On Saturday, Pope Leo XIV appointed a new Vatican ambassador to the United States as the Holy See seeks to manage a complex relationship with the administration of Donald Trump.
The Pope named Archbishop Gabriele Caccia as the new apostolic nuncio to Washington, replacing Cardinal Christophe Pierre, 80, who has retired after serving as the Vatican’s top diplomat in the United States.
The move has come at a sensitive moment for relations between the Vatican and the White House, with the Vatican's top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on Wednesday that the military campaign had undermined international law.
Leo, the first US Pope, has also openly criticised some of Trump's right-wing policies. He has described Trump's immigration crackdown, which has convulsed cities across the United States, as "inhuman."
Caccia, 68, has served as the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in New York since 2019. Before that role he held diplomatic postings in Lebanon and the Philippines, and earlier worked in a senior administrative position within the Vatican’s secretariat of state.
His appointment places an experienced diplomat at the centre of one of the Holy See’s most important international relationships. The United States is home to one of the largest Catholic populations in the world and American Catholics remain among the most significant financial supporters of the Vatican.
In Manila, Caccia was known for tamping down tensions between local Catholic bishops and Duterte, who frequently attacked Church officials in speeches.
Duterte, who left office in 2022, is being held in The Hague over murders committed during his war on drugs.
The Vatican, which maintains about 110 embassies worldwide, considers Washington one of its most important diplomatic postings.
The president of the US Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Paul S Coakley, welcomed the appointment and offered the American hierarchy’s “warmest welcome and our prayerful support,” according to the Independent.
The Vatican and the U.S. formally established diplomatic relations in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan. None of the previous six Vatican ambassadors in Washington had served first at the United Nations.