Happy Nunciature, Charlie Brown -- Pope Formally Taps CDF Aide as Irish Legate

And so it is... just like our ops said it would be.

Indeed, gang, we can't forget the breeze, most of the time....

And so it is: as first relayed on these pages Thanksgiving Eve, at Roman Noon on what would've been Charles M. Schultz's 89th birthday, in a convention-shattering move on multiple fronts, the Pope has named Msgr Charles Brown, 52 -- priest of New York and longtime cherished aide of B16's at the CDF -- as apostolic nuncio to Ireland.

Elevated to the rank of archbishop with the appointment, Charlie Brown's been given the titular see of Aquileia.

A product of Notre Dame, Oxford and Sant'Anselmo, now armed with a blank check for reshaping the troubled, roiled Irish church to B16's specifications, the "urbane," widely well-regarded Gothamite is expected to take up his duties as papal legate to the Republic -- and, in keeping with long-standing custom, dean of its diplomatic corps -- in January. In the meanwhile, among other hurdles awaiting the next occupant of the Vatican mission on Navan Road, separate reports chronicling the history of clergy sex-abuse and cover-up in two more Irish dioceses are tipped for release within days.

In tribute to the moment, here below, the traditional close of the St Patrick's Day Mass in the Big Apple cathedral dedicated to the Apostle of Ireland, where the new legate to the Blessed Sod was ordained a priest in 1989:


As no less than Tim Dolan's already reacted, "hallelujah... praised be Jesus Christ"... and to an archbishop-elect inheriting an immensely challenging situation on almost every side, suffice it to say, go mbeannaí Dia is Muire duit.

As ever, eaglais, more to come.

PHOTO: Deborah Gyapong

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