Pope Francis appoints an American as Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary

Pope Francis has appointed Michael Wallace Banach, the titular archbishop of Memphis, US, as the apostolic nuncio of Hungary, the Hungarian Bishops’ conference said on Tuesday.

Banach was born in Worcester, Mass., in 1962, and ordained as a priest in 1988. He has been working as a diplomat for the Holy See since 1994, and served as an observer at the UN, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and other institutions.

He was appointed titular archbishop of Memphis in 2013.

He has carried out duties as an apostolic nuncio in the Solomon Islands, Senegal, Bissau Guinea, Cape Verde and other countries.

Besides his mother tongue (English), he speaks Italian, French, Polish and Spanish.

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