POPE FRANCIS PRESENTS NEW SUBSTITUTE FOR GENERAL AFFAIRS TO THE SECRETARIAT OF STATE

On his first day as Substitute for General Affairs, 58 year-old Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, was presented to the Secretariat of State by Pope Francis himself, accompanied by Cardinal Parolin

Archbishop Peña Parra took up his new post as Substitute for General Affairs (First Section) of the Secretariat of State on Monday. He succeeds Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was recently named Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The Substitute leads the first Section of the Secretariat of State, which “is especially responsible,”—according to the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus— for expediting “the business concerning the daily service” of the Pope; for fostering relations with the various departments of the Roman Curia, “without prejudice to their autonomy”; and for coordinating their work.

The Section for General Affairs is also responsible for “drawing up and sending out the Apostolic Constitutions, Decrees, the Apostolic Letters, the letters and other documents” that the Pope entrusts to it; it carries out all the acts concerning the appointments that must be made or approved by the Pope in the Roman Curia and in other bodies dependent on the Holy See; it publishes the Acts and public documents of the See in the bulletin entitled “Acta Apostolicae Sedis”; it publishes and disseminates the official communications concerning both the acts of the Pope and the activity of the Holy See.

Archbishop Peña Parra was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on March 6, 1960. He was ordained a Priest on August 23, 1985 for the Diocese of Maracaibo. He has a degree in Canon Law and entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on 1 April 1993.  He worked in the Pontifical Representations in Kenya, Yugoslavia, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, and in the Apostolic Nunciatures in South Africa, Honduras and Mexico.