Sandpoint native covers the Pope, Vatican
<p>Cindy Wooden gives Pope Francis a copy of her biography of Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle during an Apostolic journey of Francis to Cuba. Pope Francis greets the journalists during his flights home and answers questions for them, while on the way to the destination, Francis greets everyone on the plane, Wooden said. (Courtesy photo)</p>
SANDPOINT — Sandpoint resident Cindy Wooden stands on the balcony of her condo and gazes at millions of stars. She takes a deep breath of fresh, frozen air and is thankful to call Sandpoint home.
“Growing up in Sandpoint, the beauty I am used to appreciating is natural beauty,” Wooden said. “In a big city, there is pollution. You rarely see the stars. You don’t get those amazing lights like you get here.”
A 1978 Sandpoint High School graduate, Wooden has spent the last 26 years living in Italy and said there is a love for human-made art, such as paintings, sculpture and architecture. Although Wooden enjoys the centuries of art and history that Italy provides, she really enjoys her time at home.
“It’s not just human ingenuity that creates beauty,” Wooden said. “It’s around us.”
Wooden was named the bureau chief for the Catholic News Service in July, owned by the U.S. Bishops Conference. She covers what the pope does, says, meetings he has, the different Vatican offices, and Vatican diplomacy. She spent 25 years working her way up from a correspondent.
Part of the job brings traveling, and in the past year, Wooden was in the Philippines early in the year, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay in July, Cuba and the eastern U.S. in September, Kenya, Uganda and Central African Republic in November and will visit Mexico in February. It may sound like a lot of traveling, however, Wooden said it usually adds up to about 20 days per year.
Wooden has no spare time on her trips to have fun and see the tourist sights. News is a 24/7 business, she said, and security has taken away the rest of the spare time she had because she has to arrive two to three hours early to events just to clear security. She said the closer she gets to the pope, the more security she clears.
“That takes a huge chunk out of the day,” Wooden said.
Although she travels with the pope, so do many other reporters, security and Catholic citizens, making him a hard person to hold a conversation with.
“I have yet to interview him,” Wooden said. “He wouldn’t know my name, but he would recognize my face, I believe.”
Her job has become more exciting under Pope Francis, she said, because so many people love him. She has wrote about St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but feels that Francis has a different personality that surprises people. She said people are attracted to Francis because he is attracted to them.
“He sincerely seems to draw energy from being with people and listening to them and meeting them,” Wooden said. “He is just so sincere about it, and continues to give examples by visiting prisons and visiting soup kitchens. I think it is helping the image of the church in a lot of ways.”
Pope Francis always gives her something to write about, which helps the 100 U.S. newspapers that use her stories from the news service CNS provides, and they are constantly being updated on his movements. She likes the fact that people want to read and hear about Francis because her stories are being read.
“This one is making news faster,” Wooden said. “There’s always something new.”
Wooden was raised Catholic, by a mother who had an “intelligent relationship with the church.”
“It was never a matter of blind obedience,” Wooden said. "It was something you think about and you wrestle with and you question.”
She has followed her mom’s lead and turned asking those questions into a career. She was involved with the church throughout high school, and found her way to Seattle University and majored in religious studies theology and minored in journalism. After an internship with CNS, she was hired by them a few years later out of the Washington, D.C., office. When the opening in Rome became available, she jumped at the chance in August 1989.
“I feel super fortunate and blessed to be able to do it and get paid to do somthing that is so interesting and sometimes crazy fun,” Wooden said.
Missing her family is hard, she said, but she stays in touch with family and friends on social media and the Internet. And she comes home to Sandpoint for one month each year.
“This will always be the place I consider home,” Wooden said.
“I feel comfortable here.”