MANILA, Philippines – Pope Leo XIV received high-ranking European bishops at the Vatican on Friday, May 23, in one of the first private audiences of his pontificate. 

It was an eight-member delegation from the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), which is composed of the bishops’ conferences of all EU member-states. 

Archbishop Bernardito Cleopas Auza, a Filipino from the central Philippine province of Bohol, was one of those who joined the EU delegation. But the 65-year-old archbishop from the town of Talibon was not a prelate from any country in Europe.

Auza, a veteran Vatican diplomat, is the apostolic nuncio to the EU. In other words, the Filipino archbishop occupies pride of place as the Pope’s ambassador.

It was the late Pope Francis who appointed Auza as the Holy See’s envoy to the EU on March 22 — yet another sign of the growing influence of Filipino churchmen around the world, along with the likes of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.

Auza had already been the Holy See’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2014 to 2019, and the papal nuncio to Spain from 2019 until his new assignment at the EU. 

Must Read

No, Cardinal Tagle getting a titular church is not a ‘promotion’

Friday’s papal audience was Auza’s first official meeting as apostolic nuncio to the EU, the COMECE said in a statement. The apostolic nuncio joins the meetings of the COMECE standing committee, even if he is not formally a member of the commission. 

Auza — who only recently arrived in Brussels, Belgium, where the EU Commission is based — has not even warmed up in his post before Friday’s meeting with the Pope. 

In a Vatican News interview uploaded on Saturday, May 24, an amused Auza said, “I just arrived in Brussels yesterday. As a matter of fact, I have not been to nunciature, because when I arrived at the airport, I took a flight to come to Rome for this audience with the Pope.”

“It’s providential and it’s rare, even,” Auza said, referring to the timing of his meeting with the Pope at the start of his EU mission. “For me, it’s a great start and I hope it’s a blessing certainly.”

The Filipino Vatican diplomat recalled that the COMECE’s meeting with Leo lasted for around 35 minutes, and it was a “very intense” round-table discussion that allowed every member of the delegation to speak. Their topics included artificial intelligence, migration, the “demographic winter,” and the theme of war and peace. 

War and peace, he said, is “probably the most fundamental theme that the European Union is now facing, especially with a new international order, with a new American administration.” He said the EU is facing questions such as: “Has it shown unity? Has it also shown political clout in negotiations?”

Must Read

[OPINION] From Gomburza to Cardinal Tagle

Leo’s call for peace, which he emphasized in his first Urbi et Orbi speech after his election, “has really caught so much attention and interest,” he added. In particular, the possibility of the Vatican hosting negotiations between Russia and Ukraine “has certainly brought so much attention and focus on what the Holy See can do.”

Referring to the world’s conflicts, the Filipino papal nuncio said, “We believe, we hope, that the Holy See could be able to contribute, at least.” – Rappler.com