The Apostolic Nunciature to the United States, sometimes referred to as the Vatican Embassy, is the diplomatic mission of the Holy See to the United States. It is located at 3339 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Embassy Row neighborhood. Since 2016, the papal nuncio has been Cardinal Christophe Pierre.
The Secretariat of State is the oldest dicastery in the Roman Curia, the central papal governing bureaucracy of the Catholic Church. It is headed by the Cardinal Secretary of State and performs all the political and diplomatic functions of the Holy See. The Secretariat is divided into three sections: the Section for General Affairs, the Section for Relations with States, and, since 2017, the Section for Diplomatic Staff.
Leonardo Sandri is an Argentine prelate of the Catholic Church who has been a cardinal since November 2007 and vice dean of the College of Cardinals since January 2020. He was prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches from 2007 to 2022. He served in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1974 to 1991 in several overseas assignments, including as permanent observer of the Holy See before the Organization of American States from 1989 to 1991, and in Rome as Substitute for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State from 1999 to 2007.
Agostino Vallini is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been a cardinal since 2006. From 2008 to 2017 he served as Vicar General of Rome. He is also the Archpriest emeritus of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.
Martin David Holley is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, from 2016 to 2018, when he was removed by Pope Francis for alleged mismanagement of the diocese.
Pietro ParolinOMRI is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. A cardinal since February 2014, he has served as the Vatican's Secretary of State since October 2013 and a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers since July 2014. Before that, he worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See for thirty years, where his assignments included terms in Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela, as well as more than six years as Undersecretary of State for Relations with States.
Giuseppe Bertello is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal since 2012, who was President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of Vatican City State from October 2011 to October 2021. He worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1971 to 2011; became an archbishop in 1987; held appointments as Nuncio to several countries, including Rwanda, Mexico, and Italy; and was the Holy See's representative to a number of international organizations.
Carlo Maria Viganò is an Italian traditionalist Catholic archbishop who served as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States from 2011 to 2016 and as secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State from 2009 to 2011. He is known for having publicized the Vatican leaks scandal of 2012, in which he revealed financial corruption in the Vatican, and a 2018 letter accusing Pope Francis and other Catholic leaders of covering up sexual abuse allegations against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In 2024, Viganò was charged by the Vatican with schism. He was declared guilty and excommunicated.
Eugene Martin Nugent is an Irish Roman Catholic prelate who has served as Apostolic Nuncio to Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar since January 2021.
Giovanni Angelo Becciu is an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 28 June 2018. On 24 September 2020, he resigned the rights associated with the cardinalate.
Thomas Edward Gullickson is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has served as an apostolic nuncio in the Holy See diplomatic corps since 2004. Gullickson was posted to Switzerland and Liechtenstein from 2015 until his retirement at the end of 2020.
Edgar Robinson Peña Parra is a Venezuelan Roman Catholic archbishop. Pope Francis named him Substitute for the Secretariat of State on 15 August 2018, effective 15 October, making him the highest ranking Venezuelan in the Roman Curia. He joined the diplomatic corps of the Holy See in 1993, serving as Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan from 2011 to 2015 and to Mozambique from 2015 to 2018. He is the first Venezuelan to serve as an apostolic nuncio.
Santos Abril y Castelló is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church. After a career in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See, he held a number of positions in the Roman Curia and from 2011 to 2016 was Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Charles John Brown is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has been serving as an apostolic nuncio since 2012. He is currently the apostolic nuncio to the Philippines. Before entering the diplomatic service of the Holy See, Brown worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
Lorenzo Baldisseri is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops from 21 September 2013 until 15 September 2020. He was made a cardinal in 2014. He previously served as Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops after more than twenty years in the diplomatic service of the Holy See that included stints as Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, Paraguay, India, Nepal, and Brazil.
Pope Francis has created cardinals at nine consistories held at roughly annual intervals beginning in 2014, most recently on 30 September 2023. He plans to create another 20 cardinals at a consistory scheduled for 7 December 2024. The cardinals created by Francis include 142 cardinals from 71 countries, 24 of which had never been represented in the College of Cardinals. His appointments include the first Scandinavian since the Reformation, the first from Goa since an episcopal see was established there in 1533, the first from Latin America's indigenous peoples, the first from India's Dalit class, and the first active head of a religious congregation.
Luigi Bonazzi is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who works in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He has been the apostolic nuncio to Albania since December 2020. He was the apostolic nuncio to Canada from December 2013 to December 2020.
Karl-Josef Rauber was a German prelate of the Catholic Church who served as an apostolic nuncio from 1982 until his retirement in 2009. He was created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015.
Emil Paul Tscherrig is a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church who has spent his career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He became an archbishop in 1996 and has since held assignments as Apostolic Nuncio to several countries. He was most recently nuncio to Italy and San Marino when he retired in 2024.
