Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia el-Kassis as the Holy See’s new permanent observer to the United Nations in New York. The announcement was made by the Holy See Press Office on July 25, 2026.
Archbishop el-Kassis comes to the UN post from his current roles as apostolic nuncio to the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, and apostolic delegate to the Arabian Peninsula. He has served in the UAE since January 3, 2023, and took on the Yemen and Arabian Peninsula appointments on July 22, 2024. Before that he was nuncio to Pakistan from November 24, 2018.
He succeeds Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, who held the UN position from 2019 until Pope Leo named him papal nuncio to the United States on March 7.
Born in Beirut on August 24, 1968, Archbishop el-Kassis was ordained a priest for the Maronite Archeparchy of Beirut on May 21, 1994. He holds doctorates in both civil law and canon law. He entered the Vatican diplomatic service on June 19, 2000, with assignments in Indonesia, Sudan, and Turkey, as well as in the Section for Relations with States at the Secretariat of State in Rome. He was ordained an archbishop in Rome on January 19, 2019, with Cardinal Pietro Parolin as principal consecrator.
A nuncio serves as both the Holy See’s ambassador to a government and its liaison to the local Catholic Church, maintaining ties between bishops and Rome. Archbishop el-Kassis speaks eight languages: Lebanese, Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Indonesian.
The Holy See has held permanent observer state status at the United Nations since April 6, 1964. That status allows it to take part in the work of the UN General Assembly and other UN bodies.