Francisco De Nittis (3 July 1933 – 10 March 2014) was an Italian prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, an archbishop and a diplomat. Born in

Vieste Vieste (; ) is a town, ''comune'' and former Catholic bishopric in the province of Foggia, in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. A marine resort in Gargano, Vieste has received Blue Flags for the purity of its waters from the Foundation fo ...

, Italy, De Nittis was ordained a priest on 15 July 1956. To prepare for a diplomatic career he entered the

Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy The Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy (, ) is one of the Roman Colleges of the Catholic Church. The academy is dedicated to training priests to serve in the diplomatic corps and the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. Despite its name, the P ...

in 1959. On 7 March 1981, he was named

titular archbishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Tunes, Apostolic Nuncio to Papua New Guinea and Apostolic Delegate to the Solomon Islands. He received his episcopal consecration on 2 May 1981 from Cardinal

Agostino Casaroli Agostino Casaroli (24 November 1914 – 9 June 1998) was an Italian Catholic priest and diplomat for the Holy See, who became Cardinal Secretary of State. He was an important figure behind the Vatican's efforts to deal with the religious persec ...

. De Nittis was appointed apostolic nuncio to

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

on 24 January 1985 and to

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

on 10 April 1986. In October 1987, he hosted peace talks between Salvadoran President

Jose Napoleon Duarte Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods *Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean *Jose ben Halafta * ...

and anti-government rebels. He was appointed apostolic nuncio to

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

on 25 June 1990. He resigned in 1999. He died on 10 March 2014.

References

External links

Catholic Hierarchy: Archbishop Francisco De Nittis
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Nittis, Francisco 1933 births 2014 deaths People from Vieste 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishops Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy alumni Apostolic nuncios to Papua New Guinea Apostolic nuncios to the Solomon Islands Apostolic nuncios to El Salvador Apostolic nuncios to Honduras Apostolic nuncios to Uruguay