San Jose de Antique has new bishop

Pope Francis has appointed Monsignor Marvyn Maceda as the new bishop of the Diocese of San Jose de Antique, a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines News post said. Maceda, 49, succeeds Archbishop Jose Romeo Lazo who was transferred to the Archdiocese of Jaro in Iloilo last February. He will be the fifth bishop of San Jose de Antique which has 54 priests and more than 80 religious women in 25 parishes. The bishop-elect took his philosophical studies at the Sacred Heart Seminary in Palo, Leyte, and his theology at the San Jose Seminary at the Ateneo de Manila University. He was ordained a priest for the Naval diocese on May 29, 1996. He served as parish priest of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission, diocesan director for the youth, as well as diocesan financial administrator and chancellor. From 2000 to 2010, he was priest in charge of the St. Roch Mission Chapel and then of the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Mission Chapel in Naval. He also participated in the diocesan group of formation of the Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC), of which he was the diocesan director from 2006 to 2010. In 2010 to 2011, he went on sabbatical leave at the Our Lady of the Philippines Trappist Monastery, in San Miguel, Jordan, Guimaras. Back in Naval, from 2011 to 2017, he served as moderator of the group of ordained ministers at the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish and Pastoral Director of the BEC. He also served as Vicar General of Naval and became member of the Presbyteral Council and Board of Consultors. Maceda is currently the director of the Naval diocese’s Commission on Clergy. (CHRISTINA HERMOSO)