Columnist, editor and non-fiction author
Born in Tehran and based in New York, Sohrab Ahmari, 38, is co-founder of the online political magazine Compact, a former editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, and former op-ed editor of the New York Post. He is an outspoken critic who has been intellectually linked to the controversial integralist movement. He has argued that politics and public discourse should be a forum of “war and enmity”, with culturally conservative values given priority. He is also a contributing editor at the American Conservative and a visiting fellow at Franciscan University. He is the author of The New Philistines: How Identity Politics Disfigure the Arts, a spiritual memoir, From Fire, by Water and The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos.
Editor, Crux
John and Elise Allen are Vatican-based journalists. John L Allen Jr, 58, is founder and editor of the Catholic–oriented news site Crux. He also serves as a senior Vatican analyst for CNN, and has featured in coverage of the conclaves of 2005 and 2013. Recently they have both joined the Catholic Herald as a Special Vatican Correspondents. John L Allen Jr is the author of numerous books about the Catholic Church and has written two biographies of Pope Benedict XVI. His most recent book, Catholics and Contempt, looks at the fractured Catholic media landscape and gives an urgent call for it to change course.
President, EWTN
Montse Alvarado is the president and chief operating office of EWTN and was formerly with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Born in Mexico City, she holds degrees from Florida International University and George Washington University.
Author, broadcaster and EWTN host
Raymond Arroyo, 51 and a resident of New Orleans, is the news director and lead anchor of EWTN News, a division of the Eternal Word Television Network. He is also the creator and host of The World Over Live and author of the Will Wilder series for young readers. Arroyo is a producer of the bestselling all-star audio Bible, The Word of Promise. Previously, Arroyo worked at the Associated Press, the New York Observer, and for the political columnist team of Rowland Evans and Robert Novak. Arroyo has authored several books on EWTN’s founder, Mother Angelica, as well as a series of children’s books.
Director of athletics, University of Notre Dame
New York native Pete Bevacqua is a corporate, media and sports executive who served as chairman of NBC Sports Group. In July 2023, he become vice president and director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame. Bevacqua formerly held the role of president of NBC Sports Group and before that spent six years as the CEO of the PGA of America. He promotes Catholic morality within sport and is a board member of RISE, an alliance of sports organisations that promotes racial equality.
Harvard professor, author and columnist
Arthur Brooks, 59, is a professor at Harvard as well as a successful author, public speaker and a columnist at the Atlantic. He focuses on the science of human happiness, stating that his mission is “lifting others up and bringing them together”. He has given over 1,400 speeches during his career and has interviewed high-profile figures such as the Dalai Lama and presidents George Bush and Barack Obama. In 2023 he co-authored a book with Oprah Winfrey, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, which debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
Writer, The Atlantic
Elizabeth Bruenig, 33, is a rising star of US journalism and a native of Texas. After reading theology and reading St Augustine at university, she converted to Catholicism from Methodism. She has been described as a “Catholic, socialist, family-focused thinker”. She currently works as an opinion writer for the Atlantic and hosts a podcast, The Bruenigs, with her husband Matt Bruenig. She previously worked for the New York Times and as an editor for the Washington Post. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2019. As a Marshall Scholar, she studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, earning a master of philosophy degree in Christian theology.
Executive director, Catholic Media Association
Robert DeFrancesco, who resides in Phoenix, is the executive director of Catholic Media Association. He is a mission-driven communications professional with two decades of leadership and media experience. The Catholic Media Association was established in 1911 and advocates for the value, effectiveness and identity of member publishers and organisations, journalists and media professionals throughout North America. Prior to Catholic Media, DeFrancesco worked for the Diocese of Arizona as director of communications.
TV host and author
Stephen Doocy, 67, is an American television host, political commentator and author. He is an anchor of Fox & Friends on the Fox News channel. Doocy has earned TV reporting and writing awards from the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists and 11 Emmy awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is married to Kathy Doocy, a former model and TV sports reporter, and is a Catholic who serves as a lector in his church. He and his wife published the New York Times bestseller Happy in a Hurry Cookbook in 2020. His son, Peter Doocy, is a White House correspondent, also for Fox News.
Columnist, New York Times
Ross Douthat, 44, is an American political analyst, blogger, author and New York Times columnist. He lives with his family in Connecticut. He was previously a senior editor of the Atlantic. He has written on a variety of topics, including the state of Christianity in America and “sustainable decadence” in contemporary society. Douthat is a convert to Catholicism who describes himself as having a “conservative tendency” when it comes to the faith. Douthat is also a non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His seven books include The Deep Places, in which he revealed he suffers from chronic Lyme disease, and To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism.
