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Fr Bill Leeming, long serving secretary at the Papal Nunciature in Wellington, received a papal award on Friday.
The Apostolic Nuncio to New Zealand, Archbishop Charles Balvo, presented Fr Bill Leeming with a Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal at a ceremony at the Marist Centre in Thorndon where Bill lives.
The Pro Eccllesia et Pontifice medal is also know as the “Cross of Honour” and is given for distinguished service to the Church by lay people and clergy.
Archbishop Balvo said that Bill had served four Nuncios and innumerable secretaries during his years at the Nunciature. He thought it was only fitting that some one who had prepared so many applications for Papal Blessings should himself be recognised with an award.
He said that since Bill retired it’s been a case of sharing Bill’s workload around and following his well practiced and methodical procedures, but he hoped to find a successor soon.
The Nuncio said he enjoyed working with Bill, and that he did a great many things to help the outreach of the Apostolic Delegation in New Zealand, and he did them with love.
Bill began work at the Nunciature in 1994, after a long career in secondary school teaching. He retired earlier this year.
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