Carmelite Bishop Francisco de Sales Named to New Diocese in Brazil
According to the Saturday Bulletin of the Press Office of the Holy See, Bishop Francisco de Sales Alencar Batista, O. Carm., has been nominated as the bishop of the diocese of Mossoró in Brasil. Bishop Sales was until now bishop of the diocese of Cajazeiras in Brasil.
Sales studied at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Ireland and received a licentiate in spiritual theology from the Teresianum in Rome. He served as general secretary of the Order during a portion of the generalate of Fernando Millán. He was named bishop of Cajazeiras in June 2016 and was ordained bishop the following August.
The Diocese of Mossoró was created in July 1934. It has had six bishops before Sales. It covers 7,272 square miles/18,832 km2 and as of 2004 had a total population of 825,000, of which 793,000 (96.1%) are Catholic.
The Order congratulates Bishop Sales on his new appointment and assure him and his new diocese of the prayers of the Carmelite Family.
