AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

On January 20, 2020, the United States celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. King is so often remembered for his dream of racial equality, so eloquently articulated in his speeches and letters. But, as my guest today, Dr. Nicholas Mitchell of the Jesuit Social Research Institute, reminds us, Dr. King’s legacy is one that calls us to continue challenging the status quo, to live as radically as he did. From #BlackLivesMatter to prison reform, Dr. King’s dream remains, in many ways, just that: a dream that demands action, commitment and change. Dr. Mitchell reflects on King’s legacy for us as Catholics and members of Jesuit institutions. Dr. Mithcell is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He earned his bachelors and master’s degrees in history and his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Louisiana State University. Over the last 9 years, he has served as a teacher in both the public and private school systems, in the community college system, and at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is a trained community organizer. In 2016, he became a fellow at the Jesuit Social Research Institute with a special focus on race and racism. As we reflect on the legacy of Dr. King and the ongoing scourge race and racism in our country, I encourage each of us to return to that most Ignatian of prayers: the Examen. Let us ask God to reveal where in our daily lives we have ignored or enabled racism, where we are blinded by our privilege, and where we need to ask forgiveness.

A Jesuit vocation can mean a lot of things: there are Jesuits in medicine, astronomy, international relief and development, journalism, publishing and so much more. But perhaps the line of work most often associated with Jesuits is education. Fr. Bill Watters is passionate about education—and he’s my guest today. Fr. Watters knows the value an education can have on an individual and a community. And he’s spent a good number of years expanding the educational opportunities available to young people by founding schools in the varied and diverse communities in Baltimore, Maryland. Fr. Watters has been a priest for more than 50 years, and he shares, here, reflections and stories from the many people he’s encountered over that time. His memory for people—their names, their faces, their stories—constantly amazes me. It’s one of the reasons he was such a beloved pastor of St. Ignatius Church in Downtown Baltimore, transforming the parish from a struggling institution on the verge of closure to the vibrant community it is today.

January 1 is a day of resolutions, promises, and commitments to form better habits, get back into shape, pick up an old hobby. January 17—more or less—is when all of those commitments begin to fade, and we look accusingly at that new gym membership. New Years resolutions can feel like we’re set up to fail, set up for disappointment. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Today’s guest, Vinita Wright, is a spiritual author and spiritual director, a retreat facilitator and the managing editor at Loyola Press in the trade books department. She’s written fiction and non-fiction, and shares some insights and reflections from her life as a writer that can help us create better habits—and look at the process of creating those habits from a place of love and self-worth, rather than frustration. Vinita is also a student and practitioner of Ignatian Spirituality, so you can bet we spent a good deal of time exploring how St. Ignatius’ insights can help us all as we begin this new year. (Here’s a hint: it has to do with contemplation and action.) Please remember to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review.

There’s a lot of movement in Scripture during this Christmas season. God comes among humanity through the Incarnation. The Holy Family travels to Bethlehem for a census and then flees to Egypt under threat of death. The shepherds and magi travel varying distances to be present to and encounter God. Scripture isn’t just a historical retelling of holy events—it’s alive and speaking to us today. And when we reflect on all of these stories where we see God’s people on the move, we can’t help but think about the enormous numbers of people on the move today, forced to flee their homes due to violence, lack of opportunity, or environmental destruction. So, for this Christmas episode, we turn to someone who is always thinking about issues impacting God’s people on the move: Joan Rosenhauer, Executive Director of Jesuit Refuge Service/USA. In this role, Joan leads the organization’s efforts in the U.S. to fulfill its mission to accompany, serve, and advocate for refugees and displaced people. As a member of JRS’s global Senior Leadership Team, she also helps lead JRS’s global operations. Joan has a long and impressive career at the crossroads of faith and justice. She was the Executive Vice President of Catholic Relief Services, spent 16 years with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as associate director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, and has degrees in social work and public policy management. Today’s episode may not put you in the Christmas spirit in the traditional sense—tidings of comfort and joy and all that—but it will remind you what Christ’s coming points to: a reordering of relationships to bring about God’s justice and peace. Don’t forget: if you like what you hear on AMDG: tell your friends, subscribe and leave us a nice comment.

