Pope John Paul II's longtime spokesman dies at age 80
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Joaquin Navarro-Valls, a suave, silver-haired Spaniard who was a close confidant of Pope John Paul II, serving for more than two decades as chief Vatican spokesman, has died at the age of 80.
Manuel Sanchez, spokesman for the Opus Dei movement in Rome of which Navarro-Valls was a member, said he died Wednesday after a long illness. Opus Dei said on its website that he had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Navarro-Valls was fiercely loyal to John Paul, accompanying the Polish pope on most of his 104 international trips. He also performed delicate diplomatic missions, such as helping to prepare the pope's historic pilgrimage to Cuba.
Known for his coolness and restraint, Navarro-Valls nearly broke into tears when John Paul was dying in April 2005. He choked up and walked out of a conference room when a German reporter at a briefing on the pope's condition asked him how he personally felt.
"I was trying to keep my emotions in check, but then a reporter asked how I was experiencing the passing of the pope personally, and I couldn't control myself," he explained later.
