Anthony R. Lusvardi, S.J.
Priest, teacher, writer
BOOK Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation, Catholic University of America Press, 2024 — 20% discount with the code CT10. For more reactions and reviews click here.
Also available at Amazon.
Anthony Lusvardi’s superb, attractively written, historical study has clear systematic and pastoral implications. For, though the topic of baptism of desire has been sadly neglected in theology, what is ultimately at stake is our very understanding of the shape and scope of salvation in Jesus Christ and of our personal participation in Christ’s paschal mystery.
— Robert Imbelli, professor emeritus, Boston College
“…a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how salvation works in the Church’s tradition… Highly recommended—especially for priests, catechists, and anyone serious about the faith.“
— The Prodigal Catholic
PUBLICATIONS
Get Married – Brad Wilcox
Homiletic & Pastoral Review, 2026
(review)
A Thousand Pounds – Brianne Edwards
Homiletic & Pastoral Review, 2025
(review)
Sacraments of Initiation or Affirmation?
First Things, 2025
(article)
What is Baptism of Desire and the Baby Brian Story
Real Presence Radio, 2025
(podcast)
Can Transsexuals Be Baptized?
First Things, 2025
(article)
Is there salvation outside baptism? A better way of looking at a difficult question
America, 2025
(article)
Gatsby’s Tragic Flaw
Law & Liberty, 2025
(essay)
Caravaggio 2025: Radiant in the Darkness
The Catholic Thing, 2025
(article)
CBS Evening News
May 6, 2025
(interview)
JD Vance, Ukraine and the nihilism of MAGA
America, 2025
(article)
Aquina’s Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period – Reginald M. Lynch
Gregorianum, 2025
(review)
I sacramenti porte di accesso al mistero
L’Osservatore Romano, 2025
(article)
What Religion is Black Friday?
Plough Quarterly, 2024
(essay)
Fr Tony Lusvardi SJ discusses his book on the necessity of baptism for salvation with Larry Chapp
Gaudium et Spes 22, 2024
(podcast)
Caesars, presidents and apostles: Viewing the presidential election from Rome
America, 2024
(article)
Rites (and Wrongs) of Democracy
The Catholic Thing, 2024
(article)
Defending the necessity of baptism: An interview with Fr. Anthony Lusvardi, S.J.
Catholic World Report, 2024
(interview)
Screens and Sacraments
First Things, 2024
(article)
Il battesimo di desiderio e il battesimo sacramentale
Il battesimo dei bambini: Rito e teologia (CLV-Edizioni Liturgiche), 2024
(article)
Christ Brings All Newness – Robert Imbelli
Gregorianum, 2024
(review)
La ministerialità del diacono nella liturgia – Enzo Petrolino
Gregorianum, 2024
(review)
Celebrities: We don’t care who you’re voting for
America, 2024
(article)
The Paris Olympics ‘Last Supper,’ the French Revolution and punching down on a Catholic minority
America, 2024
(article)
Getting Back into the Baptizing Business
The Catholic Thing, 2024
(article)
Libri Nostri: Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation
Gregorianum, 2024
(note)
“Gestis verbisque”: le parole e le azioni dei sacramenti (English here: “Gestis Verbisque: The Words and Actions of the Sacraments”)
La Civiltà Cattolica, 2024
(article)
Pious Tchotchkes
Dappled Things, 2024
(short story)
The Future of Christian Marriage – Mark Regnerus
Homiletic & Pastoral Review, 2024
(review)
Confessing Other People’s Sins
The Lamp, 2023
(essay)
Between Continents
Plough Quarterly, 2022
(essay)
Hope in the Ruins
Law & Liberty, 2022
(review)
Spiritual Communion or Desire for Communion? Sacraments and their Substitutes in the Time of COVID-19
Worship, 2022
(article)
Angels in Innsbruck
Dappled Things, 2021
(essay)
Consider the Hyrax
The Windhover, 2021
(essay)
We should stop filming the liturgy of the Eucharist
America, 2020
(article)
Baptism in Stages: Insights from the Rosebud Indian Reservation
Worship, 2020
(article)
Podcast
Sacred Story Institute, 2020
(interview)
Luigi
Dappled Things, 2019
(short story)
A Jesuit’s Lenten pilgrimage through the station churches of Rome, What Lenten pilgrims can learn from the martyrs of Rome, Why I had to climb Rome’s Holy Stairs (on my knees) to believe them, What snowfall in Rome taught me about Lent, During Lent we need both penance and beauty, A church built on ruins, Pilgrimage–like the sacraments–is all about the details, What Rome’s station churches teach us about Easter
America, 2019
(essay series)
Why travel if you aren’t going to get a little lost?
