Archbishop Jan Pawlowski, an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State and papal delegate, speaks as he celebrates Mass at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Plock, Poland, Feb. 22, 2021. The Mass marked the 90th anniversary of the first apparition of Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska. (CNS photo/Katarzyna Artymiak) Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawlowski, Titular Archbishop of Sejny, as the Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland. He has been serving as Apostolic Nuncio in Greece.
Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawłowski was born on November 23, 1960, in Biskupiec (Archdiocese of Warmia), the eldest of four sons of Stanisław and Magdalena. In 1979, he entered the Primate’s Major Seminary in Gniezno. He was ordained a priest on June 1, 1985, by Cardinal Józef Glemp. From 1985 to 1987, he served as an assistant pastor at the parish church in Bydgoszcz, while also serving as secretary to Bishop Jan Wiktor Nowak, then the episcopal vicar for Bydgoszcz.
From 1987 to 1991, he resided in Rome, where he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, culminating in a doctorate in canon law. During the same period, he completed specialised studies at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, preparing him for work in the diplomatic missions of the Holy See.
In 1991, he began his service in the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, working successively in the Central African Republic and Congo (Brazzaville), Thailand, Brazil, and France. From late 2002, he served in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, in the Section for Relations with States. In 1993, he was appointed chaplain to His Holiness, and in 2005, honorary prelate to His Holiness.
He speaks Italian, English, French, Russian, German, and Portuguese. On March 18, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to the Republic of the Congo and Gabon, elevating him to the rank of archbishop and assigning him the titular see of Sejny. He was consecrated a bishop on April 30, 2009, by the then Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, SDB. His co-consecrators were Bishop Jan Tyrawa and Archbishop Alfio Rapisarda.
On December 7, 2015, Pope Francis appointed him Delegate for Nunciatures in the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, and on December 17, 2020, he renamed this position Secretary for Papal Representations. Archbishop Pawłowski held this position until 2022 when he was appointed as Apostolic Nuncio in Greece.