Mgr George Koovakad: First Papal visit organizer in active service named Cardinal

On October 6, after the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis declared Mgr. George Koovakad, 51, a cardinal. He is the first active papal visit organizer to hold the rank.

Since 2021, he has planned papal trips, and on December 8 he will become a cardinal.

He was born on August 11, 1973, in Chethipuzha, Kerala. In 2004, he received his priestly ordination in Changanacherry. He then joined the Holy See's diplomatic service and served in the nunciatures in Algeria, South Korea, Iran, and Costa Rica.

He has worked in the General Affairs section of the Vatican Secretariat of State since July 2020.

From Pope Francis's trip to Canada to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan to his recent longest pontificate pilgrimage, which took him to four countries in Asia and Oceania (Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore), Cardinal-elect Koovakad has been involved in planning delicate and lengthy journeys for the pope.

There are two precedents for Cardinal-elect Koovakad’s appointment.

Fr Roberto Tucci SJ served as director of La Civiltà Cattolica, Vatican Radio director, and organizer of Pope John Paul II's papal trips. He was named a Cardinal in 2001 by the Polish Pope.

Second, there was Pope Paul VI's first Apostolic Journey to the Holy Land in January 1964, which launched modern papal travel. Father Jacques Martin, a French official in the Secretariat of State, and his secretary, Father Pasquale Macchi, were in charge of arranging the visit discreetly.

In 1988, Pope John Paul II created Father Martin a Cardinal while they were in Capernaum, where Paul VI announced Father Martin's episcopal appointment.

Both men were appointed Cardinals when they were no longer serving as Priests in their respective roles and nearing their 80th birthday, at which point they could no longer participate in conclaves that elect Popes.- With inputs from Vatican News