25 Nov 2009

Vanuatu to get new Catholic bishop from PNG

11:53 am on 25 November 2009

Pope Benedict XVI has named a Papua New Guinean as the new bishop of the Catholic church of Vanuatu.

Father John Bosco Baremes, who is from the Carterets in PNG's Bougainville province, will replace the late Bishop Michel Visi who died in May in 2007.

Father Baremes was ordained in 1981 and spent almost ten years in New Caledonia.

After further studies in the US, he went back to Bougainville where he helped counsel people traumatised by the civil war.

Father Baremes, who has also spent six years in Fiji, is to take up his position in Port Vila in January.