Catholic Momcast

This week, Danielle Bean sits down with Mary Beth Iduh from Catholic Relief Services where she manages Changing the Way We Care, an initiative that helps families stay together, in spite of poverty and other challenging circumstances.

Research from earlier this year found that more than 1 million children have lost at least one parent to the pandemic and unfortunately, in large part due to poverty, many parents feel they have no choice but to send their children to an orphanage – where sadly they are often at risk for abuse or neglect. A striking stat your listeners might not know is at least 80% of children currently living in orphanages actually have at least one living parent.

Mary Beth shares what CRS is doing to help these families stay together and how they plan to expand this work across the globe.

Go here to learn more about Changing the Way We Care. Send us your feedback in the comments and at [email protected]

This week, Allison Gingras sits down with children's book author Katie Warner to talk about children's literature and the ways that books can encourage kids' faith.

Katie' newest book is The Tiny Seed. Through charming illustrations and a beautiful, scriptural storyline, The Tiny Seed reveals the deep truth of our God-given uniqueness, and the incredible process your children will undergo as they grow into the person God wants them to be.

Learn more about Katie warner and all of her work at KatieWarner.com. Follow Katie on Instagram!

Join us for this encouraging and inspiring conversation.

Our special guest this week is Miles Foley, general manager and director of 5 Stones, a creative agency, warehouse, and customer service team that supports Catholic organizations.

Miles sits down with Danielle Bean to discuss the importance of small Catholic businesses and creators and the ways that Cedar House, as part of the work at 5 Stones, is supporting their efforts.

There is so much negativity in the world today, but Miles really encourages us to focus on the good and positive things that are happening in the Church. You will come away inspired to do good work yourself to further God's Kingdom on earth, as well as hopeful for the future of the Church.

Our guests this week are Annie Tarr and Sarah O'Brien, hosts of Laughs and Littles, a podcast for mothers looking for friendship, parenting encouragement, and a lot of laughs! They are both mothers (all together they have 7 children) and converts to the Catholic faith, both from California, and they first met in the midwest while our husbands were graduate students studying Theology at Notre Dame.

These two joy-filled friends sit down with Danielle Bean to discuss the importance of friendships for moms, some of the challenges to modern day friendships, and how we can go about finding and keeping the friends we need.

Join us for an enlightening and inspiring discussion, and then share your thoughts and questions in the comments, by email or connect with us on social media. You can contact us at [email protected]

Do you make New Year resolutions? In this week's episode, Danielle Bean and Allison Gingras discuss the start of a new year and some goals they have for 2022 in their work, family, friendships, and personal lives.

How about you? What are your new plans for a new year? We would love to hear from you. Send us an email at [email protected] or connect with us on social media.