POPE FRANCIS appointed Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on Sunday, Dec. 8.
Tagle will replace Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who is set to be installed as the new Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Filipino cardinal is the second Asian prelate to lead the congregation, after Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias who served from 2006 to 2011.
Tagle was ordained priest in 1982 and was named bishop of the Diocese of Imus by Pope John Paul II in October 2001.
In October 2011, he became the 32nd archbishop of Manila. Pope Benedict XVI gave him the cardinal’s hat in 2012.
Tagle has been president of Caritas Internationalis, an association of global Catholic charities, since 2015.
He was also one of the three presidents of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family at the Vatican in 2014.
According to the in-house Vatican News, Tagle will assume his new post at the beginning of 2020.
The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples oversees the spread of the Catholic faith throughout the world. Pope Gregory XV established the congregation in 1622.
