OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 22, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the ecclesiastical province of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, elevating the diocese of Bobo-Dioulasso to the status of metropolitan church and assigning it as suffragans the dioceses of Banfora, Dedougou, Diebougou and Nouna. He appointed Bishop Anselme Titianma Sanon of Bobo-Dioulasso, as metropolitan archbishop of the new ecclesiastical province.

- Erected the ecclesiastical province of Koupela, Burkina Faso, elevating the diocese of Koupela to the status of metropolitan church and assigning it as suffragans the dioceses of Fada N'Gourma and Kaya. He appointed Bishop Seraphin Rouamba of Koupela as metropolitan archbishop of the new ecclesiastical province.

- Appointed Msgr. Richard Edmund Pates of the clergy of St. Paul and Minneapolis (area 17,225, population 2,757,989, Catholics 752,325, priests 527, permanent deacons 174, religious 1,298), U.S.A., pastor of the parish of St. Ambrose, as auxiliary of the same archdiocese. The bishop-elect was born in St. Paul, U.S.A., in 1943 and ordained a priest in 1968.

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