This is the podcast you're looking for. Full disclosure on today’s episode: it’s a deep dive into the cultural and spiritual impacts of Star Wars — just in time for the release of the latest and final installment, The Rise of Skywalker. And it’s a real opportunity to find God in all things. Fr. Jim McDermott, SJ, is a big Star Wars nerd. He’s a screenwriter and the Los Angeles correspondent for America Magazine, and he writes a weekly newsletter about pop culture and spirituality called Pop Culture Spirit Wow. And, naturally, he’s done a lot of writing, reading and thinking about Star Wars. This conversation on Star Wars isn’t really just about Star Wars. We’re talking here about the nature of forgiveness and redemption, the impacts of structural sin and violence and the role stories play in our understanding of spirituality. You should have a good feeling about this. Subscribe — or subscribe not — to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you think this is the Baby Yoda of podcasts, then don’t forget to leave us a nice review.

The Prophet Habakkuk writes: “For the vision is a witness for the appointed time, a testimony to the end; it will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” Perhaps more familiar to listeners, though, are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Waiting — particularly during this time of Advent — is a frustrating, if familiar, aspect of faith. Waiting for justice, all the more so. But, as our Advent prayer likely reveals, we are called to be contemplative and active; we do not waiting passively. God invites us to have a hand in bringing about this reign of justice. This episode challenges listeners to reflect on the call to active waiting, to participation in the works of justice. Caitlin-Marie Ward, senior advisor on migration in the Jesuit Conference's Office of Justice and Ecology, talks with Almudena Bernabeu about the long, painstaking journey she has undergone to bring some semblance of justice to those killed during the bitter civil war in El Salvador. Bernabeu is a renowned international lawyer with a long career in the fields of Transitional Justice and International Criminal and Human Rights Law. She led the investigation and prosecution of the massacre of the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of Central America in El Salvador by members of the Salvadoran army during that country's civil war. It’s a timely conversation, as November 2019 marked the 30th anniversary of their murders. Please remember to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts.

A few weeks ago, the Jesuit Dan Corrou went to Mass like any other Sunday. But the setting was far from ordinary. The Mass was being held in the Church of St. Vincent de Paul in Beirut, Lebanon, which was bombed out during Lebanon’s civil war about 40 years ago. Fr. Dan was so struck by the image of a community praying together in the largely destroyed church that he snapped a picture and posted it to Facebook, where it spread quickly. In the photo, the church is full, with a bishop presiding and a number of priests concelebrating. A choir of young people fills the corner of the sanctuary. The walls and ceiling of the church are blackened, the roof is pretty much gone, and twisted steel bars poke out of damaged concrete. Chunks of tile are missing from the walls. The church was never repaired, and has been largely unused for decades, but recently it has served as the setting for special prayers for peace and justice amid national unrest. The Mass Fr. Dan photographed was happening as peaceful protests for government reforms filled the streets just beyond the church walls. The picture is such a striking image of where the Jesuits are called to be: on the margins of society, preaching the Gospel and promoting social justice. Fr. Dan talks with Mike about how his vocation has taken him from New York to his ministry in Beiruit, where he works with Jesuit Refugee Services and with a community of Jesuits in studies.

Thanksgiving is the time each year when we, as a family, a community, a country, express, well, thankfulness—often, as a prerequisite to indulging in mashed potatoes, turkey and pie. But our guest today reminds us that gratitude isn’t something to confine to late November; it’s a powerful disposition that can transform our relationship—with ourselves, our neighbors, and even with God. Dr. Monica Bartlett is a gratitude expert. She’s an associate professor and chair of the psychology department at Gonzaga University. She received her PhD in social psychology from Northeastern University, and now runs the Positive Emotion and Social Behavior Lab at Gonzaga where she examines how specific emotions influence relationship building and personal well-being outcomes. Much of her work has focused on the emotion gratitude and its role in shaping our relationships with others. Dr. Bartlett teaches Social Psychology, Psychology of Poverty and Social Class, and Human Flourishing. Gratitude, empathy and kindness feel in short supply these days—but Dr. Bartlett has some easy, daily habits that we can cultivate to inject these virtues back into our everyday routines—and national discourse. Please remember to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts.

