This week, Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined by Karen Anstiss, the service manager for Caritas Bakhita House, a safe house in London for trafficked and exploited women which is run by the Catholic Church. A former police officer, Miss Anstiss charts the origins of the project 10 years ago as part of a broader response to the “endemic and deeply embedded”…

The Catholic novelist Fiorella De Maria discusses Catholic literature for Christmas with Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 91st episode of Merely Catholic. Fiorella tells how she wrote her first book in the summer after graduating from university before she went on to publish about a dozen books with San Francisco-based Ignatius Press and to win the Book …

Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative Party minister, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 90th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury and the future of the Church of England. Miss Widdecombe, who, like Dr Ashenden was a member of the Church of Engl…

In this 89th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Rod Dreher talks to Dr Gavin Ashenden about his new book, Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age. With increasing numbers of young people in the West seeking spirituality in esoteric religions or the Occult, Mr Dreher argues that the Church …

Professor David Albert Jones, the director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 88th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. They discuss the rush to assisted suicide ahead of a crucial vote to legalise the practice in the House of Commons on November 29 and the horrible realitie…

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined for this 87th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, by Andrew Jacoby, an American businessman and entrepreneur. Mr Jacoby, who converted to the Catholic faith from the Judaism of his youth and the “hedonistic lifestyle” of his later years when he travelled the world as a musician, explai…

Dom Alcuin Reid, the distinguished Australian Benedictine who founded the Monastère Saint-Benoît in Fréjus-Toulon, France, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 86th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Dom Alcuin is an internationally-recognised expert on the liturgy, having published and lectured on the subject exten…

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined on Merely Catholic this week by Dr Derry Connolly, the founding president of John Paul the Great Catholic University, California. Dr Connolly charts his journey from his youth in rural County Cork, Ireland, and a career in engineering and technology in Los Angeles to the moment when “God put it in my heart” to establish …

The Rt Rev. Joseph Strickland, the former Bishop of Tyler, Texas, who was “relieved” of his duties by Pope Francis last year, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 84th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald They discuss his removal from office and the post-modern assault on truth in the Church and in the world, and other…

Our guest for this 83rd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, is Fr Michael Ward, the English literary critic and theologian and an internationally recognised expert on the writings of CS Lewis. Perhaps best known for his 2010 book Planet Narnia, Fr Ward is an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religio…

Holly Ordway joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for the 82nd episode of Merely Catholic to discuss the Catholicism of JRR Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She is the Cardinal Francis George Professor of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute and Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University. Her book Tolkien’s…

Father Hans Zollner, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, theologian, psychologist, and professor at the Gregorian University. He is also one of the leading experts on safeguarding and the prevention of sexual abuse. In March 2023, Father Zollner resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, criticizing the leadership of the body in a pu…

George Farmer, the Oxford-educated investment banker, social media wizard and GB News board member, is our guest for this 80th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Mr Farmer, husband to the American social media influencer and author Candace Owens and the son of Conservative Party peer Lord Farmer, tells Dr Gavin …

This week Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined from California by author James Crowell to discuss the work and vision of John Paul the Great Catholic University, an institute founded to harness the power of beauty to transform culture. They discuss the ambition of the university to shape “the next generation of artists and innovators with academic excellenc…

Dr Gavin Ashenden this week speaks to fellow Catholic Herald associate editor and novelist Simon Caldwell about the recently published norms from the Vatican governing the discernment and handling of private revelations and associated mystical and supernatural phenomena.They discuss what the new norms represent and what has prompted the overhaul, t…

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010 he was welcomed on behalf of the youth of country by Paschal Uche, then a 22-year-old from Stratford, East London. Ten years later Father Pascal was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Brentwood.In this 77th episode of Merely Catholic, Father Pascal talks to Dr Gavin Ashenden about how he answered his…

Michael J. Knowles, the American broadcaster, political commentator, actor and author, is the guest of Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 75th episode for Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. They discuss the many “diverse and eccentric” identities of American conservativism in the twilight of the Biden presidency and Mr Knowles’ wo…

