OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 10 March 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has:

- appointed Rev. Michael Fabian McCarthy as bishop of Rockhampton (area 415,000, population 402,654, Catholics 101,715, priests 43, religious 117), Australia. The bishop-elect was born in Toowoomba, Australia in 1950 and was ordained a priest in 1978. He has served in a number of pastoral roles, including president of the Pontifical Missionary Works and director of the Office for Migrants and Refugees; priest of the parishes of Laidley and Paradise; dean forane of South Coast; director for the permanent formation of the Clergy; rector of the provincial seminary of Brisbane; administrator of the parish of Wavell Heights; priest of the parish of Redcliffe City, and dean forane of Brisbane Northern Rivers. He is currently priest of the parish of Hendra, and episcopal vicar for the clergy.

On Saturday, 8 March, the Holy Father:

- appointed Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana as apostolic nuncio in Lituania;

- appointed Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci, prelate of Loreto and pontifical delegate for the Marian sanctuary, as pontifical delegate for the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua.

- appointed Msgr. Hubertus Matheus Maria van Megen as apostolic nuncio in Sudan, elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Eygelshoven, Netherlands in 1961, and was ordained a priest in 1987. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1994, and has served in the pontifical representations of Sudan, Uruguay, Brazil, Jerusalem, Slovakia, at the office of the United Nations in Geneva and in the apostolic nunciature of Malawi.