This episode is about growing support for the legalization of assisted suicide, both in the United States and worldwide, and what Catholic Social Teaching has to say about this news story.

Here are references and additional resources.

1. 2025 Saw Expanded Access to Physician-Assisted Suicide. National Catholic Register article 12/29/2025
2. Catholic bishops speak out as New York governor pledges to sign into law assisted suicide EWTN article 12/17/2025
3. Most Americans Favor Legal Euthanasia Gallup polling article 8/8/2024
4. American support for euthanasia based on ‘false dichotomy,’ Catholic researcher says 8/13/2024 article in response to Gallup poll article referenced above
5. Medical Aid In Dying Is Not Assisted Suicide, Suicide or Euthanasia Online article from a proponent of “Medical Aid in Dying” that objects to the term “Assisted Suicide”
6. Oregon Death With Dignity 2024 Annual Report
7. Catechism of the Catholic Church – scroll down to sections 2276-2283
8. Samaritanus Bonus (Good Samaritan) letter issued in 2020 by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life.
9. It’s Not Your Life, It’s Not Your Death, It’s Not Your Choice - Bishop Robert Barron article January 4, 2024
10. Is Canada ‘Killing Itself’ With Doctor-Assisted Suicide? September 2025 summary article in Religion Unplugged (no subscription required) and full article in The Atlantic (subscription required)
11. Podcast website with full transcripts for this episode and all other episodes

This episode is about the US military intervention in Venezuela that involved the capture of the now-former Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and how this news story looks from the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching.

Here are references and additional resources.

1. Maduro raid killed about 75 in Venezuela, U.S. officials assess January 6, 2026
2. Rubio briefs lawmakers on 'threefold process' for Venezuela January 7, 2026
3. Vatican news release on January 4, 2026, with Pope Leo’s comments at Angelus and (scroll down the page) appeal from Venezuelan Bishops
4. The Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) expresses solidarity with the Church in Venezuela January 6, 2026
5. Venezuela strikes, takeover plans violate international law, says Notre Dame scholar January 4, 2026
6. Unjust War Theory: When Law Enforcement Becomes Moral Insanity – pointed assessment of US intervention in Venezuela by a Catholic commentator and professor of finance at Benedictine College
7. Just War Theory and the Venezuela Invasion – assessment by an Anglican who is a retired professor of systematic theology and ethics
8. Pope Leo’s address to the Vatican diplomatic corps on January 9, 2026. Here is the Vatican news release summarizing the Pope’s comments, and here is the full text of his remarks
9. Quotations from pastoral letters and papal encyclicals from the past century regarding peace and non-violence
10. Podcast website with full transcripts for this episode and all other episodes

This episode is about the death penalty and executions carried out in the United States in 2025, and what Catholic Social Teaching has to say about this news story. Here are references and additional resources.

1. The Death Penalty in 2025 article from the Death Penalty Information Center
2. State By State Death Penalty Map from the Death Penalty Information Center
3. Florida Catholic bishops urge Gov. DeSantis to stay two executions Our Sunday Visitor News article
4. Death Penalty: Catholic Q & A from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
5. 2018 Revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church section 2267 bulletin from the Holy See Press Office
6. EVANGELIUM VITAE Pope St. John Paul II 1995 Encyclical on the Value and Inviolability of Human Life – scroll down to section 56
7. Pope St. John Paul II – Additional Statements on the Death Penalty
8. Pope Benedict XVI: End the Death Penalty November 30, 2011 general audience
9. Pope Leo XIV Calls Support for the Death Penalty ​‘Not Really Pro-Life’
10. EWTN News Poll: Majority of US Catholics Support Death Penalty Despite Catechism
11. Catholic Mobilizing Network is a national organization that works with Catholics and all people of goodwill to end the death penalty