WASHINGTON — EWTN Global Catholic Network has announced that Andrew Walther has been named the new president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, Inc.  Walther is replacing Dan Burke, who left EWTN News, Inc. in February. 

Walther has more than 20 years of experience in journalism, media production and executive management, including a long relationship with EWTN News. He began his career in journalism writing for the Register two decades ago, and more recently helped conceptualize and launch EWTN News Nightly. He will be stepping down as vice president for communications and strategic planning at the Knights of Columbus at the end of May to head EWTN News. 

“As well as being an accomplished Catholic journalist and media executive, Andrew Walther brings to this role unique expertise in the global Church,” said EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw. 

“He has worked extensively with the Church in North and Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and at the Vatican. His leadership experience with a global Catholic communications and media operation — and his previous work with the National Catholic Register and EWTN News Nightly — gives him the added advantage of already knowing well the Catholic media world and many of the people within the EWTN family. We look forward to having him lead and strengthen our news division."

As president of EWTN News, Walther will have oversight of EWTN’s news media platforms, which create content in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Italian. EWTN News includes Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, the ACI Group, ChurchPop and EWTN’s lineup of television and radio news programming. EWTN News, Inc. is the largest Catholic news organization in the world. 

EWTN Global Catholic Network, founded in 1980, broadcasts 11 global TV channels in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 350 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, Sky satellite radio, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; several of the most visited Catholic web, digital and social media outlets in the world; and the book division, EWTN Publishing. 

“Mother Angelica created a network dedicated to ‘the advancement of truth’ and Catholic news is a vital part of this mission,” Walther said. “Mother’s vision remains every bit as relevant today, and I look forward to working with the talented and dedicated team of journalists at EWTN News to provide news from a Catholic perspective and to highlight important stories that might otherwise be overlooked.”

Walther will work from the EWTN News offices in Washington, D.C.  He assumes his new post on June 1. 

 

Knights of Columbus Work

A Los Angeles native, Walther holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Classics from the University of Southern California, where he taught writing for several years, and earned the university’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

Since 2005, he has worked in senior roles at the Knights of Columbus. As vice president for communications and strategic planning he helped build their communications operations. His work included oversight of media relations with Catholic and secular media outlets and steering the organization’s global media work, especially in Europe and the Middle East. 

Among his responsibilities at the Knights, Walther helped launch the organization’s social media channels, produced videos and documentaries, and oversaw the Knights’ polling and book publishing operations. And together with his wife, Maureen, he co-authored The Knights of Columbus: An Illustrated History, a book released this year. 

He was also heavily involved in the organization’s charitable work and disaster relief initiatives.

When ISIS invaded the Nineveh region of Iraq in 2014, Walther organized and led the Knights’ work on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, traveling to Iraq several times and leading a successful public effort to have ISIS’ campaign of persecution declared “genocide” by then-Secretary of State John Kerry. 

Walther’s advocacy for persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East helped shape policy in both the Obama and Trump administrations, and he also helped play a role in forging a bipartisan legislative consensus on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims of ISIS in the Middle East. These efforts included working with other governments and the U.N. as well as with Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders to end violence and persecution and bring relief to persecuted Christian communities. 

“Andrew Walther has been a good friend and a trusted colleague for many years,” said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and a longtime member of EWTN’s board of governors. “Andrew is one of the Church’s finest strategic thinkers and a highly respected advocate for international religious liberty. All of this will serve him well as head of the world’s largest Catholic news organization. I wish him great success.” 

 

Vatican Collaboration

In addition to working closely with many U.S. bishops, dioceses and Catholic organizations in his role at the Knights, Walther also collaborated with the Vatican on several projects under both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Together with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, he helped organize several conferences and events in Europe, Latin America and the U.S.

Walther also flew to Argentina in the days after the election of Pope Francis to oversee the creation of a documentary film on the Holy Father’s life. He has also served as a producer of other documentaries including one on St. John Paul II’s impact in the American hemisphere, and another on the relief efforts for children in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. 

Catholic journalism experts told the Register that Walther brings both a wealth of journalistic experience and a deep commitment to his Catholic faith to his new responsibilities with EWTN News.

“As a scholar in the field of Catholic journalism who has worked with Andrew on pro-life conferences and World Youth Days, I have seen up close his broad understanding of Catholic journalism in the current international media context,” said Professor Bill Thorn, former chairman of the journalism department and former director of the Institute for Catholic Media at Marquette University. “He brings enormous credibility and professionalism to the role at EWTN News.”

Kathryn Jean Lopez, senior fellow of National Review Institute & editor-at-large of National Review, predicted Walther’s appointment “will be a blessing for the persecuted Church, families, the priesthood and consecrated life — so much that is true, good, and beautiful.”

Said Lopez, “That’s been what I’ve seen of his trailblazing work, most notably at the front-lines of fighting genocide and rebuilding human lives in Iraq at the Knights, and that’s what I look forward to watching in the months and years to come with him as a crucial part of the leadership team at EWTN at such a critical time in our history.”