AFRICA/MOZAMBIQUE - Bishop of Gurue appointed

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Pope Benedict XVI, on March 24, 2010, appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Gurue (Mozambique), Fr. Francisco Lerma Martínez, IMC, Provincial Superior of the Consolata Missions Institute in the Region of Mozambique.
Fr. Francisco Lerma Martínez, IMC, was born May 4, 1944 in El Palmar (Spain), in the Diocese of Cartagena. After attending the Diocesan Seminary of San José, Murcia, was sent to Rome where he attended courses in philosophy at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas and first-year theology at the Pontifical Urban University (1966-1967), continuing his theological training at the Pontifical Gregorian University (1967-1970), where he obtained a licentiate in Dogmatic Theology. He then attended the Faculty of Missiology at the Pontifical Gregorian University (1985-1987), earning his doctorate. He made his religious profession in the Consolata Missions Institute (IMC) on October 2, 1966 and took perpetual vows on Oct. 2, 1969. He was ordained a priest on December 20, 1969. After ordination, he held the following positions: 1969-1971: Student at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, 1971-1980: assistant priest of the mission of Maua, in the catechetical center of Etatara, and parish priest in Cuamba, 1980-1987: Director of the Diocesan Pastoral Secretary in the Diocese of Inhambane, 1987-1991: Pastor in the Massinga Parish Mission, 1991-1996: Rector of the Philosophical Seminary of the Consolata Order in Matola, 1996-2002: return to the Diocese of Inhambane, to resume the position of Director of the Secretariat of Pastoral Care, 2002-2007: Director of the General Secretariat for the Missions of the Institute, Rome, 2007: Regional Superior in Maputo, Mozambique.
The Diocese of Gurue (1993), suffragan of the Archdiocese of Beira, has an area of 42,451 sq.km. and a population of 1,150,000 inhabitants, of whom 259,500 are Catholics. There are 15 parishes served by 46 priests (30 diocesan and 16 religious), 13 religious sisters, and 14 major seminarians. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 24/03/2010)