Pope names new head of Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue

Bishop Miguel Ayuso Guixot succeeds the late Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who died in July 2018, as the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He has been serving as Secretary of the Vatican dicastery.

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.

Chosen by Benedict XVI and Pope Francis

On 30 June 2012, 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.