"On Sunday, November 12, 2000 in the Church of St. Mary of the Rosary, Nenagh, Rt. Rev. Mgr Michael Aidan Courtney was ordained Archbishop of Eanach Dúin and appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi. The ceremony was celebrated by His Eminence, Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, assisted by Most Reverend John Kirby, Bishop of Clonfert and Most Reverend William Walsh, Bishop of Killaloe.
Monsignor Michael Aidan Courtney was born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary (in the diocese of Killaloe), in 1945, the youngest child of a family of seven of the late Dr. Louis and Elizabeth Courtney. He was educated in Nenagh Primary School, the Christian Brothers and Clongowes Wood College (1956-62). After studying economics and law at UCD for one year, he then transferred to Rome where he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1968 for the diocese of Clonfert.
After ordination, Michael served as curate in Tynagh parish, Co. Galway for five years (1969-73) while also acting as chaplain to Tynagh mines and teaching in St. Raphael's College, Loughrea. He served as curate in Woodford parish for two and a half years (1973-75). During all these seven years, he was also Diocesan Advisor on religious education, responsible for introducing into the diocese of Clonfert new insights into catechetics. Returning to Rome in 1976 for post-graduate studies, after taking out a Licentiate in Canon Law and a Doctorate in Moral Theology, he entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy where he studied political science, international and diplomatic law, among other disciplines. In 1980, he was sent to the Pontifical Representation of the Holy See in South Africa and subsequently to Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia - the only Diplomatic Mission of the Holy See in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin wall - Cuba and Egypt. In 1987 he was awarded an M.A. in legal philosophy by N.U.I. Galway.
For the past five years, Michael has been the Special Envoy of the Holy See to the council of Europe and allied Institutions in Strasbourg. He has directed the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to this oldest of European Institutions (founded in 1949) where the Holy See participates in some sixty European committees of experts. He has also followed the plenary sessions of the European Parliament (the “15” of the European Union) and those of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (the “41” which comprises also the Russian Federation and the Ukraine). Strasbourg is also the seat of the European Court of Human Rights whose judgements and jurisprudence the Mission of the Holy See follows with careful attention. During this time, Monsignor Courtney has also been Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the International Commission of the Civil State and a member of the Governing Board of the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris.
We wish him every blessing and happiness in his challenging mission in Burundi."