Mike Lewis speaks with Phyllis Zagano in a wide-ranging discussion about the Church, the upcoming synod, the role of women, and the meaning of synodality. In particular, they discuss her article on the upcoming Synodal assembly, “The secret synod,” and her most recent book, “Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women,” which is entering into its second printing with Paulist Press.

Phyllis Zagano, PhD, has lectured throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Her many awards include the 2014 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice from the Paulist Center Community in Boston. Her groundbreaking work on women in the diaconate led to her appointment in 2016 to the Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women.

Links:

Phyllis Zagano
https://sites.hofstra.edu/phyllis-zagano/

Just Church - Dr Phyllis Zagano (Paulist Press)
https://www.paulistpress.com/Products/5653-5/just-church.aspx

The secret synod | (RNS Column) National Catholic Reporter
https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/secret-synod-thats-happening-rome

Roman Catholic Church to discuss women deacons at Pope Francis' synod in October - Newsday
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/religion/woman-deacons-catholic-church-synod-xfpqylff

Advocacy for Women Deacons by Alum Phyllis Zagano, a World Expert, Goes before Global Vatican Gathering | Bostonia | Boston University
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/women-deacons-advocacy/

DESCRIPTION 

WPI Perspectives is a YouTube and podcast series brought to you by Where Peter Is. Join us for thoughtful interviews with theologians, clergy, journalists, scholars, and ordinary Catholics. We delve into the topics at the heart of contemporary Catholic life. From social justice to Church history, deepen your understanding of the Catholic world.

"WPI Perspectives" is your next essential listen. Subscribe today!

Visit Where Peter Is for more Catholic news and views.
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WPI Perspectives With Phyllis Zagano

Welcome to “Pathway to Priesthood”—a limited audio series from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. In these conversations, host Eric Clayton talks with Jesuits who are in the final days of preparing for ordination to the priesthood. They reflect back on their vocation stories and experience of Jesuit formation, and wrestle with some of the biggest questions surrounding priestly ordination.

On this episode, we’re asking tough questions—literally. In our church and in our world, we’re surrounded by questions that make us uncomfortable, by hot-button issues and ideological divides. Like it or not, this is the world, this is the church, that our newly ordained Jesuits are stepping into. In fact, they’ve been in it all their lives. But now, they engage the world and the church as priests. Our two Jesuit guests for this episode are Tom Elitz and returning champion, Christopher Alt.

If you listened to our second episode of this limited series, you already know Christopher. He was raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He attended the University of San Diego and, later, Boston College. It was there that he met the Jesuits, though it would be a number of years before he took the leap and entered. Tom was born in Philadelphia but grew up in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. He met the Jesuits as an undergraduate student at St. Joseph’s University. Before entering the Society, he worked as a financial analyst and internal auditor at Johnson & Johnson. 

Tough questions are inevitable in any vocation. Our hope is that today’s episode will give you some tools for reflecting on ways to approach them.

As you listen to their stories and reflections, I invite you to consider whether you or someone you know might be interested in discerning a call to Jesuit life. If so, head over to beajesuit.org.

Pathway to Priesthood: Answering Tough Questions

It’s graduation season, which means it’s commencement address season. Host Mike Jordan Laskey did a quick Google search for “most common words in graduation speeches,” and the top hit provided this list – which doesn’t include prepositions or other super-common words:

1.	Life
2.	Make
3.	People
4.	World
5.	Yourself
6.	Success
7.	Generation
8.	Human

There are certainly exceptions, but the standard commencement address is all about YOU, the graduates, and what YOU will do with YOUR immense gifts to find incredible success or change the world. Here’s some stuff you don’t typically hear: You’re not any more special than anyone else; no achievements are really yours alone; you’re going to die someday. In other words, there’s not much humility this time of year – not among most graduates and certainly not among those select few invited to give graduates advice.

