ANKARA

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a veteran Vatican diplomat as the Holy See’s new ambassador to the US, a post considered one of the Vatican’s most significant diplomatic assignments, media reports said on Saturday.

Italian Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, 68, currently serving as the Holy See’s ambassador to the UN in New York, will replace French-born Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who is retiring at age 80 as apostolic nuncio in Washington, according to CBS News.

The appointment comes as relations between the Vatican and Washington face strains over issues including the Trump administration’s war in Iran and its aggressive immigration crackdown.

Caccia had served as the Vatican’s ambassador to Lebanon and the Philippines before being assigned to the UN in 2019.

He was ordained as a priest in Milan in 1983 and later served as an assessor in the Vatican Secretariat of State, one of the Holy See’s key administrative offices.

The new envoy will oversee a complex portfolio involving both church and state relations in the US.

The relationship with the US is considered crucial for the Holy See, in part because American Catholics are among the largest financial supporters of the Vatican.

Pope Leo, the first US-born pontiff, has emphasized unity and reconciliation within the Catholic Church.

He has also voiced concerns about ongoing conflicts and called for diplomatic solutions.

Speaking last Sunday on events in the Middle East, one day after the launch of US and Israeli strikes on Iran the pope said that weapons bring only “destruction, pain and death.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, welcomed Caccia’s appointment and offered the American Catholic hierarchy’s “warmest welcome and our prayerful support,” CBS News reported.