Manila: Pope Francis on September 28 appointed Archbishop Charles John Brown as the new nuncio to the Philippines.
The appointment was made public at noon in Rome.
Archbishop Brown was born in New York on October 13, 1959, and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York on May 13, 1989.
From 1994, he was an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in the Vatican.
Consecrated Archbishop on January 6, 2012, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland on November 26, 2011, and Apostolic Nuncio to Albania on March 9, 2017.
The new nuncio succeeds to Archbishop Gabriele Caccia who was last December appointed as the new permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.
Philippine bishops had praised Archbishop Caccia for facilitating the appointment of 18 new bishops since 2017.
During his short two-year stint in the country, Archbishop Caccia visited many parishes and dioceses in the remote regions.
Upon his departure from the Philippines, as he had said, “I don’t think I will find anywhere in the world people as friendly, as smiling, as open, as affectionate and so devoted as here in the Philippines.”
The Philippines is a Catholic-majority country in Asia. In 2022, it will mark 500 years of Christian faith’s arrival in the country from Spain.