Considering Catholicism

After considering Catholicism for a year, Greg's Protestant friend Ed shares where he's at, whether he's ready to enter the Catholic Church, and asks, "How Catholic can I be without actually becoming Catholic?"

In this Church Chat with Ed, Ed asks Greg about whether and why Catholics have a "Sunday Obligation."

Join podcast host Greg Smith for a once-in-a-lifetime Lenten journey: a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and to Turkey, the land of the New Testament churches. Learn more: www.pilgrimages.com/gregsmith/holyland/

When people stop believing in the Church's central doctrines, they don't believe in nothing: they pick and choose, like in a cafeteria line, and make themselves a plate of pleasing doctrines to suit their own personal tastes.

I told Ed the Protestant that I had a surprise and to meet me at the parish this afternoon. When he arrived, I had him walk through an exhibit displaying the Church's history of Eucharist miracles, then I sent him into the chapel for his first taste of Eucharistic Adoration. When he came out, I turned on the recorder and got his impressions.

Along with the decorations, every year the same myths get brought out about how the Catholic Church was corrupted by the ancient pagans, and invented its Christmas celebrations by borrowing pagan festivals. So, it's time for Greg and Cory to swat down this nonsense and tell the truth about why and how the Church celebrates the Feast of the Nativity on December 25.

Greg and Cory explore the differences between Lutheranism and Calvinism, and how the road to Rome differs depending on whether you begin in Germany or Geneva.

Greg has produced four short videos exploring the connections between the Eucharist and Christmas. You can find them on the ConsideringCatholicism.com website and social media. Ed the Protestant sat down with Greg to explore how the Nativity of Christ echoes down through the ages in Holy Communion.

On the last Sunday before the season of Advent begins, the Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King. Greg and Cory talk about where this celebration came from, what it means, and how we can apply it in our lives.

Greg and Cory discuss the "Five Solas," the framework that supports the Protestant worldview and keeps Catholicism at a distance…and how cracks can form in that worldview.

In this installment of Book Club, Greg and Cory discuss a novel by Michael O'Brien which, while in the science fiction genre, is a profoundly Catholic story: Voyage to Alpha Centauri.

For Protestants and other non-Catholics, relics are one of, if not the, weirdest things about Catholicism. Why do Catholics have and treasure relics -- bits of bodies and clothing -- of the saints?

Greg and Cory discuss "sacramentals" (not sacraments), objects and devotional practice which have been blessed by the Church.

Ed asks Greg what Catholicism believes happens to us when we die. Greg explains the "Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell." And that we must always memento mori, "remember our death."

Father Noah Thelan is a new, young Catholic priest. Greg asks him about why and how he became a priest, what it means to him, and what he hopes to accomplish in his priesthood.

In this Book Club episode, Greg and Cory discuss Robert Hugh Benson's 1907 novel Lord of the World, which has been strongly recommended by the last two popes (Benedict XVI and Francis).

On the fall equinox, Greg and Ed venture into deep, piney woods and discuss the present and future hope represented by "the Communion of the Saints."

Greg asks Father John Kartje, the Rector/President of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake and Mundelein Seminary, about what a Catholic priest is, how priests are formed in the seminary, and about what qualifies or disqualifies men to advance to ordination.

Paul Kraus, a prosecutor who has spent his career working with family and child abuse cases and is now running to become a family court judge, talks about what he has learned and how his Catholic faith will provide a framework for justly applying the law.

Ed the Protestant has never held or owned a rosary, much less prayed it. So Greg teaches him how.

Ed is curious about the Rosary, and Greg explains where it came from, its purpose, and why Catholics pray it.

I had to overcome my Protestant fear of the Hail Mary, but once I did, I realized that it isn't really about Mary at all.

Ed was deeply moved by Greg's explanation of the significance of the Blessed Virgin Mary back in Episode #29, and wrote an article about how it impacted him. In this follow-up conversation, they explore what "To Jesus Through Mary" really means.

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, in a letter to his son, said, "Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament." Greg and Cory explore what he meant and why.

