Vatican City -- Pope John Paul II has appointed, among others, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson to the membership of an important Catholic body at the Vatican.

In all six African clerics were appointed. Cardinals Christian Wiyghan Tumi, Archbishop of Douala (Cameroon) and Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast were named members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, according to a Feb 2, 2005, report by the Vatican Information Service.

Others are archbishops Paulino Lukudu Loro MCCJ of Juba (Sudan), Jean Marie Untaani Compaore of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Buti Joseph Tlhagale OMI of Johannesburg (South Africa). Bishop Tarcisius Ngalalekumtwa of Iringa (Tanzania) also featured among the new appointees.

Nigeria's Cardinal Francis Arinze is head of the Congregation, which "does whatever pertains to the Apostolic See concerning the regulation and promotion of the sacred liturgy, primarily of the sacraments, without prejudice to the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."

In April 2004, the congregation issued the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum on certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist.