Card. Toppo will be special Papal envoy to the XI Plenary Assembly of the FABC
(Vatican Radio) The Holy Father has appointed the Card. Telesphore Placidus Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi (India), as his special envoy to the XI Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), to be held in Colombo (Sri Lanka) from November 28 to December 4, 2016.
The Plenary Assembly is the supreme body of the FABC, where all committees and officers are answerable to it. The Plenary Assembly meets in ordinary session every four years. Membership of the Plenary Assembly comprise of all presidents of member conferences or their officially designated episcopal alternates and bishop-delegates elected by member conferences.
The 10th Plenary Assembly of the FABC was held in Xuan Loc Pastoral Centre, Dong Nai Province, northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, December 2012. On that occasion, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila was the Papal legate to the Assembly, communicating the message of Pope Benedict XVI to the Asian bishops.