
Catholic in America
Identity politics and tribal thinking has become America's dominant paradigm. Why has the respect for genuine civic friendship and the common good waned? What are the set of moral and spiritual principles needed to reclaim or reimagine what has been lost? How do we use them to make right judgments about our world and to move forward with clarity and joy? The answer is at the heart of the Catholic faith and its social doctrine: rediscovering our common identity as children of the Father, the One who created us for love. Join Jason Adkins, host of Catholic in America, to engage our own time, culture, and political milieu with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to explore how to live more fully Catholic.
Catholic in America
Confession Is Dying—Can It Be Saved? with Dr. James O’Toole
n this compelling episode of Catholic in America, host Jason Adkins is joined by Professor James O’Toole, historian and professor at Boston College, to explore the rise, and stunning decline, of one of Catholicism’s most defining and intimate practices: the sacrament of confession.
Drawing from his acclaimed book For I Have Sinned: The Sacrament of Confession in American Catholicism (Harvard University Press), Professor O’Toole offers a vivid and fascinating portrait of how confession once shaped American Catholic life, not only spiritually, but culturally, psychologically, and communally, and why its disappearance in recent decades matters more than we realize.
With historical anecdotes, deep cultural insights, and reflections on theology, psychology, and modernity, this episode tackles big questions:
- Why did Catholics stop going to confession?
- How did the Church’s view of sin and repentance evolve?
- And can this powerful sacrament be renewed for today?
Whether you go to confession regularly, haven’t been in years, or simply wonder what happened to this sacred practice, this episode offers both answers and hope.
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Jason Adkins, host of Catholic in America, engages our own time, culture, and political milieu with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to explore how to live more fully Catholic. With so much to explore, we have guests from a variety of perspectives and faith backgrounds, and conversations do not necessarily constitute endorsements.
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