The Catholic Herald Podcast: Merely Catholic with Gavin Ashenden

Feb 24 2025 97 ep. 40 mins 206
The Catholic Herald Podcast: Merely Catholic with Gavin Ashenden artwork

On the Catholic Herald's weekly podcast, Gavin Ashenden and guests will reflect on what's happening in the Christian world; and shed some light on the most important cultural, spiritual and moral issues of the day.

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96: My best friend JD Vance, with Rod Dreher

Feb 24 2025 24 mins  
Rod Dreher’s close friendship with U.S. Vice President JD Vance is the subject of this 96th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. He and Dr Gavin Ashenden discuss Mr Vance’s shocking accusation in a landmark speech at the Munich that the greatest threat to European security is not posed by Russia or China but by the European elites, and the ext

95: The strange elevation of Cardinal McElroy

Jan 28 2025 42 mins  
The rapid promotion by Pope Francis of Cardinal Robert McElroy as the new Archbishop of Washington DC has astonished many within the Catholic Church. Mark Lambert, the author of a popular blog called De Omnibus Dubitandum Est and a regular on the Catholic Unscripted YouTube channel, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 95th episode of Merely Catholic to analyse what might lie behind t

94: In defence of pro-life medicine, with Dr Calum Miller

Jan 21 2025 48 mins  
Dr Calum Miller, a medical doctor working within the NHS, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden for this 93rd episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald. Dr Miller graduated from the University of Oxford Medical School in 2015. As a researcher at the University of Oxford, he has published more than 30 academic papers in medicine, law, philosophy and ethics – examin

93: The Canterbury Catastrophe, with Canon George Conger

Jan 14 2025 66 mins  
Following the enforced resignation of Justice Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury, numerous assessments have been made about his role in the post. Today, Gavin Ashenden is joined by an authoritative Anglican commentator from America, Canon George Conger. George is both an Episcopalian clergyman and a journalist. He is the author some 6,000 articles . His work has appeared in the Guar

92: Sex trafficking and the Catholic Church, with Karen Anstiss

Dec 18 2024 54 mins  
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” global problem of an estimat

91: Good Christmas reads, with Fiorella De Maria

Nov 29 2024 43 mins  
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 Prize of Malta. Her works include

90: Anglicanism post-Welby, with Ann Widdecombe

Nov 19 2024 45 mins  
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 England before converting to the Cath

89: Re-enchanted Christianity, with Rod Dreher

Nov 08 2024 55 mins  
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 must act urgently to rediscover a

88: Our right to be protected from suicide, with Professor David Albert Jones

Oct 22 2024 59 mins  
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 realities of what a change of the law wil

87: The irresistible power of truth, with Andrew Jacoby

Sep 20 2024 66 mins  
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, explains how he was ultimately draw