Here is the next talk from the folks at Fullness of Truth. If you haven't subscribed to their podcast, you need to -- it really does bring you the best Catholic presenters in the country today.

Shawn Carney

Episode No. 7: Catholics, Culture, and You! Part 1: Listen Here! Download this show here Part 2: Faced with a society that is rapidly declining, and opposing what we hold most dear, Sean Carny exhorts us, today in part 2, in his talk on "Catholics, the Culture, and You" to rise up and defend the Church. Listen Here! Download this show here For more information on Shawn Carney go to: http://www.ambassadorspeakers.com Special thanks to Eric Genuis for his music which was used in the background of this show. Please also visit his webiste at www.ericgenuis.com

Matthew Conolly M.D.

Princeton University 2001

Here are some miscellaneous talks from the audio grab-bag. I have no idea the orthodoxy level of these talks, but they're all given from a generally conservative point of view. Take that for what it's worth...

Hadley Arkes on how the defense in the courts of the "right to privacy" has transformed thinking about law and rights in American society

Terence Nichols on how and why religion has become so privatized in America

Jewish bioethicist (and former head of the President's Council on Bioethics) Leon Kass, on how new technologies have changed the assumptions many people have about their children

Russell Hittinger on the reasoning behind the upholding of a right to physician-assisted suicide in Compassion in Dying v. Washington

Bradley J. Birzer on how Tolkien understood the idea of myth

Nigel Cameron on the obstacles and opportunities facing Christians concerned about bioethics

Ralph C. Wood on how Tolkien viewed the use and meaning of human language

James A. Herrick on Mormonism, gnosticism, and the significance of Luke Skywalker

Thomas de Zengotita, on postmodern individualism and "reality" TV

Calvin Stapert, on the sense of resolution, completion, and the sense of the goodness of creation in Mozart's music.

James A. Herrick, on evolution as a religion.

Patrick Deneen, on how Wendell Berry’s thought demonstrates his identity as a “Kentucky Aristotelian.”

Matthew Dickerson, on the glory of trees and the shepherdhood of ents.

From Deacon Chip's site Life and the Church:

Here are the audio files of the first and second classes - view outline here. This segment focuses on moral epistemology (how we know morality) and basic principles for moral reasoning. It also spends time on false moral principles.

Here’s the audio from class #3; it’s actually the end of the introduction, plus the beginning of Abortion as a topic, plus some admin. The actual class info starts about 5 minutes in. The outline is here.

Here’s the audio for the 4th session (euthanasia), and the outline is here.

About Deacon Chip:

Deacon Chip Jones serves as a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Memphis, in West Tennessee. Ordained in 2000, Deacon Chip serves the people of God and the Bishop of Memphis at St. Ann Catholic Church in Bartlett, TN.

Deacon Chip was born in December of 1960 in Atlanta, GA. A life-long Catholic, Deacon Chip attended St. Paul of the Cross Elementary School and Daniel M. Therrell High School in Atlanta, and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, in 1982.

Deacon Chip served on active duty in the U. S. Army for over 10 years, before leaving the service and moving to Bartlett. Deacon Chip and his family (wife, Ann Marie, and four daughters aged 23, 16, 12, and 8) have been residents of Bartlett, and members of St. Ann Church, for 16 years.

I hesitate to link to him because he went to West Point. Being a Navy man myself, I hate to give anything to those boys from the Hell on the Hudson. So if any of this audio is bad, be sure to blame West Point. If it's good, please give all the credit to the Holy Spirit. ;0)

You know the drill...this one's from Librivox.org:

Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them “The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females”; say this to them and they will sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them “Murder your mother,” and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same.”

• Gutenberg e-text
• Wikipedia - G. K. Chesterton
• LibriVox’s Eugenics and Other Evils Internet Archive page
• Zip file of the entire book 152 MB
• RSS feed · Subscribe in iTunes · Chapter-a-day

Total running time: 5:17:02
Read by Ray Clare

• 01 - Introduction & Part 1 Chapter 1 - 00:18:18
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• 02 - Part 1 Chapter 2 - 00:16:58
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• 03 - Part 1 Chapter 3 - 00:15:24
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• 04 - Part 1 Chapter 4 - 00:25:55
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• 05 - Part 1 Chapter 5 - 00:24:22
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• 06 - Part 1 Chapter 6 - 00:19:25
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• 07 - Part 1 Chapter 7 - 00:16:23
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• 08 - Part 1 Chapter 8 - 00:11:37
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• 09 - Part 2 Chapter 1 - 00:17:55
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• 10 - Part 2 Chapter 2 - 00:23:48
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• 11 - Part 2 - Chapter 3 - 00:21:35
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• 12 - Part 2 - Chapter 4 - 00:17:50
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• 15 - Part 2 - Chapter 7 - 00:16:51
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• 16 - Part 2 - Chapter 8 - 00:20:24
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• 17 - Part 2 - Chapter 9 - 00:08:11
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Here's to hoping this is worth listening to...sure looks like it is...

