POPE LEO APPOINTS EX-DEPED SECRETARY ARMIN LUISTRO TO VATICAN OFFICE

FORMER Education Secretary Brother Armin Luistro has been appointed by Pope Leo XIV as a member of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.

Luistro is among the 19 new members appointed to the dicastery, which is led by Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla, the first woman to head a major Vatican office.

The other members are Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco; Cardinal Giorgio Marengo of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem, and Cardinal Jaime Spengler Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The dicastery is a department under the Roman Curia responsible for promoting, encouraging, and regulating the practice of evangelical counsels.

The dicastery is also charged with approving cases in which a vowed member seeks to leave religious life or is asked to do so by their community.

It also oversees the establishment of new religious orders, approves constitutions, and manages mergers, suppressions and unions of orders and superiors general.

Luistro is currently the superior general of the De La Salle Brothers, also known as Brothers of the Christian Schools, a congregation committed to the mission of education in 80 countries. He is the first Filipino to assume this title.

Prior to becoming superior general, Luistro served as president of De La Salle Philippines, and headed the Department of Education (DepEd) under the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III