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Ep. 164 - How to Exit ‘Enemy Mode’ on Immigration
Jun 25, 2026
38m 16s
The City and the Cross—Episode 3: Dots on a Map
Jun 24, 2026
56m 28s
The City and the Cross—Episode 2: A Padlock on All the Doors
Jun 17, 2026
49m 50s
Ep. 163 - ‘A Coherent Picture of Reality’
Jun 11, 2026
45m 47s
The City and the Cross—Episode 1: From the Ground Up
Jun 10, 2026
51m 50s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/25/26 | ![]() Ep. 164 - How to Exit ‘Enemy Mode’ on Immigration | Even as Donald Trump’s approval ratings continue to plummet across the country, voters in the deep-red state of Wyoming, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than six to one, remain solidly in support of the president. So it took real courage for Bishop Steven Biegler—appointed by Pope Francis in 2017 to lead the Diocese of Cheyenne, encompassing all of Wyoming—to promulgate a pastoral letter on migration just a few months ago. Bishop Biegler is keen to point out that Be a Merciful Neighbor is not a political document. Instead it asks Catholics to evaluate policies of mass deportation in light of the values of the Gospel—especially Christ’s unequivocal call to welcome the stranger. On this episode, Bishop Biegler speaks about the letter, and its surprising reception by Wyoming Catholics, with Commonweal Senior Correspondent Heidi Schlumpf. Before their interview, Schlumpf also updates listeners on recent news affecting American Catholics. For further reading: Heidi Schlumpf on the Church’s continued fight on behalf of migrants Pablo Christian Soenen on moral ambiguity in the borderlands Paul Moses on the evils of immigration enforcement under Tom Homan | 38m 16s | ||||||
| 6/24/26 | ![]() The City and the Cross—Episode 3: Dots on a Map | Following the 1989 parish closures, the infrastructure that had supported Black Catholic leadership in Detroit was largely dismantled. Surviving parishes tried to rebuild community, while parishes that were merged struggled to forge new identities. Meanwhile, Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the archbishop who oversaw the closures, left the city for Rome to take a top Vatican finance post. In the third and final episode of “The City and the Cross,” host and Commonweal Centennial Fellow Aaron Robertson weighs the total cost of the 1989 parish closures—not just the loss of buildings, but the erosion of the systems that once nurtured Black Catholic vocations. He tells the story of Father John McKenzie, a Black priest who tried to serve Detroit’sBlack Catholic community with little institutional support, and whose own struggle raises a pointed question for the Church today: decades after 1989, how committed is the archdiocese to investing in Black Catholic communities? Slowly, another question also starts to emerge: did the Black Catholic Movement ultimately succeed or did it fail? Robertson asks the very people who lived through it. Today, as the Detroit archdiocese undergoes another round of restructuring, Black Catholics are bracing for the worst, but they refuse to walk away from the spiritual centers they built and still call home. Featured Voices Marjorie Gabriel-Burrow, a musician who helped bring Black musical styles into Catholic Mass; Norah Duncan IV, a nationally acclaimed composer who watched the 1989 closures unfold from inside the archdiocesan chancery; Judith McNeeley, the daughter of Deacon Allen McNeeley, who was a member of St. Bernard parish until its 1989 closure; Dr. M. Shawn Copeland, a former nun from Detroit, now one of the world's leading Catholic theologians; Father Tom Lumpkin, a founding member of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance (DCPA); Father Norm Thomas, the longtime pastor of Sacred Heart and a cofounder of the DCPA who led the public resistance to the 1989 closures (archival); Father John McKenzie, a Black former Benedictine monk ordained a priest in Detroit in 2019, whose path eventually led him out of the Roman Catholic Church; Bishop Walter Hurley, Cardinal Edmund Szoka's chief of staff; Cathey DeSantis, a nun and member of Sacred Heart who became an organizer, and eventually director, of the DCPA; Steve Wasko, a Secular Franciscan and member of a Detroit-area anti-racism coalition that formed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder; Dr. Shannen Dee Williams, a historian of Black Catholicism whose scholarship frames Detroit as the radical center of the national Black Catholic Movement; and Patricia Montemurri, a former Detroit Free Press reporter who chronicled the 1989 closures and broke the news of Szoka’s Vatican appointment. | 56m 28s | ||||||
