On September 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed Monsignor Jain Méndez, an Indian priest, as the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
Msgr. Méndez currently serves as a Counselor at the Apostolic Nunciature in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In his new role, he will reside in the Vatican while representing the Holy See at all international conferences and meetings of the UNWTO.
A native of the Archdiocese of Verapoly in the southern Indian state of Kerala, Msgr. Méndez was ordained a priest on January 29, 1992. He later earned a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, the Vatican’s diplomatic school, in 1997.
Over the years, he has served in Apostolic Nunciatures in Uganda, Panama, Uruguay, the Philippines, Guatemala, Senegal, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Dominican Republic.
The UNWTO, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is a specialized UN agency dedicated to promoting responsible, sustainable, and universally accessible tourism.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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