OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 14 May 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Hector Eduardo Vargas Bastidas, S.D.B., as bishop of Temuco (area 17,474, population 596,000, Catholics 386,000, priests 71, permanent deacons 41, religious 162), Chile. Bishop Vargas Bastidas, previously of San Marcos de Arica, Chile, was born in Valdivia, Los Rios, Chile, was ordained to the priesthood in 1980, and received episcopal ordination in 2004. He was national president of the Private Schools Association (FIDE) and a representative of the Catholic International Education Office (OIEC) to the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC). He succeeds Bishop Manuel Camilo Vial Risopatron, P. Schonstatt, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.