America, 2018
(essay)
Lessons from John Allen Chau (and Francis Xavier) for Catholic missions today
America, 2018
(interview)
The Clerk and the Council: Dignitatis Humanae and the Case of Kim Davis
Priests, Lawyers, and Scholars: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Araujo, SJ, 2018
(article)
A Presumptuous Age?: The Sin of Presumption in the Summa Theologiae as a Key to Understanding the ‘Age of Entitlement’
The Thomist, 2017
(article)
Girard and the ‘Sacrifice of the Mass’: Mimetic Theory and Eucharistic Sacrifice
Contagion: A Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, 2017
(article)
Antediluvian
Dappled Things, 2017
(short story)
Relics
The Dalhousie Review, 2017
(short story)
Nature is Your Church?
Plough Quarterly, 2017
(essay)
Jeremiah on the Plains
Ruminate, 2016
(essay)
Auto, Not Shipwreck
North Dakota Quarterly, 2016
(short story)
The Ends of the Earth
Dappled Things, 2015
(short story)
The Law of Conscience: Catholic Teaching on Conscience from Leo XIII to John Paul II
Logos, 2012
(article)
The Name
Concho River Review, 2012
(short story)
Reservation Story
Relief, 2012
(short story)
Winner, North Dakota
Dappled Things, 2011
(short story)
The Parable of Thunder the Hamster
Mid-American Review, 2011
(short story)
One Week in Africa
The Long Story, 2010
(short story)
Martha
THEMA, 2009
(short story)
Charity
Rock & Sling, 2008
(short story)
ABOUT
Born in Sandstone, Minnesota, Fr. Tony grew up in the Twin Cities, where he attended St. Charles Borromeo Church and St. Anthony Village High School. He studied English and philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
After college, he taught English in Sarkand, Kazakhstan for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. While working at St. John’s University in Minnesota, he heard God’s call to the priesthood and entered the Society of Jesus in 2006.
He completed novitiate formation and took vows in St. Paul, MN and pursued philosophy studies at Loyola University Chicago.
From 2011-2014, he worked for St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation as the administrator of three parishes and has been returning to South Dakota when time allows ever since.
After his time on Rosebud, he did further theological studies at Boston College, where he was ordained a deacon in 2016, and the following year he was ordained a priest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
At the same time he began advanced studies in sacramental theology at the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome, earning first a Licentiate and then a Doctorate in Sacred Theology. His doctoral dissertation explored the doctrine of baptism of desire and was published by Catholic University Press as Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation in 2024.
He currently teaches sacramental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He continues to write, give retreats, and spends summers doing pastoral work at St. Isaac Jogues Parish in Rapid City, SD.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Fr. Tony teaches an introduction to the sacraments at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, as well as courses on missiology, penance, eucharistic controversies, marriage, and confirmation. His book Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation is available from Catholic University of America Press. He is now at work on a book about “civil religion” in America.
EDUCATION
Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm, Rome: Doctorate of Sacred Theology in Dogmatic-Sacramental Theology (S.T.D.); Licentiate in Sacred Theology in Dogmatic-Sacramental Theology (S.T.L.).
Boston College School of Theology and Ministry: Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.); Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.).
Loyola University Chicago: M.A. in Applied Philosophy.
University of Notre Dame: B.A. in English and Philosophy
Tony Lusvardi, S.J. 