THE VATICAN HAS named its new Papal Nuncio to Ireland.
American priest the Right Reverend Monsignor Charles J Brown will be the Pope’s envoy, filling the spot vacated by Dr Giuseppe Leanza in July.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told TheJournal.ie that the monsignor’s nomination was given Cabinet approval last Tuesday.
Any ambassador to a country must be first approved by the Government.
The Vatican has said that Brown will take up residence in Ireland, RTÉ reports. That decision comes despite the Government’s closure of the Irish embassy in the Vatican earlier this year.
The 52-year-old Irish-American priest was ordained in New York 1989 but has spent the past 18 years in Rome. However, he is not deemed part of the Vatican’s diplomatic corps.
He has been attached to the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) since 1994 and a chaplain to the Pope since May 2000. The CDF deals with allegations of clerical abuse and Brown’s appointment has been taken as a signal from the Vatican that it wants to mend relationships with Ireland.
Brown is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Oxford University.
The previous Papal Nuncio Dr Leanza was summoned back to the Vatican in July for ‘consultations’ in the aftermath of the publication of the Cloyne Report, which drew a bitter reaction from the public and from political leaders.
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