The career Vatican diplomat will be the first non-European to serve as nuncio to the European Union since the position was created in 1983.Lenten Campaign 2025
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Pope Francis, while still hospitalized at Gemelli, appointed Archbishop Bernardito Auza as nuncio to the European Union. The Vatican Press Office announced the appointment on March 22, 2025. The 65-year-old Filipino diplomat, who until now was nuncio to Spain and Andorra, becomes the first non-European nuncio to hold this position.
The eighth of 11 children, Archbishop Auza was born in 1959 in Balintawak, on the island of Bohol, in the center of the Philippine archipelago. He attended the regional minor seminary, then the seminary in Manila. He received ordination to the priesthood in 1985 in California, where he completed part of his training.
He was then sent to Rome to study canon law. He joined the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1990. He worked in the nunciatures of Madagascar, Bulgaria, and Albania, then in the Section for Relations with States in Rome. Then, he served at the permanent mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York.
In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, elevating him to the dignity of archbishop at the same time. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed him as permanent observer to the United Nations headquarters in New York and to the Organization of American States. In 2019, the Argentinian pope appointed him as apostolic nuncio to Spain and Andorra.
First non-European nuncio in Brussels
Archbishop Auza has taken over the post left vacant by the previous nuncio, Irish Archbishop Noel Treanor, who died of a heart attack in Brussels on August 11, 2024. His predecessor, Archbishop Aldo Giordano, also died in office in 2021 from complications of COVID-19.
Since the creation of the post of nuncio to the European Community in 1983, eight nuncios have succeeded one another, all of European origin (four Italians, two Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and one Irishman). Archbishop Auza thus becomes the first non-European apostolic nuncio to occupy the nunciature to the European authorities in Brussels.
