Mary's "Magnificat" is pretty revolutionary. It isn't praising God for abstract blessings, but for real material events, all of which have to do with radical social justice. And this makes sense, given the world Mary lived in. She was a young Jewish woman, likely from a poor family, in a nation that was occupied by the Roman Empire. Since she was not a citizen, she lacked various protections and rights. Her son Jesus would eventually be executed by that Empire, on suspicion of revolution—and his execution would be in the brutal form of crucifixion, since he didn't enjoy the protection of citizenship.

We know there were revolutionary groups in first-century Roman-occupied Palestine. And we know Jesus was executed because the imperial regime viewed him as a revolutionary. What would Mary have thought about those groups? Does her Magnificat indicate that she favored them? Can we call Mary a revolutionary?

On this episode of Glad You Asked, the second in a three-part season finale looking at Mary as a figure of liberation, the hosts talk with theologian Kat Armas about Marian devotion in relation to movements of revolution and reform.

Armas has a dual Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, where she was awarded the Frederick Buechner Award for Excellence in Writing. She is the author of Liturgies for Resisting Empire:

Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World (Brazos Press, and Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us About Wisdom, Persistence and Strength (Brazos Press), as well as numerous articles, including in the National Catholic Reporter, Plough Magazine, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, and Sojornours.

Learn more about this topic, and read some of Armas' work, in these links:

Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World, by Kat Armas

Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us About Wisdom, Persistence and Strength, by Kat Armas

"In Scripture and Trump's America, some people mistakenly want a king," by Kat Armas

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary," by Elizabeth Johnson

"How Liberation Theology Illuminates Advent in the Bible," a U.S. Catholic interview

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

"Divine revelation leads to revolution," by Alice Camille

"Look to Mary as a model of authentic womanhood." That's the message church leaders have directed at generations of Catholic women and girls. Often, latent in this message, is the notion that authentic womanhood means being docile, obedient, submissive, and innocent. So it's no wonder that many people, both inside and outside the church, view feminism and Catholicism as incompatible. There are many different types of feminism but none are known for preaching docility.

Nevertheless, Catholic feminists exist. They are scholars, religious sisters, activists, community leaders, workers, and mothers. They make significant contributions to theology, too. Are these women failing to emulate Mary sufficiently? Or, alternatively, are they following Mary's example? What if Mary herself was a feminist?

This episode of Glad You Asked is part of a three-part season finale looking at Mary as a figure of liberation. This segment of the series focuses on Mary from the perspective of feminist thought, considering whether the historical Mary was a champion of women's liberation, whether feminists can look to her for inspiration, and whether Marian devotion is compatible with feminist thought.

To discuss Mary as a figure of women's liberation, the hosts talked with theologian Julie Hanlon Rubio. Rubio is the Shea-Heusaman Professor of Christian Social Ethics and Associate Dean at Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California. She is the author or editor of seven books, most recently Can You Be a Catholic and a Feminist (Oxford University Press). She has published in a variety of academic journals as well as popular venues, and serves on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board.

You can learn more about this topic, and read some of Rubio's work, in these links.

Can You Be a Catholic and a Feminist? by Julie Hanlon Rubio

"Why did God choose Mary?" by LaRyssa Herrington

"Could Mary have said 'No'?" by Kevin Considine

"Why was Mary a virgin?" by Alice Camille

"Don't make Mary the feminine face of God," by Elizabeth Johnson

"Catholic and feminist: You got a problem with that?" by Megan Sweas

"Real biblical womanhood: the defiant women of Hebrew scripture," by Rebecca Bratten Weiss

"Was Jesus a feminist?" by Bernadette Raspante

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

According to several recent studies of health care systems across the globe, the U.S. health care system lags far behind those in other developed nations. The system is more expensive per person, but also for the nation as a whole. This high cost doesn't translate into good access, high quality, or favorable outcomes. Many in the nation have no insurance at all, and many can't find a primary care provider, or access much beyond basic emergency care. Our very expensive system does not do well at preventing death, either.

Skyrocketing insurance costs are likely to make matters worse, leaving more people uninsured, and dying for lack of care. It is likely to create a ripple effect, as high health care costs will increase food insecurity and exacerbate the homelessness crisis. These effects may even touch those who are comfortably well-off, as more care facilities close due to lack of funds.

Activists, lobbyists, policy-makers, and analysts have been calling for some form of universal care for Americans for decades, to bring us in line with the less expensive and more equitable systems in other nations. But what should Catholics think about this question? Would universal health care access be in line with Catholic social teaching? What would a truly just health care system look like?

To discuss this topic, the hosts of Glad You Asked collaborated with Sister of the Humility of Mary Eilis McCulloh of the Just Politics podcast. In Just Politics, Catholic sisters and their coworkers at the NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice discuss pressing political issues from the standpoint of Catholic teaching. McCulloh currently serves as NETWORK's Grassroots Education and Organizing Specialist.

You can learn more about this topic in these links:

International Comparison of Health Systems

How does the quality of the U.S. health system compare to other countries?

Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System

"Kristen Whitney Daniels on why health care access is a matter of faith and justice," Just Politics

"As the inauguration approaches, U.S. health care is on the line," by Kevin Clarke

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

Recent years have seen increased climate-related natural disasters. In the United States, an inland hurricane brought catastrophic flooding to the mountains of North Carolina. Ash from wildfires in Canada has clouded the air for hundreds of miles. And across the globe, extreme climate catastrophes have destroyed lives and communities. We're seeing wildfires in Australia, crop loss in Brazil, landslides in Italy, and famine-inducing drought in East Africa. And that's just the start of the list.

For some, climate disruptions happen on a level that looks apocalyptic, with lives lost and communities decimated. Others might experience the disruptions on a smaller scale. Maybe it's a tomato crop lost to drought, or a new invasive insect disrupting an ecosystem. The signs are everywhere: something is amiss.But not everyone is convinced we need to do anything about it.

Care for the Earth is a fundamental part of Catholic moral and social teaching. And recent popes have spoken prophetically on environmental justice, with Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' (On Care for Our Common Home) offering important developments in this area of doctrine. But some Catholics still think climate change is a hoax, or that it's not connected with human activity. And many who accept climate science don't connect it with their responsibility as people of faith, or are uncertain how it translates into how they're meant to act in the world.

On this episode of Glad You Asked, the hosts talk to Lorna Gold about the church's teachings on climate change, and how Catholics ought to respond. Gold is Executive Director of the Laudato Si' Movement, and has also worked as executive director of FaithInvest, and the Policy and Advocacy Manager with the Irish Catholic Agency for International Development, Trócaire.

You can read more about this topic, and read some of Gold's work, in these links.

Laudato Si' (On Care for Our Common Home)

Laudate Deum (On the Climate Crisis)

Why Does the Church Care About Global Climate Change

Climate Generation: Awakening to our Children's Future, by Lorna Gold

"Catholic Church and climate change: Why Catholics care about climate change," by Anna Carolina Gutiérrez

"'Enough is enough,' say Global South bishops in climate letter," by Michael Wright

"Who is bearing the brunt of climate change?" by Kevin Clarke

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

Catholic just war theory is a moral framework for evaluating warfare that dates back to St. Augustine but has its roots in older, pre-Christian ethical systems. Though the theory has been widely embraced not just by Catholic theorists but also by policymakers, it's also been widely criticized. Some Christian pacifists, pointing to Jesus' teachings on nonviolence and the early church's radical rejection of war, argue that the very idea that a war could be just constitutes a betrayal of gospel values.

Yet others argue that absolute nonviolence is an impossible ideal, and means putting the vulnerable at the mercy of unjust aggressors. Critics of radical pacifism point to multiple instances of wars waged to stop unjust aggressors, invaders, and assaults against human life and dignity.

It's a topic with multiple intersecting moral questions. Is just war theory a sophistical attempt to defend the indefensible, or a viable framework? Should victims of oppression and violence be held to absolute standards of nonviolence, or are they justified in defending themselves? Is pacifism an impossible ideal, or something we can really work for?

On this episode of Glad You Asked, the hosts talk to author and activist David Swanson about just war theory, where it comes from, how it is applied, and whether it is ever possible for a war to be just.

Swanson is executive director of World BEYOND War, and campaign coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He has been awarded the Real Nobel Peace Prize, an alternative award, supported by the Lay Down Your Arms Association, and inspired by the belief that the Nobel Committee has strayed from Alfred Nobel's original vision. He's the recipient of the 2018 Peace Prize from the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation, and has been involved in multiple peace organizations.

You can read some of Swanson's work, and learn more about this topic, in these links.

"Just War Theory," by Alexander Moseley

War Is A Lie, by David Swanson

When the World Outlawed War, by David Swanson

"We need to reclaim the legacy of Christian nonviolence," by Nicholas Hayes-Mota

"What does the church teach about self-defense?" by Jacob Kohlhaas

"Record arms spending defies Pope Francis' final warnings," by Kevin Clarke

"The Mennonite Catholic who puts pacifism in action," a U.S. Catholic interview

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

Here in the United States, the principle that church and state should be separate is so woven into the fabric of our culture, many take it for granted as a fact of American life. We understand that everyone in the nation is entitled to practice the religion of their choice and worship freely, but also that the nation does not have an official religion, and that civic spaces should be religiously neutral.

Yet not everyone in the United States is committed to this long-standing idea. Both Christian nationalists and Catholic integralists dislike the idea that religion and statecraft should be kept separate. Some want to make Christianity the state religion. Others would like to use the force of government to enforce certain practices and ban others, based not on natural law or the constitution, but on their interpretation of their denominational creeds.

