Joaquín Navarro-Valls has died

Medol - Wiki image - 2014

Source: VIS/Opus Dei

The former Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Joaquín Navarro-Valls, died yesterday, 5 July 2017, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old.

Navarro trained as a medical doctor with a specialization in psychiatry, as well as in journalism, moving to Rome in the early 1970’s, becoming a foreign correspondent and eventually being elected president of the foreign press association in the city.

In 1984, he accepted an offer from Pope St John Paul II to become the new head of the Press Office of the Holy See, a position he held until 2006.

A statement on the website of Opus Dei, of which Navarro was a member, announces that there will be a vigil today, Thursday, July 6, starting at 4pm in the sacristy of the basilica of the church of St Eugene (Viale delle Belle Arti 10, Rome), and that Mgr Mariano Fazio, Vicar General of the Prelature of Opus Dei, will celebrate his Requiem Mass on Friday, July 7 at 11am Rome Time.

Read more on the Opus Del website here: http://opusdei.org.au/en-au/article/passing-away-joaquin-navarro-valls/