Bengaluru: His Excellency, Most Rev. Leopoldo Girelli, Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal will visit Bengaluru from April 23 to the 24th in his first official Pastoral capacity as the Vatican Ambassador. This is his first official visit to the city since assuming office as Nuncio to India and Nepal last year.
The Apostolic Nuncio is expected to arrive in the city on April 23 (Saturday). He will be accorded an official reception and a felicitation program at 11 am. He will then address the priests, religious and lay representatives of the Archdiocese of Bangalore at St. John’s Medical College Auditorium.
At 4.30 in the evening, Most Rev. Leopoldo Girelli will inaugurate, bless and dedicate the New Church of St. Ignatius Parish at Begur, which is close to the Electronic City.
On Sunday at 11 am, the Apostolic Nuncio will proceed to Our Lady of Victories Church, Champion Reef, Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), near Bengaluru and preside over a solemn Eucharistic adoration and benediction followed by a short felicitation programme. While on his way to KGF, he will make a brief stopover at the Social Service Centre in Kolar, where the AIDs patients are given treatment and counselling.
At 4.30 pm, he will return to the city and visit St Francis Xavier Cathedral, besides he will also preside over the Golden Jubilee Holy Mass at the Infant Jesus Shrine, Viveknagar.
About His Excellency Most Rev. Leopoldo Girelli
Most Rev. Leopoldo Girelli was born in Predore, Province of Bergamo, Italy, on 13 March 1953. He was ordained a priest on 17 June 1978 and incardinated in the diocese of Bergamo. He graduated in Theology. To prepare for the Diplomatic Service, he completed the course of study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1984.
He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on 13 July 1987 and worked in the papal diplomatic missions in Cameroon and New Zealand and at the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, and finally in the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States where he held the rank of Counsellor. He served as Apostolic Nuncio to various countries before Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to India on 13 March 2021, and added the title of Apostolic Nuncio to Nepal on 13 September of that year.