Please join me in welcoming Andrew Walther, who on June 1 will become the president and chief operating officer of EWTN News.

Andrew brings a vast knowledge of the Church both globally and in the United States, as well as decades of experience as a Catholic journalist, media executive and international religious-freedom advocate. In fact, he wrote his first article in Catholic journalism 20 years ago — for the Register. It was about a missionary priest he knew in Africa, and it gave him the chance to tell a story about the depths of faith and the many challenges the priest faced in his vast African parish. 

Andrew joins the EWTN family from the Knights of Columbus, where for the last 15 years he has helped build their media and communications department. He also played a key role in the fraternal organization’s charitable work and disaster-relief initiatives around the world. His commitment to the persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria has been nothing short of extraordinary. He traveled to Iraq several times and was instrumental in the declaration by the U.S. State Department and Secretary of State John Kerry that ISIS’ inhuman campaign of Christian persecution was an act of “genocide.”  

I am especially grateful, too, that Andrew brings such a deep understanding of Catholic news as a tool of evangelization and a means of telling stories — such as his account in the Register about the missionary priest in Africa all those years ago — that inspire and teach the faith.

As a guest recently on EWTN News Nightly, he stressed the importance of “giving people the news from a Catholic perspective, giving people stories that can really help to nourish their faith, giving people an analysis of what’s going on that makes sense from a faith perspective, and bringing people the teachings of the Church in a way that is authentic and attractive.”   

These words sum up well the mission of EWTN News. I look forward to the ways Andrew will strengthen the work of our news division by his leadership. Please keep him and our many hardworking journalists and staff in your prayers. 

God bless you!