Vatican Insider

It was a very big and important week here, especially with the presentation on Monday May 25 of Pope Leo’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas. I’ll look at that, of course, but now just a line about my special guests in the interview segment – Frank and Mary Frost, film producers whom I met not long ago in Rome at the screening of one of their premier documentaries “Teilhard, Visionary Scientist.” That’s French Jesuit scientist, paleontologist and scholar, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. A truly amazing story!

We met again at Georgetown University when I was in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, and spoke about their work and this documentary in particular as both Frank and Mary feel it is time to introduce Teilhard de Chardin to a new generation.Founded in 1985 by Frank and Mary Frost, Frank Frost Productions is, as their site says, an award-winning film and television production company dedicated to producing entertaining and informational programming and independent documentaries. More than 100 million viewers have watched over 30 high-caliber FFP documentaries focusing on historical, biographical, cultural, and religious subjects in pursuit of human understanding across cultures, nationalities, and religions.
What is the Teilhard project and film about?

In their words: “A captivating human story (Indiana Jones meets Galileo) about scientific adventure (discovery of Peking Man), religious repression, and a love story, with a seemingly tragic end.”

Anyone in Rome with even a remote link to the Church – people working in the Vatican, the Roman Curia, our seminary here in Rome, etc – will have at some point crossed paths with Ashley and John! They have wonderful individual stories but together, as a couple, their story is the Truth and Beauty Project. So tune in this weekend to learn about immersion in Truth and Beauty!

Welcome to Vatican Insider at an exciting time for Pope Leo as we follow him in Africa on his third international apostolic trip, traveling in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. He returns to Rome on April 23. After the news summary, stay tuned for my special guest this week in the interview segment – Andreas Widmer, an Associate Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship at CUA’s (the Catholic University of America) Busch School of Business since the fall of 2012.

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, 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.

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.