Current Philosophical Trends Challenging an Absolute Truth: Investigating Faith and Reason

This talk was given at WYD2008 in Sydney, Australia, and presented by Creston College.

• http://sites.google.com/site/catholiclifetimereadingplan/file-cabinet/WYD08_Current_Philosophical_Trends_Challenging_An_Absolute_Truth.aac
  

An hour and a half presentation at World Youth Day. It's a bit slow, but has some reasonable parts, especially beyond the hour mark and towards the end.

• 05-28min -- "Positivism: Old Age and the Value of Life" by Kirsty McKillop? Further reading: "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom
• 28-32min -- Questions given to Kirsty
• 32-49min -- "Relativism" by Katrina George, a lecturer in law at the University of Western Sydney and a director of Women's Forum Australia, an independent think tank that conducts research, education and public policy on women's issues.
• 49-56min -- Questions to Katrina: Basic needs vs basic goods. Recommended reading Robert George (books on natural law), Q: Catholic Church "holds the fullness of Truth". Institutional structure give the splendor of truth? ie. slavery. Q: Freedom of religion and law, A: More trust in reason, basic goods
• 56-1:26min -- "Freedom and Truth" by Patricia AUT management commerce law northland ethics. Free will, happiness (to be loved and to love properly), love requires freedom, erroneous views of freedom, tolerance and truth, relativism and truth.
  
• "Truth is God. Truth is a Person and someone we can choose to trust and to love. Authentic freedom is choosing God and allowing ourselves to be taught by God and to follow His Will." -- Pope Benedict XVI
• Tolerance is compatible with an absolute truth.
• Intellect and reason should be used in searching for that truth.
• Freedom is to choose and love the truth.

First, a disclaimer. Wesley J. Smith isn't Catholic. I don't claim he represents Church teaching, so know that going in. Don't expect Catechism because that isn't what he does.

That said...I haven't disagreed with him about a bioethics issue yet. Perhaps there's something out there he's blindingly wrong about, but I haven't seen it. After a few years of pseudo-regularly reading him, everything he advocates appears to be in alignment with Church teaching.

SO...here's the skinny:

I am back in the podcast business, renamed from Brave New Bioethics to What It Means to be Human. After consulting with my colleagues at the Discovery Institute--which is producing the broadcast--we decided that since I am dealing with issues well beyond bioethics now, the new title was warranted.

In the first edition, I define some of the threats to human exceptionalism and argue that accepting the intrinsic value of human life simply because it is human is the necessary intellectual condition precedent (as we lawyers say) to universal human rights.

Check it out.

Here is the RSS Feed.

AmPap writes the following:

AmP reader Bryan:

Please pray for us in the State of Washington, as we have a very difficult initiative on our ballot, known as I-1000, which would legalize assisted suicide. It is going to be very tough to defeat, although many people are working hard. Here is the website with more info:

http://www.noassistedsuicide.com.

Also, here is a good homily by a good young priest in our archdiocese (mp3 here).

You should also know that our Gubernatorial election is going to be very important as well. It's a Pro-Choice Catholic Democrat (Christine Gregoire) vs. a Pro-Life Catholic GOP Candidate (Dino Rossi). This is a rematch of the 2004 election which was decided by a mere 100 votes.

You heard the man. Now get going.

I always find it instructive to learn other countries' culture of death struggles to help give context to our own. To that end...I found the following audio file on the new blog Semper Vita, the Family Life International blog of New Zealand:

"Last Sunday Radio New Zealand ran a comprehensive report on abortion laws in this country, which explores the recent High Court ruling about the unlawfulness of many abortions in NZ.

"The report is quite interesting as it gives a basic history of how the law came into being, and it even involves an interview with a retired certifying consultant who explains how he justified signing off abortions on the grounds of mental health even though he felt uncomfortable about doing so.

"It also features an interview with a woman who had an abortion and now regrets it."

[Read the rest here.]

This blog looks really promising. Do yourself a favor and spare 5 minutes checking them out.

