OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City,  (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Msgr. Fortunatus Nwachukwu, chief of protocol at the Secretariat of State, as apostolic nuncio to Nicaragua. The bishop-elect was born in Ntigha, Nigeria in 1960 and ordained a priest in 1984. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1994 and has served, among other places, in Ghana, Paraguay and Algeria.

On Saturday 10 November the Holy Father:

- Appointed Cardinal Paul Poupard, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture, as his special envoy to the concluding celebrations of the Jubilee Year dedicated to the Venerable Servant of God Pauline Jaricot on the 150th anniversary of her death, and the fiftieth anniversary of her Decree of heroic virtue, to be held in Lyons, France, on 9 January 2013.

- Appointed Bishop Carlos Maria Franzini of Rafaela, Argentina as bishop of Mendoza (area 63,839, population 1,226,000, Catholics 1,042,000, priests 165, permanent deacons 54, religious 276), Argentina. He succeeds Bishop Jose Maria Arancibia, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Msgr. Serge Poitras, under secretary for the Congregation of Bishops, as bishop of Timmins (area 26,200, population 89,300, Catholics 48,900, priests 24, permanent deacons 7, religious 20), Canada. The bishop-elect was born in Jonquiere, Quebec in 1949 and ordained a priest in 1973. He obtained a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian Pontifical University in 1988 and in 2000 became a collaborator in the apostolic nunciature in Ottawa.

- Appointed Fr. P. Quesnel Alphonse S.M.M., of the clergy of the diocese Port-au-Prince, Haiti, pastor of the parish of "Saint-Louis, Roi di France", as auxiliary bishop of the same diocese (area 5,500, population 4,110,000, Catholics 2,960,000, priests 274, permanent deacons 1, religious 1,635). The bishop-elect was born in Port-au-Prince in 1949 and ordained a priest in 1977. He has served in various pastoral offices in the archdiocese of Cap-Haitien and the dioceses of Port-de-Paix and Port-au-Prince.

- Appointed Archbishop Tommaso Caputo, apostolic nuncio to Malta and Libya, as prelate of Pompei, Italy, and pontifical delegate for the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary.

- Appointed Ivano Dionigi and Fr. Roberto Spataro S.D.B., respectively, as president and secretary of the Pontifical Academy for Latin.