OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 28, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Msgr. Michael J. Hoeppner of the clergy of the diocese of Winona, U.S.A., vicar general, as bishop of Crookston (area 44,574, population 250,941, Catholics 35,780, priests 45, permanent deacons 13, religious 123), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Winona in 1949 and ordained a priest in 1975. He succeeds Bishop Victor Herman Balke, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.
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