Laghi is first US papal pronuncio

ARCHBISHOP Pio Laghi has become the first papal ambassador, or pronuncio, to .the United States in 117 years.
A suave, self-effacing 32-year veteran of the papal diplomatic service, Archbishop Laghi has been in the United States since 1980 as apostolic delegate, or papal liaison with the US Catholic Church.
His appointment as pronuncio, making him full diplomatic representative to the US government, came three weeks after the .US Senate confirmed William Wilson as the
first modern-day US ambassador to the Holy See.
US diplomatic ties with what were then the Papal States had existed from 1847 to 1867, but then Congress passed a law banning any funding of a US embassy to the Papal States. Last November Congress repealed the 1867 legislation.
Because of the US position as the political, economic and military superpower of the West, Archbishop Laghi's new post is potentially one of the most significant and powerful in the papal diplomatic corps, which mediates Church positions on peace, justice and human rights with more than 100 governments around the world.
Archbishop Laghi, 61, was born in Castiglione, a small
town between Florence and Ravenna in north-central Italy. Ordained a priest in 1946, he joined the papal diplomatic corps in 1952.
As papal nuncio to Argentina from 1974 to 1980, Archbishop Laghi was a key figure in moving Argentina and Chile to seek papal mediation with a territorial dispute over the Beagle Channel brought those two countries to the brink of war in 1978.
He also received death threats from the far right because of his efforts to get the Argentine military government to respect human rights in its war against leftist insurgents.