Vatican Insider

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this Palm Sunday weekend. A beautiful, solemn Holy Week now awaits us – just a week away from the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior! After the news highlights of the week, Nigeria came to us in Rome because my guest in the interview segment is Bishop Emmanul Badejo of Oyo, Nigeria, a friend of many years. My first interview with him was all about his ministry young people in Nigeria.

In this week’s interview segment, I share Part II of my conversation with two amazing men, Craig Johring and Danny Leger, who are truly doing the Lord’s work of caring for the least of our brethren through HOPE OF THE POOR.

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this Valentine’s Day weekend, half way through this 28-day month, the shortest month of the year! This weekend in the interview segment, I feature two amazing men, Craig Johring and Danny Leger, who are truly doing the Lord’s work of caring for the least of our brethren through “Hope Of The Poor”.

in this week’s Vatican Insider American seminarians Patrick Ernst and Nicholas Monnin of the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana. Both are in their second year of studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. We met last fall over dinner at my home with their ordinary, Bishop Kevin Rhoades. (Originally aired on 2/16/24)

In place of an interview segment this weekend on Vatican Insider, I’ve prepared a Special – a fact-filled, fun-filled feature I’m calling DID YOU KNOW THAT …? I’m going to focus on some interesting tidbits about St. Peter’s Basilica. We’ll look at the basilica’s dome, bronze markings on its floor and a statue of the apostle, saint and pope for whom the church is named. Join me!

Join me again this week on Vatican Insider for a very special treat when Kathleeen Jagger, president of Newman University in Wichita, Kansas, returns to VI in Part II of our conversation as we further explore Newman University today. In particular, we talk about the mission of education as seen by Cardinal John Henry Newman, proclaimed last November 1st as Doctor of the Church and co-patron with St. Thomas Aquinas of the Church’s education mission.

Join me this week on Vatican Insider for a very special treat as my guest in the interview segment is Kathleeen Jagger, president of Newman University in Wichita, Kansas. We met when she was in Rome last November for the Jubilee of Education and for the November 1st declaration of Cardinal John Henry Newman as a Doctor of the Church and co-patron with St. Thomas Aquinas of the Church’s education mission.

Welcome back to Vatican Insider on this second weekend of our brand NewYear! And what a week it was! Tuesday, January 6, the Church celebrated the feast of the Epiphany and the closing of the final Holy Door at St. Peter’s basilica, thus ending the Jubilee of Hope. The American couple you met last week on the interview segment, Craig and Laura Schlattmann are my guests again this week in Part II of our conversation and they tell us more about the many times this past year they served as volunteers for the Jubilee of Hope. Join me!

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this first weekend of our brand NewYear! My guests this weekend can tell you all you need to know about that door ad many other things linked to the 2025 Jubilee of Hope because they spent this past year in Rome. I’m talking about Craig and Laura Schlattmann, an American couple who came to Italy for a year as volunteers for the Jubilee of Hope and who are also active parishioners of St. Patrick’s, the Catholic American community in Rome.

As you’ll hear me say at the start of this Christmastime Special, I want to welcome you to Vatican Insider on this festive weekend between Christmas and San Silvestro, New Year’s Day! A time of rejoicing over the birth of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and a time to look forward with hope to a New Year that often allows us to “start over.”

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this final weekend of Advent! I know that in these days we’re all getting our homes ready for guests and shared meals and telling stories around a Christmas tree and Nativity scene but we are also getting ready, in a prayerful and joy-filled fashion, to welcome our Lord and Savior on December 25! Christmas is thus special and that is exactly what I offer you this week in what is normally the interview segment – a Special on celebrating Christmas in the Vatican and Rome! I actually researched and recorded this a couple of years ago but it is all so relevant and beautiful and interesting that I want to share it again! And the reaction was quite wonderful so, here we go again!

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this third weekend of Advent, when we mark Gaudete Sunday, a reminder of the joy that comes with the anticipation of Christ’s birth. Join me in the interview segment for Part II of my conversation with Patrick Reilly, a friend of many years and founder in 1993 of the Cardinal Newman Society.

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this first weekend of December 2025. My guest in the interview segment is Patrick Reilly, a friend of many years and founder in 1993 of the Newman Society. We spoke when he was in Rome for the November 1 declaration by Pope Leo of Cardinal John Henry Newman as doctor of the Church.

In this edition of Vatican Insider we present the second part of The Kingship of Christ interview. My guests are Aidan Gallagher, head of EWTN Ireland, and Jesuit Fr. Bernard McCuckian, principal narrator of “The Kingship of Christ,” a documentary produced by EWTN Ireland. Other protagonists of this 4-part documentary on Christ the King that premiered November 18 in the Vatican’s filmoteca or film library include Fr. Mark Lewis, SJ, Rector of the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Angelicum, the Dominican university in Rome.

Welcome to a new edition of Vatican Insider on this penultimate weekend in November! My guests in the interview segment this weekend are Aidan Gallagher, head of EWTN Ireland, and Jesuit Fr. Bernard McCuckian, principal narrator of “The Kingship of Christ,” a documentary produced by EWTN Ireland. Other protagonists of this 4-part documentary on Christ the King that premiered November 18 in the Vatican’s filmoteca or film library include Fr. Mark Lewis, SJ, Rector of the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Angelicum, the Dominican university in Rome. This Sunday, of course, November 23, 2025 is the feast of Christ the King. This year, in fact, marks the 100th anniversary of its institution by Pope Pius XI on Dec. 11, 1925 at the end of that Jubilee Year. The four parts explore the meaning and origins of the term “kingship” in Sacred Scripture, the nature of Christ’s kingship, its rise to prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries, and how His reign continues to be realized in the world today.

In part II of our conversation, my special guests are Marlene Watkins, founder of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality – North American Volunteers, and Bishop Douglas Lucia of Syracuse, New York, who is the chaplain for the group. Don't miss on this special edition of Vatican Insider.

My special guests this week in the interview segment are Marlene Watkins, founder of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality – North American Volunteers and Bishop Douglas Lucia of Syracuse, New York, who is the chaplain for the group. Join us!