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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A #NunsToo movement has emerged from #MeToo, as Roman Catholic nuns start speaking out about sexual abuse by priests. Cases of rape and forced abortion have begun coming to light. -
Australian Cardinal George Pell on Wednesday was sentenced to six years in prison — making him the most senior Catholic official to be found guilty in a criminal court of child molestation.
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Cardinal Pell, a close adviser to Pope Francis, has been convicted of child sex abuse charges that go back decades. His conviction became public after a gag order was lifted.
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One survivor said a priest forced her to have abortions after raping her. The pope said he has come up with 21 "reflection points" designed to address the crisis. -
Pope Francis has defrocked former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who has been accused of sex abuse.
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The Vatican has scheduled a conference on clerical sex abuse, following a year in which allegations emerged around the world. The summit's goal: to make sure bishops understand there's a problem.
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Politically conservative Catholics criticize Francis for being pro-migrant, anti-capitalist and less rigid in doctrine than predecessors. The cleric sex abuse scandals have emboldened these critics. -
As the Catholic Church deals with new sex-abuse revelations, the pope opened a three-week gathering of bishops in Rome Saturday on how to make the Church relevant for young people. -
In the era of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, mudslinging between rival church factions is now occurring in the open. Key unanswered questions have emboldened some of the pope's critics. -
Ireland has been plagued by sexual abuse scandals involving priests. The pope's visit comes as the Catholic Church faces multiple sexual abuse scandals across the world.
