Catholic Answers Focus

The fact of suffering poses real intellectual challenges to the Christian message. So how do we share the gospel of a loving God, when suffering seems to reflect so poorly on him? Mark Giszcack, author of Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know, joins us. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. One of the greatest challenges faced with any person who wants to explain and defend the Catholic faith is life, and the fact that life involves sometimes overwhelming suffering. So you got to be able to answer…

Father Mark Mary Ames joins us for a conversation about the centrality of God’s Fatherhood to the Christian message. The author of The Father: 30 Meditations to Draw You Into the Heart of God, offers insights for sharing God’s Fatherhood with others, even those who struggle with father imagery. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and today we talk about God the Father, and about, well, first of all, coming closer to God the Father, but also about opportunities with e…

Karlo Broussard joins us to discuss the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, specifically if believing that Jesus is fully present is absurd. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic answers podcast for living understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. And not too long ago we talked with Karlo Broussard about the Eucharist and particularly the words of institution and some Protestant arguments against the Catholic belief in the literalness of the words of consecration. This is my body and this is my blood. This time we talk with Karlo again, b…

A topic that tends to come around during Holy Week is the accuracy of the crucifixion, including when it occurred.  In this episode, Cy and Catholic Answers Senior Apologist, Jimmy Akin, discuss the question of when exactly Jesus was crucified.     Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. And when exactly was Jesus crucified? That is our question this hour. It’s interesting, at least to me, quite interesting that as you examine that question, you get into some i…

The conversation over the real presence has been around for some time. Bible verses get thrown around but when we look at the full context of scripture, the words of Jesus come fully alive with its full glory. Catholic Answers Apologist, Karlo Broussard, joins us for a compelling conversation on this topic.   Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellet, your host. And among the things that Catholics have to defend, because it is the most precious thing in this world to us, is th…

It can be tempting to bring the heat when defending Christ and his Church against infuriating arguments (and obnoxious personalities). Our guest, Trent Horn, has developed a reputation for turning down the heat while remaining firm in the truth. He shares some of his secrets with us. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and we have one of the world’s best Catholic podcasters and YouTubers, authors and defenders of the faith with us to talk about how you keep cool in…

Erik Tafoya’s story of imprisonment and redemption is a powerful demonstration of God’s mercy. Now Tafoya is on a mission to bring apologetics to everyday folks. He shares his story and his techniques for explaining and defending the Faith. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. And sometimes when we’re making the show, we’re like, “We have a topic and we want to find somebody who’s an expert in that topic.” And sometimes we have a …

Carrie Gress explores the intricate relationship between feminism and Catholicism. From tracing feminism’s historical roots to discussing its impact on modern society, she offers an insightful perspective on how the Church can provide an alternative to the prevailing feminist ideology. Tune in as she navigates through complex topics with depth and clarity, shedding light on the path forward for Catholics in today’s world. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, an…

A major theme of modern morals is the slogan, “My body, my choice.” But is my body just a thing for me to use as I please, or does it have a more glorious purpose? Stephanie Gray Connors joins us for a discussion of the Christian view of the body, rooted in the unshakeable truth that God is love. Listeners can get a discount on Stephanie’s latest book, My Body For You, by purchasing at https://stpaulcenter.com/mybodyforyou and using the code FORYOU15 Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy …

Given the hyper- destructive nature of modern warfare, and the frequency of modern military engagements, can a Christian still accept the Just War thinking of earlier ages? Would Jesus? We asked theologian Joseph Capizzi, dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at Catholic University of America. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers Podcast for the living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. Maybe one of the challenges to understanding and defending our faith right now is modern warfare. What exactly is the church’s position here? How are …

In his engaging new book, The Best Argument for God, Pat Flynn gives … wait for it … the best argument for God. We asked him to share it with us. We also asked him for suggestions on becoming proficient in defending God. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. I’m very happy to welcome Pat Flynn, who has a wonderful new book out called The Best Argument for God, which we are about to talk about. And this is one of the things that, well, I don’t know if t…

Kyle Washut, president of Wyoming Catholic College, joins us to discuss the difficulties of evangelization and apologetics in the plugged-in era. He explains why, if you want to come to WCC, you won’t need to bring your phone. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. It’s hard to defend your Catholic faith if there’s nobody listening when you’re defending it. And we’re not listening to one another. We are absorbed in our devices. And I’m not saying that in a mean way because…

