The Most Rev. Patrick Coveney (29 July 1934 – 22 October 2022), Titular Archbishop of Satrianum, was a senior-ranking Irish prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1966 to 2009. He became an archbishop in 1985 and fulfilled several assignments as Apostolic Nuncio, including stints in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, New Zealand, and Greece.
Early years
Archbishop Coveney was born in Tracton, County Cork, Ireland, studied at Maynooth College (obtaining the academic degree of Bachelor of Arts in classical languages and literature), and the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, Italy (obtaining the Licentiate of Sacred Theology), and was ordained, aged twenty-four, as a priest on 21 February 1959 by the archbishop vicegerent (deputy vicar general of Rome) Luigi Traglia in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.
After doing parish work in Kidlington, England, he taught in St. Finbarr's College, the minor seminary of the Diocese of Cork and Ross in Cork from 1960 to 1966.
In September 1966, he went to work in the English-language section of the Secretariat of State in the Vatican. This sometimes involved acting as interpreter at audiences of Pope Paul VI, as when this Pope received the three astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission that first landed human beings on the Moon.
At the Pontifical Lateran University he obtained the degree of Doctor of Canon Law in 1969.
Diplomatic service
To prepare for a diplomatic career he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1969 and entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1971.
On 27 July 1985, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Satrianum and Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Zimbabwe and Apostolic Delegate to Mozambique. He was ordained to the episcopate on 15 September 1985 in the North Cathedral in Cork. The principal consecrator was Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, the Cardinal Secretary of State; the principal co-consecrators were Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, and Bishop Michael Murphy, Bishop of Cork and Ross. In Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, he represented the Holy See at the 8th Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (1–6 September 1986).
On 25 January 1990 he was appointed Nuncio to Ethiopia and also became Apostolic Delegate to Djibouti on 26 March 1992 and on 30 September 1995 Nuncio to Eritrea.
Coveney became Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand, Tonga, the Marshall Islands, and Samoa, and Apostolic Delegate for Oceania on 27 April 1996.