Quevedo celebrates 35th episcopal ordination

COTABATO CITY – Local Catholic faithful and even friends from other sects are set to join the celebration of the 35th episcopal ordination of Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Beltran Quevedo in solemn rites at the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral (ICC) here today.

The Catholic-run Notre Dame Media network said Quevedo will lead a concelebrated mass at 5:30 a.m. and bless the ICC Mausoleum after.

“The archdiocese of Cotabato is inviting everyone who wish to join the Cardinal as he celebrates his (ordination as) a bishop,” the media network said yesterday.

Quevedo, a human rights defender and avid peace advocate, was appointed Bishop-Prelate of Kidapawan by Pope John Paul II on October 28, 1980.

He became the first bishop of Kidapawan when it was elevated from prelature to a diocese. On March 22, 1986, he was named Archbishop of Nueva Segovia in Ilocos Sur. On May 30, 1998, he was named Archbishop of Cotabato.

In 1994, then a bishop, Quevedo received the most votes for election to the General Council of the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. He was voted secretary-general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.

Pope Francis named Quevedo as one of 19 new cardinals of the Catholic Church on January 12, 2014, making him the first and lone cardinal from Mindanao.

He became the eighth Filipino cardinal, following Cardinals Rufino Santos, Julio Rosales, Jaime Sin, Ricardo Vidal, Jose Sanches, Gaudencio Rosales and Antonio Tagle.

Quevedo is one of four living Filipino cardinals. The three others are Tagle, Rosales and Vidal.

The celebrant was born on March 11, 1939, in Laoag, Ilocos Norte. Beginning in 1945, he attended grades 1 to 3 in Laoag Shamrock School, and finished grades 4 to 6 in Marbel Central Elementary School in Koronadal City (formerly Marbel), South Cotabato, graduating in 1950. He attended Notre Dame High School in Marbel from 1950 to 1954.

Quevedo studied at San José Seminary from 1954 to 1956, but spent his novitiate in St. Peter's Novitiate in Mission, Texas. He earned his degree in Philosophy from San José Seminary in 1960, and in 1964 received his S.T.B. and MA in Religious Education from Oblate College (Catholic University of America) in Washington, D.C..

He was ordained a priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate on June 5, 1964 and first assigned as assistant parish priest of Cotabato Cathedral.