Monsignor Joseph Murphy is the new head of Vatican protocol, the Holy See announced on Thursday. Murphy replaces Monsignor Jose Bettencourt who was appointed papal envoy to Georgia and Armenia earlier this month.
Murphy, an Irishman who was born in 1968, has a degree in theology and took up his first post in the Vatican secretariat of state's general affairs section in October 1997. He was transferred to the relations with states section on 15 September 2006 and has a knowledge of English, French, Italian and Gaelic, the Vatican statement said.
