OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 15, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop Vicente Rodrigo Cisneros Duran of Ambato, Ecuador, as metropolitan archbishop of Cuenca (area 9,672, population 641,000, Catholics 638,000, priests 104, religious 461), Ecuador. The archbishop-elect was born in Pelileo, Ecuador, in 1934, ordained a priest in 1957 and consecrated a bishop in 1968. He succeeds Archbishop Luis Alberto Luna Tobar O.C.D., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Bishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Arundel and Brighton, England, as metropolitan archbishop of Westminster (area 22,000, population 4,420,000, Catholics 544,130, priests 783, permanent deacons 4, religious 2,096), England. The archbishop-elect was born in Reading, England, in 1932, ordained a priest in 1956 and consecrated a bishop in 1977.

- Appointed Bishop Vincent Gerard Nichols, auxiliary of Westminster, England as metropolitan archbishop of Birmingham (area 8,735, population 5,235,575, Catholics 293,779, priests 579, permanent deacons 38, religious 1,224), England. The archbishop-elect was born in Crosby, England, in 1945, ordained a priest in 1969 and consecrated a bishop in 1992.

- Appointed Bishop Guy-Paul Noujaim, auxiliary of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon, as a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

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