OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 27, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Sarat Chandra Nayak, chancellor of the archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, India, as bishop of Berhampur (area 51,289, population 7,761,600, Catholics 103,800, priests 119, religious 205), India. The bishop-elect was born in Kerubadi, India, in 1957 and ordained a priest in 1990. He succeeds Bishop Joseph Das, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

  On Saturday, November 25, it was made public that the Holy Father:

 - Erected the new ecclesiastical province of Bujumbura, Burundi, separating the diocese of that name from the county's only existing ecclesiastical province of Gitega. The new ecclesiastical province will have as suffragans the dioceses of Bubanza and Bururi. He appointed Bishop Evariste Ngoyagoye of Bujumbura, as the first metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription. The archbishop-elect was born in Jenda, Burundi in 1942, he was ordained a priest in 1966 and consecrated a bishop in 1980.

- Erected the new ecclesiastical province of Goa and Damao (area 25,293, population 7,092,068, Catholics 645,194, priests 644, religious 959), India. Until now, the archdiocese of that name has been immediately subject to the Holy See. The new ecclesiastical province will have as suffragan the diocese of Sindhudurg. He appointed Archbishop Filipe Neri Antonio Sebastiao do Rosario Ferrao of Goa and Damao, patriarch "ad honorem" of the East Indies, as the first metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.

 - Consenting to the request of the Mexican episcopate, he ordered the following restructuring of the ecclesial provinces of Mexico:

A) He erected the ecclesiastical provinces of:

 - Baja California, elevating the diocese of Tijuana to the status of metropolitan archdiocese and assigning it as suffragans the dioceses of La Paz and Mexicali. He appointed Bishop Rafael Romo Munoz of Tijuana, as the first metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.
- Bajio, elevating the diocese of Leon to the status of metropolitan archdiocese and assigning it as suffragans the dioceses of Celaya, Irapuato and Queretaro. He appointed Bishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago of Leon, as the first metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.
- Hidalgo, elevating the diocese of Tulancingo to the status of metropolitan archdiocese and assigning it as suffragans the dioceses of Huejutla and Tula. He appointed Bishop Pedro Aranda Diaz-Munoz of Tulancingo, as the first metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.
- Hidalgo, elevating the diocese of Tuxtla Gutierrez to the status of metropolitan archdiocese and assigning it as suffragans the dioceses of San Cristobal de las Casas and Tapachula. He appointed Bishop Rogelio Cabrera Lopez of Tuxtla Gutierrez, as the first metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.

B) He assigned the following suffragans:

- To the metropolitan church of Hermosillo, the dioceses of Ciudad Obregon and Culiacan.
 - To the metropolitan church of Durango, the dioceses of Mazatlan and Torreon, and the territorial prelature of El Salto.
 - To the metropolitan church of Monterrey, the dioceses of Ciudad Victoria, Linares, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Saltillo, Piedras Negras and Tampico.
 - To the metropolitan church of San Luis Potosi, the dioceses of Ciudad Valles, Matehuala and Zacatecas.
 - To the metropolitan church of Guadalajara, the dioceses of Aguascalientes, Autlan, Ciudad Guzman, Colima, San Juan de los Lagos and Tepic, and the territorial prelature of Jesus Maria.
 - To the metropolitan church of Morelia, the dioceses of Apatzingan, Ciudad Lazaro Cardenas, Tacambaro and Zamora.
 - To the metropolitan church of Mexico, the dioceses of Atlacomulco, Cuernavaca and Toluca.
 - To the metropolitan church of Acapulco, the dioceses of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, Ciudad Altamirano and Tlapa.
 - To the metropolitan church of Puebla de los Angeles, Puebla, the dioceses of Huajuapan de Leon, Tehuacan and Tlaxcala.
 - To the metropolitan church of Antequera, Oaxaca, the dioceses of Puerto Escondido, Tehuantepec, Tuxtepec and the territorial prelatures of Huautla and Mixes.

C) He confirmed the following as suffragans:

 - To the metropolitan church of Chihuahua, the dioceses of Ciudad Juarez, Cuauhtemoc-Madera, Nuevo Casas Grandes, Parral and Tarahumara.
 - To the metropolitan church of Tlalnepantla, the dioceses of Cuautitlan, Ecatepec, Netzahualcoyotl, Texcoco and Valle de Chalco.
 - To the metropolitan church of Jalapa, the dioceses of Coatzacoalcos, Cordoba, Orizaba, Papantla, San Andres Tuxtla, Tuxpan and Veracruz.
 - To the metropolitan church of Yucatan, the dioceses of Campeche and Tabasco, and the territorial prelature of Cancun-Chetumal.

- Appointed Bishop Peter Kihara Kariuki I.M.C., of Muranga, Kenya, as bishop of Marsabit, (area 78,078, population 205,291, Catholics 22,914, priests 23, religious 56), Kenya. He succeeds Bishop Ambrogio Ravasi I.M.C., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Bishop Paul R. Ruzoka of Kigoma, Tanzania, as archbishop of Tabora (area 76,151, population 1,534,314, Catholics 269,956, priests 55, religious 243), Tanzania. The archbishop-elect was born in Kigoma in 1948, he was ordained a priest in 1975 and consecrated a bishop in 1990.

 - Appointed Msgr. Joseph Karikassery, vicar general of the archdiocese of Verapoly, India, as auxiliary of the same archdiocese (area 1,500, population 2,804,307, Catholics 270,188, priests 359, religious 1,484). The bishop-elect was born in Karthedom, India in 1946 and ordained a priest in 1973.

 - Appointed as members of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications: Cardinals Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, Spain, and Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; Archbishops Simon Victor Tonye Bakot of Yaounde, Cameroon; and George Hugh Niederauer of San Francisco, U.S.A.

- Appointed as consultors of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications: Msgr. Owen F. Campion of the diocese of Nashville, U.S.A., director of "Our Sunday Visitor;" Msgr. Claudio Giuliodori, director of the national office for social communications of the Italian Episcopal Conference; Msgr. Stanislas Lalanne, secretary general of the French Episcopal Conference; Jose Maria Gil Tamayo, director of the secretariat of the Spanish Episcopal Conference's episcopal commission for the social communication media; David Gutierrez Gutierrez of the archdiocese of Coro, Venezuela, director of the press office of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM); Fr. Antonio Pereira Rego, coordinator of religious programs for Portuguese television; Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, and director general of Vatican Radio and of the Vatican Television Center; Fr. Silvio Sassi S.S.P., superior general of the Society of St. Paul; Fr. Jacob Srampikal S.J., director of the interdisciplinary center for social communications at the Gregorian University in Rome; Sr. Maria Antonietta Bruscato F.S.P., superior general of the Daughters of St. Paul; Carl Albert Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Order of the Knights of Columbus, U.S.A.; Benedict Assorow, director of CEPACS, the communications office of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM); Ettore Bernabei of Rome; Jesus Colina, director of the Zenit news agency, Rome; Ignatius Handoko, president of Indosiar, Jakarta, Indonesia; Giancarlo Leone of Rome; Albert Scharf, former director of "Bayerischer Rundfunk," Germany; Anthony Spence, director of the Catholic News Service, Washington, U.S.A.; and Dirk H. Voss, director of the "St. Ulrich Verlag," Augsburg, Germany.
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