- Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, as his special envoy at the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Ghana and the Holy See, and the sixtieth anniversary of the independence of the Republic, to take place in Accra from 3 to 6 March 2017.

- appointed Archbishop Luc Ravel, C.R.S.C., Military Ordinary for France, as archbishop of Strasbourg (area 8,280, population 1,851,000, Catholics 1,386,000, priests 727, permanent deacons 81, religious 1,310), France. He succeeds Archbishop Jean-Pierre Grallet, O.F.M., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese was accepted by the Holy Father.

- appointed Fr. Oscar Nkolo Kanowa, C.I.C.M., as bishop of Mweka (area 21,700, population 850,535, Catholics 355,840, priests 41, religious 27), Democratic Republic of the Congo. The bishop-elect was born in 1957 in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, gave his religious vows in 1986, and was ordained a priest in 1987. He studied in the minor seminary of Kawbe and the interdiocesan major seminary of Kasai-Kabwe, for the philosophy cycle. In 1981 he entered the Novitiate of the Scheut Fatheres in Mbudi, Kinshasa. Following ordination he spent ten years in mission in the Dominican Republic, where he served in a number of roles, including vicar and parish priest, bursar of the Dominican Province and vice provincial of the Dominican Republic, and rector of the pre-novitiate. From 1998 to 1999 he studied as formator at the St. Louis University, United States of America. From 1999 to 2000 he was rector of the Scholasticate in Kinshasa, then member of the provincial governance and adjunct prosecutor for the province (2001-2003) and provincial superior of Kasayi and Southern Africa. Since 2014 he has served as bursar of the International Novitiate of Mbudi in Kinshasa. He succeeds Bishop Gérard Mulumba Kalemba, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese was accepted by the Holy Father.