The Holy See released the names of those chosen as members, experts and auditors in the Synod for the Middle East, which is set to start next week. The synod will involve two weeks of discussions on the history, reality and future of the Church and the faithful in the region.
Four cardinals lead the list of the 16 members that the Holy Father selected for the special assembly.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals; Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, major archbishop of Kyiv-Halyc, Ukraine; Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and Cardinal John Patrick Foley, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem; were all chosen.
Some of the other 12 people named represent eastern Catholic Churches, such as the Syro-malankars, Syro-malabars, Greek Catholics of the Byzantine Rite and the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church.
Among them are also two apostolic nuncios to the Middle East and representatives from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Lists of the 70 men and women chosen to be either experts or auditors by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the synod's secretary general, for the assembly were also released by the Holy See on Tuesday.
The Holy Father will open the Oct. 10-24 synod at Mass on Sunday morning in St. Peter's Basilica.
SIC: CNA/INT'L