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined this week by Dr Patricia Morgan, the distinguished sociologist and author of the 2023 book Banning Conversion Therapy: The Missing Evidence, amid impending legislation to criminalise counselling, discussion, prayer and teaching based on orthodox Christian doctrine in spite of such changes representing a serious attack up…

Madeline Page of Right to Life UK joins Dr Gavin Ashenden this week to discuss shocking scenes at Manchester University when a violent mob descended on a meeting of the students’ pro-life group with the aim of closing it down. Hundreds converged on the venue where a group of students met peacefully to spit at the women taking part and to shout “get…

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined this week by John Zmirak, a senior editor of The Stream and author of the new Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism, to discuss the new novelties “gathering slime” in the West and within the Catholic Church. Zmirak is the author, co-author, or editor of twelve books, including Wilhelm Ropke: Swiss Localist, Global E…

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined this week by the distinguished Canadian journalist Anna Farrow to discuss Canada’s hysterical grief over mass graves which never existed. Farrow, a Montreal based writer for the Catholic Register, describes how 96 churches came to be burned down after it was falsely claimed that the graves of 215 children had been discov…

The horrendous chemical attack on a woman and two children by Abdul Ezedi, an Afghan received into Christianity by Baptists in Jarrow, has reopened debate about the authenticity of the claims of some people who seek asylum on the grounds of religious conversion. Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester who became a Catho…

Ferdi McDermott, the English headmaster and co-founder of Chavagnes International College, a Catholic school for boys in France, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 70th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald. They discuss the origins and success of the venture and some of the issues confronting Catholic secondary and h…

Stefan Kaminski, the director of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst College, the Catholic independent school in Lancashire, is our guest for this 69th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald. He and presenter Dr Gavin Ashenden discuss the mission in a range of Christian leadership formation undertaken by the …

Dr Joseph Shaw returns for this 68th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, for the second of a two-part broadcast examining the situation of Catholics under a Protestant monarch in the 21st century. He and Dr Gavin Ashenden explore the role of tradition, the monarchy as a model for papacy, the papacy as “the servan…

The guest for this 67th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, is Dr Joseph Shaw, the chairman of the Latin Mass Society and a former member of the Philosophy faculty at Oxford University, to discuss his new book, A Defence of Monarchy: Catholics Under a Protestant King. In this first of a two-part broadcast, they d…

Fr David Palmer, the Catholic chaplain to Nottingham University, returns to Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss Fiducia Supplicans, the new document from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that appears to open the gates to blessings for same-sex couples within the Catholic Church. In this 66th …

Bianca Jagger, the president and chief executive of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden to discuss the atrocious treatment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa by the regime of President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. In this 65th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Ms Jagger reports…

Bishop Athanasius Schneider is our guest for this 64th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. The Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, talks about his new book, Credo: The Compendium of the Catholic Faith, a catechism commissioned by the US-based Sophia Institute Press, and why the bold and clear iteration of the…

Paul Coleman, the executive director of ADF International, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden to discuss the appalling treatment by the Finnish state of Päivi Räsänen, an MP, former government minister for the interior and the wife of a Lutheran pastor, for alleged hate crimes after she publicly expressed the teaching of the Bible on human sexuality. In this …

Kathy Gyngell, the co-foundress and editor of The Conservative Woman: Defending Freedom website, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for the 62nd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald. They discuss feminism, motherhood and the revolution in childcare, the growth of the state, the relationship between economic liberalism and soc…

In the 61st episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, Dr Gavin Ashenden talks to Tim Dieppe about challenge of Islam to Western democracies and the values that underpin them following mass migration and radicalisation triggered by war. Mr Dieppe is head of public policy at Christian Concern, which he joined in 2016, an…

The struggle between the family and the state has been “a feature of the relentless march of secularism” in the western world, notes Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 60th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, in which he speaks to Barbara Socha. The deputy minister for family and social policy since 2019 with a specific r…

Can the Pope change the teaching of the Catholic Church by the stroke of a pen during the course of correspondence? In this 59th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Dr Jules Gomes speaks to Dr Gavin Ashenden about the dubia submitted to the Pope by five cardinals concerned about the remit of the Synod on Synodali…

