Pope Appoints Indian As Member Of Vatican’s Laity Council

NEW DELHI, APR. 25, 2008, 09.20 Hrs (CBCI News):

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Mr. Guilherme Vaz, Director of IL&FS Education and Technology Services Ltd, Mumbai, as member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Previously, Mr Vaz worked for 23 years, in the TATA group, before taking up the present assignment.

Mr Vaz is also a member of the Bombay Archdiocesan Board of Education and an adviser to the Archbishop of Bombay on Educational matters.

Also, Mr Vaz is a Consultor to the Commission of Education & Culture of the CBCI.

"My appointment as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity is at one level an honour and a privilege but more importantly is an opportunity to serve the Universal Church as the Council assists the Pope in all matters concerning the contribution the lay faithful make to the life and mission of the Church, whether as individuals or through the various forms of association that have arisen and constantly arise within the Church," said Mr Vaz.

"The appointment places an awesome responsibility which can only be humbling," he added.

The Council is an expression of the different continents, the different cultures and age-groups of God's people and endeavours to represent the laity as a whole, not as formal representation of Christian communities, associations of the faithful and other bodies, but only of the diversity of situations and experiences which the members and consultors – although appointed in a personal capacity – can express and interpret within the Council, which becomes in this way a presence of the laity in the Roman Curia, an expression of their concerns and hopes at the heart of the universal Church.

The role of all members, would therefore revolve around the ordinary activity of the Council which involves a close network of contacts through correspondence, visits and study sessions. These go together with the planning, the organization and implementation of more important projects, such as large gatherings (world consultations of the laity, world youth days), laity congresses in different continents or regions, international meetings on subjects of special interest and current relevance (women in Church and society, Christian witness in the world of work, pastoral action in the university, etc.), world meetings with representatives of international associations and ecclesial movements.

The Vatican Information Service released the details yesterday afternoon.

Others appointed as members are: Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, Poland; Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany; Paola Bignardi, co-ordinator of the international forum of Italian Catholic Action; Matteo Calisi, president of the Catholic Fraternity of "Comunita e Associazioni Carismatiche di Alleanza", Italy; Henrique Elias, procurator of the Christian Life Association, Peru; Katarina Hulmanova, co-ordinator of the forum of Catholic organisations of the Bishops' Conference of Slovakia; Pilar Jensen of the Institute of Families of Schonstatt, Chile; Guy Maginzi, secretary general of the Community of Christian Life, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Josep Miro i Ardevol, founder of "E. Cristians" and animator of the Conventions of Christians for Europe, Barcelona, Spain; Michelle Moran, president of International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, Great Britain; Norbert Muller, professor of the University of Mainz, Germany; Balazs Schanda, dean of the faculty of law at the Peter Pazmany Catholic University of Budapest, Hungary; Lola Velarde, president of the European Institute for Family Policy, Spain, and Karol Zyczkowski, professor of the Jagellonica University of Krakow, Poland.