Pope Appoints Cardinal Dias Head of Vatican's Congregation of Evangelization
By Michael Gonsalves, SAR NEWS MUMBAI, Maharashtra (SAR NEWS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Cardinal Ivan Dias, Archbishop of Bombay, as the Prefect of the Congregation of Evangelization of peoples. The announcement was made simultaneously at the Vatican at 11 am and 4 pm, May 20 at the Archdiocese of Bombay office. "The Pope has asked the 70-year-old Cardinal to continue as "administrator" of the largest Catholic archdiocese in the country till he takes charge of his new office at the Vatican headquarters", Father Anthony Charanghat, spokesperson of Archdiocese of Bombay told SAR News. He said the appointment is significant at a time when Christianity was given "wrong and unfair interpretation" in recent times with publication of books like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and the controversial film by the same name. The spokesperson said the Cardinal heading the office was also known as the "Red Pope" because of his influence and jurisdiction over many continents and the nature of the work involved in historical Catholic Church. The office is significant since the 16th century it was engaged in uniting Catholic Church of Rome with various independent Oriental Christian Orthodox Churches in Egypt, Greek, Russia and Protestant Churches (like Lutheran and Calvin) and work towards ecumenical unity of the churches. With a flair for languages, Cardinal Dias knows 18 languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Swahili, Hindi, Marathi and Konkani. Earlier, Cardinal Dias was consulter to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, member of Vatican's Pontifical Council for Cultures and Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for five years. Born in Bandra suburb in Mumbai, he was ordained a priest in 1958. After obtaining a doctorate in Canon Law at the Lateran University in Rome in 1964, he served in the diplomatic service of the Vatican City 33 years, first as secretary in the Papal Ambassadors Offices in the Scandinavian and Nordic countries, Indonesia and Madagascar. Between 1973-82, he was Chief of Desk at the Vatican Secretariat of State for many countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, and finally as the Papal Representative in Ghana, Togo, Benin, South Korea and Albania from 1982-97. He was appointed Archbishop of Bombay in 1996 and made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. He is a member of eight dicasteries (departments) of the Holy See. The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, founded in 1622, is the Vatican's department entrusted with the co-ordination of programmes aimed at spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ in territories where Christianity is still young. At present, this would cover about 64 million square kilometers in the five continents where the Catholic population totals 185 million. In this area there are some 1,100 dioceses and other ecclesiastical units, 2,400 bishops in active service or retired, 85,000 priests, 450,000 religious women, 28,000 religious brothers and 1.65 million catechists. Candidates to the priesthood receive spiritual and academic formation in 280 major and 110 minor seminaries with 65,000 major seminarians and 85,000 minor seminarians. In the mission territories the Catholic Church runs 90,000 educational institutes, 1600 hospitals, 6,000 clinics, 780 leprosaria and 24,000 social and welfare institutions. The offices of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples are situated at the famous Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) in the heart of Rome. Photographs from Goa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/popular-views/ _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)
