The Nunciature in Nigeria has announced that Pope Francis has appointed a new Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria.
His Excellency Most Reverend Michael Francis Crotty will succeed His Excellency Most Reverend Antonio Guido Filipazzi, who has been reassigned as the Apostolic Nuncio to Poland.
According to a press release issued by the Charge d’Affaires to the Nunciature, Msgr Carlo Donati, the appointment of Most Reverend Michael Francis Crotty will take effect on July 16, 2024.
The new Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Michael F. Crotty hails from Ireland and is the Titular Archbishop of Lindisfarne.
Until his appointment to Nigeria, he was the Apostolic Nuncio to Burkina Faso and Niger. Born in I970, he was ordained to the Catholic Priesthood in 1994.
He attended the Pontifical Irish College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he gained a licentiate degree in ecclesiastical history, a licentiate in Canon Law, and a doctorate in ecclesiastical history.
He entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1997. From 2001 he has had appointments as the secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature to Kenya, where in the same role he served as the deputy head of mission of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).
In 2004, he was appointed as the secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature to Canada, and in 2007, he became the first secretary of the Apostolic Nunciatures to Iraq and Jordan.
In 2009 he was appointed to the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and in 2017 he was made the first counsellor of the Apostolic Nunciature to Spain.
With his appointment as the Titular Archbishop of Lindisfarne and the Apostolic Nuncio to Burkina Faso on February 1, 2020, he was ordained a bishop on 15 August 2020. On April 25 of the same year, his duty as Apostolic Nuncio was extended to Niger Republic, posts which he held before his most recent appointment to Nigeria.
According to the statement, the Catholic Church in Nigeria welcomes the new Apostolic Nuncio and wishes him the best in his duty as the Holy Father’s representative in the country.
