OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 12 June 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

   - accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the territorial abbey of Montecassino, Italy, presented by Abbot Pietro Vittorelli, O.S.B., in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

   - appointed Fr. Luiz Fernando Lisboa, C.P., as bishop of Pemba (area 82,625, population 836,000, Catholics 578,798, priests 21, religious 88), Mozambique. The bishop-elect was born in Marques de Valenca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1983. Since ordination, he has served in several community and parochial level roles, most recently, since 2011, as pastor of the Santa Teresinha de Lisieux parish in Colombo-Parana, Brazil. He was a missionary to Mozambique between 2001 and 2010.

   - appointed Fr. Michael Gerber as auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Freiburg (area 16,229, population 4,772,000, Catholics 1,984,900, priests 1,147, permanent deacons 243, religious 1,866), Germany. The bishop-elect was born in Oberkirch, Germany in 1970 and was ordained a priest in 1997. Since ordination, he has served in several pastoral and academic roles, most recently, since 2011, as rector of the archdiocese's Collegium Borromaeum seminary.

   - appointed Dr. Raffaele Coppola, professor in the faculty of Jurisprudence at the State University of Bari and member of the Holy See's Corps of Lawyers for the Canon and Civil Forum, as promoter of justice in the Vatican City State Court of Appeals.