Keeping 5000 Communicators Happy. Media in Rome at the Transition

Abstract

Permit me to outline how our department tried to keep 5000 communicators happy during April events at the Vatican which were both sad and glorious.

First of all, two things should be noted. I was in the United States – between Philadelphia and Annapolis, Maryland, when Pope John Paul II died – but I was hunted down in both places and did about twenty interviews, including "Meet the Press". With the death of the Holy Father, I was out of office – and our department had no second-in-command at the time, since the bishop-secretary had been transferred – but our undersecretary, Dr. Angelo Scelzo, who is also the coordinator of what is called the audiovisual section of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, did an excellent job in directing the work of the office during the interregnum – and I retumed to Rome to work as a "volunteer".

Obviously, we had planned for the moment, but we could not admit that we had done so! (...)