On the Move

As anticipated yesterday, this morning the Pope appointed Giuseppe Betori to the archbishopric of Florence. E viva Benelli.

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Closer to home, though, just when you thought the DC crowd couldn't lose another leading light, the "Super-Nuncio" finds himself in need of a deputy... again: today's dispatches saw the appointment of Msgr Martin Krebs, counselor of the Washington nunciature, as apostolic nuncio to Guinea and Mali. 

Possessed of what's been called a "precise serenity," the 51 year-old German -- now an archbishop-elect due to the new post -- has served at the Stateside "Pope's House" on Massachusetts Avenue as Archbishop Pietro Sambi's #2 since summer 2006. Ordained a priest in 1983 and commissioned for the Corps eight years later, Krebs previously represented the Holy See at its diplomatic missions in Burundi, Japan, Austria, the Czech Republic, and to the European Community.

Given the size and import of the Washington mission, the history of DC deputies who've gone on to lead a legation of their own is considerable; for one, Krebs' assignment to the States only came after the promotion of the well-remembered Leopoldo Girelli as nuncio to Indonesia during Holy Week 2006. 

No successor in the counselor's post was immediately named.

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