From Sandpoint to St. Peter’s: Idaho’s Cindy Wooden shares her Vatican journey

Cindy Wooden, bureau chief of Catholic News Service/Rome, speaks with Pope Francis in one of the meeting rooms in his Vatican residence during a special audience for members of the Catholic News Service Rome Bureau in 2021. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Emily Woodham

Staff Writer

VATICAN - Cindy Wooden has written for Catholic News Service (CNS) in Rome for more than 35 years. However, her first job at a Catholic newspaper was at the Idaho Catholic Register (ICR)while she was a student at Boise State in 1978.

She was in the ICR office when Pope Paul VI died, and this seems to have been a sign of her work with popes. As a journalist and then bureau chief for CNS in Rome, she has accompanied three popes in their travels and events: St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

Wooden first spoke with the ICR less than a week before Pope Francis’ death. The first thing she mentioned about him was his ability to touch people’s hearts, his humility and love. “Pope Francis saw himself as a sinner who had been forgiven by God through Jesus Christ,” Wooden said. “He did not see himself as more extraordinary than any of the faithful.”

“The long lines of people who waited hours to pray and pay their respects as his body lay in state, and the hundreds of thousands of people who gathered for his funeral Mass, and cortège through the city of Rome, showed just how much people were touched by his life and death,” she said. “The ‘powerful’ of the world came to the funeral of a pope who, just a week earlier, made sure to spend Holy Thursday at a jail with prisoners.”

Wooden has read every papal document of the popes with whom she has worked since she first arrived in Rome in 1989. “I find theology and the magisterium really interesting,” she said. “But the thing that feeds my soul is the people I meet who do amazing things in the name of Jesus. Those people can be popes and cardinals, but often they’re people who are doing little things in their own neighborhoods to share the love of Christ without even using the word. They are the hands and feet of the Lord.”

Wooden said the people she has met through the years keep her going in her busy career. “The Sacraments nourish us and give us the grace to overcome some of the stupid things we have in our own personalities and inclinations. But it’s people who’ve touched my heart, challenged and amazed me.”

Although Wooden’s career started in Boise, she transferred to North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, not far from where she grew up in Sandpoint. She transferred again to Seattle University, where she majored in theology with a minor in journalism. After graduating, she went to Washington, D.C., to intern and then worked as a temp at the CNS office there. After a year, she returned to Seattle to write for Catholic Northwest Progress for four years. She then returned to the CNS office in Washington before going to Rome in 1989.

Cindy Wooden makes Pope Francis laugh during a flight in 2014. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Growing up in Sandpoint gave Wooden “a realistic sense of how religion is an important part of people’s everyday lives,” she said. “The thing about Sandpoint, and I think a lot of small towns in the United States, is that the local churches are still very much a center of social life.”

“Although not everyone goes to church,” she continued, “a large portion of the population in a small town will be at church on Sunday morning. Because religion influences everyday life and decisions, it’s a necessary part of reporting news. You see that much more easily in a small town, I think, than in a large city, but people still find church life in a big city. Religion is a subject that cannot be ignored. It builds bonds of community.”

In a small town or a large city, Wooden has felt most at home in her parish. “Even though I’ve belonged to different parishes here in the city, it’s still an important part of who I am,” she said.

Neighborhoods are also an important aspect of community in Rome. Each neighborhood is, in a way, like a small town, where extended family members live nearby and everyone knows everyone. This is something Idahoans should keep in mind when traveling to Italy’s storied capital.

“Idahoans should not be intimidated by the fact that it’s a city of 3 million people,” she said. That said, for the Jubilee, she recommended that pilgrims from Idaho get tickets online in advance of their arrival.

“The lines for the things that you probably want to do are very long. So, make reservations before you come here and ensure you’re using a ‘.va’ (Vatican) website. But I think for most people, wandering around, getting lost, and stumbling upon something beautiful is the way to go.”

Cindy Wooden, far right, with Stu and Ann Bixby, enjoyed an evening together in Rome this past February. Ann is the returning ICR graphics and print manager. (ICR Photo/Ann Bixby)

“Catholics live their faith on a local level,” she continued. “Our faith is about the way you love one another, and that’s something that’s lived out where you live. Seeing the Vatican is amazing as a sign of thousands of years of people’s faith, and it reminds us that so many millions of people have gone before us and continue to pray for us. But you don’t need to be overwhelmed by the Vatican. You may get sparks of enthusiasm by coming to Rome, but those experiences in Rome don’t mean much if you don’t bring them back home and do something with them.”

Her experiences are leading her to do more humanitarian work when she retires. “I’ve written so much about people doing good things that I want to try it for a little while, actually do some of it,” she said.

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