Visit of the Papal Nuncio

Upon his arrival to the Philippines, the Apostolic Nuncio, Most Rev.  Charles Robert Brown visited Mary, Mother of Good Counsel Parish on November 29, 2020. His visit to our church was on account of his great devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel whose icon originated in Albania, the Nuncio’s immediate past assignment. He was accompanied by our bishop, Msgr Jesse Mercado and Kalookan bishop Msgr Pablo Virgilio David.

Born Oct. 13, 1959, in New York, Brown graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1981, where he majored in history. He holds graduate degrees in theology from Oxford University, in medieval studies from the University of Toronto and in sacramental theology from the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1989 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and served from 1989 to 1991 as vicar at a parish in the Bronx.  Archbishop Brown had worked from 1994 to 2011 at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger until his election as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. The doctrinal congregation has overall responsibility over cases of clerical sex abuse of minors. He  was named Titular Archbishop of Aquileia and Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland on 26 November 2011 and was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI on 6 January 2012.  In 2017, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Albania, a post he served for three years. Pope Francis appointed him Nuncio to the Philippines on Sept. 28, 2020.

An apostolic nuncio (also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization.  One of their better known roles is coordinating the search for new bishops, querying the country’s bishops, soliciting information and reaction from people who know the potential candidate and forwarding the names of possible bishops to the Vatican before the Congregation for Bishops makes its recommendations and the pope makes his choice.

A nuncio is appointed by and represents the Holy See, and is the head of the diplomatic mission, called an Apostolic Nunciature, which is the equivalent of an embassy.