Will next U.S. nuncio ‘come in from the cold?’

Is Cardinal Christophe Pierre's successor the pope's man in Moscow?

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., is expected to meet with Pope Francis this week ahead of Saturday’s Vatican consistory for the creation of new cardinals.

Archbishop Giovanni d'Aniello, apostolic nuncio to the Russian Federation. Credit: Secretariat of State.

While Pierre and the pontiff have a great deal to discuss about the Church in the U.S., they are also likely to have at least a brief conversation about a more personal matter: Pierre’s pending retirement from his diplomatic post in the U.S.

They will also likely discuss candidates to succeed Pierre at the apostolic nunciature on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C. On that front, one candidate stands out from the field, and is regarded by some in the Vatican as the front runner to be U.S. nuncio.

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Pierre, made a cardinal by Pope Francis last year, turns 79 years old next month. He has occupied the American nunciature since April 2016, which means that he has overseen a lot of both ecclesiastical and American history: three fractious presidential elections, the 2018 sexual abuse scandals, the covid-19 pandemic, the protests over race and policing in 2020, the USCCB’s Eucharistic coherence fight, the entire synodality project, and the Church’s Eucharistic Revival.

Pierre has served considerably longer than his most recent predecessors, Archbishops Viganó, Sambi, and Montalvo.

And sources at the Secretariat of State have long maintained that Pierre was expected to serve through the conclusion of the synod on synodality and the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress, both of which have now been accomplished — and then to retire.

In short, it seems likely that Pierre’s resignation from office will soon be accepted by Pope Francis, with Pierre expected to retire either to Rome, or to his native Brittany.

Given that he is a cardinal — a rare designation for a serving nuncio — it is reasonable to expect that his resignation from office could come soon after next month’s consistory, and, if it does not, is almost certain to come within the next 12 months.

According to several sources close to the process, the nuncio’s most likely successor from among the diplomatic corps is Archbishop Giovanni d'Aniello, 69, who is now the apostolic nuncio to the Russian Federation, in Moscow.

D’Aniello, who visited with the pope last week, has been the pontiff’s ambassador in Moscow for more than four years — and is nearing the typical shelf life for nuncios appointed to Russia.

Even in peacetime, being the pope’s man in Moscow is not an easy task —and d’Aniello has spent much of his tenure working under the shadow of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and Pope Francis’ strong desire to involve the Church in peace efforts.

Because of the difficulty and sensitivity of the Russian post, it is usually followed for papal diplomats with a posting in a high-profile position in a Western country. D’Aniello’s predecessor, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, is now the apostolic nuncio in France. His predecessor, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, is now nuncio in Ottawa.

If d’Aniello were to follow the path of his predecessors, and see service in Russia followed by a high-profile Western appointment, the United States is the most likely, in large part because the job is expected to open soon.

But there is another part of d’Aniello’s profile that could suggest he’s a front-runner to the D.C. appointment. The archbishop was in 1978 ordained a priest in the southern Italian Diocese of Aversa, which has an unusually strong influence in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps.

The rector of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains papal diplomats, is Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, who was ordained a priest of Aversa two years earlier than d’Aniello. And the secretary for pontifical representations at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State — the coordinator of nuncio appointments around the world — is Archbishop Luciano Russo, also ordained a priest of Aversa, though a few years behind d’Aniello.

As it happens, another Aversa priest, Archbishop Emilio Nappa, is adjunct secretary at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, and the retired-but-influential Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe was also a priest there — meaning the clergy of Aeversa are some of the most-represented across the Roman Curia.

To be sure, it is not the case that being from Aversa means d’Aniello is a shoe-in for the D.C. job. He’s not. But the Vatican had tense relationships with the Trump administration’s first go-round, and is likely to want an experienced hand, and a trusted one, representing the Holy See’s interests in Washington for round two.

Especially given that Donald Trump and Pope Francis share a “preeminent priority” to see peace negotiated in Eastern Europe, d’Aniello’s experience with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin could be considered a benefit.

It has been especially important to Francis to see that his designated peace envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, is taken seriously in Washington — and if Zuppi takes meetings alongside an experienced Russia hand with insight into Putin and Moscow’s Patriarch Kiril, that could boost his standing with the Trump White House.

Archbishop Giovanni d'Aniello with Orthodox Patriarch Kiril of Moscow. Credit: Russian Orthodox Church media service.

Further, that d’Aniello is a known and experienced figure, with long fraternal relationships in the Secretariat of State is also important on the ecclesiastical front: the U.S. has a buildup of retiring metropolitan archbishops, and Pierre has been keen to see that the nunciature, not the American cardinatial ranks, have clear and direct influence on the process.

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Nothing is certain with Pope Francis — and the pontiff takes delight in bucking convention. But as Pierre plans to say adieu to the bishops of the U.S., Archbishop d’Anniello may well be preparing to offer his own Здравствуйте!