OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City,  (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Erfurt, Germany, presented by Bishop Joachim Wanke, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

- Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Passau, Germany, presented by Bishop Wilhelm Schraml, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Msgr. Giampaolo Rizzotti, official of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, as bureau chief of the same congregation.

On Saturday 29 September it was made public that he:

- Appointed as members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: His Beatitude Fouad Twal, patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins; Archbishop Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno S.J. of Huancayo, Peru; Bishop Yves Boivineau of Annecy, France; Bishop Michele Pennisi of Piazza Armerina, Italy; Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany; Fr. Bonnie Mendes (Pakistan), regional coordinator of Caritas for Asia and executive director of the Society for Human Development; Rodrigo Guerra Lopez (Mexico), director of the Centre for Advanced Social Research; Fayez Georges Nahal (Egypt), accounting and budget director of the Confederation of African Football; Juan Somavia (Chile), director general of the International Labour Organisation; Hania M. Fedorowicz (Austria), director of formation at the Community Based Conflict Resolution Institute; Marie-Madeleine Kalala (Democratic Republic of Congo), lawyer and member of the Panel of the Wise of the African Union; Roza Pati (U.S.A.), professor of law and executive director of degree courses in inter-cultural human rights at the St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, and Elizabeth Joyce Villars (Ghana), founder of Camelot Ghana Ltd.

- Appointed as consultors of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: Msgr. Peter Klasvogt (Germany), director of the "Kommende" Institute for Social Studies; Msgr. Martin Schlag (U.S.A.), professor of moral theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross; Msgr. Giovanni Manzone (Italy), professor of Church Social Doctrine and moral theology at the Pontifical Lateran University; Fr. Paolo Carlotti S.D.B. (Italy), professor of moral theology at the Pontifical Salesian University; Lawrence Archibald Honny, president of the justice and peace commission of the archdiocese of Cape Coast, Ghana; Paul Murray, director of the Catholic Studies Centre and professor of systematic theology at Durham University, England; Nicolas Michel, professor of international law at the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the University of Geneva, Switzerland; Manfred Spieker, professor of Christian social sciences at the Institute of Catholic Tehology of the University of Osnabruck, Germany, and Takaaki Pio Yasuoka, president of the International Life Commission (International Catholics Organisation of the Media - ICOM), Japan.

- Appointed as members of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, Bishop Alessandro Carmelo Ruffinoni C.S. of Caxias do Sul, Brazil, and Bishop Vjekoslav Huzjak of Varazdin, Croatia.

- Appointed as consultors of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, Msgr. Giancarlo Perego, director general of the "Migrantes" foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference, and Msgr. Giacomo Martini, coordinator of the "Migrantes" office of the archdiocese of Genoa, Italy.

- Appointed Bishop Franco Agostinelli of Grosseto, Italy, as bishop of Prato (area 290, population 206,800, Catholics 191,000, priests 144, permanent deacons 19, religious 284), Italy. He succeeds Bishop Gastone Simoni, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Msgr. Massimo Camisasca F.S.C.B., superior general of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, as bishop of Reggio Emilia - Guastalla (area 2,394, population 576,283, Catholics 508,364, priests 308, permanent deacons 88, religious 378), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Milan, Italy in 1946 and ordained a priest in 1975. Among other roles, he works as a consultor of the Congregation for the Clergy and of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He succeeds Bishop Adriano Caprioli, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Msgr. Joseph E. Strickland of the clergy of the diocese of Tyler, U.S.A., delegate of the apostolic administrator of Tyler and chaplain of the Bishop Gorman Middle and High School, as bishop of Tyler (area 59,472, population 1,464,000, Catholics 68,600, priests 97, permanent deacons 88, religious 67). The bishop-elect was born in Fredericksburg, U.S.A. in 1958 and ordained a priest in 1985. Among other things, he has served as pastor in various parishes and worked as defender of the bond and judicial vicar.