By Paschal Norbert
VATICAN CITY, AUGUST 12, 2025 (CISA) – The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, will travel to Burundi from August 12 to 18, 2025, at the invitation of the local Church and the country’s authorities, to lead events commemorating the life and ministry of the late Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Michael Aidan Courtney, killed in an ambush 23 years ago. The visit will also mark the closing of the Jubilee celebrations for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Burundi.
According to the Vatican Secretariat of State, Cardinal Parolin will preside over the inauguration of a monument and the laying of the foundation stone for a health centre dedicated to Archbishop Courtney’s memory.
The Irish-born papal diplomat, appointed by Pope John Paul II as Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi on August 18, 2000, was assassinated on December 29, 2003, while serving in the East African nation.
Archbishop Courtney’s distinguished diplomatic career spanned multiple continents. Before his mission to Burundi, he served in pontifical representations in South Africa, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia and Egypt, and for nearly five years as the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. Known for his dedication to peace-building and his commitment to the pastoral needs of the Church, he became a trusted envoy of the Vatican in one of the most politically fragile regions of Africa.
His mission in Burundi was cut short in tragic circumstances. On the afternoon of December 29, 2003, while returning from pastoral duties in Minago, some 50 kilometres from the capital Bujumbura, Archbishop Courtney’s vehicle came under gunfire from a nearby hill. He was travelling with a priest, who was wounded in the attack, a driver, and another passenger. The Nuncio sustained severe injuries and, despite emergency surgery at a Bujumbura hospital, succumbed to massive haemorrhaging without regaining consciousness.
Pope John Paul II, upon receiving news of the killing, described him as a “faithful and generous servant of the Church and the Holy See, who died while carrying out his difficult mission.” In a telegram to Archbishop Simon Ntamwana, Emeritus of Gitega, then-President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Burundi, the Pope urged Burundians to reject violence and work toward “lasting peace, based on justice, respect for others and security for all.”
Archbishop Courtney’s death was a first in the history of Vatican diplomacy: never before had a serving papal representative been assassinated. His name joined the 2003 list of missionaries who gave their lives for the Gospel. The Vatican expressed hope that his sacrifice would inspire reconciliation in Burundi and beyond.
Cardinal Parolin’s upcoming visit, therefore, is both a diplomatic and pastoral mission,one aimed at honouring a life given for peace, strengthening ties between the Holy See and Burundi, and underlining the Vatican’s enduring call for dialogue and reconciliation in a nation that has endured years of conflict.
