Vatican City, Jul 9, 2017 / 09:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his 22 years as spokesman for St. John Paul II, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls became somewhat of a legend in the Vatican – not only for his keen professional abilities and insight into the Pope’s mind, but also for his genuine kindness and deep spiritual life.
In a word, most who knew the late Spanish layman, who died earlier this week, have referred to him as a “gentleman” who was elegant, professional, kind and incredibly savvy.
Fr. John Wauck, a longtime friend of Navarro-Valls, described him as “an old-school gentleman and a consummate professional – capable, discreet, committed, loyal.”
Likewise, Greg Burke, current Director of the Holy See Press Office, said after announcing news of Navarro’s passing on Twitter that “Joaquin Navarro embodied what Ernest Hemingway defined as courage: grace under pressure.”
Burke said that he had met Navarro-Valls while working as a correspondent for Time Magazine the same year that the publication had named St. John Paul II “Man of the Year.”
In dealing with the Pope’s spokesman, Burke said “I expected to find a man of faith, but I found a man of faith who was also a first class professional” that was already well known and respected by his peers in the communications world.
“I didn’t always agree with Navarro, but he always behaved like a Christian gentlemen – and those can be hard to find these days,” Burke said.
Navarro-Valls was born in Cartagena, Spain in 1936. He studied medicine at the Universities in Granada and Barcelona, and worked as a professional psychiatrist and teaching medicine before obtaining degrees in journalism and communications.
He joined Opus Dei after meeting its founder St. Josemaria Escriva, continuing to collaborate with the founder in Rome, where he moved in 1970.
In Rome he was a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC and was twice elected president of the Rome-based Foreign Press Association in Italy.
He was the first lay journalist to hold the position of Director of the Vatican Press Office, which he was appointed to by Pope St. John Paul II in 1984. He served through the Pope’s death and two years into the pontificate of Benedict XVI before retiring in 2006.
After, he served as president of the advisory board of the Opus Dei-affiliated Campus Biomedical University in Rome until his death.
In his tenure at the Vatican Press Office spanning more than two decades, Navarro-Valls helped to modernize Vatican communications, especially as technology advanced. As Burke said, “he lived through the fax to the age of the internet.”
In 1992, he used $2 million to equip the press office with up-to-date technology and to modernize the facilities. He also streamlined the distribution of materials by making archives, documents and the Pope’s activities accessible online.
He died in Rome July 5 surrounded by fellow members of Opus Dei after battling terminal cancer. His funeral was held Thursday, July 6 at 11a.m. at the basilica of Sant’Eugenio, and was celebrated by the Vicar General of Opus Dei, Bishop Mariano Fazio.
Mario Biasetti, a journalist under the last five popes and a friend and colleague of Navarro-Valls, said he was a professional journalist, and it showed in everything he did.
Even when a colleague or a journalist would ask him a tough question, “it didn’t faze him,” Biasetti said. “He would tell you exactly what happened, but he would do it with a smile.”
“Joachin Navarro was a very well thought of man all-around. He had no difficulty to speak with anybody, whether officially or not officially.”
Biasetti traveled on many papal trips with John Paul II, and Navarro was always there and always by his side, he said. He was also always willing to pitch in and “always came through” for journalists with whatever they needed.
For Burke, one of the key things that stood out about Navarro-Valls is that he was someone who would work “shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of us,” who “knew the world” and was good with languages.
Burke noted that before coming to the Vatican, Navarro worked as a correspondent, “and his colleagues from around the globe clearly recognized his merits, electing him President of the Stampa Estera in Rome.”
“I remember watching Navarro closely during the U.N. Population Conference in Cairo – one of the best examples of what Pope Francis calls ideological colonization. It was fascinating to see someone who was defending the faith, but he wasn’t on the defensive. He was leading the fight.”
Asked about what, if any, advice he had given Burke on doing the job, the spokesman said the advice he got “was more personal than professional, such as ‘don’t neglect your interior life, and make sure you pray – you’ll need it in this job.’”
