NEW FIRST COUNSELLOR AT THE APOSTOLIC NUNCIATURE
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India welcomes the New First Counsellor at the Apostolic Nunciature in India, Msgr. Mitja Leskovar.
Monsignor Leskovar arrived in New Delhi on Saturday, 8th September, 2018. His Excellency Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, the Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal, presented his new collaborator to CBCI the same day.
In the absence of Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Secretary General of CBCI, who was in Jaipur addressing Gyanam a Conclave on Social Harmony and Peace, the Apostolic Nuncio and the New First Counsellor were received by Fr. Jervis D’ Souza, Deputy Secretary General of CBCI and the Fathers resident in the House.
Fr. Jervis explained to the Msgr. Mitja the structure of the CBCI, the Offices and the Councils and their functioning. A vivid interaction followed between Resident priests, the Nuncio and the New Counsellor. They were also briefed about the Church’s social outreach programme to the people devastated by the floods in Kerala, by the Executive Director of Caritas Fr. Paul Moonjely. Msgr. Mitja was felicitated with a shawl.
Fr. Jervis welcomed and thanked the Nuncio and the new Counsellor for their visit and sought to work closely with the Nunciature for the good of the Church in India.
Bishop Theodore visited the Apostolic Nunciature on 11th September and personally welcomed Msgr. Mitja. He gifted him a framed picture of Jesus.
Msgr. Leskovar was born on 3rd January, 1970 in the town of Kranj, Slovenia, where he his primary school and gymnasium.
In 1989, after a year of military service, he entered the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Ljubljana and was ordained Priest in 1995.
He served as Assistant Parish Priest for two years. In 1997 the Archbishop of Ljubljana sent him for further studies to Rome. There he completed the study of the Papal Diplomacy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and obtained his PhD in Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2001. He was then appointed Secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Bangladesh, where he served until 2003. For the following eleven years he worked in the Vatican in different Offices of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. In 2006 he was made Monsignor by Pope Benedict XVI. During this time, he was also the Vice Chaplain of Saints Peter and Paul Association in the Vatican. In 2014 he was made Prelate of Honour of His Holiness by Pope Francis.
In 2015 he became First Counsellor of the Apostolic Nunciature in Germany, where he has served for the following three years until his recent transfer to the Apostolic Nunciature in India.
In the name of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India we welcome Msgr. Leskovar to India and assure him of our prayers. May his service to the Catholic Church in India and Nepal begun on 8th September, 2018, Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary be blessed and fructified through her intercession before Our Lord Jesus Christ.