Remembering Navarro-Valls

The former Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Joaquín Navarro-Valls, passed away on Wednesday, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. Navarro trained as a medical doctor with a specialization in psychiatry, as well as in journalism, moving to Rome in the early 1970’s, becoming a foreign correspondent and eventually being elected president of the foreign press association in the city.

In 1984, he accepted an offer from Pope Saint John Paul II to become the new head of the Press Office of the Holy See, a position he held until 2006.   A statement on the website of Opus Dei, of which Navarro was a member, informs the public that a vigil is scheduled for Thursday, July 6, starting at 4pm in the sacristy of the basilica of the church of Saint Eugene (Viale delle Belle Arti 10, Rome), and that Msgr. Mariano Fazio, Vicar General of the Prelature of Opus Dei, will celebrate a funeral Mass for him on Friday, July 7 at 11am Rome Time.

Father Federico Lombardi SJ, who succeeded Joaquín Navarro-Valls in the post of Director of the Holy See Press Office, remembers his predecessor as a multi-faceted man of many talents, highly professional, and capable of great warmth in his personal relations, and also a man of deep faith and devotion to the Church.