Pope Benedict has appointed a Dublin priest as one of his top media advisers, it was announced today.
Monsignor Paul Tighe, director of the Office for Public Affairs in the Archdiocese of Dublin, is to become secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
The council is responsible for the Catholic Church's contact with the media. Mgr Tighe will work under the president of the council Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli.
The Vatican is reviewing the policy on how it communicates with the mass media.
Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said Mgr Tighe is a priest of "great competence," adding: "I am glad that he will have the possibility now to place his talents at the service of the Universal Church," he said.
A native of Navan in County Meath, Mgr Tighe graduated from UCD in 1979 with a degree in law. Having studied for the priesthood in Holy Cross College in Clonliffe and at the Irish College in Rome, he was ordained a priest of the Dublin Diocese in 1983.