Pope Continues Making Changes at Staff Level

New leadership for Vatican's top canon-law office
Vatican, Feb. 15, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) has made another change in the leadership of the Roman Curia, appointing Bishop Francesco Coccopalmerio to become president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, the Vatican’s top office dealing with matters of canon law. He replaces Cardinal Julian Herranz Casado, who is retiring.
Bishop Coccopalmerio-- who will receive the title of archbishop as he takes the new post-- has been serving as an auxiliary in the Milan archdiocese. A native of Milan, he was ordained to the priesthood there in 1962 and consecrated a bishop in 1993. He has served as a canonical-affairs specialist for the Italian bishops’ conference and as a judge on the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest tribunal. He will become the 2nd Milanese prelate holding a leadership position at the Vatican; the other is Cardinal Attilio Nicora, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.
Cardinal Herranz, who is retiring just a few weeks short of his 77th birthday, has been president of the Pontifical Council for an extraordinary term of over 12 years. Before being appointed by Pope John Paul II (bio - news) to head the Pontifical Council in December 1994, he had served as secretary of the same body since 1983. Cardinal Herranz, a priest of Opus Dei, received his red hat from Pope John Paul II in October 2003.
The appointment of Archbishop-elect Coccopalmerio was announced on February 15, along with the appointment of Bishop Bruno Bertagna as vice-president of the same Pontifical Council. Bishop Bertagna has been serving as secretary of the Council since 1994. In a somewhat unusual promotion, he too will receive the title of archbishop. Completing the shuffling of offices in the Pontifical Council, the Pope named Msgr. Msgr. Juan Igancio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, a priest of Opus Dei, to take Bishop Bertagna’s place as the new secretary.
This Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts is the Vatican body charged with the official interpretation of canonical texts and papal directives. The appointments announced on February 15 are likely to put an end to rumors, circulating in Rome in recent weeks, that the Pontifical Council might be absorbed into another Vatican office as part of a general reform of the Roman Curia.