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A New York archdiocesan priest who is an official at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been appointed apostolic nuncio to Ireland and has been named an archbishop.
The Vatican announced the appointment Nov. 26 of Msgr. Charles J. Brown, who also was named titular Archbishop of Aquileia. He has served since 1994 at the CDF, which was headed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, before his election as pope in 2005.
The archbishop-designate will act as the Holy See’s ambassador to Ireland and will serve as a liaison with the Catholic Church community there. He faces a delicate situation in Ireland, where anger over clerical sexual abuse and how Church officials dealt with it has caused widespread disaffection with the Church in a country that has been strongly Catholic for centuries.
The previous nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, was recalled by the Vatican in July after Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and others sharply criticized the Vatican’s handling of clerical abuse.
The appointment of Archbishop-designate Brown to such a position is unusual because he is not a diplomat, Vatican officials said. Some observers noted that the CDF has overall responsibility over cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors, and said the Vatican appears to expect the nuncio to play a key role in the healing of the scandal.
New York priests who spoke with CNY praised the archbishop-designate wholeheartedly.
“It’s a superb appointment, and it’s a bold stroke because he is not a diplomat,” said Father Leonard Villa, vicar of Yonkers and pastor of St. Eugene’s. He added that the new nuncio will do an exceptional job because “he’s prudent, he’s very intelligent and he has the trust of the Holy Father.”
Archbishop-designate Brown, 52, was born in Manhattan, grew up in Windham and studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie. Father Michael P. Morris, archdiocesan archivist, was one of his seminary classmates. He told CNY he was overjoyed at the news. He said that Archbishop-designate Brown is witty and personable, but also “a man of great holiness, a man of prayer.”
“He has wisdom beyond his years,” Father Morris said. “He’s a model priest, and he’ll be a model archbishop.”
He added that the archbishop-designate is especially well-suited to his new position because of his work with the CDF, which has given him “familiarity with the sufferings and difficulties of the Church in Ireland over the past few years.”
“He will come in with a lot of experience in dealing with these issues,” Father Morris continued. “He also will be a great agent of healing. He brings a youthfulness and a joy that will really help in the regeneration of the Church in Ireland.”
Father Morris remarked that he knew from the beginning that his classmate was headed for distinguished service.
“I always knew he would have a very important leadership role in the Church…yet he didn’t set himself apart,” Father Morris said. “There’s a real sense of humility about him. He’s fun to be around; he’s convivial, joy-filled, a great conversationalist.”
Archbishop-designate Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Notre Dame. He holds graduate degrees in theology from Oxford University, in medieval studies from the University of Toronto and in sacramental theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant’Anselmo in Rome. Before entering the seminary he taught for a year at La Salle Academy in Manhattan, and after ordination he served for two years as parochial vicar at St. Brendan’s in the Bronx.
After coming to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1994, he worked in the doctrinal section. In 2004 he also became an adjunct secretary of the International Theological Commission.
The Irish Times said in an editorial that the new nuncio has two significant advantages over his predecessors.
“As an Irish American, he will have an intuitive understanding of the Catholic people of this state and of this island,” it said. “As a man who has served at the (CDF) for 17 years, he will be deeply familiar with the issue that has plagued the Irish Catholic Church for almost two decades.”
Since 2005, the Irish Catholic Church and various dioceses have been the subject of four different independent inquiries into physical and sexual abuse and its cover-up. Irish Catholics are awaiting the report of an apostolic visitation ordered by Pope Benedict XVI and conducted by senior prelates, including Archbishop Dolan and Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston.
The Vatican has announced that it expects to publish an “overall synthesis indicating the results and the future prospects highlighted by the visitation” in early 2012.
Catholic News Service contributed to this story.
