OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 21, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

- As counsellors of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America: Cardinals Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of Sacraments and Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy; Archbishops Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"; Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts; Agostino Cacciavillan, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See; Vicente Joaquim Zico P.M., of Belem do Para, Brazil; Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa of Santiago de Chile, Chile; Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Peru; Ignacio Antonio Velasco Garcia S.D.B. of Caracas, Venezuela; Claudio Hummes O.F.M. of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Edmundo Luis Flavio Abastoflor Montero of La Paz, Bolivia; Joseph Serge Miot, coadjutor and apostolic administrator "sede plena" of Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Hector Ruben Aguer, coadjutor of La Plata, Argentina; Nicholas Cotugno Fanizzi S.D.B. of Montevideo, Uruguay and Bishop Robert Rivas O.P. of Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

- As members of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America: Archbishops Giuseppe Pittau S.J., secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education; Jose Dimas Cedeno Delgado of Panama, Panama; Bishops Stanislaw Rylko, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; Michael Louis Fitzgerald M. Afr., secretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue; Rodolfo Quezada Toruno of Zacapa y Santo Cristo de Esquipulas, Guatemala and Franz Grave, auxiliary of Essen and president of "Adveniat," Germany.

On Saturday, June 19, it was made public that the Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop Severino Poletto of Asti, Italy, as archbishop of Torino (area 3,350, population 2,143,843, Catholics 2,080,000, priests 1551, religious 5,595), Italy. The archbishop-elect was born at Salgareda, Italy, in 1933, was ordained a priest in 1957 and a bishop in 1980. He succeeds Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, in conformity with Code 401, para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

- Appointed Fr. Peter Kihara Kariuki, I.M.C., former master of novices at Sagana, as bishop of Murang'a (area 4,016, population 1,466,985, Catholics 674,948, priests 69, religious 78), Kenya. The bishop-elect was born at Thunguri, Kenya, in 1954 and ordained a priest in 1983.

- Appointed as members of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples: Cardinals Franciszek Macharski, archbishop of Krakow, Poland; Giacomo Biffi, archbishop of Bologna, Italy; Francis Eugene George O.M.I., archbishop of Chicago, U.S.A.; Archbishops Carlo Curis, apostolic nuncio; Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; Agostino Cacciavillan, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See; Peter Chung Hoan Ting of Kuching, Malaysia and Stephen Fumio Hamao, archbishop-bishop emeritus of Yokohama, Japan, and president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples and Fr. Edgard Hernando Tirado Mazo, superior general of the Institute for Foreign Missions of Yarumal, Colombia.

- Appointed Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, apostolic nuncio in Peru, as apostolic nuncio in France.

- Appointed Msgr. Luigi Bonazzi, counsellor at the apostolic nunciature in Canada, as apostolic nuncio in Haiti, at the same time conferring upon him the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born at Bergamo, Italy, in 1948 and ordained a priest in 1973.

- Appointed Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, apostolic nuncio in Paraguay, as apostolic nuncio in India.

- Has given his blessing to the transfer, done in accordance with canon law, of Bishop Elias Tabe, from the eparchy of Beirut of the Syrians, Lebanon, where he is "protosincello" (vicar general), to the archeparchy of Damascus of the Syrians, Syria, as coadjutor bishop.

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