The Vatican’s daily newspaper is the L’Osservatore Romano, founded in 1861with the approval of Pope Pius IX. It details the pope’s activities and appointments, prints the text of papal speeches and is widely and carefully read for insights into the attitudes of the Vatican on a wide range of subjects. It also reports and comments on political developments. Its candid reporting of Benito Mussolini’s government during World War II enraged the Italian dictator, but he never shut it down. It was the only Italian paper that published Allied war reports, and its circulation rose to 350,000 as a result. Today it has about 21,500 readers each day via its printed and on line version, but that figure is about 40,000 if the different language editions are taken into account. When radio technology was just in its infancy, Pope Pius XI asked Guglielmo Marconi the famous inventor of radio to plan a transmitter for the Vatican. That short wave radio station grew over time and today the Vatican has powerful transmitters aimed at Europe, the Far East, Latin American, Africa, and Oceania. It also broadcasts over a 1,000 radio networks. All those transmitters are daily communicating to a worldwide audience in 45 languages. Programing is produced by over two hundred journalists in 61 countries. On May 24, 2021 Pope Francis spoke to the Vatican’s own media employees that work at the radio and print sections of the Dicastery (department) of Communications. His visit was to mark the 90th anniversary of Vatican Radio and the 160th anniversary of the Vatican’s newspaper. He used the occasion to challenge the workers to remain relevant in this difficult time for the Vatican financially. Francis essentially asked the employees to justify their continued work. He asked how many people actually listen to the Radio? How many people read the newspaper? Francis had said the workers needed a wake up call of sorts. The Dicastery of Communications cost more than all the Vatican embassies around the world combined and is about 20 percent of the entire annual budget. The high costs have been justified in the past because the communications operations are at the center of the Vatican’s main mission: to spread the Catholic faith throughout the world. However, the Vatican is facing a major pension funding shortage and there is a 50 million euro deficit this year. Francis ordered salary cuts from 3% to 10% for senior Vatican employees, both lay and religious, and halted seniority bonuses for two years. Francis promised not to fire anyone to offset the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of the main source of revenue, the ticket sales from the Vatican Museums. The cost cutting sparked a minor revolt by the Vatican employees. They wrote an open letter complaining about the salary cuts, lack of overtime and unpaid increase in workload. They wanted a meeting to discuss their concerns. Francis told the worker that their work was good, their offices nice and organized, but that there was a “danger that their work doesn’t arrive where it is supposed to. He warned them against falling prey to a “lethal” functionality where they go through the motions but don’t actually achieve anything