POPE Leo XIV has appointed former Department of Education (DepEd) secretary Armin Luistro as a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
CBCP News reported that Luistro will be among the 19 new members appointed to the dicastery led by Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla.
The other members of the dicastery 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 of Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The official news agency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the Dicastery is tasked with promoting, encouraging, and regulating the practice of evangelical counsels, as they are lived out in the approved forms of consecrated life and matters concerning the life and activity of societies of apostolic life throughout the Latin Church.
It is also in charge of approving cases in which a vowed member seeks to leave religious life or is asked to do so by their community; and oversees the establishment of new religious orders, approves constitutions, and manages mergers, suppressions, and unions of orders and superiors general.
Vatican data shows that there are nearly 600,000 professed women religious in the Catholic Church, while religious brothers number close to 50,000.
Before his appointment, Luistro served as the superior general of the De La Salle Brothers, also known as the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
Before this, Luistro served as president of De La Salle Philippines and as secretary of the Department of Education.
