The Vatican announced March 29 that the pope confirmed Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz as prefect of the congregation, the Vatican office that oversees the world's religious orders.

The new members also include: Bishop John Corriveau of Nelson, British Columbia; Cardinals Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City; Luis Tagle of Manila; and Bishop Kieran O'Reilly of Killaloe, Ireland.

Pope Francis also reappointed 11 members to another five-year term, including: Cardinals Francis E. George of Chicago; Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa; Sean P. O'Malley of Boston and Jesuit Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Jesuits worldwide.

The pope also confirmed French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran as president and Comboni Father Miguel Ayuso Guixot as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

The new members include Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad. The pope also named new consultants to the interreligious council, including Benedictine Father William Skudlarek, a member of St. John's School of Theology Seminary in Collegeville, Minn., and secretary-general of the international Monastic Interreligious Dialogue; as well as two women: Sister Carmen Sammut, the Maltese superior general of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa; and Ilaria Morali, an Italian professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

Also March 29, Pope Francis confirmed the top leadership of the Pontifical Council for Culture, including its president, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. He also confirmed all of the council's members and consultants until the end of their original five-year mandates.

The pope named new member to the council, including: Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference; and English Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.