Cardinal Tagle, 2 Filipino bishops appointed to Vatican communications arm

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop Ryan Jimenez, and Bishop Marcelino Maralit as new members of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.

In its bulletin update on Thursday, April 9, the Holy See announced the 12 new appointed members of the Dicastery of Communication, which included three Filipino bishops.

Tagle serves as Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches. He previously took over the titular diocese of Albano in Italy, which was briefly held by then-Cardinal Robert Prevost before he assumed the papacy as Leo XIV.

Jimenez, meanwhile, is Archbishop of Agaña in Guam and President of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific, and is one of two archbishops named in the list, and Maralit, Bishop of San Pablo and President of the Office of Social Communications of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, is among the three bishops included.

Other members include:

• Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, O.F.M. Cap., archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, president of the Symposium des Conférences Episcopales d’Afrique et de Madagascar;
• Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, S.D.B., archbishop of Rabat, Morocco;
• Cardinal Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, archbishop of Goa and Damão, India, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences;
• Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education;
• Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for Fundamental Questions regarding Evangelization in the World;
• Bishop Bernardin Francis Mfumbasa of Kondoa, Tanzania, president of the Pan-African Episcopal Committee for Communications;
• Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, O.S.A., auxiliary bishop and vicar general of Cuzco, Peru, secretary general of the Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano y Caribeño;
• Reverend Father Roberto Pasolini, O.F.M. Cap., preacher of the Papal Household
• Dr. Helen Osman, president of SIGNIS

The communications arm handles the entire communications network of the Holy See, including Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano, and the Vatican Television Center.

Other than the operations functions, the Dicastery is also tasked to develop and further strengthen the theological and pastoral dimensions of the Church’s communication work. It is led by Italian journalist Dr. Paolo Ruffini.