Catholic Archives - Faith Full Catholic Podcast with Tony Ganzer

September 1, 2025September 1, 2025

Why Catholic Bishops say online gambling is a crisis in the Philippines

Catholic Bishops in the Philippines say online gambling has become a new plague or virus that is destroying families, and even causing a kind of slavery. While illegal gambling has always existed in the shadows of society, this new crisis takes place in the smartphones of anyone, including children. The cure to this plague needs to come from every level of society, including at the parish level:

Msgr Pedro Quitorio: “It’s become a sickness. With all these addictions, people, children, teenagers are becoming, you know… some, some we hear news of taking their lives because of this, so much debt.”

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Today we will learn about the heated issue of online gambling in the Philippines, and what lessons Catholics anywhere might learn from the example there, especially with the rise of online casinos and sports betting in places like the US.

To be clear, the Church doesn’t say all gambling is wrong or sinful–not at all. But when addiction takes over lives, then the hands and feet of Christ on earth need to be mobilized.

Msgr. Pedro Quitorio: “This has become a very strong part now of our new evangelization. It’s a matter of, you know, putting the faith in context now, concretely, by the way people move, because this is affecting even, even our faith, even how we practice our faith.”

July 17, 2025July 17, 2025

Seeking St. Jean Vianney, a holy priest

The Catholic Church needs good priests, now and always. Facing past scandals, and new struggles, some seek intercession and wisdom from the patron saint of parish priests, St. Jean Vianney. The French priest is said to have faced regular attacks by satan, yet his ministry thrived, during a time of great difficulty for the Catholic church in France.

St. Jean Vianney is a holy priest, and we need holy priests. If a fish stinks in the head, the rest of the fish is probably not edible either…probably not good!
– Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes

In today’s episode we visit St. Jean Vianney’s village of Ars, France, and remember a time when his incorrupt heart toured the United States during another time of trial in the Church. There are reasons to be hopeful about the faith, but as Pope Leo said, priests need to “Always count on God’s grace and [his] closeness too and together we can truly be this voice in the world.”

June 8, 2025July 1, 2025

What a village cemetery says about Catholicism in France

This cemetery in northern France tells us something about Catholicism in this country. I’ve been here many times over the last 15 years, a tiny slice of this village’s lifetime, stretching to the 12^th century. In 2013, broken crucifixes and stones littered the grounds of St. Martin church. Flowers and vegetation reclaimed many plots, and at least to me the site felt forgotten. But something changed, bringing some well-needed love and attention to St. Martin. At a time when there are some glimpses of hope for the faith in France.

In this short episode we’ll visit the cemetery at St. Martin church in a small village in France’s Picardie region to see what its condition says, or doesn’t, about the state of the Catholic faith here, especially as Pope Leo XIV has called for a missionary renewal in France, and baptisms are on the rise.

January 2, 2025July 1, 2025

The Saints of Compiègne and martyrs of Catholic France

You may not realize it, but the Catholic faith was one of the great targets of the French Revolution, birthing martyrs and saints from persecution and bloodshed. Sixteen Carmelite nuns were beheaded in 1794 for remaining true to their vows, and nothing more. During the so-called Reign of Terror which saw revolutionaries sniffing out real and imagined conspiracies, these nuns were expelled from their monastic life and offered a choice: renounce their faith, and submit to extreme secularism, or be deemed enemies of the state.

The prioress Mother Teresa of St. Augustine proposed the sisters offer their lives for the salvation of France, fulfilling a prophetic dream from another sister a hundred years before. The act of sacrifice was offered while the nuns sang hymns and prayed, guillotined in front of a crowd faced with the consequence of madness.

Jonathan O’Brien: “I feel like this part of history has been so either misrepresented or just glossed over. If there’s basically a genocide against Catholics and thousands of martyrs that are being killed just for their faith you would think it might have at least been mentioned in history class, but it wasn’t.”

In this episode we’ll learn more about the martyrs of Compiegne who have just been declared saints by Pope Francis in December 2024. We’ll hear from Jonathan O’Brien, author of the book Called to Compiègne, who explored this tremendous story.

November 29, 2024July 1, 2025

Gratitude and (almost) house fires

My house almost caught fire, and I had no idea of the danger until it was over, pieced together by burn marks on a wall and other clues around an old boiler system. I called a specialist to look at it. He said bluntly: he’s come to believe things happen for a reason, and our house is still standing for a reason.

I always try to express gratitude to others and to God. But as we come into the holiday season I thought this story was especially worth bringing to you all.

Today, I’ll tell you how I found out about the fire that could’ve taken my home, and what St. Therese of Lisieux might teach us about gratitude in the face of danger.

