‘Catechism in a Year’ podcast tops the charts: ‘It has a beauty that speaks to the heart’

Jonah McKeown   By Jonah McKeown for CNA

January 9, 2023 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

Father Mike Schmitz speaks at SEEK23. / Credit: FOCUS SEEK23

St. Louis, Mo., Jan 9, 2023 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

For the third year in a row, a Catholic podcast has bolted out of the gate after New Year’s Day to become the No. 1 most popular on Apple Podcasts, beating out secular podcasts from The New York Times, NBC News, and NPR.

But 2023 is slightly different from 2021 and 2022, for one key reason. This year, the top two spots on Apple Podcasts are currently held by Catholic podcasts — “The Catechism in a Year” and “The Bible in a Year,” both produced by Catholic publisher Ascension.

Father Mike Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and host of both podcasts, told CNA last week that in the course of recording hundreds of episodes of the podcast, he has been struck by the “beautiful” composition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a hefty volume that serves as the definitive summary of the Church’s teaching.

Although the Catechism is specific to the Catholic Church, Schmitz said he believes anyone can listen to his podcast and learn from it. Schmitz said reading through the Catechism has served as a helpful reminder to him, personally, about many aspects of Church teaching.

“[Whereas] I might be very general with something, the Church wants us to be very, very clear,” Schmitz commented.

“And [the Catechism] articulates the faith, not only with clarity but also with beauty. So if I were to say anything that’s been a kind of surprise, it’s been not just the clarity, but the beauty.”

"The Catechism in a Year" and "The Bible in a Year" podcasts were in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions on Apple Podcasts as of the morning of Jan. 9, 2023. Jonah McKeown/Screenshot
“The Catechism in a Year” and “The Bible in a Year” podcasts were in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions on Apple Podcasts as of the morning of Jan. 9, 2023. Jonah McKeown/Screenshot

While some people might think of the Catechism merely as a resource, “like an encyclopedia,” Schmitz said, he hopes his podcast will help listeners to appreciate the Catechism as being permeated by “truth spoken in love.”

“[The Catechism] is not just a heady document. [It has] a beauty that speaks to the heart, not just to the head,” Schmitz said.

“The Catechism in a Year” is a sequel of sorts to the wildly popular “Bible in a Year” podcast, which began on Jan. 1, 2021. Instead of reading the Bible from cover to cover, that podcast followed “The Great Adventure Bible Timeline,” which was developed by Jeff Cavins. The timeline, centered on “14 critical narrative books” interspersed with the remaining non-narrative books, helps to maintain the story structure of salvation history.

Despite eventually relinquishing its No. 1 spot on the charts, “The Bible in a Year” has gone on to be downloaded some 430 million times.

“The Catechism in a Year” podcast follows a similar format to the “Bible in a Year” podcast in that there will be 365 daily episodes, with Schmitz adding his own short prayers and reflections. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had to give Ascension specific permission to distribute the Catechism in this format because it owns the copyright to the English translation for the distribution in the United States, Schmitz noted.

“No one’s been able to ever distribute the Catechism like this since it’s been promulgated in the ’90s,” he said.

Ascension president and CEO Jonathan Strate said the popularity of “The Catechism in a Year” speaks to a hunger among listeners to learn about God’s plan for their lives.

“To have a podcast about the Catechism of the Catholic Church reach No. 1 in the United States in all categories is an astonishing moment for the Catholic Church,” Strate said Jan. 3.

“It speaks to the deep longing we all have to respond to God’s plan for each one of us — a plan revealed so beautifully in the treasure that is the Catechism.”

Special bonus episodes of the podcast will feature Catholic leaders and experts Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Jeff Cavins, Mary Healy, and Sister Miriam James Heidland, Ascension said. Additionally, the Ascension edition of “The Catechism of the Catholic Church” has been released to accompany the podcast.

Schmitz said he considers the date of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s death — Dec. 31, 2022 — to be significant since it was only a day before “The Catechism in a Year” podcast launched to the world. Benedict — then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — presided over the committee to create the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was ultimately published in 1992.

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To counter ‘third world war,’ Pope Francis proposes ‘truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom’

January 9, 2023 Catholic News Agency 2
Pope Francis addresses international diplomats to the Holy See on Jan. 9, 2023, in the Vatican’s Blessing Hall. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jan 9, 2023 / 06:28 am (CNA).

The global community is engaged in a “third world war” marked by heightened fear, conflict, and risk of nuclear violence, but a recommitment to “truth, justice, solidarity and freedom” can provide a pathway to peace, Pope Francis told international diplomats Monday.

