Permanent Representative to the UN, New York John Paul Kavanagh of Ireland

Kavanagh was born in 1925 in County Kilkenny in Ireland.

Diane Kavanagh described meeting Pope John Paul the Second.

Since Kavanagh knew Italian and had studied in Rome, he was placed in the enviable position of translator between the Pope and Terence Cardinal Cooke, the archbishop of the New York archdiocese.

Kavanagh said he did manage to exchange a few words of his own with the Pope, who frequently breaks the ice when speaking to priests by engaging in small talk.

Kavanagh said there are only two priests in the diocese who have lived during the papacies of eight popes, beginning with Pope Pius X, who died in 1914.

Kavanagh said he also saw Pope John XXIII in Rome in 1961 and was standing two feet away from him during a papal audience at the Vatican.

Kavanagh said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals and the principal celebrant during the papal funeral liturgy, is his choice for the next pope.

Kavanagh is regarded as one of New York's leading fundraisers.

Kavanagh lived in Rome from 1988 to 1991 and once celebrated Mass with the pope.

Dr Mahiga and Mr Kavanagh said in the report that the experience of Delivering as One to date at country level was clearly and preponderantly positive, even if a number of challenges remained to be addressed.