Vatican Appoints Kukah As Human Development Council Member

The Vatican has appointed Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Diocese of Sokoto, as a member of the Council of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development in Vatican City.

The appointment was contained in a letter addressed to Bishop Kukah by His Holiness Pope Leo XIV and signed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Peter Card. Parolin said Bishop Kukah would join other prominent cardinals, archbishops and bishops from all over the world to serve a five-year term on the Council.

Peter Card Parolin further listed other appointees to include the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, His Eminence Cardinal Walter McElroy, Card. Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Card. Conrad Krajewski of Poland, Archbishop Fulgence Mugalu of Lubumbashi, DRC.

Going down memory lane, a statement by Fr Pascal Salifu, the Director of Communications, Diocese of Sokoto, recalled that Bishop Kukah was first appointed to the Council in 2022 when it was reconstituted by Pope Francis.

Explaining the roles of the Dicastery, Fr Pascal said they deal with key thematic issues in the Catholic Church’s Social Teachings, covering: The Environment, Human Rights, Migration, Human Development, Social Ethics, among others.

Before this appointment, Bishop Kukah was appointed by Pope John Paul II of blessed memory in 1996 and reappointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 to serve on the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue for a ten-year period.

He was part of the Vatican delegation to Qatar when that country opened diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 2005. Pope Francis appointed him to represent the Vatican on the Advisory Board of the King Abdulaziz International Council for Interreligious Dialogue, KAICIID, 2018-2025.

The Council also announced the appointment of Dr Emmanuel Okechukwu, Director of Health Services at the Catholic Secretariat, to serve along with Priests, Religious and the Laity, who are all expected to bring their expertise into the work of the Council.

Responding to the development, Bishop Kukah said he is humbled by the appointment and thanked the Holy Father immensely for the opportunity to serve the Church. The Dicastery’s thematic areas, he said, align perfectly with his research and pastoral interests, and he looks forward to contributing to infusing the Catholic ethos into public life in a world severely wounded by human greed.