DISCUSSION & DISCIPLESHIP
Why does the Church believe that? How can I explain this to others?
Sometimes, we have difficulty understanding Catholic teaching and even greater difficulty in explaining it to others.
Discussion & Discipleship is a collaborative group where participants come together to examine controversial issues of politics, culture, science, law, theology, and philosophy, all from the Catholic perspective.
General Format ~
Before each meeting, participants will be presented with a hot topic and an official Church document on the topic. Then, during each meeting, participants will take part in a moderated, two-part discussion on the topic and reading material, and ways to explain the Catholic perspective to others.
Meeting Details ~
Meetings are typically held on the last Friday evening of every month.
Previous Topics ~
- In vitro fertilization (IVF)
- Gender ideology
- Collaboration between the sexes
- Assisted suicide
- End-of-life decision-making
- Death penalty
- Human freedom
- Laudato Si’: Technology
- Laudato Si’: Value of labor
- Desire for God
- Laudato Si’: Integral ecology
- Civic engagement
- Church-State relationship
- Dignity and economics
- Peace and war
- Contraception
- Sex abuse crisis: lay response
- #MeToo movement and Catholicism
- Loneliness and alienation
- Moral conscience
- Excommunication and the Eucharist
- Immigration
- Racism
- Homosexuality
- Evangelization
- Role of women
- Male-only ordination
- Natural law
- Violating the confessional seal
- Healing the Church: the sex abuse crisis
- Marijuana legalization
- Church response to COVID-19
- Hope during uncertainty
- Religious freedom
- Catholic identity
- Heaven, hell, and purgatory
- Catholic voting principles
- Authority of Church teaching
- COVID-19 vaccines
- Social justice
- Catholic school system
- Gun control
- Civil disobedience
- Finding a Godly spouse
- Holiness
- Religious accommodations to vaccine mandates
- Catholicism in corporate America
- Restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass
- Obedience and unjust laws
- Nuclear weapons
- Transgender ideology and the youth
- Abortion and the Dobbs decision (Part 1)
- Abortion and the Dobbs decision (Part 2)
- The Church and slavery
- Building community
- Respect for the truth
- Spiritual warfare
- Boycotts and morality
- Brain death
- Social media and Catholicism
- Pride month and the Catholic response
- The problem of evil and human suffering
- Sin, crime, and the Church
- The synod on synodality
- Blessings for same-sex couples
- The Catholic Church and Zionism
- Embryo adoption
- Spiritual trauma
- The Cross and Catholic dating
- A Catholic dating roadmap
- Voting for pro-abortion candidates
- Examining Christopher Columbus
- Abortion and medical necessity
- Growing the Church