Archbishop Patrick Coveney – a long-serving Apostolic Nuncio to Aotearoa New Zealand – has died in Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland, aged 88. Archbishop Coveney was Nuncio in Wellington from 1996 to 2005, and by his long service became Dean of the Diplomatic Corps here.
Born in Ireland in 1934, he was ordained as a priest in 1959, and joined the Holy See’s diplomatic service in 1966, serving in many parts of the world. His New Zealand appointment included representing the Vatican in Tonga, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Nauru, the Cook Islands and Palau. After his last diplomatic posting, to Athens, he retired to Crosshaven in 2009, where he assisted in the parish at the invitation of the Bishop of Cork and Ross.
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