Famed Italian journalist dies

Vatican reporter Giuseppe de Carli died on July 13 in Rome at age 58. He had been undergoing radiation therapy. De Carli was the Vatican reporter for Italy's biggest television company. He had worked for RAI since 2003 and was a religion commentator for the Roman daily Il Tempo.

De Carli organized “The Bible Day and Night,” a 139-hour marathon Bible reading in 2008 with 1,452 participants. Pope Benedict XVI started off the marathon, in which participated Vaticn Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who read the last passages of Revelation.

De Carli had accompanied Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on numerous trips.  He authored numerous books, including a 2005 interview Fare la Verità nelle Carità: Da Joseph Ratzinger a Benedetto XVI (Living Truth in Charity: From Joseph Ratzinger to Benedict XVI).

Rev. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, commented, saying "His competence in the issues pertaining to the Vatican was profound and extremely vast," Father Lombardi said in a statement. "We remember him with esteem, sympathy and great affection and we commend him to the Lord with our prayer."

His funeral was celebrated on July 15 by Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

On May 4 at a Rome conference on the Fatima question, De Carli told attendees at the "Fatima Challenge Conference" that fellow Italian journalist Solideo Paolini had lied when he claimed that Archbishop Loris Capovilla had told him there were two different texts of the 3rd secret of Fatima.

Paolini ignited a firestorm of controversy in 2006 when he reported that Capovilla, private secretary to Pope John XXIII, had confirmed that there were two texts of the Third Secret of Fatima. Paolini recounted that he asked Capovilla, “...there are two texts of the Third Secret?” to which Capovilla replied, “Precisely so!”

In his book The Fourth Secret of Fatima, journalist Antonio Socci relied heavily on Capovilla’s testimony in support of his conclusion that there is is a text related to the Third Secret, which the Vatican has not yet released.

De Carli stated that he had in his possession a letter that Capovilla had sent to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone and to the Holy Father denying that he had made the statement claimed by Paolini.

“Either Paolini is a liar, and has profited from it, or Msgr. Capovilla is a liar," de Carli said. "I think Solideo Paolini is a liar."

Asked why Capovilla’s letter had not been released publicly, de Carli said it was “private correspondence."