Cardinal Ouellet Appointed Prefect of Bishops’ Congregation, President of Latin America
Commission
(July 01, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI has made major appointments in the Vatican after the retirement of two Cardinals and has created a new pontifical Council. On Wednesday, 30th of June, the Pope appointed Cardinal Marc Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec, as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. The Congregation for Bishops is responsible for selecting new bishops, planning the Papal audiences during the Episcopal five-yearly visits to Rome, and organizing the creation of new dioceses. The Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which falls under this congregation, deals with matters concerning the Church in that region. Cardinal Ouellet, 66, succeeds Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 76, who resigned for reasons of age. Ordained a priest for the Amos Diocese, Canada in 1968 was sent to Bogota, Colombia, to teach philosophy in the seminary, where he joined the Sulpicians. He obtained his doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome. Pope John Paul II appointed him secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in March 2001and was ordained a bishop. In 2002 Bishop Ouellet was appointed archbishop of Quebec, and a few months later, he was named a cardinal.
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Swiss Bishop Kurt Koch of Basel as the new head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, the Vatican office that oversees relations with other Christians and Jews, in place of its current head, the retiring Cardinal Walter Kasper. Bishop Koch has served as a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity since 2002 and has been a member of the international Catholic-Orthodox theological commission and a member of the international Catholic-Lutheran dialogue commission.
The Pope has appointed 72 year old medical doctor and philosopher, Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula from Spain who had served as chancellor of the academy as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, in place of 59 year old Italian Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella who is appointed as the first president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.
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