Vatican appoints Guwahati archbishop as member of Divine Worship Congregation

Guwahati – The Vatican has named Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati among the new members of Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

This Congregation in the Church helps the Vatican in regulating and promoting sacred liturgy, primarily Sacraments. It works in tandem with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The congregation Divine Worship and the Sacraments headed by Cardinal Francis Arinze has nine cardinals, five archbishops and four bishops as members.

The four archbishops named along with Archbishop Menamparampil come from New Caledonia, Sudan, Burkina Faso and South Africa. The member–bishops are from Tanzania, Hong Kong, Belarus and France.

Three of the cardinal members of the congregation come from Italy, while one each from Cameroon, Ghana, Australia and Hungary. The other two are Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education and Cardinal Julián Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts.

Part of the congregation's job is to provide suggestions and guidelines on the divine worship and conduct Sacraments in the Universal Church.

One of its recent works was the document issued on Oct. 2004 – "The Year of the Eucharist – Suggestions and Proposals." In April last year, it issued another document –"Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum on certain matters to be observed or be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist.”