The Catholic Herald Podcast: Merely Catholic with Gavin Ashenden

Journalist and author Simon Caldwell returns to Merely Catholic to discuss his new thriller, Lady Mabel's Gold, with Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 99th episode. A standalone sequel to The Beast of Bethulia Park, the author's 2022 debut, Lady Mabel's Gold has been praised by former Catholic Herald editor William Cash as a “truly original novel with excellent writing, clever plot twists and a cast of memorable characters which put Caldwell at the front rank of Catholic novelists today”. Dr Ashenden talks to Caldwell about his characters, themes and inspirations and both read from the book for the first time publicly. https://www.gracewing.co.uk/page416.html

Tim Dieppe, the head of public policy at Christian Concern, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 97th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss his new book, The Challenge of Islam. This book discusses the increasing influence of Islam in the UK and how non-Muslims might respond. Chapters include: “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?”, “Is Islam Antisemitic?”, “What's wrong with Multiculturalism?”, and “What's wrong with Islamic Finance?” The book concludes with some policy proposals that would make a difference. In their conversation, Mr Dieppe and Dr Ashenden also confront the theological question of whether Allah is the same as the God of the Bible.

Conservative Party peer Lord (Nigel) Biggar CBE, the Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford and an Anglican priest, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 96th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Lord Biggar, an Oxford-educated historian and author of the 2023 book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, reflects on the plan by the Church of England to pay £100 million in reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade following criticism in a new report for Policy Exchange that such policies are based on a defective process which “embedded activism rather than balance”. He gives Dr Ashenden a more nuanced account of the British Empire and its expansion and of the conduct of several of the important figures involved in its creation.

Rod Dreher's close friendship with U.S. Vice President JD Vance is the subject of this 96th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. He and Dr Gavin Ashenden discuss Mr Vance's shocking accusation in a landmark speech at the Munich that the greatest threat to European security is not posed by Russia or China but by the European elites, and the extent to which Europe is “changing sides” with its ideological opponents of the Cold War. An American author who now lives in Budapest, Hungary, Mr Dreher is perhaps best known for The Benedict Option, his 2017 book about how Christians might prepare themselves for a new dark age. It was one of three New York Times best-sellers, with Live Not By Lies and The Little Way of Ruthie Leming. His latest book, Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age, was published last year. Our sponsor: thomasmorecollege.edu

The rapid promotion by Pope Francis of Cardinal Robert McElroy as the new Archbishop of Washington DC has astonished many within the Catholic Church. Mark Lambert, the author of a popular blog called De Omnibus Dubitandum Est and a regular on the Catholic Unscripted YouTube channel, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 95th episode of Merely Catholic to analyse what might lie behind the motivations of the Holy See in choosing Cardinal McElroy to lead such an important see, placing the appointment in the context of the crises currently afflicting the Catholic Church and western civilisation more generally.

Dr Calum Miller, a medical doctor working within the NHS, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 93rd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Dr Miller graduated from the University of Oxford Medical School in 2015. As a researcher at the University of Oxford, he has published more than 30 academic papers in medicine, law, philosophy and ethics – examining such complex subjects as examined include foetal sentience, and abortion and mental health - and has won prizes for his work in bioethics from the University of Oxford and the Royal Psychiatry of Medicine In this podcast, Dr Miller describes his journey of discovery and discusses how his concern for the vulnerable and belief in true equality led him to a robust, enduring and defensible pro-life position in the face of moves to further liberalise abortion and legalise euthanasia.

Following the enforced resignation of Justice Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury, numerous assessments have been made about his role in the post. Today, Gavin Ashenden is joined by an authoritative Anglican commentator from America, Canon George Conger. George is both an Episcopalian clergyman and a journalist. He is the author some 6,000 articles . His work has appeared in the Guardian, the Times, the Telegraph and the Washington Post. He was senior corespondent for the Church of England Newspaper for twenty years and a correspondent for the Jerusalem Post for nearly as long. He runs one of the most famous websites in the Anglican world,Anglican Ink, and has known personally most of the English Archbishops as well a the Primates of the Anglican Communion. Famous for his shrewd and perceptive assessments, he joins Merely Catholic today to make an assessment of Welby's tenure. Trigger warning; Not for the delicate.

