{"id":16123,"date":"2026-03-20T16:42:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/leo-xiv-appoints-bishop-cona-as-the-new-nuncio-to-syria\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T16:42:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:42:51","slug":"leo-xiv-appoints-bishop-cona-as-the-new-nuncio-to-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/en\/leo-xiv-appoints-bishop-cona-as-the-new-nuncio-to-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo XIV Appoints Bishop Cona as the New Nuncio to Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>On March 19, the Pope appointed Bishop Luigi Roberto Cona as Apostolic Nuncio to Damascus. The Holy See\u2019s new representative in Syria had previously served in El Salvador. He succeeds Cardinal Mario Zenari, who held that position for seventeen years, until last February.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"article__text\">The Holy See will henceforth be represented before the Syrian transitional authorities by Archbishop Luigi Roberto Cona, who has served in the Vatican\u2019s diplomatic corps since 2003. Born in 1965, this Italian national, titular archbishop of Sala Consilina, also served as assessor for general affairs at the Secretariat of State from 2019 to 2022. Previously, he served at several nunciatures in Panama, Portugal, Cameroon, Morocco, Jordan, Turkey, and Italy. Since 2022, he has been stationed in El Salvador.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With his official appointment on March 19 by Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Cona succeeds Cardinal Mario Zenari, who held this position throughout the 13-year civil war that tore Syria apart. Pope Francis had wanted the future cardinal to remain in place despite the fighting and bombings, as a sign of stability for a population and Christian communities suffering from combat, terrorism, poverty, international sanctions, and earthquakes. Cardinal Zenari, who turned 75 in 2021\u2014an age that typically signals retirement\u2014remained in Damascus until February of this year, well past the age of 80. He thus witnessed the entire period of the civil war, the fall of Bashar al-Assad, and the establishment of a transitional government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bishop Cona will thus be tasked with supporting Catholic communities that have been severely shaken by thirteen years of fighting, massacres, and mass exodus. In addition to maintaining ties with the new authorities\u2014dominated by former jihadists\u2014he will need to assist and strengthen the Churches still present, particularly in the Aleppo region, and work toward the return of Christians who have fled over the past fifteen years and found refuge either in neighboring countries or in Western nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Source: Vatican News<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 19, the Pope appointed Bishop Luigi Roberto Cona as Apostolic Nuncio to Damascus. The Holy See\u2019s new representative in Syria had previously served in El Salvador. He succeeds Cardinal Mario Zenari, who held that position for seventeen years, until last February. The Holy See will henceforth be represented before the Syrian transitional authorities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"thematique":[],"class_list":["post-16123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leo XIV Appoints Bishop Cona as the New Nuncio to Syria - \u0152uvre d&#039;orient<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oeuvre-orient.fr\/leon-xiv-nomme-mgr-cona-nouveau-nonce-en-syrie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leo XIV Appoints Bishop Cona as the New Nuncio to Syria - \u0152uvre d&#039;orient\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On March 19, the Pope appointed Bishop Luigi Roberto Cona as Apostolic Nuncio to Damascus. 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