AUSTRALIA : NEW APOSTOLIC NUNCIO - ARCHBISHOP GALLAGHER

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese REPORT
12 Dec 2012


Archbishop Paul Gallagher named as Australia's new Apostolic Nuncio
Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher has been named as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Australia by Pope Benedict XVI.
The 58-year-old prelate takes over from the former nuncio to Australia, Archbishop Guiseppe Lazzarotto who took up his new Papal appointment as nuncio of Cyprus in August this year.
Archbishop Gallagher was born in Liverpool, UK, educated at St Francis Xavier's College and was ordained on 31 July 1977 by Archbishop Derek Worlock, the then Archbishop of Liverpool.
With a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, the English Archbishop became a member of the Holy See's diplomatic service in May 1984.
Fluent in French, Italian and Spanish, Archbishop Gallagher held diplomatic posts in Tanzania, Uruguay, the Philippines, Vatican Secretariat of State and at the Council of Europe where he was based in Strasbourg.
In 1997 he was appointed Counselor First Class while working at the Nunciature in Burundi. This was followed in January 2004 when he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Hodelm and named Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi. His time in Burundi, the landlocked nation in central Africa was tumultuous and in 2008 his residence was bombed as the country underwent a further period of unrest.

Former nuncio to Australia Archbishop Guiseppe Lazarrotto is now Apostolic Nuncio to Cyrprus
In February 2009, Archbishop Gallagher left Africa to take over as Apostolic Nuncio to Guatemala where he is currently serving.
The Vatican made the announcement of the Holy Father's appointment of Archbishop Gallagher to Australia last night.
Australia's new nuncio is expected to arrive here early in January.
Archbishop Gallagher will be the 15th Apostolic Nuncio of Australia and is the first non-Italian nuncio to be named to the post.
Since the first appointment by the Holy See of Bishop Bonaventura Cerretti in (1914-17) as nuncio to Australia, all the ensuing nuncios were Italian.
But last night Pope Benedict XVI broke with tradition and named Australia's first-ever English-born prelate as the new nuncio to Australia.
 
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY

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