Clerically Speaking Fr. Harrison & Fr. Anthony

These guys were my unofficial pastoral formation directors in seminary, and helped get me through with a realistic understanding of the Church and priesthood. - Fr Charles, 9 months a priest.

Great to see new episodes are back! I’m glad Fr. Harrison and Fr. Anthony took some time to attend more closely to their ministries and their needs, but it’s always a joy to listen, so welcome back!

I discovered this podcast about a year ago and it changed my spiritual life for the better. Fresh out of college, new to the Church, and suddenly living in a new place where I struggled to fit in, I found 2 priests and a great community of callers and friends of the show who made me realize I could be myself and be Catholic. The banter at the beginning of each episode has been great information for vocational discernment, the Theological Emergencies can be silly but help me to approach the faith with joy and confidence, and I always get something out of Presbyteral Exhortations.

I’ve also wanted to respond to some commenters concerned about Fr. Anthony describing himself one time as a “big lefty”: You will not find any compromising on doctrine here, as far as I’m aware. I’ve listened to many episodes now, including on hard topics like abortion, contraception, LGBTQ issues, and more, and both Fr. Harrison and Fr. Anthony always do a great job of clearly stating and defending what the Church believes. Maybe what he was referring to is that they are also good at expressing sympathy for people in different situations, or that they are concerned when they see factions that seem to start letting doctrine go for the sake of political expediency (on both sides of the aisle). But whatever it is, their well-reasoned but firm defenses of the faith have helped me overcome barriers to believing what the Church has always taught, so I hope you’ll give them a listen!

Also, Producer Nick’s bumper for the new episode is a masterpiece, as so many of his have been 😂

Nick, your voiceover of Eagles Wings and whatever the other one was (staple of my childhood, really took me back) was incredible and I was howling with laughter with my AirPods in and my kids thought I was super weird. Thank you! And good to hear everyone’s voices!