OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 13 APR 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Erected the new ecclesiastical province of Pelotas (area 20,594, population 588,000, Catholics 341,000, priests 54, permanent deacons 15, religious 176), Brazil, raising it to the rank of Metropolitan Church. The new ecclesiastical province will have as suffragans the dioceses of Bage and Rio Grande, previously belonging to the ecclesiastical province of Porto Alegre. He appointed bishop Jacinto Bergmann of Pelotas as metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.

- Erected the new ecclesiastical province of Santa Maria (area 21,316, population 532,000, Catholics 400,000, priests 106, permanent deacons 14, religious 588), Brazil, raising it to the rank of Metropolitan Church. The new ecclesiastical province will have as suffragans the dioceses of Uruguaiana, Cruz Alta, Santo Angelo, Santa Cruz do Sul and Cachoeira do Sul, previously belonging to the ecclesiastical province of Porto Alegre. He appointed bishop Helio Adelar Rubert of Santa Maria as metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.

- Erected the new ecclesiastical province of Passo Fundo (area 12,000, population 525,000, Catholics 416,000, priests 157, religious 419), Brazil, raising it to the rank of Metropolitan Church. The new ecclesiastical province will have as suffragans the dioceses of Vacaria, Frederico Westphalen and Erexim, previously belonging to the ecclesiastical province of Porto Alegre. He appointed bishop Pedro Ercilio Simon of Passo Fundo as metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription.

The ecclesiastical province of Porto Alegre, Brazil, shall retain as suffragans the dioceses of Caxias do Sul, Novo Hamburgo, Osorio and Montenegro.
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