18 APR 2024 · On this episode of The Open Door (April 17th), panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer discuss medical ethics. Our focus will be the debate about the criteria for brain death. Our special guest is John A. Di Camillo, PhD, BeL. He is an Ethicist and the Personal Consultations Director at The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC). He manages its 24/7 free ethics consultation service as well as the Personal Consultations Fellows and Interns Program. He applies Catholic moral theology to science and medicine through research, writing, speaking, mentoring, and fielding hundreds of ethics questions every year. His areas of focus include cooperation with evil, sexual orientation and gender identity, reproductive technologies, and pregnancy complications. Among the questions we’ll ask are the following. Please feel free to suggest your own. - What is Catholics United on Brain Death and Organ Donation about? What were the goals of writing it and seeking endorsements for it? - Why is there no moral certainty of death when following the American Academy of Neurology guidelines for a determination of brain death? - What is ongoing hypothalamic function? Is it compatible with brain death? What would be the effect of improved clinical guidelines that require cessation of hypothalamic function? - Should patients expect that the existing American Academy of Neurology guidelines—or something even less rigorous—will be applied in practice? Is there a reasonable expectation that the existing guidelines will be improved in the near future? - Does a person considering organ donation have good reason to expect that he or she will be truly dead at the time of vital organ procurement? - Given that we must presume life until death is certain, and given the lack of moral certainty of death whenever the current brain death criteria are used, can we still assume that a majority of vital organ donors are deceased at the time of organ harvesting? - Is it wise, at this time, to decline organ donor status at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) upon first receiving a driver’s license? To revoke organ donor status through the appropriate channel in one’s state? - Should we advocate for the right of patients and health care professionals to conscientiously object to the use of the current brain death criteria for a determination of death? - How can we best highlight the Church’s teaching on the need for moral certainty of death as a condition for vital organ procurement? - What do you hope will happen next, now that Catholics United has been published?

3 APR 2024 · In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer discuss the politics of the presidency and vice presidency. November, and with it the national election, is not so far off. The Biden vs. Trump rematch is officially scheduled. Here at The Open Door we want to think outside the duopoly’s binary box. That means checking in on the candidates of the American Solidarity Party. Our returning and welcome guest is Mr. Peter Sonski. A New England native, Peter and his wife have nine adult children. He has a Master of Science in Management (MSM) degree from The Catholic University of America. His professional experience is in journalism, public relations, and business administration. Peter is concluding his second term as an elected member of Connecticut’s Regional School District 17 board of education. He’ll have lots to tell us about his presidential campaign. Among the questions we will ask are the following.  - What does it mean to you to be “pro-life” as a candidate for the President of the United States? - How has your experience in local politics informed your approach to this campaign? - They say behind every good man is an even better woman. How has your wife made you a stronger man and better candidate? - How does your running mate, Lauren Onak, bring strength to your campaign? - Has your campaign experience changed your perspective on what it means to be a citizen? - Have you any new insights into “the system” of politics in America? - Which of your stances as a candidate are you finding the most support for? The most push-back against? - Any thoughts on Christian Democracy and how it may or may not be finding a place in American politics? - How has your faith life been impacted by this adventure, if it’s not too personal a question? - How can folks support your campaign in an effort to bring light to the darkness of our political reality in America?

24 MAR 2024 · In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink and Valerie Niemeyer interview Karina Fabian, the president of The Catholic Writers Guild. (March 20, 2024) We discuss all things literary. For a start, was Walker Percy, as a naysayer claimed, the last Catholic novelist? We don’t think so. And what’s the range of the “literary”? It includes, of course, non-fiction. It welcomes poets and dramatists. But what about bloggers and podcasters? Just how ecumenical should we be? Our welcome guest is Karina Fabian. She is the new president of the Catholic Writers Guild, an association committed to the development of Catholic arts and letters. The following are among the questions we’ll be asking her.  - Karina, if we may, could you fill us in about the history of the Catholic Writers Guild - How did you—a self-described geek, teacher, humorist, and Miata driver—come to be involved in the Guild? - How does the Guild help authors and readers? Book stores and publishers? - What is your advice for aspiring writers who have not yet published any of their work? - The Guild is serious about core Catholic values. In what ways does it promote these values? - What makes a book distinctively Catholic? Did Graham Greene and Flannery O’Connor write distinctively Catholic novels and short stories? - Has the internet helped or harmed our literary capacities? Can we sit still long enough to read and write serious literature? - Who are some little known contemporary Catholic writers that we ought to become familiar with? - Can you tell us a bit about some of the publishers that your members have worked with? - Writers, so they say, (mostly) stay in and write. What are you working on these days? And is it true that you hate zombies?

