On 1 November, Pope Francis appointed the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi (who will be raised to the rank of cardinal in the next consistory on 28 November), as his Special Delegate to the Order of Malta.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi succeeds Cardinal Angelo Becciu who held the office from February 2017 to October 2020.

One of Archbishop Silvano Tomasi’s main functions at present is to inform the Order of Malta of the Pope’s position on the reform of the Order’s Constitutional Charter and Code.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi has also been instructed by the Pope to receive the oath of the person who will be elected Grand Master of the Order of Malta, whose election is scheduled for 8 November.

“I want to thank Pope Francis for having appointed as his interlocutor with the Order of Malta a person such as Cardinal-elected Silvano Tomasi, whose experience and knowledge of the Order can only facilitate the reform process underway,” said the Lieutenant ad interim H.E. Fra’ Ruy Gonçalo do Valle Peixoto de Villas-Boas.

Silvano Tomasi was born in 1940 in Casoni di Mussolente, province of Vicenza, and after studying theology, social sciences and sociology in the United States he was ordained priest on 31 May 1965.

In 1989 he was appointed Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.

In 1966 Pope John Paul II named him Apostolic Nuncio to Ethiopia, Eritrea and later to Djibouti.

After becoming the titular Archbishop of Asolo in Venice, H.E. Silvano Tomasi served as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN and Specialized Agencies in Geneva, and as Permanent Observer to the World Trade Organisation until 2016.

In 2011, he was also appointed the Holy See’s representative to the International Organization for Migration.

Since 2007, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi has been Grand Cross Conventual Chaplain ‘ad honorem’ of the Order of Malta.