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Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo as apostolic nuncio — the Vatican's “ambassador” — to Haiti. The Holy See Press Office made the announcement on February 11, 2026.
The Nigerian archbishop, who was previously nuncio to the Czech Republic, is thus being transferred to the Caribbean, to a post that had been vacant for two years.
Jude Thaddeus Okolo, 69, was ordained a priest in 1983. The young African priest joined the Roman Curia in 1984, initially working in dialogue with other Christian denominations before joining the diplomatic services of the Holy See in 1990.
Experience all over the globe
Father Okolo then worked in the nunciatures of Sri Lanka, Haiti, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Australia. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as the apostolic nuncio to the Central African Republic and Chad. The diplomat was consecrated bishop that same year.
In 2013, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Okolo as the apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Apostolic Delegate to Puerto Rico, before entrusting him with the nunciature in Ireland in 2017 and then in the Czech Republic in 2022.
The Nigerian prelate will fill the vacancy left by the previous nuncio, Archbishop Francisco Escalante Molina, who was appointed to Japan in January 2024.
The new nuncio arrives in a country particularly shaken by social and institutional crisis, where more than half the population is Catholic.
Haiti, a Caribbean country that splits an island with the Dominican Republic, became independent from France in 1804. It has had a troubled and chaotic history, plagued by almost every conceivable misfortune — including internal and external military conflicts, political assassinations, social and economic inequality, gang violence, and natural disasters.
The country has been without an elected president since the last one was assassinated in 2021, and in the absence of elections, the parliament has been empty since 2023.
Missionaries and aid workers have not been exempt from kidnapping and murder. Many parts of the island are controlled by gangs. Archbishop Okolo has a potentially dangerous, but important, mission ahead of him.
