Click below to hear the episode:

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For more than 150 days, Roderick (also known as Al) Dornan, 78, of Wethersfield, CT, has walked 2.2 miles every day, rain or shine and despite a bad back, along the sidewalks of his neighborhood in solidarity with Dreamers, immigrants and refugees.

Below is the link to the Hartford Courant article and photos that sparked interest in his crusade by other media and on Facebook and Twitter.

http://www.courant.com/hometown-heroes/hc-hh-hometown-hero-al-dornan-wethersfield-20180607-story.html

And here is the uncut audio of our entire walk together, in which he describes the inspiration he takes from deceased heroes, including his son, Aaron, who died in an accident 20 years ago, and some of the “mantras” he recites along his route.

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We’re short

As of this writing, and with the close of the fiscal year just days away, WESU is still shy of meeting its spring pledge drive goal. Every donation WESU receives by this Friday (6/29) at midnight will be doubled until we reach $5,000.

Can you help keep independent, free form, community radio alive in our area? Please go to http://www.wesufm.org/pledge to donate online or write a check to WESU, 45 Broad St., Middletown, CT 06457

THANK YOU!

Apologies for posting this late! It’s been in draft form for months! Thanks, Holly, for bringing it to my attention!

Since we’re talking, be sure to tune in on Tuesday, 8/21, when we deal with Pennsylvania sexual abuse revelations and the burning question: What’s a Catholic to do?

Click below to hear this episode about church art made by atheists with love:

Top photo: painter Holly Whiting, left, and woodworker Dana Scinto were commissioned to create art for St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in West Simsbury, CT. Lower photo: Dana takes in the CD collection at WESU.

Holly created 14 paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross.  Father Michael Whyte, the pastor, instructed her to avoid tidying up the violence of some scenes so that parishioners will realize how much Christ loves them.

Dana not only carved symbols of the seven sacraments into the front of the presider’s chair, but volunteered to carve the back, as well. She also carved the small table next to it in the sanctuary. Father Michael was adamant, says Dana, that the chair not be referred to as a “throne,” since he is not a king.

To Father Michael, the previously unadorned interior of St. Catherine of Siena parish resembled a hangar more than a church. He raised the money to commission the art and also enlisted volunteer help.

The church is located at 265 Stratton Brook Rd, West Simsbury, CT.

Click below to hear the episode:

Ed Stivender is a Catholic religion teacher-turned-entertainer who makes good use of his master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame in his storytelling. In Ed’s latest work “Like a Party,” which can be found on his website, http://edstivender.com/, he portrays St. Francis of Assisi providing a tour of the Bible’s greatest hits. Ed has performed around the globe at storytelling festivals and other venues. He was called “the Robin Williams of storytelling” in the Miami Herald, and the late author Father Andrew Greeley called him “one of America’s great storytellers.”

He and his banjo playing are also findable at YouTube.com.

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SPRING PLEDGE DRIVE

Have a few extra shekels to toss toward the radio station that makes programming like this possible? Please go to http://www.wesufm.org/pledge and give what you can as the end of the fiscal year approaches. An amount with a five in it and a shout-out to Reasonably Catholic on the form will nicely mark this program’s fifth anniversary! Thanks!

Click below to hear the episode:

Richard Alleva, who writes for the Catholic journal Commonweal, says ”Pope Francis: A Man of His Word” is the kind of documentary he usually hates, but he loved this one. Having considered director Wim Wenders’s other films, Alleva says Wenders, who was raised Catholic, “was destined to make this film.”

An interview with Wenders appears in the current issue of Commonweal: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/worthy-his-name

In the second part of the show, Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which works for full equality in the Church for LGBTQ Catholics, takes up a recent affirming statement — made in private to a gay survivor of sexual abuse — that God made him that way and loves him that way.  Asked why he thinks the Pope lets the current less pastoral Church teachings stand, DeBernardo theorizes that a) the Pope has other priorities, such as poverty and the environment, and b) he may be strategically paving the way for updating Church teachings by first modeling a change in its practices.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which, among other offerings, has a daily blog of news, opinion and spirituality at http://www.newwaysministry.org/blog