Uruguayan Takes Highest Curia Post Ever Given to Layman

May 18, 2011) A Uruguayan professor, husband and father of four has been given the highest Curial post to be held by a layman in modern history. Pope Benedict XVI named Guzmán Carriquiry as secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. The Pontifical Commission for Latin America is a department of the Roman Curia. Established by Pope Pius XII on 19 April, 1958, it is charged with providing assistance to and examining matters pertaining to the Church in Latin America. The Commission operates under the auspices of the Congregation for Bishops. Carriquiry has worked in the Vatican for four decades. He had been serving as the under-secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. In that role, he succeeded the first woman to hold an executive role in the Curia: Rosemary Goldie, who died in March 2010, and served as undersecretary for the laity council for almost a decade following her 1967 appointment.