Sri Lankan cardinal appointed member of two Vatican departments

(Jan 03, 2011) Several of the new cardinals that Pope Benedict XVI created on Nov. 20 have been called to render their services in the various departments of the Catholic Church’s central administration in the Vatican. Among them is Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, Asia only cardinal among the latest batch of 24 cardinals. Last week, Pope Benedict appointed Cardinal Ranjith a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The Sri Lankan prelate had earlier been Secretary of the Congregation from 2005 until 2009, when he was appointed Archbishop of Colombo. Cardinal Ranjith has also been appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, where he had served as Adjunct Secretary from 2001 until his transfer to Indonesia as Apostolic Nuncio in 2004.