Paul Fitzpatrick Russell
Paul Fitzpatrick Russell is a U.S.-born prelate of the Catholic Church who has held positions in the diplomatic service of the Holy See since 1997. He is Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. He headed the Holy See's diplomatic mission to China from 2008 to 2016. He was made an archbishop in 2016.Biography
Russell was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He moved with his mother and siblings to Alpena, Michigan, graduated from Alpena High School in 1977, and then spent a year studying in France. He studied at Saint John's Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts, interrupted by a year in Bolivia to become fluent in Spanish. On June 20, 1987, Russell was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Boston by Cardinal Bernard Law. After five years as a parish priest he was briefly the Cardinal's secretary.
Beginning in 1993 he studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy where he earned his licentiate in canon law and then at the Pontifical Gregorian University for his doctorate in canon law. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on July 1, 1997, serving briefly in Rome before spending three years at the Apostolic Nunciature to Ethiopia, where he also taught at the national seminary. Assignments in Turkey, Switzerland, and Nigeria followed. On May 2, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named him chargé d'affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature to China, that is, to Taiwan, the Republic of China, which made him the head of that diplomatic mission.
Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan on March 19, 2016. On June 3, 2016, Russell was consecrated titular archbishop of Novi by Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, with co-consecrators Allen Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, and Leo Cushley, Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh. The post of Nuncio to Azerbaijan was added to his responsibilities on April 7, 2018.
Russell has a particular devotion to Blessed Michał Piaszczyński, his mother's cousin.
He is fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and German.
