Tagle gets Vatican post
POPE Francis has named Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle as Rome’s new Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for the spread of the Catholic faith through missionary work and related activities.
The Vatican announced Tagle’s appointment on Sunday, December 8.
At present, Tagle is also the president of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of Catholic charities around the world. He is the first Caritas Internationalis president who hails from Asia.
With his new post, Tagle became the second Asian cardinal to head the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples after Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias, who served the post from 2006 to 2011.
Tagle will replace Cardinal Fernando Filoni, the new Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher.
Born in Manila in 1957, Tagle took his Philosophy and Theology at the Ateneo de Manila University’s San Jose Major Seminary. He was ordained priest for the Imus diocese in 1982.
From 1985 to 1992, he studied at the Catholic University of America in
Washington D.C. where he got his doctorate in Sacred Theodogy.
He also spent seven years in Rome to deepen his studies and in 1997 joined the International Theological Commission.
While serving as rector of the Imus cathedral in 2001, he was named bishop of the diocese at the age of 44 by Saint John Paul 2nd in October 2001.
In October 2011, Pope Benedict 16th appointed him as Archbishop of Manila, and 13 months later, during the last consistory of the pontificate of Pope Ratzinger, he received the cardinal’s hat.
WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL