OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 15 May 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has:

- appointed Fr. Gabriel Angel Villa Vahos as bishop of Ocana (area 18,000, population 627,000, Catholics 427,000, priests 72, permanent deacons 4, religious 66), Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Sopetran, Colombia in 1962 and was ordained a priest in 1989. He holds a licentiate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and has served in a number of pastoral roles, including: priest of the parish of “Nuestra Senora de la Merced” in Yarumal, rector of the “Santo Tomas de Aquino” diocesan major seminary, director of the department for ministers of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, vice rector of the “Fundacion Universitaria Catolica del Norte”, and diocesan administrator of Santa Rosa de Osos. He is currently director of the the department for vocations and ministers of the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM). He succeeds Bishop Jorge Enrique Lozano Zafra, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese, upon reaching the age limit, was accepted by the Holy Father.

- appointed Bishop Enrique Diaz Diaz as coadjutor bishop of San Cristobal de Las Casas (area 36,821, population 1,734,000, Catholics 1,325,000, priests 105, permanent deacons 320, religious 252), Mexico. Bishop Diaz Diaz was previously auxiliary of the same diocese.