OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 6 December 2013 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father:

- appointed Bishop Monfort Stima as Bishop of Mangochi (area 11,385, population 1,483,000, Catholics 523,000, priests 84, religious 197), Malawi. Bishop Stima, previously auxiliary of Blantyre, Malawi, succeeds Bishop Alessandro Pagani S.M.M., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the Diocese of Mangochi, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- appointed Fr. Rutile Felipe Pozos Lorenzini as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Puebla (area 20,932, population 4,780,000, Catholics 4,447,000, priests 548, permanent deacons 2, religious 928), Mexico. Bishop-elect Pozos Lorenzi was born in 1967 in Rancho San Diego, Mexico and was ordained to the priesthood in 1993. He has served as pastor of some parishes in the city of Puebla, as a diocesan assistant of Family Catechesis and coordinator of Family Pastoral Care, as a professor at the Major Seminary, and as chaplain of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Sisters. He has served as rector of Puebla's Palafox Major Seminary since 2008 and is also president of the diocesan commission for Ministries.

- appointed Fr. Tomas Lopez Duran as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Puebla, Mexico. Bishop-elect Lopez Duran was born in 1961 in Atoyatempan, Mexico, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1991. He has served as assessor of discipline and professor of Canon Law at Puebla's Palafox Major Seminary. He is an instructor judge of the Ecclesiastical Tribune and works in various parishes. Since 2010 he has held the office of Judicial Vicar of the First Instance in the archdiocese's 5^th Ecclesiastical Tribune.