This week, Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined by Karen Anstiss, the service manager for Caritas Bakhita House, a safe house in London for trafficked and exploited women which is run by the Catholic Church. A former police officer, Miss Anstiss charts the origins of the project 10 years ago as part of a broader response to the “endemic and deeply embedded” global problem of an estimated 50 million people trapped in modern-day slavery, a scourge described by Pope Francis as a “wound in the body of humanity and therefore in the body of Christ himself” She goes on to describe the pioneering work of Bakhita House, which since 2015 has given sanctuary to 188 women, aged between 15 and 70, who are drawn from 49 countries and who are overwhelmingly the victims of sexual exploitation or serious sexual assault.

 The Catholic novelist Fiorella De Maria discusses Catholic literature for Christmas with Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 91st episode of Merely Catholic. Fiorella tells how she wrote her first book in the summer after graduating from university before she went on to publish about a dozen books with San Francisco-based Ignatius Press and to win the Book Prize of Malta. Her works include acclaimed murder mysteries, biographies of saintly and heroic figures and even a recent foray into horror with This Thing of Darkness, a story she co-authored with KV Turley. She and Dr Ashenden discuss her inspirations, her observations about what makes a Catholic novelist, the threat of cancel culture. Finally she offers a few suggestions for good stocking fillers this Christmas. Check out our sponsor: https://jpcatholic.edu/landingpages/c...

Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative Party minister, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 90th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury and the future of the Church of England. Miss Widdecombe, who, like Dr Ashenden was a member of the Church of England before converting to the Catholic faith, charts the leadership difficulties and challenges which have split Anglicans in the last 30 years and discuss the prospects of reconciliation. She and Dr Ashenden consider the strong possibility that the next leader of the Church of England and the Worldwide Anglican Communion will, for the first time in history, be a woman.

In this 89th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Rod Dreher talks to Dr Gavin Ashenden about his new book, Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age. With increasing numbers of young people in the West seeking spirituality in esoteric religions or the Occult, Mr Dreher argues that the Church must act urgently to rediscover and better express the mysterious beauty of the Catholic faith that has animated and inspired the lives of so many saints. An American author who now lives in Budapest, Hungary, Mr Dreher is perhaps best known for The Benedict Option, his 2017 book about how Christians might prepare themselves for a new dark age. It was one of three New York Times best-sellers, with Live Not By Lives and The Little Way of Ruthie Leming.

Professor David Albert Jones, the director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 88th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. They discuss the rush to assisted suicide ahead of a crucial vote to legalise the practice in the House of Commons on November 29 and the horrible realities of what a change of the law will mean. Professor Jones is the winner of the Paul Ramsey Award for Excellence in Bioethics, and in 2017 he co-edited Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Lessons from Belgium with Chris Gastmans and Calum MacKellar.

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined for this 87th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, by Andrew Jacoby, an American businessman and entrepreneur. Mr Jacoby, who converted to the Catholic faith from the Judaism of his youth and the “hedonistic lifestyle” of his later years when he travelled the world as a musician, explains how he was ultimately drawn to the Church by “the truth”. He tells of his dalliance with “New Age” and Eastern esotericism, which took him down “down some dark paths” until he rediscovered the stories of the Bible and found that his perspective on life had been altered profoundly.

Dom Alcuin Reid, the distinguished Australian Benedictine who founded the Monastère Saint-Benoît in Fréjus-Toulon, France, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 86th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Dom Alcuin is an internationally-recognised expert on the liturgy, having published and lectured on the subject extensively. Among his works are The Organic Development of the Liturgy, which included a preface by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described. He and Dr Ashenden discuss the liturgical revolutions that have taken place in the last half century, the “overt persecution of that which is good and of God”, and how the “ideology and politics of a passing generation” may be in their dying throes.

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined on Merely Catholic this week by Dr Derry Connolly, the founding president of John Paul the Great Catholic University, California. Dr Connolly charts his journey from his youth in rural County Cork, Ireland, and a career in engineering and technology in Los Angeles to the moment when “God put it in my heart” to establish a “radically different” Catholic university in San Diego to harness the power of beauty to transform contemporary culture, and how he was able to realise his vision in spite of setting out with no funds. In this 85th episode of the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Dr Connolly also discusses with Dr Ashenden what a Catholic university is, and how John Paul the Great might form Catholics for Hollywood.  To find out more about John Paul the Great Catholic University visit: https://jpcatholic.edu/landingpages/catholicherald/

The Rt Rev. Joseph Strickland, the former Bishop of Tyler, Texas, who was “relieved” of his duties by Pope Francis last year, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 84th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald They discuss his removal from office and the post-modern assault on truth in the Church and in the world, and other subjects including the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Francis papacy and the Rupnik scandal. In the podcast, Bishop Strickland also explains why Christians have a fundamental duty to be heed and be obedient to the truth, warning the faithful that “false messages fall to dust”.

