Joaquín Navarro-Valls

Joaquín Navarro-Valls, M.D. (16 November 1936 – 5 July 2017) was a Spanish journalist, physician and academic who served as the director of the Holy See Press Office from 1984 to 2006. His role as the press liaison between the Vatican and the world press corps gave him perhaps the highest visibility of any one person in the Vatican during the long reign of Pope John Paul II, with the exception of the Pope himself. He resigned his post 11 July 2006 and was replaced by Father Federico Lombardi. On 20 January 2007, he was named president of the board of advisers of the Biomedical University of Rome, an office he occupied until his death.