Dominique Mamberti

Dominique François Joseph Mamberti (French: [dɔminik mɑ̃bɛʁti]; born 7 March 1952) is a French Catholic prelate who has served as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura since 2014. He was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015. In 2025, serving as the cardinal protodeacon, he announced the election of Pope Leo XIV from the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica following the 2025 papal conclave.

Dominique Mamberti was born to French parents in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 7 March 1952 and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ajaccio, Corsica, on 20 September 1981. He has academic degrees in civil and canon law. He entered the Holy See's diplomatic service and worked in the apostolic nunciatures in Algeria, Chile and Lebanon, in the Holy See's office at United Nations headquarters in New York City and in the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State (Holy See).

Mamberti is considered an expert on Latin America, the United Nations, Africa, the Middle East and Islam.

On 18 May 2002, Pope John Paul II appointed him Titular Archbishop of Sagona and Apostolic Nuncio to Sudan and Apostolic Delegate to Somalia. He received episcopal consecration from Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano on 3 July 2002. On 19 February 2004, he was also appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Eritrea and Somalia was removed from his remit.

He was appointed Secretary for Relations with States by Pope Benedict XVI on 15 September 2006. This post is generally seen as the equivalent of Foreign Minister of the Holy See. In 2007 Archbishop Mamberti was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

At a meeting in September 2009 between the Kosovan Foreign Minister, Skënder Hyseni, and Mamberti, the Holy See's Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Mamberti said that the Holy See was closely following developments in and around Kosovo, and he expressed his willingness to continue and intensify mutual communications. Following a meeting in November 2009 between the Serbian President Boris Tadić and Pope Benedict XVI, Tadić said that the Vatican supported Serbia's integration and membership within the EU and the sovereignty and preservation of its territorial integrity.

In September 2007, Mamberti orchestrated the first official visit between an Arab Head of State, Sudan's President Omar el-Bashir and Pope Benedict. The visit took place at the Pope's Summer residence, Castel Gandolfo. Shortly after this groundbreaking event, the King of Saudi Arabia met the Pope. This marked the beginning of a new period of Catholic-Muslim relations.

In June 2010, Mamberti visited Cuba and spent several days on the island, marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Cuba and participating in a national conference on the church's social teachings. He met with President Raúl Castro, saying afterwards that bilateral relations are "cordial, continuing and on the rise." "The visit of (Archbishop) Mamberti also showed the favourable development of relations between the state and the Catholic Church in Cuba," the government's note said.