Some Christians are adamant that those who confess Jesus as Lord go directly to Heaven when they die. But is this teaching biblical? Karlo Broussard joins us for a discussion of what Christians can really hope for at death. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers Podcast for living understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. And does the Bible teach us that we get immediate entrance into heaven after death? We hear that a lot. There’s even TV commercials to that effect and lots of websites that will teach that. And many Christian comm…

Tom Nash explores the controversy surrounding the term “accompaniment” and delves into its true meaning, emphasizing the importance of genuine love, humility, and support in helping others grow in their faith and address challenges. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. Today we’re lucky we have Tom Nash in studio with us. Tom Nash works with us here at Catholic Answers answering all kinds of apologetics questions. He’s an author and longtime theologia…

Karlo joins Cy to discuss whether the Church is consistent on the teaching of sexual morality. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and happy to be with you. This time, a conversation about sexuality and in all honesty, if we really, I think were to maybe make an evaluation of why the world rejects the Catholic Church today, a great deal of it has to do with the sexual revolution. It’s certainly not all of the story, but a great deal of it has to do with the sexual re…

Catholics and Protestants often use biblical proof texts as they argue about the role of Mary in salvation. But this can form bad Bible reading habits, says Father John Waiss, author of Bible Mary: The Mother of Jesus in the Word of God. He joins us for a conversation about how looking for Mary can teach us better Bible reading. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, delighted to be here with you in the new year and talking about a new book that we have here at Catholic Ans…

A special Christmas Day episode of Focus with Catholic Answers President Christopher Check.     …

University presidents are under fire for allowing genocidal and anti-Semitic speech on their campuses. But what can they do? Theologian Chad Pecknold from Catholic University of America joins us for a discussion of the Catholic approach to free speech issues. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and defending our faith becomes more difficult it seems as the society becomes less and less attached to the values that have gotten it where it is now, as we become more and more …

As Christmas draws near, Trent sits down with Cy Kellett to discuss the unique elements of the Incarnation and how to answer arguments that claim it is a myth borrowed from paganism. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. And one of the places you got to defend your Catholic faith is over there on YouTube where people will post things that debunk the Christian faith sometimes. They’re debunking. There’s a lot of good debunking going on over there, but sometimes t…

Joe Heschmeyer, author of The Eucharist is Really Jesus, explores the misunderstood topic of indulgences. He explains the historical context and biblical perspectives on indulgences, addressing misconceptions and highlighting the fine line between legitimate spiritual generosity and the improper commodification of spiritual goods that tarnished the reputation of indulgences in the past. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and anyone who has ever found themselves in the pos…

Michael Lofton, author of Answering Orthodoxy, joins us for a conversation about the first millennium of Christianity. Is it true that the pope was once considered just the first among equals, or was there always something more about the role of the Bishop of Rome? …

In his new book, Building a Civilization of Love: A Catholic Response to Racism, Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers is boldly honest about the Catholic Church and racism in the United States. But he is also hopeful because he believes there is an answer to the evils of racial division in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He joins us for a conversation about racism and Catholicism.   …

Joe Heschmeyer delves into the Catholic doctrine of original sin, responding to a Reddit user’s query about its compatibility with the innate goodness of humanity. He discusses the impact of original sin on relationships with God, fellow humans, creation, and oneself, shedding light on the theological nuances and the need for redemption.   …

Karlo Broussard joins us to talk about his new book, The New Relativism: Unmasking the Philosophy of Today’s Woke Moralists. We discuss issues related to moral shaming and accusations of being judgmental, hateful, and bigoted, particularly concerning lifestyle choices associated with the LGBTQ+ community. Karlo explores the underlying moral relativism behind such accusations and offers critiques of this approach, emphasizing the importance of open and reasoned discussion on moral issues. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and d…

Whatever the world might say, Christian moral teaching is about more than sex. Andrew Petiprin joins us for a conversation about the Christian perspective on money, particularly in a consumerist culture. How is a Christian to live when “happiness” is on sale everywhere? Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and today we talk about something that may seem slightly tangential to the whole apologetics endeavor, and that is consumerism. But I don’t think …

Joshua Charles, from the “Becoming Catholic” blog, describes his discovery that when the Church Fathers talked about heresy, the things they described sounded remarkably similar to his own Protestant beliefs. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. Very happy to welcome Joshua Charles this time. I think maybe, possibly, the first White House speechwriter we’ve ever had on here, although I couldn’t guarantee it. I’m not sure. But you can find his work …