Our guest for this 83rd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, is Fr Michael Ward, the English literary critic and theologian and an internationally recognised expert on the writings of CS Lewis. Perhaps best known for his 2010 book Planet Narnia, Fr Ward is an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, and Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University. He played the role of a vicar in The Most Reluctant Convert, the CS Lewis biopic. He has also reviewed films and plays for the Catholic Herald and other media. He talks to Dr Gavin Ashenden about why Lewis continues to appeal to millions of Catholics and to discuss where Lewis's theology would fit in today's ecclesial landscape.

Holly Ordway joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for the 82nd episode of Merely Catholic to discuss the Catholicism of JRR Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She is the Cardinal Francis George Professor of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute and Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University. Her book Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (Word on Fire Academic, 2021) received the 2022 Mythopoeic Society Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies. Her newest book is Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography, which was released in time for the 50th anniversary of Tolkien's death on September 2nd, 202 and can be purchased from on Amazon US and Blackwell's Books and Amazon UK.

Father Hans Zollner, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, theologian, psychologist, and professor at the Gregorian University. He is also one of the leading experts on safeguarding and the prevention of sexual abuse. In March 2023, Father Zollner resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, criticizing the leadership of the body in a public letter. In this 81st episode of Merely Catholic, Father Zollner discusses the issue of sexual abuse in the Church and how Catholics should respond.

George Farmer, the Oxford-educated investment banker, social media wizard and GB News board member, is our guest for this 80th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Mr Farmer, husband to the American social media influencer and author Candace Owens and the son of Conservative Party peer Lord Farmer, tells Dr Gavin Ashenden about his journey into the Catholic faith from an Evangelical background. They also discuss the crises facing Christianity and the West in the third millennium.

This week Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined from California by author James Crowell to discuss the work and vision of John Paul the Great Catholic University, an institute founded to harness the power of beauty to transform culture. They discuss the ambition of the university to shape “the next generation of artists and innovators with academic excellence, unparalleled creativity, and an authentic community centred on Jesus Christ”. Inspired by St John Paul's demand for a new evangelisation, the Catholic film school aims to provide a hub to create culture by bringing together storytellers, artists, designers, leaders, and entrepreneurs in the pursuit of truth, beauty and goodness – and offer an antidote to an ugly and bleak post-Christian future. https://jpcatholic.edu/

Dr Gavin Ashenden this week speaks to fellow Catholic Herald associate editor and novelist Simon Caldwell about the recently published norms from the Vatican governing the discernment and handling of private revelations and associated mystical and supernatural phenomena. They discuss what the new norms represent and what has prompted the overhaul, the first since 1978. They also examine the purpose of private revelations and the dangers posed to the Church by those which are fraudulent. Caldwell, who has written frequently about private revelations, also talks for the first time about his forthcoming second novel, Lady Mabel's Gold – the sequel to The Beast of Bethulia Park – and the character of Ana Guerrero, a schoolteacher who bleeds mysteriously from her head. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0852447000?ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_76JQB9YEXV7WDKNRPTYE&ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_76JQB9YEXV7WDKNRPTYE&social_share=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_76JQB9YEXV7WDKNRPTYE

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010 he was welcomed on behalf of the youth of country by Paschal Uche, then a 22-year-old from Stratford, East London. Ten years later Father Pascal was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Brentwood. In this 77th episode of Merely Catholic, Father Pascal talks to Dr Gavin Ashenden about how he answered his call to the priesthood, his priestly formation, and about the exercise of the vocation to priestly ministry in the 21st century.

Michael J. Knowles, the American broadcaster, political commentator, actor and author, is the guest of Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 75th episode for Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. They discuss the many “diverse and eccentric” identities of American conservativism in the twilight of the Biden presidency and Mr Knowles' work for the Daily Wire, the popular US news website and media company, amid the shifting sands of the cultural revolutions of the last decade. They also talk about the vital role of the Catholic Church in upholding objective moral truth in the crisis of relativism gripping the West.

