How faith and Catholic education shaped NBC’s Nightly News anchor

MIAMI (OSV News) — When Miami native Tom Llamas was named “NBC Nightly News” anchor following the retirement of Lester Holt, one of the first phone calls he placed was to the rector/president of his high school alma mater.

Llamas then followed that up with a personal visit to the school last May for a “fireside chat” and meet and greet with the student body, according to Jesuit Father Guillermo García-Tuñón.

“Tom is very devoted to the school and engaged,” Father García-Tuñón said, himself an alumnus of Belen who is the 37th rector/president of Belen Jesuit Preparatory School since its inception in Cuba in 1854, and its seventh rector/president since its establishment in Miami following the Cuban Revolution.

“As soon as he found out he was named the successor to Lestor Holt and named the new chair of ‘NBC Nightly News,’ the first phone call he made was to Belen. He wanted me to know because he said ‘so much of what I am today is because of Belen,’ and I was very humbled to know that,” the priest said.

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