Cy Kellett welcomes Keith Nester, a former Protestant pastor who converted to Catholicism. They discuss the challenges faced by converts and how to help them navigate their first year in the Catholic Church. Keith also shares insights into the beauty of the Mass and the importance of understanding the “why” behind Catholic practices. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and we make it our business here at Catholic Answers to try to explain and defend the fa…

Scholar Jared Staudt joins us for a conversation about the social value of Christianity. Does it do any good for anyone? Does it have a good record as a movement? Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. We’re going to talk a little bit about whether Christianity has been good for the world or bad for the world, but try to guess which side we’re going to come down on. Maybe share some ideas with you about how Christianity has actually been quite good for the world. You might even be surprised…

Church councils have shaped and formed the Faith for every living Christian, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. So what is the basis for the councils, and what do we make of their teaching. We get answers from Paul Senz, author of “Church Councils: 100 Questions and Answers.” Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and this time we welcome Paul Senz, the author of Church Councils: 100 Questions and Answers, a new book from Catholic Answers Press. And i…

With the 50-year anniversary of the original film, The Exorcist, and the upcoming release of a sequel, we figured this would be a great time to sit down and talk to contributing apologist Tom Nash to discuss the film that caused such a stir.     …

Protestantism has some explaining to do about its own traditions. Did the new theologies of the reformers actually make sense? Do they make sense today? John Martignoni joins us. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and we got a long time author with a new book. And the new book is about does Protestantism make sense? And it’s a Catholic approach to looking at Protestantism and just asking in a basic, honest, straightforward way, does this hang together? Would a …

If Catholics are right about John 6, every Christian is under divine command to celebrate the Eucharist. So is the Catholic Church right? Karlo Broussard joins us to explain why Catholics aren’t wrong. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic beliefs. A lot going on as far as the Eucharist goes. We have all this kind of bad news that we’ve had in recent years about Catholics not accepting the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, or maybe not even knowing the teaching, which is, in some ways, eq…

What is the Gospel of Thomas? Is there just one such gospel? What can it teach us about Jesus? Tim Staples joins us.   Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living understanding and Defending Your Catholic Faith. One of the most popular conversations we’ve ever had here if the internet is to be believed, and I think in this case it is. One of the most popular conversations we’ve ever had here at Catholic Answers was a conversation with Tim Staples about the Book of Enoch. So we thought, well, let’s go back to Tim and ask him about othe…

Everywhere you will find misconceptions about the Church’s role in slavery. Even most Catholics do not know the truth about what the Church did, and did not do, regarding slavery. Best-selling author Paul Kengor joins us to share some of the surprising true story. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and one of the things, among the many, that modern people accuse the church of is the accommodation to slavery or maybe even an encouragement of slavery. And so, i…

Are you “sex positive”? If not, get ready to be called a closed-minded bigot. Theologian Angela Franks, from St. John’s Seminary in Boston, gives us a Catholic critique of the “sex positivity” movement. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and today, a very special opportunity to get to talk with Dr. Angela Franks, who is a professor of theology at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, and a well-known speaker and author, as a matter of f…

The idea that Scripture is the sole rule of faith is central to the thinking of man Protestants, who see Tradition as a watering down of scriptural purity. But Catholics have good reason to reject this view. Author Casey J. Chalk explains. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. And one of the things you have to be able to defend as a Catholic is the Catholic understanding of the Bible, of what the Bible is and how the Bible is to be used. And even in some cases, how passages…

Christians often think that Christianity is purer–more Christlike–when it is less doctrinal. Tim Staples explains the dangers of this grave error. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. Tim Staples with us this time. Tim, of course, the author of Behold Your Mother – A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines. I mentioned that in particular because we’re going to talk to Tim about doctrine because you might hear, well, not that you might hear, if you…

What does it mean that Jesus “rose from the dead?” Did his body literally come back to life? What kind of life? Joe Heschmeyer discusses common errors about the Resurrection, and the beautiful truths we often miss. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, joined in studio this time by Joe Heschmeyer. We usually connect with him via the internet. Joe, welcome. Joe Heschmeyer: Hi. It’s good to be here in person. Cy Kellett: I’m awfully glad to have yo…

