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This week and next in the interview segment, I will re-air an interview I did with Fr. Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit, theologian and psychologist as his work is necessary to understanding an important event that took place in Rome this week. In 2012, he founded and was president of the Center for Child Protection at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University. In April 2021, that became the Institute of Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care that he now directs. We talk about the Institute, the courses and degrees it offers and how dioceses around the world are adopting similar programs.
Fast forward to 2024. The Gregorian University annually holds what is known as the ISC, International Safeguarding Conference, sponsored by the Institute of Anthropology that Fr. Zollner founded. The 2024 conference, June 18 to 21, focused on Safeguarding and Disability, aiming at an approach that puts people with disabilities at the center of discussions, addressing issues related to Safeguarding from their specific perspectives. In view of that conference, I felt it important to re-air my interview with Fr. Zollner about the work of the Institute of Anthropology.

I have a return guest this weekend on Vatican Insider, Fr. Lawrence Carney of the diocese of Wichita, Kansas, known in the U.S. for his devotion to the Holy Face and his recent book, “The Secret of The Holy Face.”

As you heard him tell us in Part I last weekend, after serving in the diocese for six years, he accepted the position as chaplain of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, in Gower, Missouri. There he was confessor to Sister Wilhemina, the African-American nun from Missouri who founded the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles. Her remains were discovered as possibly incorrupt in May 2023.

We talk this week in Part II more about devotion to the Holy Face, the interior life, the League of St. Martin and much more! You can listen to that right after the news summary!

Fr. Carney and I met through a common friend in South Dakota, who knows Father, and the head of the travel agency that brought Father, his parents and brother and others from around the U.S. to Rome on a pilgrimage. Ellen took these photos at my home during our interview and then at dinner with the group at a nearby hotel.

In the interview segment of Vatican Insider on this first weekend of June 2024, I reprise an earlier conversation with Fr. David Hulshof, director of Apostolic Formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. This weekend is Part II. Part I aired last weekend
There are a number of apostolates that are mandatory for all seminarians during their formation years such as working with the poor and homeless, with refugees, visiting patients in hospitals, being a guide in St. Peter’s Basilica and working in an Italian parish. Fr. David explains the apostolates offered at NAC, and you will revel in his passion and joy for the priesthood, the apostolates and especially for the current class of seminarians. And you will feel very positive about the future pastors of the Church in America!

As the website of the North American College notes about these apostolates:

In each of the five parishes, seminarians are teaching religious education, preparing children for the sacraments of the church, assisting at Mass, and some opportunities for preaching. St. Galla is an Italian speaking parish, St. Maria in Monserrato is the Spanish speaking parish, and St. Patrick’s is the English language parish.

Seminarians bring comfort to the elderly, sick and poor at four locations in the Eternal City. They serve in soup kitchens and visit with the poor on the streets. Others minister in a local prison and at a refugee center.

Our men also evangelize by leading tours with pilgrims to St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. They assist the USCCB Visitor’s Office in Rome and offer Scavi tours of the excavations beneath St. Peter’s.

In the interview segment of Vatican Insider on this final weekend of May 2024, I reprise an earlier conversation with Fr. David Hulshof, director of Apostolic Formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

This Week, Vatican Insider visits Our Lady Of The Rosary Of Pompeii. May is the month of Mary and the month of the rosary and thus, a special time for such a wonderful story.

Welcome to Vatican Insider on what was a busy week in the Vatican with the swearing in of new Swiss Guards on May 6 and, on Thursday, May 9, the reading of the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee Year 2025 during a ceremony in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica.

After the new highlights stay right here for a Q&A and then Part II of my conversation with Jacob Stein, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, who is working on his licentiate in dogmatic theology at Rome’s Angelicum University. He has a fascinating story and passion that you heard in Part I last week. We learn more about CRUX STATIONALIS this week and Jacob will tell us about his favorite station churches in Rome and talk about his apostolate as a member of a Roman Archconfraternity that helps the poor and needy and has a special devotion to care for pilgrims.