SW News: Archbishop Christophe Zakia El-Kassis, Titular Archbishop of Roselle, was appointed the Apostolic Nuncio to the United Arab Emirates by Pope Francis on Tuesday, January 3.

After serving as nuncio in Pakistan since November 2019, the 54-year-old archbishop from Lebanon will shift base to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates next month.

After the opening of the Nunciature in Abu Dhabi in February 2022, Archbishop El-Kassis will be the first nuncio to reside in the United Arab Emirates. According to UCA News, Archbishop Joseph Arshad, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan, expressed gratitude to Archbishop El-Kassis for his leadership of the mission in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Further, Archbishop Joseph Arshad said the transfer was a great honor for El-Kassis. He continued, "Finally, the nunciature is becoming ambassadorial, and it will boost Holy See-UAE relations and understanding."

Archbishop El-Kassis was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 24, 1968. On May 21, 1994, he was consecrated as a priest. The Archbishop holds a doctorate in both civil law and canon law. Between 2001 and 2019, he was appointed to the diplomatic service of the Apostolic Nunciatures in Indonesia, Sudan, and Turkey, as well as the section for contacts with the States of the Holy See's secretariat of state. He was named the Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan on November 24, 2019. The archbishop is fluent in Arabic, English, Italian, French, German, Indonesian, and Spanish.

While the Holy See and the United Arab Emirates did establish diplomatic relations in 2007, the nuncio was stationed in Kuwait at the time. Slovenian Monsignor Kryspin Dubiel is the charge d'affairs of the Nunciature now.