From St. Martha's in Kingwood, TX, comes a series of talks on Moral Issues:

Title PPts Speaker Date MP3 Links Conscience & Conscience Formation Dr. Sandra Magie 02/12/08 mp3 Moral Teachings 1 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-1 Moral Teachings 2 PPt 1 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-2 Moral Teachings 3 PPt 2 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-3 Moral Teachings 4 PPt 3 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-4 Moral Teachings 5 PPt 4 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-5 Moral Teachings 6 PPt 5 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-6 Moral Teachings 7 PPt 6 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-7 Moral Teachings 8 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-8 Moral Teachings 9 Robert Trahan Summer, 2007 mp3-9 Moral Issues Moise Arrah 09/29/07 mp3 Annulments Ann Bryant mp3 Sin Jeff Crandall 01/26/06 mp3 Sin and Conscience Ed Kleinguetl mp3 Homosexuality Msgr. Borski 09/29/04 mp3 End of Life Issues TJ Dolce 04/17/07 mp3 Humanae Vitae/Sexuality Jeff Crandall / David Garcia mp3 Consistent Ethic of Life David Garcia 02/23/06 mp3 Immigration, Legislation, and the Gospel Mark Zwick 06/06/06 mp3 Prison Ministry: Ministry on the Green Mile Deacon O'Brien 08/01/06 mp3 Death Penalty in TX David Atwood / Deacon O'Brien 01/24/06 mp3

UPDATE: Wow. If you thought you knew anything about the particulars of the Schiavo case, give this a listen. I assure you, you had no idea. I've read several research papers by prominent bioethicists (in addition to the ridiculous coverage by the media) and none of them discussed the points made by Mr. Gibbs. Do check this out.

From the CLA:

In this emotional, power-packed video interview, Attorney David Gibbs III, lead attorney in the fight to save the life of Terri Schiavo, explains what really happened behind the scenes in the case and why it matters to all of us. An excellent resource for use in public showings in churches, schools, or other outreach opportunities, the full-length, high-resolution DVD is available upon request from the Christian Law Association.

Also available on iTunes

Download and pre-screen the full-length video. (33 minutes) MP4 Format (145mb, Quicktime) WMV Format (105mb, Windows Media Player) Request the full-length DVD. Learn more about the case in the book Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What it Means for All of Us.

Special thanks to David Webb at Sonlight Studios for his outstanding efforts to make this video possible. If your church or school needs a promotional video, please contact David at www.sonlightstudios.com.

Noted bioethicist and blogger Wesley J. Smith writes:

I did an interview with a Catholic radio show last Friday that focused pretty hard on assisted suicide, futile care, eugenics, hospice, and bioethics. It was a call-in show and a couple of hospice nurses called offering some interesting comments. If you want to hear me spout hot air and emit particulate matter like I do in writing here, tune in to this rebroadcast.

Get the interview.

Face it -- you and your loved ones are going to die someday. Maybe that day will be soon, maybe not. Either way, you're best served by being prepared to die NOW. In particular, it's critical that your wills, powers of attorney, etc., be made before you need them -- you can always change them later, but you can never make them posthumously.

Don't forget, you can make it a part of your will that the beneficiaries have masses said for your soul. If it turns out that you don't need them (i.e., you're in heaven with the Church Triumphant rather than the Church Suffering), through God's grace they will still be efficacious for your holy brothers and sisters in in Purgatory.

Do yourself a favor and listen to this ten part series so you'll know (1) how best to care for those you love and (2) how best to help those who love you care for you. The (eternal) life you save may be your own.

TN Death 2007: 10 - Hospice with Hope (Concludes this series)
Presented by

Fr. Oscar Cantu iis a native of Houston, baptized at Holy Name Parish, where he now serves as pastor. He is a product of our local Catholic schools (Holy Name, St. Thomas, UST). Fr. Oscar has served as parochial vicar at various parishes in the Houston area — St. Christopher’s, St. Cecilia’s, and St. Frances Cabrini. Fr. Oscar did post graduate studies in Rome at the Gregorian University. He teaches part-time in the theology department at the University of St. Thomas.

iTunes | Other | ||

---

Rev. Richard Donnelly

Church's Teaching on Life

Euthanasia

Abortion

Gospel of Life

Evangelium Vitae

Humanae Vitae

Rev. Dean Perri

Church Teaching on Life

Mother Teresa Prayer Breakfast

Bioethics 1

Bioethics 2

Euthanasia 1

Euthanasia 2

Rev. Paul Connor

Technological Reproduction of Human Beings 1

Technological Reproduction of Human Beings 2

Contraception 1

Contraception 2

If you need it, here's how to convert these files to MP3.

Remembering Terri

On April 6, 2006, just over a year after Terri Schiavo died in Florida from court-ordered removal of her feeding tube, Terri's brother Bobby Schindler came to Franciscan University of Steubenville and shared about his family's experience. Joining him is Bryan Kemper, head of the pro-life organization Stand True Ministries.

The family of Terri Schindler Schiavo has founded a non-profit group dedicated to protecting disabled and vulnerable citizens agains euthanasia. The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation is online at www.terrisfight.org

Stand True Minstries' website is www.standtrue.org.