Citing the ongoing war in Ukraine, but also drawing on conflicts in places such as Syria, West Africa, Ethiopia, Israel, Myanmar, and the Korean Peninsula, the Holy Father said this global struggle is being “fought piecemeal,” but is nonetheless interconnected.

“Today the third world war is taking place in a globalized world where conflicts involve only certain areas of the planet direct, but in fact involve them all,” said Pope Francis, speaking in the Vatican’s apostolic palace.

The pope made these remarks as part of his annual address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. Pope Francis characterized this speech as “a call for peace in a world that is witnessing heightened divisions and war.”

Pope Francis addresses diplomats to the Holy See in the Blessing Hall at the Vatican on Jan. 9, 2023. Vatican Media
Pope Francis addresses diplomats to the Holy See in the Blessing Hall at the Vatican on Jan. 9, 2023. Vatican Media

As part of this heightening of tensions, the Pope warned about the increased threat of nuclear warfare, drawing particular concern to the stall in negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal. He told the gathered diplomats that the possession of nuclear weapons is “immoral” and called for an end to a mentality that pursues conflict deterrence through the development of ever-more lethal means of warfare.

“There is a need to change this way of thinking and move toward an integral disarmament, since no peace is possible when instruments of death are proliferating,” the pope said.

In proposing a path towards global peace, the Holy Father drew heavily from Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”), the papal encyclical promulgated by St. John XXIII in 1962. Pope Francis said the conditions which prompted the “good Pope” to issue Pacem in Terris 60 years ago bear a striking similarity to the state of the world today.

In particular, the Holy Father drew from what John XXIII described as the “four fundamental goods” necessary for peace: truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom, values that “serve as the pillars that regulate relationships between individuals and political communities alike.”

Regarding “peace in truth,” the Holy Father underscored the “primary duty” of governments to protect the right to life at every stage of human life.

“Peace requires before all else the defense of life, a good that today is jeopardized not only by conflicts, hunger, and diseases, but all too often in the mother’s womb, through promotion of an alleged ‘right to abortion,’” said Pope Francis, also calling for an end to the death penalty and violence against women.

Speaking of the necessity of religious freedom for peace, the Holy Father noted widespread religious persecution against Christian minorities, but also discrimination in countries where Christianity is a majority religion.

“Religious freedom is also endangered wherever believers see their ability to express their convictions in the life of society restricted in the name of a misguided understanding of inclusiveness,” he said.

Regarding justice, the Holy Father called for a “profound rethinking” of multilateral systems such as the United Nations to make them more effective at responding to conflicts like the war in Ukraine. But he also criticized international bodies for “imposing forms of ideological colonization, especially on poorer countries” and warned of the growing risk of “ideological totalitarianism” that promotes intolerance towards those who dissent from certain positions claimed to represent ‘progress.’”

Pope Francis visits with international diplomats accredited to the Holy See on Jan. 9, 2023, at the Vatican. Vatican Media
Pope Francis visits with international diplomats accredited to the Holy See on Jan. 9, 2023, at the Vatican. Vatican Media

The Holy Father also spoke of the need to deepen a sense of global solidarity, citing four areas of interconnectedness: immigration, the economy and work, and care for creation,

“The paths of peace are paths of solidarity, for no one can be saved alone. We live in a world interconnected that, in the end, the actions of each have consequences for all.”

Finally, regarding “peace in freedom,” Pope Francis warned of the “weakening of democracy” in many parts of the world, and an increase in political polarization. He said peace is only possible if “in every single community, there does not prevail that culture of oppression and aggression in which our neighbor is regarded as an enemy to attack, rather than a brother or sister to welcome and embrace.”

The Holy Father’s address to the diplomatic corps, which includes representatives of the 91 countries and entities with an embassy chancellery accredited to the Holy See, also served as an opportunity to review diplomatic highlights of the past year and expectations for the year to come.

Milestones included the signing of new bilateral accords with both the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe and with the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Holy Father also briefly mentioned the provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, first agreed to in 2018 and renewed in 2022 for an additional two years.

“It is my hope that this collaborative relationship can increase, for the benefit of the life of the Catholic Church and that of the Chinese people.”

The next significant marker on the pope’s diplomatic docket: His trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of the month as a “pilgrim of peace,” followed by a joint visit to South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

[…]

1 Comment

  1. Yes! The podcast is wonderful. I probably would never read the Catechism cover to cover but listening to Fr. Schmitz is a breeze. Thanks, Father and thanks, Pope Benedict.

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