Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig, former Apostolic Nuncio in Italy and in San Marino, was born in Unterems, Switzerland, on 3 February 1947.

He received priestly ordination on 11 April 1974, and was incardinated in the diocese of Sion, Switzerland. He was awarded a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University.

He entered the Holy See Diplomatic Service in 1978, as secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature, serving in Uganda, South Korea, Mongolia and Bangladesh.

On 26 November 1992 the Pope conferred to him the titular of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness.

On 4 May 1996, Pope John Paul II appointed him titular archbishop of Voli and Apostolic Nuncio in Burundi. His episcopal consecration was presided over by Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano on 27 June of the same year.

In 2000 he was appointed Nuncio in Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, Santa Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas; from 2001, also in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 2004 he assumed the Nunciature in South Korea and Mongolia.

In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as Nuncio in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway), with office in Stockholm, and subsequently, on 5 January 2012, as Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina.

From 12 September 2017 to 11 March 2024 He was Nuncio in Italy and San Marino. Cardinal Tscherrig was the first non-Italian to hold the post.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the consistory of 30 September 2023, of the Deaconry of San Giuseppe in Via Trionfale.

Member of: 

• Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
• Dicasteries: for the Causes of Saints; for Evangelization-Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches; for Bishops.