The official list of Synod Fathers includes three delegate presidents – cardinals Louis Raphaël I Sako (Iraq), Charles Maung Bo, SDB (Myanmar), and John Ribat, MSC (Papua New Guinea) – as well as seven assistants (four from Lebanon, two from India and one from the Philippines.) A nun from Hebei is among the auditors.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Some 71 people from Asia will take part in in various capacities in the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops from 3 to 28 October at the Vatican on the theme of Youth, faith and vocational discernment.
The official list of the Synod Fathers includes three delegate presidents – cardinals Louis Raphaël I Sako (Iraq), Charles Maung Bo, SDB (Myanmar), and John Ribat, MSC (Papua New Guinea) as well as seven assistants (four from Lebanon, two from India and one from the Philippines).
Eastern Catholic Churches will be represented by the Synods of the Coptic Catholic Church (Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak), Greek Melkite Catholic Church (Patriarch Youssef Absi and Mgr Georges Bacouni), Syriac Catholic Church (Patriarch Ignatius Youssif III Younan), Maronite Church (Patriarch Card Béchara Boutros al-Rahi, Mgr Joseph Naffah and Mgr Abdallah Elias Zaidan), Chaldean Church (Patriarch Card Louis Raphaël I Sako), Armenian Catholic Church (Patriarch Gregory Peter XX Gabroyan), Syro-Malabar Church (Card George Alencherry, Mgr Joseph Pandarasseril and Mgr Joseph Pamplany), and Siro-Malankar Church (Card Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal).
Delegates will also come from the Churches of Bangladesh, China (Taiwan), Korea, the Philippines, Japan, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos and Cambodia, Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei, Myanmar, Arab countries, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.
There will be four members of pontifical appointment (cardinals Bo of Myanmar, Ribat of Papua New Guinea, Ling Mangkhanekoun of Laos, as well as Mgr Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator sede vacante of Jerusalem of the Latins).
Two priests are among the aides to the special secretary, namely, from Lebanon, Mgr Toufic Bou Hadir, head of YOUCAT of the Arabic Foundation (Maronite Church) and coordinator of the Bureau Patriarcal pour la pastorale des Jeunes, and Fr Renato De Guzman, S.D.B, from the Philippines, catechist in charge of the Office for Pastoral Care of the Don Bosco Educational Centre.
Finally, there will be 12 auditors. One of them is Sister Chaoying (Sister Teresina) Cheng, a student of theology at the Mater Ecclesiae Missionary College in Castel Gandolfo, a nun of the Mother of the Lord in Daming-Hebei (China).