OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 8 JUL 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Fr. Dionisio Hisiilenapo of the clergy of the diocese of Ondjiva, Angola, executive secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and Sao Tome, as bishop of Namibe (area 97,097, population 1,202,928, Catholics 272,154, priests 15, religious 35), Angola. The bishop-elect was born in Epumbu, Angola in 1966 and ordained a priest in 1998.

 - Erected the new diocese of Sylhet (area 12,595, population 8,261,614, Catholics 17,000, priests 21, religious 33) Bangladesh, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Dhaka, making it a suffragan of the same metropolitan church. He appointed Bishop Bejoy Nicephorus D'Cruze O.M.I. of Khulna, Bangladesh, as first bishop of the new diocese.

 - Appointed Bishop Paulinus Chukwuemeka Ezeokafor, auxiliary and diocesan administrator of Awka, Nigeria, as bishop of the same diocese (area 1,551, population 1,431,000, Catholics 723,551, priests 298, religious 163).

 - Transferred the diocese of Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, from the ecclesiastical province of Castries, Saint Lucia, to that of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

 - Appointed Msgr. Charles Jason Gordon of the clergy of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, moderator of the archdiocesan Curia as bishop of Bridgetown (area 430, population 277,000, Catholics 11,000, priests 11, religious 14), Barbados, and of Kingstown (area 388, population 120,000, Catholics 15,469, priests 11, religious 14), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The bishop-elect was born in Port of Spain in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1991.

 - Appointed Fr. Joseph Harris C.S.Sp., pastor and judicial vicar for the clergy of the archdiocese of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, as coadjutor archbishop of the same archdiocese (area 5,128, population 1,262,400, Catholics 289,460, priests 107, religious 141). The archbishop-elect was born in Trinidad in 1942 and ordained a priest in 1968.
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