New Vatican Secretary of State

The Vatican's new secretary of state will be Archbishop Pietro Parolin. He was born in northern Italy, in the region of Veneto, 58 years ago. Archbishop Parolin studied Canon Law at Rome's Gregorian University, and has been active in the Vatican's diplomatic corps since 1986.

His career started off with the nunciatures in Nigeria and Mexico. He returned to Rome and worked from 2002 to 2009 with the Secretariat of State, as the undersecretary for relations with states. In 2009, Benedict XVI ordained him as archbishop and named him nuncio to Venezuela.

With Pope Francis appointing him as the Vatican's Secretary of State, he now becomes the Pope's right hand man in helping with the daunting task of reforming the Roman Curia.

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