VATICAN CITY, JAN. 11, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri has been named the new secretary of the Congregation for Bishops. He had been serving as the apostolic nuncio in Brazil.
The new Vatican official hails from Italy, where he was born Sept. 29, 1940. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1963, for the Diocese of Pisa. After studying at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy he entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service.
On Jan. 12, 1992, John Paul II named him nuncio to Haiti and he was ordained a bishop on March 7 and elevated to the rank of archbishop.
After being nuncio in Paraguay starting in 1995 he moved to Nepal in 1999 and then in 2002 was named nuncio in Brazil.
Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, president of Brazil’s episcopal conference, thanked Archbishop Baldisseri for all his work in the country. In particular he mentioned the nuncio’s role in helping bring about a new juridical status for the Church in Brazil, which was promulgated by the then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Feb. 11, 2010.
