EWTN ROME BIDS FAREWELL TO BUREAU CHIEF

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EWTN ROME BIDS FAREWELL TO BUREAU CHIEF

In the fall of 2005, a dream held for years by EWTN’s Mother Angelic was realized. This global network was finally going to open a Rome office and I had the honor, the great privilege, to be asked by the network to be the first EWTN Rome Bureau Chief.

On August 22, the very beautiful day I signed my contract in Alabama, I visited the shrine in Hanceville and met Mother Angelica, purely by chance! She was praying at the tomb of her mother in the lower chapel of the shrine. Though she had had a stroke and lost her ability to speak, when Doug Keck explained to her that I would be the EWTN Rome bureau chief – her dream! – she gave me her blessing and placed her hands on my eyes, ears, mouth and hands, moving her lips in prayer as she did so. I met her one other time in subsequent visits to EWTN offices in Irondale, Alabama.

To this very day, from starting the first office in my home, all the intervening years were heady times – papal trips, two conclaves, the canonizations of three Popes, Mother Teresa and Cardinal John Henry Newman, as well as a thousand front page stories about the Vatican, about Popes John Paul, emeritus Benedict XVI and Francis.

Alan Holdren came to Rome in 2009 and was soon bureau chief for CNA News and in 2016 succeeded me as Rome Bureau Chief. More heady years! Years of great growth in technology, in personnel and in opening offices in many cities and countries in Europe.

I was delighted when Alan was hired by EWTN and, in these past years, have been doubly delighted by his friendship and that of his wife Susanna and their four beautiful children.

Yesterday was Alan’s final day as head of the Rome office: here’s a glimpse of his story as he told it last night on EWTN News Nightly: Vatican Chief Bureau for EWTN Says Goodbye to the Network | EWTN News Nightly – YouTube

Andreas Thonhauser from Germany will succeed Alan in Rome, arriving in August with his wife and family. A formal announcement and welcome to come from EWTN.

In the meantime, here’s an historic photo, if I don’t say so myself! First EWTN bureau chief Joan Lewis, outgoing bureau chief Alan Holdren and the newest members of our global family, Andreas!

I love the photo and said, when I saw it: “You’ve heard of the Three Tenors? Well, we are the Three Tenured!”