A Remarkable Nomination of the New Apostolic Nuncio to Korea

Archbishop Alfred Xuereb has held several positions in the Roman Curia. After working first in the Holy See Secretariat of State and then at the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, he became Pope Benedict XVI’s second private secretary in 2007. After Pope Francis was elected, he became his first secretary – a fact rare enough to be worth mentioning – before becoming secretary general of the Secretariat for the Economy by Cardinal George Pell’s side.

As secretary for Benedict XVI and then for Francis, he was a privileged witness of Joseph Ratzinger’s resignation and the transition between the two pontificates. On February 9, 2018, Mgr. Xuereb confided to Vatican News his personal memories just after the public announcement of this resignation to the Consistory on February 11, 2013:

I cried the whole time, and also during lunch; he (Benedict XVI) understood that I was deeply moved, and I asked him, ‘Holy Father, were you tranquil, serene?’ And he answered me firmly, ‘Yes,’ because he had already pondered it in meditation and prayer. He was peaceful precisely because he was sure that he had weighed the matter well in peace and in God’s will.

Several sensitive matters await the Maltese prelate at his new post: Mongolia, which depends on the Korean nunciature, is a missionary land of the old Soviet empire, and the Church has only been there for 25 years.

What is more, in the Korean peninsula, the Church is focused on reconciliation between the North and South Korea and on the alarming situation of the Catholics under the Communist regime of Kim Jong-un in North Korea - matters that are sure to occupy the full attention of the former diplomat of the Secretariat of State.