| Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See to the United States | |
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| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Address | 3339 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. |
| Ambassador | Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò |
The Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See to the United States is the diplomatic mission of the Holy See to the United States. It is located at 3339 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Embassy Row neighborhood.[1] The current Apostolic Nuncio is His Excellency, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was named to the position by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 October 2011.
The Apostolic Nunciature to the United States of America is an ecclesiastical office of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, with the rank of ambassador. The nuncio serves both as the ambassador of the Pope (as head of State of Vatican City) to the President of the United States, and as delegate and point-of-contact between the Catholic hierarchy in America and the Pope (as head of the church). The office of Apostolic Nuncio is currently always assigned to titular archbishops. The nunciature to the United States is considered a highly important post and therefore is normally filled by a very experienced Vatican diplomat, historically nuncios to the United States have often been elevated to the rank of Cardinal in consistory shortly after their service, and been given senior posts within the Vatican itself.
The Apostolic Nunciature is an administrative center of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Communications from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the various dioceses in the United States to the Holy See pass through the nunciature. The nuncio also fills a central role in the appointment of bishops to episcopal offices in the country, and is the official responsible for making the announcement of an episcopal appointment.
The physical building which houses the offices of the apostolic nuncio and his staff is also called the Nunciature to the United States of America. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Washington (canon 366 1°).
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The nunciature was established as the Delegation to the United States of America on January 24, 1893 with offices in the City of Washington in the District of Columbia led by an apostolic delegate. It was the result of an effort by the Holy See to establish communication between the Pope (Leo XIII) and the President of the United States (Benjamin Harrison). Formal relations however were not established until January 10, 1984 when the delegation was elevated to the rank of nunciature. The establishment of an embassy in the City of Washington was the result of an increased friendship of Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan.
The staff of the nunciature includes the permanent and alternative observer to the Organization of American States, given that the OAS headquarters are in Washington.
The Holy See did not have official ties with the United States and its mission was headed by an apostolic delegate without the rank of ambassador. Apostolic delegates, unlike apostolic nuncios, exercise only ecclesiastical functions of oversight over the Catholic hierarchy of the country to which they were sent, while apostolic nuncios have the added responsibility of also acting as ambassadors of the Holy See before the government of the country where they serve. There were instances in which two official delegates served at the same time.
The first Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Pio Laghi, presented his credentials as Holy See ambassador to the United States in 1984 after the Holy See and the United States established full diplomatic relations. His title was pro-nuncio because at the time the Vatican gave the title of nuncio only to its ambassadors who enjoyed the rank of dean of the diplomatic corps to a country.
In 1990 and 1991 the Vatican quietly began to use the title of nuncio instead of pro-nuncio for its ambassadors who were not the deans of a country's ambassadorial corps, but it retained the pro-nuncio title for all those already appointed. In 1998, when President Bill Clinton accepted the credentials of Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo Higuera as the third Vatican ambassador to the United States, he held the title of Apostolic Nuncio. Since 1993 the official Vatican yearbook, the Annuario Pontificio, has included an asterisk behind the title of those nuncios "che (per ora) non sono Decani del Corpo Diplomatico" -- "who (for now) are not deans of the diplomatic corps."
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