OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 11 October 2013 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father:

- appointed Rev. Tsegaye Keneni Derera, vicar general of the apostolic vicariate of Nekemte, as coadjutor of the apostolic vicariate of Soddo (area 46,786, population 5,085,000, Catholics 144,747, priests 39, religious 41), Ethiopia. The bishop-elect was born in Metcha Borodo, Ethiopia in 1943 and was ordained a priest in 1976. He holds a masters degree in pastoral theology from the Loyola University of Chicago, U.S.A., and has served in a number of pastoral and administrative roles, including general secretary of the Catholic Secretariat of Addis Abeba, executive secretary of the Bishops' Conference of Ethiopia and Eritrea, project director of the Catholic St. Thomas Aquinias University of Ethiopia.

- appointed Rev. Andrew H. Cozzens, U.S.A., as auxiliary of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (area 17,225, population 3,231,000, Catholics 839,000, priests 444, permanent deacons 214, religious 777), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Stamford, U.S.A. in 1968 and was ordained a priest in 1997. He holds a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and has served in a number of pastoral and roles, including parish vicar at the Cathedral of Saint Paul and in the parish “Sacred Heart-Saint Lawrence-Immaculate Conception” at Faribault, chaplain for the Missionaries of Charity in Rome, and assistant director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship. He is currently assistant professor, formator and director of worship at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, Saint Paul, member of the Mission Advisory Council and Corporate Board of the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, and of the St. Paul's Outreach Board of Directors at Saint Paul, and co-chaplain of the Twin Cities Serra Club. He is a founding member of the diocesan priestly association “Companions of Christ”.