Pope Francis appoints 66-year-old Spanish Bishop Miguel Ayuso Guixot as the new President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. This appointment fills the Presidential vacancy since the passing of Cardinal Tauran in 2018.
Combonian missionary, expert on Islam
Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot was born in Seville on 17 June 1952. A Combonian Missionary of the Heart of Jesus, he was ordained priest on 20 September 1980.
He was a missionary in Egypt and Sudan until 2002. He obtained a degree in Arabic and Islamic studies at the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome in 1982, and a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the University of Granada in 2000.
From 1989 he was professor of Islamology, first in Khartoum, then in Cairo. Later he taught at PISAI, where he held the office of Dean until 2012. He has presided over various meetings of inter-religious dialogue.
On 30 June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
Appointed by Pope Francis as titular bishop of Luperciana, he was consecrated a Bishop in March 2016.
In addition to his native Spanish, he knows Arabic, English, French and Italian.
