The Catholic Morning Show

The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. Be one of them: text GIVE to 515-223-1150 or give online at https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/giving-options

Day one of the 2026 Fall Fundraiser ends with a nail-biter. A Challenger Club member offered a five-times match if 12 listeners committed $25 a month for the next 12 months within the hour. Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell count every gift from zero to 12, and listeners came through to meet the challenge before 5 p.m.

In this episode:
- The 5X Challenger Club match: how 12 monthly donors at $25 a...

🌾 Be one of the laborers! Text GIVE to 515-223-1150 and we'll text you a link to securely become a monthly donor. Or give here: https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/giving-options

It's Day 1 of the 2026 Fall Fundraiser, "The Harvest is Abundant," and Bo Bonner and Janelle Minns are back in the studio for the 3 p.m. hour. Six people answered the call in the previous hour, and the goal is twelve every hour: twelve neighbors committing $25 a month for the next year to keep Catholic radio rolling. $18,000 raised so far.

IN THIS EPISODE
- Twenty-one yea...

GIVE JOYFULLY: Text GIVE to 515-223-1150 and a secure giving link will be sent to you, or give online at https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/giving-options. A monthly gift of $25 is less than a dollar a day and helps Iowa Catholic Radio keep connecting people to Christ!

The Harvest is Abundant, but the laborers are few! In the 2 PM hour of the Fall Fundraiser, Deacon Mark Campbell and Ayden Pugh share the joy of Day 1, welcome Director of Business Development Bill Marasco to the studio, and let listeners tell in their own words what Iowa Catholic Radio...

GIVE TODAY: Text the word GIVE to 515-223-1150 for a secure giving link, or give online at https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/giving-options. Be one of the laborers in The Harvest Is Abundant Fall Fundraiser: $25 a month for the next year.

Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 9 a.m. hour. Jeanne Thill and Bud Maher are joined by longtime listener Colleen Taki of St. John the Baptist in Adel for a joyful hour of stories about what Catholic radio means to Iowa families.

FUNDRAISER UPDATE

Be one of the laborers! Text GIVE to 515-223-1150 or give online at https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/giving-options. Your monthly gift keeps Iowa Catholic Radio connecting people to Christ.

It's the Fall Fundraiser, "The Harvest is Abundant," and this hour is full of hope. Deacon Mark Campbell and Julie Nelson (co-host of Catholic Women Now) welcome listeners into the mission and share why Catholic radio matters across Iowa.

In this episode:

JOIN THE HARVEST: Text GIVE to 515-223-1150 for a secure link, or give online at https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/giving-options

It's the first morning of the 2026 Fall Fundraiser, "The Harvest is Abundant," and the feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael! Iowa Catholic Radio launched on this feast day in 2005 and begins its 22nd year on the air today. Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell go live through 10:00 a.m. with stories from the people the mission has touched.

THE FALL FUNDRAISER GOAL
- Live programming continues over the next three and a...

Donice Cariglino, a parishioner at St. Anthony Parish on the south side of Des Moines for more than 50 years, joins Deacon Mark Campbell to kick off Respect Life Month, the USCCB's annual October call to prayer and awareness for the dignity of every human life.

Donice shares how her daughter's passion for the pro-life cause challenged her to look closely at what her everyday choices support, and why — as a lifelong teacher and first-grade catechist — she believes forming children early prepares them for the pressures they'll face in college and beyond. She and Deacon Mark discuss abortion, euth...

Deacon Tom Bradley — permanent deacon of the Diocese of Des Moines, retired U.S. Army colonel, and author — talks with Bo Bonner about his new novel, Dancing Without Applause: The Land Remembers. The book follows Lawrence and Irene, born around 1915 into a German Catholic family and an Irish Catholic family in central Iowa, as they grow up, fall in love, and marry despite the tension between their two communities.

Deacon Tom explains the history behind that tension: Irish immigrants often arrived first but with fewer resources, while German immigrants later bought up farmland more quickly, breeding resentment on b...

