Pope Leo XIV on Saturday appointed Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia as his apostolic nuncio and personal representative to the United States, his latest move to reshape the relationship between the Vatican and his home country.
The Italian-born Caccia, 68, who since January 2020 served as the Holy See’s permanent observer at the United Nations in New York, said he was “honored and deeply humbled by the decision of the Holy Father” to be appointed “to the Country and the Church” which raised the first American pope, according to Vatican News.
“I receive this mission with both joy and a sense of trepidation,” Caccia reportedly admitted. He went on to describe his new ministry as a “mission at the service of communion and peace.” The appointment coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Pope Leo appoints Archbishop Gabriele Caccia – Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations since 2019 – as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.https://t.co/DKQZ1vBrwa
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) March 7, 2026
Reflecting how his service in New York connected him with the local people, institutions, and churches of the U.S, Caccia stated he was “encouraged by the warmth and openness” they extended.
Ordained a priest in June 1983, Caccia joined the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See in July 1991 and supported its efforts in Tanzania. After serving in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State beginning June 1993, he was appointed to the key administrative post of assessor for general affairs of the Secretariat of State in December 2002. He served as Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic nuncio (from the Latin “nuncius,” meaning “one who is sent,” literally “messenger”) to Lebanon in July 2009 and as Pope Francis’s apostolic nuncio to the Philippines in September 2017, where he engaged with the unpredictable President Rodrigo Duterte.
Caccia’s appointment will involve maintaining balance and relationships between the Holy See, the White House, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). He will also report on the political and ecclesiastical developments of the U.S. and play a key role in the selection of the nation’s bishops by the Holy Father, who himself served as the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome. On a daily basis, however, Caccia will represent the pope to the American Catholic Church, reinforcing its bonds and, together with the world’s Catholic dioceses, identity with the Holy See headquartered in the Vatican City State.
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, Titular Archbishop of Sepino, as the new Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. Archbishop Caccia, 68, has served as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations since 2019, and succeeds Cardinal… pic.twitter.com/hof23mOcBz
— U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (@USCCB) March 7, 2026
“It is with joy that I welcome the news that our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, has appointed as his personal representative and nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Caccia,” Archbishop Paul Coakley, the president of the USCCB, stated. “On behalf of my brother bishops, I wish to extend our warmest welcome and our prayerful support to him as he carries out his responsibilities across the United States, and we look forward to working with him.”
As the Holy See’s delegate to the UN, Caccia’s public statements appear to have been characteristically diplomatic, focusing on global issues pertaining to peace, disarmament, human dignity, multilateralism, and sustainable development. In this way, he has avoided directly commenting on policies or positions expressed by the administration of President Donald Trump. His new appointment, however, may change this dynamic.
It is unclear when Caccia will move to and participate in the liturgical traditions of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, though it is speculated the Holy Week celebrations would be appropriate.
Denying characterizations that the Vatican might be “anti-America,” U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch observed during an “EWTN News In Depth” interview which aired Friday that “the common things that the Vatican and the Holy See in the United States share go much beyond the political framing that I think a lot of people want to interpret.”
Burch, who was involved in failed Vatican efforts for Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro to leave power peacefully ahead of the Jan. 3 raid by U.S. law enforcement, went on to recall a comment by one of the highest-ranking cardinals.
“He said, ‘When we deal with a lot of these difficult issues, often we don’t always know what the answers are. One of the things we often come back to is we need to talk to the United States.’ It’s not because we have the perfect answer to every question, but it’s because we share this Western civilizational idea that we inherited, again, as the secretary [of state, Marco Rubio] recently said, from Europe, but also that the Holy See, United States share this common bond about truth and justice and human dignity and fundamental understanding of freedom,” the ambassador stated.
“I think this pope in particular is going to be very careful to not come across as an American who’s meddling in politics. And, in fact, he said that directly to me when I met him,” he continued. “This pope, he said to me when I first met him, ‘I don’t want to be seen as an American who’s trying to meddle in the domestic political fights in the United States.’ He said, ‘I’m not an American pope. I’m a pope from America for the world.’”
Caccia replaces the veteran French-born diplomat Cardinal Christophe Pierre, whose resignation was offered as required upon reaching the age of 80 on Jan. 30. Pierre served as apostolic nuncio to the U.S. since April 2016, after serving as the representative of Pope John Paul II to Uganda since 1995 and Haiti since May 1999, and of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico starting in March 2007.
Pierre reflected on his decade in the U.S. as “very beautiful years, difficult years,” noting during an “EWTN News In-Depth” interview released Jan. 30, that “these years have been full of tensions at times.”
“The mission of the Church is precisely not to reproduce in our Church the polarization of the society but to be a kind of place where we can heal, you know, and help the people to rediscover [a] kind of unity,” he continued. “At times we forget about that and … we became … cultural warriors. So that means instead of contemplating Christ in my life, in your life, and trying to get together, we remain at the level of ideas. So if you don’t agree with me you become my enemy or I become your enemy. And I think it’s very dangerous.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to His Eminence and the White House for comment.
Pierre himself was appointed by Pope Francis to replace Italian-born Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who served as nuncio to the U.S. from 2011 to 2016. Viganò was excommunicated July 5, 2024, by the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for committing the crime of schism. He was found guilty of refusing to recognize the authority of Pope Francis, rejecting the Second Vatican Council, and publicly expressing defiance against the Church.
Since his May 2026 election, Pope Leo XVI has appointed 10 clerics as bishops in the U.S., with his December replacement of longtime New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan being the most prominent. His Holiness has not, to date, publicly expressed any plans to make an official visit to his home country, for the time being participating in a selection of virtual engagements with American audiences.
The concept of Vatican diplomacy is unique in that the Vatican City State itself does not engage in standard diplomatic activity, such as sending and receiving ambassadors. The proper name “Holy See” refers to a person — the pope — rather than a territory.
The pope thus appoints personal diplomatic representatives, such as apostolic nuncios, to most of the world’s nations. The Holy See has full diplomatic relations with 183 nations, as well as eight permanent representations in organizations focused on multilateral relations.
“The Holy See invests time and energy in the multilateral sphere in the hope that it will bear fruit, in cooperation between nations, for the good of the human family,” Pierre summarized in a Feb. 1, 2023, address at Seton Hall University.
Editor’s note: This breaking news report was updated with additional details.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
