Suave confidant of Pope John Paul II
ROME — Joaquin NavarroValls, a suave, silver- haired Spaniard who was a close confidant of Pope John Paul II, serving for more than two decades as chief Vatican spokesman, has died at the age of 80.
Manuel Sanchez, spokesman for the Opus Dei movement in Rome of which Mr. Navarro- Valls was a member, said he died Wednesday after a long illness. Opus Dei said on its website that he had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Navarro- Valls was fiercely loyal to John Paul, accompanying the Polish pope on most of his 104 international trips. He also performed delicate diplomatic missions, such as helping to prepare the pope’s historic pilgrimage to Cuba.
Mr. Navarro- Valls, who spoke four languages, was a foreign correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC when John Paul offered him the job as director of the Vatican press office. He was the first journalist to hold the post.
He was a lay member of the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei, an order much favored by the pope, but Mr. Navarro- Valls always insisted the fact he was president of Rome’s Foreign Press Association at the time weighed heavily in his hiring at the Vatican.
Mr. Navarro- Valls was credited with bringing computer technology to the press office, promoting the use of multiple languages in the Italian- centric press operation and giving journalists better access — making him the perfect press aide for a pope known for his media savvy.
Mr. Navarro- Valls held degrees in both journalism and medicine, specializing in psychiatry.
Some saw the combina- tion as perfect for his job as papal “spin doctor.”
In 1997, just a few months before the papal pilgrimage to Cuba, he flew to Havana and was summoned for what turned out to be a six- hourlong encounter with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Mr. Navarro- Valls said he told Castro that the pope had one particular request — that the regime restore the Christmas holiday that was abolished under communism. Castro kept his word to do so, and the holiday is still celebrated today.
With three successive non- Italian popes, Mr. Navarro- Valls helped lead a quiet revolution to internationalize the Vatican. The current spokesman is an American, Greg Burke, a former Fox correspondent.
Mr. Navarro- Valls found himself under fire from some in the Vatican when he became the first official to publicly hint that John Paul was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The pope’s condition clearly was evident.
Mr. Navarro- Valls was not married and lived in an Opus Dei residence in Rome.