Vittorio Messori

Vittorio Messori (Sassuolo, 1941 – Desenzano del Garda, 2026) was an Italian journalist, apologist and Catholic writer, widely regarded as the best-known and most translated author of Catholic subjects of his era. He wrote in Italian, and his work moved between journalism, apologetics and popular historical writing.

Raised in an anticlerical household, he kept his distance from the Church as a young man. He studied political science in Turin, where his training was rationalist and agnostic. Around 1964, at twenty-three, he opened a Gospel to check a translation and ended up converting to Christianity. From then on, faith became the centre of his research. He worked first as an editor, then in a publisher's press office, and later as a reporter and editor for La Stampa.

His most widely read book, Hipótesis sobre Jesús, was translated into twenty-two languages. After a long interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, he received death threats. He also carried out the first extended interview of a journalist with Pope John Paul II. His legacy lies in bringing theological and ecclesial debates to general readers, though his defence of the faith drew criticism.