Cardinal Arinze and Observer at U.N. Get New Posts in Curia

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 1, 2002 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II has made four key Roman Curia appointments, including Cardinal Francis Arinze as new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The 69-year-old cardinal has been president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He replaces Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez, who resigned last December on his 75th birthday. The Vatican Press Office made the announcements today.

Cardinal Arinze in turn is being replaced on the pontifical council by its secretary, Bishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald, 65. The Pope also raised Bishop Fitzgerald to the dignity of archbishop.

The Pope also appointed Archbishop Renato Martino, 69, the permanent observer of the Vatican to the United Nations in New York, as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He succeeds Cardinal François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân, who died Sept. 16.

Lastly, the Holy Father accepted the resignation, for reasons of age, of Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.

He is succeeded by Bishop Attilio Nicora, the delegate for juridical issues of the presidency of the Italian episcopal conference, who also was made an archbishop.