Pope names prefect, secretary for Dicastery of Culture and Education

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has named Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça to be prefect of the new Dicastery for Culture and Education and has named Italian Msgr. Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi to be secretary of the dicastery.

Cardinal de Mendonça, 56, had been Vatican librarian and archivist since 2018.

Pope Francis named Archbishop Angelo Zani, 72, secretary of the former Congregation for Catholic Education, to be the new "archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church," the formal title of the position previously held by Cardinal de Mendonça.

The Vatican announced the changes Sept. 26, more than three months after Pope Francis' reform of the Roman Curia went into effect. Among other changes, the pope's apostolic constitution, "Praedicate Evangelium" ("Preach the Gospel"), joined the former Congregation for Catholic Education and the former Pontifical Council for Culture.

Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, 79, had been prefect of the education congregation since 2015, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, who will celebrate his 80th birthday Oct. 18, had been president of the former Pontifical Council for Culture.

Born Dec. 15, 1965, on the island of Madeira, Cardinal de Mendonça was ordained to the priesthood in 1990. A poet, he has published multiple volumes of his work and has won several literary awards in his native Portugal. He also is a biblical scholar, who served as vice rector of the Catholic University of Lisbon and as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Msgr. Pagazzi, secretary of the new dicastery, is a 57-year-old priest of the northern Italian Diocese of Lodi and professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome. He also serves as a consultant to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

According to the apostolic constitution, the dicastery will have a section for culture, "dedicated to the promotion of culture, pastoral activity and the enhancement of cultural heritage," and a section for education that will work with Catholic schools and universities as well as promote fundamental principles of education.