Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father Benedict XVI, on November 18, 2009, appointed Fr. Jean (John) Bosco Baremes, SM, formerly Councilor of the Marist Fathers' Oceania Province, as Bishop of Port-Vila (Vanuatu).
Fr. Jean (John) Bosco Baremes, SM was born on August 30, 1960 in Han, Carteret Island, in the Province of North Solomon, in Papua New Guinea. After carrying out his primary studies in his island of origin and secondary school at the College of St. Joseph in Rigu, he entered the Minor Seminary of Rabaul. He then decided to become a Marist Father, and accordingly entered the novitiate of the Institute in Taveuni, Fiji. He made his perpetual vows on January 18, 1981. Subsequently, he studied philosophy at the Seminary of Boman, in Port Moresby, and Theology in the same seminary, before moving to the Pacific Regional Seminary to end his ecclesiastical studies. He was ordained priest on 4 December 1987, on Carteret Island. After ordination, he held the following positions: 1988 - 1997: Priest in Pouébo, New Caledonia, 1998 - 1999: Studies of Pastoral Counseling at Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland (United States) from 2000 to 2002: Director of Bouganiville Trauma Counseling Institute; 2003 - 2008: Counselor of the Oceania Province of the Marist Fathers, Fiji, 2009: sabbatical year.
The Diocese of Port-Vila, erected in 1966, is suffragan of the Archdiocese of Noumea, with an area of 11,870 square kilometers, a population of 230,000 inhabitants, of whom 32,500 are Catholics. It has 23 parishes, 24 priests (15 diocesan and religious 9), 33 religious brothers, 8 seminarians, 1 permanent deacon and 53 religious sisters. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 18/11/2009)