After nearly four years of service, Monsignor David Charters, the coordinator of the peace and security team, will be leaving the Mission in anticipation of taking up a new assignment. A native of the north west of England, he was ordained for the Diocese of Shrewsbury in 2008. After receiving further training, he joined the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See and was posted to the Central African Republic. His time in New York was his second appointment. At the end of the month, he will be replaced by another English priest, Monsignor Robert Murphy of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. More information about the two diplomats can be found below.
Two members of staff at the Catholic Union, Aaron Humphriss and Daisy Vanderputt, served as interns of the Mission during Monsignor David’s term.
Monsignor David Charters
Msgr. Charters arrived in September 2018 to coordinate the Peace and Security sector at the Mission, which encompasses the Security Council together with the First (Disarmament) and Fourth (Special Political Questions) Committees of the UN General Assembly.
A native of the northwest of England, Msgr. Charters was ordained a priest in 2008 for the Diocese of Shrewsbury after several years of philosophy and theology studies in Rome as a seminarian of the Venerable English College and student at the Gregorian University. For three years, he worked as a parochial vicar in Altrincham, England, before his bishop surprised him by asking whether he would want to return to Rome to resume studies with a view to working for the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See. Three years later, he entered the diplomatic corps and was assigned to the Central African Republic, where he worked for four years and helped organize the visit of Pope Francis in 2015. In July 2018, he was surprised again when he was asked for his second assignment to come to serve at the Holy See Mission, leaving Bangui for New York City and bilateral diplomacy for multilateral.
Asked about the highlights of his time at the Mission, he said, “Without a doubt, the work with the interns and the experts. I have learned so much from both and been inspired by their generosity and readiness to support our work.” He said as he has been packing, he’s read several of the departing letters of previous interns. “Their words still move me,” he exclaimed. “I’m so proud of them and humbled to have been able to be a priest to them.”
He said he will miss the Mission’s “warmth and familial atmosphere,” to which he said he’s tried to contribute, as well as the “priestly fraternity” with Nuncios and priests with which he’s served. He will also miss the in-person meetings at the Security Council, the presentations of the various delegations and “some of the non-verbal communication!”
He added that he has really loved New York, beginning with “the wonderful people I have met,” including in the pastoral experiences he’s had in the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Diocese of Bridgeport, and with the Missionaries of Charity. He said he’ll miss Central Park, which he called, “my breathing space,” as well as the skyline, which “still takes my breath away” and which he compared to “looking at St. Peter’s,” which one never tires of doing.
He will return to home to England for a few months before receiving his next diplomatic assignment for the Holy See.
“Our Superiors in Rome very kindly met my request to take a little time out,” he said. “I feel as if I have been running since 2011. The Academy [the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the Holy See’s diplomatic school] was intense, followed by four years in Bangui, which in spite of being some of the best in my whole life came with their own challenges. We did lockdown before it was a thing! Then coming here, literally from one extreme to another with just a plane ride in between, where we have plenty to do and it never seems to be enough! So it seemed wise to take a short break before transitioning to the next assignment, like stepping back to jump further.”
Over the next few months he will spend some time with his Bishop in Shrewsbury and work on the “long-overdue publication” of his thesis. He will also have a chance to spend Lent and Easter sharing in the liturgical life of the Shrewsbury Cathedral.
He said he’s looking forward to the short break, which starts Feb. 26.
“Reading recently a beautiful book by Cardinal Robert Sarah, I was reaffirmed in a desire for some time of spiritual renewal, as he warns priests of the dangers of activism, a trap we can so easily fall into.” He said he also recalls frequently the words of the Jesuit spiritual director at the Academy, who regularly reminded the future Holy See diplomats, “You were ordained to pray!”
“Everything else, however important or culturally enriching, is accidental,” Msgr. Charters said.
Monsignor Robert Murphy
Monsignor Murphy will be arriving on Feb. 28 to take the place of Msgr. David Charters as head of the Peace and Security sector at the Mission.
He will be arriving after three years of service as first counselor at the Nunciature to India.
He is a native of Solihull in the West Midlands of England, just outside of Birmingham. He studied literature and civil law at Cambridge University and then entered seminary, obtained bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and theology at the Institut Catholique in Paris and then was sent by Bishop Maurice Couve de Murville of Birmingham to obtain a license in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 2001.
In 2004, he was sent by his bishop to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy where he received a doctorate in fundamental theology at the Gregorian. In 2007, he officially entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See and was sent successively to serve at the the nunciatures to Colombia, Argentina, Italy and Germany. In 2013, he was assigned to Rome where he worked as the personal secretary to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Holy See Secretary of State, for six years.
Staff biographies taken from the Newsletter of the Holy See Mission to the United Nations, New York, dated 5 February 2022. You can register to receive updates on its website.