Archbishop Germano Penemote, a member of the Clergy of Angola’s Ondjiva Diocese, who was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan on June 16 has expressed his readiness for the new mission.
Speaking to journalists Wednesday, September 6 after an audience with Angola’s President, João Lourenço, Archbishop Penemote said, “I am encouraged and feel that even if I leave my mother country, Angolans will be with me and I will be with the Angolans.”
“I was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan and my ordination took place in the city of Ondjiva on August 12 and it was my duty to stop by and say goodbye to the President of the Republic of Angola, because I'm leaving the country after my ordination to begin my mission,” he said.
“As the Pope's envoy, I'm going with joy because I'll be meeting God's people there,” Archbishop Penemote further said, and reiterated, “I'm going with pride because I'm going to meet my brothers from Pakistan.”
Pakistan, he said, “is a new country, but that's part of our mission as Priests and missionaries.”
“I'm going as an ambassador, and as an ambassador my mission is to strengthen relations between the Holy See and the Islamic State of Pakistan and to work for the local Catholic Church,” he further said at the press conference following his audience with the Angolan President at the Presidential Palace in Luanda.
Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Penemote as his representative to Pakistan on June 16, assigning him the Titular See of Treia.
Born in Ondobe, Angola in October 1969, the Angolan Archbishop was ordained a Priest in December 1998, and incardinated in the Diocese of Ondijiva.
He entered the Holy See Diplomatic Service in July 2003, and has served in the Apostolic Nunciatures in Benin, Uruguay, Slovakia, Thailand, Hungary, Peru, and Romania.
Archbishop Penemote speaks French, English, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Speaking at his Episcopal Ordination on August 12, Pietro Cardinal Parolin invited the new Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan to be “an ambassador of the Holy Father, ambassador of the Holy See and ambassador of Christ. It is an honor and a splendid mission.”
“Be a credible worker of peace who brings the reconciliation that God offers humans and to be an ambassador of good, it is necessary to love God and neighbor as Christ loved to the point of dying on the Cross,” Cardinal Parolin said.