Papal nuncio faces tough task in mending relations

ROME
The Irish Times

PADDY AGNEW in Rome

Archbishop Charles Brown does not see his role as leading a reform of the Irish church

US ARCHBISHOP Charles John Brown, the new papal nuncio to Ireland, admits he knows little about Ireland and has “a lot to learn”.

His only experience of this country came via two short holidays in the early 1980s when, while studying theology at Oxford, he took the Holyhead boat to Dublin to visit a US friend and his Irish girlfriend for Christmas.

That short visit, however, left him with a very favourable impression. His friends were living in Roundwood, Co Wicklow, which was not well connected from the public transport viewpoint. Thus the future nuncio, complete with the de rigeur student backpack, set out to hitchike his way to Roundwood.

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