From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Aug 8: Vatican’s envoy to India, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, the Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal, has been transferred to Poland.
This was announced in Rome on August 6, the feast of Transfiguration of Jesus, said a letter from Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
Archbishop Pennacchio, who turns 64 on September 7, will leave for Poland in October, after completing his term in India, the letter adds.
There has been no announcement yet about his successor in India.
Archbishop Pennacchio became the Vatican ambassador to India in 2010.
Earlier, the ever smiling and amiable Prelate was the Nuncio of Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia and Apostolic Delegate to Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia and Brunei but was based at Bangkok. He served in this position from 2003.
During that period, he oversaw the successful conduct of the first Asian Mission Congress at Chiang Mai, Thailand, during October 18 to 22, 2006.
About 1,000 people, mostly from Asia, attended the first Asian Mission Congress that reflected on the theme, “The Story of Jesus in Asia: A Celebration of Faith and Life.”
His first appointment as a Nuncio was to Rwanda in 1998. He was ordained an Archbishop on January 6, 1999.
He was born in Marano, Naples, in Italy, and had just turned 24 when he was ordained a priest on September 18, 1976, for Aversa diocese, southern Italy.
He joined the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on April 15, 1979.
He has served in the Apostolic Nunciatures in Panama, Ethiopia, Australia, Turkey, Egypt, Yugoslavia and Ireland.
He holds a doctorate in Philosophy and speaks English, French and Spanish.