By Sarah Mac Donald - 01 April, 2014
Bishop Kieran O’Reilly
Bishop Kieran O’Reilly of Killaloe has been named by Pope Francis as one of 32 new members of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.
The majority of the new members are superiors of religious communities or diocesan bishops who are also members of religious communities.
Prior to being elected Bishop of Killaloe, Bishop O’Reilly (61) served twice as Congregational Leader of the Society of African Missions and was based in Rome.
The Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life oversees 900,000 male and female members and is currently organising the Church’s Year for Religious, which will take place throughout 2015.
Pope Francis re-confirmed Cardinal João Braz de Aviz as prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life as well as Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, OFM, who has served as the congregation’s secretary since April.
The new members also include Bishop John Corriveau of Nelson, British Columbia; Cardinals Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City and Luis Tagle of Manila.
Pope Francis also reappointed 11 members to another five-year term including Cardinals Francis E. George of Chicago; Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa; Sean P. O’Malley of Boston and Jesuit Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Jesuits worldwide.
In other appointments, the Pope reconfirmed Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president since 2007 of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Fr Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, MCCI, who has served as secretary since 2012.
The new members include Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad.
The Pope also named new consultants to the inter-religious council, including Benedictine Fr William Skudlarek, a member of St John’s School of Theology Seminary in Collegeville in the US and secretary-general of the international Monastic Interreligious Dialogue; as well as Sr Carmen Sammut, the Maltese superior general of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa; and Ilaria Morali, an Italian professor at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.
He also confirmed Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture as well as Bishop Carlos Alberto de Pinho Moreira Azevedo, delegate since 2011; and Bishop Barthélemy Adoukonou, who has served as secretary since 2009.
The pope named new members to that council, including Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau of Quebec, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference; and Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
