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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Sylvia Poggioli, who has covered several papal conclaves and the Vatican for decades, reflects on what it's like to report on one of the most secretive institutions in the world.
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As the papal conclave is approaching, who are the cardinal electors who will decide on the next pope? And what are their priorities?
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The College of Cardinals gathers this week to elect the next pope to lead the Catholic Church. But what preparations go into setting up the rare, secretive event?
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Over the next few days, leaders of the Catholic church from around the world will gather at the Vatican to mourn — and also, to prepare for the Conclave.
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The funeral of Pope Francis draws the Catholic faithful to St. Peter's Square, as well as royalty and world leaders. The Vatican estimates about 200 thousand people participated in the open-air Mass.
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NPR's Sylvia Poggioli spent over four decades covering Rome. During her time, she covered the last three popes. But Poggioli shared something special in common with Pope Francis. -
Accepting a prestigious European prize in 2016, he sharply scolded the European Union for its treatment of migrants and fraying sense of unity. -
Pope Francis was the first non-European head of the Roman Catholic Church in more than a millennium. -
Former NPR senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli, who covered Rome for many years and covered Pope Francis, discusses news of the pope's death at age 88.
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Pope Francis has died at 88. He was one of the most popular pontiffs in decades, forcing the church to turn its attention back to the poor and disenfranchised and to clean up corrupt Vatican finances.
