THE Holy See has announced that Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto is to be the new apostolic nuncio to Australia.
Archbishop Lazzarotto, who speaks Italian, English, French and Spanish, has been apostolic nuncio to Ireland since November, 2000.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Philip Wilson warmly welcomed the appointment.
Born in Carpane, Vicenza, Italy, in 1942, Archbishop Lazzarotto was ordained a priest on April 1, 1967.
He has a Doctorate in Canon Law and completed post-graduate studies in international diplomacy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, Rome. Archbishop Lazzarotto entered the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See in 1971.
He has served the Holy See in its diplomatic missions in Zambia and Malawi; in Belgium, European Community, Luxembourg; Cuba; the Apostolic Delegation of the Holy See in Jerusalem, in Palestine and Cyprus; and in the Secretariat of State, Vatican City, at the Section for Relations with States.
In 1994, Archbishop Lazzarotto was appointed Titular Archbishop of Numana and apostolic nuncio to Iraq and to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The date of his arrival in Australia is yet to be confirmed.
The post of apostolic nuncio to Australia has been vacant since the death of Archbishop Ambrose De Paoli last October.
