OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAY 23, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the diocese of Bongaigaon (area 13,630, population 5,242,716, Catholics 61,024, priests 26, religious 77), India, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Guwahati, making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan church. He appointed Fr. Thomas Pulloppillil, of the clergy of Tezpur, India, administrator of Guwahati, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Nadukani, India, in 1954 and ordained a priest in 1981.

- Appointed Fr. John Thattunkal S.S.C., rector of the Cottolengo Minor Seminary at Nagar, as bishop of Cochin (area 235, population 648,355, Catholics 164,714, priests 91, religious 443), India. The bishop-elect was born in Vallethodu, India, in 1950 and ordained a priest in 1974.

- Appointed Bishop Patrick Le Gal of Tulle, France, as military ordinary of France.

- Appointed Fr. Rainer Klug of the clergy of Freiburg im Breisgau (area 16,229, population 4,450,000, Catholics 2,160,650, priests 1,432, permanent deacons 158, religious 3,193), Germany, dean of the "Mittlerer Oberrhein-Pforzheim" region and administrator of the parish of St. Francis at Karlsruhe, as auxiliary of the same archdiocese. The bishop-elect was born in Costanza, Germany, in 1938 and ordained a priest in 1969.

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