Pope Benedict has appointed Monsignor Ivan Jurkovic as apostolic nuncio to the Russian Federation. To the present moment he was apostolic nuncio in Ukraine, Vatican Radio reports.
Archbishop Ivan Jurkovi? was appointed the apostolic nuncio in Ukraine on 22 April 2004. He presented his credentials on 16 June 2004.
His Excellency Archbishop Ivan Jurkovi? is Slovenian by origin. He was born on 10 June 1952 in Ko?evje. He finished Theological Studies in 1978 at the Faculty of Theology in Ljubljana. On 29 June 1977 he was ordained a priest. In 1988 he became a Doctor of Canon Law.
He studied at the Papal Ecclesiastical Academy and on 1 May 1984 he joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
During his diplomatic service, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovi? assumed the following posts: Secretary at the Apostolic Nunciature in South Korea (1984-1988), Auditor at the Apostolic Nunciature in Colombia (1988-1992), Councilor at the Holy See Agency in the Russian Federation (1992-1996), Councilor at the State Secretariat of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
He was appointed Titular Archbishop of Corbavia on 28 July 2001 and was consecrated on 6 October 2001 in Ljubljana.
When he worked in Moscow, His Excellency Ivan Jurkovi? also gave lectures on Canon Law at the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Theological College (1993-1996), where he published the following works: "Marriage Law" (Moscow, 1993), "Canon Law on the People of God" (Moscow, 1993), "Latin-Russian Dictionary of Terms and Expressions of the Code of Canon Law" (with A. Koval, Moscow, 1995), "Canon Law on the People of God and Marriage" (Second edition, Moscow, 2000).
Archbishop Ivan Jurkovi? is a Conventual Chaplain Grand Cross ad honorem of the Sovereign Military Order of Hospitalers of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta.