Catholic actor David Henrie in the new docuseries “Seeking Beauty.” / Credit: EWTN Studios
CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
EWTN Studios and Catholic actor David Henrie, known for his role as Justin Russo on Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place,” have partnered to bring a first-of-its-kind adventure documentary series that explores culture, architecture, food, art, and music that aims to point viewers to the beautiful — and ultimately to the divine.
“Seeking Beauty” is scheduled to be released in December.
The docuseries follows Henrie’s journey into the heart of Italy to explore what makes Italian culture one of the most beautiful in the world. It not only looks at the physical beauty of the country but also the spiritual richness of it as well.
Catholic actor David Henrie (center) in the new docuseries “Seeking Beauty.” Credit: EWTN Studios
In a recent interview with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado, Henrie shared that he’s a big fan of travel shows and always wanted to take part in one, but one where “you kind of flip the script. Where it starts with what you don’t expect.”
“We want an experience, right? So we put the format on its head. We have someone who’s not an expert — which is me — inviting the audience to go on a journey with me and have fun,” he explained. “So, we go all over Italy and we meet with the experts, and I’m sitting down asking questions that maybe you at home would want to ask if you were sitting in front of this person and as I’m blown away, hopefully, you’ll be blown away, too, because we had some beautiful experiences.”
The actor emphasized that the common theme throughout the series is “that beauty has a capital B — that beauty is ultimately the language of the divine and a reflection of God.”
Catholic actor David Henrie in the new docuseries “Seeking Beauty.” Credit: EWTN Studios
One moment that stood out for Henrie while filming the series was getting to watch an old Caravaggio painting be restored. He recalled being shown by artists doing the restoration some of the mistakes made in the painting that are only noticeable up close. Henrie called this experience “humanizing.”
“When you think of great artists before you, they’re almost so high that it’s like unreachable … and to get to see their works up close with a restorer was so cool to go, ‘Oh, this person was human. He completely painted over what he did. There was something he tried that didn’t work at all,’” he shared. “That was really cool to me to learn how human these artists were and that they were struggling with the same things that I struggle with, just in a different medium.”
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Henrie’s production company, Novo Inspire Studios, aims to create entertaining, timeless, and meaningful content that the whole family can enjoy. The company’s work was recently nominated by the Television Critics Association Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming, which Henrie called a “massive honor.”
EWTN Studios was recently launched by EWTN as part of its new organizational restructuring, continuing the media organization’s legacy of creating impactful content in the Catholic sphere in a way that reflects the changing nature of media and evolving technologies.
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Pope Francis delivers the Regina Caeli address, April 24, 2022. / Vatican Media
Arlington, Va., Apr 26, 2022 / 16:17 pm (CNA).
In a video message to the Tuesday opening of a gathering for Hispanic ministry leaders in the US, Pope Francis encour… […]
Legatus President Stephen Henley is pictured here speaking at the organization’s 2025 annual conference last month in Naples, Florida. / Credit: Courtesy of Legatus
Miami, Fla., Mar 13, 2025 / 07:20 am (CNA).
In today’s culture, often hostile to expressions of faith, many Catholics struggle with how to hold true to their values within the workplace. That’s why, in 1987, Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan started the Catholic organization Legatus.
From the Latin word for “ambassador,” Legatus aims to empower Catholic presidents, CEOs, and managing partners to become what St. Paul coined “ambassadors for Christ,” explained Stephen Henley, president of Legatus.
Offering peer support groups, networking, speakers, pilgrimages, and an annual international summit, Legatus’s goal is to “inspire members to live out their faith in all aspects of their life.” There are currently about 90 Legatus chapters in North America.
Chapter meetings are held once a month, providing the opportunity for members and their spouses to participate in confession and Mass, the recitation of the rosary, a cocktail reception dinner, and a speaker’s presentation.
“All of this is to help fortify the members’ marriage, the peer support group, the networking of this group, and then embolden them to go out and live their faith,” said Henley. “Tom felt that if we can bring together these Catholic CEOs, how much more can we change society with these people that have high impact and high influence?”
In interviews with Catholic News Agency, Hawkins, Dean Abela, and Henley covered three tips for bringing the Catholic worldview into the workplace.
Commit to your priorities
Dean Andrew Abela’s Catholic faith wasn’t always as important to him as it is now. As a teenager, he even stopped practicing.
“I came back in my mid-20s, funnily enough, while I was in business school,” he recalled. As a student in 1991, he encountered Pope John Paul II’s new encyclical letter Centesimus Annus, and the pope’s reflection on economics changed the trajectory of his life.
“Just a few months after, I returned to the Church,” he said. “When I reverted to the faith, I wanted to know what my newly rediscovered Catholic faith meant for a life in business.”
Andrew Abela is dean of the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. Credit: Legatus
After working for companies including Procter & Gamble, McKinsey & Company, and the Corporate Executive Board, in 2002 Dean Abela eventually began teaching at the Catholic University of America. He is also a consultant to Fortune 100 corporations.
“The reason I left business and switched to academia was that I wanted to dedicate myself full-time to studying questions about what it means to be a faithful Catholic in the workplace,” he explained.
A member of Legatus since 2000, Dean Abela mentioned that members can follow what the organization terms a “spiritual plan” to attend daily Mass, recite the rosary daily, and do monthly confession.
Known as Tres Magna, or the “Big Three,” this plan was inspired by Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula, who “attributed the perfect season to him going to daily Mass,” explained Stephen Henley. “Tom [Monaghan] thought, well, if he can go, there’s no reason why I can’t go.”
“Daily Mass, daily rosary, and monthly confession will align your life and priorities,” added Henley.
Find a supportive community
When Kristan Hawkins first encountered Legatus, she was not a Catholic. Hawkins was raised an Evangelical. After Students for Life’s 2006 launch, she began speaking at Legatus events.