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined this week by Dr Patricia Morgan, the distinguished sociologist and author of the 2023 book Banning Conversion Therapy: The Missing Evidence, amid impending legislation to criminalise counselling, discussion, prayer and teaching based on orthodox Christian doctrine in spite of such changes representing a serious attack upon free inquiry and freedom of speech. In this 75th episode for Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Dr Morgan sets such changes in the prevailing anti-family and anti-marriage ideology that has convulsed the West for more than 50 years.

Madeline Page of Right to Life UK joins Dr Gavin Ashenden this week to discuss shocking scenes at Manchester University when a violent mob descended on a meeting of the students' pro-life group with the aim of closing it down. Hundreds converged on the venue where a group of students met peacefully to spit at the women taking part and to shout “get raped” in their faces, with the police forced to intervene to prevent violent attacks on participants. Dr Ashenden, in this 74th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic, asks Madeline what this was all about and what it signifies.

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined this week by John Zmirak, a senior editor of The Stream and author of the new Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism, to discuss the new novelties “gathering slime” in the West and within the Catholic Church. Zmirak is the author, co-author, or editor of twelve books, including Wilhelm Ropke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist, The Grand Inquisitor (graphic novel) and The Race to Save Our Century and his essays, poems, and other works have appeared in First Things, The Weekly Standard, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, FrontPage Magazine, The American Conservative, The South Carolina Review, Modern Age, The Intercollegiate Review, Commonweal, and The National Catholic Register. He has contributed to American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought.

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined this week by the distinguished Canadian journalist Anna Farrow to discuss Canada's hysterical grief over mass graves which never existed. Farrow, a Montreal based writer for the Catholic Register, describes how 96 churches came to be burned down after it was falsely claimed that the graves of 215 children had been discovered in the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia that had been run by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Canadian government – but which years later failed to yield a single body. In this 72nd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Farrow explains how anti-Catholic sentiment played a part in creating perhaps the gravest moral panic since the fabricated Satanic abuses convulsed western societies in the late 20th century.

The horrendous chemical attack on a woman and two children by Abdul Ezedi, an Afghan received into Christianity by Baptists in Jarrow, has reopened debate about the authenticity of the claims of some people who seek asylum on the grounds of religious conversion. Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester who became a Catholic in 2021, discusses some of the contemporary problems with the system with Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 71st episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. They also reflect on the Judaeo-Christian tradition of “welcoming and loving the stranger” and the theology that underpins it, and how such biblical injunctions should be interpreted in an age of the mass movements of populations.

Ferdi McDermott, the English headmaster and co-founder of Chavagnes International College, a Catholic school for boys in France, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 70th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald. They discuss the origins and success of the venture and some of the issues confronting Catholic secondary and higher education in the ideologically benighted UK and precisely what underpins the excellence of Chavagnes, an academy which has produced about twenty priestly vocations in just the last two decades.

Stefan Kaminski, the director of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst College, the Catholic independent school in Lancashire, is our guest for this 69th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald. He and presenter Dr Gavin Ashenden discuss the mission in a range of Christian leadership formation undertaken by the centre at Theodore House with the objective of preparing Catholics for a broad range of service in public life. Mr Kaminski also explains how the work of the centre continues the tradition of evangelisation of the great Jesuit college that occupies the same site.

Dr Joseph Shaw returns for this 68th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, for the second of a two-part broadcast examining the situation of Catholics under a Protestant monarch in the 21st century. He and Dr Gavin Ashenden explore the role of tradition, the monarchy as a model for papacy, the papacy as “the servant of tradition”, the evolution of the papacy and the significance of the innovations introduced by the reigning Pontiff and his predecessors. Dr Joseph Shaw is the chairman of the Latin Mass Society and a former member of the Philosophy faculty at Oxford University, and last month he published A Defence of Monarchy: Catholics Under a Protestant King, which includes contributions from such writers as Sohrab Ahmari, James Bogle, Charles Coulombe, Peter Day-Milne and Sebastian Morello.

The guest for this 67th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, is Dr Joseph Shaw, the chairman of the Latin Mass Society and a former member of the Philosophy faculty at Oxford University, to discuss his new book, A Defence of Monarchy: Catholics Under a Protestant King. In this first of a two-part broadcast, they discuss the meaning and function of a monarchy and rituals in the modern world and why this ancient institution may serve as a 21st century repository of Catholic tradition, a politically-neutral focus of unity, and a symbolic interface between the nation and God. A Defence of the Monarchy, which was published in December, includes contributions from Dr Shaw, as well as from such writers as Sohrab Ahmari, James Bogle, Charles Coulombe, Peter Day-Milne and Sebastian Morello.

