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As the Vatican announced on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV has appointed the archbishop as the new Apostolic Nuncio in Hungary. A successor was not appointed, also a reason or a time for the change was not communicated.
The previous Pope's ambassador to Belgium had announced in an interview with the Belgian radio "BRF" last week that he wanted to listen and learn what the people in the diocese of Liège are doing.
To this end, he wanted to visit the twelve deans of the diocese and encouraged people to inform him of their suggestions and suggestions in writing or by e-mail and to explain how they experienced the church.
He also explicitly included non-Catholics. Coppola emphasized that if everything went well, a new bishop could be appointed for Liège as early as next summer. Until then, 75-year-old Bishop Jean-Pierre Delville will remain in office.
Did bishops’ appointments last too long?
Coppola’s term of office included not only the visit of Pope Francis (2013–2025) to Belgium in September 2024, but also the appointment of Luc Terlinden as the new Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels (2023) and of Fabien Lejeusne as Bishop of Namur and of Frédéric Rossignol as Bishop of Tournai (2025).
As the Belgian portal "CathoBel" reported on Thursday, the latter two dioceses were vacant for over two and a half years until the new bishops were appointed.
"An unusual long period of time, at least in our regions, which has provoked numerous questions and some tensions around Archbishop Coppola's mission," the portal said.
Coppola was born on 15. November 2021 appointed by Pope Francis as nuncio in Belgium and Luxembourg.
The term of office of a nuncio is usually five years. Previously, he worked in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad and Mexico.