OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 24 April 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father appointed:

- Bishop Liro Vendelino Meurer as bishop of Santo Angelo (area 19,293, population 554,000, Catholics 404,000, priests 80, permanent deacons 1, religious 265), Brazil. Bishop Meurer was previously auxiliary of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and titular of Thucca in Numidia. He succeeds Bishop Jose Clemente Weber, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Bishop Moacir Silva as metropolitan archbishop of Ribeirao Preto (area 8,782, population 1,097,000, Catholics 769,000, priests 149, permanent deacons 14, religious 224), Brazil. Archbishop-elect Silva, previously bishop of Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil, was born in 1954 in Sao Jose dos Campos, was ordained to the priesthood in 1986, and received episcopal ordination in 2004. He currently serves as a member of the National Bishops' Commission for Ecclesiastic Tribunals of second instance and as vice president of the Regional Bishops' Conference of the state of Sao Paulo.

Yesterday, 23 April, the Holy Father extended the jurisdiction of Bishop John Michael Botean, of the Eparchy of Saint George's in Canton of the Romanians, over the Greek-Catholic Romanians present in the entire territory of Canada.