OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 13 May 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Fr. Petros Stefanou as bishop of Syros, Milos, Santorini, (area 633, population 31,600, Catholics 6,785, priests 11, religious 14) Greece, and apostolic administrator “ad nutum Sanctae Sedis” of Candia, Crete. The bishop-elect was born in Ermupoli, Greece in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1995. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Athens and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and theology from the theological faculty of northern Italy. He currently serves as priest of the parishes of St. Peter Apostle in Posidonia and St. Joseph at Vissas in the island of Syros, diocesan bursar, member of the economic council, head of the St. Paul pastoral centre and the catechetic centre, and secretary for the Commission for the Catechesis in Syros. He succeeds Bishop Franghiskos Papamanolis, O.F.M. Cap., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocesis and from the office of apostolic administrator “ad nutum Sanctae Sedis” of Candia, Crete, upon reaching the age limit, was accepted by the Holy Father.