Show Notes
Where do U.S. politics and Catholicism intersect? On this week’s roundtable episode, “Jesuitical” host Ashley McKinless speaks with America’s chief correspondent, Kevin Clarke, and Father Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior analyst at Religion News Service, about today’s “signs of the times.” Together, Ashley, Kevin and Father Reese discuss Pope Leo’s health post-cancer surgery, immigrant detention as a religious liberty issue, the death penalty and how these all tie into how Catholics are feeling about politics ahead of the midterm elections.
*Note: After this was recorded, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo needs no further cancer treatment. Read the latest here: https://www.americamagazine.org/vatican-dispatch/2026/10/21/pope-leo-cancer-test-results-treatment
Chapters:
00:00 Our topics this week
1:19 Pope Leo health update (Note: After this was recorded, the Vatican
6:22 Pope calls Putin and Zelensky
11:50 Archdiocese sues Trump administration
15:52 Religious liberty and the Sacraments
20:20 Catholics denounce public execution
26:40 Catholics are souring on Trump
31:51 A Pope Leo effect in America?
Links from the show:
The Fragility of the Pope
St. Louis archdiocese sues DHS and ICE to bring sacraments to immigrant detainees
The death of the American conscience will be livestreamed
USCCB President Condemns Plans for Livestream of Fort Hood Shooter's Execution as ‘a Barbaric Promotion of a Culture of Death’
Pope Francis: ‘death penalty inadmissible’
Pew: Trump’s support among Catholic voters drops heading into midterms
How Catholics have defended free elections—and why they must do so again
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