- by croatiaweek
- March 16, 2026
- in
Vatican
ZAGREB, 16 March (Hina) – Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Croatia, the Apostolic Nunciature in Croatia and the Holy See Press Office announced on Friday.
Girelli was born in 1953 in Predore, a village east of Bergamo, where he was ordained a priest in 1978 in the local diocese. He entered the Vatican diplomatic service in 1987, serving in apostolic nunciatures around the world, including Cameroon, New Zealand and the United States.
He was first appointed apostolic nuncio in 2006 to Indonesia. He later held the same post in Singapore, Israel and Cyprus, and most recently in India and Nepal, according to the Archdiocese of Zagreb.
He served as Apostolic Delegate to Malaysia and Brunei, and as the non-resident papal representative to Vietnam.
Girelli speaks Italian, French and English.
He becomes the seventh representative of the Holy See in Croatia, following Giulio Einaudi, Francisco-Javier Lozano Sebastián, Mario Roberto Cassari, Alessandro D’Errico, Giuseppe Pinto and Giorgio Lingua.
The president of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference, the Archbishop of Zagreb, Dražen Kutleša, congratulated the new nuncio and extended a “brotherly and heartfelt welcome”.
“The bishops of the Church in Croatia, together with all the faithful, receive you with joy and express their readiness to cooperate in everything that contributes to strengthening unity, deepening faith and bearing witness to the Gospel in today’s world,” Kutleša wrote.