BY BRIAN J. LOWNEY, Acting Editor
PROVIDENCE — WPRI Channel 12 News Anchor Mike Montecalvo has been nominated for an Emmy award for his coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the United States last year.
Also nominated was videographer Brian Butler, who filmed the eight-part during the historic papal visit April 15-20.?The coverage was shot locally and in New York, where the pope visited ground zero and celebrated Mass at Yankee Stadium, and included comments from Msgr. Paul D. Theroux, Fathers Michael l Najim, Roger Houle and Joseph Escobar, several seminarians and students from Bishop Hendricken High School and La Salle Academy.
Several pilgrims from the diocese who traveled to Yankee Stadium for the papal Mass were also interviewed. Bishop Robert McManus, former auxiliary bishop of Providence and current bishop of Worcester, Mass., was interviewed in New York before processing into the stadium for the papal Mass.
“I wanted to cover the papal visit because I felt it was a historic event and brought hope to many people,” said Montecalvo.
The news anchor said that Channel 12 was the only area television station to cover the papal visit with local coverage.”
Montecalvo said one of the highlights of the series was traveling to Yankee Stadium.
At one point, he and Butler had to run five miles through a sea of busses and worshipers to meet the Rhode Island entourage.
Montecalvo, an award-winning journalist and parishioner of St. Anthony Church, Woonsocket, where he serves as a lector and member of the Parish Finance Council, said that there are three people he would like to interview before he ends his career — the president, the pope and Al Pacino. “This is as close to the pope as I will get,” he chuckled.
Montecalvo recalled catching a glimpse of the Holy Father as the papal motorcade made its way to Kennedy Airport.
“You never know which car he will be in,” the news anchor observed, adding that the Holy Father was riding in one of the last cars in the motorcade and that Butler “got the perfect shot” of the pontiff as he ended his historic visit to the United States.
Montecalvo emphasized that the papal visit brought much hope to the nation, whose economy was already beginning to worsen.
“It was a great experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Montecalvo concluded, adding that he didn’t fully absorb the significance of the historical events until he returned to Rhode Island and had time to reflect on the importance of the papal visit. The Emmy awards will be presented on May 30.