Twitter is a huge social media service with over 300 million active users, including one very active user with a high profile who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. President Trump’s controversial Twitter use is a constant reminder that Twitter impacts politics, economics, and social movements around the world. In addition to being the president’s preferred mode for communicating with the public, Twitter has been the main platform of choice for movements like Black Lives Matter and MeToo. There are also important questions about Twitter’s role in our discourse, as its openness as a platform can lead to harassment and bullying. And the constant stream of information it provides can keep us glued to our phones, even at the dinner table. Today’s guest is a great person to talk to about all of these issues. Colin Crowell is the head of Public Policy, Government, & Corporate Philanthropy for Twitter. After graduating from Boston College in the late 1980s, Colin spent three years in Peru as part of a Jesuit-run mission project, and these Jesuit roots pointed him on a career path of working to make sure all people have open access to telecom and technology services. Today’s interview is in two parts. Right after recording the interview, Twitter announced that it would be banning political advertisements on its platform, so Colin called back in to share some thoughts on this latest development. Be sure to stay tuned all the way to the end. Don’t forget to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a nice review on iTunes.

When the documentary filmmaker Ken Burns thinks you’ve made a movie about author Flannery O’Connor worthy of a $200,000 prize awarded in his name, you’re doing pretty well. And when that movie is the first film you have ever made in your life, you’re doing REALLY well. That’s the surprising story of guest Fr. Mark Bosco, SJ, who is the vice president for mission and ministry at Georgetown University, a scholar of British and American Catholic literature, and, as of this autumn, a prize-winning filmmaker. Years ago, Fr. Bosco was given a collection of archival video recordings which featured interviews of some of Flannery O’Connor’s friends, who is a truly original and indispensable voice in the canon of American literature. Fr. Bosco wanted to share the interviews with the world, but didn’t know the best way to do it. So he connected with Elizabeth Coffman, a documentary filmmaker and professor at Loyola University Chicago, and they partnered to bring the film to life. Fr. Bosco and host Mike Jordan Laskey talked about how the movie came into being, what the prize will help the filmmakers do, and why Flannery O’Connor is worth reading and studying today.

There are not many areas of the country that are discussed by more ill-informed talking heads than the US-Mexico border. But when guest Fr. Sean Carroll, SJ, talks about the region, everyone should listen. Fr. Carroll is a Jesuit priest and the executive director of the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), where he has worked for the past 11 years. KBI is a bi-national organization co-sponsored by the Jesuits and other Catholic collaborators that has facilities in Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, two cities that share a name and a national boundary. KBI serves immediate needs of migrants who are passing between the two countries, they advocate for more just immigration laws and policies, and they welcome groups from all over the United States to learn about the realities people are facing on the border. During his trip to Washington to meet with the acting secretary of homeland security earlier this month, Fr. Carroll told host Mike Jordan Laskey about how things have changed at the border over the past decade and how his vocation as a Jesuit priest fits perfectly into the mission of welcoming and supporting migrants. Kino Border Initiative: https://www.kinoborderinitiative.org/ Jesuits call for increased advocacy on behalf of migrants: http://jesuitmigrantsolidarity.org/

You might think of this penultimate week in October as the time to buy Halloween candy before the good stuff is gone, but here at the Jesuit Conference we are celebrating the first-ever #ExamenWeek: We’re taking a few days to feature the daily examen prayer practice, a signature element of Ignatian spirituality that Jesuits have been praying since the days of St. Ignatius himself. The daily examen is a practical, contemplative prayer tradition that helps people find God amid their day-to-day experiences, and you don’t have to be a Jesuit to try it. Our guest is Fr. Jim Martin, the widely published Jesuit priest, social media evangelizer and the host of a daily examen podcast produced by America Media. He’s been a Jesuit for 30 years, which is almost 11,000 daily examens, so it’s safe to say he’s an expert on the topic. Fr. Jim also talked to host Mike Jordan Laskey about his recent visit to Rome, where Fr. Jim had a private audience with Pope Francis to discuss his ministry of welcome to LGBT people. Be sure to check out #ExamenWeek on social media for more great resources to help you incorporate the daily examen into your own life. The Examen with Fr. James Martin, SJ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-examen-with-fr-james-martin-sj/id1346804716

