OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 25, 2005 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Accepted the resignation from the office of apostolic nuncio to Greece presented by Archbishop Paul Fouad Tabet upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Archbishop Patrick Coveney, apostolic nuncio to New Zealand, Fiji Islands, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, Nauru, Kiribati, Palau, Cook Islands and apostolic delegate to the Pacific Ocean, as apostolic nuncio to Greece.

 - Accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the diocese of Worcester, USA, presented by Bishop George E. Rueger, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Msgr. Oscar Cantoni, episcopal vicar for the clergy in the diocese of Como, Italy, as bishop of Crema (area 276, population 92,000, Catholics 89,100, priests 116, religious 119), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Lenno, Italy, in 1950 and ordained a priest in 1975.

 - Elevated the archdiocese of Durres-Tirane, Albania, to the status of metropolitan see, inverting its current name to Tirane-Durres and assigning it as suffragans the diocese of Rreshen and the apostolic administration of Southern Albania.

 - United the diocese of Pult, Albania, to the metropolitan archdiocese of Shkodre, Albania, which now assumes the name of Shkodre-Pult and maintains as suffragans the dioceses of Lezhe and Sape.
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