Archbishop Courtney's body arrives home

The body of Archbishop Michael Courtney, the Pope’s Ambassador gunned down in a hail of bullets in Burundi, was received back home in Ireland today.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and senior Catholic Church leaders joined military personnel and relatives to pay tribute to the priest, whose body was flown over from London late last night.

Following a short prayer service at Dublin airport mortuary, the coffin was due to be taken to St Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, Co Galway for Mass.

The priest’s car was sprayed with bullets in an attack blamed on rebel National Liberation Forces who have refused to support the peace process aimed at ending Burundi’s civil war.

The Co Tipperary-born papal nuncio was shot three times 25 miles south of the Burundi capital, Bujumbura on Monday. He died later in hospital.

A priest travelling with him was reportedly slightly injured, while the driver and a hitchhiker were unharmed.

Over a thousands mourners gathered to pay their respects at Bujumbura Cathedral on Wednesday.

Archbishop Courtney is the latest in more than 200,000 people to be killed during a decade of violence in the tiny central African state.

A burial service will take place tomorrow in his home-town of Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

Catholic primate Archbishop Sean Brady said Archbishop Courtney has “paid for his commitment to peace with his life”.

The Vatican has expressed “deep sorrow and dismay” over the killing and Pope John Paul described Archbishop Courtney as a “loyal and unselfish servant of the Church.”

Archbishop Courtney was ordained in 1968, and worked as a parish priest around Ireland until 1976 before joining the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy.

Beginning in 1980, he was a papal representative in South Africa, then in Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Egypt.

Prior to going to Burundi, he worked for five years as special envoy in Strasbourg, France, monitoring the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.