Video Library

Join The Institute for Human Ecology for a virtual event, Curious Catholic Converts: Selections from the William Klimon Collection of Catholic Convert Literature.

While most are familiar with major Catholic converts like St. John Henry Newman, St. Edith Stein, G.K. Chesterton, and Thomas Merton, many lesser-known Catholic converts led fascinating lives and left interesting literary remains. For more than 25 years, William Klimon has been collecting the literature of Catholic conversion, as well as related ephemera and art. This presentation will focus on four lesser-known converts whose lives and faith journeys are illuminated by items from Klimon’s collection.

Thomas Low Nichols (1815 – 1901) was a physician and writer whose life and faith show that the New Age isn’t all that new;
Stanley Morison (1889 – 1967) invented something that probably most people use every day, but most people have never heard his name, let alone knew that he was a Catholic convert;
Peter F. Anson (1889 – 1975), the son of a British admiral, he was for many years an Anglican monk. After his conversion, he lived a rather itinerant life despite being a gifted artist and the author of several dozen books on, among other things, several of his fellow converts; and
John C. H. Wu (1899 – 1986) was a Chinese lawyer, jurist, and legal and religious scholar, deeply involved in the Chinese tradition but with a great debt to the Little Flower.

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Join the IHE and the Graduate Student Association (GSA) for a lecture with poet and essayist Michael Yost titled “An Art That Nature Makes: A Christian Reading of the Symposium.”

This lecture aims at a literary discussion and comparison of three figures, enabled by a close reading of the three respective texts in which these figures appear. The first, Eros or Love, appears in a poetic work of philosophy, namely Plato’s Symposium. The second appears in a philosophical work of poetry, namely Odysseus as he appears in Homer’s Odyssey. The third, Christ, as He appears in the Gospel of John. These three figures are united in the first place because each of their respective characterizations is read here as developing themes present in the preceding figure.

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How does Catholicism reshape the way we understand disability within family life? Join the National Catholic Partnership on Disability and The Institute for Human Ecology for a virtual event, as Dr. Mary O’Callaghan and Dr. John O’Callaghan share how raising a son with Down syndrome and autism has shaped their marriage, parenthood, and family vocation. They will speak about joy, sacrifice, and the ways grace works through ordinary family life — without romanticizing or minimizing the realities of disability.

The discussion will also touch on their experience supporting their son in his faith life through the sacraments, prayer, and more. They will offer practical insights for parents who have recently received a diagnosis for their child, helping families navigate faith, family life, and belonging in the Church.

Dr. Angela Knobel, professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas, will moderate the discussion.

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Join the Institute for Human Ecology for a special panel discussion, “Understanding the Dialogues des Carmelites,” an evening of reflection on Francis Poulenc’s powerful opera, being performed at Catholic University from April 23-26, 2026. Bringing together faculty from across disciplines, this conversation will explore the opera’s enduring spiritual, artistic, and cultural impact.

IHE Distinguished Senior Fellows Michael Pakaluk and Mark Clark, and Peter Kadeli (Associate Chair, Head of Sacred Music and Director of Choral Activities at The Catholic University of America) will share how Dialogues des Carmelites has deeply affected them—drawing on their own encounters with the work, memorable live performances, and the personal, theological, and philosophical insights it has inspired.

Panelists will also provide a focused exploration of the opera, guiding their audience through key scenes and music to move beyond general impressions and into a deeper appreciation of the opera’s artistry and meaning.


Join us for an evening of thoughtful dialogue, close listening, and shared inquiry into one of the 20th century’s most profound operatic works.

Some audio/visual clips shown in the live presentation were removed in this recording for copyright purposes.

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Join the IHE for a webinar titled “The Theological Meaning of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings” featuring Dr. Jan C. Bentz and internationally acclaimed author Joseph Pearce.

Few modern works of literature have captured the moral imagination of the West as powerfully as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Though often read simply as a work of fantasy, Tolkien himself insisted that the story was “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.”

In this conversation, Dr. Jan C. Bentz speaks with Joseph Pearce about the theological meaning of Tolkien’s epic: how the narrative reflects a sacramental vision of reality, the quiet workings of providence, and the central Christian paradox that true victory comes through humility, sacrifice, and mercy.

Together they explore how Middle-earth embodies a deeply Christian understanding of evil, grace, and redemption, and why Tolkien believed that the deepest truths of theology are often revealed most powerfully through myth and story.

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Join Dr. Amy Fahey and moderator Dr. Raymond Hain for a conversation on the literary friendship between Catholic convert and Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset and Willa Cather, whose novels often explored Catholic themes with profound insight.

“It gives me pleasure to know that we both have strong and loyal love for the same things. That gives a strong foundation to friendship.” When Cather wrote to Undset in 1941, the world was engulfed in war, and both women, despite their literary triumphs, had endured profound suffering and loss. Their friendship remained a source of consolation and sustenance.

What are those “same things” loved so fiercely by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author and this Nobel Laureate? And what was the nature of a friendship that began well before they were first introduced by Alfred Knopf in 1940 and endured until Cather’s death seven years later?

Dr. Fahey and Dr. Hain will delve deeper into a friendship rooted not simply in shared literary endeavors or a shared American publisher, but in a mutual love of those things that nurture and sustain human flourishing: family, culture, the beauty of the created order, and a belief in Someone beyond the unencumbered self.

There remained, of course, one thing they did not share—Undset’s Catholic faith. But a look at their extant work and correspondence, and especially the few surviving fragments of Cather’s final novel, “Hard Punishments,” reveals to us that even there, the sympathies were broad and deep.

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Join the IHE for a webinar with William Saunders, Director of the IHE’s M.A. in Human Rights, and Robert Royal, author of The Martyrs of the New Millennium: The Global Persecution of Christians in the Twenty-First Century.

Though mostly overlooked, the harrowing stories of hundreds of thousands of fellow Christians from around the world who gave their lives for the Faith in recent years — including in full-scale genocides of Christians in several countries — are a part of our history crying out to be told.

In the book, Robert Royal chronicles the heartrending stories of heroic priests, religious, and laypeople who are being brutally persecuted, tortured, and martyred today by various groups.

He reveals how thousands more are right now living courageously under oppressive regimes, facing similar threats and dangers daily.

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The IHE invites you to our Fifth Annual Installment in the Saint Scholastica Series, “In the Workshops of Saint Joseph and Saint Josemaria Escriva: A 21st Century Catholic Philosophy, Theology and Spirituality of Work.”

The Most Reverend John O. Barres, STD, JCL, fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre (Long Island, NY), will deliver the lecture.

Father Michael Baggot, LC, Associate Professor of Bioethics, Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, will moderate the webinar.

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David Clayton and Andrew Goldstein will present a virtual event discussing their forthcoming two-volume work, Melody of the Home: A Catholic Guide to Cultivating a House Full of Song, set for publication by Word on Fire in Fall 2026. The first volume covers sacred music and traditional folk songs arranged by liturgical seasons, while the second offers a poetic English psalter pointed for chanting with Gregorian tones. Accompanying the book, there will be online instructional videos and materials tailored for families of all musical abilities, guiding the integration of liturgical and communal singing into home life.

As well as explaining the simple principles behind their pedagogical method, the presentation explores the project’s theoretical roots, emphasizing the domestic church’s role in the evangelization of the culture and faith transmission, while acknowledging music’s broader place in family life.

Clayton and Goldstein view sacred and folk traditions as vital for unity, with secular songs serving as complements to prayer. Addressing the decline in household singing — whether liturgical or recreational — they offer accessible methods that require no special training, demonstrating techniques for all skill levels and framing domestic music-making as a key shaper of family formation.

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