Michael Courtney was an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church.
14 Facts About Michael Courtney
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Michael Courtney entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1980 and was given the rank of archbishop and was named Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi in 2000.
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Michael Courtney died from gunshot wounds sustained during a violent attack, believed to be unrelated to Burundi's civil war.
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Michael Aidan Courtney was born in Summerhill, Nenagh, County Tipperary, as the youngest of seven children of Louis and Elizabeth Courtney.
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Michael Courtney attended Clongowes Wood College, Clonfert Seminary, studied for 1 year in University College Dublin before going to the Irish College in Rome.
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Michael Courtney was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Clonfert on 9 March 1968.
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Michael Courtney worked as a curate until 1973, before becoming a chaplain at the Tynagh mines while teaching at St Raphael's College, Loughrea.
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Michael Courtney entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on 25 March 1980, and worked in nunciatures in South Africa, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and Egypt.
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Michael Courtney received episcopal ordination on 12 November 2000, at St Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh from Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, with Bishops John Kirby and William Walsh as co-consecrators.
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Michael Courtney played a crucial role in facilitating a peace agreement in November 2003 between the Burundian government and the main opposition Hutu group.
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Michael Courtney was anticipating a new assignment as nuncio to Cuba, where he had established a warm relationship with Fidel Castro.
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Michael Courtney suffered gunshot wounds to the head, shoulder and leg and died from hemorrhaging during surgery at The Prince Louis Rwagasore Hospital in Bujumbura.
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Minister for Defence, Michael Courtney Smith, represented the Government of Ireland at the Mass and burial.
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Michael Courtney was buried in Dromineer, on the shores of Lough Derg, County Tipperary, near his native Nenagh.