Pope Leo has appointed two Nigerian Catholic leaders to key roles in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, expanding Africa’s representation in one of the Holy See’s principal departments.

According to Fides News Agency, the appointments were announced alongside those of three other African clerics.

Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins of Lagos was appointed a member of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), the Vatican department responsible for missionary work and the establishment of new local Churches.

Father Wenceslaus C. Madu, C.M.F., Vice-Chancellor of the Claretian University of Nigeria, Nekede, was appointed a consultor to the same Dicastery.

Also named members of the Dicastery are Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, OFM Cap, Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda, Cameroon.

Archbishop François Sylla of Conakry, Guinea, was appointed as a consultor.

The appointments increase African representation within the Dicastery for Evangelization, which oversees the Church’s missionary activities and supports the development of new particular Churches worldwide.