Catholic podcaster
Matt Fradd is a Byzantine Catholic and the creator and host of the Pints With Aquinas and Love People Use Things podcasts which are listened to by tens of thousands of people every month. He is the author and co-author of several books including, Does God Exist? A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas and The Porn Myth: Exposing the Reality Behind the Fantasy of Pornography. Much of his work has centred around fighting pornography in contemporary society. He lives in Steubenville, Ohio, with his wife, Cameron, and their four children.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Bryan Gruley, 66, was educated at the University of Notre Dame, majoring in American Studies and graduating in 1979. His career spanned 41 years in journalism, and he retired in 2020. Gruley wrote for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek and the Detroit News. He was part of the Journal’s team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He is the author of five award-winning novels, all set in his home state of Michigan. Gruley was educated in Detroit at Detroit Catholic Central.
Catholic media broadcaster
After his conversion to the Catholic faith, Trent Horn earned master’s degrees in theology, philosophy and bioethics. He serves as a staff apologist for Catholic Answers, where he specialises in teaching Catholics to persuasively engage those who disagree with them. Trent models that approach each week on the radio programme Catholic Answers Live and his own podcast The Council of Trent. He is married to Laura Horn, whose YouTube channel produces comedy from a Catholic viewpoint. He is the author of Counterfeit Christs, among other books.
Conservative television host
Laura Ingraham, 60, and a convert to Catholicism, is a US conservative television host. She has been the host of The Ingraham Angle on Fox News since October 2017, and is the editor-in-chief of LifeZette. She formerly worked as a speechwriter in the Reagan administration before earning a JD and working as a judicial clerk in New York and then for US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She is an active philanthropist and often donates proceeds from her website to several causes. She has three adopted children.
Writer, founder and editor, The New Criterion
Roger Kimball, 70, is an art critic and conservative social commentator. He is the editor and publisher of the New Criterion and the publisher of Encounter Books. He contributes to a variety of newspapers and journals including the Wall Street Journal, the Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement and the Sunday Telegraph. Kimball has authored many books, notably Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education. He serves on the board of the Manhattan Institute and is chairman of the William F Buckley Jr Program.
Senior fellow, the National Review Institute
Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute where she heads up the Center for Religion, Culture and Civil Society. She is also editor-at-large of National Review magazine and speaks on faith in public life, virtue and prayer. Lopez is also the author of A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living. She is the chair of Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s Pro-Life Commission in New York. At the opening Mass of the Year of Faith in Rome in October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI presented Lopez with a message to women throughout the world.
Former White House speechwriting director
William McGurn, 65, is a leading conservative political and cultural commentator with the Wall Street Journal and other outlets. He writes on Catholic affairs. McGurn was chief speechwriter for President George W Bush from June 2006 until February 2008. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 and later from Boston University. He joined News Corporation in 2009 after Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal in 2007, becoming speechwriter for Murdoch and News Corp.
He has been editorial page editor of the New York Post and in 2015 rejoined the Wall Street Journal,where he writes the “Main Street” column and is an executive. McGurn and his wife, Julie Hoffman, live in New Jersey. He has three adopted daughters.
Vatican commentator
Diane Montagna is a Vatican journalist based in Rome. She contributes to the Catholic Herald and co-authored, with Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age as well as co-authoring Father Gerald Murray’s bestselling memoir and spiritual guide Calming the Storm: Navigating the Church in a Time of Crisis. She has been a Vatican correspondent since 2014 and has worked as a translator for L’Osservatore Romano as well as Bishop Schneider’s book The Catholic Mass. She is a regular Vatican commentator for international TV networks.
Founder and editor-in-chief, Inside the Vatican
Robert Moynihan, 87, is a journalist and seasoned Vatican analyst who is the founder and editor-in-chief of Inside the Vatican magazine. He interviewed the future Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, more than 25 times. He is a world-renowned commentator on Catholic issues and has appeared on news outlets such as Fox News, CNN, ABC and EWTN. He is the author of several books on issues facing the Church today, including The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI: Let God’s Light Shine Forth and Pray for Me: The Life and Spiritual Vision of Pope Francis, First Pope from the Americas.
Journalist and former White House speechwriter
Peggy Noonan, 73, is a weekly columnist for the Wall Street Journal and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986. In 1995, she received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Five of Noonan’s books have been New York Times bestsellers. She was also nominated for an Emmy for her work on America: A Tribute to Heroes. She is a practising Roman Catholic and lives in New York City where she attends St Thomas More Church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Journalist and TV host
Bill O’Reilly, 74, is a political commentator, journalist, TV host and author. He hosts the podcast No Spin News. He hosted The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News until 2017, which was the highest-rated cable news show for 16 years. Prior to joining Fox, he served as a reporter for several local news stations in the US as well as ABC News and CBS News. O’Reilly was raised in a Catholic family, attended Chaminade Catholic High School in Mineola, New York and Marist College in Poughkeepsie. He and his wife were married at St Brigid Parish in Westbury, New York.
