The Literary Catholic interviews me on Father Ed

I am grateful that, more than three years after the publication of Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor, people are still talking about my biography of the Jesuit priest whose support and wise counsel helped shape the spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is my latest podcast interview on Father Ed, a wide-ranging talk with Literary Catholic podcaster Suan Sonna.

Pope Leo's new encyclical and the Twelve Steps

In which I discuss how Pope Leo's experiences ministering to alcoholics as a young priest are reflected in his encyclical Magnifica humanitas.

Mentioned in this video:

• Dawn Eden Goldstein, Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor

• Pope Leo, Magnifica humanitas

• Pope Leo's work with alcoholics as a young priest

• The Twelve Steps

LISTEN NOW: "What Is the Christian Meaning of Suffering?"

Photo by Charles H. Connelly, March 14, 2026.

This evening I was blessed to speak at St. Aloysius Parish's Faith on Tap on "What Is the Meaning of Christian Suffering?" My talk was recorded; click here to play it or download it. If you would like to book me to give a talk, write dawneden [at] gmail.com.

The National Catholic Reporter covers the saga of Scott Peyton, my pro bono client

Catholic Deacon Scott Peyton trusted his pastor. Then he learned that the pastor had sexually abused his son. 

After learning of the abuse, Peyton trusted his bishop to ensure justice for his son and pastoral care for his family. To put it mildly, that didn't happen. 

Finally, when Peyton's children could no longer tolerate worshiping in a diocese that had failed them in manifold ways, he resigned his position as deacon, telling his bishop that, to keep his family in Christ, they would worship at a non-Catholic church. That's when his bishop excommunicated him. 

I am grateful to represent Scott Peyton pro bono in his appeal of his excommunication. Read more in Camillo Barone's feature article in today's National Catholic Reporter: "Louisiana deacon awaits Vatican decision on his excommunication."

Father Ed: Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor — and Ours

On March 11, I had the joy of sharing the story of Father Edward Dowling, SJ—the subject of my book Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor—with a terrific audience at St. Mary's University in Calgary, Alberta. I'm so glad that the talk was captured on video, as it was among the best that I've given on Father Ed. If you would like to invite me to give a talk on Dowling and his friendship with Bill W., please write to me at the email address listed on my Biography page.

Coming to Canada!

I am excited to be traveling for the first time to Alberta, where I have been invited to give talks on Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor. Visit my Upcoming Talks page for details, and do come if you can!

Alex Pretti, my brother in Christ

I want to tell you about Alex Pretti, my fellow Catholic, my brother in Christ; 

Alex Pretti, the good Samaritan who stopped to help his injured neighbor;

Alex Pretti, who died the way that each of us should hope to die when our time comes—giving his life for another, in pure, selfless love.

"Lifting the Veil on Annulments"

I have started a new YouTube series aimed at demystifying the process of applying for and pursuing a decree of nullity for a marriage that has ended in civil divorce. Episode 1 is above; episode 2 and future episodes (Lord willing) may be found on my playlist Lifting the Veil on Annulments.

The Southern Jesuit who preached racial equality while jackbooted thugs protested outside

On my Substack, I've just published a transcript of Father Louis J. Twomey, SJ's historic May 1961 address at a New Orleans NAACP rally, which he delivered while members of the American Nazi Party protested outside. Please pray that the Lord opens up a way for me to complete my Father Twomey biography, which has been sidelined due to circumstances that I have described elsewhere.

"From Rock Music to Theology": a new podcast interview

At Cafe Atlantique, Milford, CT, 11/2/25

I'm grateful to Father Jack Bentz, SJ, for giving me the opportunity to speak about my faith and life on his podcast Catholics in Ordinary Time. Click here to hear or download the episode.

Vatican newspaper reviews my book on the Sacred Heart

The review of my book as it appears on L'Osservatore Romano's website

What a joy to discover that today's L'Osservatore Romano features a review of my book The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times! Many thanks to Osservatore culture editor Giulia Galeotti and reviewer Silvia Gusmano for this beautiful essay. It makes me very happy to know that Pope Leo XIV is reading about my book today!

Here is an image of the page of L'Osservatore with the review (click to enlarge). If the review makes it into the English-language edition or Vatican News, I'll update this post with a link to the translated version.

New podcast interview for Australian national radio: "Can celibacy actually make us purer and closer to God?"

 

Hoboken, NJ, September 27, 2025. Photo by Chuck Connelly.

Recently the Australian Broadcasting Company invited me to appear on its Sunday radio show "God Forbid!" as part of a panel of scholars discussing religious understandings of celibacy. I greatly enjoyed the conversation and I hope you do too. Listen on Apple Podcasts or on the ABC website (but ignore the truly dire clip-art image there). 

I write for Jesuit Media Lab on Brian Wilson’s spiritual outlook

Many thanks to Jesuit Media Lab for giving me the opportunity to remember Brian Wilson (pictured with me in 1988) with an essay: "Only God Can Make a Tree: The Cosmic Dreams of Brian Wilson."

