Tomorrow's American Catholic Podcast

The Pastoral Emergency of Hope with Sergio Lopez

Sergio Lopez is a husband, father, educator, and Catholic organizer from Southern California. He serves as the National Director for Mission and Leadership Formation for Catholics in Communion [https://www.catholicsincommunion.org/], where he accompanies Catholic leaders, parishes, and organizations working to build a more just, compassionate, and faithful church. He previously served in leadership formation with Catholic Relief Services, helping Catholics deepen their commitment to global solidarity and social justice. Sergio also teaches pastoral leadership at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. As a Latino Catholic leader, he is passionate about forming communities of faith that respond to the struggles of our time with hope, courage, and a deep commitment to human dignity. In this episode, we speak with Sergio about his awakening to faith as a son of Mexican immigrants, his transition from seminary to the vocation of parish ministry and community organizing, and how recent cuts to US foreign aid impacted the mission of Catholic Relief Services and other international development organizations. Sergio shares how Catholics in Communion arose in response to a “pastoral emergency of hope,” especially around issues of anti-immigrant violence, and gives us an overview of their Season of Faithful Witness initiative [https://www.catholicsincommunion.org/join-us] and ways that people can get involved [https://www.catholicsincommunion.org/corpus-christi-parish-toolkit]—“Catholics being Catholic in the public space,” as he explains, “coordinating love, organizing hope.” Our conversation also touches on the opportunity to “speak as one church” in the era of Pope Leo XIV by reinvigorating social teaching and developing a “shared language around what it means to be Catholic.” Listeners are encouraged to read the accompanying article, “A Season of Faithful Witness: Catholics Are Learning to Walk Together Again,” [https://www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/p/a-season-of-faithful-witness-catholics] published in tandem with this episode in Tomorrow’s American Catholic. Get full access to Tomorrow's American Catholic at www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe [https://www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Art as Healing and Reminder with Janet McKenzie

Janet McKenzie was born in Brooklyn and raised in and around New York City. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Art Students League, and was the recipient of the Edward McDowell Traveling Scholarship. For many years she has lived and worked in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. In the mid-nineties, Ms. McKenzie began to incorporate diversity, children, and symbolic imagery into her work portraying women. She is well known for her internationally acclaimed painting Jesus of the People, which was the first-place winner of the National Catholic Reporter’s global competition, “Jesus 2000.” She was invited to be the 2013 William Belden Noble Lecturer at Harvard University’s Memorial Church. In 2017, Memorial Church commissioned The Divine Journey—Companions of Love and Hope, a new painting which honors diversity and Radcliffe/Harvard women past and present.Ms. McKenzie’s work is included in numerous collections throughout the US. The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis holds 17 of her paintings in their collection. Her painting Sanctuary was displayed on the pulpit for the funerals of assassinated Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in June 2025. She states, “As an artist I work to be a voice for inclusion and positive change. My art comes from that sacred place within each of us where we exist beyond gender, race, and perceived differences.” Our conversation with Ms. McKenzie touched on her early life and studies, painting as a weekly practice and the “transition” she makes between her home and studio, and art as a form of sacred activism that can embolden people emotionally and spiritually. She also shared how she approaches working with models, why it is important for her to create compositions that people of all backgrounds can see themselves in, and the ways she prayerfully attunes herself to the evolution of each painting as “one thing builds after the next.” We could say McKenzie’s famous painting Jesus of the People (2000) took up Millais’ mantle, showing Jesus as truly “one of us” in a contemporary context. In her powerful painting Woman Offered #5, McKenzie asks the viewer to take the next theological step. Here McKenzie paints in her impeccably skilled manner a person both dignified and suffering. She need not add a halo or give a religious name to the woman she depicts. She simply portrays a Black woman in a cruciform position, in a stark silhouette of black and white. Can this woman image Christ to us? Must this woman be an image of Christ for us to care? Can she not just be herself, in all her unique specificity—a particular Black woman with her particular hardships and struggles? Would that be enough to stir our hearts and minds? And what is she “offered” for, as the title of the painting proposes? Is she offered for our sins? Is she offered for our selfishness and greed? Is she offered for our failures to see all people as made “in [God’s] image, according to [God’s] likeness”? (Gen. 1:26–27). — John Christman, U.S. Catholic [https://uscatholic.org/articles/202302/subversive-art-can-enrich-our-understanding-of-christ/], February 23, 2023 Additional Resources: Official website of Janet McKenzie [https://janetmckenzie.com/index.html] The Divine Journey: A Painter’s Mission [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCYTIBHzQBA] (documentary on the commission for Harvard University’s Memorial Church [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCYTIBHzQBA]) Art That Surrounds Us [https://mary.org/resources/art-that-surrounds-us/] (video on the acquisition of the painting [https://mary.org/resources/art-that-surrounds-us/]Sanctuary [https://mary.org/resources/art-that-surrounds-us/]by the Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis) [https://mary.org/resources/art-that-surrounds-us/] HOPE [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpgMNYzC74] (video presentation of Ms. McKenzie’s work in the world of vigils and protests) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpgMNYzC74] The Way of the Cross: The Path to New Life [https://www.joanchittister.org/products/the-way-of-the-cross-the-path-to-new-life] (collaboration with Sr. Joan Chittister) [https://www.joanchittister.org/products/the-way-of-the-cross-the-path-to-new-life] Get full access to Tomorrow's American Catholic at www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe [https://www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The State of the Church with Fr. Thomas J. Reese

