Thomas Gullickson


Thomas Edward Gullickson is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has served as an Apostolic Nuncio since 2004, most recently to Switzerland and Liechtenstein since 2015.

Early years

Born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, Thomas Gullickson was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Sioux Falls by Bishop Lambert Hoch on July 27, 1976. He studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, writing his doctoral dissertation in 1985 on The Diocesan Bishop: Moderator and Sponsor of the Ministry of the Word. A Comparative Study of Tridentine Legislation and the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
To prepare for a diplomatic career he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1981. He joined the Vatican's diplomatic service on May 1, 1985 and served in diplomatic missions to Rwanda, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Jerusalem, Israel and Germany.

Nuncio

On October 2, 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed him Titular Archbishop of Polymartium and Apostolic Nuncio to Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – all island nations in the Caribbean Sea.
Gullickson received his episcopal consecration on November 11 from Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, with Bishops Robert Carlson and Paul Dudley as co-consecrators.
On December 15, 2004 he was given additional appointments as Apostolic Nuncio to other Caribbean nations: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, and Suriname. And on 20 December Apostolic Nuncio to Grenada.
Gullickson was named Nuncio to Ukraine on May 21, 2011. While there, Gullickson posted on Twitter and on his blog his criticism of Pope Francis regarding family planning, the Eucharist, the Pope's criticism of the Roman Curia, and the Vatican's relations with Russia.
Pope Francis appointed Gullickson Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland and Liechtenstein on September 5, 2015.

Views on liturgy

Gullickson has frequently expressed his preference for the form of the Mass that Pope Benedict XVI that uses the priest facing toward the altar in the same direction as the congregation, as a step to renew what he sees as a proper sense of reverence to the liturgy.