POPE Francis has appointed Archbishop Bernardito Auza, a Filipino, as apostolic nuncio to Spain.
Auza, 60, succeeds retired Italian Archbishop Renzo Fratini who has been in the post since 2009.
Fratini turned 75, the age the Canon Law requires bishops to submit their resignation, last July.
The CBCP News said the Holy See announced Auza’s appointment at 6 p.m. on Tuesday (Manila time).
“The appointment came less than two years before the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines through the Spanish missionaries,” said CBCP News, the official news agency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
Auza served as the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in New York since 2014.
Auza, of Talibon in Bohol province, was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Tagbilaran in 1985, and was incardinated to the then newly-formed Diocese of Talibon in 1986. In 1990, he entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See with his first assignments in Madagascar and South Indian Ocean from 1990 to 1993.
