The Holy Father has:

- given his assent to the election, by the Synod of Bishops of the Major Archiepiscopal Syro-Malabar Church, of Fr. Thomas (Tomy) Tharayil as auxiliary of the archieparchy of Changanacherry (area 8,450, population 9,467,100, Catholics 396,500, priests 762, religious 642, women religious 3,320), India. The bishop-elect was born in Changanacherry in 1972 and was ordained a priest in 2000. He studied in the St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Vadavathoor, and holds a doctorate in psychology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome. After ordination he served as secretary of Archbishop Joseph Powathil, deputy priest of various parishes, and professor in a number of seminaries and institutes. He is currently director of the Danahalaya Institute of Formation.

- appointed Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, United States of America, and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, as member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

appointed Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, archbishop of Mérida, Venezuela; Cardinal Sérgio da Rocha, archbishop of Brasilia, Brazil; and Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, archbishop of Tlalnepantla, Mexico, as members of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

confirmed the following Consulters of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments: Msgr. Giovanni Di Napoli, lecturer in liturgy at the Theological Faculty of Southern Italy, San Luigi di Napoli section, and at the seminary of Sarlerno, secretary for the Centre for Liturgical Action; Claudio Magnoli, lecturer at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy, head of service for Liturgical Pastoral Ministry of the archdiocese of Milan and head of the Pontifical Ambrosian Institute for Religious Music; Msgr. Vincenzo De Gregorio, head of the Pontifical Institute of Religious Music; Msgr. Massimo Palombella, S.D.B., director of the Pontifical Musical Choir; José Luis Gutierrez Martin, of the Prelature of Opus Dei, director of the Institute of Liturgy of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome; Fr. Marko Rupnik, S.J., lecturer in liturgical art at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, director of the Centro Aletti in Rome; Msgr. Bruce Edward Harbert, former lecturer in liturgy and sacramental theology, parish priest; Jaume Gonzáles Padrós, director of the Higher Institute of Liturgy in Barcelona, Spain; Fr. D. Olivier-Marie Sarr, O.S.B., lecturer at the Pontifical St. Anselm Liturgical Institute in Rome; Elias Frank, lecturer in liturgical law at the Pontifical Urbanian University, Rome; Msgr. Patrick Chauvet, lecturer in theology, archpriest of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, France; Fr. Robert McCulloch, S.S.C.M.E., procurer general of the Missionary Society of St. Columban; Fr. Olivier Thomas Venard, O.P., deputy director of the Ecole biblique e archéologique française de Jérusalem; Marc Aeilko Aris, lecturer at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in München; Professor Donna Lynn Orsuto, lecturer at the Institute of Spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, at the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University (Angelicum) and at the St. John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, co-founder and director of the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas, Rome; Valeria Trapani, lecturer in liturgy at the St. John the Evangelist Theological Faculty of Sicily in Palermo, Italy, member of the Diocesan Liturgical Commission of Palermo; and Adelindo Giuliani, official in the liturgical office of the Vicariate of Rome.