Vatican City, 19 January, 2020 / 10:01 pm (ACI Africa).
The decision by Pope Francis to transfer four Churches in the region of North Africa from the competence of the Congregation for Bishops to that of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide) was informed by the need to provide “more effective pastoral and evangelizing ministry” in the respective circumscriptions, ACI Africa has established.
On Tuesday, January 14, Pope Francis announced the decision to place Algeria’s Ecclesiastical Sees of Alger, Constantine, Oran, and Tunisia’s Tunis, four ecclesiastical circumscriptions within the region of North Africa that have reported to the Congregation for Bishops, under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation responsible for missionary work.
The reason for the transfer of the four Churches, the Secretariat of the Vatican-based Propaganda Fide told ACI Africa Friday, January 17, was in view of providing “a better and more effective pastoral and evangelizing ministry in the Ecclesiastical Constituencies of the North African Region.”
The four Churches have been under the Congregation for Bishops, a department of the Roman Curia that is responsible for the creation of new dioceses, advising the Holy Father on the appointment of new Bishops in non-missionary regions and planning the five-year-intervals visit of Bishops to Rome known as “ad limina” visits.
The four North African Churches will henceforth be under the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a department of the Roman Curia responsible for missionary work.