With “Oppenheimer” filling up the cinemas, and today being the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, we take a look back at an earlier episode we produced about the morality of dropping the atom bomb. Can a Catholic assent to blowing up entire cities? What about when to do so will save perhaps millions of lives? Catholic Answers President Chris Check joins us as we consider again America’s use of Atomic weapons to end a long, bitter war with Japan. Cy Kellett: Why would a Catholic support nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Chris Check is next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome t…

The first century of Christianity was often a raucous argument. Essential truths were constantly under threat, and confusion was common. Jimmy Akin joins us to discuss what the great arguments of the first century were about and what we can learn from them. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. Last time we talked with Jimmy Akin, we talked about when did the early church know that Jesus was God? Now we continue with the early church theme to ask Jimmy about the contro…

Larry Chapp has some confessions to make, and some powerful insights to share with a Church in crisis. He joins us for a conversation about his new book, “Confession of a Catholic Worker: Our Current Moment of Christian Witness.” Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And the conditions of the world and the Church in recent decades have given us a whole lot of writing, some conversations through documentaries and all the other media about what are we to do no…

The earliest Church did not think Jesus was God, says one modern theory. Rather, he was deified over time by people who loved his message. Jimmy Akin examines this theory, and finds precious little evidence for it in the historical record.   …

Discussing euthanasia with Monica Doumit. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and we’ll talk a bit about euthanasia today we’re around the world we’re having to defend what used to be a pretty straightforward idea, which is that you should not take the lives of innocent people and that we should do all we can to care for those who are in distress rather than dispose of those who are in distress. No longer, maybe a majority idea in large parts of the…

“Jesus loves you, and if you don’t have faith in him, he’ll send you to hell.” In one form or another this reduction ad absurdum is used against Christians again and again. It is not just silliness, however. The problem of hell is a tough one, as apologist Karlo Broussard explains in this episode. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And among the things that are probably hardest to accept about the Christian conception of the world, the Christi…

Having failed at humanism, secular modernity now moves on to trans-humanism. Father Tad Pacholczyk, director of Education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center explains transhumanism’s ethical problems. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and in the area of bioethics, in the area of biological technologies and the integrating of our own biology with other kinds of technology, things are moving fast and are likely to start moving faster. That’s just how…

What are the options, and where is the hope, for Catholic couples who encounter infertility? Ann Koshute and Kimberly Henkel, founders of Springs in the Desert, a ministry to those struggling with infertility, join us for a conversation. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. We do apologetics here. That’s what we do. Sometimes the most important apologetic, really the ground of apologetics, that is, explaining and defending the faith to others, is to live it. Esp…

The Sacrament of Marriage is filled with power for growth toward intimacy with God. Dan and Stephanie Burke, from the Avila Institute, explain how they are helping couples access that power and thrive. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and today we’re going to talk a bit about marriage. We have a wonderful couple here who we were just having a conversation over lunch and I thought, “Boy, this would make a perfect Focus episode.” And they said, …

Jeff Cavins and Father Mike Schmitz are now doing for the catechism what they did for the Bible. Cavins joins us to explain the value of the catechism in sharing the Faith. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your faith. I’m Cy Kellett. And as we think about sharing the faith and defending the faith these days, we can take heart not from too many things, but from this we could take heart that the church has a magnificently and a relatively easy to use tool available to help us to defend and to share the faith. I…

In such a confusing world where nothing seems to make sense anymore, one question comes to mind: how do we discuss anything with our kids when they keep getting conflicting answers? Ana Samuels joins us to discuss gender identity with our children and how to speak clearly on these issues. …

Defending the Faith can take an emotional toll. Rather than turn to bitterness, the person who engages with those who attack the Faith will be most effective with some distance and calm. Psychologist Dr. Ray Guarendi offers tips on how to gain this distance and calm. …

Mike Aquilina, author of Africa and the Early Church, explains the African roots of much of what we now take for granted in Christianity. His work reminds us of an age when Christianity spread quickly in all directions so that before the Muslim invasions, a fruitful Christianity had taken root in Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.   …

Once again, legislatures in some states are considering bans on the seal of confession. We asked the chaplain of Catholic University of America, Father Aquinas Guilbeau, to explain why we have the seal, and why breaking it won’t to anyone any good.   …

Anti-Semitism is the bigotry that never rests. And these days, there are Catholics in the public sphere once again proposing degrading ideas regarding Jews. How is a Catholic to understand Catholic/Jewish history in a way that comports with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Joe Heschmeyer joins us. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, joined this time by Joe Heschmeyer, and we’re going to talk about a somewhat difficult topic for Christians to discuss, one in which we prob…

