Pope Francis has just appointed Archbishop Mitja Leskovar as the new Apostolic Nuncio to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, announced this Tuesday by the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo (CENCO).

Archbishop Mitja Leskovar is replacing Archbishop Ettore Balestrero in this position, who has been serving since last year as the Permanent Observer of the Vatican to the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the International Organization for Migration.

Returning to Archbishop Mitja Leskovar, he is of Slovenian origin. Born on January 3, 1970, he was ordained a priest on June 29, 1995, for the diocese of Ljubljana (capital of Slovenia). He joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See on July 1, 2001.

He has served consecutively in the Apostolic Nunciature in Bangladesh, in the general affairs section of the Secretariat of State, and in the pontifical diplomatic representations in Germany and India. He was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq in May 2020 and titular Archbishop of Benevento.

Regarding Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, after five years in the DRC as an apostolic nuncio, he said his farewell to the Church and to the Congolese people during a ceremony on Thursday, July 6, in the gardens of the apostolic nunciature in Kinshasa.

Boni Tsala