OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 7, 2005 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Bishop Odon Marie Arsene Razanakolona of Ambanja, Madagascar, as metropolitan archbishop of Antananarivo (area 12,500, population 2,816,149, Catholics 761,962, priests 277, religious 2,012), Madagascar. The archbishop-elect was born in Fianarantsoa, Madagascar in 1946, he was ordained as a priest in 1975 and consecrated a bishop in 1999. He succeeds Cardinal Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Erected the diocese of Itanagar (area 52,283, population 664,895, Catholics 101,689, priests 25, religious 50) India, with territory taken from the diocese of Tezpur, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Guwahati. He appointed Bishop John Thomas Kattrukudiyil of Diphu, India, as first bishop of the new diocese.

- Erected the diocese of Miao (area 31,445, population 426,239, Catholics 59,030, priests 60, religious 22) India, with territory taken from the diocese of Dibrugarh, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Guwahati. He appointed Fr. George Palliparambil S.D.B., rector of the Don Bosco School at Dibrugarh, India, as first bishop of the new diocese.

 - Appointed Fr. Paulo Mendes Peixoto of the clergy of the archdiocese of Caratinga, Brazil, as bishop of Sao Jose do Rio Preto (area 14,423, population 850,458, Catholics 637,844, priests 119, permanent deacons 1, religious 124), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in Imbe, Brazil in 1951 and ordained as a priest in 1979.
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