Pope Francis has started his long expected move to revamp the administration governing the Roman Catholic Church, making two crucial appointments in the Roman Curia in which he appointed, among others, French Moroccan Dominique Mamberti to lead the Church's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura.
Archbishop Mamberti was born on March 7, 1952 in the city of Marrakech. He later moved to France where he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ajaccio on 20 September 1981.
He has academic degrees in civil and canon law. He is considered an expert on Latin America, the United Nations, Africa, the Middle East and Islam.
In his new position, Archbishop Mamberti will be in charge — among other responsibilities — of final appeals for cases of marriage annulments as well as cases of conflict of competencies among Vatican dicasteries.
Sources say that appeals for nullity have increased in recent years and that Pope Francis wanted a prefect of his own appointment to decide them.
The position at the head of the highest of the Vatican's courts traditionally merits the "berretta rossa," the red hat of the cardinal. Archbishop Mamberti will be expected to made cardinal in the next consistory.
With ncregister.com/MWN