NAIROBI JULY 15, 2016(CISA)-Pope Francis appointed John Cardinal Njue alongside other 16 people to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications including six cardinals, seven bishops and two laypersons.
The appointments came two days after the announcement of a new director and vice director of the Holy See Press Office.
Cardinal John Njue, born 1944 is the fourth and current Archbishop Nairobi.
He served previously as the Coadjutor Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri between 2002-2007and Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Embu between 1986-2002.He was elevated to Cardinal in 2007.
On December 29, 2011 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for a five-year renewable term. He also serves as Vice President of the International Catholic Migration commmison-an international Church organization mandated to act in the fields of migration and protection.
Established June 27, 2015, the Secretariat for Communications is headed by Msgr. Dario Vigano and oversees all of the Vatican’s communications offices, including Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Vatican Typography, the Photograph Service and the Vatican Publishing House.
In addition to Cardinal Njue appointment, other new members of the secretariat include Cardinals Béchara Boutros Raï, Lebanese Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites; Chibly Langlois, bishop of Les Cayes, Haiti; Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar; Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches; and Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.
Bishops appointed were: Diarmuid Martin, archbishop of Dublin; Gintaras Grušas, archbishop of Vilnius, Lithuania; Marcello Semeraro, bishop of Albano, Italy; Stanislas Lalanne, bishop of Pontoise, France; Pierre Nguyên Van Kham, bishop of My Tho, Vietnam; Ginés Ramón García Beltrán, bishop of Guadix, Spain, and Nuno Brás da Silva Martins, auxiliary bishop of Lisbon, Portugal.
The other laypersons nominated are American attorney Kim Daniels,Markus Schächter, professor of ethics in the mass media and in society at the Faculty of Philosophy S.I. München, Germany, and Leticia Soberón Mainero, a psychologist and expert in communications who has already been a consultant for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
