His Majesty\u2019s Honorary Consul-General of the Kingdom of Tonga to the Portuguese Republic, Anthony Bailey, recently held a cordial meeting with His Excellency Archbishop Andr\u00e9s Carrascosa Coso, Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Portuguese Republic, at the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon on 21 April 2026.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Andr\u00e9s Carrascosa Coso was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal by Pope Leo XIV in December 2025 and formally arrived in Portugal in February 2026 to commence his diplomatic mission.<\/p>\n
A distinguished member of the diplomatic service of the Holy See for more than four decades, Archbishop Carrascosa previously served as Apostolic Nuncio to Ecuador from 2017 to 2025, following earlier appointments as Apostolic Nuncio to Panama between 2009 and 2017, and previously to the Republic of the Congo and Gabon from 2004. During his diplomatic career he also served in various Holy See diplomatic missions including Liberia, Brazil, Canada, Geneva and other international postings.<\/p>\n
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps is the senior representative of the diplomatic community accredited to a host nation and traditionally acts as its ceremonial representative on official state occasions and matters of diplomatic protocol. In Portugal, as in many traditionally Catholic countries, this role is customarily held by the Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See, a practice which has existed for many centuries and is recognised under longstanding diplomatic tradition and international protocol.<\/p>\n
During the meeting, discussions reflected upon the longstanding and friendly relations between the Kingdom of Tonga and the Holy See. Diplomatic relations between Tonga and the Holy See were formally established in 1977 and relations between the Tongan monarchy and successive Pontiffs have remained warm and cordial over many decades.<\/p>\n
The Holy See\u2019s diplomatic mission in Wellington, New Zealand, also holds accreditation to the Kingdom of Tonga and plays an important role in maintaining relations between the Holy See and the Pacific region. The Consul-General recalled that in 2024 he paid a visit to the Apostolic Nunciature in Wellington during engagements connected with Tonga and the Pacific.<\/p>\n
A number of Tongan monarchs have visited Vatican City over the years, including King George Tupou V, who was received by Pope Benedict XVI, as well as His Majesty King Tupou VI, who later held an audience with Pope Francis.<\/p>\n
The meeting also included discussions concerning the strong Catholic community within Tonga and opportunities to further welcome pilgrimages and visits by Tongan faithful to the Shrine of Our Lady of F\u00e1tima and to Portugal more broadly, reflecting the deep spiritual significance which Portugal continues to hold for Catholics around the world. Mr Bailey also outlined the great importance with which all Tongans practice their Christian faith across the numerous churches that are active within the Kingdom.<\/p>\n
The Consulate-General of the Kingdom of Tonga in Portugal continues to value its close relations with the Holy See and its representatives accredited to the Portuguese Republic, while promoting dialogue, friendship and cooperation between Tonga, Portugal and the wider international faith\u00a0 communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
His Majesty\u2019s Honorary Consul-General of the Kingdom of Tonga to the Portuguese Republic, Anthony Bailey, recently held a cordial meeting with His Excellency Archbishop Andr\u00e9s Carrascosa Coso, Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Portuguese Republic, at the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon on 21 April 2026. Archbishop Andr\u00e9s Carrascosa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"image_01":13484,"image_02":13485,"image_03":"","image_04":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13506,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13505\/revisions\/13506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}