Pope nominates envoys to Indian anniversaries and World Day of the Sick

December 07, 2012 - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday nominated a personal delegate to two anniversary celebrations of the Catholic community of India next year. Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples will be the Pope’s special envoy to the 50th anniversary of India’s famous Marian shrine of Our Lady of Good Health at Vailankanni as well as the 25th anniversary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, CCBI. The celebrations will be held from Feb. 9 to 11, 2013. The CCBI brings together the Latin-rite bishops of India. The Catholic Bishops Conference of India, CBCI, is the apex body of the Catholic Church of India, which is made up of Latin rite bishops together with two eastern rites - the Syro-Malabar and the Syro-Malankara Churches.
Also to Friday, Pope Benedict announced Polish Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, his special envoy to the Catholic Church’s 21st World Day of the Sick, which will be marked in a special way at the German Marian sanctuary of Altötting on 11 Feb., 2013. The World Day of the Sick is marked each year by the Church on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.