The Venezuelan archbishop, the Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State until now, and today appointed by Pope Leo as the new nuncio to Italy and San Marino, met with the superiors, officials, and collaborators with whom he has worked since 2018, expressing his gratitude to all and how he was enriched by the challenging experiences.
By Salvatore Cernuzio
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, until now Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, and as of today, appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Italy and the Republic of San Marino, uses the image of a train to describe his life, his work, and the many changes that have accompanied him in recent years. On Monday morning, March 30th, the Venezuelan archbishop gathered in the First Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State with the superiors, the assessor, officials, and collaborators to offer his personal farewell before moving to his new offices in Rome where he will take up the assignment entrusted to him by the Pope.
Loyalty and dedication to the Pope
To Pope Leo XIV, Archbishop Peña Parra assured his “loyalty, dedication, and prayer,” and he expressed his gratitude for this appointment, which, he said, he sees as “a renewed call to service, in communion and obedience.” Addressing his colleagues, he also said “I am sincerely happy to go to Italy to begin this new mission.” Archbishop Peña Parra was born in northwestern Venezuela, in Maracaibo, and has traveled the world during his diplomatic service to the Holy See, which began in 1993, during which he represented the Pope in the nunciatures in Pakistan and Mozambique.
On a “Frecciarossa” train
He described these years of experience and service like voyaging on a train, one that “sets out toward a final destination, but along the way makes various stops, in different places, for a determined time, with different people, before reaching its ultimate goal.” He said “sometimes it has seemed to me that I was on a Frecciarossa (Italy’s high speed train service), so fast does the life of the Church run. At a certain point the Lord has us board a carriage, entrusts us with a stretch of the journey, and asks us to take care of the passengers we encounter.” Then one arrives at a station: not the end of the journey, but “a passage,” in which “one leaves the train, hands over the next stretch to others, and changes direction.” And the train continues its course.
Archbishop Peña Parra with Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin (@Vatican Media)
Challenges and service at the Secretariat of State
In the Secretariat of State, certainly “the longest stop,” as well as “an intense, interesting phase, full of lessons and challenges,” Archbishop Peña Parra emphasized the great challenges he had to face at times over the years. First among them was the COVID-19 pandemic, which presented great challenges for our world, then the sad period with the death of the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the anguish over the illness of Pope Francis up to his death and the funeral “that moved the entire world”, as well as the “delicate phases” of the Conclave, culminating “in the joy for the election of Pope Leo XIV.”
In these years there were also what the former Substitute described as “moments of institutional suffering.” Above all, the long judicial proceedings connected to the London property affair, which “exposed the Holy See, and in particular our Secretariat of State, to unprecedented media and judicial scrutiny, demanding rigor, transparency, and a sense of responsibility from us.”
The universality of the Church
Overall, in all these circumstances, “the Section for General Affairs has been called to safeguard, coordinate, and support a silent service, often invisible, but essential to the life of the universal Church,” the Archbishop said. Expressing “fraternal gratitude” to the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, and to the superiors of the other two Sections —Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Archbishop Jan Pawłowski earlier, and Archbishop Luciano Russo afterward – he also offered a “special remembrance” to the pontifical representatives. Through them, in fact, he was able to experience firsthand “the concrete universality of the Church, its living presence in different nations and cultures…Here, within these walls, I have perhaps breathed in catholicity as never before: languages, sensitivities, and stories from every part of the world that meet and harmonize in a single communion.”
Good wishes to the new Substitute
From this followed fraternal words for Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, who will succeed him in this “very delicate” role, along with the wish “that he may live this responsibility as a time of grace.” Finally, his farewell included words spoken years ago by the Substitute at that time, Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI: “You will always find here, in those who will succeed me, what I have always wished to offer you: the highest esteem, the deepest gratitude, and the most resolute and devoted intention to work with you for the good of the world.”
A moment during Archbishop Peña Parra’s address (@Vatican Media)