Remembering Lou Christie

Lou Christie and I reconnected in the Facebook era on March 14, 2022.

This has been a rough week for me with deaths of great musicians I cared about and interviewed, first Brian Wilson and now Lou Christie. Lou's death hit me harder because I knew him better, and, unlike Brian, whose mind suffered considerable damage from substance abuse, trauma, and psychological illness, Lou was one-hundred-percent present when I interviewed him.

I interviewed Lou a couple of times in early 1993 for what he and his manager envisioned would become an "as told to" memoir. Sadly those plans fizzled—I'm not sure why (though my youth and inexperience as an author probably had something to do with it)—but I did write a brief press bio that his manager used as liner notes to a privately pressed CD of his hits. 

Lou was a supremely talented, terrifically gracious man who loved his fans. He was also a gifted lyricist who wrote songs that told stories—remarkable stories, sometimes with unreliable narrators. Listen to "If My Car Could Only Talk" and you'll feel for the poor soldier coming home from leave to his beloved girlfriend, only to suffer "a flash of suspicion: 'you learned a new way of kissin.'" Or "Rhapsody in the Rain," where he sings about the windshield wipers that once seemed to say "forever/forever" and now only say, "never, never."

Like so many fans, I was in love with "Lugee," and meeting him (chastely) did nothing whatsoever to remove his mystique. There are not a lot of artists of whom I can say that. Lou Christie was a star in the old Hollywood way, though his fame had come with the help of Philadelphia's "Idolmaker," Bob Marcucci. He was big; it's the screens and speakers that got small. I am grateful to have basked in the brief and brilliant glow of his lightning.

Hear me remember my times with Brian Wilson on the Waves and Words video podcast

With Brian at the Hotel Pierre in Manhattan, August 1988. Black-and-white photo taken with my camera (probably by Eugene Landy's assistant, Kevin Leslie) and hand-tinted by Nancy Leigh. A color photo from the same meeting can be seen on my LinkedIn page.

I will always be grateful to have interviewed Brian Wilson twice during my career as a rock-and-roll historian. Katie Webb recently interviewed me about Brian for her Beach Boys podcast, Waves and Words. Click here to watch it on YouTube.

I speak about Pope Leo XIV on The Lead with Jake Tapper

I had the great joy this evening of appearing on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper to discuss Pope Leo XIV's election. Later on, I hope to write about the Holy Father's namesake on my Substack, Matters Twomey, which chronicles my work on a biography of the great labor priest (and friend of Martin Luther King) Father Louis J. Twomey, SJ.

I explain to CNN that Church law bars lobbying conclave cardinals

Today on the CNN website, Vatican Correspondent Christopher Lamb's article on an effort by outside organizations to influence cardinals voting in the papal conclave includes a quote from me on what canon law has to say about the matter. In addition to the quote Lamb used in the piece, I told him that Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution governing conclaves, Universi Dominici Gregis, makes it quite clear that anyone who tries to exercise such influence is automatically excommunicated. To borrow a phrase used by the Canadian Prime Minister to the US President today, the Church is not for sale.

What does St. Joseph have to do with devotion to the Sacred Heart? Watch and find out!

A screenshot from my Sacred Heart talk at St. Joseph's on Capitol Hill

Tonight I had the joy of speaking on my new book The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times at my home parish, St. Joseph's on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Here is a a link to a brief clip of me speaking about its patron Joseph's love for Jesus. The full-length video appears below. (Some sound problems come up about eleven minutes in, which are resolved after a short while).

I would love to speak about The Sacred Heart in your town! If you would like to bring me to speak, write me at dawneden @ gmail.com.

“Father, I think we have a pope!” Where Peter Is publishes my reflection on Pope Francis

That's me in the pink scarf, awaiting the announcement of the new pope alongside students and a professor at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, DC, March 13, 2013. Photo by Genevieve Plaster.

At two in the afternoon of March 13, 2013, I popped into the office of a Dominican priest-professor at the Dominican House of Studies to make confession. From where I sat, facing Father’s desk, I could see the bell tower of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, just across Michigan Avenue. 

After Father absolved me, we chatted a bit. Suddenly, as the priest was speaking, the Basilica’s bells started pealing as though summoning the faithful for Mass. But I knew it wasn’t the time for Mass.

“Father!” I interrupted. “I think we have a pope!” 

I have never seen a Dominican run so fast as that priest dashed out the door, sputtering an excuse as he headed to watch the TV in the cloister, his white scapular aflutter. ...

Read the rest in "Francis Remembered: Bishop Richard Umbers and Dawn Eden Goldstein" at Where Peter Is.

Come hear me share the message of my new book on the Sacred Heart

I am excited to have a number of talks lined up to share the message of my new book The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times, including events in Washington, DC; New Jersey; and West Virginia. Please visit my Upcoming Talks page for details. To bring me to speak in your town, write me at dawneden @ gmail.com.