My guest today thinks the world could use a lot more humility. Dr. Christopher Bellitto is a professor of history at Kean University in New Jersey and a frequent media commentator on Catholicism. His latest book from Georgetown University Press is titled “Humility: The Secret History of a Lost Virtue,” which is incredibly readable, fascinating and even fun. It traces the concept of humility through millennia, going back to Socrates in ancient Greece – when humility wasn’t always seen as a good thing – up through teachings  from Judaism, Islam and Christianity and into the Enlightenment and all the way up into our modern context.  

Mike asked Chris why he decided to write the book, and what he learned about the history of humility. They also talked a bit about St. Ignatius of Loyola, who had his own complex relationship with humility. Chris is one of my the best conversationalists around and Mike had a lot of fun digging into this underappreciated, under-practiced virtue.

Chris' book: https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Humility

More about Chris: https://sites.google.com/a/kean.edu/christopher-m-bellitto-ph-d/

AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

www.jesuits.org/
www.beajesuit.org/
twitter.com/jesuitnews
facebook.com/Jesuits
instagram.com/wearethejesuits
youtube.com/societyofjesus
www.jesuitmedialab.org/

The Surprising History of Humility with Christopher Bellitto

This week, Jake and Liv break down the rap beef that took the world by storm this past month.  And of course, because it’s 2024 and the universe has decided to spare none of the QAA hosts, the lyrics contained within the multiple diss tracks became the source of endless amounts of conspiracy theories and baking - with one particular poster claiming to be a “secret insider” set to expose the crimes of the elite.  Sound familiar?  Of course it does!  We will never be free of this, and our souls cry out into the void. 

For those who haven’t been following, Jake will catch everyone up to speed on why the beef began in the first place, as well as the accusations contained in each rapper’s lyrics.   Then we will descend into hell where Liv will unpack the countless theories circulating in online forums, and the culmination of these theories resulting in real world violence.  


Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts and The Spectral Voyager: www.patreon.com/QAA


Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe & Jake Rockatansky. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com)

www.qaapodcast.com

QAA was formerly known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

Kendrick + Drake = Bake (E279)

E245: Mid-Life Crisis / Vocation Analyzation / We back

In the late 19th century a Frenchman pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes of all time and inspired countless conspiracy theories about Freemasonry that still circulate today.  The man, who went by the pseudonym Leo Taxil, started his career by publishing several texts smearing the Pope and the Catholic Church. But then he switched sides and claimed he converted to Catholicism. To prove his devotion he started publishing anti-Masonic texts. These new works included wild stories about a secret satanic sect with freemasonry called Palladism. Despite the fact that these stories are far beyond the limits of believability, they were taken seriously by the Catholic Church. Taxil finally admitted that his multiple books about satanism in Freemasonry were all part of an elaborate, 12-year-long-hoax.

In part 1 of this series, we explore the childhood of “Leo Taxil,” his hoaxes in France and Switzerland, and the anti-Church writings that forced him to fend off lawsuits and criminal charges.

In part 2, we’ll get into the thousands of pages he wrote about secret satanism in Freemasonry, how the public swallowed these stories up, and his dramatic confession that it was all a lie.

REFERENCES

Dickie, John. The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World. Public Affairs, 2020

Ziegler, Robert. Satanism, magic and mysticism in fin-de-siècle France. Springer, 2012.

Van Luijk, Ruben. Children of Lucifer: The origins of modern religious Satanism. Oxford University Press, 2016

Mellor, Alec. A Hoaxer of Genius
https://skirret.com/papers/ahoaxerofgenius-leotaxil.html

Wikisource: The Works of Leo Taxil
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Auteur:L%C3%A9o_Taxil

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

The Taxil Hoax and Satanic Freemasonry Part 1 (Premium E245) Sample

Dreifaltigkeitssonntag (B) – Umgang mit den drei Göttlichen Personen (Ernst Burkhart)

Machines And Animals: Can AI Be 'Alive?' | Anselm Ramelow OP

Fr John Sullivan Theme

Austin Ivory- First Belong to God

In this interview with Pat Coyle, Brian Grogan SJ remembers his friend the late Imogen Stuart, renowned German-Irish artist.

Imogen Stuart: Remembering a "treasure"

Promoting the mission and vision of Pope Francis.

WPI Perspectives With Phyllis Zagano

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