Pope Benedict XVI hopes to "solidify and strengthen" relations between Ireland and the Hoy See according to the new Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles J. Brown.

Archbishop  Brown,a new York native, formally presented his credentials to the Irish President Michael D Higgins, on Thursday at the president’s resident in Áras an Uachtaráin.

By  taking up office as the representative of Pope Benedict in Ireland, Brown replaces his predecessor Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza who was recalled to the Vatican in the wake of the findings of the Cloyne Report, into sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
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Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore and David Cooney, secretary-general at the Department were present at the ceremony on Thursday.

Fr. Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano, the first secretary at the Nunciature in Dublin, accompanied Archbishop Brown, who first arrived in Ireland in early June following his Episcopal ordination in St Peter’s Basilica on the Feast of the Epiphany, presided over by Pope Benedict XVI, reports the Vatican Radio.

President Michael D Higgins asked the Papal Nuncio to convey the best wishes of the people of Ireland to the Pope.