We have an exciting new podcast from America Media to share with you. It’s called “Preach: The Catholic Homilies Podcast.” 

On each episode listeners will first hear an inspiring homily, especially delivered for the podcast, and then take a privileged peek into the heart and mind of the preacher in a conversation with the host, Jesuit priest and America’s associate editor, Ricardo da Silva, S.J. 

Whether you’re a preacher looking for inspiration or a Catholic in the pews, who believes like Pope Francis, that Catholic homilies could use some work, I hope you’ll check out the Preach podcast!

To give you a taste of the show, we’re sharing this week’s episode of Preach, featuring America’s editor in chief, Sam Sawyer, S.J.  

Listen to more episodes of Preach.

After the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, thousands of Afghan refugees have been seeking a permanent home in the United States. This is the intimate family portrait of Ali, a child refugee since eleven years old, and his American foster parents, Mary and Mark Kaech. 

The episode is based on an article written for America Magazine by J.D. Long-García called 

Thousands of Afghan refugees fled to America in search of a new home. Too many are still waiting.

Learn more about the Afghan Adjustment Act

Church Meets World is proud to share the latest podcast in the America Media family: Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols.

Subscribe to the entire Hark! podcast series online, on apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

It is hard to imagine a midnight Mass on Christmas Eve without Silent Night. Musicians may treat it differently—singing it a cappella, with spare chords on the organ in the background, or to the gentle picking of a guitar as its creators intended—but it is universally cherished. Its basic three-chord structure makes it a cinch to play and its lilting rhythm is perfect to soothe a congregation and lull a baby to sleep—even to sing to a president breathing his last. But it has also been usurped for evil.

Join host Maggi Van Dorn on this final episode of “Hark!” as she plumbs the historical and emotional depths of this Austria-born classic with Jesuit priest Ed Schmidt and Rusty McDermott, the songbird mother of another Jesuit. To pull apart the chords and arpeggios of Silent Night, we invited back Colin Britt, the composer and conductor we spoke to in episode three about “Hark! the herald angels sing.”  

Special thanks to the Liturgy Arts Group at Boston College, One Hope Project, Harpa Dei, Portsmouth Cathedral Choir; Portsmouth Grammar School Chamber Choir, Convivium Records and the Ignatian Schola for allowing us to play their recordings of Silent Night. 

To support the production of “Hark!” and to access other great Advent reflections from America Magazine staff, please subscribe at americamagazine.org/subscribe. 

Related articles:

Ed Schmidt, S.J. : Is ‘Silent Night’ the greatest Christmas song ever?

What does it mean to be ruined for life? Join America’s summer intern Amelia Jarecke, as she follows three young women who have spent the last year serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. They wrestle with lots of challenges, like:

• How do you live on a $100 month?
• Can you live simply and gluten-free without breaking the bank?
• How do you reconcile being Catholic and bisexual?
• What happens when your prayer life dries up?
• And what does it mean to take the Pedro Arrupe prayer seriously- and let your love for the world define everything?

Related links:

Jesuit Volunteers Corps

Three years ago, a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report described in graphic detail the abuse of over 1,000 minors at the hands of more than 300 priests.

Then, Theodare McCarrick, an influential cardinal in the American Church, was found credibly accused of abusing minors and adult seminarians.

For survivors, the news was painful, yet validating. How did this second wave of scandal–the news of both abuse and cover up–affect the Catholic faithful more broadly? What do they 

believe caused the crisis? Did the Grand Jury report and news about McCarrick impact their faith and affiliation with the Catholic Church?

Maggi Van Dorn, the host of the Deliver Us podcast, unpacks a new and ground-breaking survey conducted by America magazine and CARA in the latest episode of the “Church Meets World” podcast.

*Audio correction: Only 33 percent of respondents said their parish actually helped them process the sex abuse crisis. The word “percent” was mistakenly omitted from the original file. 

