Vatican Insider

This week I was blessed to interview 3 amazing cast members of the TV series, THE CHOSEN – Vanessa Benavente Mother Mary, Elizabeth Tabish -Mary Magdalen and George Xanthus as John The Apostle as they visited Rome after filming the Crucifixion and Season 6 in Matera, Italy. Join us for Vatican Insider!

Welcome to Vatican Insider on another hot summer weekend in Rome and so many parts of the world! Relax, enjoy a cool drink and let me bring you the news and a great interview! After the news segment, stay tuned for Part II of my conversation with Catherine Wiley and Marilyn Henry of the Catholic Grandparents Association as we continue our talk about the first international conference that CGA rece...

Welcome to Vatican Insider on another exciting Jubilee weekend in a very hot Rome – the Jubilee of Sports with a lot of events in the agenda including the Mass on Sunday the 15th celebrated by Pope Leo XIV, a Pope who likes sports, and has played tennis, and is a fan of his native Chicago’s baseball team, the White Sox. In fact, he was given a White Sox baseball cap at the Wednesday general audien...

Please join me this weekend in the interview segment of Vatican Insider for Part II of my conversation with my very special friend and guest, Msgr. Roger Landry! If you watched EWTN television at any time (probably most of the time) from April 21st when Pope Francis died – you know Msgr. Roger Landry, one third of the team that covered the big events recently at the Vatican that culminated in the...

What a guest I have for you this week on Vatican Insider in the interview segment! If you’ve watched EWTN television at any time this month – and very likely most every day since April 21st when Pope Francis died – you know Msgr. Roger Landry, one third of the team that covered the big events at the Vatican this past month, culminating in the May 8 election of Pope Leo XIV.

Welcome to Vatican Insider on another historic weekend – the second with our new Holy Father, American-born Augustinian, Pope Leo XIV. In fact, the inaugural Mass of his pontificate takes place on Sunday, May 18 in St. Peter’s Square. St. John Paul’s birthday was May 18 – he would have been 105! This week, in what is normally the interview segment of Vatican Insider, I’ve prepared a Special on the...

Habemus Papam! History! A miracle! The first ever Pope, Successor to St Peter, Vicar of Christ, from The United States! Also, a word about my guests in the second part of my interview segment this week: two friends who have been in Rome for many years, John and Ashley Noronha. Anyone in Rome with even a remote link to the Church – people working in the Vatican, the Roman Curia, our seminary here i...

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this second weekend without a Pope! Such a strange feeling! Most of VI’s news segment this week will, of course, be dedicated to this period known as the sede vacante – the vacant see – from which we get our word vacancy! Another word is interregnum – the period between two reigning pontiffs. First, a word about my guests in the interview segment this week: two friend...

This week, in what is normally the interview segment of Vatican Insider, I bring you on a pilgrimage with the Via Lucis! After the news segment and the Q&A on the Paschal candle, stay tuned for the special story about the Via Lucis, the Way of Light, basically a post-Easter journey through 14 stations of light, the light that fills our life because of the Resurrection. This devotion is also known...

In the interview segment this weekend, I present Part II of a Special I‘ve prepared on a piece of cloth linked to the Resurrection, a piece of linen called the Shroud of Turin that many believe to be the cloth that wrapped the body of Christ in the tomb.

Greetings from Rome on this Palm Sunday weekend! Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, that extraordinarily solemn time of the year leading up to the Easter of the Resurrection. In the interview segment this weekend, I present Part I of a Special I ‘ve prepared on a piece of cloth linked to the Resurrection, a piece of linen called the Shroud of Turin that many believe to be the cloth that wrapped...

On April 2 we marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Pope St. John Paul at 9:37 pm on April 2, 2005, vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, the new name given to the Second Sunday of Easter by John Paul! To commemorate that day and those years I have prepared a special about a man – a priest, a pope and a saint. It is about a life and legacy, seen through my memories and those of Cardinal Pietro Parol...

