Vatican Secretary of State will take part in April's Summit of the Americas

March 27, 2015

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, will attend the Summit of the Americas in April.

The meeting in Panama, the 7th in a series of summits, will be the first at which the Vatican is represented. Isabel De Saint Malo, Panama’s foreign secretary, told AP: “For the first time we have a Latin American Pope, so it’s a good opportunity for him to send a message.”

The participation of Cardinal Parolin is especially significant because he is the top-ranking official at the Vatican after the Pope himself. A veteran diplomat, Cardinal Parolin also has some expertise in inter-American affairs. He served as apostolic nuncio in Venezuela during a period of acute Church-state tensions there, from 2009 to 2013. More recently he served as a conduit for talks to re-open diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba.

 

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Further information:

• Vatican Sending Diplomat to Obama Summit With Latin America (AP)