Aotearoa New Zealand’s new Apostolic Nuncio is Archbishop Gábor Pintér. He will also serve as Apostolic Delegate to the Pacific.
Pintér succeeds Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, who returned to Rome in March after suffering a stroke last October.
The Apostolic Nuncio is the Pope’s chief diplomatic representative – the equivalent of an ambassador.
Archbishop Pintér
Archbishop Pintér is currently the Apostolic Nuncio to Honduras.
He was born in Hungary in 1964 and ordained a Catholic priest in June 1988.
He has a doctorates in Theology and Canon Law and speaks Hungarian, Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, and Haitian Creole.
Since entering the diplomatic service at the Holy See in 1996, Pintér has served in Haiti, Bolivia, Sweden, France, the Philippines, Austria and Belarus.
He was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Honduras in November 2019. In that role he coincidentally replaced Rugambwa who had just been appointed to his Aotearoa New Zealand post.
Welcome mat out
Archbishop of Wellington Paul Martin SM, the General Secretary of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, is delighted to welcome Pintér.
“We are pleased to have a Nuncio of such experience and we look forward to working with him for the good of the Church in our country and the Pacific, and as the connection with the Holy Father” he says.
“We look forward to welcoming him when he arrives.”
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