On Tuesday, March 25, we marked one of most important feast days of the Church, the Annunciation, the day when Mary said ‘Yes’ to the Angel Gabriel – thus to God’s plan for her life – and the Word was made flesh, and our Redeemer was conceived – the one whose passion, death and Resurrection we will commemorate in Holy Week and Easter Sunday. I mention this because this week, instead of an intervie...

Thanks for tuning in to Vatican Insider on this thrd weekend of Lent. Instead of a guest this weekend in the interview segment, I’m airing a special I’ve prepared on a Lenten tradition that is unique to Rome – the Lenten station churches. I offer a mini-pilgrimage of sorts as we visit some of the Station churches in Rome, very special churches that tell a beautiful story over the 40 days of Lent,...

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this second weekend of Lent 2025! Challenging times at the Vatican so there’s a lot of news this week but I do have a very uplifting story in the interview segment of VI and my conversation with Deacon Andy Orosco of the diocese of San Bernardino in California. As you heard in Part I of our conversation last week, Andy is a Native American who works in the Native Amer...

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this second weekend of March and the first days of Lent 2025! Challenging times at the Vatican so there’s a lot of news this week but I do have a very uplifting story in the interview segment of VI and my conversation with Deacon Andy Orosco of the diocese of San Bernardino in California. Andy is a Native American who works in the Native American Ministry in the dioce...

This week, in what is normally the interview segment of Vatican Insider, I’ve prepared a Special on the beautiful Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, just south of Naples. Why this shrine this week? Well, just this week Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree of canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo who founded this shrine in the 19th century. Bartolo Longo’s life story sho...

Welcome to Vatican Insider! After this week’s news report, you will not want to miss the interview segment and Part II of my conversation with Tess Livingstone, veteran Australian journalist, as we talk about her latest best seller, “Pax Invictus,” on the life, times and legacy of the late, great Australian Cardinal George Pell.

Welcome to Vatican Insider at this midpoint in February, the shortest month of the year! And Happy Valentine’s Day! After this week’s news report and Q&A, you will not want to miss the interview segment and my conversation with Tess Livingstone, veteran Australian journalist, as we talk about her latest best seller, “Pax Invictus,” on the life, times and legacy of the late, great Australian Cardin...

Welcome back to Part II of my conversation with Fr. Ryan Brady, a priest and dear friend from Chicago, who talks with great beauty and profound love about his priesthood and where life has taken him since his May 2021 ordination. We spoke recently when he was in Rome on a Jubilee Year visit with the Chicago Chapter of the PAVM, Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums. We talk about that visit,...

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this first weekend of February 2025! I have a great story for you this week and next when my guest in the interview segment, Fr. Ryan Brady, a priest and dear friend from Chicago, talks about his priesthood and where life has taken him since his May 2021 ordination.

Don’t forget to tune in to Vatican Insider this last weekend of January, a weekend after the March for Life in Washington, D.C. My guest in the interview segment is Alveda King, a prominent figure on pro-life issues, and the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. This holiday was signed into law by President R...

Welcome to Vatican Insider on a weekend that precedes a presidential inauguration, Martin Luther King Day and the football game between Notre Dame and Ohio that will determine the US collegiate football championship! The news segment starts in a moment and after that, stay right here for Part II of my conversation with Benedictine Fr. Edward Linton, Director of the Institute for Continuing Theolog...

This week, we revisit my interview with American seminarians Patrick Ernst and Nicholas Monnin of the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana. These remarkable young men talk of their call to the priesthood – how they heard ‘the call’, what they expect of priesthood but most importantly, the very joy they feel at the mere idea of being a priest! They talk of some of the highlights of living in...

I want to welcome you this weekend to the first edition of Vatican Insider in this New Year, in this 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. May it be a wonderful happy, hope-filled year for all of you! As usual, at the start of VI, you’ll hear lots of news highlights and then you’ll meet my special guest in the interview segment…Fr. Edward Linton, the Director of the Institute for Continuing Theological Educa...