Deacon Mark Campbell and Ayden Pugh open the week on the Memorial of Saint Wenceslaus, martyr and "Good King" of Bohemia, with Mass today at 8:15 a.m. at St. Pius X (105.5 FM). Priests of the Diocese of Des Moines are away at a workshop this week, so many parishes will hold Communion services — keep them in your prayers.

Deacon Mark looks back on the ninth Christ Our Life Catholic Conference (September 26–27 in downtown Des Moines): Chris Stefanick's opening talk, Bishop Joseph Espaillat's youth breakout for 500+ high school and college students, Fr. David Michael Moses, Eucharistic adoration with Bish...

Episode Notes: Fr. Dan Kirby joins the Catholic Morning Show with a Sunday Gospel reflection for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday, September 27, 2026). In Matthew 21:28–32, one son tells his father he'll go work in the vineyard but never does, while the other refuses, then changes his mind and goes.

Fr. Dan opens with a football story: a young John Madden attending a coaching clinic where Vince Lombardi spent three hours on a single play, the famous Green Bay Sweep, stressing that precision and follow-through are everything. Our Lord, Fr. Dan says, isn't asking us to run th...

Tom Wilson, head football coach and athletic director at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, joins Deacon Mark Campbell on the day of a big road trip. A small-town kid from Monroe, Iowa, Coach Wilson reflects on 22 years at Dowling, the "dream job" where he raised three kids who all graduated from the school, and why Dowling's Catholic faith and close-knit community help students grow into the people God made them to be, whether they become doctors or electricians.

Coach Wilson and Deacon Mark talk about the rare partnership between Dowling Catholic and Iowa Catholic...

The morning after Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was declared "Blessed," Julie Nelson, co-host of Catholic Women Now, joins Bo Bonner from St. Louis to share what it was like to be there.

Julie describes an atmosphere unlike any Catholic convention or congress she's attended: priests and religious sisters from around the world, joyful reunions among women's religious orders, and the sense of the whole Church rallying around a future American saint. She reflects on the Midwest pride surrounding Sheen, a brilliant Illinois farm boy who became one of the most influential Catholic communicators in history, and shares...

Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell close out the week on the Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, with Mass today at 9 a.m. at Holy Spirit in Creston (90.9 FM), and remember Saint Finbar, the bishop and patron of Cork, Ireland.

Fr. Dan Kirby previews this Sunday's Gospel (Matthew 21:28–32), the parable of the two sons, using Vince Lombardi's famous "Green Bay Sweep" lesson on follow-through to show how Christ, who "emptied himself" in Philippians 2, calls us to back up our words with action. Read Sunday's readings at USCCB.org.

Julie Nelson, co-host of Ca...

Deacon Randy Kiel joins Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell for his weekly look at the Sunday Mass readings, this time for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday, September 27, 2026).

In Ezekiel 18:25–28, the Lord confronts Israel's complaint that His ways are unfair. Deacon Randy points out that God hears our grumbling and answers it, which makes even our complaints a kind of prayer. The Lord's answer shifts the focus from short-term disappointment to eternal consequences. The righteous person who turns to sin faces spiritual death, while the wicked person who turns back to righteousness saves his life.

Nick Rahe, owner and operator of Cheeses n' Jesus Cheesecake Co., a home-based cheesecake company in Ankeny, joins Bo Bonner to talk faith, business, and building a Catholic economy in central Iowa. Nick shares how years of job-hopping and burnout brought him to adoration to surrender his work to God, and how a disappointing auction cheesecake sparked the idea for a business he says was guided step by step in prayer, from the name to the pricing. He baked his first cheesecake in April 2025; today he tops each one with an image of Jesus or the Catholic faith, perfect...

Debbie Cowden, senior manager of social media for EWTN, joins Deacon Mark Campbell to talk about EWTN Parents, a new Instagram initiative she launched with EWTN colleague Caroline Perkins that topped a million views in its first month. A lifelong Catholic and working mom of four children under ten, Debbie co-wrote The Prayer Book for Tired Parents (EWTN Publishing) with her husband, Dave, and brings that same real-life, Mother Angelica–inspired humor to EWTN Parents.

