Tagle elected to Vatican’s synod

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has been elected as one of 15 members of a council of cardinals and bishops from different parts of the world tasked to prepare for the next Synod of Bishops in the Vatican.

The assignment is the second for Tagle who was also selected last July by Pope Francis to serve as a member of the Pontifical “Cor Unum,” a body that manages the Church’s worldwide charitable activities.

Tagle was appointed in the Vatican post almost two months after he was elected as president of Caritas Internationalis, which made him the first Asian to head the confederation of global qualities.

On the other hand, a synod is a church council usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine or administration.

The Catholic News Service said 12 members of the ordinary council of the Synod of Bishops, three from each continent with Asia and Oceania counted as one, were elected by the synod father at the end of the recent assembly in Rome, Italy.

Three were appointed by Pope Francis – Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad, Archbishop Carlos Osoro of Madrid and Archbishop Sergio Da Rocha of Brasilia, Brazil.