Pope Francis has appointed the auxiliary bishop of Onitsha archdiocese, Most Rev. Denis Isizoh as one of the new members to the Pontifical Council for inter-religious Dialogue.
The new members have six Cardinals and a number of Bishops. The Cardinal members include ; Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Michael Czerny, SJ, the Under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui, Cardinal Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, Vicar Apostolic of Vientiane, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, Archbishop Jakarta and Ordinary of the Military Ordinariate of Indonesia and Cardinal Jean-Claude Höllerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg.
The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) is a dicastery (special department) of the Roman Curia for relations with the people of other religions. It was established by Pope Paul VI on the Pentecost Sunday, 19 May 1964, during the Second Vatican Council, as the Secretariat for Non-Christians. It was renamed the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue by St. Pope John Paul II on 28 June 1988.
The PCID is charged with the responsibility of promoting mutual understanding, respect and collaboration between Catholics and followers of other religious traditions. It should be noted, however, that this responsibility of the PCID does not include dialogue with the Jewish religion, because the dialogue with the Jewish religions falls under the competence of the Commission for religious Relations with Jews, and this comes under the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The current President of the PCID is Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, who has held the post since 25 May 2019.
Credit Fides Media