Philly's man in Vatican is well-traveled - at least in Philly area

ROME - He's Philly's man in the Vatican, and he has close ties to all five counties of the Philadelphia region.

The Rev. Bill Donovan, the fifth of eight children, grew up in Havertown's St. Denis Parish in Delaware County and went to Archbishop Carroll High School in Chester County. He taught at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Montgomery County, and at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, Bucks County. He now works for an employee of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

In January, Donovan became Archbishop Charles Chaput's liaison to the Pontifical Council for the Family, which is planning the enormous World Meeting of Families that could bring Pope Francis to Philadelphia in September 2015.

"I have the greatest job in the world right now, because I have to be the liaison for two of the greatest cities," said Donovan, 54.

But there is a drawback: Those two cities have a five-hour time difference.

"In the mornings and day, I work with the Pontifical Council for the Family," he said. "In the evening, I receive all these [Archdiocese] conference calls."

Donovan now lives in the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI, the clergy hotel where Francis was staying when he was elected pope and famously went back the next day to pay his bill.

Francis "really captured the attention, the fascination and the imagination of the world," Donovan said of the pontiff's first year in office.

He said it's fitting that Philadelphia, the poorest major U.S. city, may be Francis' first stop in the country.

"When the world thinks of [the United States], they think of a land of plenty," he said. "It's perhaps a scandal that many have been left behind."

Philadelphia, Donovan said, could be "representative" of the economic inequality against which Francis often speaks out.

"What [Francis] has to do is symbolically embrace a place," he said.

The meeting itself, he said, will have three parts: a "congress" of theological scholars who will lecture and discuss the family's role in the church; a "festival of witnesses," to celebrate the family with art and music; and, planners hope, a papal Mass.

"Theologically the first great gift that God gave us is life," Donovan said. "The second great gift, I think, has to be the family. This is the place we appreciate the family."

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