In the 19th century, secret societies were all the rage and the Knights of the Golden Circle were among the most famous. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss their origin and aims, their role in the Civil War, and the mysteries surrounding them.
Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?
You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515
This Episode is Brought to You By: Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World is brought to you in part through the generous support of Catechism Class, a dynamic weekly podcast journey through the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Greg and Jennifer Willits. It’s the best book club, coffee talk, and faith study group, all rolled into one. Find it in any podcast directory.
Fiorvento Law, PLLC, specializing in adult guardianships and conservatorships, probate and estate planning matters. Accepting clients throughout Michigan. Taking into account your individual, healthcare, financial and religious needs. Visit FiorventoLaw.com
Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.
“Brothers and sisters, filled with the joy of the Risen Christ, let us ask the grace of being a Church ”moving out“, the community of missionary disciples taking initiative and committed to proclaim the Gospel of peace and mercy. #GeneralAudience #Easter” @Pontifex, 12 April 2023
“60 years ago, St. John XXIII addressed the Encyclical ”Pacem in terris“ to the Church and to the world. I invite everyone to read it, because it is more timely than ever. And I pray that the heads of nations might allow it to inspire projects and decisions yIneqi Vatican” @Pontifex, 12 April 2023
“Our wounds can be passages, openings that, in imitating the wounds of the Lord, allow God’s mercy to enter. His grace changes our lives and makes us artisans of #peace and reconciliation.” @Pontifex, 13 April 2023
“Let us welcome the grace of Christ’s Resurrection! Let us be renewed by God’s mercy. Let us allow the power of His love to transform our lives too. And let us become agents of this mercy so justice and peace can flourish in the world.” @Pontifex, 14 April 2023
“Today, with the world torn always more by war, distancing itself from God, we have all the more need of the Father’s mercy. Let us #PrayTogether #DivineMercy” @Pontifex, 15 April 2023
“On this Divine Mercy Sunday, certain of interpreting the feelings of the faithful throughout the world, I direct a grateful thought to the memory of Saint John Paul II, the object of offensive and unfounded inferences these past few days.” @Pontifex, 16 April 2023
“Let us #PrayTogether for the victims of war, which continue to sow death in horrific ways, asking God that the world might never more have to experience the shock of violent death by the human hand, but the awe of the life that He gives and renews with His grace!” @Pontifex, 16 April 2023
“I express my closeness to all our brothers and sisters who are celebrating Easter today. Dear brothers and sisters, may the Risen Lord be with you and fill you with His Holy Spirit! Happy Easter to all of you!” @Pontifex, 16 April 2023
“The wounds of the risen Jesus are the signs of the Love that overcomes hatred, of the Pardon that disarms revenge, of the Life that conquers death. #GospelOfTheDay (Jn 20:19–3) #DivineMercy” @Pontifex, 16 April 2023
“If you have dreams of true glory, not the glory of this passing world, but of the glory of God, this is the path to follow: the works of #mercy give glory to God more than any other thing.” @Pontifex, 17 April 2023
“Our hope is called Jesus. He is alive and evil has no more power over Him. Failure cannot prevent us from beginning again, and death becomes the passage to the beginning of a new life. #Easter” @Pontifex, 18 April 2023
The 6th Doctor’s final chapter! Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the 6th Doctor’s final battle with the Valeyard that results in his ultimate sacrifice and sets him up for the 7th Doctor’s darker turn.
The D is back! Dom Bettinelli and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the penultimate episode of Star Trek Picard, including the implications of Puer Dei and Vox; the return of a familiar ship, and the disappointing departure of a particular character.
In 1980, two women and a boy had a frightening encounter with a UFO blazing light and fire. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss the event, the health effects it had, the women’s battle with the US gov’t over it, and what could be responsible for it all.
Due to copyright issues on YouTube, we have posted this week’s video on an alternative site. You can watch the video below. Thank you.
Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?
You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515
This Episode is Brought to You By: Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World is brought to you in part through the generous support of Catechism Class, a dynamic weekly podcast journey through the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Greg and Jennifer Willits. It’s the best book club, coffee talk, and faith study group, all rolled into one. Find it in any podcast directory.
Fiorvento Law, PLLC, specializing in adult guardianships and conservatorships, probate and estate planning matters. Accepting clients throughout Michigan. Taking into account your individual, healthcare, financial and religious needs. Visit FiorventoLaw.com
Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.
For the third installment in the 6th Doctor’s audio-only regeneration story, Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the return of several characters from the 4th Doctor’s time, the new Companion Flip, and a man fighting against his dark side in Victorian London.
