Federico Lombardi SJ (born 29 August 1942) is an Italian Catholic priest and the former director of the Holy See Press Office.

On 11 July 2006 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him director of the Vatican Press Office, replacing Joaquín Navarro-Valls, a layman who had held the post for 22 years.

[5] In an editorial for "Octava Dies", a weekly program of the Vatican Television Center, he criticized statements made by Bishop Richard Williamson denying the extent of the Holocaust.

[8] In 2009 Lombardi said that in "cases like Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg discourse, the Bishop Williamson affair, or the controversy over Pope Benedict XVI's statements regarding condoms and the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa, ... once the first wave of criticism had passed, people were able to do some real hard thinking; ... subsequent reflections were serious, penetrating and well-argued.

[12] Burke was succeeded as Deputy Director by Paloma García Ovejero, a woman and a native of Madrid, Spain, who has been serving as a correspondent for Italy and the Vatican, and earlier as an editor and presenter for Cadena Cope, Radio Española.