Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson EWTN photo
As is by now well known, by his Apostolic Letter ‘Humanam Progressionem’ in the form of a Motu Proprio of 17 August 2016, the Holy Father Pope Francis announced the creation of a new ‘Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development’. This new Dicastery is the result of a fusion of four pre-existent Offices of the Holy See: the Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’; the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People; and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. These Offices, by statutory regulation, ceased to exist on 1 January 2017, but their respective tasks and responsibilities passed to the nascent Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
The Holy Father appointed as the Prefect of this new Dicastery His Eminence Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, previously the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
We would also like to inform you that in line with the statutes of the new Dicastery, the current Secretaries and Under-Secretaries of the four above-mentioned Dicasteries, for a period of transition (until Easter 2017), will continue to carry out the tasks hitherto indicated and, except in the case of different provisions, in the meantime the titles that are assigned to them are respectively: Secretary/Under-Secretary-Delegate.
In addition, Pope Francis, in leading the section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development which specifically deals with matters relating to refugees and migrants, appointed as his direct assistants to that end, as of 1 January 2017, as Under-Secretaries of the above-mentioned new Dicastery: Rev. Father Michael Czerny, S.I., Consultant of the Pontifical Council for justice and Peace, and Rev. F. Fabio Baggio, C.S., Dean of the ‘Scalabrini International Migration Institute’ which is incorporated into the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Urban University.
