OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 30 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Fr. Davide Salvatori, adjunct judicial vicar at the Flaminio Regional Ecclesiastical Tribunal, and Fr. Markus Graulich S.D.B., substitute promoter of justice at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, as prelate auditors of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.

 - Appointed Msgr. Francesco Viscome, notary of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, as defender of the bond in the same tribunal.

 - Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of San Isidro, Argentina, presented by Bishop Alcides Jorge Pedro Casaretto, upon having reached the age limit. He is succeeded by Coadjutor Bishop Oscar Vicente Ojea.

 - Erected the new diocese of La Ceiba (area 4,640, population 547,709, Catholics 398,800, priests 22, religious 42) Honduras, with territory taken from the diocese of San Pedro Sula, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Tegucigalpa. He appointed Fr. Michael Lenihan O.F.M., former vicar general and pastor in the diocese of Comayagua, Honduras, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Abbeyfeale, Ireland in 1951 and ordained a priest in 1980. He worked in pastoral care in Ireland and in El Salvador before moving to Honduras.

 - Appointed Bishop Noel Simard, auxiliary of Sault Sainte Marie, Canada, as bishop of Valleyfield (area 3,225, population 272,000, Catholics 201,000, priests 73, permanent deacons 17, religious 107), Canada.
NA:RE:ECE:NER/                            VIS 20111230 (240)