VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY
The first significant appointments in the communications field have been made following the establishment of the Secretariat for Communications headed by Mgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò. Pope Francis has appointed Stefano D’Agostini as the new director of the Vatican Television Center (CTV). He is currently the Center’s technical director and succeeds Mgr. Viganò.
American journalist Greg Burke’s appointment as vice director of the Holy See Press Office is also significant. Burke, a former Fox News correspondent, has served as senior communications adviser to the Vatican Secretariat of State since 2012 – right when the first Vatileaks scandal broke out. He is Fr. Federico Lombardi’s third deputy, the other two being Fr. Ciro Benedettini and Angelo Scelzo.
Burke replaces Ciro Benedettini who is due to retire after 21 years of service. In his Christmas speech to journalists from the Vatican Press office, the Holy See’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, issued the following comment: “This morning we learnt that a new vice director has been appointed. We welcome Greg (Burke) who will be working with us as of February. But I would like to express my wishes and huge gratitude to Fr. Ciro (Benedettini). If there is one person who has been a glue for Church life and the Church community over the past 20 years, that is Ciro. We are immensely grateful to him.”
In his speech, Fr. Lombardi referred back to a point Francis made in his address to the Curia this morning: “whoever renounces their humanity renounces everything,” he said. “Humanity makes us different from robots, which feel nothing. Humanity means being affectionate, friendly and kind to everyone.”
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