Vatican Insider

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.