About the Author
John Thavis is a journalist, author and speaker specializing in Vatican and religious affairs. He is known in the trade as a “Vaticanista,” a calling that became clear only after a circuitous career path. In 1983 he took a reporting job with Catholic News Service and began covering the Vatican daily. He traveled with Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to more than 60 countries, and reported on other religious stories from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He became CNS Rome bureau chief in 1996, and served three years as president of the Association of International Journalists Accredited to the Vatican. In 2012 Thavis retired from his CNS position to devote full time to writing. His book, “The Vatican Diaries,” was published Feb. 21, 2013, by Viking-Penguin and immediately became a New York Times best-seller. His new book, “The Vatican Prophecies: Investigating Supernatural Signs, Apparitions, and Miracles in the Modern Age,” is based on research and interviews with leading Vatican officials, experts on miracles and demonology, Catholic visionaries and others.