Pope Francis has just appointed a new apostolic nuncio to the Philippines and his name is Archbishop Charles John Brown.

Archbishop Brown will occupy the seat vacated since November 16 of last year. An American born in 1959 in New York City, Archbishop Brown is the oldest in the family of six living in the East Village of Manhattan. He took his Bachelor’s degree in History at the University of Notre Dame and a masters in theology at the University of Oxford in England. Brown finished his Masters in Divinity at the Saint Joseph’s seminary in Yonkers and his Sacramental Theology at the Pontificial University of Saint Anselmo in Rome.

In 1989, he was ordained a priest by Cardinal John Joseph O’Connor and served as assistant priest at Saint Brendan’s parish. From 1994 to his appointment as nuncio, Archbishop Brown served as an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.