Republic of the Congo–Holy See relations Republic of the Congo–Holy See relations Republic of the Congo–Holy See relations refers to the current relations between the Republic of the Congo and the Holy See. The Catholic Church has considerable influence in the Republic of the Congo as about half of the population identify as Roman Catholic. Although the two states established relations in February 1963, their cooperation has only started to increase recently, with their first major bilateral agreement being signed in early 2017. The Holy See maintains an apostolic nunciature in Brazzaville, while Congo does not yet have any diplomatic or consular mission to Vatican City.
Foreign relations of the Holy See accredited also to the Holy See. For reasons of economy, therefore, smaller countries accredit to the Holy See a mission situated elsewhere and accredited also to the country of residence and perhaps other countries. Massimo Franco, author of "Parallel Empires", asserted in April 2009 that the Obama administration had put forward three candidates for consideration but each of them had been deemed insufficiently pro-life by the Vatican. This claim was denied by the Holy See's spokesman Federico Lombardi, and was dismissed by Thomas Patrick Melady, former United States Ambassador to the Holy See, as being in conflict with diplomatic practice.