Faith or works or faith plus works or just lots of good works? How are we justified before God? Tim Staples explains the Catholic understanding of the role of grace before all else. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome again to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and Tim Staples here with us again, this time to talk about justification. When we think about the things that divide Catholics and Protestants, justification’s always one of the top, maybe the top among those. And I was thinking I might say…

What is religious freedom? Did the Church err about religious freedom at Vatican II? Michael Lofton from “Reason and Theology” tackles one of the great controversies of the council. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic Faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host. And this time we talk a bit about a controversy within the Catholic Church one that good apologist or good defender of the faith would want to have some familiarity with because different Catholics and, and, and those in the Catholic orbit who may …

Why is it so difficult to explain the Sacrament of Confirmation? And why does the Latin Church seem to offer it just at the wrong time? Simone Rizkallah digs into the controversy. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and one of the things we need to live better, understand better and defend better, so we’re going to cover all three in this episode, is the sacrament of confirmation. Well, one of the reasons we have to defend it is there’s a general lack of unders…

With the strident morality of modern movements such as “Me Too,” it would seem that relativism has been replaced with moralism. Well, maybe not, says Karlo Broussard in his latest book, “The New Relativism.” In this episode, he explains how moral outrage is often a cover for an entrenched relativism. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and Karlo Broussard is our guest. He’s got a brand new book out that you can get over at shop.catholic.com or…

Having started from scratch himself, John Martignoni explains how to get started as a Catholic apologist. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith, I am Cy Kellett, your host. And we get asked a lot, how do I do what you all do? Not talking about me specifically but about the folks around here, this whole apologetics thing. Many people are interested in being better at defending the faith. I think, in large part, that comes from lived experience that the faith is under assault in many places. Some people w…

Dr. Craig Turczynski, the former director of in-vitro fertilization, andrology, and hormone assay laboratories at Louisiana State University Medical Center-Shreveport explains how IVF is done, and why it raises grave moral concerns. CORRECTIONS: 1. The number of IVF procedures annually is about 250,000 not 250. 2. Cytoplasmic transfer is taking cytoplasm from a young woman’s egg and injecting it into the infertile woman’s egg. It is not injected into the woman.  Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers’ podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic f…

American racism was given the power of religious fervor by those who thought the Bible alone provided the rule of faith. Don Johnson, author of “Twisted Unto Destruction: How ‘Bible Alone’ Theology Made the World a Worse Place,” explains. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and delighted to welcome Don Johnson to the program this time to talk about racism, and sola scriptura, and how those two things go together. And maybe you think, “Could t…

Modern people often have an unrealistic view of “development” in the early Church, thinking that ideas such as the divinity of Christ or practices such as the celebration of the Mass were products of early Church life rather than things received directly from Jesus. Joe Heschmeyer, author of The Early Church Was the Catholic Church, helps debunk some myths about where the Mass came from. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and delighted to get to talk with Jo…

Many Catholic/Protestant doctrinal differences have their roots in misreadings of the Apostle Paul. EWTN’s David Anders explains the relatively simple message of Paul and why modern ideas of Paul so often miss the mark. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, delighted to welcome Dr. David Anders, who you know from EWTN Called To Communion with Dr. David Anders, which airs each day on the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network. And from time to time when I am listening, and …

Scott Weeman, founder of Catholic in Recovery, sits down with us to talk about how Jesus is the answer to finding healing from addiction. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I am Cy Kellett, your host, and today we got one of our favorite guests from Catholic Answers Live and someone who’s doing just wonderful work in the field of healing from addiction and obsession and all of these kind of things. He’s the founder of catholicinrecovery.com. He’s the author of the 12 Steps and the …

Recently there has been controversy over who can and can’t receive communion. Msgr. Eugene Morris joins us to help clarify this important question and gives us the proper parameters when knowing who can and cannot receive communion. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending Your Catholic faith. Today we talk about why some people, or maybe all people at some time, I don’t know how to quite how to put it, are excluded from receiving the Eucharist in the Catholic Church. Many people are deeply offended by this. Man…

Tim Staples has shared his conversion story around the world, but one part of that story is of particular importance today: How the moral teaching of the Church, far from driving everyone away, often provides a powerful incentive to become Catholic.   …

