Category: Podcasts

Pope Francis on Evangelization

microphonePope Francis recently released a major new document on evangelization—how to share the gospel of Jesus with others.

In this episode of Catholic Answers Live, Jimmy discusses the document and the implications it has.

In this episode, Jimmy discusses the issues:

  • Is Pope Francis the most misunderstood pope in recent history?
  • Is the press malicious or just incompetent?
  • Does the Pope hate capitalism?
  • How should we understand Pope Francis’s treatment of Islam?
  • What level of authority does an apostolic exhortation have?
  • How did Pope Francis write this document?
  • Are there translation problems in this document?
  • What is the major thrust of the document? Should we evangelize “without words”?
  • Does Pope Francis understand his pontificate as being “to the world” in addition to “to Catholics”?
  • What are the priorities of Pope Francis’s pontificate?
  • What to make of the interview with an atheist journalist that was taken down from the Vatican web site?
  • What level of authority do press interviews with the pope have?
  • Should the Vatican web site publish papal press interviews?
  • What is the Acta Apostolicae Sedis?
  • Will Pope Francis do major specific things in his pontificate? Is he an innovator or an implementer?
  • What to make of Pope Francis washing the feet of a Muslim girl on Holy Thursday?
  • Does Pope Francis hate the Traditional Latin Mass?
  • Why shouldn’t we read our own preferences into what the pope says and does?
  • Will the rule on women’s foot washing be changed? Should we be upset about this?
  • What gravity should we attribute to rubrics in the liturgy, and how does it relate to the doctrines in the hierarchy of truths?
  • How to understand John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis in relation to each other?

(Original Airdate: December 9, 2013)

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE.

Or use the player below at JimmyAkin.com . . .

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How Is Mary’s Question Different?

annunciation-midIn Luke 1, the Angel Gabriel appears twice.

First, he appears to Zechariah the priest, to tell him that he will be the father of John the Baptist.

Then, a few verses later, he appears to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she will be the mother of Jesus Christ.

Both Zechariah and Mary ask questions of the angel–but with very different results.

Zechariah is rendered mute and unable to speak until John the Baptist is circumcised!

Mary . . . isn’t.

So, what’s the difference?

They both asked questions about the seemingly impossible pregnancies that Gabriel had come to announce?

Why is Zechariah treated so differently?

Is God just playing favorites with Mary?

Or is there a subtle difference between their questions and the attitudes which the questions reveal?

That’s what I take a look at in this podcast and video.

 

 

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE.

By the way, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you’ll get a shiny new email whenever I post a video!
OR . . .

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE.

Or use the player below at JimmyAkin.com . . .

What Now?

If you like the information I’ve presented here, you should join my Secret Information Club.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Secret Information Club is a free service that I operate by email.

I send out information on a variety of fascinating topics connected with the Catholic faith.

In fact, the very first thing you’ll get if you sign up is information about what Pope Benedict said about the book of Revelation.

He had a lot of interesting things to say!

If you’d like to find out what they are, just sign up at www.SecretInfoClub.com or use this handy sign-up form:

Just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com if you have any difficulty.

In the meantime, what do you think?

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Why don’t we call bishops “apostles”? (And more!)

microphoneJimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

  • Why don’t we call bishops “apostles” if they’re the successors to the apostles? When did we start having bishops? (2:30)
  • Why did the Catholic Church support the “bad guys” in the Spanish Civil War? (5:00)
  • What can Jimmy recommend to a searching Protestant for understanding the pope and Mary? (12:15)
  • Are there apostles living today? (20:35)
  • Are all churches the same? (22:25)
  • Does the fact that Paul was sent to the Gentiles and Rome disprove the authority of Peter? (30:00)
  • Why do Catholics pray to saints if Jesus is the only Mediator? Can we pray for those who have passed on, and if so, do they have to be canonized saints? (34:35)
  • Does Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees imply sola scriptura? Where do Catholics and Protestants differ on sola scriptura? (44:40)

(Original Airdate: December 5, 2013)

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE.

Or use the player below at JimmyAkin.com . . .

What Now?

If you like the information I’ve presented here, you should join my Secret Information Club.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Secret Information Club is a free service that I operate by email.

I send out information on a variety of fascinating topics connected with the Catholic faith.

In fact, the very first thing you’ll get if you sign up is information about what Pope Benedict said about the book of Revelation.