6 MAR 2024 · On this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer discuss four giants of 20th century Catholic thought: Edith Stein, Jacques Maritain, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II). Our welcome guest is Prof. Rick Spinello. He teaches at Boston College and St. John’s Seminary in Boston. The author of numerous scholarly articles on ethics, Spinello has written or edited many books including The Encyclicals of John Paul II: An Introduction and Commentary and The Splendor of Marriage: John Paul II’s Vision of Love, Marriage, Family, and the Culture of Life. Among the questions we’ll be asking him are the following. - Rick, how did you end up authoring a book on four Catholic philosophers? - Your book combines biography with hard philosophical questions. Why did you write it? - Would the average Catholic layperson, if there is such a person, want to read this book? - What’s it like to write a book about four saintly figures who were also intellectual giants? - Why did you pick these four? Why not other Catholic “giants” of the last century? - Is there such a thing as Catholic philosophy? Why has this been such a contested issue? - What does this diverse group, Edith Stein, Jacques Maritain, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Karol Wojtyla have in common? - Three of these philosophers are converts to Catholicism. How would you compare their conversion experiences? - Why are their philosophies important for the Church? What’s their message for us today? - Of the four, who was your favorite? Four Catholic Philosophers: Rejoicing in the Truth (Jacques Maritain, Edith Stein, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Karol Wojtyła) This book unfolds the intersecting life stories of four important Catholic philosophers of the 20th century, namely, Jacques Maritain, Edith Stein, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Karol Wojtyla, and examines the salient themes of their respective philosophies. Exploring the lives of these four individuals will unlock for the reader the nature of Catholic philosophy, which always aspires to a higher wisdom and the discovery of the hidden harmony of the universe. The spiritual itinerary of these faithful scholars is part of a larger story, therefore, of the intimate relationship between faith and reason that is at the heart of Catholic intellectual life. https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/fourcatholicphilosophers/

4 MAR 2024 · In this episode of The Open Door (Monday, March 4th) we’ll discuss the role of tradition in forming Catholic teaching. Some argue that Pope Francis overlooks the normative role of tradition. Others argue that some papal critics, as well as critics of Vatican Council II, misunderstand the dynamic nature of tradition itself. We’ll discuss, too, the development of doctrine and what it means. Our guest is the Portugal-based Pedro Gabriel. Dr. Gabriel is one of the co-founders of the apologetics website “Where Peter Is.” He is also a medical oncologist. He recently authored Heresy Disguised as Tradition (En Route, 2023). The following are among the questions we’ll ask are the following. Please feel free to suggest others! - What counts as “tradition”? Does a simple appeal to the social sciences answer this question? (25) - What is a radical traditionalist? Is there such a thing as “hyperpapalism”? - What is the scope of the teaching that Catholics are “to be united in mind and heart” with the Holy Father? Does it extend to matters of diplomacy? To philosophical orientation? - How are we to know the mind of the pope, especially when it is changing? - Should we assume that Pope Francis is as attuned to the Catholicism of Africa as he is to the Catholicism of Europe and the Americas? - To what extent is culture normative? - Would you assess Pope Francis’s restrictions on the Latin Mass as “harsh”? (17) - “Subjective culpability” can become a “mitigating circumstance” in moral assessment of an act involving grave matter. In such cases how are we to provide sound moral guidance? - Could you explain for us the concept of “complexio oppositorum”? Is it compatible with the principle of non-contradiction? - Has synodality come to terms with fundamental theological disagreements?

7 FEB 2024 · In this episode of The Open Door (February 7th, 2024), panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes and Valerie Niemeyer continue to discuss two unmentionables: Religion and Politics! Our welcome guest is Jeff Culbreath, a married father of six residing in the obscure suburbs of Sacramento. He works in the apparel industry, drives his busy kids around, and tries to be a low-maintenance husband to his hard-working wife. He enjoys writing on various topics and has maintained several blogs over the years. Please feel free to suggest others! - By way of introduction, could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your family? - You’ve been influenced by, among others, Russell Kirk, Wendell Berry, and Neil Postman. In what ways? - How did you come to be a Roman Catholic? - What led you to the Republican Party and, in recent years, away from it? - Can we have good government without good people? - Can public policy help people be good? If not, why not? If yes, can you give examples? - The preamble to the American Solidarity Party (ASP) platform states, “we acknowledge the state should be pluralistic.” What does that mean? How do pluralism and solidarity impact each other? - What is “the gift economy”? How does it relate to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? Why is it important? What can be done to improve it? - The ASP platform addresses “marriage and family” issues in detail, but doesn’t have much to say about extended families. How can public policy strengthen extended families? - How do you reconcile belief in an “ownership society”, that is, Distributism, with the huge economies of scale that we all depend upon in a modern economy? We can’t all be owners, can we? BONUS: Do you plan on running for public office?

