{"id":135161,"date":"2025-04-26T13:17:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T13:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-journalist-delivers-first-reading-at-funeral-of-pope-francis-who-is-kielce-gussie-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T13:17:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T13:17:56","slug":"us-journalist-delivers-first-reading-at-funeral-of-pope-francis-who-is-kielce-gussie-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-journalist-delivers-first-reading-at-funeral-of-pope-francis-who-is-kielce-gussie-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"US journalist delivers first reading at funeral of Pope Francis. Who is Kielce Gussie? – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

A love of the Catholic faith and travel led Kielce Gussie to the altar in St. Peter’s Square to deliver the first reading in the funeral service for Pope Francis<\/a>.
Gussie is a U.S. journalist with Vatican News<\/a>, an official news agency covering the Holy See. Pope Francis created the outlet as part of his 2015 action to improve news coming from the Vatican<\/a>.
Gussie joined Vatican News in October 2024 after more than two years at Rome Reports TV News Agency, a news agency focused on covering the pope and the Vatican, according to her LinkedIn page<\/a>. She graduated from Mount St. Mary’s University, a Catholic university in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology.
During her time at Mount St. Mary’s, Gussie posted on Instagram<\/a> about her love of the saints. “After the Eucharist, they are my favorite part of Catholicism. I like being able to see where they came from and their struggles on their path to holiness.”
She continued her education by earning a licentiate degree in church communication in June 2022 from the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome.
Gussie, whose scripture reading came from the Acts of the Apostles, found out she was going to be part of the funeral on April 23, wrote Inside Edition’s Deborah Norville on social media<\/a>. Gussie, who grew up in Florida, told Norville, “her dream was always to work as a reporter for the Vatican.”
Upon finding out she was going to do the first reading at the mass in St. Peter’s Square, the 28-year-old told CBS News<\/a>, “My initial thought was, ‘Oh my gosh’ but then, after, I thought ‘this is such a huge honor,’ to be a part of this momentous occasion,” she said. “Also, for me, it’s such a big way to say thank you to Pope Francis.”
Gussie told CBS News<\/a> she got to meet Pope Francis twice. “In those moments, I didn’t see him as the head of the Catholic Church, I saw him as a grandfather,” she said. “And so for me, I will remember him as someone who really cared for each person that he met.”
While at Mount St. Mary’s, Gussie participated in track and field \u2013 her events were the hammer throw, javelin and discus \u2013 according to the university website.
In a profile of Gussie on the Mount St. Mary’s website<\/a>, assistant professor of communication Mary Catherine Kennedy called Kielce a “go-getter.”
“She has paired her communication classes with her theology classes to pursue work in the Church,” Kennedy said. “Her ambition and desire to serve others is spectacular, and I expect her to do well in her graduate studies in Rome.\u201d
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY\u2019s Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at<\/em>mikegsnider<\/em><\/a> \u00a0& \u00a0<\/em>@mikegsnider.bsky.social<\/em><\/a> \u00a0& \u00a0<\/em>@mikesnider<\/em><\/a> & msnider@usatoday.com<\/em>
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source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A love of the Catholic faith and travel led Kielce Gussie to the altar in St. Peter’s Square to deliver the first reading in the funeral service for Pope Francis.Gussie is a U.S. journalist with Vatican News, an official news agency covering the Holy See. Pope Francis created the outlet as part of his 2015 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}