Fr. Scott Santarosa, SJ, is the provincial superior of the Jesuits West Province of the United States. In English, that means he leads the Jesuits in the territory encompassing the ten westernmost states of the union. Even more importantly, at least for our purposes on this episode, Fr. Santarosa is a die-hard Los Angeles Dodgers fan and a borderline baseball obsessive. When Fr. Santarosa talked with host and Yankees fan Mike Jordan Laskey talked recently, both teams were still alive with a shot to reach the world series, but the Dodgers were eliminated by the Washington Nationals a couple days later, so our deepest apologies to Scott for jinxing his team. Fr. Santarosa and Mike chat about modern developments in the game and why the Jesuit thinks baseball is a road to God. Finally, Fr. Santarosa talked just a bit about, well, you know, his actual work and what he was doing with his fellow provincials in Washington, DC, recently. Please remember to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review on iTunes.

The United States is sadly unique among developed Western countries in that we still regularly execute people. And capital punishment has been in the political headlines lately, if perhaps overshadowed by other hot-button topics. In July, the Trump Administration announced it would be reinstating federal executions, which have been on hold since 2003. Just a few months earlier, California governor Gavin Newsom went in the opposite direction, suspending the death penalty in his state, even dismantling the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison, the largest death row in the United States. Going back to the summer of 2018, Pope Francis made news when he announced the Catechism of the Catholic Church would be revised to no longer allow for the death penalty in any circumstance. Thursday, October 10 is the World Day Against the Death Penalty, and our two guests are some of the most dedicated leaders in the faith-based movement against capital punishment: Krisanne Vaillancourt-Murphy is the executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, which is celebrating ten years of organizing Catholics to stand against the death penalty and to support restorative justice efforts. Fr. George Williams, SJ, is a Jesuit priest and the chaplain at San Quentin State Prison, where he provides spiritual support to death row inmates. Host Mike Jordan Laskey talks to them both about all the death penalty headlines and how people of faith can get involved in the work. Don’t forget to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts, and please leave us a nice review on iTunes. Catholic Mobilizing Network: https://catholicsmobilizing.org Fr. George Williams, SJ: https://jesuits.org/story?tn=project-2015021

Fr. John O’Malley joined the Jesuits in 1946, right after World War II and more than a decade before the second Vatican council was announced. You could say he’s seen a lot of change in his 92 years, but that would be a massive understatement. Fr. O’Malley looks at this era of upheaval with a historian’s eye, and he was quick to point out in his recent conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey that no period in our church’s 2000 year history has been smooth sailing. Fr. O’Malley is the University Professor of Theology at Georgetown, where he specializes in church councils, among other topics. He has just released his 12th book, titled “When Bishops Meet.” In the book, he looks at big questions about church doctrine and structure and traces how they were handled at the Council of Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II. Fr. O'Malley and Mike talk about the book and a recent essay by Fr. O’Malley about his years in the Jesuit novitiate. As you’ll see, Fr. O’Malley is a delightful conversation partner. Please remember to subscribe to AMDG on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen, and leave us a nice review on iTunes. "When Bishops Meet": https://www.amazon.com/When-Bishops-Meet-Comparing-Vatican/dp/0674988418 Fr. O'Malley's essay on the novitiate (available as PDF): https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/jesuit/article/view/11557

Jesuit priests Fr. Paddy Gilger and Fr. Eric Sundrup are the hosts of a wonderful new YouTube show called "Jesuit Autocomplete" from America Media. In each episode, Paddy and Eric answer a different set of Google’s most popular questions about Jesuits, the Bible, Pope Francis, and more. After talking about the series, host Mike Jordan Laskey and Paddy and Eric draft teams of five saints each in an NBA-style selection process. You'll have to judge for yourself who ended up with the best team, but when it comes to saints, there are no bad choices. Thanks for subscribing to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you’re feeling generous, please leave us a nice review on iTunes. Watch "Jesuit Autocomplete" at America Media's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/americamedia

