OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 15, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop Eustaquio Pastor Cuquejo Verga, C.SS.R., military ordinary of Paraguay, as metropolitan archbishop of Asuncion (area 658, population 1,602,173, Catholics 774,000, priests 354, permanent deacons 51, religious 1,842), Paraguay. The archbishop-elect was born in San Estanislao, Paraguay in 1939 and was ordained a priest in 1964. He succeeds Archbishop Felipe Santiago Benitez Avalos whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted upon having reached the age limit.

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Bahia Blanca, Argentina, presented by Archbishop Romulo Garcia upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Fr. Luis Antonio Sanchez Armijos, S.D.B., vicar and bursar of the Post-Noviciate Community and professor in the Department of Religious Sciences of the Salesian Polytechnic University of Quito, Ecuador, as bishop of Tulcan (area 3,699, population 231,810, Catholics 213,000, priests 113, permanent deacons 6, religious 102), Ecuador. The bishop-elect was born in Olmedo, Ecuador in 1943 and was ordained a priest in 1975.

- Appointed Fr. Leopoldo Hermes Garin Bruzzone, vicar general of Canelones (area 4,532, population 443,660, Catholics 365,821, priests 38, permanent deacons 10, religious 178), Uruguay, as auxiliary of the same diocese. The bishop-elect was born in San Ramon, Uruguay in 1947 and ordained a priest in 1973.

- Accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the diocese of Chicoutimi, Canada, presented by Bishop Roch Pedneault upon having reached the age limit.

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