In this edition: a conversation with veteran Vatican beat reporter Andrea Gagliarducci.
Listeners who pay any kind of attention to the news coming out of the Vatican will almost certainly have seen Andrea Gagliarducci’s by-line: he has a desk at the Italian-language editorial outfit of the Catholic News Agency, ACI Stampa, he has written for numerous publications ranging in size and reach from local Italian print journals to major international mastheads, and for six years he has been the principal author, editor and sole proprietor of MondayVatican – a weekly blog dedicated to frank and penetrating news analysis.
Still a young man, he is a journalist of the Old School, who cares deeply about getting the story right: he knows where the line between reporting and opinionating is drawn, and he toes that line with rigorous and scrupulous precision, even as he walks that line in his analysis pieces with acrobatic acumen.
Written in a style that is at once careful and quirkily inviting, Andrea’s work informs, explains, and encourages his readers to think more clearly and more deeply about the issues before them.
He also – and perhaps most importantly – challenges readers in the Anglosphere to see the issues at the center of the Universal Church from a new and different perspective, one that does not presume the Pope is always thinking about or speaking primarily or directly to the Church in the United States or the English-speaking world, but does not discount or deny the importance of English-speaking Catholicism in the life of the worldwide Church.
That is why we reached out to him – that, and his ability to correct, without seeming to correct, and to place a disagreement without being disagreeable: he is, we think you will hear and agree, a happy warrior and a consummate continental – and Catholic – gentleman.
St. Francis de Sales once wrote:
All joy and satisfaction consists in this: to discover and to recognize the truth about things, and the nobler the truths are the more joyfully and attentively our reason surrenders to their contemplation.
By Wolfgang Sauber – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At bottom, the journalist’s mission is to tell the truth about things: to find it out and to tell it frankly – and while, on a beat such as that, on which Andrea has chosen to work and earn his living, training in the sacred sciences is a big help, the building blocks of truth-telling remain the same.
Our conversation begins with the place that old j-hands always begin and end: the “Five W’s”: who, what, where, when, why.
**********
Friends, the podcasting arm of Vocaris Media is listener-supported, so, your donations really are what make this possible. $1 / show is what we ask – though we’re always happy to receive more.
You can make your donation by going to www.thinkingwiththechurch.wordpress.com and clicking on the “support TwtC” tab in the menu at the top, or by going to www.vocarismedia.com and looking for the “donate” button in the top-right corner of the page.
You can participate in discussions by going to the blog: again, that’s at www.thinkingwiththechurch.wordpress.com and leaving your thoughts in the comboxes.
Follow us on Twitter: @TWTC_Rome
You can write me directly on the emails: the address is craltieri@vocarismedia.com
Subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes, or use the RSS feed to subscribe through your favorite podcast manager.
“Thanks!” as always to Executive Producer Ester Rita.
Our web guru is Christopher Bauer Anderson – “Topher” Anderson of www.lifesiteministries.org.
Sean Beeson composed our theme. Hear more of his musical stylings at www.seanbeeson.com.
St. Gabriel Archangel, pray for us!
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
Thinking with the Church 