Father Roderick Vonhögen

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Father Roderick Vonhögen is a Roman Catholic priest, from Amersfoort in the Netherlands.

In early 2005, Father Roderick was in Rome around the time that Pope John Paul II became ill. Father Roderick had been involved in media training within the catholic church, and decided to use his training to report on the health of the Pope, whilst in the Vatican.^[1] Thus was born the Catholic Insider podcast.

Father Roderick's zeal in podcasting made the traditional media stand up and take notice. He was interviewed numerous times during the crisis with the pope, and on subsequent occasions by news outlets like CNN.^[2] To this day his is still interviewed by traditional media as somewhat of an "insider" in the Roman Catholic church.

Father Roderick has started other podcasts including the Secrets of Harry Potter, Secrets of the Caribbean, Catholic Minute and his most popular Daily Breakfast.

His Daily Breakfast podcast became a concept due to a number of events. Father Roderick started to consider the effect that excess post production of Catholic Insider was causing to his schedule. He was considering something that was quicker to produce, yet still has similar value. At that time he became a beta tester of CastBlaster which is developed by an acquaintance Mike Versteeg. The use of CastBlaster allowed a more regular podcast with minimal post production requirement.

As Father Roderick's podcasting aspirations grew, he set-up the Star Quest Podcast Network, being the central name and "company" for producing his Catholic podcasts. He also brought other Catholic podcasters into the fold, and the podcast network grew. The goals of this podcast network then became not only internet media orientated, but also started focusing on traditional media. This involved a name change and the setting up a US based non-profit media production company called Star Quest Production Network (SQPN). Father Roderick and his team at SQPN are trying to reach a greater audience much the same as Mother Angelica did with the Eternal Word Television Network. SQPN no longer is focused on podcasts alone.

Father Roderick has always stated that his ideas are not to force religious belief onto people, but to convey the churches message by blending popular culture with the Vatican's teachings. His views, and the position of SQPN, would seem to reflect the ideas that the Vatican has with modern communications.^[3]