OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 7 November 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

- Bishop Jorge Alves Bezerra S.S.S. of Jardim, Brazil, as bishop of Paracatu (area 54,387, population 332,000, Catholics 259,000, priests 44, permanent deacons 13, religious 13), Brazil. He succeeds Bishop Leonardo de Miranda Pereira, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Msgr. Eraldo Bispo da Silva, vicar general of Barreiras, as bishop of Patos (area 10,874, population 402,000, Catholics 368,000, priests 49, permanent deacons 8, religious 42), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in Monteiro, Brazil in 1966 and ordained a priest in 1993. He studied in Brazil and Colombia and has been active in pastoral care in several different parishes.

- As ordinary members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato, professor of physics at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Joachim von Braun, professor of economics and technological innovation, and director of the Research Development Centre at the University of Bonn, Germany.