Temi Ohakwe, Abuja
Pope Francis has appointed a Nigerian Priest of the Catholic Diocese of Abia, Abia State And Apostolic Nuncio to the Antilles, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu as the Permanent Observer of the Holy See, that is the Vatican to the United Nations Office and Specialized Institutions in Geneva.
Pope Francis Also appointed Archbishop Nwachukwu as permanent Observer to the World Trade Organization, WTO and the Representative of the Vatican to the International Migrations Organization (IOM).
The appointment is contained in a press release by the Office of the Antilles Episcopal Conference Secretariat, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on where Archbishop Nwachukwu is currently serving as Apostolic Nuncio.
Until his appointment, Archbishop Nwachukwu was transferred from Nicaragua to the current Mission in Trinidad and Tobago on 4 November 2017 and assumed office on 19 March 2018.
According to the new appointment, Archbishop Nwachukwu will still remain in charge of the Mission in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and the Antilles, until he departs for the new mission at the United Nations at the beginning of March 2022.
Brief profile of Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, B.Phil, LSS(CD), STD, DCL.
Fortunatus Nwachukwu was born on 10 May 1960 in Umuokoro, Eziama-Ntigha, in Isia-Ala Ngwa North Local Government Area of Abia State.
He is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Aba, in Abia State, ordained on 17 June, 1984.
In January 1972, he was admitted into Immaculate Conception Seminary, Ahiaeke Umuahia, at the age of 11. Three years later, in 1975, he and some of his classmates were allowed to sit the last London GCE, before the West African Examination Council (WAEC) took over the organization of the secondary school final examinations. His result was excellent. He then taught Mathematics and Latin in the same seminary until 1977, when he was sent to continue his priestly formation at the newly opened Philosophy Faculty of the Bigard Memorial Seminary at Ikot Ekpene.
After his priestly ordination, Fr. Fortunatus worked as a teacher and later as vice-rector of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, Umuahia, as well as parochial vicar and administrator of the St Anne’s Parish, Ibeku (1984-1986). Concurrently, he served as the Diocesan vocations’ director, as well as the chaplain of the Federal College of Agriculture and the Umuahia Campus of Alvan Ikoku College of Education, both in Umudike-Umuahia.
In 1986, he was sent to Rome for specialization studies. He studied Scriptures at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule, Sankt Georgen, in Frankfurt, Germany. He also studied Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, as well as Canon Law at the St Thomas Aquinas University, Angelicum, both in Rome.
In 1992, Fr Fortunatus was called to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical (Diplomatic) Academy.
Archbishop Nwachukwu has been honoured by various Governments with the national decorations. In the United States of America he has been honoured as Honorary Citizen respectively by the State of Nebraska and the City of Lincoln (2008). The President of Italy named him “Official” of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2007), that of Chile decorated him as Gran Oficial of the Order of Bernado O’Higgins (2009); the Head of State Argentina awarded him the high honour of Gran Cruz of the Orden de Mayo (2011), that of the Dominican Republic awarded him the special decoration of Grand Oficial of the Heraldic Order of Christopher Columbus (2012) and, more recently, the President of Nicaragua awarded him the high decoration of Grand Cruz of the Order of José de Marcoleta (2018). In Nigeria, in 2012 the Eziaba Agbani Community of Enugu State decorated him with the title of “Chief Nwanne Di Na Mba 1 of Eziaba Agbani” in recognition of the immense help he rendered to a son of that community while in Europe.
Archbishop Nwachukwu speaks and understands several languages, beyond his mother tongue, Igbo, including English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Modern Hebrew and a bit of Arabic, as well as some ancient languages of Biblical research namely, Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
