POPE Benedict XVI has appointed a Thomasian cleric as the new papal nuncio to Tanzania.
Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, a native of Cebu, will take charge of the diplomatic affairs between the Vatican and east African nation, and will also screen the bishops to be appointed by the Pope. Tanzania is home to 10.4 million Catholics.
Padilla finished his bachelor and licentiate degrees in Sacred Theology from the UST Central Seminary.
After graduating from the University in 1985, Padilla continued his theological formation and earned his doctorate in Sacred Theology and licentiate in Canon Law from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he graduated summa cum laude.
The official announcement was made last Nov. 12 through the website of Vatican Radio, www.radiovaticana.org.
Padilla had been papal nuncio to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, (Catholic population: 1.7 million), since May 2006.
His older brother, Osvaldo Padilla, is currently the apostolic nuncio of Mongolia and South Korea. Bishops Adolfo Tito Yllana and Bernardito Auza are nuncios to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti, respectively. Reden Madrid
