OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 26, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop Peter Smith of East Anglia as metropolitan archbishop of Cardiff (area 3,064, population 1,596,200, Catholics 83,900, priests 130, permanent deacons 1, religious 200), Wales. The archbishop-elect was born in London in 1943, ordained a priest in 1972 and a bishop in 1995. He succeeds Archbishop John Aloysius Ward, O.F.M.Cap., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted in conformity with Canon 401, para. 2, of the Code of Canon Law.

- Appointed Msgr. Ad Abi Karam, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Moutaileb, archieparchy of Antelias, Lebanon, and president of the Catholic Council for Catechesis in the Middle East, as bishop of the eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney of the Maronites (Catholics 150,000, priests 24, permanent deacons 1, religious 35), Australia. The bishop-elect was born in Kornet Chehwan, Lebanon, in 1937, and ordained to the priesthood in 1962. He succeeds Bishop Joseph Hitti, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same eparchy was accepted by the Holy Father in conformity with canon 210, para. 2, of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
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