First visit of Papal Nuncio to town in 63 years

By Kieran O’Mahony

SKIBBEREEN will host a visit of a Papal Nuncio for the first time in 63 years, in January. 

The Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, (pictured) who was born in New York and appointed to the position in 2011, has accepted an invitation from Fr Kelleher to launch a visitor’s guide to St Patrick’s Cathedral, which will take place following 11.30am mass on Sunday January 22nd 2017.

‘We’re highly honoured that Archbishop Brown is coming to Skibbereen to launch this guide and it is expected he will say mass before launching the guide, as well as taking a formal tour of the Cathedral,’ Gerald O’Brien, one of the authors of the guide, told The Southern Star.

The guide, which was drawn up Gerald and Philip O’Regan and edited by Fr Kelleher, will offer visitors an insight into St Patrick’s Cathedral, as well as explaining the background to it.

The funding for the guide, which took two years to complete, came as a result of a bequest by the late Monsignor Michael J Coughlan, who was originally from Skibbereen and was based in San Diego before he died.

The last Papal Nuncio to visit Skibbereen was Archbishop Gerald Patrick O’Hara, who came in 1954.