EWTN Press Release: Joan Lewis

EWTN Rome Bureau Chief Joan Lewis To Receive
Apostolic Exhortation From Pope Francis
On Behalf of Journalists

Irondale, AL – EWTN viewers have yet another reason to tune in to the Closing Mass for the Year of Faith, which airs live at 4:30 a.m. ET (with an encore at 11:30 a.m. ET), Sunday, Nov. 24, the Feast of Christ the King. During the Mass, Pope Francis will consign his Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel) to a group of people representing various walks of life and ministries. EWTN Rome Bureau Chief Joan Lewis, who has covered the Church for almost 35 years, will be one of only two media professionals to receive the Exhortation on behalf of journalists from the hands of Pope Francis himself!

“I feel honored and humbled to have been included,” Lewis said. “When Archbishop RIno Fisichella, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, announced the news about the Exhortation on Monday he said it ‘will be delivered to all those in various stages of life who, as Christians, are called to be evangelizers. … The Year of Faith thus becomes a commitment that the Church assumes her duty once again to bring the Gospel to every creature.’”

 

One viewer, who heard the Vatican announcement, wrote to Lewis saying: “You have given your readers 'YEARS OF FAITH' and are truly deserving of this honor.”

 

The papal Exhortation is under embargo until Tuesday, Nov. 26, when it will be officially presented at the Holy See Press Office.

The Year of Faith was inaugurated on Oct. 11, 2012, the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and officially ends at the Closing Mass on Sunday, Nov. 24.

 

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 32^nd year, is available in over 230 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.