VATICAN CITY, OCT. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appointed the vice president of the Pontifical Academy For Life, Monsignor Jean Laffitte, as secretary of the Pontifical Council of the Family, and named him a bishop.
Born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France, Bishop-designate Laffite, 57, entered the French Pontifical Seminary of Rome in 1984.
He was ordained priest in 1989 for the Diocese of Autun.
He received a doctorate in moral theology from the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. He has been a professor in this Institute since 1994, and was its vice president from 1999-2001.
In 2003, he was appointed consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; in 2005, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family; and in 2006, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Justice and peace
Salesian Father Mario Toso was named today as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and named a bishop.
A native of Mogliano Veneto, Italy, Father Mario Toso, 59, had been a consultor of that dicastery.
Mario Toso was ordained a priest in 1978. He studied in Rome at the Salesian Pontifical University and the Pontifical Lateran University.
From 2003-2009 he was the rector of the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome.
Wyoming
The Pope named Father Paul D. Etienne, 50, of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana, as bishop of the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Bishop-designate Etienne succeeds Bishop David Ricken, who was transferred to the Diocese of Green Bay in July 2008.
Paul Etienne was born in Tell City, Indiana, in 1959. Two of his brothers are diocesan priests, and one of his sisters is a Benedictine Sister.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in 1992.
Other appointments
This week, Benedict XVI appointed two members of the Congregation for Bishops: Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments; and Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, head of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature.
The Pontiff accepted the resignation of Bishop Francis Xavier Irwin as auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. He had been the auxiliary of that diocese since 1996.
The secretary of the Congregation for Bishops, Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, was named secretary of the College of Cardinals.
