The Holy Father has:
- appointed Msgr. Giancarlo Perego as archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio (area 3,138, population 270,200, Catholics 277,100, priests 171, permanent deacons 17, religious 207), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in 1960 in Vailate, Italy, and was ordained a priest in 1984. He studied in the diocesan seminary of Cremona, before obtaining a licentiate in systematic theology from the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy and a degree in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He has served in a number of pastoral roles in the diocese of Cremona, including parish vicar, special secretary to Msgr. Giulio Nicolini, director of diocesan Caritas, deputy director of National Caritas and head of the Study Centre and Historical Archive, teacher in the diocesan seminary, and lecturer at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Cremona campus). He is currently director general of the “Migrantes” Foundation, lecturer in dogmatic theology at LUMSA, and consulter of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. In 2009 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness. He succeeds Archbishop Luigi Negri, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese was accepted by the Holy Father.
- appointed Fr. Francisco Edimilson Neves Ferreira as bishop of Tianguá (area 9,680, population 471,000, Catholics 431,600, priests 42, permanent deacons 4, religious 72), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in 1969 in Jardim, Brazil, and was ordained a priest in 1997. He studied philosophy and theology at the Nordeste 1 Regional Seminary, Fortaleza, and has served in a number of pastoral roles including pastor of the Sagrado Coração de Jesus in Crato. coordinator of diocesan pastoral ministry, and deputy director of the Pequeno Príncipe College. He is currently pastor of the Nossa Senhora da Penha Cathedral, executive director of the “Padre Ibiapina” Foundation and spiritual director of the São José diocesan seminary. He succeeds Bishop Francisco Javier Hernández Arnedo, O.A.R., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese was accepted by the Holy Father.
- granted the title of Lawyer of the Roman Rota to Cardinal Oswald Gracias, metropolitan archbishop of Mumbai, India; Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, archbishop emeritus of Barcelona, Spain; and His Beatitude Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites.