Reported by Linda Mastej. (10:16, 4.11 mb)

Attached Media: MP3 (4 313 ko)

UPDATE:
Fr. Frank Pavone's Homily at Terri's Memorial Mass (April 5, 2005, Most Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, Gulfport, FL) Listen or Download (MP3 Format)

Radio interview with Fr. Frank Pavone and Janet Morana about the Pope and Terri Schiavo -- April 1, 2005 -- Listen or Download (MP3 Format)

I've been a fan of Smith's work for a few years now. He's a professional bio-ethicist who, though not Catholic, consistently articulates positions affording the maximum respect for human life from conception to natural death. Here's his latest post, including an MP3 of a radio interview he did:

This old show of Issues Etc. Radio Program just became available on MP 3. In it, I respond to Ron Reagan's 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention. I point out that RR played a big game of bait and switch: that is, the speech was touted about pressuring President Bush to increase funding for ESCR using leftover IVF embryos. But that subject was never actually broached. Instead, Reagan pushed federal funding of human cloning research--without using the C-word. Three years later, the same disingenuous propaganda is one of Big Biotech's primary political tools in pushing their blank check (financial and ethical) policy agenda.

I also note that my comments about the success of Wu-suk Hwang creating cloned embryonic stem cells were later found out to be a total fraud.

Check it out. It's a good deconstruction of the junk biology that passes for science in much of this debate and most of what I said remains accurate and relevant to the ongoing controversy. (Alas, some things have changed. California and Missouri have new constitutional amendments permitting human SCNT that won using the same false claims Reagan did. Australia and Iowa, changed their laws to permit human cloning.)

Regan's speech of "self repair biological repair kit," use of the present tense for purely speculative and theoretical research, and pretense that nascent human life isn't involved was a master of deception. Regardless of you r position on these issues, I cut through the smoke and mirrors.

Also check out my piece in NRO about the speech that is referenced in the interview. Also, to learn more about these matters in an understandable way, may I humbly recommend my book Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World.

Here are some talks from the Dom Helder Camara Lecture Series from Newman College in Australia:

2007 - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

[10 Jul 07] An Reception and Talk with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the theme of The Christian in the Public Square: Challenges from the Catholic Social Justice Tradition. more

Downloads
2007 - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (2,909.6k)	2007 - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (2,174.6k)

2007 - Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez

[20 Apr 07] Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez SDB on theme of Deus Caritas Est:Sharing the Love of God in a World of Fear. more

Downloads
2007 - Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez (2,880.5k)	2007 - Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez (1,093.2k)

2006

[1 Jun 06] Dr William Cavanaugh on The Sacrifice of Love: The Eucharist as Resistance to Terror and Torture more

Downloads
2006 (3,514.2k)	2006 (3,622.3k)

2005

[7 Sep 05] Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM of Durban, South Africa on Let Africa Teach Us! more

Downloads
2005 (4,944.9k)	2005 (4,959.2k)

2004

[6 Jul 04] Dr Linda Hogan of Trinity College, Ireland on The Vision Still Has Time: Finding our Moral Compass in a Western Pluralist Society more

Downloads

2003

[5 Jul 03] Cardinal Walter Kasper of Vatican City on Dialogue and Pluralism more

Downloads
2003 (4,190.0k)	2003 (4,410.4k)

2002

[1 Jan 02] Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Law Professor at Harvard and the first woman to lead a Papal delegation on Human Rights Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez SDB, Honduras, on Signs of Hope more

Downloads
2002 (3,603.3k)	2002 (2,044.8k)

2001

[6 Aug 01] Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, on Caritas and the City more

Downloads
2001 (4,122.9k)	2001 (3,816.6k)

2000

[9 Aug 00] Professor Maria Clara Bingemer from the Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janiero on Mary and the Jubilee. more

Downloads
2000 (3,166.3k)	2000 (2,648.7k)

1999

[3 Mar 99] Bishop Samuel Ruiz from Chiapas, Mexico, on Defending Indigenous Peoples Cardinal Roger Mahony from Los Angeles on Our Sunday Eucharist and the Jubilee more

Downloads
1999 (3,821.3k)	1999 (4,411.2k)

1998

[5 May 98] Dr Maria Harris from USA on Jubilee Justice and Freedom Spirituality more

Downloads
1998 (3,830.0k)	1998 (3,945.5k)

1996 - Part one

[2 Aug 96] Cardinal Carlo Martini SJ from Milan on The Church and the Future more

Downloads
1996 - Part one (3,767.8k)	1996 - Part one (4,147.9k)

1996 - Part two

[2 Aug 96] Cardinal Carlo Martini SJ from Milan on The Church and the Future M more

Downloads
1996 - Part two (3,750.5k)	1996 - Part two (3,390.9k)

1996 - Part three

[2 Aug 96] Cardinal Carlo Martini SJ from Milan on The Church and the Future more

Downloads
1996 - Part three (3,808.9k)	1996 - Part three (3,236.1k)

1995

[23 Feb 95] Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, from Chicago, on the Consistent Ethic of Life and Tolerance more

Downloads
1995 (3,869.3k)	1995 (2,660.8k)