Never too late to turn modern media spotlight– and audiences –toward Christ

Mario Costabile, president of Legatus’ Newark Chapter and winner of the Legatus 2020 Bowie Kuhn Award, was enjoying a successful career as a music industry producer when certain life events prompted him to feel that God was calling him not only to the more serious practice of his Catholic faith, but to use his media talents to bring young people for Christ. So, in 2010, he founded Array of Hope (www.arrayofhope.net), which produces high-quality music, film, events, and other content which bring the Gospel to ever-increasing numbers of young people.

Mario explained, “Our goal is to point them to the Person of Jesus Christ and encourage them to develop a relationship with Him. We want them to know and experience His beauty, love, empathy, and mercy.”

Grew up in the Bronx

Mario grew up in the Bronx in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants. He was interested in sports as a youth, but broke his leg while playing baseball, and spent a summer in traction healing. To pass the time, he turned to music, and upon his recovery refocused his efforts on singing and playing guitar, bass, and drums in a band.


He married and started a family, and in search of a more stable income started a production company outside of Manhattan in 1980. He recorded music for television shows, bands, and off-Broadway productions, and in 2000, began producing television commercials and documentaries. He remarked, “I found I had the talent and ability to do well in the industry.”

Although he raised his five children Catholic, he was a nominal Catholic himself, keeping his key focus on career success. A series of events, however, led him to explore his Catholic faith more seriously, beginning with a cancer diagnosis at age 31 he feared might take his life. Although it was a trial for his wife and children, he came to believe God allowed it “in His permissive will, as it led me to slow down and reflect on life.”

He survived the cancer and pressed on with his career, but years later he would face another major challenge, the terminal illness of his mother. He recalled, “It led me to again ask the important questions: Is God real? Is the Catholic Church rooted in the teaching of Christ?”

It led him to read and pray more, and begin going to daily Mass, a practice he still maintains. His mother did eventually pass away, but the graces he received from being a daily Communicant, “enabled me to see truth with greater clarity, and have a deeper conversion to Christ. I started to feel the presence of Christ in a way I never had before.”

And a third crucial life-experience led him to found Array of Hope, which occurred when he first produced music for a Christian band, and went to Nashville and met non- Catholic Christian performers from groups such as Casting Crowns, MercyMe, and Amy Grant. He said, “I spent time with them. I saw them praise and worship. It created in me a yearning for Catholics to evangelize through music like the Evangelicals.”

He asked God in prayer why Catholics couldn’t do the same, and he believed he received a clear answer: You do it. He continued, “That was the beginning of Array of Hope.”

Attuned to the New Evangelization

Array of Hope’s mission is to engage in the New Evangelization using music, film, events, and other content on a quality level commensurate to the best in the secular world. He made use of what he had learned from the Evangelical artists, but went deeper to share the Catholic faith.

He noted, “I came to see very clearly from the experiences I had had in the music industry that God was preparing me for Array of Hope.”

He began producing 2 ½-hour multimedia concerts for Catholic venues utilizing film, lights, song, and witness, “like a Steubenville Youth Conference on steroids.” The events grew in popularity, and the messaging was “fine-tuned and oriented to Catholic theology.” The concerts, he said, are “a theological journey of the virtues, faith, hope and love, culminating with prayer.”

Inspirational films were part of the events, and due to repeated requests, Array of Hope began creating films and distributing them through a variety of Catholic outlets. Among their best-known films is Fatima Gems, which Mario produced in conjunction with the late Franciscan Father Andrew Apostoli, CFR (1942-2017), a 13-part series on the 1917 apparitions at Fatima, Portugal. His experiences with the Franciscans, he said, led him to develop a devotion to the Blessed Mother, culminating with him consecrating the work of Array of Hope to her three years ago. Its next major film is a 2022 documentary he hopes will reveal “the horror of abortion,” not using a polemical approach but “informing through a common bond of humanity and love.”

Other components of the ministry include a regular podcast, featuring Mario interviewing prominent Catholics on topics related to the faith. And, in January 2022, Array of Hope will launch an online channel with weekly programming, films, music, and other materials which users can enjoy.

Archetype of the Legatus Man

Array of Hope is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Old Tappan, New Jersey. It employs a small staff with a wide variety of talents, and is funded by donors and the modest fees charged for content and events. Mario serves as executive director, and was invited by John Knowles, Legatus Lehigh Valley Chapter member, to join Legatus in 2018.

John nominated Mario for the Bowie Kuhn Award. He said, “What makes Array of Hope so important is that it allows Mario to bring his expertise and talents from the secular sphere to Catholic ministry so that he can spread the Gospel in an effective way.”

He continued, “Mario is the archetype of the Legatus man: a successful professional, prolific philanthropist, devoted Catholic, and committed to his family.”

Father Mariusz Koch, CFR has celebrated Mass for the Array of Hope staff and has invited Mario to speak at New York’s Immaculate Conception Seminary, where Father offers spiritual direction. Noting that Mario gave a “beautiful personal witness about what God is doing in his life,” Father said, “Mario is amazing, and demonstrates that we need to get the word of God out in creative ways.”

Although Mario is grateful to God for the success he’s had over the past dozen years “evangelizing thousands,” he does at times feel uncomfortable in his new career as an evangelist. He explained, “I still feel like an outsider, as I came to ministry so late in life.”

While leading Array of Hope is the most difficult thing he has ever done, he has found it rewarding and believes its work “more important than ever.” He advises his staff to join him in attending Mass daily to pray for the success of the ministry, and for guidance as to where the ministry should go. Mario concluded, “I tell them I’m not the boss, the Holy Spirit is. It is important for our efforts that we stay connected to Him.”

JIM GRAVES is a Legatus magazine contributing writer.