Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill sit down with Baylor University sociologist Dr. Laura Upenieks to unpack why so many young people believe faith and science can't coexist. Fresh off her February address to U.S. bishops at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Upenieks shares new research on religious disaffiliation, clergy engagement with science, and the surprising link between awe, spirituality, and wellbeing among scientists. It's a thoughtful, data-rich conversation about restoring trust between two institutions too often framed as rivals.
Segment 1: Meet Dr. Laura Upenieks
Bishop Joensen and Jean Thill welcome Dr. Laura Upenieks, Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director at Baylor University, whose research centers on religion and health, aging and the life course, and quantitative methods. She traces her path from a quantitative health sociology background at the University of Toronto to a faculty position at Baylor, where her Catholic faith and scholarly work intersect daily. The conversation was inspired by her recent presentation to U.S. bishops.
Segment 2: The Sociology of Faith and Science
Dr. Upenieks unpacks her February talk, delivered at a national conference at the University of Notre Dame titled "The Relation Between Science and Faith as a Pastoral Issue in an Age of Disaffiliation," co-sponsored by the USCCB Committee on Doctrine and the McGrath Institute for Church Life, held in collaboration with the Society of Catholic Scientists, running February 23–25. She discusses how the "conflict" between faith and science is a socially constructed boundary rather than an inherent one, referencing sociologist Christian Smith's critique of the discipline's secular assumptions. She also outlines three models of clergy engagement with science — critical, disengaged, and "engaged/hospitable" — and connects the conversation to Pope Leo XIV's May 2026 encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.
Segment 3: From the Classroom to the Culture
The discussion turns to how Catholic schools can model integration between faith and science, with a nod to the work of Dr. Chris Baglow, who leads the Science & Religion Initiative at Notre Dame's McGrath Institute for Church Life, and Heather Foucault-Camm, the initiative's program director. Dr. Upenieks also references her published research with Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan, a sociologist at the Catholic University of America, on awe, spirituality, and wellbeing among academic scientists. The episode closes with a cautiously hopeful look at recent conversion trends and what it will take to rebuild trust between the Church and the scientific community.
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