Fr. John Paul Trask joins the show to share about the life of Fr. Pierre Jean DeSmet, a Belgian Jesuit who dedicated his life to mission among the native peoples of the west. Fr. DeSmet’s nineteenth century missionary journeys took him from Belgium to St. Louis, up the Missouri, and Read more…
On this episode, we get a front row seat to an interview by Dale Bartscher with Harold Cassidy, the attorney representing Alpha Center as intervenor in the state of South Dakota’s lawsuit with abortion giant Planned Parenthood. The facts of this case are incredible! Most South Dakotans don’t know the Read more…
Chris is joined by Dale Bartscher, executive director of SD Right to Life. Dale recaps SDRTL’s recent 50th Anniversary Convention in Sioux Falls, shares about the process for reviewing legislation in the lead up to the winter legislative session, and updates us on the growth of local RTL chapters throughout Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Rachel Morrison, a lawyer from the Ethics and Public Policy Center and member of its HHS Accountability Project. Rachel unpacks recent moves by the federal HHS department to give Title X dollars to Planned Parenthood, disregard a separate-payment for abortion requirements for health Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Leslee Unruh, founder of Alpha Center, a pregnancy help center based in Sioux Falls. Leslee shares Alpha’s mission to “clear the confusion with a message of hope.” Founded in 1984, Alpha offers warm, loving counseling to women and men in crisis pregnancy situations. Alpha introduces its clients Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by music-lover, Fr. Tony Klein. They discuss the South Dakota state anthem, singing the Mass, how to discern beauty in music, music’s role in shaping the heart and mind, sacred music, the common music of a people (think Hobbit songs), what’s on Fr. Tony’s Read more…
Chris Motz gives a news round-up (SD education policy, federal “Women’s Health Protection Act,” and call to prayer on the Dobbs case) and shares “Doing the Truth,” an excerpt on the virtue of prudence from the Josef Pieper book being read by the SDCC study group.
On this episode, Chris is joined by Dr. Paul Kengor, Senior Director and Chief Academic Fellow for The Institute for Faith & Freedom and Professor of Political Science at Grove City College. They discuss his recent book, “The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration”, Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by thinker and writer Jack Gist (ft. on Ep. 25, Disputatio and the 1619 Project) to discuss a new essay from Jack, “Individualism, relativism, and the most extreme form of idolatry.” Jack unpacks the thought of Nietzsche and Duns Scotus, and helps us understand Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined once again by Dr. Jon Schaff, professor of political science at Northern State University. Dr. Schaff unpacks the traditional teaching on the conditions for a just war, first articulated by St. Augustine. He walks through jus ad bellum (justice before making war) and jus Read more…
Jessica Kramer joins the show to discuss a recent article she authored on politics and family formation. After briefly sharing her conversion story, she shares her observations from a recent policy conference she reported on, and describes several pro-family policies concerning pornography, contraception, a one-income family wage, and more. In Read more…
Cameo Anders a graduate of the Ave Maria School of Law, has a Masters in Theology and a certificate in Bioethics, joins us this week to take on this hot topic of religious exemptions surrounding the growing concern of COVID vaccine mandates with employers. To read the statement from our Read more…
We have recently received a significant number of inquiries from the faithful concerning general requirements for some persons to receive a Covid-19 vaccination. We addressed many moral aspects of choosing a vaccine in a statement on December 30, 2020. As we said then, one may accept Covid-19 vaccines in good Read more…
Chris is joined on this episode by David Trimble, Vice President for Public Policy and Director of the Center for Religious Freedom Education at the Religious Freedom Institute. David breaks down the 9-0 Supreme Court decision in Fulton v. Philadelphia, and then shares some religious freedom concerns with the infrastructure Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Fr. Justin Brophy, O.P., professor of political science at Providence College, Rhode Island. In a short diagnosis of our present moment as Americans, Fr. Brophy points to (among other points not discussed) a tension between Lockean individualism and a Puritan ethic, and a Read more…
Get ready to start paying for abortions with your tax-dollars, as the federal government is poised to eliminate the Hyde Amendment and fund abortions for the first time in nearly half a century. Named for its original author, former-Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, the Hyde Amendment is the name given Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Kat Talalas, the associate director for communications at the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the USCCB. For those who haven’t been closely following the debate over the Hyde Amendment, and its enormously significant consequences even at the state level, Kat brings us all Read more…
Chris is joined by Dale Bartscher, executive director of South Dakota Right to Life, to discuss the state Department of Health’s annual abortion report, published on July 1. They also recap the 2020 pro-life bills that went into effect on July 1, talk about potential future legislation, and preview SDRTL’s fall convention, which commemorates Read more…
Chris is joined by Jeff Wald, a Minnesota-based lawyer and writer (but who is quick to tell us he’s a North Dakotan). Jeff shares about his and his wife Jackie’s journey with adoption and foster parenting, the result of a call they discerned together to give of themselves to the Read more…
Host Chris Motz is joined this week by Dr. Chad Pecknold, professor of theology at Catholic University of America (and prolific tweeter — @ccpecknold). Chris tosses a listener question to the good professor: What, according to the Church, is the purpose of government? What’s it’s aim, its end, its goal? Also, what are the Read more…