Pinoy named Vatican’s permanent representative to UN

MANILA, Philippines - A 55-year-old Filipino was named Vatican Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza was Apostolic Nuncio or ambassador to Haiti before he was appointed to his new post.

L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican’s official newspaper, announced that Pope Francis named Auza to the UN last July 1, according to CBCPNews.

Auza replaces Archbishop Francis Chullikatt of India, the first non-Italian to be named the Holy See’s Permanent Representative to the UN.

Auza of Talibon, Bohol was consecrated Titular Archbishop of Suacia on May 8, 2008, the same day he was appointed Nuncio to Haiti.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then Vatican Secretary of State, was his principal consecrator.

Auza was Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti and Apostolic Administrator of Porte-au-Prince after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010.

His first assignment was in Madagascar and the South Indian Ocean from 1990 to 1993.

Before assuming his post in Haiti, he was a member of the Holy See’s Permanent Mission to the UN.