So it's not surprising that some political thinkers have been raising the alarm, warning that the boundary between church and state is in jeopardy. What Catholics ought to think about this, however, is a different question. After all, our allegiance is to God first, before the state. And as people involved in public life, why wouldn't we want to use whatever tools are in our grasp—including the tools of governance—to create a society more aligned with Catholic principles?

On this episode of Glad You Asked, the hosts talk to political philosopher and activist Stephen Schneck about where the idea of separation of church and state came from, and what Catholics should think about it. Schneck is retired faculty at the Catholic University of America, where he served as Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies. Under President Obama he served on the White House Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He is on the board for Catholic Climate Covenant, Sojourners, and Democrats for Life of America. He has published extensively on political philosophy and public policy.

Learn more about this topic and read some of Schneck's work in these links.

"The danger of blurring the line between church and state," a U.S. Catholic interview.

Any religion allied with nationalism is dangerous, by Stephen Schneck

"We don't understand religious freedom. COVID-19 proved it." by Don Clemmer

"Does religious freedom favor some religions over others?" by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

"How the Supreme Court Is Dismantling the Separation of Church and State," by Hayley Durudogan and Sydney Bryant

"'The great dechurching': Why so many Americans are leaving their churches," by Jonathan Chang and Meghna Chakrabarti

"In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women," by Ruth Graham

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

In the Christian tradition, "apocalypse" simply means revelation, or unveiling. Yet somewhere along the line, the word came to be associated not just with prophecies about the end of the world, but with the end of the world itself—or at least with vast catastrophes and the fall of civilizations. And for some reason, people love stories about such catastrophes. This fascination with the apocalypse is not confined to fringe religious groups waiting for Jesus to return, or preppers hiding out in bunkers. It's not even confined to people of faith. Apocalyptic themes can be found across the gamut of our entertainment, from pop culture to more highbrow offerings. Whether nuclear war, climate catastrophe, alien invasions, lethal pandemics, or hostile artificial intelligence, envisioning the world we know it being snuffed out appears to be prime entertainment.

On this episode of Glad You Asked, the hosts talk to author, scholar, and educator Ed Simon about the concept of apocalypse, whether humans have always obsessed over the world ending, and why we're so interested in the end times anyway. Simon is the author of over a dozen books, including The Dove and the Dragon: A Cultural History of the Apocalypse (Fortress Press), and Writing During the Apocalypse (Bloomsbury Publishing). He is the Public Humanities Special Faculty in the English Department of Carnegie Mellon University and the Editor-in-Chief for Belt Magazine and the forthcoming Pittsburgh Review of Books.

Learn more about this topic, and read some of Simon's work, in these links.

Writing During the Apocalypse, by Ed Simon

The Dove and the Dragon: A Cultural History of the Apocalypse, by Ed Simon

"Apocalypse is the Mother of Beauty," by Ed Simon

"On the Limits of Language at the End of the World," by Ed Simon

"Why Are We So Obsessed With the End of the World?" by Christian Lorentzen

"In today's political rhetoric, apocalypse always looms," by Heidi Schlumpf

"The Book of Joel offers hope in the face of apocalypses," by Alice Camille

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

For many, the term "anarchy" connotes chaos, disorder, even violence. Yet some anarchists are pacifists. And some are even Christian. The earliest Christian communities, some scholars believe, had certain anarchist tendencies, such as making decisions through group consensus, versus top-down hierarchy. Later on, of course, the church became more structured and hierarchical. But those anti-institutional threads of tradition never quite went away. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the concept of anarchy became formalized, various groups explicitly identifying as Christian anarchists emerged, in Russia, Europe, and the United States.

While anarchism might work for less structured Christian groups, like Anabaptists or Quakers, it seems an uncomfortable fit for Catholics, given the church's emphasis on rules and hierarchy. So does this mean that Catholics can't be anarchists? What would Catholic anarchism even look like?

On this episode of Glad You Asked, the hosts talk to journalist and Catholic worker Renée Roden about whether Catholics can be anarchists. Roden has written extensively on the Catholic Worker movement, and on economic and labor movements, She is a frequent contributor to U.S. Catholic, as well as to The Nation, Religion News Service, The Associated Press, Washington Post, Commonweal, Sojourners, America, and Notre Dame Magazine. She also writes frequently for catholicworker.org and its newsletter, Roundtable.

You can learn more about this topic, and read some of Roden's work, in these links:

"Christian anarchism is as old as Christianity itself," by Renée Roden

"The Anarchism of the Catholic Worker," by Renée Roden

"A Short History of Religious Anarchism," by Kevin Daugherty

"Divine revelation leads to revolution," by Alice Camille