OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 14, 2005 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Erected the new diocese of Maumere (area 1,732, population 270,000, Catholics 259,598, priests 123, religious 197) Indonesia, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Ende, making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan church. He appointed Fr. Vincentius Sensi, director of the pastoral care center of Ende, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Saga, Indonesia in 1951 and ordained as a priest in 1980.

 - Appointed Fr. Jean-Paul Mathieu, vicar general, as bishop of Saint-Die (area 5,903, population 380,952, Catholics 370,000, priests 208, permanent deacons 23, religious 402), France. The bishop-elect was born in Hadol, France in 1940 and ordained as a priest in 1966. He succeeds Bishop Paul-Marie Guillaume, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Erected the new diocese of Uromi (area 2,800, population 787,884, Catholics 102,045, priests 61, religious 29) Nigeria, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Benin City, making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan church. He appointed Fr. Augustine Obiora Akubeze, vicar general of the diocese of Issele-Uku, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Kaduna, Nigeria, in 1956 and ordained as a priest in 1987.

 - Appointed Fr. Giuseppe Negri P.I.M.E., spiritual director of the philosophical seminary of Florianopolis, Brazil, as auxiliary of the same archdiocese (area 7,862, population 1,243,807, Catholics 966,438, priests 177, permanent deacons 88, religious 687). The bishop-elect was born in Milan, Italy in 1959 and ordained as a priest in 1986.
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