Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David. (File photo)
MANILA – Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David on Friday has been designated as acting president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
He was appointed by CBCP president Archbishop Romulo Valles, who is now recovering from a mild stroke.
“He asked me to take over as acting CBCP president while he’s recuperating,” Pablo, who is also CBCP vice president, said in an interview.
He said Valles’ mild stroke was “aggravated by hospital-acquired pneumonia.”
“He has been discharged already from the hospital and is recuperating well in his residence,” David said.
In July 2019, the two top officials of the CBCP were reelected during their Plenary Assembly.
Valles and David started their second term on Dec. 1, 2019.
Their term of office is until Nov. 30, 2021.
New bishop of Jolo vicariate installed
Jolo Bishop Charlie Inzon. (File photo)
Meanwhile, Bishop Charlie Inzon was officially installed as the new vicar of the Apostolic Vicariate of Jolo in Sulu during a Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on her feast day on Thursday.
Bishop Inzon was installed by Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, archbishop emeritus of Cotabato, and Inzon’s predecessor, Archbishop Angelito Lampon.
“I rejoice in the mercy of God and trust in his assurance of strength and consolation as I take up this ministry of service in the Church in the Vicariate of Jolo,” he said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news website on Friday.
The apostolic vicariate covers the southernmost islands of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Inzon succeeded Lampon, who was transferred to the Cotabato archdiocese in 2018.
Aside from the bishops, priests from Jolo and Cotabato and some lay people also attended the ceremony.
July 16 also marked the first anniversary of the rededication and reopening of the cathedral after its closure following the bomb attack in January 2019.
The installation was originally scheduled on May 28, a week after his episcopal ordination, but was delayed due to the quarantine caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. (PNA)
