Pope Francis on March 13 appointed Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, an Italian prelate, as the new apostolic nuncio to India.
Archbishop Girelli was the nuncio to Israel and Cyprus and apostolic delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine until now, according to Archbishop Felix Anthony Machado of Vasai, the secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. He succeeds Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, another Italian who was transferred to Brazil, South America, in August 2020.
Archbishop Girelli was born in Predore (Bergamo), Italy, on March 13, 1953. He was ordained a priest on June 17, 1978. He speaks Italian, English and French.
With a doctorate in Theology, he entered the Vatican Diplomatic Service on July 13, 1987. To prepare for the diplomatic service, he completed the course of study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1984.
He served nunciatures in Cameroon and in New Zealand, in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, and in the nunciature in the United States of America.