I was born and raised in Connecticut and have been living in Rome since 2020.
A passion for history has been at the center of my life ever since I was a young boy; it has been the springboard for my interest in disciplines ranging from art and architecture to geopolitics and sociology. The study of history was also an entry point into the study of theology. The works of Pope Benedict XVI were particularly impactful on my early personal and spiritual formation.
After finishing Chase Collegiate School, in Waterbury, CT, in 2014, I went on to spend the first year of my undergraduate studies in Florence. In 2015 I continued with my studies at Fordham University in New York City, where I became involved with local politics and started to take the craft of writing more seriously. I came on the Fordham Political Review as an editor in the fall of 2015 and was named editor-in-chief in the winter of 2017.
I was inducted into the Mannion History Honor’s Research Society and submitted my thesis, An Ideology of Conquest: Mein Kampf as a Framework for Military and Social Policy in Nazi Germany, which examined the ideological inputs of differing military and social policies on the eastern and western fronts.
I graduated from Fordham in 2018 with a B.A. in History, cum laude. I went on to work at a boutique Public Relations firm in New York City; however, my ultimate goal was to come back to Italy and this culminated in my decision to study at Luiss Guido Carli in Rome, where I graduated in 2023 with a master's degree in International Relations and a major in Security. My thesis 'Nihil Sine Episcopo: Political Tension and Future Diplomacy between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China' evaluated contemporary Sino-Vatican relations from a historical perspective, thereby allowing me to evaluate the development of the Church in China. This project looked at the development of ecclessial networks and missiology, the indigenization of the episcopate, and the process of enculturation in order to understand the Church’s place in Chinese society, which in turn, allowed for an analysis of the Church as a political and diplomatic actor, and a contextualization of the 2018 Sino-Vatican Accord. Understanding the relationship between faith and culture is an important pillar of understanding papal diplomacy, not just in the Chinese context, but also universally.
My thesis research dovetailed with the year I spent at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, in the Office of Public Affairs.
Currently, I am working in Rome as a journalist with the EWTN Vatican Bureau, where my work continues to focus on Sino-Vatican relations and papal diplomacy. I am also a contributing writer for the National Catholic Register, Catholic News Agency, and ACI Stampa.
I am a passionate, lifelong rower and a member of Circolo Tirrenia Todaro in Rome.
