Pope Leo’s historic first trip; and, is this the most chilling Christmas carol?

Jesuitical

America Media

Spirituality, Christianity, News, News Commentary, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 949 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Ashley and Zac debrief Pope Leo XIV's first international trip to Turkey and Lebanon, where he preached a strong message of peace and Christian unity, and shared insights from the conclave that elected him. Then, they speak to their colleague and America's senior audio producer, Maggi Van Dorn, about the new season of her podcast, "Hark! The Stories Behind Our Favorite Christmas Carols." They reflect on Maggi's reporting trip to Coventry, England, a place of historic violence and home of the haunting Christmas hymn, "The Coventry Carol". Links: Pope Leo and Patriarch Bartholomew urge Christian unity at Nicaea commemoration In Turkey, Pope Leo pushes for unity and peace—within and beyond Christianity Pope Leo makes a strong pitch for peace in war-threatened Lebanon Pope Leo meets survivors of Beirut port explosion and calls for peace as he concludes Lebanon visit Pope Leo on what he was thinking inside the conclave Listen to “Hark! The Stories Behind Our Favorite Christmas Carols” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and at AmericaMagazine.org/Hark You can follow us on X and on Instagram @jesuiticalshow. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/jesuitical. Please consider supporting Jesuitical by becoming a digital subscriber to America magazine at AmericaMagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from America Media for saints and sinners.
0:15.8	You can join us each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church in our world today, sometimes
0:21.2	over drinks.
0:22.2	I'm Ashley McHenless and I'm joined by Isaac Davis.
0:24.6	Great to be with you, Ashley.
0:25.9	How was your Thanksgiving?
0:26.9	It was great.
0:27.9	I was down in South Carolina where I go almost every year.
0:30.4	That's where my mom is from and I still have some extended family down there.
0:33.7	We had it was either 46 or 48 for dinner on Thanksgiving. How big is the turkey for that? Three turkeys. Yeah, I figured. Okay. 19 or no, 14 loaves of bread went into the stuffing, which I made, which I made. That's a lot of peeling of bread. Yeah. It's worth it. I love stuffing. Impressive, Impressive good stuff. We stayed local here. Amanda's
0:56.2	parents came down. It was really nice, really nice time. Yeah, baby's first Thanksgiving.
1:00.5	Baby's first Thanksgiving. Saw the Macy's Day, Thanksgiving Day parade. It was a great time.
1:04.9	That's awesome. And we're going to talk about the Pope's Thanksgiving, which was spent in Turkey.
1:10.8	Spent in Turkey, not eating turkey.
1:13.6	Yes.
1:14.6	That's right.
1:15.6	And then we've got a great conversation with our dear friend and colleague, Maggie Van Dorn,
1:18.6	about the new season of Hark, which I know longtime listeners of this show will not need an introduction to.
1:24.6	But we're going to be doing some really great face sharing with Maggie about feeling sad at Christmastime. I think everyone experiences this at some point in their life,
1:32.8	maybe at some point during the Christmas season. And how tough that is when everything is so bright
1:37.8	and cheery. Yeah. And then we're going to share the entire first episode of this season of Hark,
1:42.6	which is about the Coventry Carol, which is not about the birth of Jesus, like a lot of our Christmas carols or hymns, but about the massacre of the holy innocence by King Herod.
	...

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