ROME: Pope Leo XIV on Saturday named a veteran Vatican diplomat as his new ambassador to the United States to manage one of the Holy See's most important bilateral relationships, which has come under strain over the Trump administration's war in Iran and immigration crackdown.
Italian Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, 68, is currently the Holy See's ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He replaces French-born Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who at age 80 is retiring as apostolic nuncio in Washington.
Caccia served as the Holy See's ambassador to Lebanon and the Philippines before being posted to the UN in 2019. Ordained a priest in Milan in 1983, Caccia later served as “assessor” in the Vatican secretariat of state, a key administrative post in the Holy See's most important office.
He inherits a complicated and consequential dossier on both the US church and state fronts.
Pierre's tenure as ambassador was notable for clear signs of friction between the leadership of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which tends to skew conservative, and the more progressive priorities of Pope Francis' pontificate.
The relationship with the US and its church is crucial for the Holy See, not least because US Catholics are the most generous donors to the Holy See's coffers.
Leo, history's first US-born pope, is well aware of the dynamic, having served as Francis's point man on bishop nominations for two years before his 2025 election. Leo has emphasised a message of pacification and unity in the church.
The first Trump administration clashed with Francis, especially on migration, and that tension has continued in Leo's pontificate and the second Trump term. Leo has repeatedly insisted that the Trump administration respect the human dignity of migrants, while acknowledging its right to its borders.
More recently, Leo has expressed “profound concern” about the US-Israeli war in Iran and urged both sides to “stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”
In comments last Sunday, Leo called for the resumption of diplomacy. Weapons, he said, only sow “destruction, pain and death.”
In a major foreign policy speech earlier this year, Leo also made clear he opposed the US's aggressive use of military power, in an apparent reference to Washington's incursion into Venezuela and threats to take Greenland. He denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide and “completely undermine” peace and the post-World War II international legal order.
The Holy See has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality, though Leo has spoken out strongly against the humanitarian toll of Israel's military action in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The current president of the US conference, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, welcomed Caccia's appointment and offered the US hierarchy's “warmest welcome and our prayerful support.”