Dispatches

In his 40 plus years as a bishop in Colombia Archbishop Jos de Jes s Pimiento Rodr guez did many extraordinary things He attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council mdash he is in fact one of the few remaining fathers of the council mdash and supported its implementation in Colomb

In his 34 years as a priest Archbishop Dominique Fran ois Mamberti 62 has worked on the church rsquo s diplomatic teams in Algeria Chile and Lebanon represented the Vatican at the United Nations served as nuncio to Sudan and apostolic delegate to Somalia and Eritrea been the Vatican rsquo s

In his 20 years as a bishop what has distinguished Archbishop Ricardo Bl zquez P rez 72 is his willingness to enter into the realities of the people that he serves In 1995 he was made bishop of Bilbao a region riven by the violence and terror of the separatist paramilitary group ETA Bilbao

Each year Portugal rsquo s leading newspaper Expresso hands out the Pessoa Prize mdash ldquo the Person rdquo mdash to a figure in Portuguese society who has contributed most to the culture It rsquo s the nation rsquo s most important cultural award Its recipients are writers artists musicia

In Asia says Hanoi Archbishop Peter Nguy n V n Nh n ldquo It is more suitable for us to speak of the life of Jesus in a manner more in accord with how He Himself preached two thousand years ago with His parables An eastern not rationalist fashion rdquo Age 76 now Cardinal Nguy n has s

ldquo The Gospel of the marginalized is where our credibility is found and revealed rsquo Pope Francis told the new cardinals as he spelled out clearly the direction he wants the leadership of the Catholic Church to take in the world today He did so in an inspiring and highly significant homily d

Parliament erupted into a brawl just a few sentences into the president’s speech

Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals from 17 countries in St Peter rsquo s Basilica on Feb 14 in the presence of his predecessor Benedict XVI Being a cardinal is ldquo an honor rdquo but ldquo not a kind of accessory a decoration like an honorary title rdquo he told them As cardinals he

Cardinals from all continents expressed ldquo appreciation rdquo for the reforms already achieved or underway in the Roman Curia under Pope Francis particularly in the field of Vatican Finances but they recognized that there is still a long way to go before the reform can be completed They also

In East Africa they call him ldquo Bwana Yesu rdquo mdash ldquo Lord Jesus rdquo Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel C M 66 has been the Archbishop of Addis Ababa Ethiopia since 1999 also the head of the Ethiopian Catholic Church an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy Se