A New Substitute for the Holy See Secretary of State

The new substitute, a native of Venezuela, “will assume his new position on October 15,” announced the Holy See Press Office.

Archbishop Peña Parra was born in Maracaibo on March 6, 1960. He was ordained a priest on August 23, 1985.

He began serving in the Holy See’s diplomatic service on April 1, 1993, and acted as pontifical representative in Kenya and Yugoslavia, and at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, then served in the nunciatures of South Africa, Honduras and Mexico.

Nominated titular archbishop of Telepte on January 8, 2011, and consecrated on February 5 of the same year, he served as Apostolic Nuncio in Pakistan from 2001 to 2014, and on February 21, 2015, was entrusted with the diplomatic representation in Mozambique.

Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli recalled in the August 15, 2018 issue of Vatican Insider that Pope Francis has said he would like all apostolic nuncios to have experience in Africa.

Up until Pius XII, the role of substitute was less important than it is in our days.

Refusing to nominate, as was customary, a successor for the deceased Cardinal Luigi Maglione, who served as secretary of State from 1939 to 1944, Pope Pacelli thus gave a greater importance to the function of the substitute. The position was long held by Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI. This tendency continued under the following pontificates.

The substitute for the General Affairs of the Secretary of State is a sort of Minister of the Interior for the Church, coordinating all the offices of the Holy See and enjoying constant and direct access to the pope.

He also manages the Sovereign Pontiff’s schedule during his apostolic journeys and coordinates the activities of the nunciatures.