George P. Matysek Jr.

George Matysek, a member of the Catholic Review staff since 1997, is managing editor of Catholic Review Media. He oversees news coverage of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and is a host of Catholic Review Radio.

George has won more than 150 national and regional journalism and broadcasting awards from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, the Catholic Media Association, the Associated Church Press and National Right to Life. The Catholic Media Association named him both Editor of the Year and Podcaster of the Year in 2024. He has reported from Guyana, Guatemala, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

A native Baltimorean, George is a graduate of Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School in Essex. He holds a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore and a master's degree from UMBC. George, his wife and six children live in Rodgers Forge. He is a parishioner of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland.

St. Frances Academy dreams of big expansion

January 19, 2012
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News

Walking along the Johnston Square streets that surround St. Frances Academy in a forgotten corner of East Baltimore, Tom Nealis passed vacant lots overrun with weeds and boarded-up row houses tagged with graffiti.

Former Annapolis and Baltimore pastor paralyzed in freak accident

January 19, 2012
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News

Redemptorist Father John Murray, former pastor of St. Mary, Annapolis, and St. Wenceslaus, Baltimore, was paralyzed from the chest down in a freak accident Aug. 27.

Former Catholic Review columnist dies at 81

January 2, 2012
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News, Obituaries

Paulist Father James McCabe, former director of the Family Life Center in Baltimore and a longtime columnist for The Catholic Review, died Dec. 25, 2011 in Toronto. He was 81 and had been battling cancer.

St. Luke honors longtime pastor at his retirement

December 13, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News, Retirement

EDGEMERE – Standing at the back of St. Luke Church following a Dec. 11 Mass marking his retirement, Monsignor Joseph S. Lizor Jr. extended both arms to shake hands with the many parishioners who wanted to greet him. Several children gave the 79-year-old pastor homemade cards, while hugs seemed to engulf the vested clergyman faster than he expected.

Christmas stamp features Walters Art Museum treasure by Raphael

December 5, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Catholic Review Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Local News, News

A Raphael masterpiece that hangs in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore is getting national attention this holiday season as the U.S. Postal Service features the “Madonna of the Candelabra” as one of its 2011 Christmas stamps.

Interfaith leaders pledge to defend traditional marriage in Maryland

December 1, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News

Leaders of a newly-formed pro-marriage coalition came out swinging against efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland – pledging in a Nov. 30 press conference to rally citizens across the state to defeat legislation that would alter the traditional definition of marriage.

Vatican will not consider Annapolis healing case

November 30, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News

Vatican experts have declined to consider the case of the apparent healing of an Annapolis woman as the miracle needed for the canonization of Blessed Francis X. Seelos, a 19th century Redemptorist priest who was pastor of St. Alphonsus in Baltimore, St. Mary in Annapolis and Ss. Peter and Paul in Cumberland.

Parishes welcome new English translation of Roman Missal

November 29, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News

Father Matthew T. Buening looked out on his congregation Nov. 27 as he was concluding Mass at St. Paul in Ellicott City and spoke words he has offered throughout his priesthood.

Community life inspires ‘miracle man’

November 22, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Blog, The Narthex

Redemptorist Father John Murray is convinced he’s a walking miracle. After suffering a fall that left him paralyzed from the chest down, the former pastor of St. Mary in Annapolis and St. Wenceslaus in Baltimore began praying for Blessed Francis X. Seelos – a former St. Mary’s pastor – to intercede on his behalf. As noted in this […]

Miracle man? Paralyzed priest, former Annapolis pastor, begins walking

November 22, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News

EPHRATA, Pa. – When Redemptorist Father John Murray bashed his head against a railing after tripping along a New Jersey boardwalk 15 months ago, the consequences were devastating.

A rare birthday present for St. Joan of Arc

November 16, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Blog, The Narthex

Pope Benedict XVI minces no words when he describes the medieval judges who interrogated and sentenced St. Joan of Arc to death 580 years ago. The French clergymen were aligned with St. Joan’s political opponents, the pope said in a Jan. 26 general audience, and they “lacked charity and the humility to see God’s action in […]

Bishop Spencer honors veterans on Veterans Day

November 11, 2011
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: 9/11, Local News, News

ELLICOTT CITY – In a Veterans Day homily at St. Paul in Ellicott City, Auxiliary Bishop F. Richard Spencer of the Archdiocese for U.S. Military Services challenged Catholics to never forget the needs of the nation’s veterans.