OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 17, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Fr. Guillermo Orozco Montoya of the clergy of the diocese of Sonson-Rionegro, Colombia, departmental director at the Secretariat of the Colombian Episcopate, as bishop of San Jose del Guaviare (area 42,327, population 120,000, Catholics 108,500, priests 23, permanent deacons 3, religious 4), Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Sonson in 1946 and ordained a priest in 1970. He succeeds Bishop Belarmino Correa Yepes M.X.Y., 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 El Banco (area 11,855, population 389,641, priests 18) Colombia, with territory taken from the dioceses of Santa Marta and Valledupar, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Barranquilla. He appointed Fr. Jaime Enrique Duque Correa M.X.Y., pastor of Emaus in Medellin, Colombia, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Medellin in 1943 and ordained a priest in 1967.

 - Appointed Fr. Paul Hwang Cheol-soo, former diocesan chancellor, as auxiliary of Pusan (area 3,267, population 5,437,906, Catholics 379,030, priests 313, religious 661), Korea. The bishop-elect was born in Miriang, Korea in 1953 and ordained a priest in 1983.
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