OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 29, 2003 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the ecclesiastical province of Samarinda (area 114,810, population 1,538,601, Catholics 100,000), taking territory from the ecclesiastical province of Pontianak, Indonesia. The new province will include as suffragans the dioceses of Banjarmasin, Palangkaraya and Tanjung Selor.

- Appointed Bishop Florentinus Sului Hajang Hau, M.S.F. of Samarinda, Indonesia as metropolitan archbishop of the same diocese.

- Appointed Fr. Harold Anthony Perera, director of studies at the National Major Seminary in Sri Lanka, as bishop of Ratnapura (area 4,968, population 1,766,800, Catholics 25,525, priests 27, religious 88), Sri Lanka. The bishop-elect was born in Bopitiya, Sri Lanka in 1951 and was ordained a priest in 1980.

- Appointed Fr. Abraha Desta, chancellor and secretary general of the Catholic Secretariat of the Eparchy of Adigrat, Ethiopia as apostolic vicar of Meki (area 156,000, population 5,474,070, Catholics 20,107, priests 29, religious 65), Ethiopia. The bishop-elect was born in 1951 in Medea-Sebea, Ethiopia and was ordained a priest in 1980.

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