Jesuitical

Welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast for young Catholics hosted by two young, lay editors at America—Zac Davis and Ashley McKinless. Each episode features a guest who offers a unique perspective on faith, culture or current events. We also bring you some of the top (and maybe more obscure) Catholic news of the week. And we'll ask: Where do we find God in all this?

Religion & Spirituality
Christianity
News
176
Pete Holmes needed his life to fall apart to lo...
Pete Holmes played the game. He followed the rules. He went to church, attended a Christian college and saved himself for marriage. He was ready for God to hold up his end of the deal and deliver happiness and success.  Then his wife (the one he...
56 min
177
The impact of Covid-19 on immigrant workers
Bonus Quarantine Ep.9
29 min
178
What happens when your faith and health come in...
What do you do if God has commanded you to do something that could put your health and even life at risk? This is the who visit mikvah’s, small, public pools, which women immerse themselves in as part of the purity ritual after having their period....
46 min
179
Harry Potter, Soul Cycle and the Internet: say ...
You’ve heard of the “nones.” It seems like every week there is a new book, article or survey trying to explain the increasingly large segment of millennials and Gen-Zers who check “none” when asked about their religious affiliation. Tara...
54 min
180
What Pope Francis wants the world to look like ...
Bonus Quarantine Ep.8
29 min
181
The first Catholic high school for teens strugg...
For teens struggling with substance abuse and addiction, the typical pressures of high school can spill over into the realm of disastrous. Recovery high schools—with smaller class sizes, counseling and sober social activities—are designed to...
41 min
182
Living like monks in quarantine
Bonus Quarantine Ep.7
33 min
183
How will the Catholic Church change after the c...
A 25-minute conversation between President Trump and hundreds of bishops and other Catholic leaders sparked an intense debate about the right way for Catholic leaders to engage in politics. While the conference call got a lot of attention, it is just...
40 min
184
Father James Martin on praying in quarantine
Bonus Quarantine Ep.6
26 min
185
Meet the 30-year-old priest anointing coronavir...
Father Michael Trail had administered the anointing of the sick many times in his first three years as a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Usually, he would sit at the bedside and hold the hand of a person nearing death while family and other...
42 min
186
What it’s like to be pregnant during Covid-19
Bonus Quarantine Ep.5
25 min
187
Lessons from West Africa’s Ebola response for C...
In late February, when the coronavirus still seemed like a far-off threat to many Americans, officials in West African nations began to prepare their public health response: They brought out thermometers, protective equipment and handwashing stations....
34 min
188
A Jesuit reflects on coronavirus quarantine in ...
Bonus Quarantine Ep.4
26 min
189
The Friar who won “The Great American Baking Sh...
Amateur chefs and wanna-be bakers have a lot more time to spend in the kitchen thanks to stay-at-home measures meant to slow the spread to the coronavirus. And this week’s guest has some great tips for upping your recipe game. Brother Andrew...
44 min
190
Walking with Mary Magdalene to the tomb on East...
Bonus Quarantine Ep.3
23 min
191
The coronavirus poem that went viral. Ep. 136
Laura Fanucci was up in the middle of the night with her 5-week-old newborn when the words came to her: “When this is all over....” She wrote the poem on her phone and when she posted it on Instagram the next morning it caught fire. Politicians,...
41 min
192
Picture this: What it’s like to walk with Jesus...
Bonus Quarantine Ep.2
34 min
193
How the Catholic Church adapted during the Blac...
It’s not really fair or responsible to draw comparisons between the Black Plague and our current coronavirus pandemic. Our situation pales in comparison to 50 million deaths, or roughly 50% of Europe’s population alone in the mid-14th century. But...
43 min
194
Bonus Episode: Jesuit leadership lessons during...
Bonus Quarantine Ep.1
28 min
195
One bishop’s response to the coronavirus. Ep. 134
No priest becomes a bishop imagining he will one day tell his people not to come to Mass. But across the United States and much of the world, bishops have had to make the heartrending decision to shutter their churches and cancel the public...
38 min
196
Catholic health care during the coronavirus pan...
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips treated the United States’s first coronavirus patient. She is the chief clinical officer and executive vice president at Providence St. Joseph Health, a Catholic hospital located outside Seattle. We asked her about where we...
38 min
197
Is diet culture obscuring Lent? Ep. 132
With Lent in full-swing and warmer weather around the corner, many Catholics are probably thinking about food and their bodies more than normally. But what if the way that we’re approaching fasting and dieting is harmful—especially to our...
50 min
198
What’s it like to say Mass on death row? Ep.131
For the past 10 years, George Williams, S.J., has passed through metal doors plastered with the word “CONDEMNED” to minister to the men on death row at San Quentin State Prison, located on the north side of the San Francisco Bay. As the Jesuit...
30 min
199
Meet the Louisiana priest behind a 100-gallon t...
It is a beautiful thing when the sacred and the quirky come together in such a way that only Catholicism can arrange. Filling a crop duster plane with holy water and blessing an entire small town definitely qualifies as sacred and quirky in the best...
49 min
200
The untold history of black nuns in the United ...
Ask most people what they know about black Catholic sisters, and they will probably murmur something about “Sister Act.” Dr. Shannen Dee Williams did, too, until she began digging into communities’ archives and uncovering the previously hidden...
23 min