Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Antigua

This video is of the Cathedral in Panama City, Our Lady of Antigua.  Is was recently renovated after being closed for seven years.  We were fortunate enough to get a great tour of the Cathedral.

Fr. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B.

Father Augustine Wetta, O.S.B. is a monk of Saint Louis Abbey and a teacher at the Saint Louis Priory School, where he also coaches rugby and serves as chaplain. He runs “Monk Camp” during the summers for the youth and recently wrote a book, "Humility Rules."

He gave us this talk at an EWTN employee retreat. Father speaks about saints who were considered failures in life. It is liberating to hear how the saints did not live by the standards of this world. Very moving!

Fr. Thomas Acklin, O.S.B.

Fr. Thomas Acklin, OSB, is a Benedictine monk of St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He earned an MA in philosophy at Duquesne University as well as an STD in theology and a PhD in religious studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium where he specialized in psychology of religion. He is a psychoanalyst as well as a spiritual director and has been a professor at St. Vincent Seminary where he also served as rector.

Father gave us our community retreat this year. This podcast is one of the conferences he gave us. It is the best talk on the cross that I have ever heard:



This is a talk on prayer by Father:

Leila Miller

Leila Miller is an author, popular Catholic blogger, and a contributor to Catholic Answers Magazine Online. She has co-authored a book with Trent Horn, Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues.  I spoke with her about the natural law approach to some of the moral issues today.  As a woman and mother, she gives a needed perspective to issues facing the family today in a readily understandable way.

Leila and her husband have eight children and several grandchildren.

Fr. James McCurry, O.F.M. Conv.

Fr. James E. McCurry, O.F.M. Conv., is Minister Provincial of St. Anthony Province of the Franciscan Friars Conventual in Ellicott City, Maryland. Also the Past President of the Mariological Society of America, and an appointee to the Pontifical International Marian Academy.  He spoke to us about the Mariology of St Maximilian Kolbe.  Fr. McCurry has a real gift and insight in speaking about Mary.

Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P.

Father Gabriel Gillen, O.P., was born and raised in Rockaway Beach, New York. He attended the State University of New York in Stony Brook, graduating with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and a Business Management Bachelor of Science.

He worked for several years in finance on Wall Street.  After studying at Franciscan University of Steubenville and earning degrees from the Angelicum in Rome, he was ordained in Italy to the priesthood in 2000.

He served as a hospital chaplain at Sloan Kettering and later as a college chaplain with the first FOCUS team at New York University.  Father Gabriel founded Blackfriars Media, a film incubator program for Catholic NYU film students.  He still produces documentaries for EWTN including one with Dr. Peter Kreeft on the spirituality of surfing and a Pro-life video on Naprotechnology.  

Father Gillen currently serves as the Director of the Rosary Shrine of Saint Jude which has over 80,000 members.  He also serves as the Executive Director of the Dominican Friars Foundation, which provides support for the record number of friars with the Province of Saint Joseph.  He is an auxiliary chaplain with the Knights of Malta. Father Gillen was recently asked to serve on one of the boards for the École Biblique,  a center of biblical research and teaching in Jerusalem.

Fr. John Riccardo

Fr. John Riccardo was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1996.  He is the youngest of five children and a graduate of The University of Michigan.

After working for several years in the professional world, he entered the seminary to begin studies for the priesthood.  He studied philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, studied theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and received a Sacred License in Theology (S.T.L.) from The Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.

Since 2007, Fr. John has served as pastor at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, Michigan.

Father talks to us about what has been effective in transforming his parish into a model for the new evangelization in new ministries and reaching people. Father also talks to us about the role his parents played in their witness to the faith (his father was also the CEO of Chrysler). We conclude with a discussion on Ephesians 5 and the Christian understanding of marriage.