THE work of an apostolic nuncio is one of the least understood functions in the Catholic Church, and yet its impact on the overall faith life of a country can be fundamental.
Liverpool-born Archbishop Paul Gallagher was appointed apostolic nuncio to Australia in December 2012, following Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto.
Archbishop Gallagher has been in Australia just days, and comes with many hopes, and a very real and considered sense of the mission field he has entered.
His previous two posts have been in physically smaller countries, being apostolic nuncio to Burundi and Guatemala most recently.
“My countries have been getting bigger since I have been a nuncio,” he said.
“Burundi was 26,000 square kilometres, Guatemala 40,000, but what is that compared with Australia?
“Of course the population density is different, but the sheer distances are daunting.”
Having just arrived at the apostolic nunciature in Canberra on March 1, Archbishop Gallagher is starting methodically, aware that urgent matters await him, but also conscious that the work is nuanced and requires careful discernment and reflection.
“The hope of any nuncio is to make a positive contribution to the place where they are sent to serve,” he said.
“At one level, I am here to represent the Holy See and the future Holy Father to the political community and the people.
“From a diplomatic perspective, we are always interested in improving relations and working together.
“I really look forward to working with the bishops and the people of this country.
“I come here to Australia, continuing to live my life of faith as I have before.
“I wish to be of service to the local communities in whatever way that is possible through my work for the Holy Father.
“My work here is only valuable and significant to the point that I confirm and strengthen the local people, who will be here when I’m gone.”
The Church in Australia faces a crucial time, with a number of dioceses without bishops or with bishops at or approaching retirement age.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will also be very much a focus for the Church during Archbishop Gallagher’s time here.
“I am apprehensive about my ability to act usefully and positively in the whole question of sexual abuse and which quite rightly the complaints, denunciation and scandal have demonstrated,” the archbishop said.
“The work in this country in terms of the need for episcopal appointments is also considerable and urgent.
“We hope to move things forward. How-ever, obviously I can’t arrive on Friday and appoint bishops on Monday morning, but we will move as quickly as possible.
“There is the understandable anxiety of some communities in this country, and of course with the retirement of the Holy Father and the changes in the congregations in Rome, it is likely that there may be some backlog.”
It seems however that the new nuncio comes to Australia with much to offer this great Southland of the Holy Spirit.
His quietly enunciated faith in Jesus has carried him through some challenging times indeed.
He is open too about the fact that his background before coming to Australia is proof to him that “God has a sense of humour”.
Born in Liverpool, England, and raised in a Benedictine parish, most thought he would become a monk.
Then he was sent to a Jesuit school, so it was thought he might become a Jesuit.
“In my mid-teens I responded to an appeal for vocations in my home archdiocese, when the vocations shortage started,” he said.
“The vocations director began a campaign for priests and we went to vocations seminars.
“I came to the discernment that I wanted to be a diocesan priest.
“I wanted to share with others the faith that I had discovered and ultimately the great joy and happiness of belief in Jesus Christ.
“The archbishop sent me to Rome when I was 17.
“This is where the proof is that God has a sense of humour because since then I have spent just two years in the UK.
“When I was in the seminary, there was no one from the UK in the diplomatic service. I wasn’t the first ‘head on the block’, but they eventually worked their way down to me.”
Archbishop Gallagher speaks candidly about the adaptation that is required in working in different cultures.
“For example, I had never eaten a bowl of spaghetti before going to Rome,” he said.
“My first post was in Tanzania from 1984-1988, and it was quite difficult to adapt to.
“It was a steep learning curve.
“At that time however, I was very privileged to work with a very active pastoral nuncio, who spent a lot of energy travelling around the country, who created new dioceses and really knew the people.
“He was an incredible workforce. I learnt a lot from him.
“I saw that when the nunciature works well that you can make a contribution and help resolve situations.”
It was experiences such as this and personal gifts that led Archbishop Gallagher to some considerably dangerous posts, most notably, his time in Burundi.
“Burundi was a problematic mission,” he said.
“I was designated in November 2003 to go to Burundi and we were waiting for the authorities to do the Agrément (diplomatic recognition in the country) so that I could begin my diplomatic mission.
“On 29 December of that year, my predecessor was assassinated.
“Obviously, that coloured the beginning of my mission.
“Normally when you become a nuncio, it is a moment of immense joy.
“My appointment to Burundi was overshadowed by Archbishop Michael Courtney’s death.
“The circumstances were pretty grim.
“Going there in April 2004 to take over from where he had done a magnificent job obviously wasn’t easy.
“Again, these things are questions of faith.
“You don’t go to a place merely because you are asked, but you find the motivation through faith.”
Speaking of his time in Guatemala where he has been since 2009, Archbishop Gallagher is well aware of the major difference between his previous post and his new one.
“Here in Australia we all enjoy a degree of security that many Central Americans can only dream of,” he said.
“It was a great joy to be in Guatemala, but the shadow of terrible insecurity and of a people very brutalised by their history was intense.
“One thing I have learned as a nuncio and in the light of faith is that challenges to the Church can be purifying.
“They invite people to put their faith into action.
“We need to ask ‘What is the Lord asking of us in his fidelity to us. What is to be our response?'”
Archbishop Gallagher is bringing to his work these questions, and admits that there are some apprehensions but also signs of light.
“What you call the Year of Grace and the rest of the Church calls the Year of Faith is a moment for all of us to deepen our faith,” he said.
“The Church must be responsible for its failings, and the sinfulness within its frontiers.
“That said, we are all aware that faith depends on things which transcend our daily lives.
“As we try to work in terms of purifying the Church and cleansing the temple we are purifying our faith and then hopefully we can move forward in healing.”
Beth Doherty is communications director for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
