The hero of the new novel Death in Black and White is a Catholic priest and classic film buff who finds himself caught in a web of crime, sin, and double-crossings that rivals anything found in his favorite film-noir detective movies. The book’s author, Fr. Michael Brisson—also a Catholic priest and classic film buff—may not have real-life experience of being in the clutches of the Mob, but he does know the unique way a priest is privy to some of life’s hardest and darkest moments.

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with Brisson about the graces on offer in the sacraments, the Catholic faith’s unflinching realism about human nature and our sinful proclivities—and how a film-noir tinged crime novel can be the perfect vehicle for exploring these themes and more.

Find Death in Black and White now at Ignatius.com.

Most Catholics are aware, even if only in a vague way, of the many holy men and women who have come before us who wrote or preached on the spiritual life. We may have read about their lives; we may find their holiness and closeness to God inspiring. But do many of us look to them for concrete, specific spiritual guidance?

Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes has written a book that presents the luminaries of the Catholic spiritual tradition not as distant, unapproachable models of spiritual perfection, but as flesh-and-blood mentors in the spiritual life whose wisdom and insight transcends the passage of centuries.

Archbishop Hughes joins host Andrew Petiprin to discuss that book, “Spiritual Masters: Living and Praying in the Catholic Tradition,” and how he hopes readers will come to a deeper appreciation of the spiritual treasures of the Church, and a fuller understanding of the nature of prayer itself.

When Joseph Ratzinger became pope in 2005, there was a perception in some quarters that this new pontiff—a renowned theologian and former head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—was a highbrow academic who would preach from the chair of St. Peter in abstruse theoretical language that the average Catholic would find impenetrable.

Fortunately for all of us, this turned out not to be the case, and Pope Benedict’s homilies and addresses—while clearly informed by his tremendous scholarly work—were brimful of spiritual insights and pastoral care aimed at helping his world-wide flock grow closer to Christ.

The new collection God is Ever New: Meditations on Life, Love, and Freedom, out this spring from Ignatius Press, brings together beautiful excerpts from Pope Benedict’s papal writings, presenting them in a format easy to read and reflect upon.

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press, about the new book, Pope Benedict’s deep pastoral sense, and the spiritual and theological legacy he left at his passing in 2022.

In his latest book “Why Does Everything Come in Threes?” philosopher and author Peter Kreeft ponders the ways in which creation—and the story of humanity in creation—are indelibly stamped with the image of the Creator, that is, with the Trinity.

In this episode, Kreeft speaks with host Andrew Petiprin about this three-fold pattern of the universe, and how the mystery of the Trinity echoes throughout human culture, metaphysics, and moral understanding. Find “Why Does Everything Come in Threes?” and many other books by Peter Kreeft at Ignatius.com.

Because the Catholic Church has always taught that only men can be ordained to the priesthood instituted by Christ, there is a perception that the Church’s story is a story about men. There’s the Blessed Mother, of course, and maybe the occasional nun who rises to prominence, but since only men can be ordained, the thinking goes, it is men who have built and shaped the Church’s common life throughout the centuries.

Not only is this bad ecclesiology, it is bad history, argues historian Bronwen McShea. In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with McShea about her new book, Women of the Church: What Every Catholic Should Know. Women have always been at the heart of the Church, McShea says, and the spiritual, intellectual, and cultural contributions of women—queens and abbesses, wives and mothers, religious sisters, writers, and mystics—have made the Church what she is today.

Women of the Church: What Every Catholic Should Know, published by Ignatius Press and the Augustine Institute, is now available at Ignatius.com.

You can read an excerpt from the book at First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/04/the-remarkable-legacies-of-ordinary-catholic-women

They’re simple questions, and ones that every believer has to confront at some point in his or her life: why do we suffer, and why does God—who we believe to be good and loving—allow it?

Humanity’s struggles with these questions have inspired countless works of art and literature—from the book of Job on through the ages—as well as theological treatises. But the struggle is also very personal; we all must undergo suffering in our lives, and as Christians, come to an understanding of how these sufferings fit into God’s plan for our redemption.

Mark Giszczak, professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute, has written a new book called Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. While it takes the reader through Scripture from the Book of Job through the Crucifixion, bringing in the wisdom of the Church Fathers as well as Catholic sacramental and liturgical tradition, the book is accessible and sensitive to the deeply personal nature of suffering.

Giszczak joins your host Andrew Petiprin in this episode to discuss Suffering.

Read more of Giszczak’s work at CatholicBibleStudent.com.

Francis X. Maier has been immersed in the life of the Church at different levels for decades. As senior aide to Archbishop Charles Chaput for more than twenty years, and as editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register for many years before that, he got to know the leaders and major players in the American Church in both professional and personal settings.

When he sat down to write a book offering a snapshot of Catholic life in the U.S., he had many contacts in high places to whom he could reach out. But they wouldn’t be able to tell the whole story.

In writing his new book True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, Maier conducted more than one hundred candid interviews with individuals living and working in the Church. These included bishops and priests as well as laymen and women serving in various leadership roles. But they also included husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, parish priests and religious sisters living their vocations in low-profile ways: faithfully carrying out their professional duties, loving their families, and building up their local communities.

In this episode, host Andrew Petiprin speaks with Maier about what he learned about the American Church while conducting these interviews, and about how our current situation—colored as it is by scandals, political division, and secularism—contains many sources of profound hope.

Find True Confessions by Francis X. Maier at Ignatius.com.

In a society that often claims to value the voices of the marginalized, one group that find themselves frequently silenced by the very people claiming to speak for them are detransitioners—men and women who have gone down the road of “gender transition,” only to change their minds, embrace their biological sex, and reverse course.

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with Jennifer Lahl, a nurse and documentary maker who works to amplify the voices of those who have been harmed by gender ideology. Together with Kallie Fell, Lahl has written the new book The Detransition Diaries, which tells the stories of five women and two men who have reclaimed their identities after dangerous journeys through hormone therapies, surgeries, and other treatments aimed at changing their biological sex.

Find The Detransition Diaries at Ignatius.com.

Follow Jennifer Lahl on X: @JenniferLahl

Follow Kallie Fell on X: @kal_fell