Vatican replaces envoy to Cuba, likely over negative views

The Vatican has quietly removed its Papal nuncio in Cuba, Msgr. Bruno Musaró, and replaced him with the current nuncio for Iraq and Jordan, Archbishop Giorgio Lingua (photo on top), the Holy See announced today (March 17).

Musaró, 66, was reassigned as nuncio to Egypt. On Aug. 24, 2014, he caused a diplomatic incident when, while saying Mass in the Italian town of Vignacastrisi, he made critical comments about the government of Cuba, where he had served for three years.

Among other things, Musaró was quoted as saying that the Cuban people are “prisoners of the Cuban dictatorship” and that they “are dying of hunger.” He said he would like to return to Cuba “after the socialist regime has definitively disappeared.”

Understandably, his comments were not appreciated by the Cuban government, which presumably complained to the Vatican. Last month, the Vatican reassigned him to Cairo.

According to the Vatican press office, Msgr. Giorgio Lingua, 55, was ordained a priest in 1984 and entered the Vatican’s diplomatic corps in 1992. He has worked in Papal offices in Ivory Coast, the United States, Italy and Serbia.

In September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him nuncio to Iraq and Jordan and elevated him to the rank of archbishop.

In the Holy See, Lingua is described as a man with “proverbial discretion, great preparation and balance.” In the diplomatic corps, he was responsible for Latin American and Caribbean affairs, so he speaks Spanish fluently and is well versed in the situation in this hemisphere.

Previous Papal envoys to Cuba now hold high posts in the Vatican, such as Giovanni Angelo Becciu, acting Secretary of State, and Cardinal Beniamino Stella, the current Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Havana. They have never been interrupted.