AmP speech on health care profiled by Denver Catholic Register

My recent speech for the Archdiocese of Denver's very active theology on tap series has been covered by the Denver Catholic Register:

"Theology on Tap welcomed Thomas Peters, blogger for American Papist: Not Your Average Catholic! to speak on the Catholic perspective of health care reform at Braun’s Bar and Grill at 1055 Auraria Parkway on Friday, Oct. 9.

There’s no doubt the popularity of social media is on the rise. Peters’ blog speaks to, “the JPII generation about Catholic views of pop culture and politics.” He started it in 2005 because he wanted to establish a forum for the topics that mattered to his generation, presented from a perspective congruent with Catholic morals.

[Read the full article here.]

I'm happy to provide media background and interviews on the topic of Catholic involvement in the current health care debate. My personal email is [thomas at americanpapist dot com] and I check it regularly.

AmP pictured, called, and written-up

Last Thursday and Friday I was attending (and presenting at) the 12 annual Catholic Leadership Conference in Orlando. It was extremely fruitful.

Highlights include meeting Fr. Dwight Longenecker of the excellent, excellent blog Standing on My Head (new assignment: read everything Fr. Longenecker has written, beginning with his poetry). Fr. Dwight managed to snap a rare foto of AmP. I was also graced with meeting Deacon Keith Fournier, whom I have often quoted on these pages.

I think my presentation on "Catholic Blogging: Finding Common Ground Online" (which I co-presented with Josh Mercer, the communications director for CatholicVote.org) was well received. Deal Hudson live-blogged some of the main points I made in it.

I also appeared for an hour on the Drew Mariani Show, calling-in to his end-of-the-week round table with Jeff Gardner, CEO of Catholic Radio International, on a wide variety of subjects, and taking calls too. You can listen to the show on the Relevant Radio website here (or download it as an MP3 here).

More important things happening this week - updates to follow!

AmP coming to Colorado in October!

At the invitation of the Archdiocese of Denver Youth and Young Adult Ministry, I'll be presenting a Theology on Tap talk for them on the topic "Catholic Principles of Health Care Reform" on October 9th. I'll also be appearing in Fort Collins on October 8th.

Here is the flyer:

Other speakers in the Fall Series include Fr. Thomas Loya, Mark Shea, and Dr. Christian Brugger.

So mark your calendars and bring your Catechisms! See you in CO!

Video: My appearance on Kresta in the Afternoon

The tech wizards at Ave Maria Radio have the segment up in blogger-friendly embeddable format:

Watch live video from Kresta In The Afternoon's channel on Justin.tv

More Kresta in the Afternoon goodness here.

Hear me on Kresta in the Afternoon today!

I'll be in studio with Al Kresta this afternoon around 5:40PM EDT, discussing - well, whatever he feels like. Kresta in the Afternoon is a production of Ave Maria Radio.

Al has been recently building a significant blog and online streaming TV presence. I'm very happy to see him active in new media.

Afterward the interview, I'll be having fish for dinner. *hint, hint.*

update: watch live!

Watch live video from Kresta In The Afternoon's channel on Justin.tv

Video: My appearance at "Word to Life" on The Catholic Channel

Last Friday I did a segment on "Faith and New Media" for Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau OP's "Word to Life" program on Sirius XM Radio's The Catholic Channel (Sirius 159 and XM 117), live from the Sirius' studios in New York City.

Later, I found out that Sirius has a camera in their studio, which is cool because that means you can listen to the audio and see me "in action" (relatively speaking, of course - radio isn't exactly a full-contact sport!).

This from the St. Vincent Ferrer parish blog (Fr. Aquinas is one connected friar):

My appearance begins around the 25:00 minute mark.

While I was in New York City, Fr. Aquinas gave me a tour of Saint Vincent Church on the upper east side. I'll be writing about my impressions of this beautiful, vibrant parish later in the week - so stay tuned!

Reminder: Listen to AmP at 1PM EST!

Today at 1PM EST I'll be doing a segment on "Faith and New Media" for Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau OP's "Word to Life" program on Sirius XM Radio's The Catholic Channel (Sirius 159 and XM 117), live from the Sirius' studios in New York City!

Those Dominicans have a big internet (and now, digital radio) footprint!

Hear me on Friday broadcasting from New York City!