| 6/17/26 | ![]() The City and the Cross—Episode 2: A Padlock on All the Doors | In September 1988, Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the archbishop of Detroit, announced via a closed-circuit television broadcast that the archdiocese would close dozens of inner-city parishes in Detroit within a year. Churches on the city’s predominantly Black east side would be disproportionately affected. The announcement triggered an immediate outcry: parishioners met at Sacred Heart, Detroit's Black Catholic “mother church,” and held vigils outside locked churches; the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance became the organizing hub of resistance; protestors marched up and down Woodward Avenue; and a few local residents planted mums outside the cardinal’s residence, one for each parish the archdiocese eventually closed. In the second episode of "The City and the Cross," host and Commonweal Centennial Fellow Aaron Robertson chronicles the community organizers who coordinated these efforts, a journalist who covered the story, the Catholic priests caught between their vows of obedience and their commitment to Black parishioners, and the prominent Black Catholic leader—a former Black Panther—who had to deliver the news of the parish closures to the communities he faithfully tried to serve. Featured Voices: Walter Hurley, Cardinal Szoka's chief of staff, who oversaw the implementation of the closures; Patricia Montemurri, a Detroit Free Press reporter who covered the Catholic Church in Detroit for decades; Father Norm Thomas, the Lebanese American pastor of Sacred Heart Church and a co-founder of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance (DCPA), who became the public face of the fight against the closures (archival); Cathey DeSantis, a former nun who became one of the lead organizers of the DCPA; Eric Blount, a Sacred Heart parishioner and minister who became an outspoken public voice against the archdiocese's plan Frances May, a Black laywoman who co-led the Alliance for Detroit Churches and directly challenged Cardinal Szoka's authority (archival); Wyatt Jones III, whose father Wyatt Jones Jr. delivered the news of the closures to the communities he had devoted his life to serving; Michelle McKinney and her mother Jackie Mahome, who watched St. Agnes—the church where Jackie had built pioneering Black history programs—be merged out of existence. | 49m 50s | ||||||
| 6/11/26 | ![]() Ep. 163 - ‘A Coherent Picture of Reality’✨ | philosophyatheism+4 | Christopher Beha | Harper’s MagazineWhy I Am Not an Atheist: The Confessions of a Skeptical Believer | — | Immanuel Kantatheism+6 | — | 45m 47s | |
| 6/10/26 | ![]() The City and the Cross—Episode 1: From the Ground Up✨ | Black CatholicismDetroit history+4 | — | Commonweal Magazine | Detroit | Black Catholic DetroitJim Crow+4 | — | 51m 50s | |
| 6/8/26 | ![]() The City and the Cross—Series Trailer✨ | Black Catholic communityspiritual renaissance+4 | — | Commonweal | Detroit | Black CatholicDetroit+5 | — | 2m 30s | |
| 6/2/26 | ![]() Ep. 162 - Subversive Cartography✨ | artimmigration+3 | Sandy Rodriguez | ICETrump administration+2 | — | mapsChicana artist+3 | — | 51m 07s | |
| 5/14/26 | ![]() Ep. 161 - Catholicism and Community Organizing✨ | community organizingCatholicism+3 | Nicholas Hayes-MotaMichael Okinczyc-Cruz | Santa Clara UniversityCoalition for Spiritual and Public Life | — | Catholicismcommunity organizing+3 | — | 46m 00s | |
| 4/30/26 | ![]() Ep. 160 - Humble Work✨ | vocationsCatholicism+5 | Fr. James Martin | Commonweal MagazineTrump administration+3 | — | vocationsCatholic+6 | — | 50m 49s | |
| 4/16/26 | ![]() Ep. 159 - Reclaiming Attention✨ | technology addictionattention liberation+4 | D. Graham Burnett | Friends of AttentionPrinceton+2 | — | smartphonesattention+5 | — | 57m 10s | |
