OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 13, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Msgr. Giuseppe de Andrea, under-secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, as charge d'affaires at the apostolic nunciatures in Kuwait and Yemen and at the apostolic delegation in the Arabian Peninsula.

On Saturday, December 11, it was made public that he:

- Appointed Bishop Braulio Rafael Leon Villegas of La Paz en la Baja California Sur, Mexico, as bishop of Ciudad Guzman (area 8,000, population 485,000, Catholics 470,000, priests 120, religious 239), Mexico. He succeeds Bishop Serafin Vasquez Elizalde whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Msgr. Vincenzo Pelvi, pro-vicar general of Naples (area 274, population 1,600,000, Catholics 1,550,000, priests 994, permanent deacons 167, religious 3,630), Italy, as auxiliary bishop of the same archdiocese. The bishop-elect was born in Naples in 1948 and ordained a priest in 1973.

- Appointed Archbishop Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, as president of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia.

- Appointed Msgr. Raffaello Funghini, judge of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, as dean of the same tribunal.

- Appointed Fr. Ireneusz Jozef Pekalski, rector of the major archdiocesan seminary of Lodz, as auxiliary of Lodz (area 5,200, population 1,550,000, Catholics 1,470,000, priests 671, religious 1,054), Poland. The bishop-elect was born in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland, in 1950 and ordained a priest in 1974.

- Appointed Msgr. Stanislaw Gebicki, chancellor of Wloclawek (area 10,143, population 882,236, Catholics 865,137, priests 621, religious 732), Poland, as auxiliary of the same diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Zadusznink, Poland, in 1945 and ordained a priest in 1969.

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Tarnow, Poland, presented by Auxiliary Bishop Jozef Gucwa, upon having reached the age limit.

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