This attention to the spiritual life is something that was also obvious to others who worked with Navarro. In Biasetti’s words, the Spaniard “was a journalist, yes, but he was also a churchman.”
Fr. Wauck, a professor of the Institutional Church Communications faculty at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and a fellow member of Opus Dei, recalled that this spiritual dynamic was evident even in Navarro’s work.
The priest said that when he thinks of Navarro, the first thing that comes to mind is “the conversion of the Time magazine reporter Wilton Wynn,” a well-known old-time reporter in the Middle East and Rome during John Paul II’s pontificate.
“Naturally, it was the vibrant Christian example of the Pope that attracted Wilton to the faith, but his long friendship with Navarro-Valls played a key part as well,” Wauck said, adding that Navarro-Valls “maintained an affectionate concern for Wilton’s spiritual well-being for the rest of his life.”
Another memory the priest recalled is “a small act of kindness” that took place over the summer some 15 years ago.
Fr. Wauck said that he had mentioned, in passing, in front of Navarro, that he had broken his swimming goggles. “The next day, I found a new pair on my desk, and they were much better than the ones I’d broken.”
Fr. Federico Lombardi, Navarro-Valls’ immediate successor as Director of the Holy See Press Office, also reflected on his relationship with his late predecessor, calling to mind Navarro’s character and impact on Vatican communications.
Lombardi recalled meeting Navarro after coming to Rome in 1991 to take on the role as Director of Programming for Vatican Radio.
After meeting and working alongside the Spaniard, particularly when the Pope traveled abroad, it immediately became clear that he was “a stable and important component” of the papal entourage, “but also likeable, friendly and cordial,” Lombardi said.
“Naturally I already knew him for his fame as a brilliant and competent ‘spokesman’ for the Pope,” he said, noting that the official title for someone in Navarro’s position is “Director of the Holy See Press Office.”
However, in the case of Navarro-Valls, spokesman “was an entirely appropriate name.”
Even if this wasn’t the official description of his duty – which was rather “Director of the Press Office” – it must be said that in his case it was an entirely appropriate name given the close relationship he had with John Paul II.
According to Lombardi, it was Navarro himself who often stressed that it was “absolutely necessary to have – and to indeed have – a direct relationship with the Pope, in order to know his thinking and line of thought with surety and clarity, and to be able to present himself to the world, to the Press Office and to public opinion as an authoritative interpreter of that thought, and not just hearsay.”
Throughout Navarro’s lengthy tenure working in the Vatican, there was absolutely “no doubt” that “he was very close to the Pope, so close that he must be considered one of the most important figures of that extraordinary pontificate.”
This, Lombardi said, is “not only because of his evident public visibility, but also for his role as intervention and advice. Certainly John Paul II had great confidence in him and held his service in high esteem.”
Burke, who is Lombardi’s successor as Director of the Holy See Press Office, referred to this relationship when he announced Navarro’s passing, posting a photo of him standing next to John Paul II with a big smile.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”tl” dir=”ltr”>Joaquin Navarro, 1936-2017.<br>Keep Smiling. <a href=”https://t.co/VCqL4GH5sS”>pic.twitter.com/VCqL4GH5sS</a></p>— Greg Burke (@GregBurkeRome) <a href=”https://twitter.com/GregBurkeRome/status/882672100091322370″>July 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
“I tweeted out a photo of Navarro-Valls and John Paul II smiling together, saying ‘Navarro, keep smiling.’ But I actually took that quote from John Paul II,” he said.
It was after a meeting between the Pope and the editors of Time Magazine, Burke explained. Navarro was standing off to the side a little, but smiling, happy with how things had gone and Pope St. John Paul II, noticing, said to him in English: “keep smiling.”
“You could tell that they had a very, very good relationship,” he said.