Editor, First Things
Russell Ronald Reno III, 64, is the editor of First Things magazine. He attended Haverford College, receiving a BA in 1983 and began graduate study at Yale University in the Department of Religious Studies in 1984, completing his doctoral degree in 1990 in the area of religious ethics.
He was formerly a professor of theology and ethics at Creighton University. A theological and political conservative, Reno was not originally Catholic, having been baptised into the Episcopal Church and growing up as a member of the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore. However, in 2004 he was received into the Catholic Church.
Author and president, Faith & Reason Institute
Robert Royal is an influential broadcaster and conservative commentator who is president of the Faith & Reason Institute based in Washington, DC. A former Fulbright Scholar, he is editor-in-chief of the The Catholic Thing site which he founded with Michael Novak. He is also the St John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH. He has previously taught at Brown University, Rhode Island College, and The Catholic University of America.
Editor-in-chief, Crisis Magazine
Eric Sammons is the executive director of Crisis Publications and the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. He is the author of several books including Deadly Indifference, The Old Evangelization and Holiness for Everyone. He has contributed several essays and articles to publications such as OnePeterFive, The Federalist, and CatholicVote. He is a board member of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima. He considers himself a “traditional Catholic”. A former United Methodist, he became a Catholic after hearing Scott Hahn’s conversion story.
President, Monali Media
Monica Gerard Sharp is president of Monali Media, an investor, publisher and strategist. After a successful career at Time Inc/Time Warner and then Disney/CapCities/ABC. she became an independent entrepreneur, focusing on finance, marketing and applied technology. Her areas of expertise include producing, publishing, consulting and directing, and she serves on for-profit and not-for-profit boards. She lives between the US and UK.
Journalist and author
Maria Shriver, 67, is a former first lady of California, a member of the Kennedy family, and the founder of the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement. She was married to former governor of California and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom she divorced in 2021. Shriver earned two Emmys for her role in developing The Alzheimer’s Project. She is a practising Catholic who sought advice at a convent after her marriage split.
Journalist
Andrew Sullivan, 60, is a British-American author, editor and blogger. He is a political commentator, a former editor of The New Republic and the author or editor of six books, including The Conservative Soul. His “Daily Dish” political blog appeared on platforms including Time and the Daily Beast before moving to a subscription-based format. He launched his newsletter, the “Weekly Dish”, in July 2020. Sullivan attributes his conservatism to his Catholic faith.
Founder, Claritas U, and senior publishing director, Word on Fire Ministries
Brandon Vogt, from Orlando, founded ClaritasU and is the senior publishing director for Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. He is also the founder of Chesterton Academy of Orlando, a classical high school rooted in the Catholic faith. He has served as a consultant for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Evangelisation and Catechesis, and on the board of the Society of GK Chesterton. He has authored 12 books including Why I am Catholic (And You Should Be Too) and Return: How to Draw Your Child Back to the Faith. He has been featured on news outlets and publications including Fox News, CBS, EWTN, NPR and National Review. He lives with his wife and eight children on a farm outside Orlando, Florida.
Chairman and CEO, EWTN
Michael P Warsaw is chairman and CEO of EWTN and serves as the publisher of the National Catholic Register. His association with EWTN began in 1991, and he progressively took on leadership roles, becoming the network’s president in 2000 and assuming the position of CEO in 2009. Following EWTN’s acquisition of the National Catholic Register in 2011, he took on the additional role of publisher for the magazine. In 2013, Warsaw was appointed as the chairman of EWTN. Beyond his responsibilities at EWTN, Warsaw is actively involved in various Catholic organisations. He sits on the board of directors for the Napa Institute and serves on the board of trustees for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Additionally, he is a member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. In recognition of his expertise and commitment, Pope Francis appointed Warsaw as a consultor to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications in 2017.
Catholic News Service, Rome Bureau
Cindy Wooden is chief of the Rome Bureau for the Catholic News Service and a fellow of the Berkeley Center for World Affairs at Georgetown University. She has covered the Church from Catholic News Service’s Rome bureau for over 30 years and, over that time, she has written about, and travelled the world with, three popes.
This article first appeared in the February 2024 issue of the Catholic Herald magazine. To subscribe to our multiple-award-winning magazine and have it delivered to your door anywhere in the world, go here.
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