Listening to India will be my prime responsibility: Apostolic Nuncio

Mangalore Today News Network

Rome, Feb 09, 2017: “Listening to the people and Church in India will be my prime responsibility”, said Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, the newly appointed Apostolic Nuncio to the Church in India.

He was speaking at Istituto di San Giovanni Damasceno (Collegio Damasceno) an Oriental College in Rome that gives accommodation to priests from the two Oriental Catholic Churches from India – Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara – who come to Rome for their higher studies . This was also the first address of the new Nuncio to an Indian community.

Rector, Rev. Varghese Kurisuthara OCD welcomed Archbishop Diquattro to the institute. After celebrating mass with around 50 Indian priests of the college, the prelate also spend a few hours with them discussing about the different aspects of Indian Church. Bishop Diquattro said that although he has not visited India before, he was looking forward to India- the land of diversity

Apart from overseeing the Church in India, Apostolic Nuncio is also responsible for maintaining diplomatic relations between India and Vatican. 63 year old Bishop Diquattro joined the Diplomatic Service of the Vatican on May 1, 1985, serving continuous missions in the Pontifical Representations in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad, the United Nations (in New York), and later in the Secretariat of State of His Holiness – Section for Relations with States, and in the Apostolic Nunciature in Italy.