American to become Vatican's top diplomat on nukes

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York

At a time of growing international alarm over nuclear programs in both Iran and North Korea, an American priest has been named the Vatican’s top diplomat on nuclear issues.

Monsignor Michael Bannach, of the Worcester, Massachusetts, diocese, was named today by Pope Benedict XVI as the Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. He will also represent the Vatican as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and to the offices of the United Nations in Vienna, Austria.

Bannach, 44, joined the Vatican diplomatic corps in 1994. He served in papal embassies in Bolivia and Nigeria, and most recently held the desk in the Second Section of the Secretariat of State for Central and Eastern Europe. In that capacity, he was involved in the Vatican’s diplomatic efforts to promote the development of post-Soviet states in the region.

Until responsibility for appointing bishops in Eastern Europe was transferred from the Secretariat of State to the Congregation for Bishops in 2006, Bannach was also responsible for preparing episcopal nominations in the countries for which he was responsible, which included Poland under Pope John Paul II. Bannach was greatly helped in that role by his fluency in Polish.

While living in Rome, Bannach also served for a time as director of the Villa Stritch, the residence for American clerics working in the Roman Curia.

The Vatican has been a strong proponent of nuclear disarmament. Last October, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, warned that the international community was “sleepwalking” towards ever-increasing nuclear threats.

“One path can take us to a world in which the proliferation of nuclear weapons is restricted and reversed through trust, dialogue and negotiated agreement,” Migliore said. “The other path leads to a world in which rapidly growing numbers of states feel obliged to arm themselves with nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear terrorism grows.”

“The international community seems almost to be sleepwalking down the latter path, not by conscious choice but rather through miscalculation, sterile debate and the paralysis of multilateral mechanisms for confidence-building and conflict resolution,” Migliore said.

The threat of nuclear proliferation has returned to the headlines in recent months, following a nuclear test in North Korea in October and conflicting statements from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about his country’s nuclear ambitions.

In Vienna, Bannach will be involved in the nitty-gritty details of trying to advance a comprehensive ban on nuclear weapons, and on tests of nuclear weapons systems. Bannach generally enjoys a reputation as smart, hard-working, a gifted linguist, and a practical problem-solver, all traits that will be tested in his new post.