Fr. Thomas J. Reese is a Jesuit priest and currently a senior analyst for Religion News Service [https://religionnews.com/author/tomreese/]. He has previously been a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter as well as an associate editor and editor in chief at America magazine. Fr. Tom entered the Jesuits in 1962 and was ordained in 1974. He was educated at St. Louis University, the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and at the University of California Berkeley, where he received a Ph.D. in political science. He was a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center from 1985 to 1998 and 2006 to 2013. While at Woodstock, he wrote his trilogy on the organization and politics of the church: Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church, A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. In 2014, Fr. Tom was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress. He was reappointed to another two-year term in May 2016, and he was elected to a one-year term as chair of the commission in June 2016. In this episode, we speak with Fr. Tom about the origins of his vocation as both a Jesuit and a journalist, his take on the state of Catholic media today, and the historical roots of political polarization we see within the church and society. Fr. Tom also shares his impressions of Pope Leo XIV’s first year, reflects on the perennial question of how the US church should relate to the public square, and offers the practice he feels is essential for “tomorrow’s American Catholic.” Get full access to Tomorrow's American Catholic at www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe [https://www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Aural Iconography: A Seasonal Check-In

It’s been four months since we relaunched Tomorrow’s American Catholic along with this podcast. Between January and April, we released 14 episodes with over 2,600 downloads, and we have many more cued up for release and scheduled to record. As we concluded this initial cycle, we thought it might be fruitful to pause and reflect with our podcast co-facilitators, Patrick Carolan, Barbara Mariconda, and Michael Centore, about how the process is unfolding. In our mission statement [https://www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/about] when we launched our new website, we spoke of trying to create a “sustained and multimodal conversation.” This episode is really just an extension of that: we’ve come up with a few guiding questions to help us think through what we’ve been learning, where we’re finding hope, and how our understanding of the church is evolving through these podcast encounters. We’re also seeing this episode as part and parcel of our seasonal survey, inviting our listeners and readers to reflect with us as we develop our animating question: Who is tomorrow’s American Catholic, and how is their understanding of themselves, their faith, and their church evolving in time? Get full access to Tomorrow's American Catholic at www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe [https://www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Bringing People to the Banquet Table with Fr. Vincent Pizzuto

Father Vincent Pizzuto, PhD, is a professor of New Testament and Christian Mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. Committed to linking ancient Christian tradition with contemporary faith, his courses explore the relationship between historical-critical exegesis, Christian mysticism, and theology both ancient and modern. In addition to his professorship, Fr. Vincent is an Episcopal priest who serves as vicar of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church and Retreat House in Inverness, California, where he founded a Christian Contemplative Center dedicated to the advancement of contemplative Christianity. Since his arrival in 2017, the St. Columba’s community has grown exponentially and now offers a series of programs, both in-person and online, to enrich participants’ spiritual lives and contemplative practice. Fr. Vincent has published and presented internationally for a variety of churches, theological societies, and other organizations. His book Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life, published by Liturgical Press, appeared in a Spanish translation in 2022 and will be published in Chinese later this year. His current research explores near-death experiences in dialogue with medical science, philosophy of mind, epistemology, and theology. In this episode, we speak with Fr. Vincent about the origins of his spiritual journey and discernment of the distinction between “contemplative” and “monastic” vocations, his vision for St. Columba’s as a kind of “contemplative leaven” for the larger church, and the links between the Eucharistic liturgy and the Christian approach to social justice. Along the way, we explore the importance of learning “how to maneuver in the landscape of Scripture,” consider the image of the body of Christ as a means of integrating our various ministries and vocations, and find in the concept of “catholicity” a framework for thinking with, and about, the universal church. See also: St. Columba’s Episcopal Church and Retreat House [https://www.stcolumbasinverness.org/] Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life [https://litpress.org/Products/E4729/Contemplating-Christ] The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ [https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802875341/the-crucifixion/] by Fleming Rutledge [https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802875341/the-crucifixion/] “This Retreat Center Brings Monasticism to the Entire Church,” [https://uscatholic.org/articles/202511/this-retreat-center-brings-monasticism-to-the-entire-church/]U.S. Catholic [https://uscatholic.org/articles/202511/this-retreat-center-brings-monasticism-to-the-entire-church/]profile of St. Columba’s by Michael Centore, November 2025 [https://uscatholic.org/articles/202511/this-retreat-center-brings-monasticism-to-the-entire-church/] Get full access to Tomorrow's American Catholic at www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe [https://www.tomorrowsamericancatholic.org/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]