John Thavis, a Minnesota native who covered the Vatican for 30 years for the Catholic News Service, will speak on “The Francis Revolution: The Coming Church Reforms in Rome and Beyond” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in the auditorium of the O’Shaughnessy Educational Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
Free and open to the public, the talk is co-sponsored by the university’s Justice and Peace Studies, Theology and Campus Ministry departments.
Thavis, a graduate of St. John’s University and a former reporter and editor at the Mankato Free Press, began covering the Vatican in 1983, traveled to more than 60 countries with Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and reported on other religious stories from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He became the Catholic News Service bureau chief in 1996.
His Vatican Diaries was published in February 2013 by Viking-Penguin and immediately became a New York Times best-seller.
Thavis did live commentary for ABC News in Rome during the conclave of 2013, and on his blog the day before the conclave began he singled out Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the candidate to watch.
He travels frequently to Rome and continues to cover Vatican affairs.
