The new Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, Mgr Charles Brown, will be conferred with Episcopal ordination by the Pope at Mass in the Vatican this morning and become Archbishop Charles Brown.
During the 9:30am Mass celebrating the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, the Pope will also make Mgr Marek Solczynski, the new Apostolic Nuncio to Georgia and Armenia, Archbishop.
Later, at noon today Italian time, the pontiff will pray the angelus from the window of his study in the Vatican, and address pilgrims.
Archbishop-elect Brown, originally from New York, was appointed to be the Papal Nuncio to Ireland last month. His ordination ceremony this morning will be televised live on EWTN.
The New Yorker’s family, including his mother, will be present.
The new Nuncio served as curate in the Parish of St. Brendan in the Bronx from 1989 when he was ordained a priest at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City until 1991.
From 1994, he worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the branch of the Vatican that oversees church doctrine, which at the time was headed by the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict in 2005.
In naming him as nuncio to serve as the Vatican's ambassador to Ireland, the Pope also elevated Archbishop Brown to the formal title of archbishop of Aquileia, named after an early Christian centre in Italy.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, in a move seen by some as a bridge mending exercise, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, welcomed Pope Benedict XVI’s message for the 45th World Day of Peace 2012 and his theme of Educating Young People in Justice and Peace.
In his address, Pope Benedict had said that he believed a commitment to justice and to peace is fundamental to achieving human rights.
Speaking about the Pope’s message the Taoiseach said that Ireland had demonstrated, “an instinctive respect for peace, justice and human rights” through its participation in the EU, the Northern Ireland peace process, and its engagement with the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations.
“It is absolutely right that these values are transmitted to the next generation. It is the case also that the honour and duty of passing on those values falls to those formally charged with the education of our young and beyond that the whole of society.”
He continued, “Both within our own country, and in the wider world, Ireland is at the fore of those promoting peace, justice, security and development. This is a commitment and an engagement that we take with the utmost seriousness and this is why, this year, for the first time, Ireland is seeking election to the United Nations Human Rights Council.”
Last year, Mr Kenny delivered a scathing attack on the Vatican and later the government closed its embassy there.
While the new ambassador from the Vatican will be based in Dublin, Ireland’s Ambassador to the Vatican, David Cooney, will remain resident at Iveagh House in Dublin.