He had a lot of interesting things to say!

If you’d like to find out what they are, just sign up at www.SecretInfoClub.com or use this handy sign-up form:

Just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com if you have any difficulty.

In the meantime, what do you think?

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How do the non-canonical gospels compare to the biblical ones (and more!)

microphoneJimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

  • What does Jimmy think of the pope’s new apostolic exhortation? (2:35)
  • Why do the early Church Fathers know best? Why are they authoritative? (6:15)
  • Is there evidence that the apostolic Fathers carried over the deposit of faith? (9:00)
  • Did the Reformers educate the people, whereas the Catholic Church deprived people of knowledge? (14:45)
  • Is it okay to lie the way Rahab did? (22:05)
  • Does the existence of non-canonical Gospels diminish the authority of the ones in the Bible? (27:35)
  • Were the four canonical gospels established at the Council of Carthage? (32:40)
  • What resources review Catholic books and movies in light of Catholic teaching? (34:30)
  • Can people do things pleasing to God before they know Jesus? (40:05)
  • Do conceptions have to occur through a sexual act? (48:40)
  • Is it morally permissible to contribute to a fund that your job requires you to permit to if it’s pro-abotion? (51:45)

(Original Airdate: November 26, 2013)

 

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE.

Or use the player below at JimmyAkin.com . . .

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Do our souls go to sleep when we die? (And more!)

microphoneJimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

  • Do our souls go to sleep when we die? (3:00-8:25)
  • How to deal with an anti-Catholic husband? (11:45-19:35)
  • How to interpret 1 John 3:9? (19:40-24:53)
  • What does Scripture have to say about Tradition? (27:50-33:45)
  • Are the differences in the Gospels due to the audiences they are written for? (33:45-38:40)
  • Is it moral to sell your organs? (42:23-49:40)
  • Was Adam more culpable for the Fall than Eve? (49:45-53:00)

(Original Airdate: November 19, 2013)

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Is the fire of purgatory Jesus Christ himself?

sacredheartThe Catholic Church associates the image of fire with the final purification known as purgatory.

Why does it do this?

Is there a scriptural basis for this image?

Also, what kind of fire is this?

In past centuries, many theologians have speculated that it might be a form of material fire.

Although that has been a common opinion historically, there’s a difficult question that the idea raises: How could material fire affect the holy souls in purgatory? They don’t have their bodies, so how could material fire affect them? And why would it accomplish a spiritual effect on them?

More recently, some theologians have suggested that the fire is something else entirely.

In fact, they have suggested that the fire of purgatory is an intense, transforming encounter with Jesus Christ.

You might be surprised to find out just who has been proposing this idea.

Here’s a video in which we explore the idea . . .

 

 

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE.

You can also listen to or download it as an MP3:

 

What Now?

If you like the information I’ve presented here, you should join my Secret Information Club.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Secret Information Club is a free service that I operate by email.

I send out information on a variety of fascinating topics connected with the Catholic faith.

In fact, the very first thing you’ll get if you sign up is information about what Pope Benedict said about the book of Revelation.

He had a lot of interesting things to say!

If you’d like to find out what they are, just sign up at www.SecretInfoClub.com or use this handy sign-up form:

Just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com if you have any difficulty.

In the meantime, what do you think?

Pope Francis Washing Women’s Feet & The Popes Who Thought About Resigning . . . But Didn’t

 

Recently, Pope Francis washed the feet of several young people, including young women. He did this in the wake of Pope Benedict's resignation. Here are two interesting discussions of Pope Francis's actions and a look at recent popes who thought about resigning but didn't do so in the end.

It has been widely reported that, when he was still the cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, the future Pope Francis washed the feet of women during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Now he has done so as pope.

Did he break the Church’s law?

What does this event mean, and how can we understand what he was trying to do?

CLICK HERE TO READ WHAT I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT THAT.

 

Popes Who Thought About Resigning . . . But Didn’t

Benedict XVI’s resignation may have been the first papal resignation in hundreds of years, but it didn’t come completely out of the blue.

He’d already indicated that he had been thinking about the subject of resignation.

What is less well known is that other recent popes had been thinking about it, too.

A lot of recent popes.

CLICK HERE TO READ WHAT I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT THAT.

 

Two Conversations

This special, extra episode of the Jimmy Akin Podcast contains two conversations I recently had on these subjects on Al Kresta’s and Drew Mariani’s radio shows.

