OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 26, 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Edgar Hernando Tirado Mazo, M.X.Y., former superior general of the Institute for Foreign Missions of Yarumal and currently pastor of St. John the Baptist of Vitichi in Bolivia, as apostolic vicar of Tierradentro (area 2,087, population 57,000, Catholics 53,000, priests 22, religious 29), Colombia, elevating him at the same time to the dignity of bishop. The bishop-elect was born in Medellin, Colombia in 1939 and was ordained a priest in 1970.

On Saturday January 24, it was made public that the Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop Joseph Cheng Tsai-fa of Tainan, Taiwan as metropolitan archbishop of Taipei (area 4,590, population 7,100,819, Catholics 82,903, priests 302, religious 708) , Taiwan and apostolic administrator of the Kinmen Islands, Quemoy and Matzu. He succeeds Archbishop Joseph Ti-kang whose resignation from the same archdiocese and as apostolic administrator of the Kinmen Islands, Quemoy and Matzu the Holy Father accepted upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Bishop Bosco Lin Chi-Nan, auxiliary of the diocese of Kaohsiung, as bishop of Tainan (area 2,780, population 1,927,836, Catholics 16,473, priests 66, religious 129), Taiwan.

- Appointed Msgr. Luigi Cantafora, pastor of the parish of St. Dominic in Crotone, Italy, as bishop of Lamenzia Terme (area 915, population 139,750, Catholics 139,300, priests 70, permanent deacons 21, religious 110), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Scandale, Italy in 1943 and was ordained a priest in 1969. The Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese presented by Bishop Vincenzo Rimedio upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed the following prelates as members of the Pontifical Council for Culture:
Cardinals Frederic Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dionigi Tettamanzi, archbishop of Milan, Italy, Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, Francis Eugene George, archbishop of Chicago, U.S.A., Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Chile, Lubomyr Husar, major archbishop of Lviv of the Ukraines; Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Bishop Mark Benedict Coleridge, auxiliary of Melbourne, Australia and Bishop Fabio Duque Jaramillo of Armenia, Colombia.

- Appointed the following as consultants to the Pontifical Council for Culture: Msgr. Peter D. Fleetwood, secretary general of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (C.C.E.E.); Professor Pedro Morande of the Pontifical Catholic University of Santiago de Chile, Chile; Professor Nurukyor Claude Somda of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Alfredo Augusto Garcia Quesada, Peru; Leon Zeches, director of the Catholic daily newspaper "Luxemburger Wort," of Luxemburg; Manuelita Nunez, Culture director for the Episcopal Conferences of Panama; Maria Eugenia Diaz de Pfennich, international president of the World Union of Catholic Womens Organizations - UMOFC, Mexico; Agnes Adjaho Avognon, Cotonou, Benin; Annie Lam Shun-Wai, president of the Association of the Catholic Press in Asia, Hong Kong.

- Appointed Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as consultant of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

- Appointed Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, as his special envoy to the celebrations of the XII World Day of the Sick which will take place in Lourdes, France on February 11, 2004.

- Appointed Msgrs. Laszlo Kiss-Rigo, director of the Superior Council of Catholic Schools in Hungary, and Gyorgy Udvardy, vicar general and pastor in Szent Ersebt, Hungary, as auxiliary bishops of the archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest (area 1,543, population 2,930,000, Catholics 1,258,000, priests 358, religious 872, permanent deacons 17), Hungary. Bishop-elect Kiss-Rigo was born in 1955 in Budapest, Hungary and was ordained a priest in 1981. Bishop-elect Udvardy was born in 1960 in Balassagyarmat, Hungary and was ordained a priest in 1985.
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