Death of the Vatican ambassador to Argentina, Bishop Leon Kalenga

The Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina, Monsignor Leon Kalenga Badikebele, died Wednesday in Rome at the age of 62. Born in Kamina, Democratic Republic of Congo, on July 17, 1956, Kalenga has been ambbadador to the Vatican since June 2018, after being appointed by Pope Francis.

Sources in the Argentine government confirmed that President Mauricio Macri would send a letter of condolence to the pontiff.

Kalenga died Wednesday afternoon in Rome (17 in our country) at the Pius XI clinic in Rome where, in mid-May, he had been operated without success to remedy a serious health problem. Kalenga, the thirteenth nuncio in Argentina, was nominated by Jorge Bergoglio last March.

After having obtained the academic title of doctor in canon law, Kalenga entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on February 27, 1990. Before coming to our country He has served in the pontifical representations of Haiti, Guatemala, Zambia, Brazil, Egypt, Zimbabwe and Japan..

On March 1, 2008, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana. On February 22, 2013, he was transferred to the nunciature of El Salvador and on April 13 of the same year to Belize, where he resided in El Salvador. from where he went to Argentina less than a year ago.

Kalenga had replaced the nuncio of the time, Bishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, appointed to the Apostolic Nunciature of Italy.