Related articles:

Editorial: How you see the sexual abuse crisis

Three years after the 2018 ‘summer of shame,’ what do American Catholics think about the sex abuse crisis?

AWAKE Milwaukee

Related episodes from the Deliver Us podcast:

Episode 2: How’s Your Celibate Life Going?

What is the cause of the sexual abuse crisis? Does it happen more in the Catholic church than other institutions?

Episode 4: Are the reforms working?

How has the Catholic Church dealt with the abuse crisis?

As the world went into lockdown, the residents at Terence Cardinal Cooke–a Catholic nursing home and rehabilitation center run by the Archdiocese of New York–did too. Many seniors required long-term care while others had only expected to stay for a short period of recovery. The pandemic changed everyone’s experience. Ricardo da Silva, S.J., an associate editor at America, takes us through the center to hear from the residents who not only survived Covid but persevered through a year of extreme isolation from family, friends and loved ones. Hear their stories and where they were able to find what their chaplain, Juan Toro, calls “the memory of God.”

In a time when so much has been lost, what does it mean to grieve well? In this episode, America’s audio producer, Maggi Van Dorn, turns the mic on herself to capture a more intimate side of a subject that is already pretty personal- the experience of grief. To help her unpack this strange and unpredictable force, she turns to friends and people whose lives have also been visited by grief. 

Support this podcast by subscribing to America!

Related Links:

Ben Perry:

Crying as a spiritual discipline may change how you see the world

Liz Hauck: 

Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up & What We Make When We Make Dinner.

Britt Luby:

I felt alone after my miscarriage. Then other women (like Meghan Markle) began sharing their stories.

How to celebrate with the graduate in your life who is grieving the loss of a loved one

Fr. Richard Leonard, S.J.:

Where the Hell Is God?

In 1838, to save itself from financial ruin, the Jesuits at Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved persons. It’s a shameful piece of history and one that the Jesuits are reckoning with like many other communities and institutions today. But the bill of sale that has been recently recovered has enabled thousands of descendants to discover their ancestry and reunite for a better future. And the Jesuits have pledged $100 million to a partnership with those descendants called, the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation. And while this marks one of the largest collaborations of its kind - that is between a group of descendants and a religious institution - it’s not just about the money. It’s about reconciliation and transformation- much deeper work. 

This episode is based on an article written by J.D. Long Garcia called The Jesuits have pledged to raise $100 million to advance racial healing. But reconciliation is about more than money.

Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life is offering an online dialogue, Owning Slavery, Pursuing Justice, Seeking Reconciliation: Lessons from Georgetown and the U.S. Jesuits on Thursday, April 29, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. EDT. You can RSVP to join or watch the recording here.

Should college athletes get paid? That’s the question we’re exploring in today’s episode of Church Meets World. It was written, produced and narrated by Kevin Jackson and based on a feature he wrote last year called, “Should colleges pay their athletes? What Catholic social teaching has to say.”

This episode of Church Meets World is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus. Sign up for The Great Courses Plus and get an entire month of unlimited access to thousands of video and audio courses from the world’s best professors by visiting http://thegreatcoursesplus.com/cmw

America's poetry editor Joe Hoover S.J. sits down with Ohio's first poet laureate Amit Majmudar to talk about his poem "Year of the Rat." They discuss the unforgettable year that was 2020, writing during Covid, and mystical parallels between Catholicism and Hinduism.

Read 'The Year of the Rat' here.

Riana decided to run away from home after getting into an argument with her mother for missing curfew. It was cold and nighttime. She had nowhere to go. Looking for help, she reached out to an older man who had given her his phone number earlier that day...

Isabelle Senechal narrates the harrowing story of Riana, a young woman who was manipulated and coerced by a violent sex trafficker.

The booming industry is largely hidden, but some faith-based anti-trafficking initiatives are making progress by tracking the digital footprints of traffickers using the most advanced data science to recommend policy solutions.

Links from the show:

How some researchers are using data science to fight sex trafficking

Learn more about America's Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., Postgraduate Media Fellowship