Mark Lambert, the author of a popular blog called De Omnibus Dubitandum Est and a regular on the Catholic Unscripted YouTube channel, returns to Merely Catholic to consider the plight of Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who in the summer was subjected to visitation after his alleged criticism of the conduct of Pope Francis on social media.…

In a society obsessed with sex and increasingly confused about what it is to be a man or a woman, Megan Madden, an Oxford-based American author and mother, offers a radically different perspective about what fulfilled femininity might really be. Her new book, Mary, Teach Me to Be Your Daughter, is based on years of studies on marriage and the famil…

The Catholic world has recently been rocked by the publication of a book that has been sent out to every one of the Catholic Church's bishops across the world. In episode 56 of Merely Catholic, Gavin Ashenden interviews one of its authors, Julio Loredo. Part of the initial impact of the book lay in the powerful and dramatic preface which was author…

The Vatican’s precarious diplomatic relations with Communist China is the core subject of discussion in this fascinating 55th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Presenter Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined by Benedict Rogers, a human rights activist and author of The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese …

In the Bible, Jesus Christ teaches that God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but the Anglican Archbishop of York has now distanced himself from the language of divine revelation, declaring it to be “problematic”. In this 54th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, former Anglicans Fr Dwight Longenecker an…

The veteran Rome correspondent Edward Pentin returns to Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss with Dr Gavin Ashenden the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, of the forthcoming Synod on Synodality, which has been published by the Vatican ahead of the first of the sessions in October. Together in this 53rd epi…

In this 52nd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined by Justin Brierley, the freelance writer, speaker and broadcaster who has become known for creating dialogues between Christians and non-Christians. They discuss Justin’s forthcoming book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, which w…

In the 51st episode, Gavin Ashenden has joined by Kimberly Ells. In 2013, she joined an international organization working to protect the interests of children and families at the United Nations. During her first exposure to UN proceedings in New York City, she was surprised to discover policies being adopted on the basis of the promotion of sexual…

Ryan Christopher returns to Merely Catholic to discuss the highly motivated political lobby groups behind the swingeing changes to law and culture. Mr Christopher, the director of ADF UK, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation defending fundamental freedoms and human dignity, tells Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 50th episode of the podcast series for…

In the 49th episode of Merely Catholic, Paul Kingsnorth joins Gavin Ashenden to talk about his journey from environmentalism, on an exploration through Buddhism and paganism which led him to Christ. Hailed as one of the most incisive and perceptive thinkers of his generation, Paul Kingsnorth examines the fragility of Western culture and the emergen…

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined for this episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, by Alexander Tschugguel, who in 2019 achieved global fame when he took an icon of a pachamama earth goddess from the Carmelite Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, near the Vatican, and threw it into the River Tiber. A convert from Lutheran…

The freelance journalist and commentator Georgia Gilholy joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 47th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. A writer for wide range of publications, including The Spectator, The Critic and the Catholic Herald, Miss Gilholy describes her personal journey into the Catholic faith from the cert…

Dr Gavin Ashenden is joined for this 46th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, by Ryan Christopher, the director of ADF UK, a faith-based legal advocacy organisation defending fundamental freedoms and human dignity. They discuss the rapid erosion of freedom of speech and its causes and what might be done to revers…

On the eve of the coronation, as we enter a new Carolingian era, Gavin Ashenden reflects on the challenges posed to the absolutist claims of monarchy and faith, by the revolutionary forces of relativism and secularism.Merely Catholic

On hearing the word Chicago, many people might think either of the dramatic musical of that name or else make associations with 1930s gangsters. In this latest edition of Merely Catholic, we go to Chicago to interview Fr Ryan Brady, a local downtown city priest. In the shadow of arguments, about sex, power, scandal, and money we hear from him a dif…

John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need, the international Catholic charity helping persecuted Christians, is the guest on this 43rd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. He tells Dr Gavin Ashenden of how the charity began with one priest reaching out in solidarity to Christians behind the Iron Curtain before en…