How cuts to NPR will hurt WFUZ, Fordham University's radio station
Purple Catholic Saturday Post
Good morning and happy Saturday. This week, I have an abbreviated Saturday post for you.
I encourage you to check out this week’s episode of Death Comes for the Archbishop, in which I close my conversation with Dr. John Pinheiro by asking him about a criticism I heard frequently in my political science studies: straight-line borders are bad.
Since the treaty that ended the Mexican-American War included a very long straight-line border with Mexico, I thought it fit to ask him, a historian, whether or not he shared that opinion.
I hope you’ll listen.
Below, I also share the story of WFUZ, New York, the radio station licensed to Fordham University. Whatever you may think about the editorial slant of NPR or their recent claims about being the “go-to” place for severe weather information (a claim I think is disingenuous), public radio stations do serve a unique purpose that many commercial radio stations cannot: they train the next generation of broadcasters and radio journalists in particular.
Most NPR stations are licensed to universities, and while many of those have consolidated into statewide networks (I’m looking at you Michigan Public and North Carolina Public Radio), there are still stations that employ the students at their universities and allow them to share stories on the radio. WFUZ is one of those stations.
Don’t misunderstand me; I am not making an argument in favor of the NPR network as a whole. I am well aware of their problematic and often ignorant depictions of the Catholic Church. Nor am I commenting on the amount of funding stations should get from the federal government. But I am passionate about radio and allowing young people, in particular, who want to work in this very interesting industry to have that opportunity. College NPR stations are a way to make that happen.
Another quick note this morning: Morning Offering on Ave Maria Radio and Annunciation Radio is taking a week off, and thus there will be no Ave Maria Radio News this week.
Tomorrow on Death Comes for the Archbishop:
Bishop Jean Marie Latour hears one of the more despicable stories of the early missionaries. Then, John Pinherio, PhD, and I continue our conversation about the Mexican-American War and Catholics in 19th-century America.
Paying subscribers get access tomorrow; everyone else will receive it on Wednesday.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This Sunday at Mass, we will hear from Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm 138, Colossians 2:12-14, and Luke 11:1-13.
Here is a calendar for the rest of the week:
Tuesday, 29 July - Memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
Wednesday, 30 July - Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus, bishop and doctor (optional)
Thursday, 31 July - Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest
Friday, 1 August - Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor
Saturday, 2 August - Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop (optional) or Memorial of St. Peter Julian Eymard, priest (optional)
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:15
In the news:
The United States
New House bill aims to protect pope’s US citizenship - The Pillar
The Vatican
Pope Leo XIV: Mission of evangelism belongs to all the baptized - Crux
The World
Dalit Catholics protest discrimination by Church in India - Crux
Requiescat in pace
Church historian James Hitchcock dead at 87 - National Catholic Register
Have a good weekend,
Matthew