Alessandro Gisotti has been appointed by Pope Francis as the Deputy Editorial Director of the Vatican. His mandate as interim Director of the Holy See Press Office will end on July 21, 2019.
Italian journalist Sergio Centofanti was also appointed Vice-Editorial Director along with him. They will assist the Editorial Director Andrea Tornielli.
Speaking to journalists in the Holy See Press Office today July 18 and in a Vatican statement, Alessandro Gisotti welcomed the appointment of Matteo Bruni as head of the Press Office.
«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,» he said.
Gisotti, who assumed the function of ad interim after Greg Burke’s departure on December 31, 2018, but requesting for it to be ‘ad interim’, thanked Pope Francis for offering him “the privilege to be his spokesman during a very intense period of his pontificate.»
“I’m grateful to him for his constant fatherly support,” he said.
Moreover, the Italian journalist also thanked the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, and those in charge of the State Secretariat, for having respected his choice “to assume this very important task for a limited time.”
«A time limit that made it possible to put in place a new organization of the Press Office,” he explained.
«As stated at the time of my appointment last 31 December,» he reminded, «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,» he added.
To journalists, he recognized that his time as director was a particularly intense time of the pontificate, marked not only by five important and diverse Apostolic Trips, to Panama, United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, but also the Summit on the Protection of Minors and various responses to cases and scandals worldwide, including in the United States, France and Australia.
The new deputy editorial director discussed some of the initiatives which have been implemented under his direction, expressing how much the dedication of the journalists’ workroom to the former Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls (1936-2017), John Paul II’s spokesman, meant to him on a personal level. “A gesture geared to stressing that, in the Church and for the Holy See, information counts and must count ever more.”
Welcoming their “great professionalism, their sensibility and their competence, the Dicastery’s Prefect, Paolo Ruffini, paid tribute to Alessandro Gisotti, who, in a short period, was able to accomplish his service as Director “with absolute devotion and professionalism, contributing intelligently to the Office’s new organization.
Below is the full English text of Alessandro Gisotti’s statement:
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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 Joaquín 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.
