Fr. Fernando Vérgez, LC

February 1, 2008. Vatican City. In a press release dated February 1, 2008, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI appointed Father Fernando Vergez, LC as the new Director of Telecommunications for the Vatican.

Shortly afterwards, the Salamanca Gazette (La Gaceta) interviewed Fr Vergez, who is a native of Salamanca, Spain. The article, published on February 3, 2008, reports that Fr Vergez’s task is to complete the ongoing project of a total adaptation of the Vatican’s communications technology to the latest systems.

He will direct a team of engineers and technicians who will install all of the telecommunications infrastructures with updated technology such as wideband, transmission bands, database communication infrastructures, etc.

Speed and efficiency are important for the Holy See’s communications, just as they are in any other organization. “The Internet is not the only source for spreading Vatican news,” he told La Gaceta. “We should also communicate internally and externally in the fastest and most fluid way with all of the delegations we have throughout the world.” 

Accordingly, the team will also create an internal and external networking system to interconnect the various delegations of the Holy See, and to connect the Vatican with all of the apostolic nunciatures spread throughout the world.

The article in La Gaceta reports that Father Vergez began serving the Holy See as the particular secretary of Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, who passed away in 1998 and is currently in the process of beatification. After his work with Cardinal Pironio, Father Vergez, LC was appointed as an assistant to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. In 2004, he began working as the head of the Internet services office, where he was in charge of adapting the Vatican web page into five languages in addition to the original Italian: German, English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.