Italian Archbishop Pietro Sambi, appointed Vatican Nuncio to the United States by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, died July 27th at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. Born in Sogliano al Rubicone, Italy in 1938, Archbisop Sambi was ordained to the priesthood in 1964, and served as Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Burundi, Indonesia, and Cyprus. He became the Vatican's second ambassador to Israel, following the establishment of diplomatic relations with that country in 1994. He was greatly beloved as a papal diplomat, and radiated warmth and a true kinship with the people to whom he brought a living faith in the Risen Lord. Speaking about Archbishop Sambi's role as the personal representative of the Holy Father, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, President of the USCCB, said that Archbishop Sambi possessed "both a keen sense of diplomacy cultivated through many years of service in the Vatican diplomatic corps, especially in Israel, and a pastoral sensitivity cultivated through his many years as a faithful and devoted priest. Those who met or listened to archbishop Sambi understood that at the heart of all he did was this love of the priesthood and of Christ the Good Shepherd."