He’s a cradle Catholic and she’s a former atheist. Together, Steve and Becky Greene hope to reach local Catholics, fallen-away Catholics, those of other denominations and non-believers alike with the message of the New Evangelization.
‘The Catholic Conversation’
Tuesdays at 11 a.m.
Immaculate Heart Radio
1310 AM
“The Catholic Conversation” debuted Tuesday on 1310 AM in the Phoenix area. The weekly radio show airs at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays. Producer Jennifer Ellis said the program is billed as a “Catholic conversation with the cradle and the convert.”
Steve, director of Kino Institute and his wife Becky, a convert with a background in media who’s a stay-at-home mom, have worked for years in the marriage preparation program for the Diocese of Phoenix. Steve is a former seminarian who teaches in the theology and Catholic studies program at the University of Mary.
The locally produced, one-hour program is focused on the New Evangelization as seen through the lens of marriage and family life, the domestic Church.
The program, Becky said, aims to “get into some of the nuts and bolts of what’s affecting us in the culture — what’s the narrative that we’re hearing in the culture, the way to live life, who the human person is, how we relate to one another, the idea of God in the picture and religion in the public square.”
The couple hopes to equip listeners with skills for survival in a secular society and a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith, all in context of the New Evangelization.
“The Church was established 2,000 years ago as an island of oddballs in an ocean of paganism which was the Roman Empire,” Steve said. “The call was to evangelize, and the Church did it. They went off the island and evangelized the ocean of paganism.”
Now, 2,000 years later, Steve said, “we find ourselves in the same position again… the faithful are being called to get off the island and bring the Gospel to a pagan, post-Christian culture.”
“The Catholic Conversation” will focus on a conversation with a single guest who is an expert on the subject at hand. Some of the topics the Greenes plan to cover include Theology of the Body, the culture war and conversion, cultural attacks on children and secularization —basically, Becky said, “all the things that we in the domestic Church specifically encounter regularly.”
The corporal works of mercy — including visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger and visiting the imprisoned—will also be discussed by experts involved in various local apostolates, Steve said.
The Greenes hope the program will inspire listeners to grow in their faith and consider becoming involved in an apostolate.
The program is “heavily centered on the conversation with the guest that day on that topic so listeners feel like they are right there with us,” Becky said. “We’ll have a good, long discussion where you can get into some of the nitty- gritty details.”
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix said it’s a blessing that the Greenes are hosting the new radio program.
“A ‘Catholic Conversation’ is exactly what is needed today for the Church to fulfill her mission — an engaging dialogue in which the beauty and wisdom of Christ is shared and the joy of friendship with Him shines forth,” Bishop Olmsted said.
