VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis appointed Lorenzo Fazzini, an Italian journalist, author and father of four, to be managing director of the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican announced on August 23.
The 43-year-old is the first layperson to head the office, which is now operated by the Vatican Dicastery for Communication. He succeeds Conventual Franciscan Father Giulio Cesareo.
Fazzini has degrees in modern literature and religious studies, has authored eight books and has written for several newspapers, including the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano and the Italian bishops’ conference’s daily, Avvenire.
Since 2012, he has been director of EMI, a publishing house for 15 Italian missionary institutes that work all over the world.
Under his direction, EMI became a media company, producing events with authors, theater, catechetical exhibitions, webinars, formation workshops for teachers, merchandise as well as books written by authors with a focus on people and places “on the peripheries,” according to its website.
In line with the merger and reform of the Vatican’s various communication outlets, the publishing house will be collaborating with the dicastery’s other media sections, which include Vatican News, Vatican Media and television, and the Vatican newspaper.
“In my opinion, the job of a Catholic publisher, a religious publisher, is to bring the religious viewpoint into the public arena, into public debate … with the conviction that this point of view has something to say to the world,” but without hubris or arrogance, Fazzini said.
