(The Pillar. EDGAR BELTRÁN).
The Vatican announced May 14 the appointment of Archbishop Alberto Ortega Martín as the new apostolic nuncio to Venezuela. Archbishop Ortega Martín has been a serving papal ambassador for a decade, seeing service first in Iraq and Jordan, then in Chile, before his new appointment this month. But despite already serving in war zones and countries in the midst of protracted abuse scandals, Ortega Martín may now face perhaps the hardest challenge of his Vatican diplomatic career.
Alberto Ortega Martín was born in Madrid in 1962, and ordained a priest of the Madrid archdiocese in 1990. Long associated with the Communion and Liberation movement, he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy — the training school for the Vatican’s diplomatic corps — in 1993 to begin his diplomatic career. In 1997, the priest received his first foreign assignment, as advisor to the nunciature in Nicaragua, before going on to serve as secretary in the nunciatures of South Africa and Lebanon. In 2004 he returned to the Secretariat of State’s diplomatic offices in Rome, and since 2007 he has headed the Vatican’s North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula desks within the Section for Relations with States, including working on negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ortega succeeds Aldo Giordano, nuncio in Venezuela from 2013 to 2021, who died of Covid-19 a few months after starting to work as nuncio to the European Union. Before Giordano, the apostolic nuncio to Venezuela was now-Cardinal Pietro Parolin, currently the Vatican Secretary of State. In 1997, the priest received his first foreign assignment, as advisor to the nunciature in Nicaragua, before going on to serve as secretary in the nunciatures of South Africa and Lebanon. In 2004 he returned to the Secretariat of State’s diplomatic offices in Rome, and since 2007 he has headed the Vatican’s North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula desks within the Section for Relations with States, including working on negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ortega succeeds Aldo Giordano, nuncio in Venezuela from 2013 to 2021, who died of Covid-19 a few months after starting to work as nuncio to the European Union. Before Giordano, the apostolic nuncio to Venezuela was now-Cardinal Pietro Parolin, currently the Vatican Secretary of State.