Do you want to pray before we start?

By all means.

Yeah, so loving God, we thank you for bringing us together.

We ask you to help us to proclaim the gospel and open our lips that our mouth might declare your praise.

Amen.

From New York Times opinion, I'm Ross Douthat.

And this is interesting times.

Thank you. and this is interesting times. So interesting, in fact, that God in his wisdom has decided to call one Pope home

and let the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church choose another.

The death of Pope Francis ends, or at least temporarily, suspends a tumultuous period

in the life of the world's largest religious institution, a period that

saw the Pope often pitted against his own bishops and cardinals in arguments about how much

and in what direction Roman Catholicism should change. My guest today and I were often on the

opposite side of those debates, and so I'm hoping that our conversation

can help illuminate the stakes in Roman Catholicism's conflicts, the prospects for the church's

continued unity, and the implications of these debates for the future of religion in the modern

world. Father James Martin is one of the most famous Catholic priests in the United States.

I think the only Jesuit to ever appear on Stephen Colbert's late-night TV program,

and the author of many, many books most recently come forth,

a meditation on the New Testament story of Jesus' raising of Lazarus from the dead.

So Father James Martin, welcome to interesting times.

Good to be with you, Ross.

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