Washington Life - October 2015 02 | Page 47


DIRECTORY
BANGLADESH
AMBASSADOR: Mohammad

Ziauddin
SPOUSE: Yasmeen Ziauddin
EMBASSY: 3510 International
Dr. NW, 20008
TELEPHONE: [phone]
RESIDENCE: 4 Highboro Court,
Bethesda, MD 20817

THEPOPE’SMANINWASHINGTON
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
BY ROLAND FLAMINI

BARBADOS
AMBASSADOR: John

Ernest Beale
Leila Mol Beale
EMBASSY: 2144 Wyoming Ave. NW, 20008
TELEPHONE: [phone]
SPOUSE:

RESIDENCE:

BELARUS
Pavel Shidlovsky
Irina Shidlovsky,
EMBASSY: 1619 New Hampshire
Ave. NW, 20009
TELEPHONE: [phone]
RESIDENCE: 12 Farmington Court,
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES:
SPOUSE:

BELGIUM
AMBASSADOR: Johan

Verbeke
Catherine Antoine Dubois
EMBASSY: 3330 Garfield St. NW, 20008
TELEPHONE: [phone]
RESIDENCE: 2300 Foxhall Rd. NW, 20007
SPOUSE:

BELIZE
AMBASSADOR: Patrick

Andrews
Massachusetts
Ave. NW, 20008
TELEPHONE: [phone]
RESIDENCE: 1686 Chain Bridge
Rd., McLean, VA 22101
EMBASSY: 2535

BENIN
AMBASSADOR: Omar

Arouna
Yolanda Chanterra Richardson
EMBASSY: 2124 Kalorama Rd. NW, 20008
TELEPHONE: [phone]
RESIDENCE: 2201 Sorrel Ave.,
Potomac, MD 20854
SPOUSE:

BOLIVIA
Gen
Freddy Bersatti Tudela
SPOUSE: Rosayda Bersatti
EMBASSY: 3014 Massachusetts
Ave. NW, 2008
TELEPHONE: [phone]
RESIDENCE: 3012 Massachusetts
Ave. NW, 20008
CHIEF OF MISSION:

BOSNIAANDHERZEGOVINA
CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES: Adnan

Hadrovic
E St. NW, 20037
TELEPHONE: [phone]
EMBASSY: 2109

WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

In robes from L to R: Archbishop
Carlo Maria Vigano, Cardinal
Donald Wuerl and Pope Francis.
Photo by Tony Powell.

T

he diplomat with the key role in organizing
Pope Francis’ trip to the United States last
month was a senior Vatican churchman
who was said to have resisted being sent to
Washington in the first place. He is Archbishop
Carlo Maria Viganò, papal nuncio (ambassador)
to the United States and at the same time the
Vatican’s liaison with the American bishops. As
such it was his task to coordinate the pope’s
complicated itinerary with the White House,
the U.S. Congress, and the American episcopate,
and to host the pontiff’s Washington stay at the
apostolic nunciature, his official residence on
Massachusetts Avenue.
A seasoned member of the diplomatic corps
of what in international language is called the
Holy See, Italian-born, 74-year-old Viganò had
previously served in Britain, Iraq and Nigeria,
but in 2009 was appointed secretary general
of the Vatican Governorate, a department that
administers Vatican City and handles much of
its operational budget. Viganò introduced a
series of structural reforms to eliminate waste
and established accountability for cost overruns,
which helped turn a $10.5 million deficit into a
$44 million surplus in one year. But two years
into Viganò’s tenure, Pope Benedict XVI
unexpectedly appointed him (in Viganò’s view)
as Holy See’s fifth nuncio in Washington since
diplomatic relations were re-established, after a
long break, in 1984.
Letters leaked to the press revealed that
he tried to reverse the appointment by writing
directly to Pope Benedict XVI.“My transfer
at this moment would provoke confusion
and discouragement for those who thought
it was possible to clean up so many situations
of corruption and abuse of office,” he told
the pope; and he sent a similar protest to the
cardinal secretary of state. The correspondence
was published in the Italian papers, but the pope

| O C T O B E R      | washingtonlife.com

apparently took
no action, and in
2012 Archbishop
Viganò came to
Washington.
In an interview
shortly after his
arrival Viganò made
what appeared to
be an attempt to
Archibishop Carlo Maria Viganò.
Photo courtesy Aplostolic
correct the initial
Nunciature of the Holy See.
impression that he
was in Washington
under protest. Being nuncio in the U.S, he said,
was an “important, vast and delicate” assignment
and “a call to know this peopl e, this country, and
come to love them.”
His open opposition to the Obama
administration on such controversial issues as
birth control and same sex marriage is unusual
for a foreign diplomat but reflects the sometimes
conflicting dual nature of his post. He has
spoken at Right to Life rallies in support of his
other constituency, the American episcopate
— including one recent appearance on the steps
of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Speaking at a conference on religious freedom
at Notre Dame University, he called Obamacare
“a great threat to the vitality of Catholicism in the
United States” because in the eyes of the church
hierarchy the program imposes the availability of
birth control on Catholic institutions. He has said
same sex marriage undermines family values and
is “morally unacceptable.”
But many who know him say he has a cheerful
personality, with a twinkle in his eye and a sense
of humor. At the Notre Dame conference,
following a rather lengthy introduction by the
chairman, he began his speech with the words,
“You know more about my life than what I
remember myself.”

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