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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Fifty years ago, 40 bishops signed a pledge to make Catholicism a church for the poor. It was soon set aside, but with Pope Francis focused on the downtrodden, that notion could be revived.
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Pope Francis is giving all priests a window of discretion to forgive women who have had abortions. The window is during the upcoming holy year, which will begin in December.
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The pedestrian and cyclist path would make use of a one-mile stretch of abandoned, elevated concrete track. "You are still in the city ... but you are flying above the city," Piano says.
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Despite detractors within the church, Pope Francis' emphasis on humility and mercy has won him strong support worldwide. He has addressed thorny issues such as Vatican finances and clerical sex abuse.
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Pope John Paul II was a favorite of traditionalists in the Catholic Church. John XXIII was beloved by liberals. By canonizing them together, Pope Francis hopes to keep all Catholics in the same tent.
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Legend has it that an innkeeper caught a glimpse of the goddess of love in her bedroom and then rushed to his kitchen to create an egg pasta inspired by Venus' belly button. Today the art of making tortellini is endangered, but several groups are devising creative ways to preserve the tradition.
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Many cities hold arts festivals during the summer. Rome joined the party last Saturday as part of a larger effort to radically revamp traffic and make the area around the Coliseum and other monuments more welcoming for pedestrians.
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The account has gained more than 100,000 followers worldwide in less than six months. Followers, who represent a wide variety of professions and religions, are convinced the language of the ancient Romans is perfectly suited to 21st century social media.
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At the Vatican, cardinals continue to noodle over when to hold the conclave to choose the next pope. There has been intense global interest in the process, and American cardinals have been at the forefront in briefing reporters and controlling the message. But the Americans have been told to put a lid on it.
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In eight years on the throne of St. Peter, Benedict XVI has angered Muslims, offended Jews and made controversial comments about the spread of AIDS. But the scandal that has most haunted him is the abuse of children by pedophile priests.