Biography
Mat is the founding editor of the Journal of Global Catholicism and professor of religious studies. He grew up in Western Massachusetts and worked as a volunteer for the Glenmary Order in rural Oklahoma before attending Amherst College where he earned his B.A. in 1987. After managing a homeless shelter established by the Pallottine Fathers and Brothers in the South Bronx, Mat went to the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and, in 1998, was awarded his Ph.D. in History of Religions.
Mat has received Century, Watson, USED Fulbright, American Institute of Indian Studies, Wabash, and Whiting Fellowships and resided in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka for a total of four years as a student and researcher.
Mat has published over one hundred academic articles and chapters, essays, encyclopedia entries, and reviews that engage global Catholicism, Catholic theology and spirituality, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Watchtower movement (Jehovah’s Witnesses).
Mat is co-editor of Engaging South Asian Religions: Boundaries, Appropriations, and Resistances and also, with Thomas Landy of the McFarland Center, is presently working on a sixty-chapter reference volume entitled The Catholic World, contracted for the “Worlds” series published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Press.
Mat has authored a memoir, Mercy Matters: Opening Yourself to the Life Changing Gift, and, with co-author Alonzo Gaskill of Brigham Young University, written Understanding Our Catholic Neighbors: A Guide for Latter-Day Saints. In addition to being the founding and executive editor of the Journal of Global Catholicism, Mat serves or has served on the editorial boards of Asian Horizons, Ethnologia Polonia, Christian Higher Education, Brill’s Global Catholicism Series, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.
Mat regularly contributes to media coverage of religion and religious issues. He has published over one hundred opinion pieces in total, having been published inNewsweek, Salon, The Washington Post, Fortune, USNews & World Report, Commonweal Magazine, The National Catholic Reporter, and The Conversation. He has also provided expert commentary to USA Today, The New York Times, ABC's Good Morning America, NPR, BBC1 and BBC5, Agence France-Press, CNBC, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and NBC News. Overall, Mat is grateful to have had 600+ media appearances through a variety of media platforms. His writings, for example, in The Conversation have nearly 3.5 million unique page hits as of May 2026.
Mat also writes non-fiction and his work has been recognized by Pen 2 Paper and in the Best American Spiritual Writing series. He also has served as a consultant and expert witness in civil and criminal cases involving the Catholic Church as well as New Religious Movements.
Mat is a grateful husband and a father to two wonderful daughters. Mat's family also spends a lot of time with their pet pot-belly pig (Half-Pint) and appaloosa horse (Hollywood). Mat enjoys cooking Indian food and listening to classic and alternative rock (The Who are his favorite group and he still likes Punk Rock). He is also a fan of ghazals by Mehdi Hassan and Ghulam Ali as well as Bollywood film music, especially the songs of Kishore Kumar, Talat Mahmood, and Hemanta Mukherjee. He is a sci-fi geek and loves all versions of Star Trek.
Selected Academic Articles
“Thinking with Nostra Aetate: From the New Pluralism to Comparative Theology,” Revisiting Vatican II: 50 Years of Renewal, Vol. I: Keynote and Plenary Papers of the DVK International Conference on Vatican II, 31 January - 3 February 2013, ed. Shaji George Kochuthara, Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2014, 450-465.
"Hypostatic Union and the Subtle Body: An Analysis of Christian Yogic Practice." Asian Horizons 6.2 (2012): 353-363.
"The Faith and Rationality of Dalit Christian Experience." Asian Horizons 5.1 (2011): 24-35.
“Catholicism and Scientology Do Mix: A Note on Teaching New Religions in the Catholic Classroom,” Teaching Theology and Religion (January/February 2006): 86-90.
"The Silent Body of Audrey Santo." History of Religions 42.2 (2002): 116-142.
Ad Experimentum: Theology, Anthropology and the Paradoxes of Indian Catholic Inculturation,” Theology and the Social Sciences, ed. Michael Barnes (Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 2001), 161-180.
"Images of the Body in the Life and Death of a North Indian Catholic Catechist." History of Religions 39.2 (1999): 177-201
Selected Public Facing Essays
“Sinéad O’Connor: Catholic Activist and Spiritual Seeker.”
“Mount St. Mary’s and the Future of Catholic Higher Education."
“On the Celibacy of St. John Paul II.”
"John Boehner and Bob Brady: Catholic to the Core.”
“Communion in the Hand v. Communion on the Tongue.”
“Should We Forgive the Boston Marathon Bomber?”
“Touching and Being Touched at Sumanahalli”
“Remembering Bishop John Joseph of Pakistan,.”
Selected Television Appearances
Trump’s Feud with Pope Leo,” NBC Channel 10, Boston.
“President Trump Clashes with Pope Leo, Calls Him ‘Terrible for Foreign Policy,.” WBZ News Boston/CBS News
Boston Archbishop Holds Mass Ahead of Conclave to Elect New Pope,” WCVB News, Boston.
“Possible Picks for the Next Pope,” Channel 7 News Boston.
“Pope’s Burial Place Reflects his “Humble, Essential,” Life, Rome’s Poor Will Pay Him a Final Tribute,” WHDH Channel 7 News Boston.
“Boston-area Catholics Mourn Pope Francis, Await Naming of Successor,” NBC 10 News, Boston.
“A Time to Celebrate His Legacy: Catholic Scholar on the Death of Pope Francis,” WHDH News, Boston.
“Was Pope Francis Progressive Enough?” France 24
“Pope of the People: Professor Mathew Schmalz Discusses Legacy of Pope Francis,” ABC News Australia.
"Guns for God: The Church of the AR-15," ViceTV
“Satanic Temple Fighting for Representation in Public Schools,” NBC News.
"The Catholic Church is Broken: Can It Be Saved?" Think (NBC News).
“Capitalism and Christianity,” The Kudlow Report, CNBC.
Selected Opinion and Explanatory Journalism
The Conversation: “Themes of Peace and Human Dignity Have Been Central as Pope Leo Marks His First Year in Office.”
The National Catholic Reporter: “War in Iran Fails Just War Test,”
The Conversation: Pope Leo XIV's Africa Journey How Each Step Reflects His Mission of Peace.
The National Catholic Reporter: Speaker Johnson's Response to Pope Leo Reveals Christian Nationalism
The Conversation: Francis: A Pope Who Has Cared for the Poor and Opened Up the Catholic Church
The Conversation: What Is Catholic Integralism?
The Conversation: “As “Right to Die” Gains More Acceptance, A Scholar of Catholicism Explains the Catholic Church’s Position.
The Canopy Forum: Why Are Jehovah's Witnesses Persecuted?
Fortune: “How Catholic Support Helped Donald Trump’s Victory.”
The Conversation: The Catholic Church is increasingly diverse – and so are its controversies.
The Conversation: Taxing the rich to help the poor? Here’s what the Bible says
Newsweek: Should Christians Support the Death Penalty?
Religion Dispatches: “Goodbye to Amy Winehouse, Living Celebrity Dead
Salon: Who Are Sri Lanka’s Christians?
Washington Post: Can America Fix Catholicism?
The Conversation: “Who Are Jehovah’s Witnesses? A Religion Scholar Explains the Often Misunderstood Group,”