AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

The Women’s World Cup is in full swing in France, with more elite teams vying for the championship than ever before. One of the biggest soccer fans around is Pope Francis, who recently said that sports “can foster a culture of dialogue and respectful encounters.” We wanted to use the occasion of the World Cup to dig into the spiritual and character-building dimensions of sports, so our guests are two people who have been connected to the game of soccer for four or five decades between them: Shannon Hartinger is the girls' varsity soccer coach at Loyola Academy, a Jesuit high school in in Wilmette, Illinois. She played in college at North Carolina State University, where she was a two-time captain and an all-conference scholar-athlete. James Millikan, SJ, is a Jesuit in formation who is studying philosophy, social sciences and math at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara in Mexico. James played goalkeeper at Whitman College in Washington State and has also coached high school soccer.

Every minute, 24 people are forced to leave their home because of war, persecution or violence. Experts estimate that there are more people who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict than at any other point since World War II. We are in midst of a global refugee crisis. In over 50 countries where the crisis is the worst, the Jesuits are there. Jesuit Refugee Service, which was founded in 1980 by then-Jesuit superior general Pedro Arrupe, serves over 640,000 people around the world each year. June 20 is World Refugee Day, which is celebrated annually to lift up refugees and raise awareness of the challenges they face. Our guest is Giulia McPherson, the director of advocacy and operations for Jesuit Refugee Service USA, who shares about JRS' work and how we can get involved in support of their incredible mission. Connect with JRS: https://www.jrsusa.org/ Giulia's bio: https://www.jrsusa.org/about-us/our-team/#giulia Produced by the Office of Communications and Vocation Promotion of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Hosted by Mike Jordan Laskey. Edited by Marcus Bleech. Theme music by Kevin Laskey.

If you had met Fr. Ted Penton, SJ, right before turn of the millennium and told him he’d be ordained a Jesuit priest in 2019, he wouldn’t have believed you. Ted was an atheist when he decided to go on a retreat at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand while traveling after college. His experience there changed everything, and led him on a path back to the Catholic Church, the spiritual home of his childhood. Fr. Ted is one of the newest Jesuit priests in the world. He ordination was just a few weeks ago in Toronto, one of the 22 Jesuits set to be ordained to the priesthood this year. In this conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey, Ted opens up about his faith journey, his ordination, and how he went about writing the homily for his first Mass as the presider when the Gospel for the day wasn’t his all-time favorite passage.

As my wife would tell you, I am a compulsive Amazon shopper. A few taps of my thumb and voila – diapers or granola bars or a massaging seat cover for the car show up at our house two days later. I wish I wasn’t so bad at this, because I know Amazon is not a great company, to put it mildly. Their CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world and his lowest-paid employees barely make $30,000 a year while facing some pretty tough working conditions in Amazon warehouses. What I am supposed to do with this cognitive dissonance? What wisdom does our faith have to offer in this age of mammoth CEO salaries and truly unfathomable wealth disparity? Joe Hoover, a Jesuit brother, writer, actor, and poetry editor for America Magazine in New York, tackles those questions and more in a recent piece for America titled “If Jeff Bezos wants to be ‘disruptive’, he should listen to biblical prophets.” Brother Joe joined me to talk about the piece and also his vocation as a Jesuit brother in honor of Religious Brothers Day, which is May 1. Read his piece here: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/04/24/if-jeff-bezos-wants-be-disruptive-he-should-listen-biblical-prophets

On Monday afternoon here on the East Coast, the horrifying photos and videos began to pour in: the Notre-Dame Cathedral was on fire. The international outpouring of sorrow and compassion was immediate, even among people who've never been to the cathedral. Why? What does a great cathedral mean to us -- even in this secular age? Our guest Fr. Gilbert Sunghera, SJ, is a Jesuit priest who was trained in architecture and now serves as an associate professor of architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy. He talks about the roles a cathedral like Notre-Dame plays in our culture, our common hunger for beauty, and more.

Host Mike Jordan Laskey chats with his former college roommate, Fr. Michael Rossmann, SJ, about Fr. Michael's vocation promotion ministry, Pope Francis' new letter on young people and the church, and they take turns drafting books of the Bible, assembling Scriptural super-teams of five books apiece. (It's like the NFL Draft but way more fun.)

This past winter, the cause for sainthood for Fr. Pedro Arrupe was officially opened in Rome. Fr. Arrupe served as the Jesuits’ superior general from 1965 to 1983, right in the middle of the huge changes in the church caused by the Second Vatican Council. He’s sometimes called the “second founder” of the Jesuits because so much of what he emphasized continues to characterize the Society of Jesus today. Fr. Tim Kesicki, SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, reflects on the legacy of this beloved leader who’s moving toward canonization.

Six years ago this week, an Argentinian Jesuit named Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected Pope. That's a pretty good chunk of time to get your priorities in motion. Fr. Tim Kesicki, SJ, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, sat down with host Mike Jordan Laskey to talk about Pope Francis' leadership and vision. Plus, Fr. Tim shares what the Holy Father told him when they met a few years ago and talks about the importance of the annual retreat Jesuits take, which Pope Francis is on this week.

February 6 is the Feast of St. Paul Miki and Companions. Paul Miki was a Japanese Jesuit brother who was martyred with 25 other Catholics in Japan in 1597. Fr. Jody Magtoto, SJ, is a Filipino Jesuit missioned to Japan. He's spending a few months in the United States "interning" with the Jesuit Conference here in preparation for launching a communications office back in Japan. He shared a bit about St. Paul Miki and what it's like to be a Jesuit priest in a country less than 0.5% Catholic.

"Justice" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. What does that word mean to Jesuits? Mike Jordan Laskey from the Jesuit Conference called up Fr. Jeremy Zipple, SJ (https://twitter.com/jzipple), who's serving at St. Martin de Porres Parish and School in Belize. He offered some great insight into what it means to have a "faith that does justice." Learn more about Fr. Jeremy here: http://jesuits.org/story-details?TN=PROJECT-20130320034520&MTN=0748CD7A-E389-411E-B3EA-50C13761D85D