Pope Francis has appointed Italian Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, 54, editorial director of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications.
Announced in a Holy See Press Office bulletin, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, Tornielli will hold this position which coordinates Vatican media. In the same bulletin, it was announced that the Pope nominated Andrea Monda as Director of L’Osservatore Romano.
Born in Chioggia, part of Venice in northern Italy, on March 19, 1964, Andrea Tornielli graduated in the History of the Greek Language from the University of Padua. He was editor at the monthly magazine 30 Giorni, then worked from 1996 to 2011 for the daily Il Giornale.
Since April 2011, he worked at the daily La Stampa, where he coordinated the website Vatican Insider . Married and father of three, he lives between Rome and Milan, according to his short biography published by the Holy See.
In a statement, the prefect of the Dicastery, Paolo Ruffini, assures that with Andrea Tornielli, «the editorial direction (which he is responsible for, in coordinating all the media of the Vatican) will have a safe, authoritative and visionary conduct; conscious of both the great history of the Vatican media and the future that can only be built if we are not afraid, and together.»
The new and first editorial director expresses his gratitude to the pope.
Mentioning the «long history» of the Vatican media, he points out that «these media continue to convey the message of the Successors of Peter and to give voice to the one who does not, thanks to a service in many languages, unique to world.»
Today, he believes, «we need a journalism that tells the facts first before commenting. A journalism that, at the time of the slogans, is able to analyze the reality while always taking into account all its factors.» Andrea Tornielli is committed to serving the Holy See «to help communicate, with all means and using all platforms, in a simple and direct way, the magisterium of the Pope who – as shown by the homilies of St. Martha – accompanies the people of God in every corner of the world. «
Article 9 of the Statute of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications notes that the editorial direction has as its mission: the orientation and the coordination of all the editorial lines of competence of the Dicastery; strategic development of new forms of communication; the effective integration of traditional media in the digital world, with constant attention to the universal dimension of the Holy See’s communication.
