Pope appoints Sri Lankan as Secretary of Vatican’s inter-religious dialogue body

Pope Francis on July 3 appointed Sri Lankan priest, Msgr. Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage as Secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The 52-year-old monsignor has been serving as the Under-secretary of the Council since 2012.

Pope Francis on Wednesday appointed a Sri Lankan as the Secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID). Msgr. Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage, currently the under-secretary of the Council, is a member of the clergy of the Diocese of Badulla, Sri Lanka.

Msgr. Indunil was born in 1966 of a Buddhist mother who converted on marrying a Catholic. Two years after his priestly ordination in the Diocese of Badulla on 16 December 2000, he was sent to Rome where he obtained a doctorate in missiology from the Pontifical Urban University. The university later hired him as a professor at its Faculty of Missiology.