Christopher White

Christopher White is the Vatican correspondent for NCR.  His e-mail address is cwhite@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @cwwhiteNCR.
 
Prior to moving to Rome in August 2021, he served as NCR's national correspondent, where his award winning reporting included coverage of the Catholic vote during the 2020 campaign and the election of President Joe Biden.
 
He holds a master's degree in ethics and society from Fordham University and a bachelor's degree in politics, philosophy and economics from The King's College. His work has appeared in Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Forbes, Foreign Policy, New York Daily News, International Business Times, among many other print and online publications. He has regularly appeared on television and radio programs, including CNN, NPR, RTE and BBC and is a Vatican analyst for NBC and MSNBC news. 

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Pope Francis shakes hands with John Kerry, President Biden's special envoy for climate issues, during a meeting June 19 at the Vatican. (CNS/Vatican Media)

US climate envoy John Kerry says Pope Francis an ally in lead-up to COP28 climate summit

During a private meeting with John Kerry on June 19, Pope Francis signaled an openness to attending the COP28 climate summit in Dubai later this year.

Pope Francis meets Archbishop Georg Gänswein, personal secretary to the late Pope Benedict XVI, in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican May 19, 2023. Although he still has the title of prefect of the papal household, Archbishop Gänswein has not worked in the office since 2020 and is awaiting a new assignment. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Benedict XVI's long-time aide, Archbishop Gänswein, relieved of Vatican duties, sent back to Germany

Pope Francis has relieved Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the longtime personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, of his duties as prefect of the papal household and sent him home to Germany without an assignment, the Vatican announced on June 15.

 

Pope Francis addresses the leadership, staff and members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors during an audience at the Vatican May 5. The commission was holding its plenary assembly May 3-6 at its new offices in Rome. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Abuse survivors, their advocates cast doubt on leadership of Vatican commission

Amid concerns about past financial dealings and possible conflicts of interest, Oblate Fr. Andrew Small's leadership of the Vatican's clergy sex abuse commission is being questioned.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican Press Office, looks at Dr. Sergio Alfieri, a chief surgeon at Rome's Gemelli's hospital, who operated on Pope Francis June 7, 2023, and speaks to reporters at the hospital as seen in this screengrab of the news conference broadcast live by Vatican Media. Alfieri said the pope was recoverying well from a three-hour surgery for a hernia. (CNS screengrab/Courtesy Vatican Media)

Pope Francis 'alert' and resting well on day after hernia operation

Pope Francis continues to recover well and is showing signs of progress, the Vatican said on June 8, one day after the pope successfully underwent a three-hour operation to repair a hernia.

Pope Francis places his hand on his forehead during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square June 7 at the Vatican. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Anatomy of a papal health scare — and mixed Vatican messages

NCR's Vatican correspondent Christopher White analyzes how the Vatican's communication and public relations apparatus handles news of Pope Francis' health.

A statue of St. John Paul II is seen in the courtyard of Rome's Gemelli Hospital March 30, 2023, where Pope Francis was admitted March 29 due to concerns over breathing difficulties. He was diagnosed with a "respiratory infection," according to the Vatican. A March 30 update from the Vatican said the pope was "steadily improving" and continuing his planned course of treatment. (OSV News photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters)

Pope Francis awake and recovering in hospital following three-hour intestinal operation

Pope Francis on June 7 successfully underwent a three-hour intestinal surgery that the Vatican described as taking place without complications.

Pope Francis gives a rosary to a member of the medical staff at Gemelli hospital in Rome July 11, 2021, as he recovers following scheduled colon surgery. The pope was in the hospital for 10 days. (CNS photo/Vatican Media via Reuters)

Pope Francis enters hospital for unannounced intestinal surgery

Pope Francis on June 7 was hospitalized at Rome's Gemelli hospital, where he is scheduled to have surgery on his intestine later today and is expected to remain for a recovery of several days

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the new head of the Italian bishops' conference, talks during a press conference in Rome May 27. (AP/Alessandra Tarantino)

Cardinal Zuppi heads to Ukraine on behalf of pope in pursuit of 'just peace'

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Pope Francis' personal emissary tapped to lead the Vatican's peacemaking efforts between Ukraine and Russia, will be in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv from June 5-6.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonca, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, speaks at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University March 31. He spoke recently at a conference on the Catholic imagination in Rome. (CNS/Justin McLellan)

Vatican's resident poet, Cardinal Tolentino: Artists are responsible for 'life of Catholicism'

Pope Francis thinks in images, said Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, head of Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, at a conference on "The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination" in Rome.