Fr David Palmer, the Catholic chaplain to Nottingham University, returns to Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss Fiducia Supplicans, the new document from the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that appears to open the gates to blessings for same-sex couples within the Catholic Church. In this 66th episode, Fr Palmer explains to Dr Gavin Ashenden why the British province of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, to which he and 500 other British priests belong, was compelled to publicly assert that such blessings remain “pastorally and practically inadmissible”.

Bianca Jagger, the president and chief executive of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden to discuss the atrocious treatment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa by the regime of President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. In this 65th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Ms Jagger reports disturbing new information about the deteriorating condition of the “prophetic” bishop since he was jailed in February for 26 years after he refused to go into exile in the United States, and about the “real, dangerous and serious” persecution of the Catholic Church in the land of her birth.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider is our guest for this 64th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. The Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, talks about his new book, Credo: The Compendium of the Catholic Faith, a catechism commissioned by the US-based Sophia Institute Press, and why the bold and clear iteration of the truths of the Catholic Church is more vital than ever in these times of moral and doctrinal confusion.

Paul Coleman, the executive director of ADF International, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden to discuss the appalling treatment by the Finnish state of Päivi Räsänen, an MP, former government minister for the interior and the wife of a Lutheran pastor, for alleged hate crimes after she publicly expressed the teaching of the Bible on human sexuality. In this 63rd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, they discuss the Räsänen case following her exoneration by the Helsinki Court of Appeal and explore how loosely-worded hate legislation poses mounting threats to such legitimate rights as freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion throughout the Western world.

Kathy Gyngell, the co-foundress and editor of The Conservative Woman: Defending Freedom website, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for the 62nd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald. They discuss feminism, motherhood and the revolution in childcare, the growth of the state, the relationship between economic liberalism and social conservativism, rolling Islamist hate marches and the new phenomenon of two-tier policing, as well as intolerance, cancel culture and censorship, fake news, the “invidious” and stratospheric rise of the new ideologies and the sacking of Suella Braverman.

In the 61st episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Dr Gavin Ashenden talks to Tim Dieppe about challenge of Islam to Western democracies and the values that underpin them following mass migration and radicalisation triggered by war. Mr Dieppe is head of public policy at Christian Concern, which he joined in 2016, and has a special interest in Islamic affairs. He co-authored the book Questions to Ask Your Muslim Friends with Beth Peltola and also contributed two chapters to Beyond the Odds: Providence in Britain's Wars of the 20th Century by John Scriven.

The struggle between the family and the state has been “a feature of the relentless march of secularism” in the western world, notes Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 60th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, in which he speaks to Barbara Socha. The deputy minister for family and social policy since 2019 with a specific responsibility for demographic policy, Mrs Socha, a mother-of-five, describes why Poland is willing to bravely buck the western trend by choosing to robustly take the side of marriage and the family and freedom of religion against insidious new ideologies with the aim of creating the “best conditions” in the world for married Catholic couples with children.

Can the Pope change the teaching of the Catholic Church by the stroke of a pen during the course of correspondence? In this 59th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Dr Jules Gomes speaks to Dr Gavin Ashenden about the dubia submitted to the Pope by five cardinals concerned about the remit of the Synod on Synodality and the response of the Holy Father to the doubts they raise. Dr Jules is a theologian, a journalist and a Catholic correspondent based in Rome. He has a Doctorate in Biblical Studies from Cambridge University and is the author of five books of Theology.

Mark Lambert, the author of a popular blog called De Omnibus Dubitandum Est and a regular on the Catholic Unscripted YouTube channel, returns to Merely Catholic to consider the plight of Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who in the summer was subjected to visitation after his alleged criticism of the conduct of Pope Francis on social media. In this 58th episode of the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Mr Lambert joins Dr Gavin Ashenden to together reflect upon the extent that Bishop Strickland might be either a blessing or a curse in a pontificate which is leaving many Catholics all over the world increasingly perplexed.

