Catholic Answers Focus

From the beginning, support for abortion has relied on using language to hide reality — specifically the reality of killing an innocent boy or girl. We expect an avalanche of such language in the year ahead, given the likelihood of a new US Supreme Court abortion decision. In preparation, we asked pro-life brainiac Stephanie Gray Connors to help us cut through the deadly propaganda. Cy Kellett: Challenging deceptive language around abortion. Stephanie Gray Connors is next. Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic fait…

Mark Brumley, the well-read president of Ignatius Press, joins us for a brief conversation about books in which he gives his suggestions for Catholics looking for some good summer fiction. You need a good summer book to read. Mark Brumley, next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. To be a Christian is to be engaged with the word, the written word and the word of God in the person of Jesus. Words, words, words, Conversation. That’s a great deal of what Catholic and Christian life is about. Spe…

Does the Catholic Church still teach that divorce is wrong, even sinful? And if so, why, especially given that so many Catholics are divorced? Leila Miller, author of Primal Loss: The Now-Adult Children of Divorce Speak, explains what the Church teaches about divorce and why this teaching remains essential. Cy Kellett: Is divorce really that bad? Leila Miller, next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answer’s podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And there appears to be an elephant in the room, that is in…

Catholic author and speaker Elizabeth Kelly joins us for a discussion of the supposed “anti-woman” bias in Christianity. Is it real, or is it just a modern story disconnected from historical reality? Kelly is the author of books for and about Christian women, including Love Like a Saint: Cultivating Virtue with Holy Women. Cy Kellett: Is Christianity anti-woman? Liz Kelly is next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome again to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. We try to be current here. We try…

You can hardly tune into a Catholic podcast or read a Catholic publication these days without someone complaining about the lack of manliness. But is a lack of manliness the problem, or a lack of Christianity in men? We asked the world’s most manly man, Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, to help us get to the roots of the manliness panic. Cy Kellett: Recovering a Christian image of manhood. Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers is next. Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers podcast, for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett your host and today we talk a l…

Todd Aglialoro, director of publishing here at Catholic Answers, offers ideas for some “delightful” Catholic summer reading. In this first of a two-part reading series, Todd offers non-fiction ideas, with fiction to come later. Cy Kellett: Great tips for summer reading. Todd Aglialoro is next. Hello, and welcome to Focus, The Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. Maybe on this episode, we should add enjoying your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and part of the enjoyment of being Catholic, all of the beautiful books.…

Catholic writer Shaun McAfee joins us to defend the Catholic use of sacramentals—holy water, crucifixes, blessings, etc. This practice looks a lot like magic to both our Protestant and secular friends. Do they have a point? Shaun draws from his new book—20 Answers: Relics and Sacramentals—to explain just what Catholics are up to. Cy Kellett: Are Catholic sacramentals superstitious and magical? Shaun McAfee next. Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. One of the things that we find …

It turns out that Catholic Answers Apologist Joe Heschmeyer is also a lawyer, so we asked him about the recent Supreme Court decision that allowed a Catholic social service agency to continue refusing to place foster children in the custody of gay couples. Is this discrimination? And what does this ruling suggest about the future of religious freedom? Cy Kellett: Is the Supreme Court letting Catholics get away with discrimination? Joe Heschmeyer, next. Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast, for living understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, yo…

Our own Tim Staples discusses the Catholic claim that there is no salvation outside the Church? How are we to understand this truth, and what does it mean for those who do not enter the Church? Cy Kellett: Can we settle this once and for all? Is there or is there not salvation outside the Catholic Church? Tim Staples next. Hello and welcome again to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett your host. And you might’ve noticed recently we’ve been talking about the church with Tim Staples. Kind of a series …

In his new book, Love Never Fails, Madison Wisconsin Bishop Donald Hying helps Christians to take up the adventure of living in Christ, even in the modern world, every day. We asked him if we Catholics have taken on too much of the culture and lost our distinctiveness. Cy Kellett: The daily struggle against assimilation. Bishop Donald Hying next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And among the many problems that we face as Catholics in the modern world is the need t…