This Friday at 1PM EST I'll be doing a segment on "Faith and New Media" for Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau OP's "Word to Life" program on Sirius XM Radio's The Catholic Channel (Sirius 159 and XM 117), live from the Sirius' studios in New York City!

You can listen to their archived shows, for instance, here, here and here.

Those Dominicans have a big internet (and now, digital radio) footprint.

... and yes, I will be in NYC for a couple days. Hopefully I can hear Mass said by Archbishop Dolan!

That is, if he would get around to answering my calls. ;-)

AmP to appear on "Rise & Walk, San Antonio" on Monday 4/27

I'm usually pretty bad about telling readers when I'll be making a radio appearance, often because I have to fit them in last minute or on-the-fly.

Well, this time you'll get plenty of warning. I'll be on the Guadalupe Radio Network in San Antonio, Texas at about 9:20AM EST on Monday. Local listeners can tune in to KJMA 89.7 FM and online listeners at this direct link.

I think it will be a fun interview!

AmP appearance: 12:20PM EST

update: you can listen to an mp3 of my appearance here (jump about half-way through).

I'll be on the Station of the Cross Catholic Radio with Jim Havens at 12:20pm EST today.

Discussing the Notre Dame Scandal and Obama's record on life issues.

AmP discusses ND scandal on SIRIUS XM's Catholic Channel

Sorry for the after-the-fact notice - I normally don't get much warning about these appearances myself.

Anyway, this morning I spoke with Greg and Jennifer Willits on their SIRIUS XM Catholic Channel show "The Catholics Next Door."

They were well-informed and we had an excellent conversation between the three of us. I believe the show will soon be archived as a podcast, for those who are interested. Check-out their website.

AmP appearance: Son Rise Morning Show on EWTN

For any of you early birds, I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show with Brian Patrick this morning at 8:50AM or so EST. As I mentioned, their 7 o'clock hour is now on the EWTN Global radio network.

I'll primarily be discussing the March for Life, and possibly some recent AmP topics.

And yes, 8:50AM is "early" for me (at least on days that I have off from school and work, like today).

Madison Theology on Tap Appearance

Last Thursday, as I mentioned, I was invited to give the Theology on Tap talk for the Cathedral Parish of Madison, Wisconsin on the topic of "Faith in the Ballot Box: Catholic Conscience in the Civic Arena."

It was a wonderful chance to systematically think through and then present the huge range of material AmP has covered in recent months on the relationship between our Catholic faith and our involvement in American politics.

I drew most immediately upon Abp. Chaput's new book on the topic, as well as the most recent voting guide of the U.S. Bishops (Faithful Citizenship - PDF), as well as their excellent 1998 version, Living the Gospel of Life. Obviously these documents themselves rest on Sacred Scripture, the Catechism, Documents of Vatican II, Encyclicals, etc.

The Cathedral Parish is a tech-savvy setup, so you can already access an audio of the talk and the subsequent Q&A session through this link. It's amazing how fast an hour-and-a-half flies by when you get going. I also posted the photos that were taken to this AmP Flickr photo set.

A special surprise came with the appearance of local bishop Robert Morlino to hear my presentation. As AmP readers may remember, Bishop Morlino set aside his prepared homily on the Sunday that Joe Biden spoke his foolishness in order to set the record straight.

Since Bishop Morlino made his clarification, he's been facing a bit of local backlash from the liberal element in Madison, but appears to be weathering the storm just fine.

I'm happy to say that it appears he enjoyed the talk, and as long as I don't receive an excommunication in the mail shortly, I can presume safely that I didn't manage to confuse the issues too badly. ;-)

Special thanks go to Monica Freng, who invited me and was a wonderful hostess, as was her husband Ryan (er, "host"). Please keep them in your prayers as they have their first little one on the way. My gratitude also to Msgr. Kevin Holmes, pastor of the combined "Isthmus Catholic area", for his hospitality throughout my stay.

Mr. Brock Heinz and his wife were also extremely generous to me over the weekend. I would urge all WI-area readers to check out the excellent Men of Christ conference and their various hosted events. You can already sign up for the 2009 conference, for instance.

Thanks, finally, to all the AmP readers who made an appearance at the talk, participated actively in the before-during-and-after debate, and even stood me for a pint or two as the evening wore on!

It's always such an excitement for me to meet readers in person. Blogging can be a very impersonal affair at times and it means so much to me whenever I get the chance to meet folks in person with whom I've been corresponding!