Cardinal Tolentino Mendonca joins the Pontifical Council for Culture

Pope Francis determined today, the 21st of February, that the Madeiran cardinal José Tolentino Mendonça, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, joins the Pontifical Council for Culture, headed by also cardinal and biblical Gianfranco Ravasi, of Italian origin.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, joins the first director of the National Secretariat for the Pastoral of Culture in the same organization, says the press office of the Holy See.

D. Tolentino Mendonça returns to the Pontifical Council for Culture, of which he was a consultant until he was appointed archivist and librarian of the Holy See, where he will meet, as delegate, the Portuguese bishop D. Carlos Azevedo.

The members of the Pontifical Council for Culture, cardinals, bishops, ecclesiastics and lay people, are “relevant personalities of the Church and the world of culture”, appointed by the Pope for five years “, points out the institution’s page.

“It is up to them to help the president to identify the main cultural challenges of the Church, and to establish the lines of work of the Department”, explains the same source, adding that the members “normally meet every two years in the plenary assembly”, being able, “in certain cases”, to intervene on behalf of the Council at international meetings.

The list of members, still without these two appointments, is composed of 11 cardinals, 16 bishops and three personalities of the culture, lay people.

Established on May 20, 1982, by Pope St. John Paul II, the Pontifical Council for Culture is the department of the Vatican curia that helps the Pope in matters relating to the encounter between the Gospel and Culture, as well as relations between the Church and the Holy See with the cultural worlds.

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