OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 12, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop John Ribat M.S.C., auxiliary of Bereina (area 19,146, population 80,000, Catholics 64,536, priests 18, permanent deacons 1, religious 45), Papua New Guinea, as bishop of the same diocese. He succeeds Bishop Gerard-Joseph Deschamps S.M.M., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with Canon 401, para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

- Appointed Bishop Daniel Robert Jenky C.S.C., auxiliary of Fort Wayne-South Bend, U.S.A., as bishop of Peoria (area 43,840, population 1,447,418, Catholics 240,680, priests 264, permanent deacons 94, religious 348), U.S.A.

- Appointed Fr. Janusz Kowal S.J., professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, as "referendario" (consultor) of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature.

On Monday, February 11, it was made public that he:

- Elevated the apostolic administrations of the Russian Federation to the rank of dioceses with a view to facilitating their pastoral activities. Thus he created a regular ecclesiastical province with the dioceses of: St. Clement at Saratov, the Transfiguration at Novosibirsk and St. Joseph at Irkutsk, as suffragans of the metropolitan see of the archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow.

- Appointed Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, apostolic administrator of Northern European Russia, as metropolitan archbishop of the archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow.

- Appointed Bishop Clemens Pickel, apostolic administrator of Southern European Russia, as bishop of the diocese St. Clement at Saratov.

- Appointed Bishop Joseph Werth S.J., apostolic administrator of Western Siberia, as bishop of the diocese of the Transfiguration at Novosibirsk.

- Appointed Bishop Jerzy Mazur S.V.D., apostolic administrator of Eastern Siberia, as bishop of the diocese of St. Joseph at Irkutsk.

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