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New Delhi: Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, the Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal, has been transferred to Poland.

This was announced in Rome on August 6, the feast of Transfiguration of Jesus, said a letter from Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

Archbishop Pennacchio, who turns 64 on September 7, will leave for Poland in October, after completing his term in India, the letter adds.

There has been no announcement yet about his successor in India.

Archbishop Pennacchio became the Vatican ambassador to India in 2010.

Earlier, the ever smiling and amiable prelate was the nuncio of Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia and apostolic delegated to Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia and Brunei, based at Bangkok from 2003.

During that period, he oversaw the successful conduct of the first Asian Mission Congress at Chiang Mai, Thailand. About 1,000 people, mostly from Asia, attended the Oct. 18-22, 2006 gathering that reflected on the theme, “The Story of Jesus in Asia: A Celebration of Faith and Life.”

His first appointment as a nuncio was to Rwanda in 1998. He was ordained an archbishop on January 6, 1999.

He was born in Marano, Naples, in Italy, and had just turned 24 when he was ordained a priest on September 18, 1976, for Aversa diocese, southern Italy. He joined the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on April 15, 1979.

He has served in the Apostolic Nunciatures in Panama, Ethiopia, Australia, Turkey, Egypt, Yugoslavia and Ireland.

He holds a doctorate in Philosophy and entered into the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See. He speaks English, French and Spanish.

During his speeches and homilies in India, Archbishop Pennacchio has urged people to take up the challenge from Pope Francis to live the Gospels with their whole heart.

“He challenges us, for example, to come out of our indifference to the needs and sufferings of others. Here is a person for whom clearly God comes first,” the Italian prelate said during a sermon in Mumbai in 2013.

Kemmannu.com File Pictures of Apolistic Nuncio of India Dr Salvatore Pennacchio during the official inauguration of Udupi Diocese on October 15, 2012.