METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS WHO WILL RECEIVE THE PALLIUM

Vatican City, 25 June 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis will impose the pallium upon the following metropolitan archbishops in this year's ceremony on 29 June, the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul:

1. Patriarch Manuel Jose Macario do Nascimento Clemente, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal

2. Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga, C.S.Sp., of Bangui, Central African Republic

3. Archbishop Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli of Gorizia, Italy

4. Archbishop Claudio Dalla Zuanna, S.C.I., of Beira, Mozambique

5. Archbishop Prakash Mallavarapu of Visakhapatnam, India

6. Archbishop Antonio Carlos Altieri, S.D.B., of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

7. Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski of Lodz, Poland

8. Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, Scotland, Great Britain

9. Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone of San Francisco, California, USA

10. Archbishop Rolando Joven Tria Tirona, O.C.D., of Caceres, Philippines

11. Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera Lopez of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

12. Archbishop Joseph William Tobin, C.Ss.R., of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

13. Archbishop Carlos Maria Franzini of Mendoza, Argentina

14. Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna-Cervia, Italy

15. Archbishop George Antonysamy of Madras and Mylapore, India

16. Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi, India

17. Archbishop John Wong Soo Kau of Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

18. Archbishop Murray Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba, Canada

19. Archbishop Sérgio Eduardo Castriani, C.S.Sp., of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

20. Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, Fiji Islands

21. Archbishop Alfonso Cortes Contreras of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico

22. Archbishop Alexander King Sample of Portland in Oregon, USA

23. Archbishop Joseph Effiong Ekuwem of Calabar, Nigeria

24. Archbishop Jesus Juarez Parraga, S.D.B., of Sucre, Bolivia

25. Archbishop Fabio Martinez Castilla of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico

26. Archbishop Ramon Alfredo Dus of Resistencia, Argentina

27. Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli of Buenos Aires, Argentina

28. Archbishop Gintaras Linas Grusas of Vilnius, Lithuania

29. Archbishop Michael Owen Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa, USA

30. Archbishop Duro Hranic of Dakovo-Osijek, Croatia

31. Archbishop Moacir Silva of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil

32. Archbishop Jozef Piotr Kupny of Wroclaw, Poland

33. Archbishop Sergio Alfredo Gualberti Calandrina of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

34. Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of L’Aquila, Italy

The following archbishop will receive the pallium in his Metropolitan See:

35. Archbishop Francois Xavier Le Van Hong of Hue, Vietnam

POPE TO RECEIVE ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER

Vatican City, 25 June 2013 (VIS) – The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., has issued a communique with the information that next Thursday, 4 July, at 11:00am, the Holy Father will receive Mr. Enrico Letta, Prime Minister of Italy. After their talk the prime minister will meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B.

THEME FOR NEW ASSEMBLY OF SYNOD IN 2015 STUDIED

Vatican City, 25 June 2013 (VIS) – The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, having concluded the institutional proceedings of the 13th Ordinary General Assembly dedicated to the theme “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”, which took place in October of 2012, has begun preparing for the 14th Ordinary General Assembly scheduled for 2015, according to a communique issued today by that secretariat.

The fourth meeting of the 13th Ordinary Council was part of the process of choosing the theme for that Assembly. On 13-14 June of this year, its agenda was to discuss the proposals for a theme that were submitted by the Synods of Bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches “sui iuris”, the episcopal conferences, the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the Union of Superiors General, and institutional organizations consulted in cooperation with the synod's activity.

The discussions began with an address by the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, who referenced the Year of Faith currently in progress during which historical events have taken place, such as the Benedict XVI's renunciation of the Petrine ministry and the subsequent election of the new Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis.

Participating in the work of the fourth meeting of the 13th Ordinary Council were: Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, O.F.M., archbishop of Durban, South Africa; Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia; Cardinal Peter Erdo, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, and president of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE); Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India and secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC); Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Cardinal Donald William Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, DC, USA; Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines; His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kyiv-Halyc, Ukraine; Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy; Bishop Santiago Jaime Silva Retamales, auxiliary of Valparaiso, Chile, and secretary general of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM).

Pope Francis received the participants in an audience on 13 June. Their meeting then continued in two language groups, English and Italian, during which the members were able to examine the criteria and rationale for the choice the the next Assembly's theme with the goal of deciding a few options to be presented to the Holy Father for the final choice. At the same time, the date of the Council's fifth meeting was set for 7-8 October of this year. Work concluded with a prayer, entrusting the synod's future activity to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 25 June 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father appointed Fr. Francesco Piazza as bishop of Sessa Aurunca (area 338, population 89,800, Catholics 87,800, priests 48, permanent deacons 8, religious 62), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Solopaca, Benevento, Italy in 1953 and was ordained a priest in for the Diocese of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant’Agata de’ Goti in 1978. Since ordination, he has served in several pastoral academic, and diocesan-level roles, most recently, since 2002, as the episcopal vicar for the Evangelization and Testimonial section and, since 2004, as director of the Bachelet Centre of Social Studies, which he founded. He is also a tenured professor in the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy (San Luigi of Naples section), member of the College of Consultors and of the Presbyteral Council, theologian canon of the cathedral, master chaplain of the Military Order of Malta, and knight with the function of prior of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. He succeeds Bishop Antonio Napoletano, C.Ss.R., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.