Articles and podcasts mentioned: “Angel Studios: Questioning the hype” https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/angel-studios-hype/ “ Cabrini secularizes a saint” https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/cabrini-secularizes-saint/ “ Cabrini and the denial that Christ is for ever...
Sep 10, 2024•37 min•Ep. 183
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was one of the greatest sacred composers of the 20th century, best known for his Requiem and his motet "Ubi caritas". His lush and tranquil choral and organ works combine a deep familiarity with Gregorian chant with the style of impressionism, imbued with a sense of prayer as he was a devout Catholic. Organist and choirmaster Christopher Berry, who studied organ under Duruflé's widow, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, joins the podcast to discuss Maurice Duruflé in his histori...
Aug 26, 2024•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 182
A collection of highlight clips from past episodes. 77 Gene Wolfe, Catholic Sci-Fi Legend—Sandra Miesel, Fr. Brendon Laroche https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-77-gene-wolfe-catholic-sci-fi-legend-sandra-miesel-fr-brendon-laroche/ Ben-Hur w/ Elizabeth Lev (Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast) https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ben-hur-1959-w-elizabeth-lev/ 80 Bring Out Your Dead - Scott Hahn https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-80-bring-out-your-dead-scott-hahn/ 81 Lo...
Aug 01, 2024•1 hr 5 min
In his new book published by Word on Fire, Beauty & Imitation: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts , philosopher and novelist Daniel McInerny argues for a recovery of the Aristotelian understanding of art as fundamentally imitative or mimetic. More boldly, he claims that this imitation is narrative and moral in nature, even in art forms that are not typically considered storytelling arts. In this episode Daniel introduces this theory of mimesis, after which there is a robust back-and-fort...
Jul 15, 2024•2 hr 10 min•Ep. 181
Poet & philosopher James Matthew Wilson rejoins the show to read poems from his new collection, Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds , published by Word on Fire; and to discuss the tradition of English poetry, especially with regard to meter. Don't miss the title poem, a verse setting of a passage from Aquinas's Summa Theologiae! Links Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/saint-thomas-and-the-forbidden-birds The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaki...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 180
On June 29 and 30, in South Bend, Indiana, there will be a major and even unprecedented event in the history of American Catholic art: a new, full-length classical ballet production with a new story, new music, new sets and costumes, and nationally known dancers - with a cast of about fifty. This fairytale ballet, titled Raffaella, was commissioned by Duncan and Ruth Stroik in honor of their daughter Raffaella Maria Stroik, a dancer with the St. Louis Ballet who passed away tragically in 2018 at...
Jun 11, 2024•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 179
A new book presenting material from Flannery O’Connor’s unfinished third novel shows the great Catholic writer pushing beyond her established fictional territory. Jessica Hooten Wilson returns to the podcast to discuss her book, Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress . Please consider donating to Catholic Culture's May fundraising campaign so this show can continue! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Links Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the H...
May 07, 2024•41 min•Ep. 178
Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Bohemian Catholic baroque composer who has at times been called "The Catholic Bach" because his best compositions are on par with those of J.S. Bach, who indeed knew and esteemed Zelenka. This episode covers Zelenka's career at the Catholic court chapel in Dresden with its grand liturgies inspired by Habsburg piety and Jesuit aspirations to evangelize the Protestants of Saxony. Please consider donating to Catholic Culture's May fundraising campaign so this show can conti...
Apr 30, 2024•58 min•Ep. 177
One of the most brilliant philosophers working today, D.C. Schindler, returns to the Catholic Culture Podcast to discuss his latest book, God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics. In it, he draws an analogy between metaphysics as the most comprehensive science in the theoretical order and politics as the most comprehensive science in the practical order. Examining how in metaphysics, God is necessarily involved, yet without being the direct object of that science, Schindler argues tha...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 176
Today’s guest is a man with two names and two careers. For decades he has been a distinguished poet and translator under the name of A.M. Juster. This is an acronym for his Christian name, Michael J. Astrue, who for many years was a lawyer, biotech executive, and public servant, most notably serving as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2007 to 2013. During this time, his political enemies tried to dig up dirt on him – but all they could find was that he wrote poetry on the ...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 175
Gregory Roper, a professor of literature at the University of Dallas, joins the podcast to discuss medieval “mystery plays” (also called “miracle plays”). In England these plays, often grouped together in cycles spanning all of salvation history, were performed by town guilds for the festival of Corpus Christi. This tradition, which developed out of the liturgy, could be said to represent the revival of drama in Europe, and was an important influence on the Elizabethan theatre. Shakespeare refer...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 174
Erik Varden, bishop of Trondheim, Norway as well as Trappist monk, joins the podcast to discuss his new book Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses. Topics discussed include: Recovering the true meaning of the word “chastity” Continence and chastity are not the same thing What the Desert Fathers can teach us about chastity Why we need to meditate on the original vocation of man before the Fall rather than limiting our options to what our sinful nature is capable of Why having a sense of dignity ...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 173
The renowned English theologian Fr. John Saward makes his podcast debut to discuss his new book on angels, the role of art and beauty in his theological work, and his turn away from the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar after years of studying and translating his works. Fr. Saward’s books named in this episode: World Invisible: The Catholic Doctrine of the Angels https://angelicopress.com/products/world-invisible-john-saward The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity and t...
Feb 08, 2024•56 min•Ep. 172
