Vatican Insider

This week, in what is normally the interview segment of “Vatican Insider” that follows the news review, I’ve prepared a Special on the Seven Sorrows of Mary as a prelude to Holy Week. Perhaps we rarely think of the Seven Sorrows of Mary but there are many times during the year when reflections on those sorrows can be useful and inspiring. In fact, the final four of those 7 sorrows are all related to Christ’s passion and death, so in this Lenten season, as a lead-up to the Passion, let’s take a look. Maybe I should first ask: Can you name the seven sorrows of Mary? Did you know that Our Lady revealed seven promises to St. Bridget of Sweden in the 14th century for those who recite seven Hail Marys daily while reflecting on her tears and sorrows? The promises are truly amazing!

Because of recent, exciting news from the Jesuit-run Vatican Observatory, in the interview segment of “Vatican Insider” this weekend, I bring you on a visit to the Vatican’s specola or Observatory. What was the news? Well, in February, the Observatory announced that the Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) published their latest batch of named asteroids that includes 3 Jesuit astronomers and a Pope. The Vatican is a prestigious member of the IAU. Two Vatican telescopes are on the apostolic palace at Castelgandolfo but the Vatican’s latest generation of telescopes – VATT (Vatican Advanced Telescope Technology – are on Mount Graham near Tucson. The Special I’ve prepared will tell you why they are in Arizona.

Tune in as Joan Lewis, the Vatican Insider, takes us into the latest news from the Vatican and the Church around the world. Then stay tuned for the final part of her interview with Deacon Brad Easterbrooks on Military Chaplaincy."

"Tune in as Joan Lewis, the Vatican Insider, takes us into the latest news from the Vatican and the Church around the world. Then stay tuned for the first part of her interview with Deacon Brad Easterbrooks on Military Chaplaincy."

Joan Lewis presents a special on Italy's Shrine of Pompeii and Lenten Station Churches in Rome.

My guest this week in the interview segment is Sr. Gabriella Bonnati, the dedicated and enthusiastic international coordinator of Talitha Kum, the Catholic network against human trafficking under the auspices of UISG (International Union of Superiors General). This week and next, we talk about the name Talitha Kum, how people are trained to help rescue women from traffickers, how rescued women are cared for and reinserted into society, the difficulties nations have with stopping human trafficking, and much more!

My guests this weekend in the interview segment of “Vatican Insider” are Fr. Ramil Fajardo, rector of the National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Chicago, sculptor Lou Cella and Carol Christiansen, a St. Cabrini fan, follower and enthusiast and the inspiration for this week’s story. The four of us are united by our faith, by the fact we are all Chicagoans and by our common love for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, better known to millions as Mother Cabrini. You’ll hear a bit about Mother Cabrini’s life in this four-way conversation but more importantly what brings a small delegation from Chicago to Rome for a week. Don’t miss this!

This week, in the interview segment of “Vatican Insider,” I present Part II of a real ‘insider’ story – a conversation with Alexey Gotovsky, my multi lingual, multi talented colleague from Kazakhstan in the EWTN Rome Office. Last week you learned about his childhood in a country flanked by India, China and Russia and heard about his road to Rome and EWTN. And now, the rest of Alexey’s story including his trip to his native Kazakhstan with Pope Francis! I could tell so many similar, interesting stories if my only interviews were with the staff of our Rome bureau and other EWTN offices throughout Europe – amazing, talented, very bright people who, on screen or behind the scenes in video and audio editing studios, bring you into the Catholic Church and bring the Church to you!

This week, in the interview segment of “Vatican Insider,” I present a real ‘insider’ story – that of my colleague in the EWTN Rome bureau, Alexey Gotovsky who hails from Kazakhstan. Learn about his childhood in a country flanked by India, China and Russia and hear about his road to Rome and EWTN. I could tell so many similar, interesting stories if my only interviews were with the staff of our Rome bureau and other EWTN offices throughout Europe – amazing, talented, very bright people who, on screen or behind the scenes in video and audio editing studios, bring you into the Catholic Church and bring the Church to you!

