MANILA (UCAN): “I am the prefect but I am not perfect!” said Luis Cardinal Tagle to those who welcomed him to his new office as he started work as the new prefect of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples on February 12.
“I came here as a student in order to learn from you, my masters and teachers,” he added.
Cardinal Tagle’s message was shared by Father Reginald Malicdem, the cardinal’s former personal secretary in Archdiocese of Manila, who accompanied him to Rome.
Father Malicdem said Cardinal Tagle admitted to his new co-workers that he did not study in Rome and that he took it upon his self to learn the Italian language.
“So I speak a unique Italian of my own,” the cardinal said, extending “greetings and affections from Asia and especially from the Philippines and Manila.”
Father Malicdem also shared photos of Cardinal Tagle in his new office. In one photograph, the cardinal is seen looking out of his office window.
“It overlooks the famous column of the Immaculate Conception near the Spanish Steps,” Father Malicdem explained. “This will surely remind him of Manila Cathedral and Manila Archdiocese.”
Cardinal Tagle left Manila on February 9 to assume his new post at the Vatican.
Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Tagle prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, also known as Propaganda Fide, in December. The congregation takes care of the mission in territories mostly in Asia and Africa.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
The congregation was established nearly 400 years ago in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV with the task of ensuring the “transmission and dissemination of the faith throughout the whole world.”
As head of the office, Cardinal Tagle will oversee the work of most dioceses in Asia, Africa and Oceania, in which one third of the Catholic Church’s 4,000 dioceses are found.
The cardinal is also president of Caritas International.
