He entered the diplomatic service of the
Holy See on 1 July 1992. He worked in the papal representations in
the Ivory Coast and the United States, and in the Section for Relations with States of the
Secretariat of State as well as in the apostolic nunciatures in Italy and Serbia. He received his episcopal consecration from
Tarcisio Bertone on 9 October 2010. Asked about the
2014 US airstrikes in response to the advance of ISIS, Lingua said: "This is something that had to be done, otherwise [the Islamic State] could not be stopped. But, we should wonder why we have arrived at this point: was it not a lack of intelligence? Were we not able to understand what was going on? And then: who gave these [Islamic State fighters] such sophisticated weapons?" On 17 March 2015,
Pope Francis named him Apostolic Nuncio to
Cuba. On 22 July 2019, Francis named him Apostolic Nuncio to
Croatia. On January 22, 2026,
Pope Leo XIV named him as nuncio to
Israel and
Apostolic Delegate to
Jerusalem and Palestine. ==See also==