RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian Cristiane Murray has been appointed Pope Francis‘ new deputy spokesperson. The announcement was made this Thursday, July 25th, by the Holy See.
Cristiane Murray was born in 1962 in Rio de Janeiro. She holds a degree in Business Administration and Marketing from the “Pontifícia Universidade Católica” (PUC)University in Rio de Janeiro and joined Vatican Radio in 1995.
Since then, she has been a member of the Brazilian team that broadcasts daily programs and runs the Vatican News website in Portuguese on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.
Cristiane has been working with the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops since 2018, in preparation for the Synod on the Amazon, which will take place in October in the Vatican.
The Vatican Press Room is currently run by Italian Matteo Bruni, who replaced acting spokesman Alessandro Gisotti. Like Cristiane Murray, Bruni is also a career employee in the Vatican communications department.
In the past, the section was headed by Greg Burke, with Paloma García Ovejero as his deputy. Both journalists, Burke and Ovejero, resigned their positions in January of this year, amid a string of changes taking place in the Vatican’s communications system.
The Vatican has been centralizing its communication strategy in the hands of the new head of the Dicastery for Communication, journalist Paolo Ruffini, appointed in July 2018. The editorial line of the Vatican media is in the hands of a reporter on the Vatican beat, Andrea Tornielli, also Italian.
Several specialized press outlets claim that it was challenging to find a replacement for Gisotti and that it was even more challenging to find a professional who would take over the deputy director position, according to Efe agency. The pontiff had insisted that a woman should be appointed to the post.