Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma. | CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma will now engage in bridging the gap between the Catholic Church and the global cultures of the modern times.
Pope Francis has appointed the 69-year-old pontiff as the newest member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Archbishop Palma is the sole Asian church leader in the European-dominated council led by biblical scholar and Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi.
Monsignor Joseph Tan, media liaison of the Archdiocese of Cebu, said Palma’s appointment is timely especially that the country is celebrating the quincentennial anniversary of the arrival of the Christian faith in 2021.
“We are happy that our dear Archbishop of Cebu Jose S. Palma has been appointed to the Pontifical Council for Culture especially at a time when Cebu has been awarded [by] the UNESCO distinctive honor of being the city of design and as the archdiocese is preparing to spearhead the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the first baptism in the country (which also has allowed Christianity access into the main stream Filipino culture),” Tan said in a statement on Tuesday, November 12, 2019.
“All these come together coinciding with the archbishop’s appointment as a reminder for all of us in the country not just to remember the honor conferred by history on our nation but also to highlight the responsibility entrusted upon all of us that we have been gifted in order to give,” he added.
The Council was established in 1982 by Pope John Paul II to provide a platform for a dialogue between the Church and the cultures of modern times and based on the Second Vatican Council’s vision to “address challenges of unbelief and religious indifference in modern society.”
Prior to his appointment, Palma served as president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Since 2011, Palma served as the archbishop of Cebu which is considered as the country’s largest archdiocese. / dcb