Italian bishops asked to suggest candidates for conference president

Published: 2006-02-14

ROME (CNS) -- Unlike bishops in most countries, the bishops of Italy do not elect the president of their bishops' conference, but this year they are being asked to suggest appropriate candidates. The Italian news agency ANSA reported Feb. 13 that Archbishop Paolo Romeo, the Vatican nuncio to Italy, sent a letter Jan. 26 to the heads of Italy's more than 200 dioceses asking them to suggest candidates for the office of president of the conference. The Vatican announced Feb. 14 that Pope Benedict XVI had asked Cardinal Camillo Ruini of Rome, conference president for the past 15 years, to continue in office until other provisions are made. According to the statutes of the Italian bishops' conference, "In consideration of the particular ties of the Italian episcopacy with the pope, bishop of Rome, the naming of the president of the conference is reserved to the supreme pontiff."

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