The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Northwest Nigeria, Most Reverend Matthew Hassan Kukah, has been appointed a Member of the Council of the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development. This was conveyed in a letter addressed to Bishop Kukah by His Holiness Pope Leo XIV. In the letter signed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Peter Cardinal Parolin, Bishop Kukah joins other prominent Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops from around the world in serving a five-year term on the Council. Other Members include the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, Walter Cardinal McElroy; Matteo Cardinal Zuppi of Bologna; Conrad Cardinal Krajewski of Poland; and Archbishop Fulgence Mugalu of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Bishop Kukah was first appointed to the Council in 2022 when it was reconstituted by Pope Francis. The Dicastery deals with the key thematic issues around 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 now St. Pope John Paul II in 1996 and re-appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 to serve in the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious 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. He was appointed by Pope Francis to represent the Vatican on the Advisory Board of the King Abdulazeez 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.
In his reaction, Bishop Kukah said he is humbled by the appointment and thanked the Holy Father immensely for giving him an opportunity to serve the Church.
The thematic areas of the Dicastery, he said, fit perfectly into his areas of research and pastoral interest and looks forward to contributing to helping to infuse the Catholic ethos into public life in a world that has become severely wounded by human greed.
