October 7, 2010. The Pope has named Italian Archbishop Mauro Piacenza as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican department in charge of 400,000 priests worldwide.





Archbishop Piacenza is Italian, 66 years old, and organized the Year for Priests – a very successful event which Benedict XVI concluded in June.

He will replace 76 year old Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes who was prefect from 2006.

The Pope has also named a new president to head the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. He is a 65 year old Guinean, Archbishop Robert Sarah. Until now, he was number two at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

From now on, he’ll be in charge of distributing the alms of the Pope to the most needy parts of the planet, and areas affected by disasters.

He replaces a great friend of the Pope, the 76 year old German Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes who served as head of Cor Unum for 15 years.

JMB