Pope Francis accepts Jaro archbishop’s resignation

ILOILO CITY — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, who oversees the Jaro Archdiocese that covers Iloilo and Guimaras.

Lagdameo’s resignation was confirmed to Manila Bulletin by Fr. Angelo Colada, director of the Archdiocesan Commission on Social Communications.

Lagdameo submitted his resignation letter to the Vatican in 2015, but it was only during last Ash Wednesday that it was approved.

Most Rev. Jose Romeo Lazo has been appointed as incoming archbishop.

Lagdameo, who will turn 78, has been Jaro’s archbishop since May 2000. He was active in socioeconomic issues, and was in the forefront of a campaign opposing the construction a coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City.

The Lucban, Quezon, native rose to national prominence when he became president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) from December 2005 to December 2009.

Lagdameo was recently in the news after Fr. Espiridion Celis Jr. questioned his authority to reshuffle parish priests, which Celis claimed is not mandatory under Canon Law.

Lagdameo remains as administrator of the Jaro Archdiocese until Lazo is installed.

Lazo will also serve as metropolitan bishop of the suffragan dioceses within the Ecclesiastical Province of Jaro, which includes the Dioceses of Bacolod, San Jose de Antique, San Carlos, and Kabankalan.

Lazo was born on January 23, 1949 in San Jose Buenavista, Antique. He was ordained a priest on April 1, 1975.

On November 15, 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed him as bishop of Kalibo.

Six years later, Pope Benedict XVI named him as the fourth bishop of San Jose de Antique. (With Charina Clarisse L. Echaluce)