Friday, July 19, 2019

New Director for the Vatican Press Centre

Yesterday, the Holy Father, Pope Francis appointed the illustrious Doctor Matteo Bruni as the new Director of the Holy See Press Centre, effective on 22 July 2019.

Matteo Bruni

Doctor Matteo Bruni was born on 23 November 1976 in Winchester (Great Britain).  He holds degrees in Modern and Foreign Languages and Literature granted by the Sapienza University in Rome.

Since July 2009, he has been working at the Holy See Press Centre, where he was tasked with the accreditation of journalists and the management of communications operations for the Press as coordinator of the Accreditation Section.

In December 2013, he took on the responsibility of organizing and accompanying all members of the Press who were admitted aboard the Papal flights on the occasion of the Holy Father's visits outside Italy.

At the beginning of 2016, he was appointed as Coordinator of the Media Operations and Accreditation sector of the Holy See Press Centre.  In this role, he coordinated the participation of the Press in various events during the Jubilee of Mercy.

He has been involved for some time in the ecclesiastical sphere, including humanitarian cooperation projects and programmes to support the elderly.

He is married and has one daughter.

In addition to Italian, he speaks English, Spanish and French.

Alessandro Gisotti

The Holy Father has appointed the illustrious Doctor Sergio Centofanti as well as Doctor Alessandro Gisotti as Deputy Directors in charge of the Editorial Direction of the Dicastery for Communication.  This appointment takes effect on 22 July 2019.

Statement issued by Alessandro Gisotti
interim Director of the Holy See Press Centre

On 21 July my responsibility as interim Director of the Holy See Press Office will conclude. I am grateful to the Holy Father for the privilege he gave me in being his spokesman during such an intense period of his Pontificate, and for now offering me the opportunity to continue in his service as Deputy Editorial Director of the Vatican’s media. I am grateful to him for his constant fatherly support. I thank the Pope, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, and the Superiors of the Secretariat of State for respecting my decision, communicated at the beginning of my mandate and later confirmed, that I would carry out this very important role for a limited time. Even though filled with events, this time permitted a reorganization of the Press Office based on a common commitment with the Prefect, Paolo Ruffini, taken up six months ago.

As stated at the time of my appointment last 31 December, I took on this responsibility in a spirit of service, aware of this exceptional and unprecedented moment for the Holy See Press Office, given the sudden resignations of the Director and Vice Director. During these extremely busy six months – most especially also for my family - I received the full support of the Prefect Paolo Ruffini and my colleagues at the Press Office to whom I owe deep gratitude. I also had a particularly positive experience working with my fellow journalists, a relationship characterized by reciprocal respect, even during unavoidable confrontational moments. In that regard, among the initiatives accomplished under my direction, I would like to recall the naming of the hall in the Press Office where the journalists work as the Sala JoaquĆ­n Navarro-Valls. This example underscores that, in the Church and at the Holy See, information counts and must more and more increase in importance.


I am sure that Matteo Bruni will know how to manage the extraordinary team here at the Press Office in the best way possible. I offer him my best wishes for success, as well as my availability to collaborate.

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