Alfrink received his episcopal consecration on the following 17 July from Archbishop Paolo Giobbe, papal internuncio in The Hague, with Bishops Willem Lemmens and Jan Smit serving as co-consecrators, in St. Catherine's Cathedral.
After serving as papal legate to the 1949 National Eucharistic Congress in Ecuador, Forni was named Nuncio to Belgium and Internuncio to Luxembourg on 9 November 1953.