CARDINAL IVAN DIAS APPOINTED PREFECT OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF
PEOPLES
(May 20, 2006): Pope Benedict XVI has appointed an Indian cardinal to the top Vatican
post in charge of the Catholic Church’s missionary activities worldwide. The Vatican
on Saturday announced the appointment of Cardinal Ivan Dias, Archbishop of Bombay,
as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The 70-year old
prelate is the second Indian cardinal to be appointed to a top Vatican department,
after now-retired Cardinal Simon Lourdusamy who headed the Congregation for Oriental
Churches from 1985 to 1991. Cardinal Ivan Dias succeeds Italian cardinal Crescenzio
Sepe, who has been appointed archbishop of Naples, in the southern Italy. Cardinal
Dias was born in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, on April 14, 1936, and was ordained to the
priesthood in 1958. From 1961 –‘64 he studied at Rome’s Pontifical Ecclesiastical
Academy which trains future Vatican diplomats. While obtaining a degree in canon
law from Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University in 1964, he worked with the Vatican
Secretariat of state planning for the Pope Paul VI’s visit to Bombay that year for
the International Eucharistic Congress. A veteran Vatican diplomat, Cardinal
Dias has an impressive record in the Holy See’s missions abroad, mostly in mission
countries of Africa and Asia. From ’65 to ’73 he served in Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Iceland, Finland, Indonesia, Madagascar, Reunion, Comoros and Mauritius. From 73’
to 82’ he served at a higher level in the Baltic States, Bielorussia, Ukraine, Poland,
Bulgaria, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland,
Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania. In 1982,
with his appointment as Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, Togo and Benin, he was ordained
a bishop. From ‘87 to ‘91, he was Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to South Korea, after which
he was transferred to Albania in 1997 as Apostolic Nuncio. This was a crucial phase
in the history of the Balkan nation. Pope John Paul II visited Albania 1993 and reinstated
the Church hierarchy in the world's self-declared atheistic nation ordaining 4 new
bishops. In 1996 Cardinal Ivan Dias was appointed Archbishop of Bombay, succeeding
Cardinal Simon Pimenta who retired. Late Pope John Paul created him cardinal in
2001. Currently, Cardinal Ivan Dias is member of three Vatican congregations –viz,
the Doctrine of the Faith, Divine Cult and the Discipline of the Sacraments and Catholic
Education. He is also member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Councils – for Culture
and the Laity, as well member of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage
of the Church, the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See and of the
council of cardinals studying problems related to the organization and finance of
the Holy See.