Pope Francis Generation - the Podcast!
Spring is the season for launching new projects!
I am partnering with Dominic de Souza at SmartCatholics to create the Pope Francis Generation Show.
This is a show for Catholics struggling with the Church’s teaching, who feel like they might not belong in the Church anymore, and who still hunger for a God of love and goodness.
Your hosts are me, Paul Fahey, a professional catechist, and Dominic, someone who needs catechesis. Together, we’re taking our own look at the Catholic Church—her teachings and practices—from three views that changed our world: the call to share the joy of Gospel, the forgotten doctrine of theosis, and the insights from Pope Francis.
Season one of the PFG Show is going to launch next month on Youtube and all major podcast feeds. Topics include:
The Nones: why people leave and why should they come back?
What Catholics get wrong about suffering
Freedom and Conscience
Hell—what does the Church actually teach?
Death (yes, death)
The Cross: a sign of God’s wrath or God’s love?
Chastity (what Jason Evert and Christopher West haven’t told you)
And more!
Paid subscribers to the PFG Substack will get exclusive access to the PFG Show. You will get to watch each episode 24 hours before everyone else. You will be invited to special live recordings and Q&A of the show. And you will be able to pitch ideas for what topics we discuss.
The Show
Chapter six of John's gospel recounts Jesus's great sermon where he tells the crowds to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus's teaching was so difficult for his followers to accept that nearly everyone left and he turned to his apostles and asked, "Do you also want to leave?”
There are many times when my answer to that question has been "yes." I've wanted to leave when my genuine wrestling with Church teaching was treated with hostility. I’ve wanted to leave when I've seen Jesus used by clergy as a prop for political agendas. I’ve wanted to leave when friends share stories of spiritual and sexual abuse at the hands of their pastors. I’ve experienced too much truth and goodness in the Church to leave, but I've seen too much harm to want to stay.
The Body of Christ is holy and sinful, human and divine, spiritual and material. There is not an abstract "real church" separate from the flesh and blood baptized people who are abusers, liars, predators, and narcissists. I have been trying to navigate this reality, without growing embittered or discouraged, for the past several years. God has had to deconstruct the Catholicism that I was formed in and then he rebuilt my Catholic faith on the deeper revelation of his love and goodness.
At the Pope Francis Generation Show, we hope to share that deeper revelation with you. We will be reexamining the Catholic Church—her teachings and practices—in light of the kerygma, the doctrine of theosis, and the teaching of Pope Francis.
If you are struggling with the Church’s teaching, if you feel like you may not belong in the Church anymore, or if you've been Catholic your whole life but have never known the love and goodness of God, then the Pope Francis Generation show is for you.
If you like the sounds of this…
. . . consider Father’s Heart Catechesis.
Father’s Heart Catechesis is a small group catechesis program that proclaims the relentless love of God. Founded by Paul Fahey, this program will, at every level, proclaim God’s love for you and all people. Like the PFG Show, it’s inspired by Pope Francis, centered on the mystery of theosis, and deeply grounded in the magisterial documents of the Church.
Father’s Heart Catechesis is for any Catholic who wants to grow in their relationship with God, who is struggling with their faith or with Church teaching, who feels like they may not belong in the Church anymore, or who simply wants to renew their love for God.
It’s also for catechists and parish ministers who want to experience life-giving catechesis in order to bring it back to their own communities.
Learn more and sign up here!