Archbishop Caccia named nuncio to the US

The veteran Vatican diplomat succeeds Cardinal Christophe Pierre

Pope Leo XIV named the Italian Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia as the new apostolic nuncio to the U.S. Saturday.

Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia. Judgefloro/wikimedia CC0 1.0.

The Pillar reported earlier this year that Caccia, a veteran Vatican diplomat, was the front-runner to succeed the French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who turned 80 in January.

The Vatican announced March 7 that the pope had accepted Pierre’s resignation for age reasons and named the 68-year-old Caccia as his successor.

The appointment was keenly anticipated because Leo XIV is the first U.S.-born pope. The new nuncio will be expected to help shape relations between the Holy See and the U.S. government, as well as to advise on the appointment of bishops in the country.

Caccia has served since 2019 as the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, a role that has given him a degree of familiarity with the U.S. Church.

In a statement, the archbishop said: “Honored and deeply humbled by the decision of the Holy Father to appoint me as apostolic nuncio to the country and the Church where he himself was born and raised, I receive this mission with both joy and a sense of trepidation, conscious of the great trust placed in me and of my own limitations, yet confident in His Holiness’s prayerful support and guidance.”

“I am likewise encouraged by the warmth and openness that I have already experienced from the local Church, as well as from the Government and the people of this country, whom I have come to know during my years of service at the United Nations in New York. I trust that their generosity and collaboration will assist me in carrying out this new mission at the service of communion and peace.”

“Upon all I invoke the blessings of Almighty God, especially in this year that marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States of America.”

U.S. bishops’ conference president Archbishop Paul Coakley welcomed Caccia’s appointment.

“On behalf of my brother bishops, I wish to extend our warmest welcome and our prayerful support to him as he carries out his responsibilities across the United States, and we look forward to working with him,” he said March 7.

“At the same time, I wish to express my sincere and prayerful appreciation to Cardinal Pierre, who has served as nuncio to the United States for nearly a decade.”

Gabriele Giordano Caccia was born in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 24, 1958. He was ordained a priest of the Milan archdiocese by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in 1983.

After three years of service in a Milan parish, Caccia was selected to attend the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, the school for Vatican diplomats. After graduating in 1991, he entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service, with a placement in Tanzania.

He was recalled to Rome in 1993 to work in the Vatican Secretariat of State’s First Section, which works closely with the pope and embassies accredited to the Holy See.

In 2002, at the age of 44, Caccia was appointed assessor for general affairs of the Secretariat of State, a post that gave him an important coordinating role within the Roman curia.

He was named in 2009 as the apostolic nuncio to Lebanon, a challenging diplomatic posting. Pope Benedict XVI consecrated him as a bishop and gave him the title of titular archbishop of Sepino. Caccia took the episcopal motto Credidimus Caritati, drawn from 1 John 4:16: “We have believed in the love God has for us.”

In 2017, Pope Francis appointed Caccia as the apostolic nuncio to the Philippines, the nation with the world’s third-largest Catholic population after Brazil and Mexico. Caccia arrived amid rising tensions between the local Church and President Rodrigo Duterte over the country’s bloody drug war.

Caccia became the Holy See’s seventh permanent observer to the UN in New York in 2019, succeeding the Filipino Archbishop Bernardito Auza. In the post, Caccia took part in debates at the UN, presenting the Vatican’s perspective on topics as varied as the rights of Indigenous people and space warfare.