Pope Francis taps 'bishop of the peripheries' to lead his hometown of Buenos Aires

Pope Francis on May 26 named Bishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva — a relatively unknown 55-year-old prelate from a tiny diocese at the bottom of Argentina — to lead his hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Pope Francis visits the lake as he participates in the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage and Liturgy of the Word July 26, 2022, in Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Pope Francis ahead of COP28: Stop the 'madness' of the 'fossil fuel era'

Pope Francis used his 2023 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation message to call for an end to "the fossil fuel era," saying it is "madness to permit continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure."

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi attends the opening of the interreligious meeting "The Cry of Peace" in Rome Oct. 23, 2022. The meeting was sponsored by the Community of Sant'Egidio. (CNS/Reuters/Remo Casilli)

Sant'Egidio connection may aid Vatican's peace emissary to Russia

View from the Vatican: The Sant'Egidio community has been instrumental in high-profile peacemaking efforts. Now its ties to the Russian Orthodox Church may assist Cardinal Matteo Zuppi as he heads to Kyiv and Moscow.

At the courtyard of the "Social Friendship: Meeting in the Garden" exhibition at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, roosters crow, cats roam freely among the grounds' more than 100 plants, and neighboring young people stop by to rest or read on a garden bench or to help collect the urban vegetable harvest. (Courtesy of the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education)

Vatican's Venice Biennale exhibit serves as a laboratory for putting Laudato Si' in action

"Social Friendship: Meeting in the Garden," the Holy See's exhibit at the 18th International Architecture Biennale opened May 20 and will run through Nov. 26. The exhibit highlights themes of Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si'.

Samuel Chu, an advocate for human rights and democracy in Hong Kong, met recently with Vatican officials to discuss what he says are its "dangerously misguided" policies on China. (Courtesy of Samuel Chu)

Hong Kong activist warns Vatican against 'faithwashing' China

The Vatican's China deal "isn't worth the paper that it's drafted on," says a pro-democracy activist in Rome for meetings with Vatican and U.S. officials.

 

Author Rod Dreher speaks March 15, 2017, at the National Press Club. (CNS/The Trinity Forum)

For a brief moment, Rod Dreher is a Pope Francis fan

Rod Dreher is a notorious critic of Pope Francis. Yet prior to Francis' April visit to Dreher's newly adopted home of Budapest, Dreher declared his visit as "heroic." NCR spoke to Dreher amid Francis' visit to Hungary.

Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands after their meeting at the Vatican May 13, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Pope Francis meets with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in wartime encounter at Vatican

Pope Francis met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican on May 13.

Pope Francis talks with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle after praying in front of a Marian statue at the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8, 2022, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Cardinal Tagle, likely papal contender, in spotlight as Caritas meets to elect new leadership

When Pope Francis fired top leadership of Caritas Internationalis last year, the Vatican was blunt, saying "real deficiencies were noted in management." Now the organization is electing new leadership.

British seminarians fold a Union Jack flag as they approach St. Peter's Square. (Courtesy of Ryan Hawkes)

Coronation a historic ecumenical moment for British seminarians in Rome

British seminarians studying for the priesthood in Rome will be joining in prayer and celebration for their new king.

 

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, and other members of the commission are pictured before attending Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican April 29, 2022. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Pope's abuse commission meets amid turmoil, facing calls for greater transparency

As the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors meets this week in Rome, critics are raising concerns about the group's leadership and independence, reports Vatican correspondent Christopher White.

Ukrainians hold the Ukrainian flag at the Church of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary as Pope Francis meets with the poor and with refugees during his apostolic journey in Budapest, Hungary, April 29, 2023.

Pope Francis says he is working behind the scenes in Hungary to bring peace in Ukraine

During a press conference aboard the papal plane, Pope Francis said he is working behind the scenes in Hungary to bring peace to Ukraine.

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