Sylvia Poggioli
Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.
Since joining NPR's foreign desk in 1982, Poggioli has traveled extensively for reporting assignments. These include going to Norway to cover the aftermath of the brutal attacks by a right-wing extremist; to Greece, Spain, and Portugal reporting on the eurozone crisis; and the Balkans where the last wanted war criminals have been arrested.
In addition, Poggioli has traveled to France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark to produce in-depth reports on immigration, racism, Islam, and the rise of the right in Europe.
She has also travelled with Pope Francis on several of his foreign trips, including visits to Cuba, the United States, Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
Throughout her career Poggioli has been recognized for her work with distinctions including the WBUR Foreign Correspondent Award, the Welles Hangen Award for Distinguished Journalism, a George Foster Peabody, National Women's Political Caucus/Radcliffe College Exceptional Merit Media Awards, the Edward Weintal Journalism Prize, and the Silver Angel Excellence in the Media Award. Poggioli was part of the NPR team that won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the war in Kosovo. In 2009, she received the Maria Grazia Cutulli Award for foreign reporting.
In 2000, Poggioli received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University. In 2006, she received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston together with Barack Obama.
Prior to this honor, Poggioli was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences "for her distinctive, cultivated and authoritative reports on 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia." In 1990, Poggioli spent an academic year at Harvard University as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
From 1971 to 1986, Poggioli served as an editor on the English-language desk for the Ansa News Agency in Italy. She worked at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. She was actively involved with women's film and theater groups.
The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in romance languages and literature. She later studied in Italy under a Fulbright Scholarship.
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Fifty years ago, 40 bishops signed a pledge to make Catholicism a church for the poor. It was soon set aside, but with Pope Francis focused on the downtrodden, that notion could be revived. -
It's the 11th trip of his papacy and the most dangerous. The pope will visit Kenya, Uganda and Central African Republic, a nation split apart by bloody conflict between Muslims and Christians.
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The head of Syria's antiquities agency was in Italy making an appeal for help to stop the destruction of his war-torn country's cultural heritage at the hands of Islamic militants. -
Intrigue over Vatican finances is gaining steam with this week's publication of two books alleging multi-million dollar waste and theft. It follows the weekend arrest of a priest and a Vatican layperson accused of leaking confidential documents.
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Last month marked the 50th anniversary of the issuance of the most radical document by the Second Vatican Council. -
A three-week gathering of Catholic prelates from around the globe ends after what many say was the most contentious gathering of archbishops in decades.
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A letter leaked by a veteran Vatican analyst known to be critical of the Francis papacy, has thrown the synod on the family into turmoil and confusion. Allegedly signed by 13 conservative cardinals, the letter complained to the pope that the assembly has been stacked against them. Within hours of the letter's publication Monday, four of the cardinals said they never signed the letter.
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Pope Francis has opened an assembly of bishops to talk about issues facing families — such as marriage, divorce and contraception. He reiterated that the Catholic church opposes same-sex marriage.
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The Vatican says Francis did not ask for a meeting with Kim Davis, who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and should not be seen as supporting Davis' stance.
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Pope Francis took questions for an hour on his flight back to Rome. Before returning to the Vatican, he offered prayers of gratitude for his U.S. and Cuba visits, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
