Vatican opens its first embassy in Abu Dhabi
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra inaugurated an apostolic nunciature in Abu Dhabi, UAE on Feb. 4, 2022. / Photos courtesy of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia.
Rome Newsroom, Feb 4, 2022 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The Vatican opened its first embassy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday.
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the Substitute (Sostituto) of the Vatican Secretariat of State, traveled to Abu Dhabi to inaugurate the diplomatic post on the Arabian Peninsula.
“The presence of this new apostolic nunciature is a further sign of the Holy Father’s solicitude and concern for all the people in this land,” Peña Parra said at the opening on Feb. 4.
“It is Pope Francis’ sincere desire that this edifice will assist the papal representative in carrying out his mission to the United Arab Emirates and to the local Catholic community,” he said.
An apostolic nunciature is a diplomatic mission of the Holy See. It is led by a nuncio, who is a papal legate accredited to the civil government.
“The meaning of the opening of a nunciature in this country is very simple: that the Holy Father will have a house here. He will have a house, and at the same time it will be the diplomatic representation of the Holy See in Abu Dhabi,” Peña Parra said in an interview during his trip.
“And I think that this has a spiritual significance, a spiritual meaning, that is the closeness of the Holy Father to the country, and at the same time it is an upgrade in the relations between the two states, the Holy See and this country.”
Noura Al Kaabi, the UAE’s culture minister, and Omar Ghobash, the assistant minister for culture and public diplomacy, attended the nunciature’s opening, along with other officials of the UAE government.
Peña Parra expressed gratitude to UAE’s foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and to the civil authorities for making the nunciature opening possible.
Msgr. Yoannis Gaid, the pope’s former personal secretary, also traveled to the UAE with Peña Parra. Gaid is a member of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity. Bishop Paul Hinder, the Apostolic Vicar for Southern Arabia, was also present.
The Vatican established diplomatic relations with the UAE in 2007. The former apostolic nunciature was non-residential and based in Kuwait.
There have been three apostolic nuncios to the UAE since 2007. Most recently Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla served as the nuncio from 2016 to 2020.