When it came to Navarro’s professional abilities, Lombardi said that at U.N. conferences the Spaniard would end up playing a primary and even diplomatic role, thanks to his “experience and communicative ability.”
“His intelligence, elegance and relational abilities were prominent. To that is added a great knowledge of languages and a true genius in presenting news and information content in a brilliant, attractive and concise way,” Lombardi said.
These are all gifts that made Navarro “an ideal person as a point of reference in the Vatican for the international information providers, but also for relations” with people in the public, communications and political spheres.
As both a layman and a consecrated member of Opus Dei, Navarro could be counted on as a competent and respected professional, but also as someone “whose dedication and faithful love of the Church could really be counted on, for the effective availability of both time and heart.”
For Lombardi, the lengthy duration of Navarro’s service as Director of the Press Office, his authoritativeness, efficiency and the quality of his work make his tenure “an age that will likely remain unique in the history of the Press Office and of Vatican communications.”
“Certainly, the dimension of communications and public relations in the immense pontificate of John Paul II cannot in any way be independent of Dr. Navarro’s work and personality,” he said. “It was an invaluable service to the Church.”
Lombardi voiced his gratitude to Navarro, specifically for the “courtesy and attention” he showed during the time they worked together.
“I always considered him a teacher in the way of carrying out his service and I never would have imagined to be called to succeed him,” Lombardi said, adding that his predecessor was “totally inimitable.”
“In the context of a different pontificate I tried to interpret and carry out the task assigned to me as best as I knew how, but preserving, for what was possible, his precious legacy,” he said.
Lombardi and Navarro remained friends even after the latter stepped down. For Lombardi, his predecessor was always “an example of a discreet, true and deep spiritual life, fully integrated with his work, a model of dedication to the service of the Pope and the Church, a teacher in communications.”
“Even for me – as I already said, but I willingly repeat – he was inimitable.”
[…]
They know they can’t remove pages from the Bible. They just say the teachings of the Bible are too hard for some to live in their “complex situations” and thus say we have to make exceptions to the “norm” while at the same time saying the teachings haven’t changed.
Hi, dear ‘JP’: “They just say the teachings of the Bible are too hard .”
You are spot-on: effete church ‘leaders’ see nothing wrong in incorporating the ungodly in The Church, aiming for the numbers, money, & influence that counterfeit recruits are all too willing to supply.
Yet, King Jesus Christ (see Matthew 7:13-14) made it clear that His followers must accept the hardness of The Way that He leads us on. The alternative, easier, popular way leads only to destruction.
Good men & women have never been put off by the prospect of picking up their cross daily to follow our beloved LORD. That is the truth about how things have to be in this world. No one can alter that, not even a pope.
Perseveringly seeking to follow Jesus Christ (a lifetime’s occupation) has always brought out the best in us. This is how God created it to be!
Catholics’ faithfulness to The New Testament, be it ever-so hard, is what invites The Holy Spirit of God to confront the sinful world (John 16:8-11), and that is the whole reason for the existence of The Church.
They lie perniciously in saying: “The Church exists to make the world a better place.”
What is it about Christ’s superb plan that so many church hierarchs are choking on? Why do they sell out for a tawdry and futile impost?
Ever blessed by The Lamb of God; loving prayers from marty
In other words, we don’t dare urge anyone to repent these days (no matter how tactful and prudent we may be). I guess we are to simply “accompany them” as they persist in the mortal sin(s) that can possibly lead them to Hell. 🙄
Say orthodoxy, live heteropraxy.
If the Church preceded the Bible, and if in fact the Bible is the creation of the Church, then it seems to me that the Church can do what She will with it.
.
That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do, but it seems it could be done.
Ah, but the Church did not precede the Word of God, nor can she do with the Word of God what she will (cf CCC 104).
The Bible and The Word of God are not the same thing.
“In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, ‘but as what it really is, the word of God’…” (CCC 104)
“For the Sacred Scriptures contain the word of God and since they are inspired, really are the word of God…” (DV 24)
But the Word is Christ, is it (He) not? The Bible refers to that in the Gospel of John.
