RIP – Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig

Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig, who was the Apostolic Nuncio to the Nordic countries from 2008 to 2012, died earlier today, May 12, 2026.
Archbishop Tscherrig, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023, lived in Rome after his retirement in 2024. He was born in Switzerland in 1947, the eldest of eight children, was ordained a priest in 1974 and began his career in the Holy See in 1978.
He served as a nuncio to Burundi, the Caribbean, South Korea and Mongolia before coming to the Nordic countries in 2008. After four years in the Nordic countries, based in Stockholm, he was sent to Argentina, where he met Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected pope the following year. In 2017, Archbishop Tscherrig was appointed the first non-Italian papal legate to Italy and San Marino, and on September 30, 2023, he was made a cardinal.