Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

Most Rev. Carlo Maria Viganò, Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America and to the Organization of American States by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI on October 19, 2011.

Archbishop Viganò was born in Varese, in Northern Italy, in the region of Lombardy on January 16, 1941, and was ordained to the ministerial priesthood on 24 March 1968, for the Roman Diocese of Pavia. Archbishop Viganò holds a doctorate degree in both civil and canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University. He completed his doctoral studies at the Lateran University and then entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1971. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1973, and worked at the papal diplomatic mission in Iraq and Great Britain and then, from 1978 to 1989, the Secretariat of State. He was named Special Envoy and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 4 April 1989.

On 3 April 1992, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana and Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria by Pope John Paul II. At the close of his mission to Nigeria in April 1998, Archbishop Viganò was assigned as the Delegate for Pontifical Representatives within the Secretariat of State until he became Secretary-General of the Governatorate for the State of Vatican City on 16 July 2009.

In addition to his native Italian, Archbishop Viganò also speaks French, Spanish, and English.