Quick Facts
Biography
Father Roderick Vonhögen (born 5 April 1968) is a Roman Catholic priest from Amersfoort, Utrecht in the Netherlands who works as a new media broadcaster and television presenter of programming related to Catholicism and pop culture. He runs the Star Quest Production Network and is host of Katholiek Nederland, a public television program.
In April 2005, Vonhögen created a podcast to report on the health of the ailing Pope John Paul II, and continued the podcast soon after the conclave electing Pope Benedict XVI as The Catholic Insider podcast. Vonhögen later told CNN that the Vatican supported his initial podcasting chronicling the illness of Pope John Paul II, and that his goal with his variety of podcasts was to "share something of [his] enthusiasm". Catholic Insider won the 2005 People's Choice Podcast Award for religion inspiration and the 2006 award for best mobile podcast.
Continuing to broaden his audience, Vonhögen founded what is now the Star Quest Production Network (SQPN) and serves as chief executive officer. SQPN functions as a podcast network "specializing in the production of audio and video programs faithful to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church". Other podcast programs produced by Vonhögen for SQPN include The Break, previously known The Daily Breakfast, and the The Secrets series of podcasts co-hosted by fellow fans of popular programming. Daily Breakfast won the 2006, 2007 and 2008 People's Choice Podcast Awards for religion inspiration and continues to provide commentary on pop culture current-events, technology, and Catholic apologetics as The Break. The Secrets provides an outlet to give a Christian perspective on many television programs and movies such as Lost, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones. In addition, his podcast network affiliates other user-generated podcasts from other priests and Catholic lay apostolate such as apologist Jimmy Akin and broadcaster Lino Rulli. In addition Vonhögen has collaborated with Cliff Ravenscraft of GSPN
Vonhögen received national attention when he reacted to the teaser trailer for the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.