Holy See’s ambassador to Moscow
is named nuncio to Great Britain
By Anna Arco
20 December 2010
Russia’s current nuncio has been chosen to replace the Holy See’s outgoing ambassador as papal nuncio to Britain in the New Year.
Left photo, Mons. Mennini presenting his credentials to Russian President Putin after Russia and the Vatican formalized diplomatic relations last year.
Archbishop Antonio Mennini, who is Italian, and serves as papal ambassador to the Russian Federation, will take up his new post early next year. He will replace the outgoing nuncio, Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, and will oversee key appointments to episcopal posts in England and Wales.
In the next five years he is likely to propose candidates for the Archdiocese of Cardiff, which is currently empty, as well as the dioceses of Brentwood, Portsmouth, Wrexham, Hallam and Plymouth, where the bishops are coming up for retirement.
The new appointee was sent to Moscow in 2003 after having served as nuncio in Bulgaria and diplomatic attaché in Turkey and Uganda. According to reports, Archbishop Mennini has a reputation for being a “discreet diplomat” who was widely credited with improving the Vatican’s relations with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Relations between the two communions cooled considerably in 2001 after John Paul II established Catholic dioceses in Russia, a move which was seen as an act of aggression by Russian Orthodox leaders.
But a growing rapprochement led to President Dmitry Medvedev meeting the Holy Father in Rome in 2009 and promising to establish full diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
Last summer, the states assumed full diplomatic relations and Archbishop Mennini became the first Apostolic Nuncio to have his credentials recognised by Russia.
His predecessor as nuncio to Britain, Archbishop Sainz Muñoz, resigned because of ill health.
The Nunciature in Wimbledon. The private chapel used by Benedict XVI to offer his daily private Mass during his visit to London was fitted with stained glass windows by artist Brian Davis, using the image of the lighted candle adopted as a logo for the papal visit.
Archbishop Mennini ‘has a reputation as someone who is going places’
The Italian archbishop has done brilliantly as nuncio to Russia and is regarded as a key Vatican insider
The new Nuncio to the UK:
'Someone who is going places'
By Edward Pentin
20 December 2010
Pope Benedict XVI’s choice of Italian Archbishop Antonio Mennini as the new apostolic nuncio to Britain has been warmly welcomed here in Rome.
The 63-year-old archbishop, who will leave his current post as apostolic nuncio to the Russian Federation early next year, is “famous” for the good work he did there, according to one Vatican official. “He’s easy to work with and is able to do great work.”
Another described his appointment as “very significant” for both the Church and the government. “He comes to the position with tremendous ecclesiastical and political skill and this makes it a really strong appointment,” he said. “He has a reputation of someone who’s going places.”
The Holy Father’s recent visit to Britain is said to have been an important factor in choosing Archbishop Mennini who is seen as highly capable on thorny matters relating to Church and state. He’s well regarded for the way he handled the very delicate relationship with Moscow, where he is credited for improving relations “dramatically” with the Russian Orthodox.
Archbishop Mennini has been the Pope’s representative to Russia since 2002, with Uzbekistan added later. He previously served as nuncio to Bulgaria and also worked in Turkey and Uganda after entering the diplomatic corps in 1981.
Although he has no experience of Catholic-Anglican relations, most of his predecessors didn’t either, but his eight years of dealing with a Church closely linked to the state is expected to serve him in good stead.
It’s too early to say how he will deal with a nuncio’s other important role: that of recommending names to Rome for episcopal appointment. He was involved in only a few appointments in Russia – notably Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of the Mother of God Archdiocese in Moscow in 2007, and in 2003, Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz of St Joseph in Irkutsk – geographically the largest diocese in the world.
But he’ll be continuing his contacts with a recently overhauled Congregation for Bishops, now with a new prefect and secretary.
Born to a father who was a senior lay official in the Vatican, the archbishop is regarded as a “key Vatican insider”. He will be the first Italian to hold the position since 1997 and only the second since 1973. His predecessor is Spanish.