Joshua J. McElwee

I am an accomplished Vatican correspondent, seasoned editor and recognized news leader with a hard-won global reputation for excellence. I have 17 years' experience in reporting, editing, leading news teams, audio production, and social media content creation. 

I am currently the Vatican correspondent for the global Reuters news agency. I was previously the news editor and Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, the world's premier Catholic news source.

My dispatches from Rome and during papal trips abroad are frequently cited by my peers, and broadly seen as a touchstone for nuanced Vatican and papal coverage. 

Among my most noted work was my exhaustive and creative reporting on the 2025 conclave, which elected Pope Leo XIV as the first leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church from the United States.

During the 2013-25 tenure of Pope Francis my reporting revealed serious shortcomings to the work of his clergy abuse commission. I was also the first journalist to break the news of Francis' promise during a private meeting in 2016 to create a commission to study the history of the ordination of women as deacons in the Catholic Church. 

My coverage of that event led the Vatican to confirm the pope's remarks, and create an official study commission.

I am the co-editor, alongside Cindy Wooden, of A Pope Francis Lexicon, a collection of 54 essays exploring the unique words Pope Francis has used in his ministry.

I have reported on-the-ground from nearly 50 countries across Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia and have traveled abroad with Popes Francis and Leo in the official Vatican press pool 28 times.