In a society obsessed with sex and increasingly confused about what it is to be a man or a woman, Megan Madden, an Oxford-based American author and mother, offers a radically different perspective about what fulfilled femininity might really be. Her new book, Mary, Teach Me to Be Your Daughter, is based on years of studies on marriage and the family and reading the works of such distinguished Catholic philosophers and theologians as St Edith Stein, Gertrude von le Fort, Alice von Hildebrand, St John Paul II, and St Teresa of Avila, asking herself all the time what it truly means to be a woman. She shares her thoughts with Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 57th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald. You can purchase a copy of Megan's book here.

The Catholic world has recently been rocked by the publication of a book that has been sent out to every one of the Catholic Church's bishops across the world. In episode 56 of Merely Catholic, Gavin Ashenden interviews one of its authors, Julio Loredo. Part of the initial impact of the book lay in the powerful and dramatic preface which was authored by Cardinal Raymond Burke, a former prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. He commended the book as providing a clear and accessible warning about the danger that the process of Synodality posed to the integrity and the existence of the Catholic Church.   In a wide ranging conversation, Gavin Ashenden discusses the book and the issues that lie behind it with its author.

The Vatican's precarious diplomatic relations with Communist China is the core subject of discussion in this fascinating 55th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Presenter Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined by Benedict Rogers, a human rights activist and author of The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party's Tyranny. Rogers, a former Anglican who was received into the Catholic Church in Myanmar a decade ago, is also the co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong Watch and the Senior Analyst for East Asia at Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He has won two major international awards for his work in defending religious liberty. The book is available on Amazon or you can order it through Waterstones or any good bookshop, or order directly from the publishers.

In the Bible, Jesus Christ teaches that God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but the Anglican Archbishop of York has now distanced himself from the language of divine revelation, declaring it to be “problematic”. In this 54th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, former Anglicans Fr Dwight Longenecker and Dr Gavin Ashenden unpack the reasons why Our Lord chose to reveal the Persons and nature of the Holy Trinity in such terms as they confront what they describe as an “astonishing” redrafting of Christianity by one of the most senior leaders of the Church of England.

The veteran Rome correspondent Edward Pentin returns to Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss with Dr Gavin Ashenden the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, of the forthcoming Synod on Synodality, which has been published by the Vatican ahead of the first of the sessions in October. Together in this 53rd episode they consider the contents of the document and the extent to which it might be described as authentically Catholic. They also address concerns about whether the working document is in fact an exercise in political modernity which is starkly at odds with the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church.

In this 52nd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined by Justin Brierley, the freelance writer, speaker and broadcaster who has become known for creating dialogues between Christians and non-Christians. They discuss Justin's forthcoming book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, which will be published in September, and they also reflect on what Christians might need to do to rescue their culture from new and destructive ideologies moving into the vacuum in British social and political life that has been created by widespread apostasy. Pre-order Justin's new book here!

In the 51st episode, Gavin Ashenden has joined by Kimberly Ells. In 2013, she joined an international organization working to protect the interests of children and families at the United Nations. During her first exposure to UN proceedings in New York City, she was surprised to discover policies being adopted on the basis of the promotion of sexual rights for children. Beyond the immediate astonishment, emerged the question, who was it that believed in the sexualisation of children, and why? In her book, The Invincible Family, Kimberly Ells joins the dots, and offers an analysis of the ethics, politics, and ambitions of those who want to undermine the rights and privileges of biological parents to ‘get their hands on the kids' and reshape our culture and morals.  She discusses her conclusions in this, the  latest episode of Merely Catholic.

Ryan Christopher returns to Merely Catholic to discuss the highly motivated political lobby groups behind the swingeing changes to law and culture. Mr Christopher, the director of ADF UK, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation defending fundamental freedoms and human dignity, tells Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 50th episode of the podcast series for the Catholic Herald that Western societies are now witnessing the “natural playing out of the death of the liberal moment”. A new era is opening up, he says, in which essential and hard won freedoms and civil liberties are increasingly under threat. It is one in which Catholics must strive with greater urgency to become more involved in public life to protect and uphold so much of what they hold dear and, for now, take for granted.

In the 49th episode of Merely Catholic, Paul Kingsnorth joins Gavin Ashenden to talk about his journey from environmentalism, on an exploration through Buddhism and paganism which led him to Christ.  Hailed as one of the most incisive and perceptive thinkers of his generation, Paul Kingsnorth examines the fragility of Western culture and the emergence of what he terms ‘the machine' – the delegation to technology of the control and fulfilment of human desire.  All choices are ‘religious' now he suggests. It's a choice between God and the archetypal path of rebellion with its inevitable consequences.