“During these holy days, let’s draw near the Crucified One. Let’s place ourselves before him, stripped, to take an honest look at ourselves, removing whatever is superfluous. Let’s look at him, wounded, and place our wounds in his. Let’s let Jesus regenerate hope in us. #HolyWeek” @Pontifex, 5 April 2023
“Without the Lord’s Spirit, there can be no Christian life. Without his anointing, there can be no holiness. It is fitting that today, on the birthday of the priesthood, we acknowledge that He is at the origin of the ministry, the life and vitality of every Pastor. #HolyThursday” @Pontifex, 6 April 2023
“On the cross, Jesus refused to yield to despair, but he prayed and entrusted Himself to the Father. In His abandonment, he continued to love and forgive His crucifiers. Jesus, in His abandonment, asks us to see and have a heart for the many ”abandoned Christs“.” @Pontifex, 7 April 2023
“Today the power of Easter calls you to roll away every stone of disappointment and mistrust. The Lord is an expert in rolling back the stones of sin and fear. He wants to illuminate your sacred memory, your most beautiful memory, to make you relive your first encounter with him.” @Pontifex, 8 April 2023
“Let us revive the beauty of that moment when we realized that he is alive and we made him the Lord of our lives. Let us return to Galilee. Let each of us return to his or her own Galilee, to the place where we first encountered him. Let us rise to new life!” @Pontifex, 8 April 2023
“Let us make haste to surmount our conflicts and divisions, and to open our hearts to those in greatest need. Let us hasten to pursue paths of peace and fraternity.” @Pontifex, 9 April 2023
“To rise again, to start anew, to take up the journey, we always need to return to Galilee, that is, to go back to the living, concrete and palpable memory of our first encounter with him.” @Pontifex, 9 April 2023
“Jesus, the Living One, is with us, forever. Let the Church and the world rejoice, for today our hopes no longer come up against the wall of death, for the Lord has built us a bridge to life.” @Pontifex, 9 April 2023
“May we allow ourselves to experience amazement at the joyful proclamation of Easter, at the light that illumines the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped.” @Pontifex, 9 April 2023
“The #GospelOfToday lets us relive the women’s encounter with the Risen Jesus on Easter morning. Jesus meets them while they are going to announce him. This is beautiful: when we proclaim the Lord, the Lord comes to us. #Easter” @Pontifex, 10 April 2023
“When hope is spent and we feel loneliness in our hearts, inner weariness, the torment of sin, the fear of failure, let us return to Jesus. For He is the only one who always defeats death and always renews our life. #Easter” @Pontifex, 11 April 2023
The 12th Doctor meets Santa at the North Pole! Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss this Christmas special that reunites Clara and the Doctor in a dreamy, facehugger alien story that is by turns funny, endearing, and creepy.
What is necessary in healing from grief? Dom Bettinellli and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the latest Picard episode, including grief and healing; how love is at the core of identity; and the everchanging theories for what’s really going on. Plus what’s next for Star Trek?
It’s time for another set of weird questions posed by Cy Kellet of Catholic Answers to Jimmy Akin, including this time: whether time travel interferes with God’s plans; could an alien 2,000 light years away see Jesus on Earth; the origin of coal and the Great Flood; ghost hunting TV shows; and whether vampires could commit suicide to protect others.
Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?
Questions covered:
02:31 – If a human is a rational animal (that’s to say that it has the natural tendency to grow, eat, feel, see, will, and reason) then would the consecrated Eucharist have these innate tendencies as well? Are there any conditions under which the Eucharist can do even one of those things mentioned, let alone all of them?
05:24 – By time traveling are you interfering with God’s plan? Even if we think we are stopping an evil act, God has his reasons.
07:26 – If you were to save someone in the past would that person in the new timeline have a different soul? They lived a longer lifetime and committed other acts either righteous or sinful. To me that would logically mean it’s not the same soul since we are judged by our one life. One version of the person could have gone to hell and other to heaven.
10:00 – Given the speed of light, is it possible that a person, right now, on a planet 2000 light years away and with a telescope so powerful that he could see onto the surface of the earth in great detail, could watch Jesus walking and teaching.
12:49 – Will every curiosity or question that I have in this life have an answer in heaven, or will the experience of sanctification or purgatory simply remove that curious or questioning spirit from me?
14:48 – What is your take on the floating log mat model for the origin of coal beds and biogeography? As both a coal miner and a Catholic, I am interested in the theory that the great flood caused a mass (or masses) of fallen logs to float about the world, but I have a hard time making the leap that this proves a young earth and our previous theories for the formation of coal seams taken millions of years are no longer valid. On a related note, is the story of the great flood required to be taken literally, or could it have been a regional flood that wiped out the human population but maybe did not cover the entire earth?
18:40 – I became Catholic, I enjoyed those shows on Travel Channel like Ghost Adventures, where these paranormal investigators would lock themselves in a “haunted” place and try to capture evidence of the paranormal through EVP [that is, Electronic Voice Phenomena] sessions and whatnot. I don’t necessarily believe it was all real (or all fake for that matter either) and I’m a fairly educated individual and understand the behavioral psychology of “hearing voices” through EVP and, as such, am highly skeptical. HOWEVER, these shows are very entertaining, and I have to admit, I enjoy them, for entertainment. As a Catholic, is it a sin to watch these shows for entertainment? I would never even think of doing it myself or even put any stock in what they do. I know we are forbidden from attempting to contact the dead, but is watching these shows for entertainment, per se, sinful? I can’t find anything definitive about it.
32:40 – Let’s say, in an alternate timeline, the Left Behind fictional series, centered around the end of the world and the 2nd coming of Christ, was authored by faithful Catholics. In order to keep the series in line with Church teaching, what events would need to be included, what events would need to be omitted, and what events may or may not be included as they are subject to theological speculation?
37:03 – Suppose someone became an undead vampire. Yet, they still have a moral conscience and know right from wrong. The Church also teaches that suicide is a mortal sin. Would it be a sin for such a person to commit suicide in order to protect others from becoming a vampire?
45:48 – How would you reconcile Earth’s liturgical calendar with planets that have longer or shorter solar years? Can you have Easter twice in one year? Could you have a year without Christmas?
You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515
This Episode is Brought to You By: Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World is brought to you in part through the generous support of Catechism Class, a dynamic weekly podcast journey through the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Greg and Jennifer Willits. It’s the best book club, coffee talk, and faith study group, all rolled into one. Find it in any podcast directory.
Fiorvento Law, PLLC, specializing in adult guardianships and conservatorships, probate and estate planning matters. Accepting clients throughout Michigan. Taking into account your individual, healthcare, financial and religious needs. Visit FiorventoLaw.com
Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.