Debbie explains why there's no one-size-fits-all program for raising saints, whether you homeschool or use Catholic schools, have a child with special ne...

Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell open the show on the historical Feast of Our Lady of Ransom, on a landmark day for the Church: the beatification of Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen this afternoon at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, with an estimated 50,000 Catholics expected to attend. Iowa Catholic Radio carries full EWTN coverage today beginning at 9 a.m. (regular programming interrupted), with Teresa Tomeo setting the stage on Catholic Connection at 8 a.m. Mass today at 8:30 a.m. at Saint Anthony in Knoxville (95.7 FM).

Deacon Randy Kiel previews this Sunday's readings for the 26...

Barry Rowan joins Deacon Mark Campbell in studio for an extended conversation on faith, money, and meaningful work. Barry has been part of eight companies, six of them highly successful, including one that sold for $10 billion. He shares how, as a Harvard Business School graduate helping lead one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., he hit a crisis of meaning, stepped away from church, and spent eight months reading sixteen books before God rebuilt his faith with Christ as the foundation.

Barry then walks through three principles that reshaped his relationship with money:

Deacon Mark Campbell and Ayden Pugh open Wednesday on the Memorial of Saint Padre Pio, with Mass today at 8 a.m. at Saint Mary's in Centerville (105.3 FM). Saint of the Day remembers the Capuchin priest who received the stigmata on September 20, 1918, heard confessions by the hour, founded the House for the Relief of Suffering hospital, and died on this day in 1968.

Barry Rowan joins Deacon Mark in studio for two segments. Barry has helped start or turn around eight companies, including one that sold for $10 billion, and chairs the Harvard Business School Christian Fellowship. He describes the...

Jason Gale, Vice President of Content and Production at TAN Books, joins Bo Bonner to talk about the Purgatorian Manual. The Redemptorist Fathers, the order founded by Saint Alphonsus Liguori, first published this treasury of prayers for the faithful departed in 1894, and TAN has now restored it after it had largely fallen out of print. Jason explains that the book is meant for use every day of the year, with a special intensity in November.

Highlights inside the book:

Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell open a crisp, rainy first day of fall on the Tuesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time. Today's Mass is at 8:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart in Osage (89.3 FM). The hosts also swap childhood pet stories, including a grandmother's pet skunk, prompted by the tale of "Big Guy," a 100-pound African spurred tortoise. Big Guy was captured after more than three weeks on the loose in eastern North Carolina, and along the way he crossed four lanes of Highway 70.

Jason Gale of TAN Books joins the show to introduce the...

David DiCerto, Director of Content Strategy at Castletown Media, joins Deacon Mark Campbell to talk about his path into Catholic filmmaking and the saint at the center of Castletown's documentary Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality. Born in London and raised in Milan, Carlo died of leukemia at 15 and was canonized by Pope Leo XIV as the Church's first millennial saint. Pope Francis called him "God's influencer." David explains that Carlo used websites and technology to lead people offline and toward the Eucharist.

The film blends Carlo's biography with interviews featuring voices like Chris Stefanick and Carlo's mother...

Henri Nouwen died suddenly on September 21, 1996, at age 64. Thirty years later, Stephen Lazarus, Literary Manager of the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust, joins Deacon Mark Campbell to explain why Nouwen's writing is finding new readers everywhere, from young adults to seminary professors in Mongolia. Stephen describes Nouwen's journey as a Dutch-born Catholic priest who taught at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard before finding belonging at the L'Arche Daybreak community in Toronto, living among people with intellectual and physical disabilities.

At the heart of Nouwen's roughly 39 books is one message: you are not your bank account, your reputation, or...

Deacon Mark Campbell and Ayden Pugh open the week on the Feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle, with Mass today at 12:10 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Ambrose in Des Moines (105.5 FM). After a look at Matthew's portrayal in The Chosen, the hosts trace the Church's long history with fall flavors: cappuccino from the Capuchin friars, Trappist beer, Carthusian chartreuse, and Saint Hildegard of Bingen's spiced remedies as a possible forerunner of the pumpkin spice latte.

