OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 23 December 2013 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Vicente Bokalic Iglic, C.M., as bishop of Santiago Del Estero (area 81,969, population 699,500, Catholics 628,000, priests 76, permanent deacons 13, religious 83), Argentina. Bishop Bokalic Iglic, previously auxiliary of Buenos Aires, was born in Lanus, Argentina in 1970, was ordained to the priesthood in 1978, and received episcopal ordination in 2010. He succeeds Bishop Francisco Polti Santillan, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon having reached the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

On Saturday, 21 December, the Holy Father:

- appointed Archbishop Charles Daniel Balvo as apostolic nuncio to South Sudan. Archbishop Balvo is apostolic nuncio to Kenya.

- appointed Bishop Gustavo Gabriel Zurbriggen as bishop of the territorial prelature of Dean Funes (area 28,700, population 62,600, Catholics 58,261, priests 17, permanent deacons 1, religious 16), Argentina. Bishop Zurbriggen, previously coadjutor of the same territorial prelature, succeeds Bishop Aurelio Jose Kuhn O.F.M., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same prelature, upon having reached the age limit, was accepted by the Holy Father.

- appointed Msgr. Wieslaw Szlachetka as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Gdansk (area , population , Catholics , priests , permanent deacons , religious ), Poland. The bishop-elect was born in Mala Komorza, Poland in 1959 and was ordained a priest in 1986. He holds a doctorate in biblical theology from the Catholic Academy of Theology in Warsaw, now the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. He has served as vicar in the parish of Christ Saviour in Gdansk-Osowa, and is currently lecturer in biblical theology at the major seminary of Gdansk and in the theological college of Gdansk, and priest in the parish of St. Polycarp, Gdansk.