David Willey, longtime BBC Vatican correspondent, dies at 93

David Willey, who covered five papacies and reported for the BBC for over half a century, has died aged 93.

• Willey died of heart failure in Italy.
• He covered the papacies of five popes and met the newly elected Pope Leo last year.
• BBC correspondent Mark Lowen said Willey gave him insight and encouragement when Lowen started in Rome in 2019.
• Willey recalled surreptitiously picking up a smuggled papal speech for Reuters in the 1950s.