VATICAN CITY, JUNE 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has three new members, hailing from Tanzania, England and Indonesia.
Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Augustine Shao of Zanzibar, Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool, and Bishop Johannes Trilaksyanta Pujasumarta of Bandung, to the dialogue council. The president of the council is Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran.
In other appointments, the Pope named Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, as his special envoy to celebrations marking the 1,000th anniversary of the Diocese of Pecs, Hungary. The events will be held Aug. 23.
The bureau chief of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Monsignor Damiano Marzotto Caotorta, was made the undersecretary of that same congregation.
Finally, Father Alex Kaliyanil, regional superior of the Society of the Divine Word in Zimbabwe, was named archbishop of Bulawayo.
Alex Kaliyanil was born in 1960 in Vallamchira, India, and ordained a priest in 1988.
The Archdiocese of Bulawayo has some 116,000 Catholics in a population of 1.9 million. The faithful are served by 87 priests, 21 permanent deacons and 203 religious.
Some 50% of Zimbabwe’s population follows a mix of Christianity and indigenous beliefs. A quarter are considered truly Christian, and about that same percentage adhere to indigenous religions.
