National News

A Gingrich at the Vatican?

Photo: Catholic News Service/courtesy Gingrich Productions

Callista Gingrich, wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, shown at right, will be Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, two U.S. news outlets are reporting.

The New York Times and CNN reported that the official announcement of the nomination is waiting to be approved by the Office of Government Ethics. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in a news briefing wouldn’t confirm Gingrich’s nomination and said “nothing’s official until it’s announced,” when asked about the matter.

“The answer is we have no personnel announcements,” Spicer said during the briefing.

Callista Gingrich, 51, a former congressional aide, is the president of Gingrich Productions, which produces documentaries as well as other materials related to her husband, Republican Newt Gingrich, who served from 1995 until 1999 as the 50th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2010, the company released the film “Nine Days That Changed the World” about Pope John Paul II’s nine-day pilgrimage to Poland in 1979 and how it played a part in the fall of communism in Europe.