VATICAN (CNS): Members of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality elected a council, comprised of bishops, to oversee the implementation of a synod after its conclusion and prepare for the next meeting of the Synod of Bishops.
Twelve members were elected to the council on October 23: one from the Eastern Catholic churches, one from Oceania, and two each from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Pope Francis will select four members of the council at a future date, and he has decided that the prefect of the Vatican dicastery most closely tied to the theme of the next synod also will be a member of the ordinary council. The pope has not announced the theme yet.
Members of the ordinary council automatically become members of the next synod.
The council members are: Cardinal-designate Pablo David of Kalookan, the Philippines; Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrão of Goa and Damão, India; Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of Bamenda, Cameroon; Dieudonné Cardinal Nzapalainga of Bangui, the Central African Republic; Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, Lithuania; Jean-Marc Cardinal Aveline of Marseille, France; Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala of Maracaibo, Venezuela; Luis Rueda Cardinal Aparicio of Bogotá, Colombia; Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Australia; Melkite Patriarch Joseph Absi; Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, the US; aand Bishop Alain Faubert of Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada.
