OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 10 October 2013 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father:

- appointed Archbishop Santo Marciano of Rossano-Cariati, Italy, as military ordinary for Italy (priests, 183; religious, 48), Italy.

- appointed Bishop Jean-Luc Bouilleret as archbishop of Besançon (area 9,732, population 583,729, Catholics 533,000, priests 215, permanent deacons 29, religious 461), France. Archbishop-elect Bouilleret, previously bishop of Amiens, France, was born in Arbois, France in 1953, was ordained a priest in 1981, and received episcopal ordination in 2003.

- appointed Bishop Manuel da Silva Rodrigues Linda, auxiliary of Braga, Portugal, as military ordinary for Portugal. Bishop da Silva Rodrigues Linda was born in Paus, Portugal in 1956, was ordained to the priesthood in 1981, and received episcopal ordination in 2009. He succeeds Bishop Januario Torgal Mendes Ferreira, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same military ordinariate the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.