The Apostolic Nunciature to New Zealand is an ecclesiastical office of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is a diplomatic post of the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

, whose representative is called the

Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international ...

with the rank of an ambassador. The Holy See represented its interests in the region through its Delegation to Australia established on 15 April 1914 and renamed the Delegation to Australia, New Zealand and Oceania on 8 June 1947. On 1 November 1968, that was divided into two delegations: the Delegation to Australia and Papua New Guinea and the Delegation to New Zealand and Pacific Islands. The Holy See established its Nunciature to New Zealand on 20 June 1973.

List of papal representatives

;Apostolic Delegates to Australia ;with responsibility for New Zealand * Bonaventura Cerretti (10 May 1914 – 6 May 1917) * Bartolomeo Cattaneo (16 May 1917 - January 1933) * Filippo Bernardini (13 March 1933 – 10 October 1935) *

Giovanni Panico Giovanni Panico (12 April 1895 – 7 July 1962) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as nuncio to several countries during his career, and was created a cardinal in 1962. Life Early life Panico was born in Tricase, in t ...

(17 October 1935 – 28 September 1948) ;Apostolic Delegates to Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania *

Paolo Marella Paolo Marella (25 January 1895 – 15 October 1984) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served in the Roman Curia following a career as a delegate of the Holy See, and was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope John XXII ...

(27 October 1948 – 15 April 1953) *

Romolo Carboni Romolo Carboni (9 May 1911 – 2 September 1999) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who devoted his entire career to the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He became an archbishop in 1953 and served as an Apostolic Nuncio from 1953 to ...

(28 September 1953 – 2 September 1959) * Maximilien de Fürstenberg (21 November 1959 – 28 April 1962) *

Domenico Enrici Domenico Enrici (9 April 1909 – 3 December 1997) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who spent his career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. Biography Domenico Enrici was born on 9 April 1909 in Cervasca, Province of Cuneo, It ...

(1 October 1962 – 1 November 1968) ;Apostolic Delegate to New Zealand and Pacific Islands *

Raymond Philip Etteldorf Raymond Philip Etteldorf (August 18, 1911 – March 15, 1986) was an Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Etteldorf was born in the Winneshiek County, Iowa community of Ossian. His grandfather Philipp Etteldorf (1827-1916) was a German i ...

(21 December 1968 - 21 June 1974) ;Apostolic Pro-Nuncio *

Angelo Acerbi Angelo Acerbi (born 23 September 1925) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, who has been an archbishop since 1974 and served in the diplomatic service of the Holy See as the Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand, the Netherlands, Colombia, H ...

(22 June 1974 - 14 August 1979) *

Antonio Magnoni Antonio Magnoni (13 June 1919 – 18 March 2007) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who spent forty years of his fifty-year career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, interrupted for a ten-year posting in the Roman Curia. He beca ...

(24 April 1980 - 22 July 1989) *

Thomas Anthony White Thomas A. White (12 August 1931 – 7 May 2017) was an archbishop of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, serving in Africa, China, Latin America, and the Pacific region. He once described his career as "gyp ...

(14 October 1989 - 27 April 1996) ;Apostolic Nuncio *

Patrick Coveney Patrick Coveney (29 July 1934 – 22 October 2022) was an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1966 to 2009. He became an archbishop in 1985 and fulfilled several assignments as Aposto ...

(27 April 1996 - 25 January 2005) *

Charles Daniel Balvo Charles Daniel Balvo (born June 29, 1951) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving in diplomatic service of the Holy See since 1987. His current posting is as apostolic nuncio to Australia. He has been an apostoli ...

(1 April 2005 - 17 January 2013) *

Martin Krebs Martin Krebs (born 2 November 1956) is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who has worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See since 1991. He has been an archbishop since 2008 when he received the first of several postings as a papal ...

(8 May 2013 - 16 June 2018) *

Novatus Rugambwa Novatus Rugambwa (born 8 October 1957) is a Tanzanian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church and diplomat of the Holy See. Biography Novatus Rugambwa was born on 8 October 1957, in Bukoba, Tanzania, and was ordained a priest on 6 July 1986, for t ...

(29 March 2019 – present)

References

{{Subject bar , portal1= Catholicism , portal2= New Zealand