OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, APR 14, 2003 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Matthew Gyamfi, rector of the Minor Seminary of Sunyani and chancellor of the diocesan curia, as bishop of Sunyani (area 30,500, population 1,609,000, Catholics 144,905, priests 63, religious 65), Ghana. The bishop-elect was born in 1957 in Wamanafo, Ghana and was ordained a priest in 1985.

It was made public on Saturday April 12 that the Holy Father:

- Appointed Archbishop Santos Abril y Castello, apostolic nuncio in Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as apostolic nuncio in the Republic of Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

- Appointed Msgr. Oscar Domingo Sarlinga, vicar general of the archdiocese of Mercedes-Lujan, Argentina, as auxiliary bishop of the same archdiocese (area 19,330, population 691,000, Catholics 677,300, priests 112, permanent deacons 1, religious 257). The bishop-elect was born in Buenos Aires in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1990.

- Appointed the following prelates as members of the Council of the Central Office of Pastoral Coordination of Military Ordinariates, formed within the Congregation for Bishops: Archbishops Jose Manuel Estepa Llaurens (Spain), Christian Werner (Austria), Gonzalo De Jesus Maria del Castillo Crespo, O.C.D. (Bolivia), Pablo Lizama Riquelme (Chile), and Juraj Jezerinac (Croatia).

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