Episodes

In Episode 2 of the series Mary in the Dock: Ordinary or Extraordinary?, host Greg Smith puts the Catholic doctrine of Mary as Mother of God (Theotokos) on trial. Many modern evangelicals recoil at the title, calling it blasphemous or idolatrous and unknowingly echoing the ancient Nestorian heresy that split Christ in two. Greg gives the strongest Protestant objections a full, fair hearing — the lack of an explicit Bible verse, the risk of deifying Mary, and the historical cautions from Calvin —...

In the powerful opening episode of the new series Mary in the Dock: Ordinary or Extraordinary?, host Greg Smith puts the Catholic practice of Marian devotion on trial. Are prayers like the Hail Mary and the Rosary, asking for Mary’s intercession, and venerating her images really idolatry — or are they biblical, Christ-centered honor for the Mother of our Lord? Greg gives the strongest Protestant objections a full, fair hearing (sola scriptura, the one-mediator objection, and claims of late pagan...

In this unscripted, freewheeling conversation recorded at the secret compound, Ed shares the profound shift happening in his heart as he prepares to enter OCIA and come into full communion with the Catholic Church. He reflects on how years of Protestant experience left him with a flattened faith — where baptism, communion, and even basic Christian practices became optional or merely symbolic — and how rediscovering mystery has brought wonder, weight, and meaning back into his life. Greg and Ed ...

Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical today — Magnifica Humanitas — addressing the dignity of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and rapid technological change. In this short update episode, Greg reflects on the long anticipation for this document (echoing Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum), shares what we’ve already covered on the podcast and in our adult education academy, and explains why he’s choosing to read, mark up, and prayerfully reflect on the full 42,00...

Greg dives into a surprising pattern that keeps surfacing in Catholic-Protestant conversations: why so many objections to Catholicism quickly circle back to sex, sexuality, and gender. From the intense pushback on Mary’s perpetual virginity and clerical celibacy, to contraception, the male-only priesthood, divorce, and the endless cultural tropes about “sexy nuns,” repressed priests, and naughty Catholic schoolgirls, these issues generate unusually visceral reactions. Greg asks the provocative q...

In the final part of this three-part series, Greg takes the philosophical foundation from Episode 1 and the moral schematics from Episode 2 and applies them directly to four very ordinary, everyday situations: money lending and usury, lying versus legitimate deception, disciplining children (including spanking), and gambling. Using the categories of intrinsically evil acts, prudential judgment, and authentic development of doctrine, he walks through concrete examples—medieval usury versus modern...

In the second part of this three-part series, Greg builds directly on the foundation laid in “The Anatomy of Evil” and moves into the practical schematics the Church has spent two thousand years refining. He walks through the key categories of Catholic moral reasoning: universal, unchanging principles rooted in human dignity and the natural law; intrinsically evil acts whose object is always disordered; positive obligations that call us to active love and justice; the virtue of prudence that gui...

In a world of loud moral arguments and social-media slogans, real precision often gets lost. In this three-part series, Greg unpacks one of the most attractive features of Catholic moral theology: its remarkable clarity around evil as a privation (not a substance), intrinsically evil acts, prudential judgment, and authentic development of doctrine. Episode 1, “The Anatomy of Evil,” explores how human actions are good in their being yet can be morally disordered in their object—drawing on Aquina...

In this special conversation episode, Greg sits down with his friend and longtime collaborator Cory to mark the 10th anniversary of the night they both entered the Catholic Church together at the Easter Vigil in 2016. They share what they’re most grateful for after a decade—everything from the life-shaping rhythm of the sacraments and liturgical year, the communion of saints, the beauty that feeds the soul, and the simple joy of feeling truly “at home” in any Catholic parish on earth, to the doc...

In this candid monologue, Greg retraces his own path from campus-ministry apologetics at a liberal university into the tight, intellectually satisfying world of Calvinism—training in a Calvinist seminary, embracing TULIP, and finding real comfort in the doctrine of Total Depravity. He walks through what made that system feel so compelling at the time: its logical clarity, its honest reckoning with human sin, and its God-centered awe. But as he circled back to the medieval Catholic thinkers he’d ...

What if the way we’ve been taught to read the Bible is actually creating the very divisions we see today? In this episode of Considering Catholicism, host Greg Smith shares his experience from classical Calvinist seminary training 40 years ago — investing in 22 volumes of Calvin’s commentaries and the massive Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English lexicon because exegesis was required to stay within the guardrails of historic Christian interpretation. He then contrasts that with today’s evangelica...

This is Part 4 of our four-episode series “What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him? Imago Dei in the Age of AI.” As artificial super-intelligence seems ready to out-perform us on every measurable scale, the Catholic Church gives us a breathtaking final answer: our destiny is not obsolescence or a hive-mind upload. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, destined one day to judge angels and inherit the New Jerusalem. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 6:3, Revelation 21–22, Dante’s vision of the ...

