BANGALORE: Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), has been elected as a member of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod. The election took place on October 23 during the 15th General Congregation of the Synod of Bishops.
Earlier this month, on October 9, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Ferrão to the committee responsible for drafting the final document for the Synod on Synodality. The ongoing second session of the Synod began on October 2 and is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, October 27.
The other elected members to the Council are: His Beatitude Youssef ABSI, Patriarch of Antioch of the Greek Melkites, Head of the Synod of the Greek Melkite Catholic Church; Timothy John Costelloe, SDB, Archbishop of Perth (Australia); Daniel Ernest FLORES, Bishop of Brownsville (United States of America); Alain FAUBERT, Bishop of Valleyfield (Canada); Card Luis José Rueda Aparicio, Archbishop of Bogotá (Colombia); José Luis Azuaje Ayala, Archbishop of Maracaibo (Venezuela); Cardinal Jean-Marc AVELINE, Archbishop of Marseille (France); Gintaras Grušas, Archbishop of Vilnius (Lithuania); Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, CSSp, Archbishop of Bangui (Central African Republic); Andrew Fuanya Nkea, Archbishop of Bamenda (Cameroon) and Pablo Virgilio S. David, Bishop of Kalookan (Philippines)
The Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Ordinary General Assembly. The Members of the Ordinary Council take office at the end of the Ordinary General Assembly that elected them; they are Members of the next Ordinary General Assembly and cease from their mandate at the dissolution of the latter. The Council, chaired by the Holy Father Pope Francis, is an integral part of the General Secretariat.
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, the President of CCBI, was created Cardinal by Pope Francis on August 27, 2022. He has been President of the CCBI since its 31st Plenary Assembly in 2019 and was re-elected during its 33rd Assembly in 2022.