Michael Lofton, from the Reason and Theology podcast, gives us a primer on the words that many people think are the main divider between Orthodox and Catholic Christians. Does the question about whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father “and from the son” really divide churches? Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. Our guest is Michael Lofton, the proprietor of the podcast Reason and Theology. And one of the things that Michael is well known for is…

In the Western societies, fewer men than women practice religion. Karlo Broussard argues that, at least in part, this means they are likely failing at the hard work of manliness. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. Karlo Broussard, our guest this time. And we’re going to talk a little bit about religion as it relates to men because it does seem… I don’t know the last time you were in a Catholic church, but that more women are taking seriously the ca…

His sudden death and final writings have put Australian Cardinal George Pell into the headlines around the world. Given his importance, we went down under to get insights into his view of the Catholic role in today’s world. Our guest, Monica Doumit, is the Director of Public Affairs and Engagement for the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. One of the great defenders of the Catholic faith in recent decades has been Australian …

Tim Staples shares the story of the dark figure early Church writers say motivated John to clarify the truth about Jesus Christ. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and it may not seem obvious, but many of the earliest Christian writings had to do with defending the faith; not just expressing the faith, but defending it. Today we talk about the Gospel of John with Tim Staples, senior apologist here at Catholic Answers, and author of all kinds of stuff you could find…

Philosopher Edward Feser has read the major texts of critical race theory and has some concerns. He joins us for a discussion of his newest book, All One in Christ: A Catholic Critique of Racism and Critical Race Theory. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host, and maybe we’ll be helping with the living part today because, among the great plagues of the modern world, the many things that make modern life burdensome, is racism. It’s not necessarily a plague tha…

For most people, the Parish is where the Catholic Church happens. But something is not quite right in parish life. JD Flynn, founder of pillarcatholic.com, digs into why today’s parish is not quite what it could be. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And today we talk a bit about the parish. There’s lots of concern about what we should be doing as Catholics in the worlds today. Podcasts like this are one answer. We got radio shows, we got TV shows, we go…

Sometimes the Second Vatican Council gets a weak defense: “Well, it was just a pastoral council, so why worry about it?” Michael Lofton, from Reason and Theology, asks whether this defense is true? Is Vatican II really “just pastoral”? Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host and this time we talk a bit about the Second Vatican Council, which yes, we are still talking about almost constantly, still debating about, still even fighting about 60 years a…

Jeremy Christiansen, author of From the Susquehanna to the Tiber: A Memoir of Conversion from Mormonism to the Roman Catholic Church, joins us for a conversation about arguments against Mormonism. Which will work and why? Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. We’ll talk a bit about defending your Catholic faith this time, because among those who are interested in defending the Catholic faith there’s probably three people they’d most like to try out th…

Jason Evert from chastity.com joins us for a discussion of transgenderism from a Christian perspective. Most importantly, what is driving the current mania for switching genders, and how might a disciple of Christ respond? Cy Kellett:                    Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And I’ll bet you sometime in the next few months, between now and the end of the year, you’re going to have a conversation about transgenderism. That’s going to happen at Thank…

Jesus spoke a great deal about money and wealth, but how do we apply his teaching in a world of complex financial interconnectedness? Deacon Frank Reilly, the founder of Reilly Financial Advisors, now a part of Creative Planning brings a lifetime of experience to the question. Terence McGoldrick, Providence College Theology Professor, is an advisor to Deacon Frank in the work of finding morally acceptable investment opportunities. Both join us for a discussion. Cy Kellett:                    Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending you…

The term “social justice” can make lots of people roll their eyes. But the teachings of Christ have profound social dimensions. So how does a Catholic view of social development differ from the world’s? We asked Jim Cavnar, cofounder of Cross Catholic Outreach to give us some answers.   …

Modern secular people have forgotten the role of the Catholic Church in lifting humanity out of ignorance, violence, poverty, and disease. Perhaps most forgotten, is the Catholic contribution to an embrace of the dignity of women. Simone Rizkallah, director of program growth at Endow (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women), explains. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic Faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. One of the things we do here as Catholics is that Catholics have a sorted history when it co…

At times the Bible uses feminine imagery for God, so why do we not refer to God as mother? Joe Heschmeyer considers whether the modern Church should reconsider the masculine in reference to God. Cy Kellett:                    Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. Joe Heschmeyer our guests today. And the question is, what do we make of those who would prefer to address God as mother? Well, how do we respond to those who would prefer to address God as mother? Or might in fact say, …

