Photo Courtesy of Vatican News
Archbishop Charles Brown took over Archbishop Gabriele Goirdano Caccia’s position as the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines on Monday, September 28, 2020, filling the post that has been vacant since November 16, 2019.
Archbishop Brown was previously the Apostolic Nuncio to Albania since March 2017. Albania is dominated with the Muslim religion and an officially atheist state for much of the 20th century. He loved Albania as much as Pope Francis who finds joy in the “peaceful coexistence and collaboration that exists among followers of different religions.”
The newly appointed Vatican ambassador to the Philippines was first appointed as a Papal Nuncio in 2011-2012 when Pope Benedict XVI assigned him as a Nuncio to Ireland. He replaced Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza who had been accused by the government for his apathy in the existing clerical sexual abuse in the country.
During his term, he was able to solve the scandals that caused a rift between Ireland and Vatican. Archbishop Charles has played a major role that changed the Church’s response to world-wide sex abuse scandals.
Steve Reifenberg ’81, Archbishop’s roommate in Sorin College in Notre Dame said that as a young man, “he sometimes talked about going to law school or becoming a teacher but there was also a sense of possibility of a religious vocation in the background.”
For 17 years, Brown used to work for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office that watches the Catholic teaching before officially becoming a Papal Nuncio.
