OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 7 JAN 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Fr. Henry Aruna of the clergy of Kenema, Sierra Leone, secretary general of the Inter-territorial Catholic Bishops' Conference of The Gambia and Sierra Leone, as bishop of Makeni (area 36,100, population 1,800,000, Catholics 50,000, priests 59, religious 43), Sierra Leone. The bishop-elect was born in Kenema in 1964 and ordained a priest in 1993. He studied in Liberia, Rome and Sierra Leone and has worked in pastoral care and education. He succeeds Bishop George Biguzzi S.X., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Fr. John Oballa Owaa, rector and professor of the national major seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas in Nairobi, Kenya, as bishop of Ngong (area 47,000, population 1,011,000, Catholics 83,247, priests 53, religious 183), Kenya. The bishop-elect was born in Kisumu, Kenya in 1958 and ordained a priest in 1986. He studied in Kenya and in Rome where he also worked as an official of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care.

 - Appointed Fr. Serge Thomas Bonino O.P., secretary general of the International Theological Commission, as a consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
NER:RE:NA/                                VIS 20120107 (210)