OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 29, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the diocese of Lafia (area 28,500, population 1,510,000, Catholics 72,000, priests 27, religious 21), Nigeria, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Jos and from the diocese of Makurdi, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Abuja. He appointed Fr. Matthew Ishaya Audu, rector "pro tempore" of the St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary of Makurdi, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Tudu Uku, Nigeria, in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1984.

- Erected the diocese of Zaria (area 18,000, population 1,750,000, Catholics 64,941, priests 20), Nigeria, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Kaduna, making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan church. He appointed Fr. George Dodo, pastor of the parish of Our Lady in Kaduna, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Zuturung Mago, Nigeria, in 1956 and ordained a priest in 1983.
- Appointed Fr. James Naanman Daman O.S.A., vice-provincial of the vice-province of the Augustinian Fathers in Nigeria, as bishop of Jalingo (area 61,368, population 1,946,156, Catholics 199,252, priests 35, religious 35), Nigeria. The bishop-elect was born in Kwa, Nigeria, in 1956 and ordained a priest in 1982.

ECE; NER;AUDU; DODO; DAMAN VIS 20001229 (200);...;