I thought they were very interesting, productive discussions, and so I thought I’d share them with you.

Use the player or links below to listen!

(Or, if you’re reading by email CLICK HERE to go to the original post and listen.)

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The Pope Who Inspired Pope Benedict’s Resignation

Pope Benedict's resignation is patterned after that of St. Celestine V. Here Pope Benedict visits the relics of St. Celestine V.

There haven’t been that many popes who have resigned, and none of them offer an exact parallel to the case of Pope Benedict.

However, there is one pope–St. Celestine V–who is by far the closest parallel.

Who was he? Why did he resign? And what does his strange case tell us about Pope Benedict’s decision to resign?

In this episode, Dr. Andrew Jones and I discuss the most recent papal resignations, including that of St. Celestine V.

We comment on how Pope Benedict is modeling his resignation after that of Celestine V and what light this sheds on Pope Benedict’s thinking.

We also discuss what this means for the future and why Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation may be as momentous an event in the history of the Church as the development of the conclave.

Use the player or links below to listen!

 

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Is St. Peter the Rock on which Jesus built his Church?

Is St. Peter the Rock on which Jesus built his Church?
One of the most controversial passages in the Bible is Matthew 16:18, where Jesus tells Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.”

Catholics see this passage as evidence that Jesus made Peter the first pope.

Many Evangelicals look at it as just the opposite.

Who is right?

It’s an interesting question, and I’ve been on both sides of the question. In fact, this passage played a pivotal role in my conversion to the Catholic Church.

You may think you’ve heard all the arguments about whether Peter is the rock, but I’m going to show you the one that convinced me, and you probably haven’t heard it anywhere else . . .

The Basic Argument

A common claim in Protestant apologetics is that in Matthew 16:18, Jesus is actually contrasting St. Peter with the rock on which he will build his Church.

The argument is based on the fact that in Greek the word for Peter is petros, while the word used for “rock” here is petra.
It is often claimed that these words meant two different things–that petros meant a small stone or a pebble, while petra meant a large rock.

The idea is that Jesus is contrasting Peter–a tiny, insignificant stone–with the great rock on which he will build his Church, which is often said not to be Peter but Peter’s faith.

How well does this argument work?

By the Way . . .

Incidentally, if you’re interested in this type of information, you might want to check out my Secret Information Club.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Secret Information Club is a free service that I operate by email.

I send out information on a variety of fascinating topics connected with the Catholic faith.

The very first thing you’ll get if you sign up is an “interview” I did with Pope Benedict on the book of Revelation. What I did was compose questions about the book of Revelation and take the answers from his writings.

He has a lot of interesting things to say!

If you’d like to find out what they are, just sign up at www.SecretInfoClub.com or use this handy sign-up form:

Just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com if you have any difficulty.

In the meantime, what do you think?

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Spiritual Warfare, the Hungry Ghosts, and Blindness

St. Paul describes the "whole armor of God" in Ephesians 6, a classic spiritual warfare text

Spiritual Warfare

What is spiritual warfare?

Why is it practiced differently in the Catholic Church than in other churches?

What are the principles that it is based on?

Are ordinary Christians authorized to cast out demons?

What does St. Paul really mean when he talks about putting on the “whole armor of God”?

What is the “spirit of fear”?

How about the “spirit of religion”?

Who has the power to “bind and loose”? Is it just St. Peter, or is it broader than that?

What does “binding and loosing” mean, anyway?

Who is allowed to perform exorcisms–and do they need special permission?

Does the Bible support the idea that only certain people are authorized to perform exorcism?

What are the dangers exorcism involves for the unprepared?

Is the devil responsible for all of our temptations?

Can we attribute too much power to the devil?

What is a balanced approach to spiritual warfare?

The Hungry Ghosts

Should Catholic schools allow non-Christians to conduct prayer services on school property?

What if it’s in the chapel?

What if it’s in the parking lot?

Who should be consulted in cases of doubt?

Blindness

What is it like to be blind? What struggles do people with severe vision impairment face that sighted people never think about?

What has Jimmy’s own experience with being legally blind for a month taught him about the situation of blind people, and how has it affected his prayer life.

By the way, toward the end of the program, I invite people to join the Secret Information Club. To do that, you can use this handy form:

Or email me if you have any problems at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com.

In the meantime, to learn the answers to all these questions, just click the “Play” icon!

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