Appointments

The Holy Father has named as Bishop of St. John, New Brunswick (Canada), Bishop Robert Harris, up to now Auxiliary Bishop of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. Bishop Harris was born in 1944 and studied in Montreal, where he received his License in Theology. He was ordained May 24, 1969 for the Archdiocese of Montreal. He served as Parochial Vicar at St. Thomas More parish in Montreal until 1972 and then St. Edmund’s parish in Canterbury until the following year when he was sent to study canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Receiving his license in Canon Law in 1975, he returned home to serve simultaneously as Vice Chancellor, Tribunal advocate and Parochial Vicar at St. Raphael and Veronica parish (of which he would then become Pastor). He served briefly as pastor of St. Luke’s in Montreal from 1989 until 1990 when he was given responsibility for English-speaking seminarians and Superior at Montreal’s Major Seminary. In 2001 he was named Episcopal Vicar for the English-speaking sector of the Archdiocese. He was named and consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Sault Sainte Marie in 2002.

The Holy Father has also accepted the retirement of Bishop Flavio Carraro Bishop of Verona, Italy, naming the Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, Bishop Giuseppe Zenti, 60, as his replacement.

The Holy Father has named Monsignor Alberto Silvani, a Pastor in the diocese of Massa Carrara-Pontremoli, as the new bishop of Volterra, Italy.

The Holy Father has named Abbot Michael John Zielinski, O.S.B. Oliv., 54, Abbot of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Pecos, New Mexico (USA) as Vice President for the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology. (He has also promoted Monsignor José Manuel Del Río Carrasco, currently an official of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, to be Undersecretary.)