The Holy Father has:
- appointed Bishop João Carlos Hatoa Nunes, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Maputo, Mozambique, as bishop of Chimoio (area 61,661, population 1,866,301, Catholics 93,724, priests 29, permanent deacons 1, religious 90), Mozambique. He succeeds Bishop Francisco João Silota, M. Afr., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese was accepted by the Holy Father.
- erected the new diocese of Danlí (area 7,489, population 444,507, priests 18, religious 26), Honduras, with territory taken from the archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan archdiocese of Tegucigalpa.
- appointed as first bishop of the new diocese of Danlí, Honduras, Rev. José Antonio Canales Motiño, of the clergy of the diocese of San Pedro Sula and pastor of the Cathedral. The bishop-elect was born in 1962 in La Lima, San Pedro Sula, Honduras and was ordained a priest in 1992. He holds a licentiate in legal and social sciences from the Universidad Privada San Pedro Sula. He completed his priestly formation at the “Nuestra Señora de Suyapa” major seminary in Tegucigalpa and obtained a licentiate in moral theology from the Pontifical University of Mexico. After ordination he served as pastor of the “Nuestra Señora de Suyapa” parish in Choloma (1998-2006), vicar general of the diocese (1999-2002), pastor of the “Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe” parish in San Pedro Sula (2006-2015), dean of the Pastoral Zone I (2007-2010), and from 2015, pastor of the “San Pedro Apóstol” Cathedral in San Pedro Sula.
- accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the military ordinariate for the Dominican Republic, presented by Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez.
- appointed Archbishop Francisco Ozoria Acosta, metropolitan of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as military ordinary for the Dominican Republic. Archbishop Ozorio Acosta was born in 1951 in Nagua, San Francisco de Macorís, in the Dominican Republic, and ordained a priest in 1978. He studied philosophy at the “Madre y Maestra” University of the archdiocese of Santiago de los Caballeros, and theology in the Pontifical “Santo Tomas de Aquino” Seminary in the archdiocese of Santo Domingo. After ordination he served in the following roles in the diocese of San Francisco de Macorís: director of diocesan works for priestly vocations in the diocese, vice-rector and formator at the minor seminary of the diocese of La Vega (1978-1981); episcopal vicar for pastoral ministry and parish priest of “Maria Madre de la Iglesia” (1981-1988) of “San José la Bomba” in Cenoví for a period of 9 months, of “San Juan Batista” of Pimentel for 13 months, and “Santa Ana” in San Francisco de Macorís City for two years.
In 1990 he obtained a licentiate in pastoral theology from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, and upon returning to the Dominican Republic became formator and professor of pastoral theology at the Pontifical “Santo Tomas de Aquino” seminary in the archdiocese of Santo Domingo (1990-1992). He was pastor of the “Santísima Trinidad” parish in Nagua and “San Francisco de Asís in El Factor (1991-1997), and also of the newly created “Santiago Apóstol” parish in Arroyo al Medio. In 1997 he was appointed first bishop of the new diocese of San Pedro de Macorís, taking canonical possession and receiving episcopal ordination on 15 March of the same year.
Within the Dominican Episcopal Conference he has served as president of the National Commission for the Laity, of the National Commission for the Pastoral Care of Human Mobility, of the Episcopal Commission for Haitian Pastoral and of the Commission for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers. On 4 July 2016 he was appointed as metropolitan archbishop of the archdiocese of Santo Domingo
- appointed Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, as his special envoy at the fourth World Apostolic Congress of Mercy (WACOM IV), to be held in Manila from 16 to 20 January 2017.
