Insubria and the Community: Honoris Causa Degrees

Joaquìn Navarro-Valls
Honorary Degree in Communication Sciences
March 27, 2006

Joaquìn Navarro-Valls (born in Cartagena, Spain - 1936) has been the Director of the Holy See Press Office (Vatican) since 1984. He graduated “summa cum laude” in Medicine and Surgery in 1961 and took courses for a doctorate in Psychiatry. In 1968, received a degree in Journalism and in the Science of Communication in 1980.

Navarro-Valls was a foreign correspondent for Nuestro Tiempo and also for the daily newspaper of Madrid ABC.
Esteemed by his colleagues, he was elected a member of the Board of Directors (1979) and later President of the Foreign Press Association, Italy (1983 and 1984).

Navarro-Valls' work with the Holy See has enabled him to be a member of the Holy See Delegation to international conferences of the United Nations in Cairo (1994), Copenhagen (1995), Beijing (1995), and Istanbul (1996).
He was particularly important as a press liaison during the last few years of the reign of Pope John Paul II (reigned 1978-2005). This was especially true during the final six months of Pope John Paul's reign, during which time Navarro-Valls' expertise as a physician was important in communicating the pope's health to the press.

With the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI -and with the new pope's approval- Navarro-Valls continues in his post.

In the occasion of Insubria H.C. Degree, Dr. Navarro-Valls delivered the Lectio Magistralis address “Riflessione intorno alla trasmissione di valori oggi”.