New Head for Consecrated Life Congregation

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 6, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI named Archbishop João Bráz de Aviz of Brasilia, Brazil, 63, as prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The Vatican announced the appointment on Tuesday of the successor of Cardinal Franc Rodé, 76, who retired for reasons of age.

Archbishop Bráz de Aviz has served as head of the Brasilia Archdiocese since 2004. Before this, he served for two years as archbishop of Maringa, Brazil.

The prelate was ordained a bishop in 1994, and also served as an auxiliary in the Vitoria Archdiocese, and later head of the Ponta Grassa Diocese.

Holy See representative

On Wednesday the Vatican reported the appointment of Archbishop Luigi Travaglino, 71, an official of the Secretariat of State, as permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N. Organizations for Food and Agriculture.

These organizations include the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP).

A native of Brusciano, Italy, Archbishop Travaglino has been serving as an apostolic nuncio since 1992.

Also on Wednesday, the Pontiff appointed Monsignor Segundo Tejado Muñoz, an official of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, as undersecretary of the same dicastery.

The Holy Father named a new ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian neuroscientist who is currently teaching at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Health care ministry

The Vatican also announced Benedict XVI's appointment of several members for the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry.

These include several prelates: Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia; Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Mân, archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, Poland; Archbishop Bernard Blasius Moras of Bangalore, India; Bishop Patricio Alo of Mati, Philippines; Bishop Rafael Palmero Ramos of Orihuela-Alicante, Spain; Bishop Stefan Regmunt of Zielona Gora-Gorzow, Poland; and Bishop Luis Artemio Flores Calzada of Valle de Chalco, Mexico.

The Pope also appointed as members of the same dicastery: Camillian Father Renato Salvatore, superior general of the Clerks Regular Ministers to the Sick; Brother Donatus Forkan, prior general of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God; Brother Mario Bonora of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence, president of the Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital of Negrar, Italy, and national president of the Association of Social-Healthcare Institutes in Aris, Italy; Sister Maria Maurizia Giovanna Biancucci, superior general of the Benedictine Congregation of the Reparatrix Sisters of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ; Sister Maria Luisa Colombo of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne-Antide Thouret; Gian Carlo Cesana, member of the academic committee of the Scuola di Direzione in Sanita of the Italian region of Lombardy; Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio Community; Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC); Piero Uroda, president of the International Federation of Catholic Pharmacists (FIPC); and Marylee Meehan, president of the International Catholic Committee of Nurses and Medical-Social Assistants (CICIAMS).

The Pontiff named several prelates as consulters of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Ministry: Archbishop Domenico Calcagno, secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See; Archbishop Piergiuseppe Vacchelli, associate secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and president of the Pontifical Mission Societies; Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Archbishop Peter Liu Cheng-Chung of Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and Bishop Jean Laffitte, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Other consulters to the same dicastery were also named: Monsignor Livio Melina, president of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family; Monsignor Andrea Pio Cristiani, founder of the Shalom Movement; Monsignor Krzysztof Jozef Nykiel, official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau, official of the Pontifical Academy for Life; Father Pierre Jean Welsch, ecclesiastical assistant of the FIPC; Father Maurizio Pietro Faggioni, international ecclesiastical assistant of the FIAMC; Domenico Arduini, director of the obstetric and gynecological clinic of Rome's University of Tor Vergata; Filippo Maria Boscia, president of the Italian Society for Bioethics and Ethics Committees (SIBCE); Vincenzo Buonomo, dean of the faculty of civil law at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University; Christoph von Ritter, director of the Romed Klinik Prien Am Chiemsee in Germany; John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center of Philadelphia; Jean Marie Le Mene, president of the Foundation Jerome Lejeune of Paris, France; Massimo Petrini, vice president of  the Camillianum International Institute of Healthcare Theology in Italy; Jacek Rysz, professor at the faculty of medicine at the University of Lodz, Poland; Roberto Sega, director of general medicine at the hospital of Vimercate, Italy; Antonio Spagnolo, director of the institute of bioethics at Rome's Sacred Heart Catholic University; Stanislaw Szczepan Gozdz, director of the oncological hospital of Kielce, Poland; Mario Angi, head of preventative ophthalmology at the University of Padua, Italy; Marco Bregni, director of the cancer treatment unit at the hospital of St. Giuseppe in Milan, Italy; Daniel Cabezas Gomez, psychiatrist at Rome's Fatebenefratelli Hospital; Augusto Mosca, medical director at the urological department of Rome's CTO hospital; Fabio Rodia, under director of the second orthopedic division of Rome's CTO hospital; Kuo Inn Tsou, president of the faculty of medicine at the Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei, Taiwan; and Rosa Merola, psychologist at Rome's Rebibbia prison.

New evangelization

The Holy Father also named several members for the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

These include: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, Austria; Cardinal Angelo Scola, patriarch of Venice, Italy; Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia; Cardinal Josip Bozanić, archbishop of Zagreb, Croatia; Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Monterrey, Mexico; Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications; Archbishop Nikola Eterović, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops; Coadjutor Archbishop Pierre Marie Carré of Montpellier, France; Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York; Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany; Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti Vasto, Italy; Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, England; Archbishop André-Joseph Mutien Léonard of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium; Bishop Adolfo González Montes of Almeria, Spain; and Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni Narni Amelia, Italy.