Why Was The Today Show At the Vatican Today ?

Well it did not occur by chance that is for sure. Also I am pretty sure they did not decide to hop on over because today is Ascension Thursday!! There is this explanation by NBC which I am sure factored in.

The Catholic Faith got some nice press LIVE from the Vatican today. (Afternoon their time) Whispers has the vids here and more thoughts here. Rocco was also interviewed by the TODAY reporters on the use of social communications and the NEW MEDIA!!

Whispers in the Loggia has a post that connects the dots here for us uninformed at "In Short, the Witness of Sanctity": For New Evangelization, the Pope's "Charter" and why todays Today show broadcast is perhaps of bigger significance than one might think.

...Fresh off his high-profile exchange of letters with the House Budget chair, Congressman Paul Ryan, for the Gotham prelate -- likewise a key player on the wintertime Apostolic Visitation to Ireland, whose conclusions are currently being examined by the Holy See -- the PCPNE seat marks the first of what promises to be many Curial assignments over the years to come. Accordingly, in vintage Dolan style, the moment will be commemorated with cameras: just as the newly-installed Evangelization Czar, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, co-hosted the morning show on Italy's state broadcaster RAI to open the Beatification festivities for Pope John Paul II, early Thursday the Stateside chief will take Meredith Viera's chair alongside Matt Lauer and Al Roker as NBC's Today Show does a remote edition from Rome.

Coinciding with both Ascension Day and this Sunday's observance of the church's annual World Communications Day, the archbishop's appearance on the ratings juggernaut -- with over 5 million daily viewers, the country's most-watched newscast -- marks Dolan's second megawatt TV turn over recent months, following his very successful March interview on CBS' 60 Minutes, whose often hard-hitting questioning of leaders and titans has long burnished the Sunday institution's rep as the toughest test in American media.....


This seems to be all well planned and it appears that Pope Benedict was very right to put Archsbishop Dolan of New York on the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

It does appear that we are seeing some signs of how the The Pontifical Council will engage the media from today's events.