Trent Horn, author of Why We’re Pro-Life, digs into some of the Bible verses that people use to support abortion. Turns out, the Bible is pro-life. Go figure… Find out how you can get free copies of Why We’re Pro-Life at whyweareprolife.com.   …

Did Science Kill the Biblical Worldview? Astrophysicist (not historian) Neil deGrasse Tyson gives a little history lesson about how science forced Christians to give up the biblical worldview. Is this real history, or did he make it up? We asked Jimmy Akin to give us a take.   …

Joe Heschmeyer joins us for a look at the growing popularity of the word “Christofascism.” What does it refer to, and are Catholics who want to spread the Faith guilty of it?   …

Dr. David Anders joins us for an in-depth look at the accusation that the Catholic Church is superstitious. The Catholic relationship to superstition might at times be complicated, but the complications have a very Catholic remedy. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And we’re familiar with the need to defend the faith against objections, but sometimes, we end up defending the faith more against a misimpression or a suspicion about the faith, and superstition i…

Charbel Raish, founder and chief executive of Parousia, one of Australia’s leading Catholic media apostolates joins us for a discussion of his early embrace of Islam and his subsequent rediscovery of Catholic Faith. Cy Kellett: Charbel Raish from Sydney, Australia. Thanks for being with us. Charbel Raish: Thanks for having me. Cy Kellett: From Parousia Ministries. Charbel Raish: That’s right. Cy Kellett: And is that, that’s- Charbel Raish: Parousia. Parousia. Yeah, it was, we’re known as Parousia Media for a long time, but then we dropped the word media because we do s…

Today’s children face many new adversities that past generations could never have imagined. Filmmaker, Don Johnson sits down to discuss his new film Dysconnected, and the truth behind this radical movement thats being pushed on our children. Dysconnected: The Real Story Behind the Transgender Explosion Cy Kellett : Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Ct Kellett, your host, and very happy to welcome my friend Don Johnson this time to talk about a new film that Don has. This is actually a very bus…

Theologian Deborah Savage, currently teaching at Franciscan University in Steubenville, delves into the Hebrew wording of Genesis 1 and 2 to uncover new and liberating insights into God’s revelation of the meaning of womanhood and manhood. Cy Kellett: Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast, for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. There’s some accusation against the Catholic faith actually, that perhaps it has strains of misogyny in it, maybe strains of a kind of old way of thinking about men and women that makes men the superiors of women, o…

Can Catholics follow astrology? Jimmy Akin, host of Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World, joins us to discuss the Catholic approach to astrology. Does the Bible forbid it? Can a Catholic follow the daily horoscope? Is there any reason to believe in astrology at all? Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. Jimmy Akin is our guest this time and we wanted to ask him about astrology. Actually, astrology been around, I guess, about as long as people have been around, but very …

What can our forebears teach us about dealing with persecution? In this bonus episode, we ask theologian Ben Safranski how one very important early Christian – Cyprian of Carthage – dealt with Roman persecution in some surprising ways.   …

Are Christians going to be taken up and out of the world before the big trouble with the anti-Christ begins? Catholics say no, that is a false view of God’s revelation regarding the end times. Our guest, Karlo Broussard takes up a popular Protestant challenge: How can the Catholic Church teach that faithful Christians will experience the final trial when the Bible teaches that Christians will be raptured before such a time? Cy Kellett: Karlo Broussard, apologist here at Catholic Answers. Thanks for being with us for focus. Karlo Broussard: Cy Kellett. Thanks for having me. Cy Kellett: Y…

The Bible has relatively few passages about homosexuality, and modern thinkers have found ways to explain some of them away. For example, is Genesis 19 really about homosexuality or is it really about a failure of hospitality? Dr. Mary Healy, a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, gives us a bracing Catholic answer. Cy Kellett:                    Hello, and welcome to Focus the Catholic Answers podcast for Living, Understanding and Defending Your Catholic Faith. One very delicate area of Christian apologetics in our times is homosexuality. There’s a great deal of confusion abou…

At Google, some employees are starting to think the computers have come alive. How might a Catholic understanding of souls help us explore the matter? Jimmy Akin joins us for what turns out to be a bit of a hilarious conversation. Cy Kellett: Jimmy Akin, senior apologist of Catholic Answers, thanks for doing Focus with us. Jimmy Akin: Hey, my pleasure. Cy Kellett: So… Jimmy Akin: What are we focusing on today? Cy Kellett: Artificial intelligence. I know this is one you have focused on before and you know a good deal about, but it became news when an employee of Google suggested or made …

