Pope appoints members for Synod on the Eucharist
Vatican City (AsiaNews/CWN) Pope Benedict XVI has hand-picked 36 church figures to join more than 200 participants for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.
The eleventh General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will convene from 2 to 23 October and it will focus on "The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church". The theme had been chosen by John Paul II and was confirmed by Benedict XVI.
Most members of the Synod are elected representatives of the world's Episcopal Conferences. The Pope himself has chosen 34 bishops and two priests who head lay movements. Among the latest 36 nominees, there are four bishops from the People's Republic of China including for the first time one underground bishop who is "not recognized" by Beijing.
The Pope has yet to name observers to attend the Synod sessions, including lay Catholics and representatives of other Christian groups. Benedict XVI also invited Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, the host city of the recent World Youth Day celebration; and Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, where World Youth Day will be held in 2008.
The list, distributed yesterday by the Holy See press office, includes several prelates from the Roman Curia as well as representatives of the Episcopal Conferences and bishops from all five continents. The priests who lead two lay movements Opus Dei and Communion and Liberation are included, as is the head of the Jesuit order. Communities of the eastern rite will be represented by prelates from the Syro-Malabar, Maronite, Ukrainian, and Melkite churches.
The president-delegates for the Synod will be Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship; Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara (Mexico); and Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi (India). The reporter-general will be Cardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice, while the secretary-general will be Archbishop Roland Minnerath of Dijon (France). All were named by Pope Benedict XVI in March.
Below we reproduce the full list of participants made public yesterday:
Cardinals
Cardinal Georges Cottier, theologian to the pontifical household
Cardinal Ivan Dias of Bombay, India
Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa of Santiago, Chile, the president of the Latin American bishops' conference (CELAM)
Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica
Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship
Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, Germany
Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Managua, Nicaragua
Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec, Canada
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia
Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Cardinal Adrianus Johannes Simonis of Utrecht, Netherlands
Cardinal Edmund Szoka, president of the Vatican city-state
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican archivist
Cardinal Jozef Tomko, president of the pontifical committee for international Eucharistic congresses
Archbishops
Archbishop Joseph Mohsen Béchara of Antelias, Lebanon (Maronite)
Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros of Newton, US (Melkite)
Archbishop Francesco Cacucci of Bari, Italy
Archbishop Oswald Thomas Colman Gomis of Colombo, Sri Lanka, the president of the federal of Asian episcopal conferences (FABC)
Archbishop Anthony Li Duan of Xian, China
Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, the president of the symposium of episocopal conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SCEAM)
Archbishop Joseph Pawathil of Changanacherry, India (Syro-Malabar)
Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia, US (Ukrainian)
Archbishop Paul Verdzekov of Bamenda, Cameroon
Bishops
Bishop Denis Browne of Hamilton, New Zealand, the president of the federation of episcopal conferences of Oceania
Bishop Jean-Louis Brugues of Angers, France
Bishop Amadée Grab of Chur, Switzerland, the president of the council of European bishops' conferences (COMECE)
Bishop Louis Jin Luxian of Shanghai, China
Bishop Luke Li Jingfen of Fengxiang, China
Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, England
Bishop Paul Shan Kuo-his of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Bishop Menghisteab Tesfamariam of Asmara, Eritrea
Bishop Joseph Wei Jingyi of Qiqihar, China
Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun of Hong Kong, China
Priests
Msgr. Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, the prelate of Opus Dei
Father Julian Carron, the president of Communion and Liberation
Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach superior general of the Society of Jesus