Embassy of the United States to the Holy See

Embassy of the United States to the Holy See
Native name Latin: Legationis ad Sanctam Sedem Civitatum Foederatarum Americae
Location	Via Sallustiana, 49 Rome, Italy
Opened	1994 (1994)
Ambassador	Ken Hackett (since 2013)

The Embassy of the United States of America to the Holy See (or Embassy Vatican for short) is the diplomatic mission of United States of America to the Holy See, a term referring to the central government and universal reach of the Roman Catholic Church. The current embassy moved to new headquarters in September 2015 in a separate building on the same compound as the United States Embassy Rome.^[1] The embassy was previously located on Aventine Hill in the Villa Domiziana in Rome, Italy, which was built as a private residence in 1953. In 1994, the U.S. government acquired the property as the new chancery for embassy.^[2] On August 1, 2013, Ken Hackett was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new Ambassador to the Holy See.^[3]

The embassy is a part of the "Tri-Mission Community" in Rome, the other two being the Embassy of the United States, Rome and the United States Mission to the U.N. Agencies in Rome.

History

Formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See were established in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. The mission works in partnership with the Holy See on global issues including HIV/AIDS, world hunger, religious freedom, the environment, and human rights.^[4]

This facility became the focus of an unexpected controversy when it was falsely reported on November 27, 2013, that the Embassy would be closed.^[5] The embassy was set to be transferred in January 2015 to a larger building adjacent to the U.S. Embassy to Italy for reasons of cost, security, and proximity to the Vatican itself.^[6] However, as part of a broader push to cut security for American embassies, Congress blocked the move in 2014.^[7] The Embassy of the United States to the Holy See, previously located on Aventine Hill, moved to new headquarters in September 2015 in a separate building on the same compound as the United States Embassy Rome.^[8]

External links

Official website

References

Diplomatic missions of the United States
Embassies shown in bold. Consulates-General shown in italics. A full list can be found at List of diplomatic missions of the United States.
Africa	Dar es Salaam Juba Malabo Nairobi
Americas	Caracas Curaçao Havana Mexico City Ottawa
Asia	Abu Dhabi Baghdad Bangkok Beijing Chengdu Chennai Dhaka Dubai Guangzhou Ho Chi Minh City Hong Kong1 Hyderabad Islamabad Jakarta Jerusalem1 Kabul Karachi Kolkata Lahore Manama Manila Mumbai New Delhi Peshawar Rangoon (Yangon) Seoul Shanghai Shenyang Tel Aviv Tokyo Ulaanbaatar Wuhan Yerevan‡
Europe	Athens Berlin Bern Bremen Chişinău Copenhagen Dublin Frankfurt Hamburg Istanbul‡ London Kyiv Moscow Munich Oslo Paris Prague Rome Sarajevo Tallinn Tbilisi‡ The Hague Thessaloniki Tirana Vatican (Rome) Vienna
Oceania	Canberra Wellington
Organizations	African Union (Addis Ababa) American Institute in Taiwan2 (Taipei, Kaohsiung-branch office, Washington-headquarters) European Union (Brussels) Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) (Vienna) United Nations United States Mission to the United Nations (New York) Rome
Former	Benghazi (1950–66, 2012) Havana (1977–2015) Houston (1836–46) Liverpool (1790–1962) London (1938–60) Mogadishu (1960–91) Saigon (1952–75) Tangier (1821–1956) Tehran (1951–79)
‡ Missions which are located in countries or cities that may be considered a part of more than one continent. 1 Consulates-General which function as an embassy (ie. consul reports to State Department, not the respective country's ambassador) 2 The American Institute in Taiwan is ostensibly a public, non-profit organization to promote US-Taiwanese relations, but through State Department staffing & assistance, functions as an informal US diplomatic mission.