FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Rev. Christopher Pollard212-370-7885 Ext. 30cpollard@holyseemission.orgNew York, NY, Sept. 28 – Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Secretary for Relations with States, received the doctoral hood and diploma of St. John’s University at an evening ceremony on Monday the 26th.  During the annual Vincentian Convocation, Rev. Donald Harrington, President of St. John’s, awarded the Honorary Doctor of Laws to the Archbishop, citing his extensive work promoting peace and representing the Apostolic See. Archbishop Mamberti was born in Marrakesh, Morocco, and ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ajaccio, France.  After entering the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1986 he served in Algeria, Chile, Lebanon and New York.  The Archbishop has been Apostolic Nuncio to Ethiopia, to Eritrea and to Somalia.  In 2006 he was appointed Secretary for Relations with States by Pope Benedict XVI, a post that corresponds to the Foreign Minister of other governments.The Vincentian Convocation is an annual event taking place during Founder’s Week at St. John’s, held this year for the first time in September.  The award ceremony yesterday came on the evening before the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, the seventeenth-century founder of the Congregation of the Mission and co-founder of the Daughters of Charity.  The Congregation of the Mission, affectionately known as The Vincentians, conducts missionary work among the poor throughout the world and operate universities in the U.S. and the Philippines.Citing St. Vincent de Paul, Archbishop Mamberti encouraged the assembly to follow the example of the saint’s “outreach to the poor, orphans and prisoners, but above all by the ‘understanding love and loving understanding’”.  Addressing the Catholic spirit of the University, he quoted Pope Benedict’s address last year at Saint Mary’s University College in England, noting that “the world needs good scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes dangerously narrow if it ignores the religious or ethical dimension of life, just as religion becomes narrow if it rejects the legitimate contribution of science to our understanding of the world.”For the more information about the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, please visit the Mission website.  To contact the Holy See Press Office, please click here.###