Stephen Lazarus, Literary Manager of the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust, marks 30 years since Nouwen's death on September 21, 1996. He explains why...

Fr. Dan Kirby of Norwalk joins the Catholic Morning Show to prepare listeners for Mass this Sunday, September 20, the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. He walks through how each of the readings shows the generosity of God:

Fr. Dan begins wi...

Montgomery Carson, community engagement coordinator for Iowa Homeless Youth Centers (a YSS organization), joins Bo Bonner to preview Reggie's Sleepout on Friday, October 9, at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. The event honors Reggie Kelsey, a young man who aged out of Iowa's foster care system and was later found dead in the Des Moines River. His death led to aftercare services that now support young people leaving foster care.

Montgomery explains why the cause is urgent: more than 750 families in local school districts are currently counted as homeless. She lays out the day:

Aimee McDonald, executive director of Dorothy's House in Des Moines, talks with Deacon Mark Campbell, talks with Deacon Mark Campbell about serving women whose lives have been interrupted by human trafficking. Dorothy's House is the only complete continuum of care for trafficking survivors in Iowa and the Midwest, and one of very few in the country. Its care includes:

Bo Bonner and producer Ayden Pugh wrap up the week on the Memorial of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, the famously "levitating saint" and patron of aviators and air travelers. Today's Mass is at 12:05 p.m. at Holy Family in Newton (89.3 FM).

Fr. Dan Kirby of Norwalk previews the readings for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, including Matthew 20:1–16, the parable of the workers in the vineyard. He explains how the readings show the generosity of God, whose love is offered even at the last hour. He also tells the story of the Diocese of Des Moines' mid-century de...

Michele Sagarino, president of Cross Catholic Outreach, joins Bo Bonner with 99 days left until Christmas and a global gift operation already in motion. Michele explains how the Box of Joy program began: as the ministry worked in dozens of countries providing water, housing, and food, staff realized that nearly every child they met had never experienced Christmas at all.

Michele walks through how simple participation is. Individuals and groups — parishes, Catholic schools, Knights of Columbus councils, youth groups — raise their hand as group leaders, and Cross Catholic Outreach ships them the boxes and brochures they need. Families fill...

Deacon Randy Kiel returns to the Catholic Morning Show with Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell for his weekly preparation for Sunday Mass, this week on the first and second readings.

He begins in Isaiah 55, reading the prophets as living word rather than closed history. The remnant of Israel — the portion that stayed faithful — has responded to God's invitation, and now receives a command: call upon him, because you need him for salvation. Deacon Randy walks through the prophet's summons to the scoundrel and the wicked to abandon not only their ways but their very thoughts, and to t...

Deacon Nicholas Elliott, co-coordinator of Rural Life Ministry for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, joins Bo Bonner to preview the archdiocese's third annual Rural Life Mass and to explain what rural ministry actually involves.

The details: Friday, September 18, Mass at 10:30 a.m., Lichty Family Farm, 8110 Ansborough Ave, Waterloo, Iowa. A recognition and awards program and a free-will lunch follow. Archbishop Thomas Zinkula — a farm boy himself — will celebrate the Mass and offer blessings over the seeds, the crops, and the animals. The Mass happens rain or shine, with a canopy added as a last-minute contingency for the forecast.

Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell open Thursday on the Memorial of Saint Hildegard of Bingen — the Sibyl of the Rhine, mystic, composer, herbalist, and correspondent of four popes, named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. Mass today at noon at Saint Patrick's in Corning (90.9 FM).

Deacon Randy Kiel returns for his weekly look ahead to Sunday's readings, walking through Isaiah 55's call to "seek the Lord while he may be found" and the summons for the wicked to turn to a generous, forgiving God — a passage he ties directly to the Lord's Pray...

