The South Dakota Catholic Conference supports Senate Bill 71, a bill raising the cap on South Dakota’s tax-credit K12 scholarship program to $3.5M. The program is currently capped at $2M. As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught, “Parents who have the primary and inalienable right and duty to Read more…
This week, Chris is joined by Dr. Glenn Ridder a family practice doctor, medical director at the Alpha Center, state director of the Catholic Medical Association, and a permanent deacon for the diocese of Sioux Falls. Dr. Ridder explains how chemical abortions function in depriving a child of it’s needed environment in the uterus, resulting in death, followed by a second drug that causes intense labor that expells the deceased baby from the womb. He also explains the science behind abortion “discontinuance” laws and medical protocols, and shares the hearwarming story of a young boy who was recently saved with these methods. Lastly, they unpack the FDA’s recent loosening of safety protocols surrounding abortion drugs, and South Dakota’s legal efforts to place these protections for women in state law.
This episode, Chris is joined by Norman Woods, director of Family Heritage Alliance for a preview of the 2022 legislative session. They talk about sexual identity and compassion, pro-life, education, surrogacy, and marijuana. Plus, the SD Catholic Conference is now on Twitter (in addition to Instagram and Facebook). Follow us at @SDCatholicConf
On this episode, Chris is joined by Dr. Scott Yenor, professor of political science at Boise State University, where he teaches political philosophy. He is the author of The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies, published in 2020. Chris and Scott discuss modern ideological trends that cut against the formation of family life, as Scott argues that a renewed public consensus supporting marriage is urgently needed today.
On this episode Chris is joined by Cameo Anders, a South Dakota lawyer and bioethicist, and Dr. John DiCamillo, a staff ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center. They take up the topic of vaccines, which have remained prominent in national and state political conversations. They discuss the moral analysis Read more…
Chris is joined this episode by Shawn Peterson, president of Catholic Education Partners, an organization founded by US bishops in 2017 in order to provide a Catholic voice in education choice policy discussions. Chris and Shawn walk through Catholic teaching on this topic, including Vatican Council II, which exhorted civil Read more…
As Catholics, we know the importance of intentionality in church design. Beauty matters, layout matters, elements of proportionality and ratio matter. Taking this as a metaphor for city planning, the design of our homes, neighborhoods, and cities matter too. Engineer and city planner Chuck Marohn joins the show to talk Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Katy Faust, Founder and Director of Them Before Us, an organization formed to advance and defend the primacy of children’s rights above adult desires. Chris and Katy unpack the issue of surrogacy, a process by which a child is deliberately subjected to mother-loss. Read more…
Regular guest Dr. Jon Schaff returns to the show to unpack a new address given by Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the USCCB, titled, “Reflections on the Church and America’s New Religions,” in which he proposes that Marxist secular ideologies must primarily be understood in spiritual terms in their quest Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by past guest Dr. Aaron Weldon, program director for the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty. Aaron explains why this great feast is linked to our religious freedoms. Instituted in 1925, the 16th centenary of the Council of Nicea, by Pope Piux XI, the feast Read more…
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…