The Old Testament was written over a long span of time before Christ was born. The New Testament after He died. Actually, there were many “books” written before and after, and somebody (or rather somebodies) had to make a decision on what was to be canon and what was not.
https://www.catholic.com/qa/who-compiled-the-bible-and-when
Come to think of it the Catechism is much the same. There have been many different versions.
I disagree with removing pages from the Bible, but I just don’t see why the Church could not do it.
Mrs. Hess, the Book of Genesis is part of the Bible. It preceded the institution of the Church.
I refer to the Bible as a whole, not individual books
The fact that he would feel obliged to say such a thing is quite disturbing.
What kind of pressures can he be experiencing that would prompt him to even contemplate a Church event that would contravene the Gospel of Christ Jesus?
THIS is a very positive and affirming commentary. Very welcome to this reader. And, we also read a warning: “There is bad press against the Holy Father that’s not fair and that has as its objective the same thing that they try to do in the world, which is class struggle. They want to divide us Catholics from the pope and the pope from Catholics.”
Only “in the world?”
Yours truly recalls in 1994 pointing out this Marxist problem, even within the Church itself, to a visiting priest with a permanent teaching position in Rome. Academically insulated—and now open-mouthed, he had never even thought of it. Ever.
The CONCERN by some is the degree to which synodality in its current formulation might be too welcoming to a populistic and amnesiac vanguard, “walking together” with the “bad press” agenda? Why, for example, is the “non-synod” (!) Synodal Way even at the Synod table in Rome, and already distributing its script? How much of a “paradigm shift” does it take to divide the magisterium and the “hierarchical communion” from itself? Not by simply removing pages from the Bible, but by removing the Church of today from itself (Lumen Gentium)—from even the idea of Tradition, including the accountability and historical fact of the apostolic succession (Mt 28:19-20)?
The subtle AND possibly fatal difference between the “gospel values of Jesus” and the concretely incarnate “Christ of the gospels”—”the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:8)? With the Holy Spirit not only somewhere out there ahead of us, but already and first indwelling the Church—from the beginning—ever since Pentecost.
TODAY, the mingled risk of intuitionism, and the rescheduled and fictional Third Age of the 12th-century Joachim of Fiore? Or, Pentecost? But hopefully, too, with Archbishop Rodriguez: “the Holy Spirit is working…
“They [bad press] want to divide us Catholics from the pope and the pope from Catholics,..” No.
What divides Catholics is Vatican perverting and subverting of VCII documents. What divides are attempts to paradigmatic shift Church teaching. Undermining and reorienting doctrine to ‘pastorality’ through documents like Amoris, Fratelli, Traditiones Custodes, and Laudate has divided Catholics. Including laity with progressive ideology and non-bishops as voting members in this synod is emblematic of an assault on a teaching and valid synod. Disallowing “good press” sets the agenda and outcome of this papacy’s divisive synod front, center, and in absolutely clear focus.
Counterfeiting, denying, obfuscating, and facilely trying to convince that it has not damaged, stolen, buried, or thrown away any of the Church’s treasure, Rome fools no one of its divisive cause celebre.
Rome has shredded her credibility. Orthodox Catholics detest lying and obfuscating words. We want words of Christ, not of false teachers and their false spirits. Our few good shepherds are persecuted, ignored, ridiculed, denied welcome among the false and so we see abomination in the heart of Rome.
The Church is the Lord’s, and he holds Her dear. True believers fear Him. No one else frightens us.
Communion. CNA’s Sanchez Silva refers twice to the Synod on Synodality’s original 2021 theme, Communion, Participation, and Mission.
