American priest, who worked closely with the Pope, is new Nuncio to Ireland

11/24/2011


A new nunzio to Ireland

The Holy See has chosen someone from outside its diplomatic corps, Mgr. Charles J. Brown, to heal the wounds of the recent paedophilia crisis in Ireland. But will the new Nuncio to Ireland prove to be "the best man" for the job?

gerard o'connell
rome


The new papal nuncio to Ireland is Monsignor Charles J. Brown, a priest from New York archdiocese, who worked closely with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict, for eleven years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Irish Government gave its approval at a Cabinet meeting November 23. The Irish Times broke the news, but Vatican Insider has also gained independent confirmation from other sources. Fr Federico Lombardi, the Director of the Holy See’s Press Office would not comment on the news.

Monsignor Brown has worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1994, and is the Adjunct Secretary of the International Theological Commission. Pope Benedict XVI knows him well, and sources say that in choosing him the pontiff has shown particular “care and concern” for the Irish Church and Irish Catholics, and for Ireland as a state that has had diplomatic relations with the Holy See since 1929.
Described by those who know him as “very personable”, “pleasant and outgoing”, “good company”, Mgr. Brown is a scholar and “very hard working”. “He seems to be a very a good choice”, a source who knows the Irish situation well told Vatican Insider.

Mgr. Brown studied History as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, and afterwards went on read Theology at Oxford University, and did Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. Furthermore, he gained a doctorate in Sacramental Theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome.

It is unusual, but not without precedent, that the Holy See should decide to look outside its diplomatic corps for a suitable nuncio. It did so in this case, sources told Vatican Insider, to ensure that it found “the best man” to be nuncio in Ireland after a particularly tense period in relations between the Irish Government and the Vatican in the wake of the sexual-abuse of minors by priests’ scandal.

Since the major task of the nuncio in any country normally relates to the local Church rather than to the government, this is particularly true for the new nuncio in present-day Ireland where the Church has undergone, and to a degree is still undergoing, a traumatic experience as a result of the abuse scandal.

Mgr. Brown will have to support and promote the renewal of the Irish Church and probably also its structural reorganization in the wake of the recent crisis. He will have to encourage Irish Catholics, and will have to work hard to rebuild the bonds of trust and friendship between Ireland and the Holy See, which have suffered in the recent crisis.

The Irish Government, for its part, has sent the Vatican its nomination for a non-resident Ambassador to the Holy See, and it hopes that Rome will also give its approval very soon.


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