OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAY 12, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Georges Pontier of La Rochelle, France, as metropolitan archbishop of Marseille (area 650, population 993,000, Catholics 703,000, priests 311, permanent deacons 22, religious 779), France. The archbishop-elect was born in Lavaur, France in 1943, he was ordained a priest in 1966 and consecrated a bishop in 1988. He succeeds Cardinal Bernard Panafieu, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
NER:RE/.../PONTIER:PANAFIEU                        VIS 20060512 (90)