POPE FRANCIS APPOINTS GROUP OF CARDINALS TO ADVISE HIM ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND REVISION PLAN OF APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ON ROMAN CURIA

Vatican City, 13 April 2013 (VIS) – Following is the full text of a communique issued today by the Secretariat of State.

“The Holy Father Francis, taking up a suggestion that emerged during the General Congregations preceding the Conclave, has established a group of cardinals to advise him in the government of the universal Church and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, 'Pastor Bonus'.

The group consists of:

Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State;

Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, archbishop emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Chile;

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India;

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany;

Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo;

Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley O.F.M. Cap., archbishop of Boston, USA;

Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia;

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the role of coordinator; and

Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, Italy, in the role of secretary.

The group's first meeting has been scheduled for 1-3 October 2013. His Holiness is, however, currently in contact with the aforementioned cardinals.”

AUDIENCES

Vatican City, 13 April 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father met in private audiences with:

- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops,

- Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and

- His Excellency Nestor Osorio, president of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 13 April 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father appointed:

- Fr. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah as bishop of Nsukka (area 3,179, population 841,000, Catholics 480,326, priests 213, religious 225), Nigeria. The bishop-elect was born in Imilike Ani, Enugu, Nigeria in 1956 and was ordained a priest in 1984. The bishop-elect was previously vice rector of Rome's Pontifical Urban University and is a consultor of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. He succeeds Bishop Francis Emmanuel Ogbonna Okobo, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Fr. Udumala Bala Show Reddy as bishop of Warangal (area 22,702, population 7,724,845, Catholics 66,385, priests 138, religious 554), India. The bishop-elect was born in Ghanpur, Gudur, India in 1954 and was ordained a priest in 1979. Since ordination the bishop-elect has served in several pastoral and administrative roles, most recently as vice-secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India.

- Archbishop Aldo Cavalli as apostolic nuncio to Libya. Archbishop Cavalli, titular of Vibo, is already nuncio to Malta.

- Archbishop Leon Kalenga Badikebele as apostolic nuncio to Belize. Archbishop Badikebele, titular of Magnetum, was previously apostolic nuncio to El Salvador.