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Francis X. Rocca

European Correspondent (former)

Francis X. Rocca is a Vatican correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Formerly, he was a European correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Stories by This Author

Global
By Francis X. Rocca October 4, 2011
Geophysicists in Italy are on trial for negligence in the lead-up to the earthquake there in 2009. How should scientists express themselves about potential crises?
News
By Francis X. Rocca May 11, 2009
The student was part of a group of eight students and a professor from a college in Michigan who were on what was to have been a 16-day trip abroad.
News
By Francis X. Rocca April 9, 2009
As rescuers searched with dimming hope a collapsed dormitory at the University of L’Aquila for a few more missing students, the university’s rector vowed that the institution would continue in the city, where it is a mainstay of the economy.
News
By Francis X. Rocca April 9, 2009
Rome At least eight students have died from the collapse of a dormitory at the University of L’Aquila in central Italy, following a powerful earthquake that struck early Monday. Blue-helmeted rescue workers were still searching on Wednesday for two or three students who remained missing amid the…
News
By Francis X. Rocca April 7, 2009
A powerful earthquake that struck central Italy early Monday caused catastrophic damage at the University of L’Aquila, possibly killing one student and leaving more than half a dozen others trapped in the rubble of a collapsed dormitory.
News
By Francis X. Rocca April 7, 2009
Rome A powerful earthquake that struck central Italy early Monday caused catastrophic damage at the University of L’Aquila, possibly killing one student and leaving more than half a dozen others trapped in the rubble of a collapsed dormitory. “There is an absolute need for help,” Ferdinando di…
News
By Francis X. Rocca February 8, 2008
“Dressing for success” doesn’t always work in academe. Neither does undressing, as nude models in Italy’s art schools have found. Some 30 of the models, weary of unsatisfactory pay and working conditions at state-run art academies and high schools, held a daylong strike last month at the University…
News
By Francis X. Rocca January 11, 2008
Paunchy, middle-aged guys are unlikely pinup models. Nonetheless, a group of distinguished physicians at a cancer research institute in Naples, Italy, posed in their skivvies to raise money to fight the disease. Under the slogan “Without you, research is bare,” a 2008 calendar published by the…
News
By Francis X. Rocca November 23, 2007
In the high-ceilinged chamber, five black-robed men sit on a dais behind an imposing carved bench, underneath the inscription “The Law Is Equal for All.” Facing them a few yards away, a similarly clad man stands behind a lectern, arguing for the plaintiffs in the case of Bivort et al. v. the…
The Review
By Francis X. Rocca October 5, 2007
Capital of the southern Italian region of Apulia (the heel of the peninsular boot), Bari is an ancient port city whose architectural treasures include the 12th-century Romanesque cathedral of St. Nicholas, burial place of the original Santa Claus. The 1960s-era complex of concrete blocks housing…