Pope names members of Dicastery for Evangelization's first section

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has appointed 19 people as members of the Dicastery for Evangelization's first section and has named another 15 as consultants.

The first section, led by Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, formally is known as "Section for Fundamental Questions regarding Evangelization in the World," and has responsibility for promoting evangelization, missionary discipleship, catechesis and Christian social engagement in countries where Christianity already is well established.

Pope Francis also has given the section responsibility for planning the Holy Year 2025.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York is among the new members, as is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the second section of the dicastery, that is responsible for "the first evangelization and new particular churches," what traditionally has been known as the church's mission territories.

Msgr. Geno Sylva, vicar for special projects in the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, and rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, also was named a member. He is a former staff member of the former Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, the precursor to the dicastery's first section.

The 19 new members include three women: Sister Maria Eliane Azevedo da Silva, superior general of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart; Marta Maria Carla Cartabia, a professor of jurisprudence and former president of Italy's Constitutional Court; and María Ascensión Romero Antón, a member of the international leadership team of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Pope Francis' reorganization of the Roman Curia, which formed the Dicastery for Evangelization, said that "the members of curial institutions are appointed from among the cardinals living in Rome or outside the city, to whom are added some bishops, especially diocesan or eparchial ones, insofar as they have expertise in the particular matters involved."

"Depending on the nature of the dicastery," it said, "priests, deacons, those in institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life and lay faithful may also be appointed members."

The 15 consultants include nine priests, a religious brother, two women and three laymen.

Among them are Salesian Sister Cettina Cacciato Insilla, a professor of catechetics in Rome; Chiara Amirante, founder and president of the New Horizons Community; Curtis A. Martin, founder and CEO of FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students; and Petroc Willey, a professor of catechetics at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Amirante, Martin and Willey also were consultants to the former Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.