OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City,  (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

- Fr. Darci Jose Nicioli, C.SS.R., rector of the National Sanctuary of Aparecida, Brazil, as auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Aparecida (area 1,300, population 198,000, Catholics 167,800, priests 102, permanent deacons 2, religious 363). The bishop-elect was born in Jacutinga, Brazil in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1986. He studied in Campinas, Sao Paulo and Rome, and has held a number of academic and pastoral posts.

- Msgr. Jose Avelino Bettencourt, nunciature councillor, as chief of protocol of the Secretariat of State. He was born in the Azores, Portugal, in 1962 and ordained a priest in 1993. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1999, and has served in the apostolic nunciature of the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State.