Eugene Nugent

Styles of Eugene Nugent
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Archbishop
Posthumous style	not applicable

Eugene Martin Nugent JCD (born 21 October 1958) is the Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti. He had previously served as nuncio to Madagascar and Apostolic Delegate to the Comoros and to Reunion since 13 February 2010. Before he bacme a nuncio he previously served in Madagascar with the rank of Counsellor of Nunciature.^[1]

Nugent was born in Gurtaderra Scariff County Clare, Ireland on 21 October 1958. He attended Clonusker National School and Scariff Community College. He studied for the priesthood in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth where he received a B.A. in Celtic Studies from the NUI). He then went on to the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, taking his Baccalaureate in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained a priest on 9 July 1983 and incardinated in the diocese of Killaloe and completed a Licentiate in Canon Law after ordination.^[2] He was appointed as a curate in Ennis and ministered in the parish from 1984 to 1987. He was called to Rome where from 1988 until 1991, he worked in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of the State. In 1992, he completed his doctorate in canon law at the Gregorian University. In the same year, he graduated from the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on 1 July 1992. He then worked in the papal diplomatic missions in Turkey, Jerusalem and the Philippines. He speaks Irish, English, French, German and Italian. From 2001 until 2010 Msgr Nugent headed the Holy See Study Mission in Hong Kong, working with then-Archbishop Fernando Filoni. During this time he had responsibility for communications between the Chinese dioceses and the Vatican.^[3]

On 13 February 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Madagascar and Apostolic Delegate to the Comoros (papal representative to the Catholic communities in both countries but accredited only to the government of Madagascar) and Titular Archbishop of Domnach Sechnaill (Dunshaughlin) County Meath, Ireland. On 11 March 2010, he was named also Apostolic Delegate to Mauritius and Seychelles. Archbishop Nugent was ordained to the episcopacy in Rome on 18 March 2010. The principal consecrator was Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Secretary of State.^[2] To celebrate the promotion of the new archbishop, many communities of the Chinese Church - both official and underground - celebrated special masses to pray for Archbishop Nugent as he was being ordained at the Vatican. The day after his ordaination, Mgr. Nugent celebrated his Mass of thanksgiving in the Pauline Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Speaking to the faithful, he said: "It's a great honour for me to become bishop of the Church and the Pope's ambassador. But it's also a great responsibility: that is why I ask you to continue praying for me and with me, so I can continue the mission of the Church". The ten years of work with the Church in China, he added, "I consider one of the greatest blessings that I have been granted in life." According to the Joseph Cardinal Zen, "Mgr. Nugent was the de facto Nuncio in China: he arrived in Hong Kong without any diplomatic status, was almost unknown to the Catholic community and to society.

^[4]

As his episcopal motto he chose "Quodcumque dixerit facite" (Do whatever he says), taken from the Gospel of St John 2:5.^[5]

Bishop Willie Walsh, welcoming the news, said, "Archbishop-elect Nugent is a gifted and well respected priest who has given great service to the Diocese of Killaloe and to the Holy See. All of us in the Diocese are filled with joy at the trust that Pope Benedict has placed in him to be his representative to the peoples of Madagascar, La Réunion and the Comoros Islands. I pray that God’s spirit will strengthen him as he takes up his new ministry" ^[2]

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