AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - New Bishop of Aliwal appointed

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI on 19 December 2007, appointed as Bishop of Aliwal (South Africa) Rev. Michael Wüstenberg of the clergy of Hildesheim (Germany), fidei donum missionary, former Vicar General of the diocese of Aliwal.
Rev. Michael Wüstenberg was born on 19 July 1954 in Dortmund, in the archdiocese of Paderborn (Germany). He grew up in Harburg, near Hamburg (at the time diocese of Hildesheim). After primary and secondary school in Hamburg, he studied philosophy and theology at St. Georgen Seminary, in Frankfurt am Main, run by the Jesuit Fathers and at the faculty of theology of the University of Freiburg. He was ordained a priest on 5 June 1982 in Hildesheim for the diocese of Hildesheim. He has since ministered as follows: 1982-1985: assistant priest at Uelzen and in Bremen-Grohn; 1985-1992: parish priest of the Vicariate forane of North Bremen and as his last appointment in Germany, parish priests of St. Peter und Paul in Bremen-Lesum; 1992-2001: in 1992 he went as a fidei donum priest to the diocese of Aliwal, where he was parish priest at Sterkspruit while studying missiology at the University of South (UNISA, University by correspondence) a doctorate in the same subject 2001; 2001-2003: Vicar General diocese of Aliwal; 2003-2006: Staff member del LUMKO Institute (national institute for pastoral care), a Johannesburg. Since 2006: Professor of pastoral theology and homiletics al St. John Vianney Major Seminary, Pretoria. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 19/12/2007; Righe 18; Parole 241)