Emily Jaminet — author, speaker, and co-founder of Inspire the Faith — joins Deacon Mark Campbell to talk about something she's seeing firsthand in her role helping lead OCIA at her parish in the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio: programs there have nearly doubled, matching a broader trend of growing interest in the Catholic faith among young people documented by Vatican News. Her point to listeners is that there's still time this fall to invite a neighbor, a family member, or another school parent to take a closer look at the Church.

Emily walks through the practical work of accompaniment. She...

Steve Ray — author, filmmaker, Catholic convert, and certified Holy Land guide — joins Deacon Mark Campbell just back from two September pilgrimages, one through the Catholic heritage of Ireland and another to Lourdes, Fatima, and sites across Portugal, Spain, and France. Steve shares that after 21 years of leading trips, including 100 groups through the Holy Land alone with the same Catholic Nazarene guide, recovery from jet lag now takes about a week instead of two days.

Steve unpacks what a pilgrimage actually is: the word "pilgrim" means a sojourner or foreigner traveling in a strange land, and the practice pred...

Deacon Mark Campbell opens Wednesday alongside Ayden Pugh on the Memorial of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, with Mass today at 9 a.m. at Saint Mary's in Albia (95.7 FM). Deacon Mark reflects on courageous, ordinary witnesses to the faith — from a 9/11 family member who closed her remembrance at the 25th anniversary memorial with the Saint Michael Prayer, to a young girl at a rec-league softball game whose sign of the cross changed how he prays in public ever since.

Steve Ray joins the show fresh off back-to-back pilgrimages to Ireland and to Lourdes and Fatima. Steve explains what ac...

Mike Aquilina, author of more than fifty books on the Church Fathers and Catholic history, joins Bo Bonner to discuss The Power of Love, Fulton Sheen's short meditation on love, newly rereleased by Ignatius Press with a foreword by Mike. He explains the book's long absence from print: it opens by assuming the recency of John F. Kennedy's assassination, which made it look dated to publishers — but past that opening, Mike argues, it's one of Sheen's most profound and clearest treatments of what love actually is.

Mike and Bo talk through Sheen's method: taking love from its ro...

Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell open Tuesday on the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, with Mass today at 8 a.m. at Saint Patrick's in Melrose (105.3 FM). The hosts also send birthday wishes to Pope Leo XIV, who turned 71 on Monday and spent the day at the Vatican Apostolic Library — opening a new exhibit, ordering an expansion of the Vatican Apostolic Archive and Library, and speaking about libraries as places of relationship and exchange, not just books. Bo notes the personal connection: the Holy Father's mother was a librarian.

Author Mike Aquilina joins the show to di...

Gregory Kinser joins Deacon Mark Campbell as a full-time FOCUS parish missionary at St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll, Iowa — part of a new push by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students to take its campus model into parishes after 25 years of college ministry.

Gregory's own introduction to FOCUS was atypical. He attended Iowa State from 2017 to 2021 without ever connecting with the missionary team there, and only encountered FOCUS later through his now-wife Chloe, who was a few years behind him. What struck him first wasn't a program — it was the missionaries' personal prayer lives and the...

Dr. John Sehorn, academic dean of the Graduate School of Theology at the Augustine Institute and an associate professor of theology there since 2015, sits down with Deacon Mark Campbell to talk about theological formation for a changing world. Dr. Sehorn begins where every baptized Christian begins — sharing in the Church's missionary mandate to bear witness to the Gospel — and explains why the need for deep formation is especially urgent now, given challenges Pope Leo has highlighted that are less about technology than about what it means to be human.

He describes the stability and reliability of God's Word...

Deacon Mark Campbell opens Monday, September 14 — the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross — filling in for Bo Bonner alongside Ayden Pugh. After the Saint of the Day reflection on St. Helena's recovery of the Holy Cross and its return by Emperor Heraclius in 629, Deacon Mark and Ayden talk relics: how a splinter of the True Cross is authenticated, the old quip about there being enough fragments worldwide to rebuild Noah's Ark, and why sacramentals exist to lift our minds and hearts toward Christ's suffering, resurrection, and our salvation. Deacon Mark also connects the feast to Sunday's Gospel on f...