Synod members elect council to oversee implementation, plan next synod

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Members of the Synod of Bishops elected Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, and Bishop Alain Faubert of Valleyfield, Quebec, to be the North American members of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod.

The council members, who must be bishops, oversee the implementation of a synod after its conclusion and prepare for the next meeting of the Synod of Bishops.

Members of the synod on synodality elected 12 members of the council during their meeting at the Vatican Oct. 23: one from the Eastern Catholic churches, one from Oceania, and two each from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Pope Francis will select four members of the council at a future date, and he has decided that the prefect of the Vatican dicastery most closely tied to the theme of the next synod also will be a member of the ordinary council. The pope has not announced the theme yet.

Members of the ordinary council automatically become members of the next synod.

Besides Bishops Flores and Faubert, the council members elected Oct. 23 were:

-- Melkite Patriarch Joseph Absi.
-- Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Australia.
-- Cardinal Luis Rueda Aparicio of Bogotá, Colombia.
-- Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala of Maracaibo, Venezuela.
-- Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France.
-- Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, Lithuania.
-- Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic.
-- Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of Bamenda, Cameroon
-- Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão of Goa and Damão, India.
-- Cardinal-designate Pablo David of Kalookan, Philippines.