Protestant theology flat-out rejects Catholic Eucharist doctrines. Why? And how should Catholics respond to the objections of their Protestant friends and family?

In our ongoing series on the Eucharist, Greg and Cory explore why the Eucharist is also called "Holy Communion," and why that communion is a miracle, not just a vague sense of community.

In November, Michigan voters will face a decision. "Proposal 3" would permanently amend the state constitution by enshrining the most extreme pro-abortion laws in the nation. Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has vowed to "fight like hell" for it. In response, a priest in Lansing has launched a 54-day prayer campaign to "fight like heaven" for the protection of life. Greg and Father Gordon Reigle discuss why and how we can join in this important fight.

In a series of ongoing conversations about the miracles of the mass and the Eucharist, Greg and Cory try to explain exactly what the Church teaches about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

In this ongoing series on the Eucharist, Greg and Cory talk about miracles, how the priest acts in the person of Christ, and the invocation of the Holy Spirit during the mass.

Every Catholic mass is nothing short of a miracle. As part of our series on the Eucharist, Greg and Cory discuss how the field of "metaphysics" helps us to wrap our minds around how the supernatural intervenes in the natural world during the celebration of the mass.

The whole Old Testament points towards the Gospel, and so it is full of hints, clues, and foreshadows of the Eucharist. Part of the series of episodes on the Eucharistic Revival.

Ed asks Greg, "If I become Catholic, how will it make my life better in the here and now?" (Part 3 of 3 about Salvation).

Ed asks Greg if Catholics can lose their salvation once they join the Church (Part 2 of 3 about Salvation).

Greg and Ed compare Protestant anxiety about being saved to the comfort of Catholicism (Part 1 of 3 about Salvation).

In the first of a series of lessons on the Eucharist, Greg explains why it's such big deal to Catholics when it's only a medium-sized deal to Protestant Evangelicals.

The bishops of America are deeply concerned that too few Catholics understand, believe in, or take the Eucharist in a "coherent" way. And so, they have launched a three-year "Eucharistic Revival." In this first episode in a regular feature on the Eucharist, Cory and I discuss the why, what, and how of this revival.

Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory and Shusaku Endo's Silence both tell the story of a persecuted Catholic priest forced to choose between martyrdom and apostasy. In this installment of Book Club, Cory and I explore how the two novels are mirror images that explore the same theme with inverted characters and plots.

Who is, or isn't, "Catholic?" What do you have to believe or do to "be Catholic?" What about people who don't or won't do those things? Are they still Catholic?

In Episode 32, I answered Ed's question, "Why do Catholics have a pope?" But we kept going, and covered the everything from whether the pope can make up new doctrines, to megachurch pastors, to why Pope Francis seems to meddle in politics, and whether papal infallibility means he can tell me who will win the Super Bowl.

Ed asked why Catholics have a pope, which seems crazy to them. I gave him an answer that most "cradle Catholics" wouldn't typically give.

Some argue that the novels of JRR Tolkien, particularly his 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, are the greatest Catholic novels of the 20th Century. Generations of converts to Catholicism have cited it as an important step on their Road to Rome--including Cory and I. In this installment of Book Club, we share why.

We're launching a new recurring feature on the podcast: "Book Club." In this first installment, Cory and I talk about what, exactly, makes a story "Catholic."

My Protestant friend Ed finally got around to asking me about the biggest problem that Protestants have with Catholicism: the Virgin Mary.

I was asked to speak at a conference just a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision. Here's what I said.

Part 2 of a two-part episode exploring how and why the Catholic Church in America has shrunk and Catholicism has lost influence over the last half century. (Episodes 26-27.)

It's been exactly 30 days since the last episode released. An update on what's been going on, what's happening, and what's ahead for Considering Catholicism.

Over the last half century, the Catholic Church in America has shrunk and Catholicism has lost influence. Why? Part 1 of a two-part episode.

Greg's Protestant friend Ed brings up all the arguments that he's heard that Catholicism isn't real Christianity.

This installment of the Worldviews series asks whether we can make our lives, and our world, anything we want it to be through the power of technology.

What makes cathedrals special? And how do they fit into the life of the Catholic Church?