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Ave Maria in the Afternoon – September 16, 2025 – Hour 2

Pope Leo has created a new Catholic diocese in China. Ben Rogers has the details on what this means for Vatican-Beijing relations and Christians in China. We also explore the nature of belief with Dr. Christopher Kaczor. 

 

Pope Leo XIV creates ‘new’ China diocese

Pope Leo XIV has created a new Catholic diocese in northern China with the same name as one established decades ago by Beijing without Vatican approval. China expert Ben Rogers joins us with the details and what this means for Vatican-Beijing relations and the persecuted Christians in China.

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Pope Leo XIV creates ‘new’ China diocese amid diocesan border dispute with Beijing

 

Benedict Rogers is Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch. He’s a human rights activist specializing in Asia and writes on Christians solidarity worldwide. He serves with the UK Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission. Follow him on Twitter @benedictrogers and visit hongkongwatch.org

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Is Belief Believable?

One of the great falsehoods that is ingrained in our culture is that faith and reason are incompatible, when just the opposite is true – they are intertwined by their very nature. We do not have to choose between a spiritual or an intellectual life – we can live a life of reasonable faith and faithful reason. Dr. Christopher Kaczor has more.

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Is Belief Believable? 

Dr. Christopher Kaczor is the Honorary Professor for the Renewal of Catholic Intellectual Life at the Word on Fire Institute, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, a Fulbright Scholar, von Humbolt Fellow, and author of more than 125 scholarly articles and book chapters, his eighteen books include Thomas Aquinas on Faith, Hope, and Love and Thomas Aquinas on the Cardinal Virtues. He was appointed a Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, a visiting fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, and William E. Simon Visiting Fellow at Princeton University. He is Vice President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association and can be found on X at @Prof_Kaczor.

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