A very special guest indeed on this week’s show. I’m joined by Elise Ann Allen, Senior Correspondent for Crux in Rome, who recently conducted the first exclusive, extensive papal interviews of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate. Those conversations have been turned into a brand new book from Penguin Random House entitled “Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century.”

We talk quite a bit about what it’s like to sit across from the first American pope, the man behind the name, and her impressions on what might be in store in the coming months and years from our new pontiff. I really enjoyed this conversation, so I’m confident you will, as well.

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Get Elise's book on Pope Leo XIV: https://amzn.to/3MyM4Oy

Find Elise's work at Crux: https://cruxnow.com/author/elise-ann-allen--

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Our favorite fellow papal history buff is back with us this week, Fr. Richard Kunst from the Diocese of Duluth Minnesota, here to talk about meeting Pope Leo XIV, his huge upcoming exhibit at the Mall of America, and some other little tidbits you won’t want to miss about traveling to and around Rome.

Fr. Rich's website: ⁠papalartifacts.com⁠

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Imagine: A corpse that’s nine months dead is propped on a throne in full papal vestments, and placed on trial for various alleged offenses. A teenage deacon is assigned to answer questions on its behalf. And the present pope is screaming at the body. Well that’s our pontiff for today’s episode. The man who lost his mind, his papacy, and eventually his life over a dead guy.

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Special guest Michael Lentz of Memory Medieval joins the show this week to discuss the landmark Norman victory over papal forces at the Battle of Civitate in 1053.

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MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

- Norman Documentary: https://youtu.be/cNzyHW6c_ME?si=xJ5KR1oAubtqquH-

- [BOOK] Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England - https://amzn.to/4qMEKhP

- [BOOK] The Normans: From Raiders to Kings - https://amzn.to/4oPyjbY

- [BOOK] Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe - https://amzn.to/4oPyCDE

- [BOOK] Normans in the South - https://amzn.to/4okwO5M

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Where to find Memory Medieval

- SUBSTACK: substack.com/@memorymedieval

- YOUTUBE: @MemoryMedieval

- X/TWITTER: https://x.com/MemoryMedieval

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Where to find The Popecast:

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Our pope this week bears a familiar name to us in the present day, was one half of a powerful alliance between a pope and one of the greatest Western kings to ever live, and even had something in common with the current United States president. Stay tuned to the end to find out what it is.

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FROM THE EPISODE:

- Apply to the EWTN Summer Academy

- Anthony's website: https://www.anthonyspqr.com

- Follow Anthony on Instagram @anthonyspqr.com

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Where to find The Popecast:

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• This one is easily one of the most unique topics we’ve covered on the show thus far. Our guest is Dr. D.P. Curtin, and he is the founder and editor of The Scriptorium Project, an initiative of collecting, preserving, and translating the body of surviving documents from Christian antiquity, and making them available for the wider world to read and digest for themselves.
  

• To date, the project’s releases have pulled from the Greek, Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Nubian, Frankish, Visigothic, Punic, Nordic, German, Roman, Celtic, Ethiopian, and Coptic traditions of Christianity, and have been pulled from all sorts of local traditions and languages

• 
  

  FROM THE EPISODE:

  - Check out The Scriptorium Project: https://thescriptoriumproject.com

  - Order from Dr. D.P. Curtin on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3J5oPtF

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  Where to find The Popecast:

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  EMAIL: popecastmc@gmail.com

The guy we’re covering this week was nothing short of a prophet. He called out society’s future ills decades before they actually happened, and reigned as pope through the assassination of an American President, the sexual revolution, and a sweeping reform in the Catholic Church.

FROM THE EPISODE:

- Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler - https://amzn.to/3Hmn8XV

- Humanae Vitae (full text): https://www.papalencyclicals.net/paul06/p6humana.htm

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Where to find The Popecast:

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