Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig

Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig, the first non-Italian to serve as Apostolic Nuncio to Italy and San Marino, has died at the age of 79. The Swiss diplomat served the Holy See across four continents during a diplomatic career spanning almost five decades and later took part in the 2025 conclave as a cardinal elector Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig, the former Apostolic Nuncio to Italy and San Marino and the first non-Italian to hold the post, has died at the age of 79. His death on 12 May was confirmed by multiple Vatican sources to AdVaticanum and reported by the Italian outlet Silere Non Possum . No cause of death has yet been announced. Born in Unterems, Switzerland, on 3 February 1947, Tscherrig was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Sion on 11 April 1974. He later earned a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome before entering the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1978. Over the following decades, he served in apostolic nunciatures across the world, including in Uganda, South Korea, Mongolia and Bangladesh, while also working in the Secretariat of State during the pontificate of Pope St John Paul II. In 1996, Pope St John Paul II appointed him titular archbishop of Voli and Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then Secretary of State, presided at his episcopal consecration in Rome on 27 June that year. Tscherrig later represented the Holy See across the Caribbean, serving as nuncio to Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Bahamas, before receiving further appointments to Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 2004, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to South Korea and Mongolia by Pope St John Paul II, before Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI named him nuncio to the Nordic countries in 2008, with responsibility for Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway. He was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina on 5 January 2012. Following the election of Pope Francis in March 2013, Tscherrig revealed that the newly elected pontiff had telephoned him personally on the night of the conclave to ask that Argentine bishops and faithful not travel to Rome for the inauguration Mass. According to Tscherrig, Pope Francis said they should instead “give to the poor what they would have spent on the journey”. In September 2017, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Italy and San Marino, making him the first non-Italian diplomat ever chosen for the role, a position traditionally reserved for Italians because of its importance in relations between the Holy See and the Italian episcopate. Francis later elevated him to the College of Cardinals during the consistory of 30 September 2023, assigning him the deaconry of San Giuseppe in Via Trionfale. At the time of his death, Cardinal Tscherrig was a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Dicastery for Bishops, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and the Dicastery for Evangelisation. He also served on the Commission of Cardinals for the Supervision of the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank. He retired as nuncio to Italy and San Marino in March 2024 and later participated as a cardinal elector in the 2025 conclave. Image credit: By Pufui PcPifpef – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110190296