Communion within the Church, our bond with Christ is Christ himself in the Holy Eucharist. Today, the feast of a great father, martyr for Christ St Ignatius of Antioch speaks to that bond understood by Ignatius as Christ, who speaks to “deep within” him, “Come to the Father. I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or the delights of this world. I want only God’s bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, and for drink I crave his blood, which is love that cannot perish”(Ignatius in a letter to the Romans). For Ignatius Christ was alive within. He speaks of Christ as the living, resurrected Christ, much like the Apostle Paul. Ignatius was a friend of Bishop Polycarp, a brother martyr saint and apparently according to historical sources, a student of the greatest of the Apostles.
This martyr’s love is consistent with the living presence of Christ in the Eucharist. As the crucifixion was Christ’s absorption of the death penalty we deserved, his resurrection was evidence of our forgiveness. As the Apostle says if Christ had not risen from the dead our faith would be useless. Augustine centuries later would trace that perception in the Fathers calling the resurrection God’s most marvelous work.
Among the faithful there’s a weakness of this awareness of the risen, living Christ, received and alive within us at Holy Communion. It was fitting beyond measure that communion is mentioned first in the original theme. The challenge now is for the conceptual Synodal Church to realize that participation with Christ and our true mission is revealed in the Eucharistic presence of the living Word.
“…our bond with Christ is Christ himself in the Holy Eucharist.” In a Letter to the Ephesians, St. Ignatius of Antioch also finds of the Church a Eucharistic unity:
“…for you are as united with him (the bishop) as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ to the Father, so that all things are in harmony through unity” (St. Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, Liturgy of the Hours, Second Sunday of Ordinary Time).
Harmony through unity, rather than unity through editing. Wondering, here, how the “experts” of the Synod will put their Humpty-Dumpty facsimile together again?
Fr. Morello, Thank you for what you have said in this post about the Resurrection. I recently bought and placed a picture of the Holy Face placed beside the Divine Mercy picture and alongside the Eucharist and the Crucifix in our Eucharistic prayer Chapel.I also bought and placed a large statue of the Risen Christ right beside the Eucharist on a separate table. We must have all of Christ. Without the Passion there would be no Resurrection and Divine Mercy. All was done with the parish priests permission.In the Resurrection Christ overcame death and carved a path through it for us to follow Him to Heaven and now I understand it as His sign of forgiveness. Beautiful. If you see I misunderstand any of this please offer me your correction. In JMJ, Diane McHenry
What about all the parts of the Bible we do ignore?
Dear ‘Sher’, was wondering who is the ‘we’ you refer to?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church does a great job in highlighting & explicating the various books of The Holy Bible and the inspired works of our early saints.
Appropriately (since Jesus Christ is One with God The Father & God The Holy Spirit, is The Beginning and The End of all things, & The Reason that all things exist), the CCC majors on HIS life example & HIS instructions by building itself on over 3,500 citations from The Holy Spirit-inspired Apostolic witness of all 27 texts of The New Testament.
You may be right if you mean that many Catholics – both clergy & lay – are shockingly ignorant of The New Testament, having never been informed that it is the very Charter of God’s New Covenant with humanity, the most important text in the entire cosmos.
Perhaps good Catholics have been put off by the faith-destroying & obfuscating ‘scholarship’ of many modern & postmodern, catholic, New Testament academics, who are in breach of the faithful hermeneutic of our Catechism and doubly sin, in betraying Truth and in obstructing & misleading Christs’ little ones.
We really have no excuse. In every Holy Mass that we participate in, the priest and the people all rise to welcome The Gospel with loud Alleluias, and we declare: “Praise to You, LORD Jesus Christ!” Then with serious intent we sign our foreheads with The Cross to declare we believe Christ’s Word, sign our lips in promise to ever declare Christ’s Word, and sign our hearts to say how we will love Christ’s Word above all.
Hopefully, the shock of the present PF-inspired anti-Apostolic crisis in The Church will awake us from our spiritual laziness and sponsor a desire among all Catholics to become thoroughly au fait with The New Testament, personally & parish-wide.
Ever under the glory of God’s Word, King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty