OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Fr. Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, O.F.M.Cap., vice-provincial of his religious order in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as bishop of Bokungu-Ikelam (area 42,000, population 520,450, Catholics 44,300, priests 18, religious 29), Democratic Republic of Congo. The bishop-elect was born in Boto, Democratic Republic of Congo in 1960 and was ordained a priest in 1988.

- Appointed Fr. Jose Miguel Gomez Rodriguez, director of the Department for Catechesis and Biblical Ministry of the Permanent Secretariat of the Colombian Episcopate, as bishop of Libano-Honda (area 3,477, population 310,000, Catholics 290,000, priests 22, religious 80), Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Bogota, Colombia in 1961 and was ordained a priest in 1987.

- Appointed Msgr. Francois Xavier Maroy, vicar general of the archdiocese of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, as auxiliary bishop of the same archdiocese (area 8,815, population 1.346,216. Catholics 860,599, priests 187, religious 686). The bishop-elect was born in 1956 in Bukavu and was ordained a priest in 1984.

  On Saturday November 20, it was made public that the Holy Father:

- Appointed Fr. Luciano Nervi, S.M.M., missionary in Malawi, as bishop of Mangochi (area 11,385, population 1,180,000, Catholics 205,000, priests 117, religious 56), Malawi. The bishop-elect was born in Sforzatica di Dalmine, Italy in 1938.

- Erected the diocese of Dori (area 36,896, population 710,000, Catholics 2,726, priests 16, religious 32), Burkina Faso, with territory taken from the diocese of Fada N'Gourma and Ouahigouya, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Koupela.

- Appointed Fr. Joachim Ouedraogo, rector of the Minor Seminary and vicar general of the diocese of Ouahigouya, as bishop of the diocese of Dori. The bishop-elect was born in 1962 in Rouko, Burkina Faso and was ordained a priest in 1991.

- Appointed the following as members of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts: Cardinals Crescenzio Sepe, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Attilio Nicora, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and Archbishop-Bishop Agostino Vallini, emeritus of Albano, Italy and prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature.
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