New appointments, also for myself.

Past few days, there have been a number of important appointments made by Holy Father for Catholics in Asia.

First and most, we are happy to know that  Archbishop Chito Tagle of Manila and the major Archbishop of the Trivandrum of the Siro-Malankaresi in India, His Beatitude Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal were among those 6 bishops named Cardinal by Holy Father on 24 October.

Archbishop Tagle is well known as one of the best speaker of modern times in Catholic Church and I also had several occasion to meet him.  Photo above is from a meeting in Taipei a few years ago.

In January when I went to New Delhi for the Golden Jubilee of Caritas India, I met Archbishop Cleemis.  Though, according to the birth record, he is younger than myself but he created a impression of well matured wise old man.  Wonderful man.

Compare with these important appointments this one is not so significant but it is a great honour and challenge for me.  It has been announced on 27 October that Holy Father appointed several additional new members for the Pontifical Council of Inter-religious Dialogue and Pontifical Council "Cor Unum." These appointments included two bishops from Japan.  First and most, Archbishop Okada of Tokyo has been appointed as a member of the Inter-religious Dialogue.  Then I have been appointed as a member of Cor Unum together with Cardinal Maradiaga, SDB, the president of Caritas Internationalis. Term of office is for 5 years.  Mr. Michel Roy, the secretary general of Caritas Internationalis has also been appointed as a consultor of the Cor Unum. You may find other appointments of the day from this link.  In fact, I had received an appointment letter a few days before the announcement was made. The letter was signed by Cardinal Bertone and it was, of course, written in Latin.