Pope appoints auxiliary bishop in Myanmar, bishop in Thailand

(June 19, 2009) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday appointed a new auxiliary bishop in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and a new bishop in Thailand. Fr. Stephen Tjephe is the new auxiliary of Loikaw diocese in Kayah State. The 53-year old parish priest of St. Matthew, Daugneku, will assist Bishop Sotero Phamo. Fr. Tjephe was born in 1955 at Danoku, in Loikaw diocese. Four years after his priestly ordination in 1984 he went to St. Joseph’s Seminary, New York, U.S.A. for a master in theology. On his return in 1999 he taught dogmatic theology at the major seminary of Yangon for 8 years. From 2004 to 2006 Fr. Tjephe served as supervisor of Loikaw diocese, following which he became the parish priest of St. Matthew, Daugneku. Loikaw diocese, a suffragan of Taunggyi archdiocese, has nearly 75,500 Catholics out of a total population of nearly 310 thousand.
In Thailand Pope Bendict appointed Fr. Joseph Pibul Visitnondachai as bishopof Nakhon Sawan. Born in 1946 in Bang Buathong, in Bangkok Archdiocese, Fr. Visitnondachai was ordained priest in 1974. He has held several important positions in the Thai Church such as rector of St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary, Sampran, director of the Catholic Council of Thailand for Development, director of the “Catholic Commission for Emergency Relief and Refugees” and secretary general of the Catholic Social Commission of Thailand’s Catholic bishops’ conference. Nakhon Sawan diocese, a suffragan of Bangkok, has some 16,000 Catholics out of a total population of over 8 million. Fr. Joseph Pibul Visitnondachai succeeds Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij who was transferred to Bangkok on May 14 this year.