24 JAN 2024 · This week on The Open Door (January 24th) we virtually visit Norway. What’s going on with Christian Democracy there and in nearby Sweden? What sources do our Scandinavian friends draw on to build a creative alternative to politics as usual? What sources do we in the US share with them? Our welcome and special guest is Eilev Hegstad. He is working on a PhD with the title "The role of ethics committees and moral experts in democracy". Hegstad has a master's degree in political science from the University of Oslo. His professional interests are the role of knowledge and expertise in politics, ethics committees, democratic theory, and political ideologies. He has done research at Oxford University. In 2023, the book "Kristendemokrati" which he edited came out. We’ll be asking him the following questions. - How did Christian Democracy come to the Nordic countries? - In what ways has its development been distinctive? - The core principles of Christian Democratic thought include subsidiarity, solidarity, social market economy, and popularism. Could you explain them to us? - Could you please introduce us to some of the major Scandinavian proponents of Christian Democracy? - There’s an old line that an expert is someone from 20 miles away. But surely there’s more involved than that. What’s required to be, say, a moral expert? - There’s another old line that dismisses a poorly written document as the work of a committee. What’s the task of an ethics committee and how can we tell if it’s achieved? - Democracy is not without its puzzles. When if ever is pure democracy feasible? - What do you make of the Anscombe Paradox, namely that in a majority of instances the majority might be in the minority? - Does political authority rest on convention, contract, consent, or something other than these? - A bonus question: Do you think that Magnus Carlsen’s chess brilliance would lend itself to political analysis? After all, Gary Kasparov might serve as his mentor!

11 JAN 2024 · In this episode of The Open Door (January 10), panelists Jim Hanink and Valerie Niemeyer talk about what’s involved in running for the Senate of the United States. What motivates a candidate to do so? What are the technical requirements? How much money does it take to mount a campaign? Need serious Christians apply for the job? Our special and welcome guest is Mark Ruzon. Yes, he is a candidate for the Senate! He is also the Chair of the California State Committee of the American Solidarity Party. Mark is a Senior Software Engineer with Google. He and his family live in Mountain View, California. The questions we will ask him include the following. Feel free to ask your own! - Why did you decide to run for the U.S. Senate? - Just what’s involved in getting your name on the ballot here in California? - Is it true that only millionaires or their friends can campaign for the Senate? - What does it mean to say that everyone, regardless of birth status, income, or behavior has an inherent value and dignity? And what is your basis for affirming this claim? - As Senator, how would you advocate for more widespread economic opportunity and ownership? - You believe that families are the fundamental unit of society. What does this mean in terms of specific policies? What is the proper role for government in a family’s child-rearing decisions? - Your goal is a medical system that covers family members from prenatal care to hospice. How could California achieve such a goal? - California is facing a housing crisis. What factors have brought it about? What steps do you propose for dealing with this crisis? - Critics claim that our immigration system is broken. What measures do you propose for a truly humane immigration system? - What role should the United States play in contributing to peaceful international relations?

13 DEC 2023 · In this episode of The Open Door (December 13th), panelists Jim Hanink and Mario Ramos-Reyes discuss the progress of the American Solidarity Party and the current presidential and vice presidential campaign of Peter Sonski and Lauren Onak. Our special and welcome guest is Marcos Lopez, the Chair of the American Solidarity Party. A first generation Cuban-American, he is a husband and a father of two and lives in Tampa, Florida. Lopez holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of South Florida. He works in marketing and spends most of his free time with his family. He’s also involved with the music ministry at his parish. - Is it true that the fastest growing political party in the United States is the American Solidarity Party? If so, what accounts for its growth? - What initially brought you to the American Solidarity Party? - Conventional opinion says that votes for third party candidates are wasted votes. What’s your answer to this charge? - How did you come to be the Chair of the Party? - What sort of week to week challenges does the Party’s National Committee currently face? - Can you tell us about Peter Sonski and Lauren Onak, the Party’s candidates for president and vice president of the United States? - What is the process for getting on the ballot? How is the Party faring in doing so? - Is there a way to use marketing skills to expand and develop political debate? - Can the Party attract nationally known figures like Dan Lipinski or Robert George? Can it attract six figure donations? - When will you be running for office in Florida?

29 NOV 2023 · This week on The Open Door (November 29th), panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer continue their discussion of the art of translation, Eastern Catholicism, and the relation between Thomism and Ressourcement theology with special and returning guest Professor Matthew Minerd. He is a Ruthenian Catholic, raised Roman Catholic in a mixed American-Slavic and Appalachian cultural context in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Matthew is a husband and father, a seminary professor, and a translator. - Has your work as a translator triggered new questions for you about biblical translations? Are there any translations that you think are especially helpful? - You are an Eastern Catholic and teach in an Eastern Catholic seminary. What do Western Catholics especially need to know about Eastern Catholic spirituality? - After Vatican II there were major changes in the Roman liturgy. Some now prefer what Benedict XVI presented as the Extraordinary Rite; others have embraced the liturgy of Eastern Catholicism. How have Eastern Catholics reacted to the liturgical changes in the West? - What are some distinctive theological influences in Eastern Catholicism? - Has Eastern Catholicism experienced special difficulties in addressing the relation between Church and State? - Some speak of Jacques Maritain as the single most influential Thomist of the last century. Was he open to Ressourcement theology? - You have a leadership role in the American Maritain Association. Where do you see the spirit of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain active today? - Maritain was deeply engaged in the politics of his time. Does Thomism offer a foundation for constructive politics? - What’s your view of the American Solidarity Party? - Could you tell us a bit about your current projects?