OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 8 June 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

   - appointed Fr. Jeremiah Madimetja Masela as bishop of Polokwane (area 69,533, population 2,658,000, Catholics 94,700, priests 27, permanent deacons 8, religious 50), South Africa. The bishop-elect, previously apostolic administrator of the diocese, was born in Bergzich, Western Cape, South Africa and was ordained a priest in 1958. Since ordination he has served in several parochial and diocesan roles, most recently as vicar general of the diocese and pastor of Doorspruit. He has been the apostolic administrator of the diocese since 2011.

On Saturday, 8 June, the Holy Father:

   - appointed Bishop Giuseppe Petrocchi as metropolitan archbishop of L'Aquila (area 1,516, population 112,500, Catholics 111,100, priests 118, permanent deacons 8, religious 167), Italy. Bishop Petrocchi, previously of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno, Italy, succeeds Archbishop Giuseppe Molinari, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

   - appointed Archbishop Miroslaw Adamczyk, apostolic nuncio to Liberia, as apostolic nuncio to Gambia.

   - appointed Bishop Jean Teyrouz, I.C.P.B., of Sainte-Croix-de-Paris of the Armenians, France, as apostolic visitor to Armenian Catholic faithful resident in Western Europe without their own ordinary. He succeeds Bishop Gregoire Ghabroyan, I.C.P.B., whose resignation from the same office the Holy Father accepted in accordance with canon 210 para. 1 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO).