The Apostolic Nunciature to Benin is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes ...

of the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

. The Apostolic Nuncio to Benin is an ecclesiastical office of the Catholic Church in Benin, with the rank of an ambassador. The nuncio serves both as the ambassador of the Holy See to the Republic of Benin and as the point-of-contact between the Catholic hierarchy in Benin and the pope. In 1948, the Holy See established the office of Delegate to Dakar to represent its interest in French colonial Africa. Following the decolonization of the region, the title of that position was changed to Apostolic Delegate to Western Africa on 23 September 1960 and given responsibility for Senegal, Upper Volta, Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey (Benin), Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan, Togo, Ghana, Gambia, and Sierra Leone. Over the next decade, as the Vatican established relationships with individual countries, country-specific offices were created, including the Pro-Nunciature to Dahomey in 1972. The name of the country, and of the Holy See's office, changed from Dahomey to Benin on 30 November 1975. The Apostolic Nuncio to Benin is usually also the Apostolic Nuncio to

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

upon his appointment to said nation.

List of papal representatives to Benin

;Apostolic Pro-Nuncios * Giovanni Mariani (29 March 1972 – 1973) * Bruno Wüstenberg (29 December 1973 – 17 January 1979) * Giuseppe Ferraioli (25 August 1979 – 21 July 1981) *

Ivan Dias Ivan Cornelius Dias (14 April 1936 – 19 June 2017) was an Indian prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 2006 to 2011, Archbishop of Bombay from 1996 to 2006, an ...

(8 May 1982 – 20 June 1987) *

Giuseppe Bertello Giuseppe Bertello (born 1 October 1942) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal since 2012, who was President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of Vatican City State from Octob ...

(17 October 1987 – 12 January 1991) *

Abraham Kattumana Abraham Kattumana (21 January 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an Indian Catholic Archbishop. He was the Pontifical Delegate of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church with the powers of the Major Archbishop vested in him by Pope John Paul II. Previously, he ha ...

(8 May 1991 – 16 December 1992) ;Apostolic Nuncios *

André Dupuy André Pierre Louis Dupuy (; born 13 February 1940) is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1974 to 2015. Biography André Pierre Louis Dupuy was born on 13 February 1940 in Sousto ...

(6 April 1993 – 27 November 1999) *

Pierre Nguyên Van Tot Pierre Nguyên Van Tot (Vietnamese: ; born 15 April 1949) is a Vietnamese prelate of the Catholic Church and a diplomat of the Holy See. Biography Pierre Nguyên Van Tot was born on 15 April 1949 in Thủ Dầu Một, Bình Dương Provi ...

(25 November 2002 – 24 August 2005) * Michael August Blume (24 August 2005 – 2 February 2013) * Brian Udaigwe (8 April 2013 – 13 June 2020) * Mark Miles (5 February 2021 – 9 July 2024) * Rubén Darío Ruiz Mainardi (28 October 2024 – present)

References

{{Diplomatic missions of the Holy See

Diplomatic missions in Benin Benin–Holy See relations