Show Notes
This week I spoke with Esther Harber. Esther is the Survivor Care Coordinator for Awake and a survivors of sexual assault by a Catholic priest. In this discussion she shares her own story and how her experiences of harm have impacted her faith. Esther has maybe the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. And her capacity to be present with others and hold their stories is profound. I’m so grateful to share our conversation. *A trigger warning that this episode inclues conversation about sexual assault Esther Harber is a devoted Catholic living with her husband and daughters in Ohio. She is a convert from a fundamentalist Protestant denomination, and was blessed to enter the Catholic Church in 2006. The Lord placed a passion in her heart for sharing the faith, and she spent the better part of her twenties as a lay missionary in New York City. She was also in religious life for a year. During her time as a missionary she experienced spiritual abuse, grooming, and sexual assault by a Catholic priest. After a long period of healing, she felt the Lord calling her to walk with other victim-survivors and to bring light to this crisis in the Church. Esther is the Survivor Care Coordinator for Awake. LINKS: Esther’s Survivor Story:https://www.awakecommunity.org/blog/esther-harber/ Contact Esther or Awake:https://www.awakecommunity.org/contact ABOUT THIRD SPACE: Third Space is the podcast for those who see the beauty of Catholicism, as well as the ugliness, who have experienced real harm AND real grace in the Church. Every episode I will have conversations with guests about the good and the bad in the Church—avoiding easy answers or black & white fundamentalism—in order to hold on to all that is true. SUPPORT THIS SHOW: Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. All of your support directly helps my family and allows me to continue working on projects like this podcast, the newsletter, as well as resources about spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church. www.catholicthirdspace.com ABOUT THE HOST: Paul Fahey lives in Michigan with his wife and five kids. He is a limited licensed professional counselor, retreat leader, and catechist. He is a co-founder of Where Peter Is, founder and co-host of the Pope Francis Generation podcast, and the host of the Third Space podcast. He seeks to provide pastoral counseling for Catholics who have been spiritually abused, counseling for Catholic ministers, and counseling education so that ministers are more equipped to help others in their ministry.
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Thank you, Marco for this great conversation about the importance of Amoris Laetita. Articles we referenced: Pope Leo XIV Opening Speechhttps://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2026/october/documents/20261007-anniversario-amoris-laetitia.html Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David’s addresshttps://www.amorislaetitia.va/content/dam/amorislaetitia/12-october/al-david-eng-original.pdf Archbishop Timothy Costelloe’s addresshttps://www.amorislaetitia.va/content/dam/amorislaetitia/9-october/al-costelloe-eng-original.pdf Bishop Erik Varden’s "Laetitiae Amor” articlehttps://coramfratribus.com/life-illumined/laetitiae-amor/
Thank you Brad Klingele, Marco, Rachel Amiri, Theresa Westergard, ElizabethMuhleisen, and many others for tuning into my live video with Sarah Carter and Hendro Munsterman! Join me for my next live video in the app. Third Space is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I’ve been really enjoying The Moral Revolution Podcast with Laura Segafredo and Tony Annett, especially their ability to explain the histories and differences between socialism, liberalism, social democracy, and Catholic Social Teaching. Also, it’s an election year and, living in Michigan with Abdul El-Sayed running for Senate, I’ve seen renewed use of the word “Socialism” and rhetoric about how Catholics can’t be Socialists. So I wanted to have Tony Annett on my podcast again, this time to talk about Socialism. Anthony Annett is an economist and author whose work sits at the intersection of political economy, democracy, and moral philosophy. He spent two decades at the International Monetary Fund, including as speechwriter to two Managing Directors. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and a B.A. and an M.Litt from Trinity College Dublin. He is also a member of the College of Fellows of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. He helped organize Ethics in Action — an initiative that met regularly at the Vatican and brought together representatives of the major world religions alongside economists, development experts, philosophers, business and labor leaders, philanthropists, and activists to formulate a shared moral framework for addressing major global problems. He is the author of Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy (Georgetown University Press, 2022) and Bread and Ballots: Why Democracy Needs Economic Justice to Thrive (forthcoming, Georgetown University Press, 2027). He is also a co-editor of Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (Columbia University Press, 2022) and a contributor to The Age of Fraternity: An Economy for the Common Good (forthcoming). Also, I just opened up registration for my next spiritual abuse workshop. This is an online workshop focused on recognizing, preventing, and responding to spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church. This workshop is for: * Individuals trying to better understand their experiences of spiritual abuse in the Church * Clergy and lay leaders interested in safeguarding their communities from spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience * Therapists or spiritual directors working with clients who have been spiritually abused This workshop will help you: * Recognize and prevent spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience in the Church * Know the symptoms of spiritual abuse, religious trauma, and moral injury * Better understand and respond to abusive systems in the Church This is a live online workshop that meets in a small group over the course of five weeks, beginning on October 26. Visit here for more details: https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/p/spiritual-abuse-workshop-november LINKS: The Moral Revolution Podcast https://moralrevolution.substack.com Tony’s book: Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economyhttps://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Cathonomics Pope Francis Generation episode with Tonyhttps://www.catholicthirdspace.com/p/interview-with-tony-annett-a-more ABOUT THIRD SPACE: Third Space is the podcast for those who see the beauty of Catholicism, as well as the ugliness, who have experienced real harm AND real grace in the Church. Every episode I will have conversations with guests about the good and the bad in the Church—avoiding easy answers or black & white fundamentalism—in order to hold on to all that is true. SUPPORT THIS SHOW: Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. All of your support directly helps my family and allows me to continue working on projects like this podcast, the newsletter, as well as resources about spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church. www.catholicthirdspace.com LIVING SOLIDARITY: Living Solidarity upholds the infinite dignity of every person by addressing the reality of spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience in the Catholic Church. Living Solidarity helps to build a Church of integrity and solidarity by accompanying survivors of spiritual abuse with trauma-informed life
It was great talking with Sarah Carter about Pope Leo’s catechetical series on Gaudium et Spes! We discussed the Church’s relationship with the world as well as how the Church too often squanders its credibility—and there its witness—to proclaim the common good, human dignity, and, ultimately, the Gospel. Become a paid subscriber to Third Space here: https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/subscribe Subscribe to Pope Leo Weekly here: https://popeleoweekly.substack.com/subscribe “The promulgation of Gaudium et Spes recognized in this discernment an essential element of the nature of the Church, describing her pastoral character as constitutive; hence the definition of ‘pastoral Constitution.’ It is not a question of naïve optimism, but rather a renewed fidelity to the Mystery of Christ who, by becoming incarnate, chooses to share our life: He made Himself ‘like His brethren in every respect’ (Heb 2:17; cf. 4:15) and took upon Himself the consequences of sin, dying ‘as a ransom for all’ (1 Tim 2:6). This sharing in our humanity is the path that Christ calls the Church to follow; hence, the Conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes begins by declaring that the Church makes her own ‘the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted’” (GS 1).
Amoris Laetitia was a pivotal document for me in my own deconstruction away from a rigid and transactional faith to a faith grounded on the gratuitous love of God. It’s also a document that I often cite in my work to address spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience in the Church. It has really grieved me how much this document is dismissed and maligned by so many Catholics in the US. So I’m encouraged that Leo is putting it back into the spotlight as a normative teaching for the Church. This live video has four parts * Overview of the upcoming meeting on Amoris Laetitia * Look at the four sections of Amoris that I cite in my work addressing spiritual abuse * The Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics controversy * Time for Questions and Response Thank you to everyone who joined the live discussion! You see all my notes and citations here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cLs2NXijlhM8rHzFYOaWi98OBsoSyxI-/view?usp=sharing Third Space is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.