Welcome to the new Apostolic Nuncio to Israel and Cyprus, Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine

Print Mail Pdf

Nunzio In Jerusalem, Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana replaces Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, appointed Apostolic Nuncio to India.

The members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre address a prayer to heaven for Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, who was appointed by Pope Francis – on June 3 – Apostolic Nuncio to Israel and Cyprus, as well as Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine.

 

Previously, Archbishop Yllana, 73, was Nuncio to Australia, after having served in the papal diplomatic service on four continents. This summer, he takes up his new post in a delicate context, marked by the recent upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence and the current political recomposition in Israel. Born 6 February 1948, in Naga City, Philippines, he was ordained a priest 19 March 1972. After graduating in canon and civil law from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, and completing his studies at the Ecclesiastical Academy, in 1984 he entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See, working successively in the pontifical delegations in Ghana, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Lebanon, Hungary, and Taiwan.

In December 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Papua New Guinea and consecrated him bishop on 6 January 2002 in St. Peter’s Basilica. Later, the Pope entrusted him with the nunciature of the Solomon Islands, also in the Pacific. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI sent him as Nuncio to Pakistan, after which he went to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010. Since February 2015, he has occupied the post of ambassador of the Holy See in Australia.

Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana speaks English, Spanish, Italian and French. With his new mandate, he replaces in Jerusalem Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, 68, appointed in March as Apostolic Nuncio to India, whom the Order of the Holy Sepulchre wishes to thank very sincerely for his valuable service in the Holy Land.

 

(July 2021)