The Congregation for the Oriental Churches has announced that the cardinal prefect, Leonardo Sandri, has accepted the invitation to preside at the episcopal consecration in Istanbul, Turkey, of Msgr. Ruben Tierrablanca Gonzalez, O.F.M., vicar apostolic of Istanbul and apostolic administrator of the exarchate for faithful of Byzantine rite.
The programme includes his participation in the Divine Liturgy in the Phanar, upon invitation by His Holiness Bartholomew, in the morning of Saturday, 11 June, the Patriarch’s name-day. The feast day of St. Bartholomew is also marked that day by the Latin Church.
Since about 1600, the Church of St. George in the Phanar district of Istanbul has been the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In the afternoon, in the Latin Cathedral, the Eucharistic celebration with the ordination of Msgr. Tierrablanca will take place. The co-celebrants will be Archbishop Lorenzo Piretto, O.P., metropolitan of Izmir, and Bishop Paolo Bizzeti, S.J., vicar apostolic of Anatolia.
On Sunday 12 June, Cardinal Sandri will preside at the Holy Mass at the “Ma Maison” residence, managed by the Little Sisters of the Poor, for elderly residents, to be joined by a group of young Syrian and Iraqi refugees, normally assisted by the Salesians of Istanbul. The prelate will then lunch with all the Catholic Ordinaries of Turkey.
The Cardinal will be accompanied on his trip by Msgr. Angelo Accattino, ad interim chargé d’affaires of the apostolic nunciature in Turkey, and will stay at the local seat of the Papal Representation, which was the residence of the apostolic delegate Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, later Pope St. John XXIII.
