INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE WITH INDONESIA

Vatican City, 24 June 2014 (VIS) – The secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Fr. Miguel Ayuso Guixot MCCJ, and Fr. Markus Solo S.V.D., attache in the same dicastery for Islam in Asia and the Pacific, will be in Indonesia until 27 June in order to meet with various members of the episcopal Conference, as well as the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and other Catholic institutions engaged in dialogue. They will also visit Indonesia's most important Islamic organisations, notably the Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah, and will also meet the Council of the Ulama.

In the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, this visit has the aim of implementing interreligious dialogue within a context of respect and friendship, as indicated by Pope Francis.

AUDIENCES

Yesterday, the Holy Father received in audience:

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

- Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 24 June 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Msgr. Skiper Bladimir Yanez Calvachi as bishop of Guaranda (area 3,336, population 206,000, Catholics 187,700, priests 34, permanent deacons 6, religious 69), Ecuador. The bishop-elect was born in Machachi, Ecuador in 1972 and was ordained a priest in 1996. He holds a licentiate in dogmatic theology from the Gregorian Pontifical University and has served in a number of pastoral and administrative roles, including priest in various parishes in the archdiocese of Quito, director of the historical archive of the archdiocese,, notary of the ecclesiastical tribunal of First Instance in Quito and chaplain of various higher colleges. He is currently judge in the ecclesiastical tribunal of First Instance in Quito, chancellor of the archdiocesan curia, editor of the archdiocesan ecclesiastical bulletin, member of the metropolitan cathedral chapter, priest of the parish of “San Juan Bautista” in Sangolqui and episcopal vicar of the zone “Valle de los Chillos y Machachi”.