Vatican Names New Envoy to Nicaragua

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II named a Maltese prelate Friday to serve as papal nuncio to Nicaragua, succeeding a veteran diplomat reportedly transferred because he was considered too friendly to the Sandinistas.

Msgr. Paolo Giglio, 59, who began his career as a Vatican diplomat in Nicaragua and is now charge d’affaires in Taiwan, also will be nuncio to Honduras. A nuncio is the permanent official representative of the Pope to a foreign government.

The Vatican announced without comment Tuesday that the present nuncio to Nicaragua and Honduras, Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, 60, will become envoy to Uruguay.

The Turin newspaper La Stampa reported Wednesday that Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the archbishop of Managua, bluntly asked John Paul at a recent audience to choose between himself and Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, who advocated a dialogue with the Nicaraguan government. La Stampa said the main reason for the Italian diplomat’s transfer was his clash with Obando y Bravo, a leading critic of the Sandinistas.