Pope Benedict XVI has recently appointed Scariff native, Monsignor Eugene Nugent, as Papal Nuncio to Madagascar and also Apostolic Delegate in La Réunion and the Comoros.

Monsignor Nugent will be ordained to the episcopacy in Rome on March 18 and has been given the titular see of Domnach Sechnaill (Dunshaughlin) in Meath with the title of Archbishop.
Commenting on Monsignor Nugent’s new appointment, Bishop of Killaloe Dr Willie Walsh 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.”
Monsignor Eugene Martin Nugent was born in Gortaderra, Scariff, on October 21, 1958, and attended Clonusker National School and Scariff Community College. He studied for the priesthood in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he received a BA in celtic studies.
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 for the Diocese of Killaloe on July 9, 1983, and completed a licentiate in canon law after ordination.
He was later appointed as a curate in Ennis and ministered in the parish from 1984 to 1987. Thereafter he worked in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of the State of Vatican between 1988 and 1991.
In 1992, he completed his doctorate in canon law at the Gregorian University and that year he graduated from the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and entered the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See.
Since his graduation, Monsignor Nugent has served in Turkey, Israel and the Philippines.
For his ordination to the Episcopacy in Rome, the monsignor has chosen the phrase, “Quodcumque dixerit vobis, facite” as his episcopal motto, which is taken from the Gospel of St John and translates as “Do whatever he tells you”, the words that Our Lady addressed to the stewards at the wedding feast of Cana.