Karlo Broussard, author of Prepare the Way: Overcoming Obstacles to God, the Gospel, and the Church, answers the common Freudian objection to belief in God—It’s just wish fulfillment. Cy Kellett: Is religion just a coping mechanism. Karlo Broussard is next. Hello and welcome to focus. The Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. We’ll do a little defending today against the accusation that religion is all about a psychological need we have, to be comforted, most especially to be comforted in the face of the fact that we know that we&#8…

Tim Staples draws on his new School of Apologetics course — Evidence for the Church — to address the growing reluctance of some Catholics to accept the authority of church councils. Where do councils get their authority, and how much deference must a Catholic give them? Do I have to accept all of the councils of the church? Tim Staples, next. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and this time we address what I think is kind of a disturbing trend in the con…

Karlo Broussard takes up the challenge of those who say Romans chapter 8 assures the Christian that salvation cannot be lost. The author of Meeting the Protestant Challenge puts this passage within the context of the full teaching of Jesus and the Apostles in order to uncover the truth about salvation. Does Saint Paul promise my salvation is secure? Karlo Broussard is next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. Part of our Catholic faith is that we have to work out our salvation in fear and trembling…

Tim Staples returns to Focus with a question taken from his School of Apologetics course “Evidence for the Church“: Did Jesus really give his authority to a human institution? Cy Kellett: Did Jesus found a church to have his authority and power? Tim Staples is next. Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. I emphasize Catholic really hard right there because we’re going to defend the Catholic faith today. Every Christian would say Jesus came with authority, teaching with…

Clearly Catholic bishops need closer collaboration with lay Catholics if we are ever going to get past the leadership models that led to the sex abuse crisis. But what is appropriate lay participation in keeping bishops honest? Jason Negri discusses one model being pursued by the Daniel Coalition, a local effort for reform in Lansing Michigan. Can the laity hold bishops accountable? Jason Negri, next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome again to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. A great deal of suffering in recent decades around the se…

Fr. Simon Esshaki talks about the call from Jesus Christ for all Christians to go out into the world, sharing the good news. The call to evangelize has only grown more important, though it may look different today than it did in 100 A.D. Cy and Fr. Simon discuss the great importance of using social media properly in order to introduce people to Jesus Christ. Cy Kellett: Internet evangelizing the apostolic way. Father Simon Esshaki is next. Hello. Welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. Today we talk a little bit about sharin…

With his death and resurrection, Jesus completes the great work of our salvation and gives us the perfect sign that he has conquered sin and death. So are the Ascension and Pentecost just add-ons? Apologist Tim Staples says no. They are essentials, and filled with power. What do the Ascension and Pentecost have to do with the rest of Jesus’ mission? Tim Staples is next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host in our new studio digs. I hope you’re enjoying thos…

Not all opposition to the idea of free will comes from atheists. In fact, a prominent strain of Christianity denies free will as it strives to defend the omnipotence of God. But does such a strategy turn God into a monster? Trent Horn explains. Cy Kellett: Does God decide everything or do I get to decide some stuff? Trent Horn is next. Hello and welcome to Focus The Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett your host. And most Christians throughout most of the history of Christianity have believed that we have a choice. Certainl…

Does neuroscience, or any science, pose a challenge to believing human beings have free will? Trent Horn joins us for a discussion of today’s fashionable denial of the fact of free will. Cy Kellett: Is free will unscientific? Trent Horn is next. Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. Our good friend and colleague, Trent Horn, is in town for a couple of days. So we decided, let’s get him in here and do a couple of Focus episodes with him. Or did we decide that? Maybe the …

Apologist Karlo Broussard responds to a common atheist critique of the God of the Bible, that he is a narcissist whose ego makes him hungry for the worship of his creatures. Does the Bible really give us such a creepy Lord? And even if he is not creepy, why does he insist on worship? THE ARTICLE: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/is-it-egotistical-for-god-to-demand-your-love Cy Kellett: Is God an egocentric, narcissist maniac? Karlo Broussard, next. Hello, and welcome to Focus The Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m C…