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October 30, 2024July 1, 2025

The tomb of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and the faith of Mohawk Catholics

It’s been 12 years since St. Kateri Tekakwitha was declared a saint by the Catholic church, in October 2012. She was a Mohawk/Algonquin woman who lived in the late 17th century in present-day New York and Quebec, declaring herself a virgin for Christ. Her sainthood has sparked both pride and soul-searching within and beyond Canada’s First Nations.

Beverly Anna Sky Delormier: "I thought it would never happen in my lifetime, but it did and there was a… there's a person I know who didn't always come and told her grandmother that she'll come back to church all the time if Kateri gets canonized and she did, so now she's back in church!"

Fr. Richard Saint-Louis: "All that time we we recognize that the church is built with men and women who are sinners and (thank God) we are sinners so it's a challenge for us to be able to recognize that first of all, and recognize also the mercy of God for all sinners and knowing that we are able to spread the Gospel around by the way we live, by the way we act."

St. Kateri’s earthly remains are entombed in St. Francis Xavier Mission Catholic Church in Kahnawake on the banks of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal. The church is not far from the Kateri school and Kateri Memorial Hospital, visible reminders that she lived here, or nearby, in a Catholic community before her death, at age 24.

In this episode we are not retelling St. Kateri’s life story, but rather we’re bringing you voices from a few members of the present day Catholic community in Kahnawake. We will hear about what her sainthood means to them.

July 9, 2024August 18, 2024

Compatible with life: the joy of John Paul Hauser

The story of John Paul Hauser is one that, at the heart of it, asks us to consider the value of human life, in all its variety, no matter its length or hardship.

Even before a baby is born, doctors are doing tests, reviewing ultrasounds, and monitoring the mother closely for unexpected results or problems. If the unborn baby has too serious a condition, parents might be told by doctors that their baby is “incompatible with life.” That’s to say, it’s not expected to live long, if at all, and parents can face a choice of life or death for this person they’ve not yet met.

After doctors identified Trisomy 13 in John Paul Hauser, his parents were coached to consider having an abortion. Despite having this major genetic corruption, and a life that might last for minutes if at all, John Paul’s parents chose to give him that life.

And live he did.

“He just could love so unconditionally. He was never disappointed in you, and he was never angry at you. You were just always good enough the way you were and it was just the kind of love that we the rest of us aren’t capable of giving. He could just give that in his perfect little imperfect state.”
Tami Hauser about her son, John Paul Hauser

John Paul Hauser lived to the age of 12—a much-too-short life for most, but a miraculously long life for someone who had his condition. In today’s episode, we learn how John Paul’s love transformed his family and those around him, and what lessons we can take from his time on earth.

“And that’s how I think of him in Heaven: I just think of him as answering all of our prayers and just with a big delightful smile on his face, like I know that he’s up there just with that same big glorious smile being happy to serve, you know because he was served.”
Barb Baxter about her godson, John Paul Hauser

May 26, 2024May 27, 2024

A falling crucifix and a crisis of faith

To hear of a man crushed by a giant crucifix, it should rightly give us pause. Years ago I heard of a man who prayed before a statue of Christ on the cross every day, asking God’s mercy for the man’s wife who was battling cancer. His wife made it through, and after enduring the pain and emotional exhaustion of that fight, the man wanted to clean the statue in appreciation. Except, the statue fell on him, leading to his leg being amputated. The church raised money and donations for the man, but he ended up suing.

I’ve carried this story with me for so long not just because of the many twists and turns in it, but also because of some clumsy writing in the news story about it, and what genuine theological issues we might consider from it. We’ll explore some of them in this short episode of Faith Full.

December 29, 2023January 3, 2024

Montreal’s Oldest Church: Our Lady of Good Help (Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours)

As a Catholic, there’s something comforting about facing the windswept contours of Canada’s St. Lawrence River, in all its power, and then seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary keeping watch from atop a chapel, leading us to her Son, Jesus Christ.

The chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (Our Lady of Good Help) is Montreal’s oldest stone church, sitting for hundreds of years as a beacon of hope. It celebrates a special milestone this year…having acted as a refuge for residents, pilgrims, sailors and travelers arriving by the Seaway.

June 20, 2023June 20, 2023

Panhandling and Christian Duty: the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s approach to works of mercy

Christian duty and panhandlers. What’s the right thing to do? For a long time I’ve struggled when approached by panhandlers, people on the street asking for money. I want to help, but I don’t want to be taken advantage of, or feed an addiction, or endanger myself.

As a Catholic, as a Christian, I know helping the less fortunate is central to my faith. In one of the most famous passages from Scripture, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says in a parable ‘whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’

So on the street, someone asks you for change…what’s the answer? In this episode we explore this issue with Gary Sole, CEO for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the Diocese of Cleveland.