OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 10, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Simla and Chandigarh, India, presented by Bishop Gilbert Blaize Rego, upon having reached the age limit.

- Erected the diocese of Osorio (area 6,210, population 236,000, Catholics 189,000, priests 27, religious 63), Brazil, with territory taken from the diocese of Caxias do Sul and from the archdiocese of Porto Alegre, making it a suffragan of the latter. He appointed Bishop Thadeu Gomes Canellas, auxiliary of Porto Alegre, as bishop of the new diocese.

- Appointed Fr. Boniface Choi Ki-san, spiritual director of the major seminary of Inchon (area 1,282, population 3,553,613, Catholics 327,866, priests 159, religious 477), Korea, as coadjutor bishop of the same diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Kyeonki, Korea, in 1948 and ordained a priest in 1975.

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