OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 25, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the diocese of Jhabua (area 22,141, population 4,143,251, Catholics 30,360, priests 46, religious 176), India, with territory taken from the archdioceses of Indore and Udaipur, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Bhopal. He appointed Fr. Chacko Thottumarickal S.V.D., provincial of the Verbite Missionaries in Indore, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Kalloorkad, India in 1949 and was ordained a priest in 1979.

- Appointed Fr. Antonio Palang S.V.D., apostolic administrator of the vicariate of San Jose in Mindoro, Phillipines, as apostolic vicar of the same vicariate. Fr. Palang was born in Concepcion, Phillipines in 1946 and was ordained in 1972.

On Saturday March 23, it was made public that the Holy Father:

- Appointed Fr. Domingo Diaz Martinez, pastor and vicar for the pastoral in the diocese of Queretaro, Mexico, as bishop of Tuxpan (area 18,850, population 2,000,000,Catholics 1,300,000, priests 77, permanent deacons 3, religious 68), Mexico. Fr. Diaz was born in Bravo, Mexico in 1948 and was ordained a priest in 1977.

- Appointed Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, his special envoy for the closing millennium celebrations in honor of the birth of Pope S. Leone IX, at Eguisheim, France on June 23, 2002.

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