SUMMIT OF THE HEADS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES

Vatican City, 29 October 2013 (VIS) – Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, announced in his address at the opening of the new academic year of the Pontifical Oriental Institute that a summit meeting of the patriarchs and major archbishops of the oriental Churches of Syria, Iraq and the Middle East will be held in the Vatican, in the presence of the Holy Father, on 21 November.

The meeting, which will take place from 19 to 22 November, will take as its general theme the debate “The Eastern Catholic Churches fifty years after Vatican Council II”.

The cardinal declared that “Pope Francis has agreed to repeat the meeting which took place for the first time in 2009”, when the heads of the Eastern Churches met with Benedict XVI in “a fruitful morning of reflection”, and will now have the opportunity “to speak before the Pope on the situation of eastern Christians”.

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 29 October 2013 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father:

- appointed Bishop Leonard Paul Blair of Toledo in America, U.S.A., as archbishop of Hartford (area 5,926, population 1,996,000, Catholics 718,000, priests 393, permanent deacons 289, religious 818), U.S.A. Bishop Blair was born in Detroit, U.S.A. in 1949, was ordained to the priesthood in 1976, and received episcopal ordination in 1999. He succeeds Archbishop Henry Joseph Mansell, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese upon having reached the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

- appointed Bishop Gabriel 'Leke Abegunrin of Osogbo, Nigeria, as archbishop of Ibadan (area 7,000, population 5,450,000, Catholics 443,000, priests 172, religious 965), Nigeria.

Archbishop 'Leke Abegunrin was born in Iwere-lle, Nigeria in 1949, was ordained to the priesthood in 1979, and received episcopal ordination in 1995. He succeeds Archbishop Felix Alaba Adeosin Job, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese upon having reached the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

- appointed Rev. Kurt R. Burnette as bishop of the eparchal See of Passaic of the Ruthenians (catholics 14,729, priests 80, permanent deacons 26, religious 27), U.S.A. Bishop-elect Burnette was born in Fakenham, England in 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1988. He is currently rector of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, Pittsburgh.

- appointed Fr. Aureo Patricio Bonilla Bonilla, O.F.M., as apostolic vicar of Galapagos, (area 8.010, population 25,124, Catholics 18,850, priests 11, religious 13), Ecuador. The bishop-elect was born in Riobamba, Ecuador in 1968 and was ordained a priest in 1996. He holds a doctorate in canon law from the Antonianum Pontifical Athenaeum University of Rome, and has served in a number of roles, including president of the institutes and centres of Franciscan theological study of Latin America; secretary for formation of the Bolivarian Franciscan Conference; defender of the bond of the National Court of Appeal of the C.E.E.; provincial vicar, president of the judicial commission of the Franciscan order, deacon of the faculty of philosophy and theology and professor of canon law; judge at the National Court of Appeal and consultor for consecrated life of the Episcopal Commission of Ministers and Consecrated Life of the C.E.E.; and member of the tribunal of the archdiocese of Quito. He is currently provincial vicar of the Order of Friars Minor in Ecuador. He succeeds Bishop Manuel Antonio Valarezo Luzariaga, O.F.M., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.