MANILA (UPDATE) – After 15 years as assistant prelate, Bishop Broderick Pabillo will now have his own ecclesiastical jurisdiction to lead.
The Vatican announced on Tuesday that Pope Francis has chosen Pabillo as the new vicar of the Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay in Palawan.
Pabillo, currently Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Manila, will succeed Bishop Edgardo Juanich, who resigned in 2018 for health reasons.
The Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Charles John Brown, also announced the news ahead of the Pope’s Day Mass at Manila Cathedral.
“I know you will be greatly missed here in Manila, which we also sense by the beautiful applause you receive. But the Holy Father asks you to undertake a new and challenging mission in Palawan,” Brown said.
Pabillo has served as Auxiliary Bishop of Manila since his appointment in 2006.
He then served as Apostolic Administrator or Custodian of the Archdiocese of Manila when Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle was appointed by the Pope as the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
“I thank the Holy Father that in the twilight of my life I am still given the chance to work in mission territory and live poor among the poor, fishermen, subsistence farmers and indigenous peoples,” he said. Pabillo said. .
“It will be a totally different commitment from what I have done these 15 years in the Archdiocese of Manila. As God is here in Manila, He is also there in North Palawan. This is the basis of my trust, my say yes.”
The Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay was established in 2002.
According to the Code of Canon Law, an apostolic vicariate is “a certain portion of the people of God which has not yet been erected into a diocese because of particular circumstances and which, for its direction, is entrusted to an apostolic vicar or a apostolic prefect. who governs it in the name of the Sovereign Pontiff”.
“The Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay in Palawan is one of the youngest ecclesiastical jurisdictions within Metro Manila, barely 19 years old and I would say the poorest in terms of material resources,” Pabillo said.
“As a Church, it is also a challenge in terms of locating Christian communities, crossing mountains and seas to reach them. In a word, it is mission territory.”
Pabillo is no stranger to Palawan. Ordained a priest of the Salesians of Saint John Bosco in 1982, he was parish priest of Saint Ezequiel Moreno in the city of Puerto Princesa before his elevation to the episcopate.
As apostolic vicar, Pabillo is now equal to the diocesan bishops.
He will also work again with Cardinal Tagle, as the Apostolic Vicariates fall under the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which the Filipino Cardinal currently heads.
The Apostolic Nuncio also announced the appointment of Rev. Noel Pedregosa as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Malaybalay.
Pedregosa has served as administrator of Malaybalay since 2017 when Bishop Jose Cabantan was transferred as Archbishop of Cagayan De Oro.
There are still three ecclesiastical jurisdictions in the Philippines without a bishop: the Diocese of Alaminos, the Apostolic Vicariate of San José in Mindoro, and the Archdiocese of Capiz, after its former Metropolitan Jose Cardinal Advincula was appointed as the 33rd Archbishop of Manila.
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