Pope names Archbishop Buendia as New Nuncio to Great Britain

Holy Father Pope Francis has named Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia of Spain the new apostolic nuncio to Great Britain. He succeeds Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, who was appointed as the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches last November.

Welcoming the appointment, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales said, "On behalf of our Bishops' Conference, I assure him not only of our warm welcome but also of our full cooperation when he takes up these new responsibilities."

Archbishop Maury Buendía was born in Madrid on November 19, 1955. Before being ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese in June 1980, he completed his studies in philosophy and theology at the Conciliar Seminary of Madrid. In July 1987, after completing a two-year course of study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, he joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See.

In 2004 he was appointed to the Section for Relations with States within the Secretariat of State of the Holy See after serving in diplomatic missions in several nations. He was then made titular Archbishop of Italia in 2008. The prelate was also appointed as the Apostolic Nuncio to Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan the same year.

He was named Apostolic Nuncio to Romania in December 2015, and in 2016, he vowed as nuncio to the Republic of Moldova, respectively.