VATICAN - Secretary General Appointed for the Pontifical Society of Holy Childhood

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has nominated Dr Baptistine Jeanne Ralamboarison, Dame of the Order of Pope St Sylvester, as Secretary General of the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood. The new Secretary General was born on 6 May, 1951, in Ambatondrazaka (Madagascar). After attending primary school in Madagascar, she went on to complete secondary schooling and university in France, where she graduated in law and languages. She began working for the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood in 1983, when the General Secretariat of the Society was transferred from Paris to Rome, in the Propaganda Fide building. The appointment, for the years 2010-2015, was dated 1 December, 2010. She is the first woman to hold this role.
The Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood or Missionary Childhood, was founded on 19 May, 1843 by Bishop Charles August Marie de Forbin-Janson of Nancy (France) to educate children in the missionary spirit, increase awareness of the material and spiritual needs of their peers, especially in mission lands. The Society found favour with people and with the large institutions involved in children's education and it grew rapidly. Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, “Sancta Civitas Dei” (3 December, 1880) promoted it and Pius XI declared it a Pontifical Society on 3 May, 1922. Each year, on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, or on another date considered more suitable for pastoral reasons, in 150 countries around the world, the Day of Missionary Childhood is celebrated, established in December 1950 with the Apostolic Letter of Pius XII. With donations collected from this event and through the various initiatives promoted by students during the year under the slogan “Children helping children”, hundreds of programs of religious education, food assistance and medical care, provision of clothing and school supplies, furniture for classrooms and catechetical centres for children, purchase of medicines, support for poor children, and protection of life are supported... all over the world. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 20/12/2010)