MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vatican will have a Permanent Observer at OAS

Monsignor Miles and Secretary General Luis Almagro during the ceremony

The Organization of American States, OAS, will have a new Permanent Observer, from the Vatican, Monsignor Mark Gerald Miles, who on Monday presented his credentials to Secretary-General Luis Almagro.

This means the Holy See will have an office at the OAS, dedicated exclusively to the affairs of the organization and states from the Americas.

“With this appointment, His Holiness has wanted this permanent mission to be even more constant and close to the OAS, being exclusively dedicated to the work of this illustrious Organization,” said Monsignor Miles.

“In addition, in the context of the primary objectives of the OAS, which the Holy See shares, and from which it wants to offer its full contribution, this Mission wishes to learn from the experiences of this headquarters, as well as from the member states,” added Monsignor Miles when presenting the credential that accredit him to the hemispheric entity.

“The decision of His Holiness Pope Francis to have an office for the OAS is proof of the importance he places on the countries of the Americas, in general, and his proximity to this Organization, in particular,” said Secretary General Almagro.

Almagro underlined that OAS has carried out with Pope Francis the Interreligious Dialogue initiative “uniting the practitioners of the Catholic faith with the practitioners of Judaism and Islam in order to promote peace and tolerance in our common home, the earth.“

”We trust that with your permanent presence we can work together in the defense of the common values shared by the Vatican and the OAS,” concluded the Secretary General.

The Vatican State has been a Permanent Observer of the OAS since 1978. With this decision the Vatican joins Spain, Italy and France as countries with ambassadors assigned exclusively to the OAs.