POPE LEO XIV APPOINTS A NEW NUNCIO FOR GERMANY—AND I WOULD SAY IT TELLS US A LOT ABOUT POPE LEO’S DESIRE FOR ORTHODOX SYNODALITY!!! THERE IS AN IMPLICIT RECOGNITION THAT THE GERMAN SYNODAL WAY HAS LOST ITS WAY AND IS IN POST-CATHOLIC SCHISM!

 I copy this from the English version of Sileri non possum:

Vatican City - On 9 April, Pope Leo XIV appointed Archbishop Hubertus Matheus Maria van Megen as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Germany. At the same time, the Holy See Press Office announced that it had accepted the resignation of Monsignor Nikola Eterović, who is leaving the post on reaching the age limit after more than twelve years of service in the Federal Republic of Germany. Van Megen, Titular Archbishop of Novaliciana, had until now been serving as Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya.

This appointment carries particular weight because it also offers an indication of the direction that Pope Leo XIV appears to want to give to relations with the Church in Germany, especially on the issue of the Synodal Path.

Who is the new Nuncio?

Van Megen was born on 4 October 1961 in the Netherlands and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Roermond on 13 June 1987. Having entered the Vatican diplomatic service in 1994, he built up extensive experience in complex ecclesial and political settings. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Sudan and, a few months later, also to Eritrea. In 2019 he was transferred to Kenya; in the same year he was also given responsibility for South Sudan and appointed Permanent Observer of the Holy See to UNEP and UN-Habitat. In May 2024, a resident nuncio was then appointed for South Sudan, thus bringing his mandate on that front to an end as well.

The profile now arriving in Berlin is that of a diplomat who in recent years has worked above all in East Africa, dealing with wars, institutional transitions and international bodies.

Some public positions

In May 2024, during a homily in Kenya, Van Megen had expressed a severe assessment of the condition of Western Europe and its secularised drift. In that context, he pointed to abortion, euthanasia and gender theory as signs of a society that has lost its inner compass, adding that the Church in Europe appears weakened, while the African Church shows greater vigour. Those words are now inevitably being read in the light of his transfer to Germany.


On the German side, the first official reaction came from the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Monsignor Heiner Wilmer. In his message of welcome to the new nuncio, Wilmer spoke of the desire to “continue the bridges and mutual trust between Rome and our local Church”, assuring support for the work awaiting the Dutch archbishop. In the same statement, he thanked Eterović, describing him for the bishops as a point of reference marked by continuity and recalling his role in making the Apostolic Nunciature a place of encounter. Wilmer also acknowledged the critical distance that Eterović had maintained with regard to the German Synodal Path, while stressing that the outgoing nuncio had accompanied that process through his personal presence.

fr.B.M.
Silere non possum