Pope Francis Appoints a New Permanent Observer to United Nations in Geneva - Archbishop Ettore Balestrero

Pope Francis, on Wednesday the 21st of June, appointed Archbishop Ettore Balestrero as the Holy See's new Permanent Observer to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Agencies in Geneva and to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Archbishop will also be the Holy See's representative at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Archbishop Balestrero, who comes from the northern Italian city of Genoa, is the titular archbishop of Vittoriana and a long-time diplomat. Before this assignment, he served as Apostolic Nuncio in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this role, the prelate aided Pope Francis during his apostolic journey from 31 January to 5 February to the central African country. He arrived in Kinshasa in July 2018, after leading the Apostolic Nunciature in Colombia for some five years (from 2013 to 2018), during which he supported the government's agreement with the FARC guerrilla movement to achieve peace signed in 2016. As Nuncio, he accompanied the Pope during his 2017 trip to the Latin American country.

The Archbishop began the Holy See's diplomatic service in 1996, Monsignor Balestrero has held posts in Korea, Mongolia and the Netherlands. Starting in 2001, he served in the Secretariat of State before being appointed, on 17 August 2009, by Pope Benedict XVI as Undersecretary for Relations with States. He held this position from 2009 to 2013.

Edited from Vatican News with Screenshot from Vatican Media