Reference style The Most Reverend Religious style Archbishop Name Giorgio Lingua | Spoken style Your Excellency Posthumous style not applicable | |
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Giorgio Lingua (born 23 March 1960) is, as of his Tuesday, 17 March 2015 appointment by Pope Francis, the Apostolic Nuncio-designate to Cuba; he is the outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq and Jordan. He was appointed to that post by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on 4 September 2010.
He was born in Fossano, in the province of Cuneo, Italy in 1960. He was ordained on 10 November 1984, he graduated with a doctorate in canon law. He was called to enter the diplomatic service of the Holy See on 1 July 1992. He worked in the papal representations in Cote d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) and the United States of America, and in the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State as well as in the Apostolic Nunciature in Italy and in Serbia. He was working as a nunciature counsellor at the Nunciature in Serbia prior to his appointment as the Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq and Jordan on 4 September 2010. At the same time he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Tuscania by Pope Benedict. He also knows French, Spanish and English. His episcopal consecration took place on 9 October 2010.
In light of the advance of ISIS and the response of the US military, Vatican Radio asked Archbishop Lingua, about the US airstrikes, “This is something that had to be done, otherwise [the Islamic State] could not be stopped,” the archbishop said. “But, we should wonder why we have arrived at this point: was it not a lack of intelligence? Were we not able to understand what was going on? And then: who gave these [Islamic State fighters] such sophisticated weapons?”
On Tuesday, 17 March 2015 he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Cuba by Pope Francis.
