American layman appointed as chief Vatican spokesperson

Vatican City: Pope Francis has named an American layman and a Spanish lay woman to man the Holy See Press Office.

Greg Burke succeeds Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, 73, who has served as the director of the office since 2006.

On July 11, Pope Francis also named Paloma García Ovejero, a Spanish laywoman, as the vice president of the office.

The appointments of these two professional journalists are effective from August 1, report agencies.

Burke, 56, worked for United Press International, Reuters, the National Catholic Register, TIME Magazine, and Fox News before becoming senior communications adviser to the Vatican Secretariat of State in 2012.

He is a numerary, or lay celibate member, of the Opus Dei prelature, and has worked as vice director of the Holy See Press Office since February 1 since 1998.

Overjero, 40, has worked for Cadena COPE, Spain’s second-largest radio network. She has also served as its Vatican and Italian correspondent since 2012.

Father Lombardi’s predecessor, Joaquín Navarro-Valls, served as director of the Holy See Press Office from 1984 to 2006 and was also a numerary of Opus Dei.