Want analysis for the episodes below?Free for Pro Submit a request, we'll have your selected episodes analyzed within an hour. Free, at no cost to you, for Pro users. | |||||||||
| 4/2/26 | ![]() Ep. 158 - ‘My First War’✨ | warhumanitarian crisis+3 | Fr. Doug Jones | Commonweal Magazine | IsraelLebanon | BeirutHezbollah+5 | — | 48m 31s | |
| 3/26/26 | ![]() The Black Church and Progressive Politics: A conversation with Gary Dorrien✨ | Black ChurchProgressive Politics+4 | Gary Dorrien | Columbia UniversityUnion Theological Seminary | — | Black ChurchProgressive Politics+5 | — | 1h 10m 44s | |
| 3/6/26 | ![]() On the Altar: A conversation with historian Jonathan Sheehan✨ | Christian sacrificehistory+4 | Jonathan Sheehan | UC BerkeleyPrinceton University Press+1 | — | sacrificeChristianity+4 | — | 42m 33s | |
| 2/23/26 | ![]() Revelation and Reporting: A conversation with journalist Daniel Silliman✨ | journalismEvangelicalism+3 | Daniel Silliman | Christianity Today | — | journalismEvangelicals+3 | — | 55m 02s | |
| 1/21/26 | ![]() American Charisms: A conversation with 'Spellbound' author Molly Worthen✨ | American historycharisma+4 | Molly Worthen | University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSpellbound : How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump | — | charismaAmerican history+5 | — | 49m 55s | |
| 1/8/26 | ![]() Christianity's American Fate✨ | ChristianityAmerican society+3 | — | University of California, BerkeleyChristianity's American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular | — | ChristianityAmerican Fate+5 | — | 37m 32s | |
| 12/20/25 | ![]() An End-of-the-Year Message✨ | end-of-year messagepodcast update+1 | — | — | — | Commonwealpodcast+3 | — | 2m 14s | |
| 9/26/25 | ![]() Ep. 157 - The Counterweight: MAGA vs. the World✨ | MAGA movementforeign policy+5 | Miguel Diaz | Loyola ChicagoHoly See+6 | — | MAGAforeign aid+7 | — | 59m 42s | |
| 9/11/25 | ![]() Ep. 156 - The Counterweight: The Common Good & American Liberalism✨ | American Liberalismpolitical violence+4 | Hille Haker | Loyola University ChicagoCommonweal Magazine+4 | United StatesGermany | Trump presidencypolitical corruption+5 | — | 1h 12m 48s | |
| 8/5/25 | ![]() Ep. 155 - The Counterweight: Against White Christian Nationalism | One of the most prominent features of the second Trump administration has been its bluntly racist actions and policymaking. Recent examples abound, from the suspension of asylum for migrants and refugees, the all-out war on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs in federal agencies and higher education, and the ongoing and increasingly militarized efforts at mass deportation, which have terrorized Latino, Haitian, and other communities across the country. This second episode in our series The Counterweight: Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching in a Time of Crisis features Fr. Bryan Massingale. He’s a professor in Fordham University’s theology department and a priest of the archdiocese of Milwaukee. He joins Commonweal editor Dominic Preziosi to examine the ideology that in his view undergirds so many of the Trump administration’s actions: white Christian nationalism. Fr. Massingale’s remarks are followed by discussion between him and three other experts, Fordham’s Cristina Traina and Loyola Chicago’s Miguel Diaz and Hille Haker. | 55m 30s | ||||||
| 7/25/25 | ![]() Ep. 154 - The Counterweight: Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching | Since becoming pope, Leo XIV has reminded us that the Catholic Church “offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching.” That tradition is especially salient now, amid the rise of Christian nationalism and of alternative interpretations of Catholicism among some high-profile politicians in the United States. As we confront the political, social, and spiritual challenges brought on by the second Trump administration, the moment seems right for a clear examination of Catholic social teaching by leading scholarly voices deeply rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition, especially its ethics, political philosophy, and theology. In this special four-episode series, a collaboration between Commonweal and senior members of the theology departments at Fordham University and Loyola University Chicago, we present four conversations, each providing a provocative, informative analysis of key political and social issues rooted in the understanding of Catholic social teaching. We’re calling it ‘The Counterweight: Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching in a Time of Crisis.’ Our participants are Christina Traina and Bryan Massingale of Fordham University, and Hille Haker and Miguel Diaz of Loyola University Chicago. Each episode will have a featured presenter, followed by a conversation among all the participants. Today’s episode, our first, takes up the purpose of government, an especially urgent topic given the radical departure from the principles and conventions of liberal democracy by the Trump administration. Fordham’s Christina Traina is here to explain how that departure is also a departure from Catholic social teaching’s more expansive and communal understanding of government—not just as a guarantor of rights, but a steward of the common good. | 43m 34s | ||||||
| 7/8/25 | ![]() Ep. 153 - It’s Just Wrong | For decades, public support for the death penalty in the United States has been declining. But in recent years, the number of executions has risen sharply—and a majority of Americans still say they support capital punishment. What’s needed, argues Atlantic staff writer Elizabeth Bruenig, is not just a deeper understanding of forgiveness, but the actual practice of mercy. Bruenig has written extensively on the death penalty in a series of articles and essays. On this episode, she reflects on how witnessing executions—some botched, all harrowing—has shaped her thinking about capital punishment. For further reading: Elizabeth Bruenig’s July cover story for The Atlantic David Bentley Hart on Christianity and the death penalty The Editors on Pope Francis’s declaration on capital punishment | 27m 56s | ||||||
| 6/6/25 | ![]() Ep. 152 - Crypto-Religiosity | It’s often remarked that America has become less religious, especially during recent decades. But what if that religiosity hasn’t disappeared, but just taken less visible forms? That’s exactly what was happening in the arts in 1980s NYC, argues Paul Elie, author of The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s. As Elie tells it, the era wasn’t just marked by the ascendance of the moral majority and the authority of tradition—figures like Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan. It also featured subtle engagement with spiritual themes by the likes of figures like Leonard Cohen, Andy Warhol, Madonna, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, and Martin Scorcese, and provides a template for understanding where Catholicism stands today. For further reading: An excerpt from Paul Elie’s new book Kaya Oakes on why religion must ask better questions Susan Bigelow Reynolds on millennial religious rejection | 27m 45s | ||||||
| 5/20/25 | ![]() Ep. 151 - The First U.S. Pontiff | The swift elevation to the papacy of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost—known simply as ‘Bob’ among his fellow Augustinian friars—defied pundits’ predictions even as it was met with joy by Catholics around the world. It’s impossible to say just how Leo XIV’s papacy will unfold, though in his early Masses and remarks the pope has already voiced strong support for the continuation of Francis’s project of synodality. Leo’s chosen name signals his commitment to the advancement of Catholic social teaching. On this episode, Commonweal contributors Natalia Imperatori-Lee and Mollie Wilson O’Reilly and editor Dominic Preziosi reflect on Pope Leo’s first week on the chair of Peter. For further reading: The editors on Leo’s election Anthony Annett on Pope Leo and AI Stephen Millies on Leo and Chicago’s CTU Massimo Faggioli on what Leo’s pontificate signals for the U.S. Church | 23m 37s | ||||||
| 4/24/25 | ![]() Ep. 150 - Remembering Francis | Three theologians—Massimo Faggioli, Susan Bigelow Reynolds, and Terence Sweeney—reflect with Commonweal editors on the pope’s legacy. More coverage of the death of Pope Francis: Isabella Simon on Let Us Dream César J. Baldelomar on Laudato Si’ Griffin Oleynick on Evangelii gaudium | 46m 34s | ||||||
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