New Vatican envoy to arrive in Manila on Sunday

The new Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Charles John Brown, is set to arrive in Manila over the weekend.

In a communiqué to the bishops, the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila said that Brown is arriving on Sunday, Nov. 29.

Brown is expected to present his credentials to the Philippine government soon thereafter.

Filipino bishops welcomed the scheduled arrival of Brown, as the country is set to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines next year.

“We wish His Excellency a fruitful, meaningful and memorable stay in our country,” Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos said.

The Vatican diplomat will be coming from his home city, New York, where he spent a few weeks break after his tour of duty as nuncio to Albania.

Prior to starting his new mission, Brown also met Pope Francis during a private audience in the Vatican on October 23.

The 61 year old Archbishop Brown was appointed apostolic nuncio to the Philippines by the pope on Sept. 28.

As papal envoy, he will represent the Vatican State to government authorities in the Philippines, while also playing a crucial role in representing the Holy Father to the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

In many Catholic countries like the Philippines, the nuncio is also the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

Brown is not a career diplomat, but in 2011 Pope Benedict XVI named him the papal nuncio to Ireland after several years of working in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The post has been vacant since November 2019 when Archbishop Gabrielle Caccia was named head of the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission in the United Nations in New York. CBCP News