OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 27 JUN 2008 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Cardinal Agostino Vallini, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, as vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, and archpriest of the papal basilica of St. John Lateran. He succeeds Cardinal Camillo Ruini, whose resignation from the same office the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke of Saint Louis, U.S.A., as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

 - Accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the diocese of Essen, Germany, presented by Bishop Franz Grave, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Msgr. Ludger Schepers of the clergy of Essen, Germany, pastor and dean of Duisburg, as auxiliary of the same diocese (area 1,877, population 2,602,494, Catholics 919,948, priests 589, permanent deacons 77, religious 580). The bishop-elect was born in Oberhausen, Germany in 1953 and ordained a priest in 1979.
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