Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo   to the Vatican Dicastery for Communications.

The appointment was announced in a statement issued to journalists by Rev. Fr. John Irekiigbe, the Director of Communications, Oyo Diocese, on Friday.

The Dicastery of Communications is the administrative department of the Holy See (The Vatican State) through which the Pope directs social communications in the church.

Mr Badejo has since 2015 been the Bishop President for CEPACS, the French acronym for the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications, which is the communications committee of Bishops for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar.

Mr Badejo, a communications scholar, served as  the Communications Secretary and later on, Director, to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria between 1996 and 2003.

He is currently the Vice Chairman, Social Communications Department of the Regional Episcopal Conferences of West Africa (RECOWA).

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Badejo said this assignment of service would help the communication apostolate of the Catholic Church in Nigeria and Africa to relate better with the Holy Father’s pastoral initiatives.

“I  pray and trust that this assignment  of service will help the communication apostolate of the Catholic Church in Nigeria and Africa to relate better with the Holy Father’s  pastoral initiatives and better expose the pastoral activities of the Church in Nigeria and in Africa to the whole world,” he told NAN.

Other members of the Dicastery are: Cardinal Maura Gambetti, O.F.M., the archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican and Archbishop Jorge Eduardo Lozano of San Juan de Cuyo, the Secretary General of the Latin American Episcopal Council.

Also, Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia of the Ukranians, and Reverend Sr. Nathalie Becquart, X.M.C.J., the  Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops will serve in the dicastery.

(NAN)