Death of the Most Reverend William Aquin Carew

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Most Reverend William Aquin Carew died on May 8, 2012, at St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Born in 1922, and ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. John’s in 1947, he served from 1947 to 1950 as personal secretary of the future Cardinal lldebrando Antoniutti when he was Apostolic Delegate to Canada. After studying at the Pontificia Academia Ecclesiastica, 1950-1952, he returned to St. John’s to serve as secretary to Archbishop P.J. Skinner, 1952-1953, before entering the service of the Secretariat of State in 1953. From 1963 to 1969, he was bureau chief of its English-language section, before being appointed Apostolic Delegate to Rwanda and Burundi. In April 1972, Archbishop Carew was sent as the Pope’s extraordinary envoy on a special mission to Bangladesh. In 1974, he was named Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine (including Israel and Jordan, with residence in Jerusalem), as well as Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Cyprus and Apostolic Visitor to Greece. He was subsequently appointed Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Japan in 1983. After retiring in 1997, he returned to his native Newfoundland.