Pope taps Filipino as envoy to Australia

Pope Francis AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Pope Francis has appointed a Filipino archbishop as the new apostolic nuncio or ambassador to Australia.

Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, 67, a native of the Naga City, has been named the new apostolic nuncio to Australia, replacing Liverpool-born Archbishop Paul Gallagher, 60, who now serves as the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states.

“Archbishop Yllana brings wide and diverse experience, great faith and priestly gifts. We assure him of a warm and enthusiastic welcome upon his arrival and service here in Australia,” Archbishop Denis Hart, Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference president, said in a statement.

Prior to his new assignment, Yllana served as the apostolic nuncio to the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a post on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines website.

He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Caceres in March 1972 and has a doctorate in Civil and Canon Law.

After taking International Diplomacy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Service in Rome, he entered the diplomatic service of the Vatican and was named in 2001 the nuncio to Papua New Guinea, his first post.

Yllana had also served as the Holy See’s diplomatic representative in the Solomon Islands and Pakistan.

In December 2001, he was appointed nuncio in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and five years later, to Pakistan.

Nine years later, he was named apostolic nuncio in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Yllana speaks English, Spanish, Italian and French.

There are four other Filipinos serving as the Pope’s envoy to different countries.

Bohol-native Archbishop Bernardito Auza is the Vatican’s permanent representative to the United Nations; Archbishop Osvaldo Padilla, a Cebuano, the apostolic nuncio to Korea; and Archbishop Francisco Padilla, Osvaldo’s brother, the nuncio to Tanzania.