This is Part 3 of our four-episode series “What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him? Imago Dei in the Age of AI.” Everyone says AI is going to completely remake human civilization. Greg agrees it will change many things — work, education, medicine, daily routines — just as farming, the Industrial Revolution, and the internet did before it. But here’s the deeper question: Will AI really change the world in the ways that matter most? From the Garden of Eden to Rome under the Caesars to your phone...

This is Part 2 of our four-episode series “What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him? Imago Dei in the Age of AI.” In a world that increasingly measures human worth by output, efficiency, and market utility, the Catholic Church insists our dignity is ontological—not something we earn or lose when technology changes. Greg examines the curious paradox of the lesser crown: we are made a little lower than the angels yet crowned with glory and honor. Drawing from Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, Jesus’...

This is Part 1 of our four-episode series “What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him? Imago Dei in the Age of AI.” In a world racing toward artificial super-intelligence that threatens to out-think and out-perform us at almost every task, the Catholic Church points us back to an older drama: super-intelligences were here first — and the brightest of them burned with envy when God crowned ordinary flesh-and-blood humans with glory and honor. Drawing from Milton’s Paradise Lost, Psalm 8, Genesis 1...

In this episode Greg unpacks one of the most emotionally charged questions on the road to Rome: why does the Catholic Church ordain only men to the priesthood? Drawing from his own painful experience in the Christian Reformed Church’s ordination battles of the 1990s, he shows how the debate shifts dramatically once you realize priestly authority is not about qualifications but about Christ acting in persona Christi as Bridegroom to His Bride. With clear teaching from Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the ...

In the New Testament, Paul gives clear qualifications for presbyteroi—elders—who must be the husband of one wife, manage their household well, and hold fast to sound doctrine. When Greg was a Protestant pastor, that seemed to describe exactly what church leadership should look like under sola scriptura. So where do Catholic priests come from? In this first part of a two-episode series, Greg tackles that question head-on with honesty and charity, drawing from Scripture, the early Church Fathers, ...

On Holy Thursday, Greg sits down with a warm, personal message for listeners as the Church begins the Sacred Triduum. He explains the meaning, etymology, and profound significance of these three holy days that form the very heart of our Catholic faith—the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ lived out as one great mystery. Along the way he offers gratitude to supporters, apologizes for slower email replies as the show grows, and gives a hopeful look at what’s coming: more Questions &...

In this re-released classic from the vault, Greg shares fresh impressions and profound insights from his recent pilgrimage to Jerusalem and its surroundings, timed perfectly for Holy Week. Walking the Via Dolorosa, kneeling in Gethsemane, touching the stone of the crucifixion and the slab in the empty tomb, he explores how experiencing these historic sites makes Christianity's central claims inescapably real and public—not abstract feelings or private spirituality. Drawing on St. Paul in 1 Corin...

This Easter, millions are posting from Jerusalem’s peaceful Garden Tomb saying “This feels like the real one.” But just down the street sits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—venerated for 1,700 years—and 2025 archaeology just uncovered 2,000-year-old olive trees and grapevines exactly where John 19:41 said the garden would be. In this solo monologue, we unpack the history, the biases, and what this quiet debate reveals about how we approach Scripture, tradition, and the living Christ. Whether yo...

Why do some Catholics want more Latin even in the regular Sunday Mass? In this episode, Greg explores how praying familiar parts like the Pater Noster or Sanctus in the Church’s historic tongue undoes a bit of the Tower of Babel’s confusion and brings us closer to the unity Pentecost began. Drawing on Scripture, saints, and even a funny Tolkien family story (yes, he loudly answered in Latin when everyone else switched to English), you’ll see why a common language fosters true catholicity—across ...

Greg revisits the famous (but legendary) story of Martin Luther hurling an inkwell at the devil to prove his sins were "forgiven and forgotten," a tale he once preached as a Protestant pastor. He contrasts Luther's extreme swing—from crushing monastic guilt to the infamous "sin boldly" advice—with the goofy online quip about "Irish guilt" vs. "Italian joy" in Catholicism. The episode unpacks how the Church avoids both ditches: honest examination of conscience, sacramental absolution that restore...

Two weeks before Easter we’re doing something special. Join Greg for a livestream webinar. He’ll open the Gospels and Google Earth and walk the actual route Jesus took Palm Sunday through Resurrection Sunday — gate by gate, hill by hill, garden by garden. You’ll see exactly where He slept in Bethany, which path He took down the Mount of Olives, where the Upper Room almost certainly was, and why the geography makes every moment more powerful. This is available for Patreon members (you can join o...

Ever wondered what actually happens at the Easter Vigil—the "Super Bowl of the Catholic liturgy" where catechumens are baptized, confirmed, and receive their first Eucharist? In this second part of our OCIA: The Bridge to Rome series, Greg and Cory walk you through the whole nighttime journey: the dramatic Service of Light with the new fire and Paschal candle procession, the breathtaking Exsultet ("This is the night!"), the extended Liturgy of the Word tracing salvation history, the renewal of b...