George Joseph Caruana (23 April 1882 – 25 March 1951) was a Maltese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church whose career included parish work, several years as a missionary in the Philippines and as a military chaplain, four years as Archbishop of Puerto Rico, and more than two decades in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
In 1907, he was appointed secretary to the Apostolic Delegate in the Philippines, Mgr. Ambrose Agius, OSB, and he was present at the 1st Provincial Council of Manila in October 1907. After a few months working in the Apostolic Delegation, he left to work as a missionary among semi-savage pagan tribes. After three years he moved to the United States and settled in Brooklyn.[1] He eventually became an American citizen.[2]
Caruana worked in Brooklyn as a parish priest. During World War I he became a chaplain in the United States Armed Forces, serving in the Panama Canal Zone and Puerto Rico until 1919. After the war Caruana became secretary to Dennis Joseph Dougherty, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, who became a cardinal in 1921.[1]
On 22 December 1925 Caruana was appointed the Apostolic Delegate to México and Apostolic Delegate to the Antilles, as well as titular archbishop of Sebastea.[5] Though he planned to make Cuba his residence, he arrived in Mexico in March 1926 just as the government of President Calles launched an anti-Catholic campaign that included enforcement and expansion of the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. On 15 May the government ordered him to leave, citing his failure to identify himself as a clergyman.[2][6][7]
^The Archdiocese of Puerto Rico was reorganized and renamed the Archdiocese of Saint John of Puerto Rico on 21 November 1924.[4]
References
^ abc"Caruana, George (24.4.1882-25.3.1951)". Malta Migration. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2020 – via Michael J. Schiavone and Louis J. Scerri, eds., Maltese Biographies of the Twentieth Century (1997).
