Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations 2014, holds the diplomatic rank of Apostolic Nuncio (Papal Ambassador) and the ecclesiastical title of a titular archbishop. He is assisted by the Reverend Father Roger Landry, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River (in Fall River, Massachusetts, a large suburb of Providence, Rhode Island, south of Boston), former pastor of St. Bernadette's Parish there. Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations The Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations is the representative of the Holy See at the United Nations. The diplomatic mission does not have the status of Permanent
Legal status of the Holy See personality akin to that of states, has led professor Ian Brownlie to define it as a ""sui generis" entity". Moreover, the Holy See itself, while claiming international legal personality, does not claim to be a State. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, former Secretary for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, has underlined that we must avoid the temptation of assimilating the Holy See and its international action with that of a State, with their thirst for power. For him, the Holy See is unquestionably a sovereign subject of international law but of a predominantly religious nature.