Bernardito Auza

Early life

Born on June 10, 1959 in Balintawak, Talibon, Bohol, Philippines, is the eight of twelve children of parents Meliton Garcia Auza and Magdalena Polestico Cleopas. After preliminary education in Talibon, he entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Tagbilaran City. He then enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, where he obtained his Licentiate in Philosophy in 1981, Licentiate in Theology in 1986 and Masters in Education also in 1986.

Auza was ordained by Bishop Daniel Francis Walsh of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa in California on June 29, 1985.

Auza was sent to the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law in 1989 and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1990, and to the Vatican Diplomatic School (Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica), where he finished his diplomatic and linguistic studies in that same year.

Early diplomatic career

He has a long experience in diplomatic service for the Holy See among these are: Madagascar and the South Indian Ocean (1990–93), Bulgaria (1993–96), Albania (1997–98), Secretariat of State (Vatican) at the Section for Relations with States (“Foreign Ministry”) of the Holy See (1999–2006), Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the UN (2006–2008).

Episcopate

Auza was appointed Titular Archbishop of Suacia on May 8, 2008, the same day he was appointed the Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti. He was consecrated as a bishop on July 3, 2008 by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone. The principal co-consecrators were Ivan Dias, the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and Jean-Louis Tauran, Cardinal President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Archbishop Auza has served in the diplomatic service of the Vatican for many years.

On July 1, 2014, Archbishop Auza was appointed Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York representing the Holy See, by Pope Francis replacing Archbishop Francis Chullikatt.

In October 2014 Archbishop Auza has called for a broad definition of the term “rule of law” that includes respect, dignity, and justice. The rule of law should be “both rationally and morally grounded upon the substantial principles of justice, including the inalienable dignity and value of every human person prior to any law or social consensus,” said Archbishop Berardito Auza, the nuncio, in a statement made during a committee meeting at the UN General Assembly. “As a consequence of the recognition of this dignity, those elements of fundamental justice such as respect for the principle of legality,” Archbishop Auza said, “the presumption of innocence and the right to due process.” Among nations, he added, the rule of law should mean “the paramount respect of human rights, equality of the rights of nations; and respect for international customary law, treaties … and other sources of international law. This definition, with its reference point in the natural law, sidesteps self-referential definitional frameworks and anchors the orientation of the rule of law within the ultimate and essential goal of all law, namely to promote and guarantee the dignity of the human person and the common good.”

In the same speech he went on to note the Vatican’s hope that “the alarming, escalating phenomenon of international terrorism, new in some of its expressions and utterly ruthless in its barbarity, be an occasion for a deeper and more urgent study on how to re-enforce the international juridical framework of a multilateral application of our common responsibility to protect people from all forms of unjust aggression.”