What exactly does it mean when Christ accuses the Pharisees of abandoning the commandments of God in favor of traditions of men? What are the implications for us? Karlo Broussard explores the proper place for “traditions of men.” Cy Kellett: Karlo Broussard, apologist here at Catholic Answers. Thanks for being with us. Karlo Broussard: Cy Kellet, thanks for having me. Cy Kellett: It’s always good when you’re here for focus. Karlo Broussard: Amen to that. Cy Kellett: And one of the things we can focus on with you because you’ve spent a lot of time in scholarly res…

The term transubstantiation has been used for centuries within the Church but does it actually men? William Albrecht, co-author of The Secret History of Transubstantiation joins us to explore its true meaning.   …

Every so often the debate over Mary having other children comes up. Tim Staples, author of Behold Your Mother, joins us to debunk this claim. Cy Kellett: Tim Staples, Catholic apologist. Thank you for being with us on Catholic Answers Focus. Tim Staples: It is great to be with you, Cy Kellett. Cy Kellett: I stress Catholic apologist because I want to challenge you a bit on a Catholic belief. Tim Staples: Uh-oh. Am I in trouble? Cy Kellett: I’m going to challenge you with the Bible, and this just is a passage of the Bible that seems so clear and seems to have such an obvious, indisputabl…

Tik Tok seems pretty sure that the God of the ancient Hebrews had a wife, an idea that perhaps would debunk the Jewish story of covenant with the One Lord God. We asked Jimmy Akin, author of The Bible Is a Catholic Book to evaluate the merits of the whole “God had a wife” idea. Cy Kellett: Senior apologist, Jimmy akin. Thanks very much for being here with us on Catholic Answers Focus. Jimmy Akin: My pleasure, Cyril Kellett, host of Catholic Answers Focus. Cy Kellett: Also, I should say, host of Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. I should have added that. And here’s one for you. The in…

Have you seen the recent images from the James Webb Telescope? Catholic convert and Harvard astrochemist, Karin Öberg joins us to examine the recent images and what they tell us about God, the beginnings of our universe, and bug people. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. Recently, we all got to see some magnificent images from a magnificent piece of technology, the James Webb Telescope. Out there in space, somewhere, looking deep into the past using its various sensors. And this raises a tremendou…

Seventh Day Adventists claim that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday centuries after the life of Jesus. Joe Heschmeyer, author of The Early Church was the Catholic Church, joins us to debunk this claim. Cy Kellett: Apologist, Joe Heschmeyer, thank you for being here with us on Catholic Answers Focus. Joe Heschmeyer: The pleasure is mine. Cy Kellett: You want to talk about the Sabbath? Joe Heschmeyer: Yeah, lets. Cy Kellett: It seems very straightforward, and yet it’s a matter of some great controversy. Joe Heschmeyer: It’s even a denominational splitting issue. Cy …

What do Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, and Jesse Duplantis have in common? They all promote a form of Christianity that preaches a good and easy life. Tim Staples breaks down the reasons why the prosperity gospel is dangerous and exposes the pitfalls of this theology. Cy Kellet: Tim Staples, Catholic Apologist, thanks for being with us. Tim Staples: It is great to be with you, Cy Kellet. Cy Kellet: I want to talk to you about the prosperity gospel. And this is something that really is big. The prosperity gospel is really big, and I do sometimes feel a pang of guilt that we don’t talk ab…

Is hell empty? Michael Lofton joins us to answer the question that seems to be surrounded by controversy in many Catholic circles. Cy Kellett: Will hell ever be empty? Michael Lofton is next. Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding, and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host confessing to you that one of the hardest things to defend is hell. It’s a very unpleasant thought. It certainly doesn’t comport with our modern idea that everybody gets a participation trophy. There seems to be some very serious consequences …

Former inmates often struggle adjusting to everyday life. In this episode, we talk to Joe Gilbreath, founder of RiseUp Industries and Mike Lucero on bringing hope to those adjusting to life after prison. riseupindustries.org Cy Kellett: Taking Jesus seriously about visiting prisoners. Folks from Rise Up Industries, next. Cy Kellett: Hello, and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. And today a special bonus episode. Cy Kellett: Jesus has so many good friends. Sometimes his very best friends a…