Archbishop Luciano Storero, former Apostolic Nuncio in Ireland and Archbishop of the Titular See of Tigimma, dies in Dublin on October 1, 2000.

Storero is born in Pinasca, Italy on September 26, 1926. He is ordained into the priesthood on June 29, 1949. On November 22, 1969 he is appointed Titular Archbishop of Tigimma and the same day is appointed an Apostolic Delegate. He is appointed Apostolic Nuncio on December 24, 1970 to the Dominican Republic. He serves as Pro-Nuncio to Gabon and Cameroon from 1973. He is the Apostolic Nunciature to India from 1976 to 1981. He also serves as Apostolic Nunciature to Venezuela from 1981. On November 15, 1995 he is appointed the tenth Apostolic Nunciature to Ireland. He remains in that position until his death.

It is reported in the United States in January, 2011, as Nuncio to Ireland in 1997, Storero signed a two-page letter that warns the Irish bishops against implementing a policy “that included ‘mandatory reporting’ of suspected abusers to civil authorities.” The policy, which had been approved by the Irish bishops, put the Irish church in opposition to Storero and the Vatican.

That opposition is not reversed at least until Cardinal Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) is put in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II in 2001. At that time the Vatican begins to tip the balance in canon law in favour of the victims. “But has [the Pope] done enough?” asks a report earlier in 2011 on the Irish television network RTÉ. “The Vatican has yet to acknowledge its contribution in creating the problem in the first place … [when] they put the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal over the concerns for the victims [under Storero and before].”

Luciano Storero dies of cancer at Mater Private Hospital in Dublin on October 1, 2000. His remains are removed from the hospital to the St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin where Requiem Mass is celebrated at noon on October 3, 2000, before being transferred to Dublin Airport under Army escort for transport to Italy where he is interred in his home town of Pinasca.