SEOUL, South Korea — The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea announced on Saturday the appointment of Archbishop Giovanni Gaspari as the 12th Apostolic Nuncio to South Korea by Pope Francis. Archbishop Gaspari, born in 1963 in Pescara, Italy, brings a wealth of international experience to his new role in Seoul.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Ordained as a priest in 1987, Archbishop Gaspari is a graduate of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy (2001) and has served in various capacities within the Apostolic Nunciatures of Iran, Albania, Mexico, and Lithuania. He has also worked in the Secretariat of State of the Holy See's Foreign Ministry. Since 2020, Gaspari has been the Apostolic Nuncio to Angola and Sao Tome and Principe in Africa. The Holy See has been dispatching Apostolic Nuncios to South Korea since 1947, predating the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between the two entities.