Caritas elects first Asian leader

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has been elected president of Caritas Internationalis, the worldwide confederation of 164 Catholic development agencies.

The Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, in the Philippines, is the first Asian to take on the role and succeeds Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, who has served two four-year terms as president.

At the Caritas Internationalis General Assembly in Rome last week, Tagle was elected with 91 of the 133 votes, beating the Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus, Youssef Soueif. Fr Anton Pascual, executive director of Caritas Manila, where Tagle will remain chairman of the board, said Tagle’s “heart is with the poor”.

Austrian Alexander Bodmann was elected as the confederation’s new treasurer.