2613 Archbishop-designate Panfilo to Rabaul
austraLasia #2613
 

Episcopal news (x2)

RABAUL: 20 March 2010 -- On18 March the Holy Father announced that Bishop Francis Panfilo SDB has been appointed coadjutor archbishop of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. He has been bishop of Alotau-Sideia, also PNG, since 2001.
    As coadjutor to Archbishop Karl Hesse MSC, the new archbishop-designate will also be working with Auxiliary Bishop John Doaninoel SM. There are possibly not too many other dioceses around the world with that combination! 
    The VunaBosco Agrotech school at Kokopo falls within the Rabaul archdiocese.  In fact Kokopo is now the capital of East New Britain, replacing Rabaul which, despite its historical position (HQ of German New Guinea, capital of the Australian mandate Territory of New Guinea and then provincial capital of East New Britain when Papua New Guinea became an independent nation in 1975) ceased to be capital after it was almost entirely destroyed by the 1994 volcanic eruption.

PHNOM PENH: 20 March 2010 -- Don Bosco Technical School campus hosted the venue for the episcopal ordination of Bishop Olivier Schmitthaesler MEP, coadjutor bishop to the apostolic vicariate of Phnom Penh on Saturday, 20 March 2010. On 24 December 2009 Rev. Olivier Schmitthaeslur was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the coadjutor bishop to Bishop Emile Destombes MEP. 
    The ceremony on 20 March was a symbolic unity of four countries - Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam  as represented by their bishops, priests and faithful in the ceremony. More than 6,000 Catholics, twelve bishops and eighty priests were around the new coadjutor bishop, the greatest assembly of Catholics after the collapse of Khmer Rouge in 1979.
    This is the second major event of the Catholic Church in Cambodia to be held at Don Bosco Technical School Campus. The first event was the Cambodian Mission Day’s Telling the Story of Jesus in 2007.
    Bishop Olivier Schmitthaesler was born on 26 June 1970 at Strasbourg, France. He is, therefore, considered the “youngest bishop in Asia” today. Representatives of the Catholics in Cambodia, especially the 38 Mission Centers/ Churches joined the ordaining prelate, Bishop Emile Destombes, MEP. The Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh has 13,000 Catholics.
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On a lighter note: people sometimes ask what is the difference between a coadjutor bishop and an auxiliary bishop.  An auxiliary bishop greets his bishop in the morning, with 'Good morning Bishop'; the coadjutor bishop asks 'How are you feeling today, Bishop?'
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