Pope: Card. Dias is new prefect of Missionary Dicastery
The archbishop of Mumbai succeeds Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, appointed archbishop of Naples today. Benedict XVI has asked the cardinal to "continue to administer the diocese" until he takes charge of his new office.
Rome (AsiaNews) Pope Benedict XVI today appointed Cardinal Ivan Dias, Archbishop of Mumbai, as the Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples. The announcement was made simultaneously in the Vatican and at the Archdiocesan office.
The Pope has asked the 70-year-old Cardinal to continue as "Administrator" of the largest Catholic archdiocese in India until he takes charge of his new office at the Vatican.
Cardinal Ivan Dias, held to be 'papabile' at the Conclave which elected Benedict XVI, was born in Mumbai on 14 April 1936. He was ordained to the priesthood in Bombay on 8 December 1958.
He studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome (1961 1964). He obtained a doctorate in Canon Law at the Lateran University in Rome in 1964.
In 1964, he served in the Secretariat of State to prepare the visit of Paul VI to Bombay for the International Eucharistic Congress.
Between 1965 and 1973, he was secretary in the Apostolic Nunciatures in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Indonesia, Madagascar, Reunion Island, the Comoro Islands, and Mauritius.
Between 1973 and 1982, he was Chief of Desk at the Vatican Secretariat of State for the Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Belorussia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania.
On 8 May 1982, he was appointed titular Archbishop of Rusubisir and pro-apostolic nuncio in Ghana, Togo and Benin (1982-1987). On 19 June of the same year, he underwent Episcopal ordination at St Peter's Basilica. Between 1987 and 1991, he was pro-apostolic nuncio in South Korea. From 1991 to 1887, he was apostolic nuncio in Albania.
On 8 November 1996, he was named Archbishop of Bombay and on the following 13 March, he took possession of the diocese.
He was the President Delegate at the tenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 2001).
He was created Cardinal in the Consistory of 21 February 2001, with the Title of Holy Spirit in Ferratella, by John Paul II.
He is a member of the following Congregations: for the Doctrine of the Faith; for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; for Catholic Education. He sat on the Pontifical Councils for Culture and for the Laity, and formed part of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church; the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See and the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See.
Cardinal Dias succeeds Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, who Benedict XVI today appointed as archbishop of Naples.
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