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In a surprise move, Pope Francis on December 8 appointed Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila as the head of Propaganda Fide, the major Vatican department for evangelization. It’s a move that emphasizes this pontificate’s efforts to highlight the global dimension of the church and taps the cardinal as a possible successor.

At 62, Cardinal Tagle will oversee all of the Catholic missions in the world, a natural transition from his current ap­pointment as president of the global Catholic charity Caritas Internationalis.

Deborah Krause has been named the first female president at Eden Theo­logical Seminary. She will replace David Green­haw, who will retire from the United Church of Christ institution this summer after a 23-year tenure.

Krause currently serves as a professor of New Testament studies at Eden. Krause has worked to make Eden a more diverse campus. She led the seminary’s participation in the Fer­gu­son freedom movement following the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer in nearby Ferguson, Missouri.

Scholar and author Jerry Pattengale has been appointed interim CEO and president of the Religion News Founda­tion and CEO and publisher of Religion News Service, a subsidiary of the foundation. Pattengale re­places Tom Galla­gher, who was hired in 2016. A reason was not given for Gal­lagher’s departure.

“During this season of rapid change in the media industry and nonprofit sector, RNF and RNS are well-positioned for continued growth,” Pattengale said in a press release. “Our future looks bright, thanks to the remarkable expertise of our board, staff and journalists.”

George Clements, a civil rights activist whose life was turned into a made-for-TV movie after he became the first Catholic priest to adopt a child, died November 25 at age 87.

Clements reportedly had suffered a stroke and heart attack within the last month.

In a statement on Facebook, Michael Pfleger, senior pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, called Clements “a pioneer for justice who spent his life helping people.”

“He pushed the Catholic Church to be inclusive and made black Catholics proud to be Catholic,” Pfleger said.

Louie Crew Clay, a longtime advocate for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Episcopal Church, died on November 27 at age 82 with his husband by his side, according to Eliza­beth Kaeton, a close friend.

Having earned a doctorate in En­glish, he taught at preparatory schools and universities in the United States, England, Hong Kong, and China. Most recently he taught at Rutgers University until his retirement in 2002. In 1974, he married Ernest Clay, though the marriage was not legally recognized until 2013.

Deon Johnson, an openly gay man, has been elected bishop of the Episcopal Dio­cese of Missouri. He will replace George Wayne Smith, who retires this spring after 18 years as bishop.

According to local press reports, John­son won the three-way election in a landslide—earning 113 of 164 delegate votes.

After the election, the husband and father of two spoke to the delegates by video, thanking them for the opportunity. “We are so looking forward to continuing this adventure that God has called us to with you and the amazing people who make up the diocese.”

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has elected as its new president Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, a naturalized US citizen who emigrated from Mexico and is outspoken on immigration issues.

Gómez, 67, was elected on November 12 by a landslide on the first ballot during the bishops’ fall conference in Baltimore. The first Latino selected to hold the position, he received 176 votes, with some American bishops voting remotely from Rome. His closest competitor in the field of ten candidates received 18 votes.

For the past seven years, Kay Warren has hosted an annual gathering at Saddle­back Church in honor of Sur­vi­vors of Suicide Loss Day. During that time, Warren said, there have been many strides in mental health awareness. One thing remains constant, though.

“The pain is the same,” said Warren, who lost her son Matthew to suicide in 2013. “The two hardest deaths to process, and mourn, and grieve and walk through, are suicide and murder.” Both involve deep trauma, she said.

Theologian Sallie McFague died November 15 at the age of 86. McFague influenced a generation of feminist theo­logians with her work in ecofeminist theology. For 30 years she taught at Vanderbilt Divinity School.