Vatican communications efforts merged, new office will supervise work
June 29, 2015
Pope Francis has established a new Vatican office, the Secretariat for Communications, to supervise all of the communications and public-relations efforts of the Holy See.
The new office, formally created in an apostolic letter that was released on June 27, was created at the suggestion of a papal commission, chaired by Lord Patten, that examined all the media operations of the Vatican and recommended a streamlining of the work, to achieve better cooperation and efficiency. The Council of Cardinals approved the Patten commission's recommendations, along for a period of time for “a gradual integration of institutions.”
The new curial dicastery has oversight over the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Holy See Press Office, Vatican Internet Service, Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Center (CTV), L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican typography and photographic services, and Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Vatican’s publishing house. Until now all these offices have worked independently, with little coordination of their work.
“The new dicastery will also work in union with the Secretariat of State for the direction of the institutional website of the Holy See, www.vatican.va, and the Twitter account of the Holy Father,” Vatican Radio reported.
The Pontiff appointed Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, the 53-year-old director of the Vatican Television Center (CTV), as the secretariat’s first prefect.
He also named Msgr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz, current office head of Vatican Internet Service, as the secretariat’s first secretary; Paolo Nusiner, current director general of Avvenire, as the secretariat’s director general; and Giacomo Ghisani, the head of the international relations office and legal affairs for Vatican Radio, as vice director general.
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Further information:
- Pope Francis promulgates Motu Proprio instituting the ‘Secretariat for Communications’ (Vatican Radio)
- Sweeping reform of Vatican media operations gains approval (CWN, 6/10)
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