Vatican City, Jun 25, 2007 / 10:34 am (CNA).- Today it was revealed that the Pope has named that a head for the recently re-instated Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. The new head of the council will be the current chief Vatican archivist and librarian, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran.

Many Vatican observers see the restoration of the council as a sign of Benedict XVI’s desire to increase dialogue with other religions, most notably Islam.

The council was previously absorbed into the Pontifical Council for Culture, but the Pope appears to have decided that this is not conducive to better dialogue.

To fill the vacancy left by Archbishop Tauran, the Holy Father promoted his assistant Bishop Raffaele Farina to the position of archivist and librarian of Holy Roman Church and simultaneously made him an archbishop.

Bishop Farina’s job as prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library will be filled by Msgr. Cesare Pasini, the current vice-prefect of the Ambrosian Library in Milan, Italy.

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