In this week’s interview segment, Vatican Insider welcomes back Fr. Christopher Pearson, pastor of Most Precious Blood parish in London. As I mentioned last week in Part I of our conversation, we’ve been friends for over a dozen years, as you will hear in the amusing start of our conversation, and Fr. Christopher was in Rome to concelebrate at the January 5 funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. What links us in friendship is one of Pope Benedict’s major achievements – the creation in 2009 of the Personal Ordinariate, a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established to enable “groups of Anglicans” to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony. Fr. Chris was an Anglican pastor for 15 years and talks about his becoming a Catholic priest. He highlights Benedict’s great desire for Christian Unity, citing the Ordinariate as one example of how that can be achieved.

Lots of news this weekend on Vatican Insider (as there always seems to be!), and also a special guest on the interview segment, Fr. Christopher Pearson – pastor of Most Precious Blood parish in London. We’ve been friends for over a dozen years, as you will hear in the amusing start of our conversation, and Fr. Christopher was in Rome to concelebrate at the January 5 funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Lots of news this weekend on Vatican Insider (as there always seems to be!), and also a special guest on the interview segment, Fr. Christopher Pearson – pastor of Most Precious Blood parish in London. We’ve been friends for over a dozen years, as you will hear in the amusing start of our conversation, and Fr. Christopher was in Rome to concelebrate at the January 5 funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. What links us is one of Pope Benedict’s major achievements – the creation in 2009 of the Personal Ordinariate, a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established to enable “groups of Anglicans” to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony. Fr. Chris was an Anglican pastor for 15 years and talks about his becoming a Catholic priest. He highlights Benedict’s great desire for Christian Unity, citing the Ordinariate as one example of how that can be achieved.

(Best Of) Not having much time to prepare a full “Vatican Insider” with news and a new interview, we’ve put together a “Best Of Vatican Insider” and this weekend you can listen to Dallas Jenkins, producer, and Neal Harmon, founder of Angel Studios that made the film. As you know, “The Chosen” is full into season three!

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this Christmas and New Year’s weekend. After all, don’t forget that it is still the Christmas season! In what is usually the interview segment after the News, I have prepared what I hope is a fascinating Christmas story, a Special in which I bring you to Italy to learn how the Vatican and Rome and Italians celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. Christmastide is as wonderful here as you can imagine, and I think you’ll want to invite family members, especially children, to sit around and listen!

December 10th was the feast day of the Holy House of Loreto, my very favorite shrine in Italy that I’ve visited several times, and this seems like the perfect season to tell a special story about Mary’s house, the house in which she grew up. I will tell you that, according to tradition, this Marian shrine is the home in which Mary lived, in which the Angel Gabriel appeared to her, announcing she would become the Mother of God, and the home she shared with Jesus and Joseph. It was transported to this Italian hill town overlooking the Adriatic on the night of December 10, 1294. Tune in and you will learn exactly how it was transported to Italy! As I prepared this Special, I felt myself leaning against the stone walls of this holy house – as I’ve done on every visit – praying to Mary, running my hands over the stones as I imagined she and Jesus and Joseph did countless times! Rarely have I been so induced to pray, so recollected in prayer, so sensing the presence of the Holy Family as I have in this holy home! I hope you sense the awesomeness of this home as I tell its story!

My guests this week in the interview segment of Vatican Insider are two of my dearest friends, two priests, two brothers, native Chicagoans, who were both in Rome at the same time: Msgr. Michael Boland, a consultant to Catholic Charities USA following 30 magnificent years as head of Catholic Charities in the archdiocese of Chicago, and his brother Fr. Jeremiah Boland, pastor of a parish I know and love, Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glenview, Illinois. Fr. Jerry, a priest for 40 years, was in Rome on sabbatical at the North American College’s Institute of Continuing Theological Education at the same time that Msgr. Michael, a priest for 35 years, had to attend some meetings. They are two of my most cherished friends and, as I note in our conversation, there are two things that bind us in friendship: celebration of Mass and meals! I know you will hear that friendship when we talk!