The new Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto,
arrives in Dublin tonight to take up his position. He succeeds Dr Luciano Storero who died on October 1st last year aged 74.
Archbishop Lazzarotto will be met by several dignitaries this evening including Archbishop Desmond Connell and Dr Michael Woods, the Minister for Education and Science.
He will meet President McAleese on Thursday and will be the principal celebrant at a Liturgical reception at St Mary’s pro cathedral in Dublin on Sunday.
The Archbishop was born in Carpane, Italy in 1942 and was ordained in Padua on April 1st 1967. He joined the Vatican diplomatic service in 1971 and is familiar with Irish issues as he served as desk officer for Ireland in the Secretariat of State's section for the relations with states between 1984 and 1994.
He was formerly Apostolic Nuncio to Jordan and Iraq – a role that led him to negotiate with President Saddam Hussein, in a vain attempt to include Iraq in the Pope’s millennium visit to the Holy Land last year.
His appointment follows the death of Dr Luciano Storero last October. Dr Storero was appointed Papal Nuncio in 1995 and although he kept a generally low profile he was sued in 1999 by a sexual abuse victim who claimed the nunciature was aware of abuses being carried out by Father Séan Fortune in Co Wexford in the mid-1980s. Dr Sterero successfully claimed diplomatic immunity.