OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 21, 2005 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Bishop Jose Belisario da Silva O.F.M., of Bacabal, Brazil, as metropolitan archbishop of Sao Luis do Maranhao (area 13,118, population 1,195,000, Catholics 887,000, priests 103, religious 298), Brazil. The archbishop-elect was born in Carmopolis de Minas, Brazil, in 1945, ordained a priest in 1969 and consecrated a bishop in 2000. He succeeds Archbishop Paulo Eduardo Andrade Ponte, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with Canon 401, para. 2, of the Code of Canon Law.

 - Appointed Msgr. Jacinto A. Jose of the clergy of the diocese of Laoag, Philippines, diocesan administrator, as bishop of Urdaneta (area 1,616, population 625,855, Catholics 531,970, priests 41, religious 42), Philippines. The bishop-elect was born in Laoag City in 1950 and ordained a priest in 1975.

 - Erected the diocese of Serrinha (area 17,169, population 505,787, Catholics 467,742, priests 16, religious 31), Brazil, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Feira de Santana and from the diocese of Paulo Afonso, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Feira de Santana. He appointed Fr. Ottorino Assolari C.S.F., master of novices at Peabiru in the diocese of Campo Mourao, Brazil, as the first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Scanzorosciate, Italy, in 1946 and ordained a priest in 1973.
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