In 2014, Hawkins decided to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, “a pilgrimage Legatus had sponsored.” “I was the only Protestant there,” she recalled. “I decided there that I was going to enter RCIA.”
She became a full-fledged member of Legatus soon after becoming Catholic.
“As a pro-life activist who starts a pro-life organization, I want to save babies, I want to end abortion, I want to help as many families and women. You don’t start a non-profit because you’re necessarily a great business leader or have all these skills. You started this non-profit, this mission, because you want to see this mission accomplished,” Hawkins said. “For me, that’s one of the powerful benefits of being in Legatus, is having friends and mentors who were successful in the for-profit world who I can call on and ask questions.”
Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. Credit: Legatus
“It’s very powerful and important to have those relationships. For me, in the work I’m doing, it’s a constant spiritual attack,” she added. “One of the best things about Legatus is I can call any of my Legatus friends at any moment, and they’ll be there for you. They know the power of the work we do and the resistance we face.”
Dean Abela also finds a sense of community in Legatus and also strives to build a supportive Catholic community at the Catholic University of America.
“We share with students the principles of Catholic social doctrine, things like human dignity and solidarity, and try to embed these principles into all of our classes,” he explained. “We’re also increasingly trying to give them opportunities to practice different virtues as part of their studies and schoolwork.”
For instance, Dean Abela explained, “To teach graduate students about decision-making, we go through a couple of survivor simulations, where you crash land in the north of Canada and you have to decide what you’re going to do. We have them go through decision-making exercises explicitly practicing the virtue of prudence or practical wisdom, the habit of making wise decisions. We break apart the components of practical wisdom, which include things like alertness, preparedness, and reasoning, and we have them try to exercise those as part of the decision-making process.”
These skills built in the classroom can be applied not only in business, but also in students’ personal lives.
Model the behavior you expect from others and celebrate your co-workers’ integrity
For Henley, giving authentic witness to the Catholic faith in the workplace can start with a simple “hello.”
“First, live the golden rule,” he said. “When you’re walking down the hall, say hello to the janitor, to the executive, and to everyone in between. It matters a lot.”
He added: “Another practical thing: take the opportunity to pray before meals. If you’re going on business lunches, you’ll be surprised at how many people say, ‘Yeah of course, let’s pray.’ It’s more common than not for people to pray before meals. The fact that you’re doing it shows that you’re a bold leader and that you’re spiritual.”
Dean Abela agrees that these types of habits make all the difference, and were the subject of the presentation he made of his book Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life last month during the 2025 Legatus Summit.
“The main focus of the book is understanding that things like diligence, honesty, and resilience are not genetic characteristics. They are habits that anyone can acquire through practice,” Dean Abela explained. “Companies can focus on one of the most important virtues and give employees opportunities to practice those virtues.”
For instance, Dean Abela explained the GrowVirtue App, an AI-driven app “based on the work of the book,” which organizations can use to evaluate which virtues their company has already made a habit of, which virtues they might target, and tips for how to make progress.
“The important thing is that the company would choose a virtue that they think would be directly beneficial to the company right now,” said Dean Abela. “Although personal results are private, the whole company can see what employees as a whole are weakest in. So, if you’re trying to grow in customer service, you might encourage the virtue of friendship or friendliness.”
Dean Abela discussed the value of recognizing virtue both inside and outside the company.
“See examples in action or read about examples,” he suggested. “You can have employees watch videos or you can share articles that demonstrate examples of a particular virtue in action. And you can make sure senior folks are role models for junior employees.”
“Most importantly, give the employees the opportunity to practice the virtues, and give feedback,” he added. “When companies give awards, they tend to do this more with core values. They should shift to core virtues and give it to people who are exemplars of that virtue.”
Ultimately, the goal for Catholics is to live authentic lives that draw others to Christ.
“Stay true to who you are, don’t give in,” said Hawkins. “They’ll know you by your fruits. I think that’s very important. You don’t have to work in the pro-life movement or specifically in an apostolate to be a good Catholic, a faithful Christian in the workplace. You can do that in any job, in any position you have – in McDonald’s or in a Fortune 500 company.”
About art Henrie realizes it’s usually not something that is perfectly poured out on canvas or a music sheet. Except perhaps for a Mozart or DaVinci. We create with ideas of beauty that require analysis and development, whereas God pours out beauty with perfect iris, shimmering early morning sunglow on a still seashore. All beauty is Henrie’s “language of the divine and a reflection of God”.
St Bonaventure, contemporary of Thomas Aquinas leaned more toward the Platonic rather than Aristotelian. As such the image or idea of beauty referenced a perfect form. Now certainly not all beauty does such, for example a beautiful woman, except that her beauty should reflect within the gift God provided from without.
When a person has that interior gift within, other persons recognize what we call a beautiful person, rather than saying he or she is beautiful. A recognition of beauty’s spiritual essence.
About art Henrie realizes it’s usually not something that is perfectly poured out on canvas or a music sheet. Except perhaps for a Mozart or DaVinci. We create with ideas of beauty that require analysis and development, whereas God pours out beauty with perfect iris, shimmering early morning sunglow on a still seashore. All beauty is Henrie’s “language of the divine and a reflection of God”.
St Bonaventure, contemporary of Thomas Aquinas leaned more toward the Platonic rather than Aristotelian. As such the image or idea of beauty referenced a perfect form. Now certainly not all beauty does such, for example a beautiful woman, except that her beauty should reflect within the gift God provided from without.
When a person has that interior gift within, other persons recognize what we call a beautiful person, rather than saying he or she is beautiful. A recognition of beauty’s spiritual essence.
Augustine, also Platonic, by calling God O Beauty, personifies Beauty.