Aid to the Church in Need: New president for Aid to the Church in Need

New president for Aid to the Church in Need

Posted by ACN News on 8/10/2008, 8:07 am
Board Administrator

PRESS RELEASE 7/10/2008

ACN has new President

Father Joaquín Alliende-Luco formally assumed office yesterday as President of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need, following his appointment to this post by the Holy See. A Chilean by birth and a priest of the Schönstatt movement, he had previously acted since 1999 as the international ecclesiastical assistant of this worldwide charity. Prior to that, since 1978, he had already been a Consultor on theological questions and was also a member of the general council of ACN.

Father Joaquín Alliende-Luco was born in 1935 in Santiago de Chile and ordained to the priesthood in 1961. As a theological expert he played an active part in the preparatory work for the last three general assemblies of the Latin American Bishops' Council (CELAM) which took place respectively in 1979 in Puebla, Mexico, in 1992 in Santo Domingo and in 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil. He remains to this day a member of numerous theological commissions in various different countries. He has a particular interest in pastoral theology issues, including the importance of popular piety for the Church in Latin America, a subject on which he has written a number of theological works.

Father Joaquín Alliende-Luco is noted not only as a theologian but also as a poet. He has published over 10 volumes of poetry and composed librettos for a number of orchestral Masses and cantatas. For the 2005 World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, he composed an original musical about the martyrs of the 20th Century, entitled 'Pelican - into Thy Hands'.

The former president of ACN, the Swiss Hans-Peter Röthlin, who had held the office of president for nine years, tendered his resignation to the Holy See in order to make way for the appointment of a priest as international president, as the statutes of the charity lay down in normal circumstances. This is seen as an indication of the stable overall situation of the charity. As the outgoing president emphasised, the handover took place "entirely in the spirit of unity and of creative fidelity to our late founder, Father Werenfried van Straaten, who died in 2003 and whom we both knew well during his lifetime". He expressed his satisfaction that in the person of Father Alliende-Luco the presidency had been assumed for the first time by a representative of one of the recipient countries of ACN. Hans-Peter Röthlin will continue to offer his support for the charity in a variety of specific capacities.

Fr Alliende with Hans-Peter Röthlin

For further information please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org