This is our second of two episodes with a university president as we celebrate the beginning of the academic year. Be sure to check out our last conversation with President Tania Tetlow from Loyola University New Orleans. Today, we welcome Dr. Mike Lovell, the president of Marquette University in Milwaukee. Like President Tetlow at Loyola, Dr. Lovell is the first-ever layperson to serve as president of Marquette. A man of deep faith, he shares the story of prayerfully discerning the call to accept the pressure-packed position. Dr. Lovell is an engineer and an inventor by trade, but one of his biggest passions in higher ed is working to address childhood trauma and the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Host Mike Jordan Laskey talks with Dr. Lovell about that important work and how a university can be both responsive to trauma and committed to academic freedom. Dr. Lovell also describes what it’s like to be in a cage underwater surrounded by hungry sharks, so listen for that. Please subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen, and if you’d be so kind, leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts.

Tania Tetlow is a trailblazer. She is the first female president in the history of Loyola University New Orleans. She is the first layperson to serve in that role. And her first job was working for Representative Lindy Boggs, who was the first woman to represent the state of Louisiana in Congress. As President Tetlow’s second academic year in leadership gets underway this month, host Mike Jordan Laskey asked her about the challenges Loyola New Orleans is facing and what makes the university special. She describes unique career path from federal prosecutor to university president and how Loyola draws on its diversity as a major source of strength. And stay tuned until the end for our 20 Questions segment, when President Tetlow reveals what she’d say to Pope Francis if she only had time for one sentence. Please subscribe to the show wherever you listen, and if you could, leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts. America Magazine story by Cokie Roberts mentioned in the interview: https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2019/06/14/how-my-mother-helped-mentor-first-female-president-loyola-university

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, BVM, took the world by storm as the chaplain for the 2018 Loyola Chicago Final Four men's basketball team. She turns 100 on Wednesday, August 21! In this conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey and guest host Deanna Howes Spiro of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, Sr. Jean reflects on turning 100, her instant rise to fame last year, and what advice she might offer new college students starting this fall.

Last month, Matt Wooters, a Jesuit brother from the Midwest Province, decided he was going to try and swim six miles for a birthday fundraiser benefiting the immigration legal aid group RAICES. The only problem was he only had a few weeks to train and it’s not like he was doing long-distance swims all the time. But as Brother Matt is wont to do, he just went for it. His effort struck a cord, and the the fundraiser blew up on social media. With an original goal of $1000, he blew past that right away and ended up raising over $23,000 for RAICES. Host Mike Jordan Laskey chats with Matt to ask him about the swim, his thoughts on why he thinks the fundraiser did so well, and how his experience working with immigrant families has affected his view of our political discourse around migration. Matt was also the first participant in a new segment on the show, which we’re calling 20 Questions, so stay tuned for that at the end of the episode. As we continue to grow here at AMDG, we’d really appreciate it if you could leave us a nice review on iTunes, subscribe to the show wherever you listen, and tell your friends and family about it.

If you’ve been to Catholic Mass in the United States at some point over the past few decades, you’ve probably sung at least one piece of music by a group of five composers called the St. Louis Jesuits. Here, I’ll quiz you. How many of these song titles do you recognize? Be Not Afraid. Here I Am, Lord. Come to the Water. City of God. One Bread, One Body. Lift Up Your Hearts. Though the Mountains May Fall. I bet you’re humming at least one of them already. While the St. Louis Jesuits have gone their separate ways over the years, all writing and playing music independently, they are reuniting in September for one final concert together – a 50th anniversary celebration of their partnership. Host Mike Jordan Laskey spoke with two of the members of the group, Fr. Roc O’Connor, SJ, and Dan Schutte, about five of the group’s greatest compositions, one by each member, and had a lot of fun walking down memory lane.

When best-selling author and public intellectual Malcolm Gladwell announced he was doing a three-part podcast on thinking like a Jesuit, we had to learn more. Host Mike Jordan Laskey chats with Malcolm about the origins of the series, what surprised him in his deep dive into Jesuit moral reasoning, and why most every modern political problem could use a dose of St. Ignatius. This is the first official episode of AMDG, a new podcast from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Please subscribe and tell your friends! Connect with us at jesuits.org.

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