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Pope Francis confirmed the head of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and named among its new members Australian Cardinal George Pell, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, and Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis.
The Vatican announced Saturday that the pope confirmed Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz as prefect of the congregation, the Vatican office that oversees the world's religious orders.
The new members also include: Cardinals Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City; Luis Tagle of Manila; Bishop John Corriveau of Nelson, British Columbia; and Bishop Kieran O'Reilly of Killaloe, Ireland.
Pope Francis also reappointed 11 members to another five-year term, including: Cardinals Francis George of Chicago; Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa; Sean O'Malley of Boston and Jesuit Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Jesuits worldwide.
The pope also confirmed French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran as president and Comboni Fr. Miguel Ayuso Guixot as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
The new members include Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad. The pope also named new consultants to the interreligious council, including Benedictine Fr. William Skudlarek, a member of St. John's School of Theology Seminary in Collegeville, Minn., and secretary-general of the international Monastic Interreligious Dialogue; as well as two women: Sr. Carmen Sammut, the Maltese superior general of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa; and Ilaria Morali, an Italian professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.
Also Saturday, Pope Francis confirmed the top leadership of the Pontifical Council for Culture, including its president, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. He also confirmed all of the council's members and consultants until the end of their original five-year mandates.
The pope named new member to the council, including: Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference; English Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments; and Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
